"todd english" news and stories

Where do pro linebackers and pro chefs on the line meet? At the Taste of the NFL event, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary of cooking up a dinner of regional specialties, talking football, and raising funds for hunger-relief organizations. (So far, "Taste" has given local and national food banks more than $10 million.) This year's bash, to be held on February 5th, at the Forth Worth Convention Center, features chefs and players who have been with Taste of the NFL from the very beginning: "Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio (above left), Olives' Todd English (above right) and "father of southwestern cuisine" and James Beard Award winner Stephan Pyles, among them.

Players like Hall of Famers Floyd Little (Denver Broncos), Bobby Mitchell (Cleveland Browns) and Jan Stenerud (Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings) have also been with Taste of the NFL since its first dinner in 1992, and will join the inaugural chefs to kick off the party.

Plus, there will be 32 more chefs at the event, one from each of the NFL cities, along with a player rep. Each chef will cook up signature dishes, and the players will chip in. Let's hope Chef Tom doesn't make this into a Quickfire event. Would you want to run up against the former Eagles' offensive tackle Jerry Sisemore in the walk-in, and fight over the last rib?

For ticket information and more details, visit TasteoftheNFL.com.

Perhaps the reason Todd English's newest restaurant, Ça Va, got such a poor review in the New York Times this week is because the celebrity chef is spending his artistic efforts outside the kitchen.

He fronted a band a few nights ago at The Bitter End, a nightclub in Greenwich Village. The band has played in public a few times, but English has been very low key about his fledgling music career. Asked for information about upcoming appearances or whether there is an album in the works, his spokesperson said she had no comment. At the gig, the audience appeared to enjoy the music, bobbing their heads with the beat.

In this exclusive installment of the "Behind the Apron," Chef Todd English opens up about a difficult personal issue, which drew headlines. In October 2009, reportedly on the day that had been scheduled for his wedding, Todd broke things off in a long-distance telephone call with his fiancée Erica Wang, leaving her to deal with the invited guests and resultant turmoil.

For months Todd has kept his silence on the subject, but in this interview he discusses his reputation as a "playboy," how the troubling incident has led to introspection on his part, and whether or not the difficult publicity hurts his brand as a restaurateur.

Related: Touring the New Food Hall with Todd English

Back in May, we reported the opening of The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English in NYC, and recently Allen Salkin had the opportunity to tour the Hall with English himself. Get an up-close-and-personal look at the Hall's many stations, including a cheese section, The Ocean Grill fish grill, and a dumpling bar at which English's chefs will be experimenting with a variety of Asian cuisines.

Related: Todd English on Life After Fiancee Erica Wang (EXCLUSIVE)

"Behind The Apron," is a video series featuring news-breaking conversations between the journalist Allen Salkin and the biggest names in the culinary world. The series goes beyond the plate and into the lives of those in the food world who have become mainstream cultural icons. In a turnaround from his TV role as head judge on Top Chef, Tom Colicchio talks about his struggle to rise to the expectations of judges at the James Beard Foundation; Jose Andres gets political; and Jacques Pepin laughs about the social ascendance of chefs over the past two decades from blue collar workers into "geniuses." Much more is to come in this groundbreaking series.

To the owners of the Plaza hotel, Todd English is worth more than a washing machine.

Miki Naftali, the chief executive of the Elad Group (the owners of the Plaza Hotel on the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan), admitted as much during a preview opening of English's new Food Hall in an underground space at the hotel.
As guests tucked into prime-rib sliders, cumin-seared prawns and English's haute version of the Ring Ding in the warmly-lit and high-ceilinged space, Naftali said that when his group took over the hotel in 2004, the space was a dank and decrepit laundry room.

Now, about $4 million later and with the help of architectural designer Jeffrey Beers, it boasts stations doling out dumplings, oysters, sushi, salads, steaks and desserts. The former laundry room now dubbed "The Plaza Food Hall by Todd English" has 80 seats total, but no tables, just bar seats where diners can interact with cooks.

And the hotel has outsourced almost all of its dirty laundry. "There is no reason to do laundry in one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in New York," Naftali said.