"cooking shows" news and stories

Is Bravo taking a leap into New York's outer boroughs? In an effort to widen its culinary offerings, the cable network is developing a series around Brooklyn-based chef Roblé Ali (pronounced Roh-blay), according to the Hollywood Reporter. The show, Roblé & Co., follows chef Roblé and his crew as they cater events for high-profile clients. Currently a brand ambassador for Stella Artois, Roblé is also the consulting chef at New York's Avenue, a cavernous "gastro-lounge" that opened in Chelsea last summer, serving up grilled-steak paninis, kobe beef sliders, and pretzel-encrusted hot dogs.

After studying at the Culinary Institute of America, chef Roblé did a stint as a sous chef at Abigail Kirsch Catering before starting Roblé & Co. The breakout move sowed the seed for TV -- he shot a pilot around the concept, which combined elements of hip-hop culture within a contemporary cooking setting.

When a colleague mentioned she bought this doll for her niece (who loved it, for the record), we were mesmerized with horror and glee. Barbie has come a long way from the basic townhouse days when we knew her -- now she can be anything from a fashionista to a race car "cutie."

Barbie has apparently become a foodie as well. Her kitchen is fully stocked, and she has all the camera gear needed for a full-on cooking show. To be honest, we think her skirt is questionably short for actual cooking, but that aside she could conceivably pass as a Sandra Lee-Giada hybrid. And yes, we kind of want one for the office . . .

Photo: Stephane De Sakutin, AFP/Getty Images

Hot-headed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is finally waking up from his kitchen nightmare.

The reality show "Kitchen Nightmares" put Ramsay in failing restaurants across America for one week so the tell-it-like-it-is chef can try to turn the struggling businesses around. But the show proved too troublesome for the salty U.K. chef, who says he's through with it.

The foul-mouthed Brit admits the show's title is a little too fitting: "If the restaurants succeed, there's no praise," Ramsay told The Sun. "If they're screwed, we're blamed and get lawyers' letters."

More than two-thirds of the restaurants Ramsay "helped" ending up being sold or shut down, the paper said.

Slashfood attempted to contact the production company, Granada Entertainment, to clarify if both the American and British versions of the "Kitchen Nightmares" are canceled -- our calls were not returned.

[Via The Sun]

The Oakland Outlaws. Photo: The Bay Area Derby Girls

If Brian Boitano's Food Network debut had us a little worried, the mere description of episode two gave us hope: "While hosting a dinner party of an all-girl roller derby team, Brian creates simple yet delicious recipes using bacon." Roller derby and bacon? It's like poetry to our ears.

Sure, the utterly canned social-event premise is still there, and Brian's repertoire is still limited to fussy little canapés and fad martinis (in this case, the dreaded bacontini). But not only did the food this week actually make our mouth water, the host managed to work in a costume change from his former career: a plunging v-necked, rhinestone-covered figure skating unitard. Shame? Brian doesn't know the meaning of the word.

In an episode devoted to pig fat, our host hammed it up, of course, but with nowhere near as many cutaways to him dancing, cackling and performing in animated skits. (If this is the last time he uses a couple of parsley sprigs as false eyelashes, however, that'd be fine by us.)

Brian Boitano is renowned for his 1988 Olympic gold medal in figure skating and infamous for a song from 1999's "South Park" movie. But now the professional skater is working a different arena -- the cooking show.

On Sunday, Boitano makes his Food Network debut with "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Quite possibly one of the campiest cooking shows to hit TV, it follows the Olympian as he makes meals for the likes of a bachelor friend, a handyman, a new mom and roller derby girls, all from the comforts of his real-life kitchen.

Boitano spoke with Slashfood about his cooking-show debut, being a "clean eater," his "South Park" song and the one kitchen gadget he can't live without (Slap Chop anyone?).

Have you always been a cook?
Well, not always. After the Olympics I really started to discover food. I always wanted to eat food, but I never ate food before the Olympics because I was always on a diet, and what I ate wasn't that interesting. Then after I started discovering food and wanting to prepare it, and then discovering different recipes and ways to prepare it -- just by trial and error. So it's like all self-taught, and just having friends over and finding out what they like, and what I like to serve.

So I've always, always loved food. In fact, for my 'up close and personal' in the '88 Olympics, I did a thing where I went to a restaurant and said I wanted to open a restaurant. So I've always wanted to have a restaurant and that kind of thing since I've been 20.