Sampler Platter: goat cheese, tofu houses and olive harvests

A Monday morning dose of food news...

• Former Blur bassist Alex James trades groupies for gastronomy as an award-winning cheese maker known for his Little Wallop. (It's a goat cheese.) N.Y. Times
• When the going gets tough, the tough eat casseroles. (Recipe-enabled!) The Daily Beast
• Eight-year-old Jack Witherspoon, who's battling cancer, is cooking for a cure. Momlogic
• Creative revenge via food: Make pasta sauce with your estranged husband's $1,000 bottle of wine. The Daily Telegraph
• Who knew? The iodine in salt makes you smarter. N.Y. Times
• 50 Meals visits Gu Jip, "a hidden gem" of a tofu house in Gardena.
• "What my 3,000-pound steer has taught me about faith." Slate
• A look at the annual Caltech olive harvest festival (held Nov. 7). gas•tron•o•my
• Eater LA reports that auction house Bonhams & Butterfields will have Brown Derby items up for auction later this month. Matchbooks, ashtrays, wall décor items, souvenir tablecloths and more.
• Twinkies and Hostess maker now solvent. Sweet! MyFox Kansas City
• N.Y. Times visits Bardot in Hollywood. "It is not Bardot's intention to become a hip celebrity hangout." Oops.

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: A pair of goats -- the stuff from which goat cheese is made -- take a nap during the 2008 Orange Count Fair in Costa Mesa. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)