Designed for quality control in the field, the device is made up of six sensors which detect substances characteristic of a certain wine variety. Components such as acid, sugar and alcohol can be measured by this detection, and from these parameters it can determine the age and variety of the wine.

The tongue was invented by Cecilia Jimenez-Jorquera and colleagues from the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, Spain, and is reported in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal The Analyst.

Wine industry specialists told the researchers they lacked a fast way to assess quality of wines - it takes a long time to send samples to a central laboratory for processing.

This new tongue is not only swift, but also portable, cheap to manufacture, and can be trained to "taste" new varieties as required.

There is one big reason why we need a machine with a more precise ability to identify wine than any human palate, and that is to detect wine fraud. If a grape other than the stated variety or vintage has been inserted in your glass or mine, it makes precisely bugger all difference - if we're enjoying the glass it's as relevant as the provenance of the oranges in our morning juice - but to those who've invested many hundreds of thousands of pounds in supposedly important bottles it's crucial.

"I feel just great," Nakamura said. "I was so happy to win. I just tried to show the experience I have learned in everything I made."

Each chef was judged by a group of culinary professionals, on several factors, including taste, presentation and overall execution.

Nakamura not only captured the SushiMaster title, he won gold medals for his Morikomi Plate, a traditional sushi combination plate and his Signature Roll, which is a sushi roll featuring the chef's signature ingredients.

Other competitors included Chef Koji Ogawa, Sakura Chaya (formally with the Japanese Kitchen), Fresno; Chef Billy Ngo, Kru Restaurant, Sacramento; Chef Akifusa Tonai, Kyo-ya Restaurant, San Francisco; Chef Takuya Matsuda, Sushi Bar Nippon, San Diego and Chef Aung Soe, Geisha House, Hollywood.

Hundreds gathered for the event at the Sacramento Convention Center, which also featured sushi and sake tasting, cultural entertainment and presentation of the 2008 Culinary Innovator award to Advanced Fresh Concepts/South Tsunami, a Rancho Dominguez business that maintains more than 2,500 sushi bars throughout the U.S. A portion of the proceeds for the event went to aid the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Project, an effort to preserve the first Japanese Settlement in North America.

Pizza makers have seen their cheese costs soar this year from $1.30 a pound to $1.76 a pound. Even worse, the flour used to make the dough has gone from $3-$7 dollars a bushel to $25 a bushel in less than a year.

Beer makers have been forced to raise their prices because of the skyrocketing price of hops - one of the principle ingredients. The price of hops has gone from about $4 a pound in September to $40 a pound. The price of barley, beer’s other main ingredient, has nearly doubled.

Bagel shops have struggled to hold the line on prices and keep their customers. The exploding wheat prices have made the $1 bagel a fact of life in big cities such as New York. Donuts are averaging $1.50. And many shop owners fear a wheat shortage will drive prices even higher.

Even the lowly hot dog is getting more expensive. Gray's Papaya, a New York hot dog institution, will be jacking up the price for its $3.50 "Recession Special" - two hot dogs and a 14-ounce drink. Nicholas Gray, owner of the frankfurter chain, has yet to set the price increase, but he indicated it is coming soon.

The star of "Dinner: Impossible" has acknowledged fabricating some of the more fantastic parts of his resume, including having cooked for Britain's Royal Family and various U.S. presidents.

Following the revelations, the network announced it would not renew Irvine's contract, though it would air the remaining episodes of the current season, the series' fourth.

"I was wrong to exaggerate in statements related to my experiences in the White House and the Royal Family," Irvine said in a written statement. "I am truly sorry for misleading people and misstating the facts."

The Food Network said it might revisit its decision at the end of this season, but for now would begin searching for a new host for the series, which challenged Irvine to cook under arduous conditions.

A weak U.S. dollar and higher shipping costs mean less buying power in many parts of the world, especially Europe, where it costs about $1.44 to buy one euro, up from $1.30 this time last year.

Combine those factors with rising wheat and rice prices and poor harvests of products like saffron and figs, and Seattle area importers, distributors and gourmet shops say to expect higher prices on a host of items, from olive oil and vinegar to cheese, pastas, wine and English sea salts.

"I would expect the grocery bill to spike fairly significantly at specialty or gourmet stores, particularly those importing their products," said Darren Brewster, an international trade specialist with Tacoma's World Trade Center.

At EvZe World Gourmet in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, that missing product will be Fideo, a Spanish pasta with squid ink. Owner Tony Aikens likes to cook it with canned octopus, smoked paprika and olive oil, but he doubts customers will buy a bag of pasta for $8, no matter how flavorful. Now he's absorbing price increases on a favorite brand of Italian lentils, hoping they don't suffer the same fate.

In the market for cataplanas? Once the domed copper clam cookers from Portugal sell out, The Spanish Table won't restock.