Chefs & Restaurants

Ed Brown: Confessions of an Angry Zen Chef

by Sean Elder, Posted Dec 7th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Angry Zen Chef Ed Brown. Photo: Cookyourlifemovie.com.

It was Jean-Paul Sartre, no Buddhist, who wrote, "Hell is other people." Buddhists don't necessarily believe in hell (except the ones we make for ourselves through our desires and attachments), but Zen Buddhist priest and cookbook author Ed Espe Brown ("The Complete Tassajara Cookbook") would often prefer to be alone in the kitchen.

"Over the years I've asked other cooks at the Zen Center, 'What's the most difficult part about cooking?'" he says in the 2007 documentary "How to Cook Your Life." "They almost invariably answer, 'the people,' having to work with others, having to work with yourself. The food takes care of itself."

For someone who's been practicing Zen for 40 years, Brown can be rather peevish. At a daylong retreat at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in California's Marin County, Brown broke from periods of sitting and walking meditation to tell stories of his own anger. When he returned as a guest chef to San Francisco's famed Greens restaurant -- a pioneering vegetarian place that he helped found –- he was asked if he had been a chef there before.

"Excuse me, I'm Ed Brown!" he recalled himself wanting to say. "And I was working here, doing five jobs in the kitchen, before you were born!"

Filed under: Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants, Chefs

Rolling Stone Magazine to Open a Restaurant

COMMENTS 10

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Dec 4th 2009 @ 4:30PM

Photo: MyEyeSees, Flickr

When you think Rolling Stone, the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually food.

But the iconic music magazine is hoping to leverage some of its cool cache with the launch of the first Rolling Stone restaurant in Los Angeles, planned to open in the Hollywood and Highland Center -- down the block from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theatre.

The multi-level 10,000-square foot venue will be host a bar, restaurant, lounge and private-event space. The decor will try to evoke the magazine's edgy style with exposed black brick, tufted leather and vaulted ceilings around an antique iron staircase. The restaurant is slated to open in summer 2010.

No word yet, however, on what kind of grub the Rolling Stone will dish up or on who may be cooking it.

Filed under: Magazines, Food News, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants

Anne Burrell, Food Network Star Sued for Sexual Discrimination

COMMENTS 47

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Dec 4th 2009 @ 4:00PM

Photo: Jemal Countess, WireImage

If the allegations in a recently leaked discrimination suit against celebrity chef Anne Burrell are true, contestants on her new Food Network reality show may have gotten an earful about more than their poor stirring techniques.

Former employees say Burrell, whose "Worst Cooks in America" competition debuts next month, "constantly harassed (them) with sexually discriminatory and derogatory remarks." The complaint, filed earlier this year, was publicized today by blogger Abbe Diaz, whose husband, Sasha Muniak, owned the New York restaurant where the incidents allegedly occurred and is named as a defendant.

Filed under: Food News, Chefs & Restaurants, Celebrities, Restaurants, Chefs

What Can I Get You Folks? - Reader's Digest Reveals Restaurant Secrets

COMMENTS 22

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Dec 4th 2009 @ 11:00AM

Photo: House of Sims, Flickr

Kudos to the anonymous waitress in Manhattan, the unnamed server in suburban Chicago and the pizza-chain staffer who helped Reader's Digest assemble its story this month about restaurant secrets. Just in time for holiday dining, the expert panel has reminded restaurant-goers that it's not OK to let your shy kid order for himself on a busy night, whistle for service or leave a compliment instead of a cash tip.

I'd concur with just about every item on the list, most of which will be familiar to readers of this column. Not surprisingly, many of the gripes center on beverages, which seem to be the bane of the service biz. I was only slightly annoyed that a waitress revealed servers, who don't want to mess with the noisy, time-consuming process of mixing froufrou drinks, nearly always claim the frozen drink maker's broken; I'd hate for a customer to challenge my colleagues or me the next time we trot out that standard line.

Only a few of the touted secrets seem generated just to round out the list: I'd have serious concerns about the sanity of a server who told guests her "brother's off to war" in hopes of getting better tips, and I've never worked with anyone who would dare leave the alcohol out of a customer's cocktail.

But perhaps the story's most interesting secret isn't a secret at all: It's a question posed by Kansas City waitress Charity Ohlund, who blogs for frothygirlz.com.

Filed under: Magazines, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants

Report: Gordon Ramsay Sued for $100,000

COMMENTS 30

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Dec 3rd 2009 @ 5:00PM

Photo: Stephane De Sakutin, AFP/Getty Images.

Gordon Ramsay may have turned over ownership of his New York City luxury restaurant Gordon Ramsay at the London to the restaurant's hotel, but the Michelin-starred celebrity chef and reality TV star is still on the hook for thousands from angry vendors.

Eater NY reports that vendors are suing Ramsay for more than $100,000 mere weeks after Midtown Manhattan's the London NYC hotel took over ownership of the 45-seat restaurant.

