Remember that YouTube clip of the upcoming Iron Chef America game for the Wii that Shayna shared back in March? Well, now we've got more solid details about what faces have made it from the transition between show and game, courtesy of Eater.
Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto are definitely in. (Check out their Mii versions through the Eater link.) Batali says: "I'm delighted to be involved with Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine. My video game counterpart is as passionate and competitive in the virtual Kitchen Stadium as I am in real life, and I think the participation of Chef Morimoto and I adds a great level of authenticity to the game."
But what about the other guys? Alton Brown, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, and new Iron Chef Michael Symon? They are curiosly missing from the press release, but if you check out that cover to the right, it certainly looks like at least Cora and Brown are involved. Since Flay ISN'T on the cover, I assume that means he's not a part of this.
We'll know for sure soon enough -- the game hits shelves this fall.
Marisa told you a couple of months ago about Dinner: Impossible chef/host Robert Irvine losing his job because he embellished his resume just a tad (he lied about his experience, including a tiny fib about, um, doing Princess Di's wedding cake). Now the Food Network show has named a new host.
Michael Symon will be the new guy who comes into people's homes to help them with their cooking and tackles crazy food challenges. Not only is Symon one of the Iron Chefs of the network, he actually won the Next Iron Chef competition. The new shows will start airing this summer.
Every now and then I get a hankering for something truly decadent. The past few days I was lamenting the loss of Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in NYC. I first met Tim on the set of Iron Chef America and he invited Joe Distefano and me back to his restaurant after the show.
We sat down at the bar and had a quick shot of icy Tuaca liqueur (one of Tim and his crew's favorite tipples that they had done shots of every 15 minutes during the filming of the 60 minute contest part of the show) and ordered Jalapeno Margarita's and Prairie Butter. Prairie Butter is Tim's take on roasted marrow bones. He takes Buffalo marrow bones, sprinkles them with a mix of South-Western spices, roasts them, and serves them with flatbread and a roasted pepper chutney.
Well, the restaurant is closed now, and Tim is back to Texas at his original Lonesome Dove Bistro, but I am stuck craving those marrow bones. I don't know what spices he used so I have come up with my own recipe. Every few months I buy a bunch of bones and get set for a truly great meal.
Here's my recipe for South-Western Roasted Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad.
According to a little tidbit of info over at the New York Post, chef Mario "Orange Clogs" Batali won't be back at the Food Network.
"Sources" say that executives at the Food Network did not renew any of chef Batali's contracts, which include his own show "Molto Mario," and a spot as an Iron Chef on "Iron Chef America."
Guess that means we'll only be able to catch the Italian chef on his new show touring Spain with Gwyneth Paltrow on PBS this fall.
Either that, or in person at one of his bazillion Italian-themed restaurants in New York, Los Angeles (Mozza!), and Las Vegas.
Remember that show on the FoodNetwork in which Mario Batali and a sidekick toured Italy? Well, this October and November, Mario is taking his orange clogs for a culinary tour of Spain. His sidekick this time, though, is actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
According to an interview with Gwyneth in W magazine (the one with the cover shot where she most definitely doesn't look like herself), she offered to go with the Iron Chef, who asked if she was joking. She wasn't. Gwyneth spent many a childhood summer in Spain, and apparently, will "eat all that stuff. The crazy fish things, the eels." The only things she won't eat are beef and pork products, which is such a shame. How do you go to Spain and not eat Jamon Iberico?
I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the show to air on PBS. Gwyneth's voice is a little annoying to me, but I adore Chef Batali.
Yes, I know. It's been a week since the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books took over the UCLA campus and spewed all kinds of bookishness to the masses, but I have to say that it probably took me that long to recover from the crowds, controlled chaos, and crazy heat of the event.
I wasn't there for anything but the chef demonstrations on the Cooking Stage, and to be perfectly honest, I was really only there to see LA son Govind Armstrong (Table 8 restaurant) and my favorite Queer Guy, Ted Allen. However, I have to say that I was somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed Cat Cora. Granted, I am always a sucker for a lady chef, especially one who can hold her own in Kitchen Stadium, but I didn't think I would be so taken with how cute she is, her charming accent, and the fact that she has personality without bubbling over into an annoying mess like some Food Network stars we know.
Bobby Flay has an impressive list of titles including famed chef, television personality, Iron Chef on the Food Network, and author of several cookbooks. He also runs a group of restaurants including Bolo and Bar Americain in New York City, Mesa Grill located in both New York and Las Vegas, and Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City. Today, Flay is opening a third Mesa Grill, located in the Bahamas at the Cove Atlantis - marking his first business venture outside of the United States.
Widely known for his Southwestern cuisine, Bobby Flay is apparently excited about mixing his signature style with ingredients and flavors of the Caribbean, and will be serving dishes such as Bahamian Spiced Chicken Skewers with Yogurt Cilantro Sauce, Crispy Squid and Cracked Conch Salad with Orange-Chipotle Vinaigrette, and Bahamian Lobster Tail with Red Chile-Coconut Sauce and Green Chile Rice. Sounds pretty delicious to me.
The restaurant, according to the Cove Atlantis webpage, overlooks beaches and the Atlantic Ocean and features vibrant colors, Southwestern motifs, and an auburn and white cow print on the dining chairs. The bar "features a terrazzo and sea shell counter with backlit glass and embedded goatskin, flanked by columns of river rock."
Not to leave any possible stone unturned, it seems that the Food Network has plans to expand their reality television horizons this fall as they conduct a search for The Next Iron Chef. Though details are very limited at this point, the show will apparently be hosted by Iron Chef's own Alton Brown, and the contestants will be culinary professionals hoping to become one of the shows celebrity Iron Chefs alongside the current roster of Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto, and Cat Cora.
Though a number of old shows have been weeded out, The Food Network has enjoyed increased viewership over the past few years and are working on introducing even more new content to their regular line-up, including "America's Best Recipe" - where everyday cooks compete for best recipe in various categories, as well as "Food Dudes", which will follow two young "scruffy" chefs from Hollywood as they run their catering business.
It seems as though the days of one (highly trained) chef standing behind a counter preparing meals are definitely numbered.
These days, advertising tends to be on a very obvious (superliminal) level. By this, I mean that most broadcasters make no effort to conceal the fact that they're being paid (or compensated in some way) to promote a product. The show Top Chef, for example, frequently refers to the "Kenmore kitchen" provided by its sponsors and repeatedly uses brand names from other companies. This type of advertising really gets a brand name out into the public arena, but some still believe that sneakier tactics are in order to get the public to try their products and would prefer to use subliminal advertising than superliminal, believing that the subconscious mind has a greater impact on human behavior.
This YouTube video clip reveals an example of subliminal advertising that a viewer found on the Food Network during a broadcast of Iron Chef America. The ad, which is for McDonald's, is only about one frame of film long, but is still noticeable to the conscious mind as a red flash on the screen.
Of course, it could have been a broadcasting glitch and not a purposefully placed advertisement. But that might just be what they want you to think....
Long before Iron Chef morphed into Iron Chef America, I enjoyed the grandaddy of televised culinary throwdowns in its original format. No, that doesn't mean Food Network's dubbed Japanese version. I watched Iron Chef sans dubbing on UHF. Back then I was hardly a gourmand and my knowledge of Japanese was gleaned from watching Godzilla. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the show's fierce competitive spirit and exotic ingredients. Those episodes and the film Tampopo convinced me that Japanese people are crazy about food.
I hadn't given too much thought to the role of food in Japanese popular culture, until yesterday. Not that I hadn't seen such snacks such as Calbee Pea Crisps with its happy cartoon legume, dancing across the package before. What shocked me out of my cocoon of hipster-foodie complacency was a friend telling me of a manga hero whose feats revolve around baking bread. That's right, bread. I'm no student of manga, but the last time I checked these Japanese comics featured darker plots often involving sex and gore.
Warning: The post below contains spoilers, so if you TiVo'd last night's "Iron Chef America" and don't want to know who won, I suggest you stop reading now.
Last night, the oddest battle in the history of Kitchen Stadium took place, a battle of the Food Network All-Stars that pit Mario Batali and Rachael Ray against Bobby Flay and Giada de Laurentiis. The theme ingredient was cranberries. It seemed to take Rachael and Mario several minutes to find their groove, with Rachael seeming to get flustered and Mario looking a little impatient, although the pair seemed to have the dishes they would do divided up already. It looked like things started out very smoothly for Bobby and Giada, on the other hand, who both appeared focused. As time wore on, however, Rachael adapted more and more to the kitchen and the pressure of the time began to affect Giada's performance. Bobby did his usual good work, but unfortunately, the judges weren't as impressed with Giada's plates as they were with Rachael's -- although it probably didn't hurt that Mario bribed them all with cranberry Bellini's halfway through the competition!
From the fact that both women seemed a bit stressed out at the end of the cooking period, it seems as though neither would be eager to return to the stadium. If the Food Network is thinking of doing another All-Star battle, however, how about Ina Garten vs. Paula Deen?
At the beginning of the year, we mentioned that a special celebrity chef episode of Iron Chef America would be airing in fall and it looks like the week has finally arrived! This Sunday's episode of Iron Chef America will feature both Rachael Ray and Giada de Laurentiis, pairing Rachael with Mario Batali and Giada with Bobby Flay, in what is sure to be an interesting showdown, to say the least.
Who will win the battle of food network personalities? Rachael is primarily self taught and most of her cooking experience comes from actually teaching others to cook, aside from a stint as the chef at Cowan & Lobel market in Albany, New York. Giada, on the other hand, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked at several well-known restaurants, including Spago in Los Angeles, before starting a catering company. This isn't to say that all professionally trained chefs will do better than home schooled ones, but it is the really high-end, innovative dishes that "wow" the judges on ICA and it seems like Giada would be more likely to turn them out than Rachael. Bobby and Mario will have a big part in this two, of course, so based on previous episodes and the personalities of all four "Food Network All-Star" participants, I'm rooting for Bobby's team.
I don't normally get my food news from men's mags, but it's not that often that they include chefs amidst the models, either.
Cat Cora is one of the Food Network's Iron Chefs, a latecomer to that show after its first season started to add a bit of gender equality. A talented chef from the South, the 39-year-old specializes in Greek and Mediterranean foods, though she's not above throwing some old fashioned soul food into the mix. She's also not above doing a little grocery shopping at the convenience store, where she picked up some ingredients for FHM's Mini Mart Iron Chef article
With only a few ingredients, she whipped up Jerky Tartar, Ham and Cheese Roulade and Napoleon Krispy Kremes. As much fun as it would be to see Krispy Kremes as the secret ingredient on Iron Chef, none of these recipes would have gotten her a win, so don't expect to be too inspired by the food in the piece and just check it out if you want to check out Cat.
If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area this coming weekend and are looking for something to do besides the usual beach, pool, and shopping, the inaugural Los Angeles Wine and Food Festival will be taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
On the food front, Iron Chef Cat Cora and celebrity chef David Lawrence will be serving up food demonstrations and their favorite cooking tips. Gourmet food vendors will also showcase a diverse sampling of their goods. For the oenophiles, there will be wine tastings from over 100 wineries, including Vinissimo, Stacked Stone Cellars, Cambria Estate Winery, Saint Helena Road Winery, Bridelwood Estate Winery & E'cluse Wines, as well as discussions on the latest wine trends like the recent popularity of Australian wines, the rise of rosé, and boxed wines and screwcap bottles versus traditional corking.
Equal parts Iron Chef and Enter the Dragon, The God of Cookery (the movie's real -- i.e. Cantonese -- title is Sik San) is about a top-dog chef who is revealed as nothing more than a sham by one of his rivals.
Taking a page right out of Rocky III, the God of Cookery -- played by famous Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow -- trains harder than ever and tries to make his comeback in a culinary battle royale.
Comedy, cooking, and kung fu -- what more do you need?
Remember that YouTube clip of the upcoming Iron Chef America game for the Wii that Shayna shared back in March? Well, now we've got more solid details about what faces have made it from the transition between show and game, courtesy of Eater.
Marisa told you a couple of months ago about Dinner: Impossible chef/host Robert Irvine 
According to a little tidbit of info over at the New York Post, chef Mario "Orange Clogs" Batali won't be back at the Food Network. 
Bobby Flay has an impressive list of titles including famed chef, television personality, Iron Chef on the Food Network, and author of several cookbooks. He also runs a 
Not to leave any possible stone unturned, it seems that the Food Network has plans to expand their reality television horizons this fall as they conduct a search for 
Long before 
Warning: The post below contains spoilers, so if you TiVo'd last night's "Iron Chef America" and don't want to know who won, I suggest you stop reading now.
I don't normally get my food news from men's mags, but it's 
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