Interviews

David Chang's Top 5 Annoying Things Restaurant Diners Do

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 28th 2011 @ 11:00AM

Chef David Chang Photo: Rachel Been, AOL

New York restaurateur David Chang is notoriously outspoken, which is why we were psyched to read his latest interview over at Details. After he spilled his opinions on everything from anger management to the fallacy of "farm-to-table" dining, he gave the mag his list of the 5 most annoying things diners do. Get ready for some honesty.

5. Bloggers who don't know sh*t. The top one is to say you're a blogger, right off the bat. That always gets a good laugh from the chefs.
4. Being fu**ing drunk. It's just so annoying.
3. Fake allergies.
2. Special food requests.
1. Saying they're right when they're wrong. Like when they ask for a steak to be medium-rare and it's medium-rare and they say it's not medium-rare.

Get the whole David Chang interview at Details.

Filed under: Chefs, Interviews

Elizabeth Gilbert Book Giveaway on "Mondays with Marlo"

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by Slashfood Editor, Posted Feb 25th 2011 @ 12:30PM

Photos: George Pimentel / WireImage.com; Marlo Thomas

Actor, comedienne, and activist Marlo Thomas's online series "Mondays with Marlo", right here on Aol, brings special guests (such as Dr. Dale Atkins and Dr. Oz) together with viewers every week for a fantastic half-hour of frank, fun, and informative talk on subjects from sexual health to advice on nutrition, diet, and cooking meals you (and your family) will love. The best part of this live show is, viewers get to ask the experts their own questions, which makes it personal, provocative... and spontaneous!

On Monday, February 28, at 12:30 p.m. ET, Marlo chats with best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth is best known for her hugely popular memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. You can win a copy of her follow-up book, Committed, which is being released in paperback this month. Got a food-related question you'd like answered? Visit Elizabeth and Marlo during the show on Monday to ask it LIVE! Mention that you're a Slashfood reader and you'll be entered to win a copy of Committed, as well as Marlo Thomas's very personal memoir Growing Up Laughing. You can submit your question in advance, and Joy will answer as many of your questions as she can during the webcast. Or visit MarloThomas.com starting later that day to watch the full-length video of the 30-minute chat.

Read an exerpt from Committed after the jump.

Filed under: Celebrities, Interviews

Chatting with Curtis Stone About 'Top Chef Masters' and Reality TV

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by Nichol Nelson, Posted Jan 24th 2011 @ 4:00PM

Curtis Stone Photo: Julie Toy

With his new gig as host of "Top Chef Masters," chef (and KitchenDaily expert) Curtis Stone comes ever closer to becoming the ringmaster of America's reality-show circus. Last spring, he made it to the tenth week of Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," and this fall he's been a regular presence on "The Biggest Loser." His new project, "America's Next Great Restaurant," pairs him up with Bobby Flay and a panel of restaurant experts to find an idea worthy of a three-city restaurant chain. We caught up with Curtis this weekend as he was prepping dinner with Wolfgang Puck for the 8th Annual G'DAY USA Celebrity Gala, in Los Angeles.

Slashfood: It's been a busy year for you, what with the 'Apprentice' and working on 'The Biggest Loser.'
Curtis Stone: 'The Apprentice' was bizarre. I was sitting there before the first day and Cyndi [Lauper] was sort of singing to herself and I was thinking, 'What am I doing here with all of these freaks?' But you know what? I made a lot of good friends from it. They all turned out to be really cool. When I first met Bret [Michaels] I thought, 'How are we going to get along? You're a weirdo.' But he's a nice bloke! He's a strange cat, you know, but a cool dude. Sharon Osborne and I ended up becoming really good friends. Cyndi is a sweet woman -- crazy, out there, talks to herself, but kind and generous.

Filed under: Television/Film, Celebrities, Chefs, Interviews

Sundance, Silver and Rockwell in Park City

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by Karen Danick, Posted Jan 20th 2011 @ 12:00PM

Silver restaurant in Park City Utah, Sundance Festival 2011 Photo: Silver Restaurant

When we heard that David Rockwell was designing Silver, the restaurant in Park City, Utah, where all the celebs will be partying at the Sundance Festival, we wondered what the group famed for restaurants like Adour Alain Ducasse DC and public spaces such as the Marketplace JFK Airport's Jet Blue terminal, would imagine for a former silver-mining-company headquarters. And while we were at it, we asked David Mexico, of The Rockwell Group, about the secrets of the design-firm's success. (Click here for more about Silver and the Sundance Festival.)

Slashfood: What is it about your design sensibility that makes your restaurants so celebrity-friendly and inviting?

David Mexico: When we design a restaurant, we always think of some of the touchstones of set design (another passion of mine) to draw guests in: entrance, choreography, lighting, storytelling, and procession. We spend a lot of time studying which materials, textures, and motifs that we should bring into the space to engage all the senses, and to create an extraordinary celebratory dining experience.