A spokesman for Ramsay told Slashfood the often-outspoken chef had "no comment" on the lawsuit. The London NYC did not return Slashfood's call for comment.

Filed under: Food News, Chefs & Restaurants, Celebrities, Restaurants, Chefs

What Can I Get You Folks? - Speaking of the Menu

COMMENTS 10

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Dec 2nd 2009 @ 11:00AM

Photo: jenny downing, Flickr.

Readers of this column are pretty evenly split on the question of whether a server should have to write orders down. But what's the verdict when the restaurant's management decides to dispense with the written word?

At the restaurant where I work, bottled beers aren't printed on the menu. There's a display of available bottles above the bar, but few patrons are seated where they can easily glance at what admittedly looks more like a shooting gallery than a menu addendum. That means it's up to the servers to rattle off a list of more than two dozen beers -– a list that starts sounding nonsensical about six beers in. (Having been on the receiving end of the alternative server strategy, which involves responding to the inevitable "what beers do you have?" question with the vaguely hostile challenge "what beer do you want?", I'm standing by the confusing method.)

Restaurant managers are constantly instructing servers to "verbalize" various specials, desserts and other items that didn't make it onto the menu, usually because the kitchen submitted its dish descriptions too late in the day or the back office printer wasn't working. But, as in the case of the unnoted beer, restaurants sometimes make the very deliberate decision to employ walking menus.

Filed under: Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants

North Carolina Marks Site of State's First Restaurant Sit-In

COMMENTS 0

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Dec 1st 2009 @ 4:00PM

The Royal Ice Cream protesters in prayer, Durham Public Library.

While standard civil rights histories give the most ink to the 1960 demonstration at a Greensboro Woolworth's, that lunch counter wasn't the site of the state's first sit-in -- and now there's a historical marker to prove it.

Durham, N.C., this week celebrated the formal unveiling of a marker on the site of the now-defunct Royal Ice Cream Parlor, more than 52 years after a group of black students known as "The Loyal Seven" challenged its segregationist policies.

Two of the protesters and a relative of the Royal's owner -- who organizer Eddie Davis describes as having "a different kind of sensibility" than his Jim Crow-upholding ancestor -- attended the ceremony. "It was sort of a reconciliation, bringing about unity and respect," Davis says.

Filed under: Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants

Martha Stewart Confession: I Ate Out on Thanksgiving

COMMENTS 19

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Dec 1st 2009 @ 1:00PM

Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images.

Even Martha Stewart needs some time off from the kitchen every now and again. The domestic diva admitted on her Twitter last week that she ate out on Thanksgiving.

"Full confession: I did not cook on Thanksgiving -- went to Per Se for brunch and to watch the Macy's parade -- dinner with friends at Four Seasons," she wrote Friday. "Four Seasons did a great job -- turkey for each table, all the fixings, soufflés for dessert, pretty impressive considering a full house!"

Stewart ended her Thanksgiving with a screening of the "Twilight" film "New Moon," which she called "really excellent," though she found the wolves to be "mangy."

The eating out revelation came just a couple of days after she demonstrated turkey roasting on the "Today Show."

What do you think? Should Martha have cooked her own feast? Or do you approve of eating out for Thanksgiving?

Filed under: Holidays, Chefs & Restaurants, Celebrities, Restaurants

Proper Mashed Potatoes, Grocery Stores and Going Home - The Omaha World-Herald in 60 Seconds

COMMENTS 1

by Emily Farris, Posted Dec 1st 2009 @ 12:00PM

Mashed potatoes. Photo: Manuel Alarcón, Flickr.

After stints in San Francisco and Las Vegas, Omaha native Chef Travis Brink, returns to his old stomping grounds and takes over the kitchen at Omaha's French Café & Bistro.
Mashed potatoes are meant to be made with cream and butter -- and no substitutes!
Calls made to those turkey hotlines are just as strange as you might imagine.
La Buvette Wine & Grocery has always been known as a place to drink, but now it's a place to eat (well) as well.
A new 12,000-square-foot wine, beer, spirits and gourmet grocery store will open in Omaha right before Christmas.

Filed under: In Sixty Seconds, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants, Chefs, In 60 Seconds

What Can I Get You Folks? - Eating Out for Thanksgiving

COMMENTS 11

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Nov 23rd 2009 @ 3:00PM

Photo: Tracy Hunter, Flickr.

The number of Thanksgiving celebrants eating out for the holiday is remarkably small: More Americans believe the moon landing was faked than would deign to have their sweet potatoes and stuffing in a restaurant.

Still, depending on whose statistics you trust, there are at least 10 million Americans making reservations for their Thanksgiving dinners this year, which means at least that many food and beverage workers will be spending their holidays away from home too.

I generally don't mind working on holidays: The festive hubbub of a room filled with revelers is often preferable to spending the evening with squabbling relatives. And the staff camaraderie that makes the indignities of restaurant work bearable is never quite so pronounced as on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

Filed under: Holidays, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants