"tv show" news and stories

Tomorrow night on Top Chef, Gail Simmons has a special surprise for the Chef'testants. She's throwing her girlfriend a bridal shower and they are cooking!

Creating a menu around the old maxim:

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

... should be no trouble for the teams (Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue ... where's Sixpence?).

The only problem is, some of them don't look too excited to be Gail Simmons' personal chefs. Isn't this supposed to be a competition, not a service?

The episode airs tomorrow night, Wednesday, December 10th, at 10/9c on Bravo with guest judge Dana Cowin, Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine Magazine.

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Roasted chicken with fried yucca root was the obvious winner for judges at the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe: Chicken Showdown (just so we're clear, the contestants were battling it out, not the chickens). Grand Prize Winner Amparo Alam of Syracuse, Utah, swept the competition, winning 99 out of a possible 100 points for her original dish.

The recipe, listed here, uses ajies (Peruvian chilies) and huacatay (a Peruvian herb) to enhance the flavors of both the bird and the veggie.

Other category winners included Eboni Williams' Battered Chicken Wings with Pomegranate and Mango BBQ Sauce and Lauren Wyler's Chicken, Tasso, and Andouille Gumbo.

What do you think? Do these recipes sound good to you? Or could you do better? Put your money where your mouth is and submit your recipe by March 31 for the next competition.

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The Food Network loves Paula Deen and they are about to do what they always do with their favorite stars -Rachael Ray, Emeril, Bobby Flay, Alton Brown - and give her a new show. Paula's Cooking Party is an hour-long prime time show staring Paula, a kitchen and a live studio audience. The network describes it as a "non-stop rollercoaster of food, fun, stories, recipes and surprises" and it will have far less emphasis on straight cooking instruction, which her current show is based around. Well, that and butter, anyway.

Deen, 59, just recently became a grandmother, so it is something of a surprise that the network is opting to promote her when they have been trying to attract a younger audience. Granted, Paula's show and her specials have attracted the some of the largest tv audiences on the network, but is "Paula unplugged" going to attract viewers? And when one of the early episodes featured Paula "trying on a young audience member's stilettos, telling jokes and staging a live crab race," will it keep viewers accustomed to seeing her cook satisfied?

The show premiers September 29th, so we'll just have to wait until then to find out.

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Top Chef has but two episodes left to go this season, if you count the "reunion show" next week along with the Las Vegas finale on May 17th. This week's episode was all about luxury and being able to showcase ingredients. It is unfortunate that Stephen was eliminated last week because he probably would have done very well in the elimination competition.

First up was the quickfire challenge, after the show took the viewers though a quick tour of the household dynamics to point out that no one really likes Tiffani very much. For the challenge, a table bearing plates of junk food - from corn dogs to ding dongs - was presented to the chefs. There was a moment where they all looked crestfallen, sick of having to cook with such unwelcome ingredients. Fortunately for the chefs, however, the task was to reinvent the junk food as a gourmet food and they had 45 minutes to do it.

 

With the endearing name of Chocolate Cherry Chip Bada Bing!, the hit HBO show, the Sopranos, has its own ice cream flavor. The ice cream sandwiches are made up of two large chocolate chip cookies with a cherry flavored ice cream in between. The sides of the sandwich are rolled in chocolate chips.

Strangely, CoolBrands International, which released the ice cream, trademarked the name several years ago. When HBO began to hint around that they were looking to expand the Soprano's brand, the coincidence of the frozen novelty sharing the name of Tony Soprano's strip club was too great to overlook and HBO signed up. Product placement and a small percent of the profits are rumored to be part of the deal.

Currently, the sandwiches only seem to be available in the New York tri-state area. where they retail for $$4.29-$4.89

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