Let me do the math: if I eat one burger every work day until the piece debuts on March 12, I’ll still be about two dozen burgers behind schedule. And you thought the life of a food critic was easy!

We’re finalizing the final list of competitors soon, so don’t forget to throw your suggestions into the ring before it’s too late. Ive already nailed down the favorites, I just need the neighborhood joints and local dives that somehow squeeze out a stupendous meat patty under the radar. Who has your favorite burger?

WTLE’s new book tries to nail the best 100 restaurants in each of their top 50 cities and, as vague survey lists go, it does a fairly good job. The big guys are on there — like Bern’s, The Columbia and Ceviche — but there are also some actual local joints like Mel’s Hot Dogs, El Cap, Skyway Jack’s, Thai Sweet Basil and Atwaters. And, perhaps as a nod to our love of the prefabricated dinner experience, there are a half dozen chains included in the list.

If you’re traveling to the Bay area and don’t want to bother doing a little web research, this book might be for you. But anyone who actually uses the web won’t need to pick up the print version of Where The Locals Eat; you can find all the Tampa/St. Petersburg listings for free on the WTLE website.

The New Best Recipe, Cooks Illustrated — Cooks Illustrated is known for their exhaustive recipe testing, simplification without sacrifice of flavor and focus on home cooking techniques. Each of the more than 1000 recipes comes with a detailed essay explaining the reasoning — based on that extensive testing — behind the important steps in the cooking process. More than just a cookbook, Best Recipe can be a no-nonsense, mythbusting education in how to cook. And just about every one of the 100’s of recipes I’ve cooked out of the book have been successful, with enough information provided that the even a schmoe like me can fiddle without screwing things up. It’s a necessity in any kitchen.

The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Peter Reinhart — Yet again, this is a book that combines recipes that are relatively simple to follow with detailed and engaging explanations of why the steps work the way they do. Reinhart also made a “breakthrough” in explaining a process of slow, cold fermentation of dough that results in incredible flavor. Anyone intrested in the process of bread baking should have this book.

Check out the full Beard Foundation list after the jump and let me know if there are any of your favorites missing.

• American Cookery (BBS Publishing, 1996), James Beard.

• Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (Morrow, 2007), Rick Bayless.

• Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens, 2004).

• Classic Indian Cooking (Morrow, 1980), Julie Sahni.

• Complete Techniques (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2001), Jacques Pépin and Léon Pererr.

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Macmillan, 1995), Marcella Hazan.

• How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Wiley, 2006), Mark Bittman.

• The Joy of Cooking (Scribner, 2006), Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker.

• The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook (Countryman Press, 2003).

• Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts (Andrews McMeel, 1999), Maida Heatter.

• Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook (Clarkson Potter, 1999), Martha Stewart.

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One (Knopf, 2001), Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.

• The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes (Morrow, 1996), Barbara Tropp.

• The New Food Lover’s Companion (Barron’s, 2007), Sharon Tyler Herbst.

• The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford, 2007), Jancis Robinson.

• Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood (Ten Speed, 2004), Rick Stein.

• The Silver Palate Cookbook (Workman, 2007), Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso.

• The Thrill of the Grill: Techniques, Recipes, and Down-Home Barbecue (Morrow, 2002), Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby.

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Broadway, 2007), Deborah Madison

• The Way to Cook (Knopf, 1993), Julia Child.

Right in the middle of the Fest festivities, CL editor David Warner took the stage to run the finals of our Everyperson International Beer Challenge. Let’s air this out right now: this on-stage tasting was my idea, originally. I accept all blame for the fact that watching four people taste beer for a half hour is a big-time buzz kill. No matter that Dave innovated by bringing red-faced schmoes on stage to try the same beer the judges were trying or that lovely Ashle was up there pouring, it was a long 30 minutes.

But who cares? Our mugs and hearts were already full of two hour of generous pours from Beerfest vendors.

When it was all over and the votes were tabulated, perhaps the most commonplace beer on the tasting — Fullers E.S.B. — took home top honors. Other beers had their proponents, especially the St. Feuillien Triple, but there was always one person who took offense to those worthy brews and marked them harshly. Fullers was universally popular.

Thanks to all the judges — Bethany Sherwin of World Of Beer, Bob Sylvester of Saint Somewhere Brewery, our own Wade Tatangelo and Wayne Roddy from barproducts.com — as well as to Ashle and Dave for their fine work.

I still use an old copy of his New World Guide To Beer on an almost weekly basis (sometimes as a checklist for beers I still need to try). His Great Beers of Belgium was a classic that rivaled Robert Parker’s Burgundy. The proliferation of US microbreweries, the popularization of home-brewing and the re-discovery (at least in England and here in the US) of a vast array of almost forgotten European beer styles all has a lot to do with Jackson’s efforts.

Let’s drain a cold one for the man.