What do you mean by (3) it doesn't reveal your underlying platform? I don't think URL structure would be of much concern here, especially if you where experienced in exploiting websites? Maybe I'm wrong, not to sure what you are referring too.

In regards to you leaning towards this one, surely posting it as a directory /hotdogs/ implies that it is that, a directory and not a just a page about hotdogs? I'm digging a bit to deep into this, as I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference, but I'm just saying, it seems more logical to have it .php or .html

I would use hotdogs.html, not that it makes much difference, but I personally prefer it so it doesn't look like an auto-generated page. If your planing on having a lot of hotdog related content I would defiantly go with /hotdogs for it all.

I don't like hyphens, but I don't like foreign domain extensions even more (Columbia!) despite what they say about it meaning "company", no, no. They pulled the same stunt with .me it's not on.

It depends how competitive the niche is and how much you want it. I have a feeling EMD won't be as strong in the coming months for long tail searches like this, but for now I guess it will give you the edge, what I'm trying to say is if you don't like the domain don't go with it, follow what you feel is most logical, as that is probably best for long term SEO success.The EMD benefit is nowhere near the same (in my exp) with hyphenated or foreign domains, don't get me wrong they are a benefit, but a .com, .org or net will always outrank (for now).

So in response to your question, If I was you I would buy them both (so comp. can't steal em' later), make them both blogs and get a nice brand-able domain for your business, use the two blogs as feeders for your business.

I'd just 301 it to your homepage, seriously doubt it would be worth the effort doing anything else unless this employee was famous and getting links from all around the web.

If you must, you could always do what others have suggested and write a nice "no longer working with us (content rich page) " and 301 all past employees pages to it.