How many times have you stood in the valet line to retrieve your car after a meal only to realize that you don't have any cash, forced to ask friends or maybe even worse -- your date -- to lend you money?

Starting Dec. 1, valet stations at Osteria and Pizzeria Mozza in Hollywood and just-opened Bouchon in Beverly Hills will accept credit cards. Regent Hospitality Parking, which provides valet services at Mozza and Bouchon, among other restaurants, says that valet stations here will have wireless credit card terminals and that transactions will be completed "in less than one minute."

Regent Hospitality founder Brad Saltzman says that credit cards will be accepted at other restaurants' valet stands depending on the success of the company's efforts at Mozza and Bouchon. Valet parking fees at each restaurant will remain the same ($8 for Bouchon, $10 for Mozza).

The company claims it will be the first in the country to allow guests to pay their parking fees with credit or debit cards.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo: A Regent valet in Culver City. Credit: Ken Hively

Photo caption: Chef Kris Morningstar chats with a customer at the Mercantile, a new wine bar and restaurant, off Sunset Boulevard. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

And if you conveniently missed your holiday dinner with relatives, many clubs and bars are offering a special holiday menu.

It was also a battle between Philadelphia-based chef Jose Garces' Latin cooking and New York-based chef Jehangir Mehta's Indian flare.

And, at times, it was a showdown between the cantankerous food writer Jeffrey Steingarden and Iron Chef Michael Symon. Click here to read more about how chef Jose Garces was crowned "The Next Iron Chef."

The title means that Garces joins the stable of chefs  -- including Symon, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali --  "worthy" of defending their title in Kitchen Stadium on the Food Network culinary competition "Iron Chef."

But it's also a ticket to fame and, most likely, fortune: Garces said that if nothing else, the win would help boost the profile of his restaurants. He said the platform would also be "a vehicle to do good, whether it's through charity work, or supporting young culinary talent. Having that title gives you a lot of leverage."

Chef Mehta predicted that Garces "would be one of the best Iron Chefs possible...I'm flattered at being on the final stage with him."

-- Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

RECENT & RELATED 

There's still time to get cooking: We've got your Thanksgiving recipes

Or, you can let someone else do the cooking this holiday: Take out and dining in options

Photo credit: Food Network

After working all day, do you find yourself wandering the aisles of Trader Joe’s, trying to figure out what products to put together to make dinner? Wander no longer. The authors of “Cooking with All Things Trader Joe’s” feel your pain, and they are doing their part to ease your confusion.

“The Trader Joe’s Companion,” by Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati, is just a bit bigger than a Zagat’s guide. And if that’s too big for pocket or purse, it can live in the reusable shopping bags that sit in your car. (Of course, you have to do the work of remembering to bring them into the store.)

And while the book is geared toward what’s sold in one particular grocery store chain, you could use it elsewhere, though in some cases you’d have to adjust the products a little.

The authors are not associated with the company; they call themselves “very devoted” fans with busy lives who use many of Trader Joe’s prepared sauces, precut vegetables and other products. For instance, their black bean soup uses canned beans, frozen crushed garlic, jarred salsa and bagged diced onions, among other ingredients.

The book also has a handy bunch of blank pages in the back for notes.

-- Mary MacVean

(Photo by Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

And don't forget the butter.

-- Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch 

PHOTOS: 97 of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes

This Thanksgiving, let someone else do the cooking

More recipes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen

Join us on Twitter @latimesfood and Facebook at facebook.com/latimesfood

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times 

The Burbank farmers market, now held in the parking lot next to City Hall, has occupied several locations since its founding in 1983 but has always maintained high standards. It continues to feature many more produce vendors than prepared foods and crafts, 25 of 33 stands. Much of the credit belongs to the longtime manager, Carolyn Hill, who retired in July 2008 but trained her successor, Sarah Dornbos, to continue the market's style. The event provides more than $50,000 yearly to its sponsor, the Providence St. Joseph Medical Foundation, to subsidize medical expenses for needy patients.

