"tyler florence" news and stories

Premiering on the Food Network this Sunday, August 15 is The Great Food Truck Race -- a six episode series that pits seven food trucks against one another, vying for a $50,000 prize. As the food truck trend continues to grow in urban areas across the country, these mobile units will have to travel to locations outside their comfort zone and try to win over a whole new client base, before rolling out to the next stop.

Slashfood spoke with the show's host Tyler Florence (Tyler's Ultimate) about the concept behind The Great Food Truck Race and the economics and cultural impact of food truck culture.

Perfect picnic food that you can assemble yourself and eat out of hand, lettuce wraps are spicy, sprout-filled, foldable salads, which you can make with or without a protein. Blogger B-Tal uses chicken in his riff on a Cooking Light recipe, along with mint leaves, a squeeze of lime juice and a chile-sauce-infused dressing that keeps things fiery. For more texture, you might want to add cellophane noodles, made from mung bean flour.

Crisp up some shrimp for Tyler Florence's version of the lettuce wrap, or add some spiced pork, as in this recipe.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Tyler's ultimate baby food, for the discerning toddler.
• Track the development of a Joe, a cup of Joe, to be exact.
• Skip the brown-bag PB & J for a muffuletta or nine other delectable sandwich options.
• Spring may be on its way out, but lamb is still here, as evidenced by these delicious lamb chops with mint-pistachio pesto.
• A rose by any other name -- test your berry brain skills.
• If you couldn't get into esteemed Eton College, the next best thing is The Eton Mess -- a strawberry dessert.

The Daytime Emmy Award nominees were announced yesterday, with four shows in the "Outstanding Culinary Programming" category: America's Test Kitchen and Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth, both PBS series, followed by two Food Network mainstays: Giada De Laurentiis's Giada at Home and Tyler Florence's Tyler's Ultimate.

In 2009, Giada at Home won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Lifestyle/Culinary Program.

Of the programs nominated, Gourmet's Adventures of Ruth is the new kid on the block, debuting in October 2009. It's also a coup for Gourmet magazine, as the show is one of the last extensions of the brand. The show follows Ruth Reichl's culinary exploits around the world, exploring traditional cuisine with famous actors. Not a bad way to make a living. Besides being Gourmet's former Editor-in-Chief, Reichl has also worked recently as a producer on Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie.

In the "Outstanding Lifestyle/Culinary Host" category, the usual suspects are up for Emmy's: Bobby Flay for Grill It! With Bobby Flay, Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics, Paula Deen for Paula's Best Dishes, Giada De Laurentiis for Giada at Home and Martha Stewart for The Martha Stewart Show.

The Daytime Emmy Awards are scheduled to broadcast live on June 27 via CBS.

For Food Network star Tyler Florence, good things have been coming in threes this year: In addition to launching a third gourmet food shop, he's ambitiously opening not one but three California restaurants, including San Francisco's Wayfare Tavern, Mill Valley's El Paseo and a Napa rotisserie shop, all the while juggling three kids, a new television show and his involvement with Wishbone salad dressings, delivering healthy salad recipes through a series of online cooking demonstration videos.

But Florence, 39, isn't daunted by the challenge, he admitted Tuesday night at a Wishbone-sponsored "Salad Night Live" event in NYC. "We started planting seeds there [for the restaurants] years ago and they're all coming up at the same time. Plus, buying in bulk to get a better price is a financial incentive. We're capable."

Capable indeed. With an impressive culinary background that stems from his start in professional kitchens at age 15, to a flourishing line of successful cookbooks and organic baby food, to his rise to fame as a Food Network chef and host, Florence is as at home in front of the camera -- having recently hosted the Travel Channel's upcoming Food Wars series -- as in his private kitchen. He reminisces back to his culinary start, when the Food Network "had two cameras and that was the whole network... And it was really bad, but I loved every minute of it!"