That's right! You're looking at a pasta mosaic of Rachael Ray created by artist Jason Mecier. Last Wednesday, the blog Entertainmentwise posted a story about the artist's most recent mosaics, including one of Mariah Carey made using "only beauty essentials like lipstick and eyeliner." We're so used to seeing food sculptures, like those cheese ones from last year. But, an actual portrait...
Pasta is not the only material Mecier uses in his mosaics. The gallery on his website reveals candy mosaics of celebrities, such as Dolly Parton and the Spice Girls. Then, there's the unforgettable portrait of Martha Stewart made with veggies! Check out his wacky gallery and let us know which ones are your favorites.
Jason Kronenwald likes words that begin with the letter "b" - specifically, blondes and bubble gum. Combine your two passions, and what do you get?
Of course! Portraits of iconic blonde women made entirely out of chewed bubble gum. (Why...what were you thinking? Weirdo.) Kroenwald has minions of gum-chewers at his disposal, but says he prefers Trident when it comes to personal chewing. He claims that there are no paints or dyes used, and that "the mixing of color takes place in the mouth during chewing." Hmm...so kinda like Willy Wonka, then?
Wonder what foods those amazing, incredible, ever-so-unreachable celebs crave during their pregnancies?
The same things everyone else does, duh.
Apparently, Angelina Jolie, who is rumoured to be pregnant with twins, has been eating, well, like a pregnant woman. At a recent dinner outing with Baby-Daddy Brad Pitt, she ate: penne arrabiata, two starters, several rolls, profiteroles for dessert, and took an apple pie to go. Earlier during her pregnancy, she Angelina craved mustard-smothered onion rings and cinnamon chilli chocolates, and has since been eating cupcakes made by her kids.
I bet I could eat all of that - onions rings included - and I'm not even pregnant!
Citing 19th century French food writer Brillat-Savarin's assertion that food preferences offer great insight into one's personality, Mimi Sheraton, writing in Slate, dissects Hillary Clinton's love of "oliveburgers" and popcorn with extra butter.
The presidential hopeful favors lamb (a gamier, more complex meat suggesting a certain sophistication?), enjoys spicy curry (a risk taker?) and digs into Dairy Queen blizzards on the campaign trail (woman of the people, or just pandering?). You'll have to check out the story for an analysis of the symbolism of carrot sticks versus onion rings...
Next up: McCain cuts the crusts off! Huckabee gets MSG headaches! Obama likes tangerine jellybeans, but can't stand the cherry ones!
For over ten years now, Wolfgang Puck has been serving the stars at the Governor's Ball - also known as the official "after party" for the Academy Awards, where all the nominees congregate to look glamorous, talk to the press and eat dinner. Not all of the secrets of the Oscar ceremony itself, like what the stage is going to look like, are revealed ahead of time and the menu for the Ball was clearly a bit hush-hush to start. Fortunately, little by little, information leaked out.
The Ball is not going to be a sit-down affair, but an elegant/casual cocktail-type of party, an the overriding theme this year will be "Oscar goes organic." The food, in addition to being organic and/or humanely raised will be small or bite-sized, and will include favorites (and Puck standbys) like sushi, grilled Kobe beef, Spicy Tuna Tartare in a Sesame Miso Cone, Smoked Salmon Oscars with French Farm-Raised Osetra Caviar and Roasted Pumpkin Squash Ravioli with White Truffles. And, of course, there will be plenty of champagne and chocolate Oscar statuettes to go around.
Click past the jump for a preview of the whole menu.
With the all the scurrying around that preceded Christmas, I missed the obit for Jerry Berns, the longtime host and co-owner of New York City's famed 21 Club. Berns, who welcomed presidents and celebrities, until he sold the onetime speakeasy in 1985 for $21 million died at the age of 99.
The number 21 figures not only in the club's address (21 W. 52 St.), but it also happens to be the date that the affable Berns passed away, December 21, 2006, to be exact.
Known as Mr. Jerry, Berns was associated with 21 for 50 years. During that tenure he warmly welcomed everyone who walked through the doors from the likes of Frank Sinatra and Humphrey Bogart to more ordinary folks. Berns also served as a trustee of the Culinary Institute of America. Thanks to his efforts to spur the directors to move the CIA to Hyde Park, N.Y., he was one of the first people to be named to its Hall of Fame.
Incidentally the number plays another eerie role in the restaurant's history. Pete Kriendler, the other co-owner also died on December 21, five years earlier in 2001. As far as I can tell the number 21 has nothing to do with the number of chutes and levers that helped the club avoid detection by the police during its heyday as a speakeasy.
I don't know if it's more disturbing or more reassuring, but it seems that Americans are more likely to trust an actor like Brad Pitt before they trust a Senator like Ted Kennedy.
According to organizational behaviorist James Bailey, we trust actors because we associate them with the characters they play on tv or in movies. Forbes has listed the 10 Most Trustworty Celebrities, as measured by Los Angeles-based Davie-Brown Talent, which measures more than 1,500 celebrities' trustworthiness. Not surprisingly, actors like Tom Hanks appear on the list, as does Oprah Winfrey. And most surprising of all to me?
An enterprising Seattle waiter with a Foodsaver snatched up leftovers from Britney Spears and Kevin Federline and has put them up for auction on eBay.