For four years before becoming the manager, Dornbos worked at the market as a vendor for Living Lettuce Farms, which grows a wide range of lettuces, greens and herbs in the backyards of two homes in Reseda. The farm, which also sells at the Hollywood, Studio City and Culver City markets, offers particularly fine frisée -- young, pale yellow, sweet and crunchy. Its salad greens, including arugula, spinach and mesclun, are tender, delicate and mild. The owners, David and Michelle Goldman, also have two hydroponic supply stores, and the whole lettuces, sold swathed in plastic, roots still attached, are grown hydroponically. Read more here.

-- David Karp

Photo credit: David Karp / For The Times

The last two chefs standing in the battle to become "The Next Iron Chef" say they are haunted by such flops as they head into Sunday night's finale on the Food Network. The Season 2 winner will join an elite stable of champions including Masaharu Morimoto, Bobby Flay and Cat Cora. These culinary warriors are the ones to beat on the popular Food Network game show "Iron Chef America."

But the title goes beyond a TV game show. The winner gains immediate fame thanks to a singular standing on the Food Network platform, and fortune is not far behind.

That's a chief reason why many of the competitors -- all successful chefs in their own right -- risked all to join the competition.

"It's a huge risk to go on the show and possibly be eliminated early ... or be displayed in a negative light," said Chef Garces. "But [if you win] it brings a lot of prestige, it's an honor and a privilege to be an 'Iron Chef.' ... It's very good for business as well, let's be honest. I have six restaurants, so having that title would be great." Read more here:

Photo: Chef Garces, left, and Chef Mehta. Photo credit: Food Network

Given the high price of wine and the enormous number of choices, a system in which industry experts comb through the forest of wines, judge them, and offer consumers the meaningful shortcut of medals and ratings makes sense.

But what if the successive judgments of the same wine, by the same wine expert, vary so widely that the ratings and medals on which wines base their reputations are merely a powerful illusion? That is the conclusion reached in two recent papers in the Journal of Wine Economics.

He's referring to findings published by Robert Hodgson, a retired statistics professor and the proprietor of Fieldbrook Winery. A few years ago, Hodgson joined the California State Fair wine competition advisory board, which allowed him to run a controlled scientific study of its tastings.

The results, published in the Journal of Wine Economics, showed that the judges' ratings varied by ±4 points on a standard 100-point rating scale. And "only about one in 10 [judges] regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points."

In September in the private wine newsletter the California Grapevine, Hodgson discussed his analysis of the complete records of several wine competitions. "The distribution of medals," he wrote, "mirrors what might be expected should a gold medal be awarded by chance alone.'" Ouch. Many winemakers feel vindicated by Hodgson's findings, while wine experts generally dismiss them.

If you want to try a similar, albeit much less scientific, experiment on your own, serve a group of friends the same wine in different bottles: first as a humble table wine and then as an expensive, award-winning wine. You'll likely get a very different set of responses. When we know that something is highly valued by others, we tend to value it more highly. When we know that something is expensive, we're more inclined to enjoy it. Almost nobody is immune from that. Apply that knowledge to the powerful tastemakers of the multi-billion-dollar wine industry, and where does that leave wine buyers?

At recently opened wine shop Domaine LA on Melrose near Highland Ave., owner Jill Bernheimer, who has run an online wine store for years, holds an annual contest for consumers to guess Wine Spectator's No. 1 zinfandel. The winner receives a six-pack of wines that are rated 85 points or less, "just to prove a point," she says. Namely, that there are plenty of underrated wines that are worth drinking. For Bernheimer, it's about figuring out whose palate you trust.

"You have to start somewhere and the easiest place is reading wine publications and scores," she says. "But as people gain more experience and confidence in themselves, the best thing consumers can do is find a sommelier, a retailer or a critic who they feel they share a palate with. That can often be a better guide than scores on their own."

