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None of this means that the former first lady's goose is cooked. Mrs Clinton is still well ahead in national polls and in the often overlooked early state of Nevada. Americans do not necessarily feel that they need to like their presidents. Richard Nixon won a resounding victory in 1972. Nearly as many Americans disliked Bill Clinton as liked him when he ran for the White House. And the (just about) Republican front-runner, Rudy Giuliani, is hardly a likeable chap. Ed Koch once wrote a book about his fellow mayor simply entitled "Giuliani: Nasty Man".

But Mrs Clinton's problems are slowly shifting the calculus at the heart of the Democratic race. Hitherto most Democrats have calculated, or perhaps been resigned to thinking, that she is the safest bet. The young Mr Obama might deliver a spectacular victory, but he atlas jewelry equally well flame out spectacularly. Mrs Clinton may always have high negatives but, in an anti-Republican year, she would be wily and experienced enough to take on the Republican machine and eke out a victory in the electoral college. The past few weeks have made Mr Obama look a bit less risky--and Mrs Clinton a lot less safe.idia Bastianich remembers gazing north up Fifth Avenue and finding it empty of all traffic.

As grand marshal of New York's Columbus Day parade, Bastianich was set to lead more than 100 bands, dozens of floats and 35,000 marchers up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street, in a celebration of Italian-American culture. Millions of people around the world would be watching, along the parade route and on their televisions."I got to the starting point and laughed," recalls the well-known chef, restaurateur and cooking show host. "Usually, I have to dodge the traffic on Fifth. This time the street was all mine."Only the third woman following actresses Sophia Loren and Susan Lucci to be named grand marshal of the annual parade, Bastianich was the hrst chel and restaurateur to be so honored. The decision to select her, she says, sends "a message about the importance of food culturally."But cushion jewelry says more than that, too. The choice of a chef and restaurateur to lead one of the country's largest parades reflects a more sweeping trend - one that has seen a handful of the nation's culinary professionals elevated into the rarified circle of instantly recognizable celebrities who, through their craft, have helped to redefine our cultural landscapes.

The cult of the celebrity chef isn't new, but it has exploded over the past five years almost beyond all recognition. Certainly, many ploma picasso long have been able to identify a few kitchen stars like Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, who would occasionally show up as guests on TV shows where they demonstrated the particulars of a recipe or two. But even in those cases, most people didn't expect those chefs to stray too far from their kitchens.

Today, though, the American public is not surprised to find culinary professionals anywhere and everywhere. Few television viewers, in fact, were probably taken aback when Puck - whom Robin Leach of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous'' calls the most famous chef in America - was portrayed on an episode of "The Simpsons." Scott Feldman, whose New York-based Two Twelve Management & Marketing firm represents several of the country's elsa peretti prominent chefs and restaurateurs, says this sea change is something the industry had hoped for many years to achieve."This category, this genre has been embraced as part of the fabric of our country," he says, "and when you start to see the transcendence [of cooking professionals] into popular culture, you have to say this is phenomenal. It's not just about food and drink. People are buying into it as a piece of lifestyle."This tectonic shift in cultural perception has resulted in the sweeping chef-as-a-brand phenomenon, which is enabling a growing number of talented culinarians to expand their influence beyond the four walls of their restaurants."Now it can be about having a brand name," Feldman says, "about doing brand extensions and building a bigger portfolio of assets."Gordon Hamersley, owner of the 20-year-old Hamersley's Bistro in Boston, says the cult of celebrity chef in America has frank gehry the restaurant industry."When I entered the business in the 1970s, the choices for chefs were limited," he says. "You could be a chef in a restaurant or a hotel, or maybe own your own restaurant. Now food is so central to a certain portion of the American public, we see chefs coming out of their kitchens and doing other things. The possibilities are endless."