The LDEI 2008 M.F.K. Fisher Awards for Excellence in Culinary Writing have been announced. A panel of judges reviewed almost 70 entries for this biannual writing competition and selected the following winning entries:

First Prize: Whole Foods Goes Small, from Fortune Small Business magazine, by Louisa Kasdon, Cambridge, MA. ($1,000 and a trip to Hawaii). About the challenges of small organic farmers growing crops and doing business with Whole Foods. Read entry.
 

 Second Prize: Grandchild of Italy Cracks Spaghetti Code,  The New York Times, by Kim Severson, Brooklyn, NY ($500 cash award). About the author's travels in Italy in search of her roots and the origin of the family's red spaghetti sauce recipe. Read entry.

Third Prize: The Merry Widows of Mousse excerpted from her book Red, White and Drunk All Over by Natalie MacLean, Nepean, Ontario, Canada. ($250 cash award). About making Champagne in Rheims by women who head some of France's most famous Champagne houses. Read entry.

Honorable Mention (Fourth): The Farmer in the Dell by Laura Taxel, published in Cleveland Magazine. (No monetary award.) The story is about a family who was approved to farm in a National Park in Ohio. Read entry.