Last week, investor Erin Hill sent out an e-mail saying in part:

Chrysta [Wilson], the owner of the bakery, has been fighting valiantly since things got tough in January, but hasn't been able to build the business fast enough. So it has come down to the next few weeks, in which she has to sell about 5000 mini bundts to raise the money to keep her doors open into the Christmas season, when business will hopefully pick up.

It's surprising news, since the bakery has become a favorite with a lot of dessert-loving people I know and is often mentioned on popular blogs. Wilson even has a "Kiss My Bundt" cookbook coming out over Thanksgiving.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: A maple bacon bundt cake from Kiss My Bundt. Credit: Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times

Perhaps you've heard of the candied bacon martini? Well, make way for the ham daiquiri.

--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

Jamba Juice is giving away tickets to tonight's 10:10 p.m. showing at the Universal CityWalk Cinemas. The giveaway takes place from 8-10 p.m. -- or until all tickets are gone -- at the Jamba Juice at Universal CityWalk. (Click here for our review of the new movie.)

According to the Jamba Juice news release: "'New Moon' stars Ashley Greene and Dakota Fanning are big fans of Jamba smoothies, so ... Jamba Juice has stashed 300 world premier tickets at 3 California Jamba Juice locations to hook up those special fans in desperate need of last minute tickets."

Tickets were given away last night in Oakland, and will also be given away in San Diego from 2-4 p.m. at the Jamba Juice at San Diego's Mission Valley Mall, between Mission Valley Road and Friars Road. The tickets are for the 7 p.m. screening at the nearby Regal Jack London Theater.

--Rene Lynch
On Twitter @renelynch

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PHOTOS: 97 of our best Thanksgiving recipes

A handful of new beer bars, such as recently opened Stout in Hollywood and soon-to-open the Surly Goat in West Hollywood are making the city more amenable to suds sippers. And after 18 painful months of red tape and construction (mostly red tape), the Eagle Rock Brewery just last week began brewing, making it the only dedicated commercial brewery operating within Los Angeles city limits. Co-founder Jeremy Raub hopes to release the brewery's first three beers by the end of the year.

--You think they've put bacon in everything, then you discover bacon popcorn! Uncrate
--20 of the world's most useless kitchen appliances. Restyle Your Kitchen
--Gather your pennies, hipsters. Pabst Brewing Co. is for sale. New York Post
--Husband leaves his wife after she forces him to eat cake for every meal. Metro
--40 chefs under 40, only one from L.A.: Matt Molina (#38), Mozza executive chef. MNN
--Kiss My Bundt needs to sell 5,000 mini-bundt cakes in the next few weeks to stay open.
--The wackiest Chinese knockoffs. "Nalencia" oranges? Yum. Business Insider
--A photographic ode to the po'boy. New York Times
--Costco bans Coca-Cola due to pricing dispute. Consumerist
--Wine DJ iPhone app, which helps you pair music with vino, launches.
--Berkeley cracks down on Cupkates truck. California Taco Trucks
--First it's pumpkins, now an Eggo shortage. Signs of the end times? Google
--Food Court LA becoming Spacecraft-designed gastropub? Blackburn + Sweetzer
--Squash blossom quesadillas on the Gold Line. 99 Cent Chef
--MillerCoors contributes $500,000 to water education. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
--"Eating Animals," Jonathan Safran Foer's new pro-vegetarian book, gets a mostly positive review from the Los Angeles Times and a meh one from the New York Times.

--Elina Shatkin

Photo: Rochon Armwood of Mother's in New Orleans stands firmly behind the restaurant's po' boys. Credit: Alex Brandon / For The Times.

Joe's Restaurant

Henry's Hat opens Thanksgiving Day at 9 a.m., serving brunch all day long (including 2-for-1 mojitos and Bloody Marys, and bottomless mimosas and sangria). A Southern Thanksgiving buffet dinner starts at 2 p.m.: spinach salad; deep-fried turkey breast; brown butter and honey glazed ham; mashed potatoes; stuffing; roasted Brussels sprouts; coconut cream pie and pumpkin pie. $20 per person; children under 8 eat free. 3413 Cahuenga Blvd., Studio City; (323) 512-2500; www.henrys-hat.com.