Hard as it is to believe, as of this writing there have been only 40 bids. The top one thus far exceeds $200. I myself may purchase these items, before some evil scientist grabs them and clones the celebrity couple.
The seller claims to have acquired Britney's half eaten egg salad sandwich and K-Fed's corn dog at a music industry party he worked a few months ago. I wouldn't plan on eating these items though, the seller notes they're strictly for memorabilia purposes not consumption.
Update: The winning bid was for $520 from Golden Palace Casino, the same guys that bought the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich and other weird food things.
Celebrities are touting the maple syrup diet, which is a type of detox diet that is also known as the Master Cleanse diet, or the lemonade diet. Essentially, you drink a mixture of water, maple syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper (a very small amount) for about 10 days. Without getting into the sticky issue of whether or not you are really cleansing your body, if you even need to, the diet is a way to drop a few pounds quickly, for better or worse. It works because you take in relatively few calories and a lot of liquids.
All in all, it seems to result in a relatively quick weight loss of a few pounds, but certainly neither a long term solution nor a substitute for a more traditionally healthy diet. It is great for the sales of maple syrup, though, since some stores are reporting that their sales have more than doubled in the past few months.
One woman's account of her time on the diet can be read here if you're interested in getting the daily details of the "cleanse."
Given that the chef already has a penchant for the camera, it's no surprise that Gordon Ramsay is opening a restaurant in Hollywood, and not just one restaurant, but two new restaurants and a bar in the Bel Age Hotel.
The Bel Age will undergo a remodel and will be re-branded as the London LA Hotel in Spring 2007, and that is when Ramsay's restaurants are set to open. This is not his first foray into the US. Ramsay is preparing to open his first US restaurant in New York this fall, and another Italian-themed restaurant in the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Florida in November.
Wedding cakes are always some of the most elaborate creations in the cake world, the perfect compliments to some of the most celebrated days. Wedding cakes can run into the hundreds and thousands of dollars, but few are as impressive as the cakes of celebrities. Used to being in the spotlight, what better way to highlight their wedding day than with a stunning cake? The Wedding Sutra has a photo gallery of many celebrity wedding cakes, and while the designs cover both the unique and the traditional, all are stunning. Above, you can see Mariska Hargitay's seven-foot-tall six-tiered chocolate and vanilla cake (left) and Leann Rimes' Chocolate Strawberry Cake, decorated with 35 dozen red roses (right). Getting inspired? If so, hopefully it's with ideas for your own cake and not for ways to gate-crash one of these weddings.
As much as I thought Rocco DiSpirito was hot, and as much as I religiously watched the show "The Restaurant," I didn't think Rocco would ever have the balls to return to television after it turned out to be a complete fiasco.
I guess I was wrong. Rocco has balls. He is filming a pilot for a new reality tv show called "Rocco." In the show, Chef DiSpirito "will reportedly act as a culinary therapist on the new series, solving ordinary people's problems through the use of food."
Well, you didn't think he was going to actually cook, did you?
You've got every cookbook ever put out there by a famous chef - from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook to Tyler Florence's Eat This Book (oops, maybe that's just me). The chef's face is on the cover, he's wearing a spotless chef's jacket, and inside, the recipes are amazing.
But did the chef really write that book? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the chef. The Financial Times looks at the relationship between chefs and the "ghostwriters" behind them who polish the prose, whether or not the writer's name appears alongside the chef's name on the book's cover.
Do you think it's right for a chef to leave the ghostwriter's name off even if he or she did most of the writing?
If you are into extreme cuisine, how does you top eating the still-beating heart of a cobra? Or what about going right up to Korea's DMZ and fishing for your lunch?
Bourdain flew to Beirut a week ago to do an episode on the local cuisine of Lebanon for his Travel channel show, No Reservations. He and his crew ate and partied Monday and Tuesday, but were holed up in their hotels after the bombings started, waiting for instructions on evacuation. I haven't seen any more news recently if Bourdain and his crew have left yet, but according to the New York Post, he's "not getting a show out of this . . . I just wanna hang out and drink at the bar. The mojitos here are great."
Sure, sure, Tony. We know you're a tough guy. Get home safely.
Wonder what foods those amazing, incredible, ever-so-unreachable celebs crave during their pregnancies?
Citing 19th century French food writer 
For 
With the all the scurrying around that preceded Christmas, I missed the obit for 
I don't know if it's more disturbing or more reassuring, but it seems that Americans are more likely to trust an actor like Brad Pitt before they trust a Senator like Ted Kennedy.
An enterprising Seattle waiter with a Foodsaver snatched up leftovers from Britney Spears and Kevin Federline and has put them up for auction on 
Given that the chef already has a penchant for the camera, it's no surprise that 
As much as I thought Rocco DiSpirito was hot, and as much as I religiously watched the show "The Restaurant," I didn't think Rocco would ever have the balls to return to television after it turned out to be a complete fiasco.
You've got every cookbook ever put out there by a famous chef - from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook to Tyler Florence's Eat This Book (oops, maybe that's just me). The chef's face is on the cover, he's wearing a spotless chef's jacket, and inside, the recipes are amazing.
If you are into extreme cuisine, how does you top eating the still-beating heart of a cobra? Or what about going right up to 
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