Beef

The cloned steak was served medium rare. Inside the unusually hushed atrium of Campanile, the guests lifted slices of beef onto their plates. Executive chef Mark Peel had prepared the porterhouse with fleur de sel and cracked black pepper before pan-searing it with a little canola oil -- a simple preparation to highlight the meat's natural flavor. It was the centerpiece of a dinner party convened to taste the future of food.

It had been not three hours since Paul Jones heard the latest medical report that people who eat red meat are more likely to develop colon cancer, but he hunched over a plate of pot roast and gravy at the Pantry restaurant anyway. Jones is 36, a Santa Monica police officer and healthy as a horse, he says. "Damn right," Jones announced, stabbing another dripping forkful. "I could run at least two blocks without falling over."

  Tokyo-style beef sukiyaki Total time: 40 minutes Servings: 4 to 6 Note: Broiled tofu and itokonnyaku noodles are available at Japanese markets. Sliced rib-eye is generally available at Japanese and Korean markets; you could also ask your butcher to slice it. To slice the meat yourself, freeze it until it is partially hardened (2 to 3 hours), then slice very thinly against the grain with a very sharp knife. 1 tablespoon ( 1/2 ounce)

When Vietnamese food lovers spot the neon sign of Thien An Bo Bay Mon, they know exactly what to expect at the Rosemead restaurant. Bo bay mon (often spelled bo 7 mon ) denotes the famous Saigon-style all-beef dinners of seven courses, brought to the table one by one, each dish cooked by a different method. Since the earliest days of Little Saigon, the fame of a seven-course beef specialty house like Pagolac or Anh Hong rose and fell on its mam nem , a pungent dipping sauce that for some is an essential part of the meal.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the largest beef recall in its history Sunday, calling for the destruction of 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef produced by a Chino slaughterhouse that has been accused of inhumane practices. However, the USDA said the vast majority of the meat involved in the recall -- including 37 million pounds that went mostly to schools -- probably has been eaten already. Officials emphasized that danger to consumers was minimal.

What's for dinner? To hear Robert Mitchum tell it, it's steak, hamburger, beef fajitas or stir-fry. In its latest advertising campaign, the Beef Industry Council uses actor Mitchum's sonorous tones to convey its new slogan: "Beef. It's What's for Dinner." The council's new strategy is aimed at bringing back its core consumers--those long-time red meat eaters who strayed when beef producers focused their marketing strategies on beef's healthful characteristics.

KOBE beef, it seems, is everywhere these days; it's the luxury ingredient of the moment for the tasting menu set. You can get it simple: served raw as a carpaccio at Nine Thirty in Westwood, garnished just with red and green grapes. And you can get it complicated: At the Montage resort's Studio restaurant in Laguna Beach, Kobe short ribs are braised and plated with crisp sweetbreads, royal trumpet mushrooms, a mix of vegetables and a red wine sauce.

Sunny-side-up eggs with flowing yolks and house-made Lebanese beef sausage top the khachapuri at Zaatar Factory in Burbank. Made to order and served warm from the bakery's oven, the boat-shaped flatbread with high-fluted edges has the look of a chalupa . Your topping choices can vary: cheese or sautéed potatoes instead of sausage, or any combination of these. However you order it, khachapuri ranks up there with eggs Benedict or a smoked salmon omelet as a luxurious morning meal (although this 8-month-old bake shop serves it any time of the day)

San Bernardino County prosecutors Friday filed felony charges against a former Chino slaughterhouse manager who allegedly used cruel methods to force ailing cattle into the slaughter box. The charges follow last month's release of a video showing treatment of animals at the plant, which led to schools nationwide pulling beef from cafeterias.

When we picture a farm, we picture scenes from Old MacDonald and "Charlotte's Web," not warehouses with 10,000 chickens, or dairy cows ankle deep in ordure, clustered under tin sheds in blazing Central Valley heat. When we picture the cows, they're grazing on grass, not eating carefully formulated mixes of poultry waste and orange peels.