Simon L.A. at the Sofitel Hotel is serving Thanksgiving, featuring free-range, organic turkey and trimmings such as sweet potatoes with caramelized walnuts, cornbread and sage stuffing, and buttermilk mashed potatoes. Kerry Simon's signature junk food platter: pumpkin cupcakes, orange coconut snowballs, pecan-date cookies, candy corn Rice Krispies treats, cranberry-orange sorbet, and pumpkin milkshake. Or you can have pumpkin pie. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., $46 per person, $21 for children under 12. Sofitel L.A., 8555 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 358-3979; www.simonlarestaurant.com.

Gus’s BBQ will prepare your holiday meal with all the trimmings: 10- to 12-pound smoked turkey,
1 quart of gravy, 1 quart of cornbread stuffing and 1 quart of cranberry sauce. An oven-safe bag is provided
for the turkey as well as reheating instructions. Serves 4 to 6 people. All for $60. Place your order by Friday (Nov. 20) and pick it up Nov. 25. 808 Fair Oaks Ave., South Pasadena; (626) 799-3251; www.gussbbq.com.

For take-home Thanksgiving trimmings from Josie, you can order from a selection of appetizers, soups, salads, side dishes and desserts. Options include quiche with wild mushrooms and Gruyère (9-inch, $30); butternut squash soup (1 quart, $24); cornbread stuffing with wild sage, baby artichokes and mushrooms (small, $22; large, $44); pumpkin or pecan pie (9-inch, $30); and sticky pecan pumpkin cake ($54). Order by 1 p.m. Nov. 24. Pick up on Nov. 25, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 2420 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 581-9888; www.josierestaurant.com.

You can order Thanksgiving trimmings from the Larchmont Larder until Friday (Nov. 20). Options include fennel-sausage-corn-bread stuffing ($20, serves 6 to 8); creamy mashed potatoes (1 quart, $10); sweet potato casserole with rum and pecans ($18); roasted root vegetables with shallots and sage ($10 for a quart). There are plenty more vegetables, soups, gravy and sauce, along with pies (apple, dried fruit, pumpkin, for $24 to $32). Ready for pickup on Nov. 25, 2 to 7 p.m. 626 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles;  (323) 962-9900 (or e-mail katie@larchmontlarder.com); www.larchmontlarder.com. 

For the complete Thanksgiving dine-in/takeout list, click here.

-- Betty Hallock

Photo credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

They've also cast the ultimate rivalry: two brothers pitted against each other, one who has a Michelin star and has opened what some say is the one of the most influential restaurants in Los Angeles this year (Michael), and the other who served as executive chef at the three-star Michelin Charlie Palmer for nine years and now owns his own restaurant. What are you going to do for season 7? Cast a divorced couple? (I nominate Mark Peel and Nancy Silverton. Now that would be good television!)

They've got exorbitant prizes, like a $30,000 chunk of change that was given to Kevin for winning the Bocuse challenge. And even that was a two-fer, giving us the shock-factor of simple Southern cuisine winning a classic French competition.

Is this as good as it gets?

Maybe. But let's look at what could improve: Last night's Bocuse challenge showed where the chefs still have some room to grow with regard to their skill sets. Their management of time seems to be an issue and was the pitfall for Bryan's presentation. Failure to master basic technique is a recurring theme too. Take a look at last night's improperly cooked lamb from Bryan and Eli, or in the panna cotta from recently eliminated Robin. The product placement can't go away, but it's increasingly in-your-face and obnoxious. (How else are they going to get those big prizes, though?)

Will it continue to improve with age like a fine wine, or fizzle out after all the excitement of this season? What do you think could improve on the show?

-- Krista Simmons

Image credit: Bravo TV