The June issue of Down East magazine includes an interview with Sam Hayward about his first cooking job at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island in the summer of 1974.

How did you first wind up at the Shoals lab?
I was living in Ithaca, New York, and working as a musician. I had studied classical music, on double bass. But like a lot of members of my generation, I was seduced by all the cultural effects of the war, the counterculture, rock ’n’ roll. I ended up playing sort of American roots-based rock in some bands that were pretty successful. It was a good time, but it wasn’t a way to plan a life, and I wanted to make a change. Then, one morning in February of ’74, a Cornell hotel-school student who’d taken a few music lessons with me asked me, “You like to cook for a hobby, don’t you?” And I did. So he said, “Why don’t you chuck all this and come spend a summer on an island off the coast of Maine?”

News Center Maine reports that Red’s Eats’ chef Shannon Brown will be competing in an upcoming episode of the Food TV Network show Alex vs America.

Brown is preparing herself mentally and emotionally, as the day of the competition draws near. She said she knows that this is not just about winning a cooking challenge. It’s about showcasing the flavors of Maine and making her home state proud, one lobster dish at a time.

The Press Herald reports that Nina Interlandi Bell from Woolwich will be competing on the Fox TV show MasterChef.

Bell has already passed her televised audition for the show and will be reintroduced as one of the season’s final 20 contestants during the episode Wednesday. That means she’ll be able to compete against the 19 others for a chance to win the show’s $250,000 prize and the “MasterChef” title.