When Vietnamese food lovers spot the neon sign of Thien An Bo Bay Mon, they know exactly what to expect at the Rosemead restaurant. Bo bay mon (often spelled bo 7 mon ) denotes the famous Saigon-style all-beef dinners of seven courses, brought to the table one by one, each dish cooked by a different method. Since the earliest days of Little Saigon, the fame of a seven-course beef specialty house like Pagolac or Anh Hong rose and fell on its mam nem , a pungent dipping sauce that for some is an essential part of the meal.

  Tokyo-style beef sukiyaki Total time: 40 minutes Servings: 4 to 6 Note: Broiled tofu and itokonnyaku noodles are available at Japanese markets. Sliced rib-eye is generally available at Japanese and Korean markets; you could also ask your butcher to slice it. To slice the meat yourself, freeze it until it is partially hardened (2 to 3 hours), then slice very thinly against the grain with a very sharp knife. 1 tablespoon ( 1/2 ounce)

Seongbukdong LOCATION 3303 W. 6th St., Los Angeles; (213) 738-8977. PRICE Soups and entrees $8 to $15; steamed beef short ribs $25. BEST DISHES Braised mackerel; steamed beef short ribs; beef-rice soup; bean paste casserole; chopped noodle soup; stuffed chicken-herb soup (taped on the menu in Korean only, ask for samgaetang ). DETAILS Open daily 9 a.m. to midnight. Credit cards. No alcohol. Lot and street parking.

Restaurant review: In the Sept. 30 Food section, a review of the Sunset Restaurant in Malibu said the beef filet special was $52. The price was $32.

Sunny-side-up eggs with flowing yolks and house-made Lebanese beef sausage top the khachapuri at Zaatar Factory in Burbank. Made to order and served warm from the bakery's oven, the boat-shaped flatbread with high-fluted edges has the look of a chalupa . Your topping choices can vary: cheese or sautéed potatoes instead of sausage, or any combination of these. However you order it, khachapuri ranks up there with eggs Benedict or a smoked salmon omelet as a luxurious morning meal (although this 8-month-old bake shop serves it any time of the day)

There's another salmonella scare -- this time with ground beef from a Fresno packinghouse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that Beef Packers Inc. was recalling more than 800,000 pounds of ground beef products that may be linked to an outbreak of salmonella-caused illnesses. The company is a division of Minneapolis-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. The beef was processed between June 5 and June 23 and has "EST. 31913" printed on the case code labels.

Whole Foods Market Inc. said it was checking all meat deliveries to ensure that they are from processors approved by the grocery chain after it recalled 48,000 pounds of possibly tainted ground beef earlier this month. Whole Foods, the largest U.S. natural-foods grocer, is also requiring that processors guarantee in writing that they are testing for possible contamination by E. coli bacteria, said spokeswoman Libba Letton.

Beef recall: An article and its headline in Sunday's Section A said Whole Foods had recalled all of its fresh ground beef as part of an E. coli outbreak linked to a supplier. Whole Foods' formal recall happened in 25 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, but did not extend to stores in the West.

Beef recall: An article in Friday's Business section about a recall of frozen ground beef linked to an E. coli outbreak at a Boy Scout camp in Virginia said CTI Foods had supplied precooked, frozen and fresh food products to major restaurant chains such as Quiznos. A Quiznos spokesman said the chain had not been a customer for more than six months and had never ordered the company's beef.

A California food company is recalling 153,630 pounds of frozen ground beef after an E. coli outbreak shut down a Boy Scout camp in Virginia this week and sickened at least 22 people, health officials said Thursday. The meat from Azusa-based S&S Foods was intended for institutional use and food service companies, which normally supply restaurants, and wasn't sold at the retail level. Before the recall, the beef was shipped to distribution centers in Milwaukee and Allentown, Pa.