Filed under: Restaurants, Interviews

Chatting with the Latest 'Top Chef All-Stars' Exile: Part 2

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by Nichol Nelson, Posted Jan 17th 2011 @ 12:00PM

Top Chef elimination interview 1-12-11 Tiffani Faison Photo: Giovanni Rufino / Bravo

Here's this week's installment of Slashfood's exclusive exit interviews with the latest "Top Chef All-Stars" contestant to get the boot. In an effort to prevent spoilers, we've included the text after the jump.

Filed under: Television/Film, Celebrities, Interviews

Chatting with the Latest Exiled "Top Chef All-Star": Part 1

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by Nichol Nelson, Posted Jan 14th 2011 @ 2:30PM

Top Chef elimination interview 1-12-11 Jamie Lauren Photo: Giovanni Rufino / Bravo

Filed under: Television/Film, Celebrities, Interviews

Chatting with the Latest Exiled 'Top Chef All-Stars' Contestant

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by Nichol Nelson, Posted Dec 20th 2010 @ 1:00PM

Photo: Barbara Nitke / Bravo

As the first season of Top Chef All-Stars revs up, Slashfood is taking the time to talk with each cheftestant who is asked to pack their knives and go. In an effort to avoid spoilers, we've put our exit interview with the latest exiled cheftestant after the jump -- click through to read it.

Filed under: Television/Film, Celebrities, Interviews

The Candy Store, San Francisco — Ask a Shopkeeper

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by Chris Dudley, Posted Dec 15th 2010 @ 2:00PM

Photo: The Candy Store

Diane Campbell wore many hats before donning the metaphorical purple stovepipe to become the Willy Wonka of San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood: She was a cook, a fundraiser, and a marketer for a dot-com, among other things. Her passion, however, has always been candy. As a little girl growing up on Long Island, she used to buy big sacks of the sweet stuff from the supermarket, carry her haul home on her bike, and repackage the candy into goodie bags for her family and friends. She turned this lifelong love of candy into a career five years ago when she and her husband opened what has since become the city's premier sweet shop, known simply as The Candy Store.

Read more about Diane and The Candy Store after the jump...

Filed under: Trends, Interviews, Features

Talking Whiskey With Mad Men's Christina Hendricks

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by Michael B. Dougherty, Posted Dec 1st 2010 @ 4:00PM

Christina Hendrick Photo: Dario Cantatore / Getty Images

While attending the opening of Johnnie Walker's House of Walker private lounge, in New York's Soho, we were fortunate enough to speak with the evening's luminous hostess, Mad Men's Christina Hendricks. Her visage has become increasingly associated with whiskey (with a name like Hendricks, we'd have guessed she'd be a gin girl), whether due to her hosting another Walker event in Los Angeles this summer or because her character, the comely secretary Joan Harris, pours copious amounts of it for all the well-dressed alcoholics on the show. With that in mind, we wondered how she started her not-so-clandestine love affair with Scotch.

"This happened very naturally," Hendricks explained. "It's very sexy when my husband orders a Scotch." That lucky gentleman, actor Geoffrey Arend, was also on hand, and she credits him with introducing her to the drink. "He enjoys it, my male friends really, really enjoy it, but we're introducing it to our lady friends [too]."

For those still unfamiliar with whiskey, Hendricks recommends a professionally led tasting as the best way to learn about the "process, the aging... it's really interesting." Before leaving Hendricks to her hosting duties, we just had to ask: How does she take hers? "On the rocks."

Filed under: Celebrities, Interviews

Chatting with Paula Deen

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by Michael D. Ayers, Posted Nov 30th 2010 @ 11:00AM

Paula Deen Photo: Amy Sussman / Getty Images

Though she needs no real introduction, we'll give it a whirl anyway. Over the past twenty years, Paula Deen has risen within the world of southern cooking to become its matriarch. After opening Savannah, Georgia's, Lady and Sons, in 1996, she went on to become one of the Food Network's most iconic faces, starring in Paula's Home Cooking, Paula's Party and Paula's Best Dishes. Recently, she's expanded her empire to include an array of cookbooks, kitchen utensils and appliances, and even furniture. Plus, she's teamed up with Philadelphia Cream Cheese, in their "Real Women of Philadelphia" campaign, and was recently selected to be Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade, preceding the 2011 Rose Bowl.

Paula Deen took some time out from her Thanksgiving prep at home in Savannah to chat with Slashfood about her memories around the holidays, the Rose Bowl and what she's excited about for 2011.

With the holidays approaching, how do you stay sane?

PD: I don't know [laughs]. I really don't know. I think it probably has a lot to do with my team members. I don't micromanage them. They do their job and I don't have to give it a second thought, unless something goes amuck, which is very seldom. But I almost fainted last week...when I was on the plane with them, and I said, "When is Thanksgiving?" and they said, "A week from tomorrow, dear." And I said, "What? How can that be?" So I almost fainted.

Filed under: Celebrities, Interviews