Results tagged “amateurgourmet”

This week in the Times, Bruni three-stars Le Cirque, bumping the restaurant's rating up from the two stars he awarded it in 2006. Executive chef Christophe Bellanca’s menu “nimbly straddles the line between predictable decadence… and creative flair,” he says. He also says that you’ll pay—a lot—for what you get, and that Le Cirque isn’t quite as reliable as other three star restaurants.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Shorty’s.32 and Smith’s, awards each restaurant one star. Says that at both, “Skill, standards and a few well-chosen grace notes lift what might otherwise be favored neighborhood charmers into a slightly loftier league.” Loves the chicken and all side dishes at Shorty’s, though says the chef is “overly fond of wet fish and wet food.” Um, yuck. At Smith’s, says the lamb and lobster are the way to go.

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost...

Bon Appétit , in an attempt to appeal to a broader, younger, and theoretically "hipper" audience, has recently revamped its logo. Taunting came in full force, via Grub Street, who concluded, "[t]he truth is that Bon Appétit will never be any hipper or friskier than it is, because no magazine about upscale entertaining can ever speak to people that don’t have big houses and plenty of time on their hands." Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet,...

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Martha Stewart’s got a great line-up of guests this week: Jamie Oliver on Monday, making roast beef and carrot cake; Mario Batali appears on Tuesday, making pumpkin lune (little moon) pasta; and David Chang is on Thursday. And Keri Russell, who is not a chef but played a pie-making wizard in the movie Waitress, appears on Wednesday (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). Also on this week: On Wednesday, Gordon Ramsay...

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week?

A confession. In general, we’re not big Food Network Fans. We do make an exception for Iron Chef (it always sucks us in), and we love it’s latest incarnation. Last week on the premiere of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network, Chef Traci Des Jardins got the ax, brought down by her salmon roe dessert (ick). Read the Amateur Gourmet's unique and often hilarious take on things on his blog on the Next Iron Chef site (“We all know the whole Iron Chef universe is a fabrication, right? That the chairman is an actor? What? You didn’t know that?”). Judge Michael Ruhlman is happy with episode one; says the kitchen was so hot during filming that one of the chefs had to be hospitalized afterwards for dehydration.

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week?

• On a hunt for the best mac and cheese in the city? See if you can make your way through this list. Enjoy the food coma afterwards and ponder the origin of the word "marconus".
• Texas barbecue shrine Hill Country now delivers. Amen.
• Adam Roberts, a.k.a. The Amateur Gourmet, has made the blog-to-book leap, with How to Shop, Chop, and Table Hop Like a Pro (Almost), and is parading around the internets on a virtual book tour.

- Ever wonder why the produce in Chinatown is so cheap? NPR lets us in on the secret.

January 13: Seasonal Game Cooking Class

If you're serious about eating, you should check out the latest addition to the food blog/community scene, Serious Eats. The brainchild of Ed Levine, of Ed Levine Eats and author of New York Eats, the site bills itself as "the first website for serious eaters" with the goal in mind "to provide the best, most satisfying food- and drink-related experience on the internet." Ed is joined by other illustrious food bloggers, including Adam Kuban of Slice and A Hamburger Today, Meg Hourihan of Megnut, Adam Roberts of The Amateur Gourmet, the gang at Roadfood.com and Alaina Browne of A Full Belly. We want to extend our congratulations to the Serious Eats team on the launch of their new venture -- go check out the stories, videos, and even photo cartoons, and let us know what you think!

- In honor of last weeks Day Without Food Blogs, we offer some food blogs whose names we like:

We had a lunch date down at Lucky Strike yesterday, but unfortunately, they were closed for renovations. Instead, we went across the street to Felix, a bistro on the corner of Grand and West Broadway. BIG MISTAKE. No one told us, but Felix is the home of the most polluted glass of water in lower Manhattan. The picture above shows the second glass we received after sending back the first round-- note the grime and unsettlingly large pieces of crud floating in the glass. If only we had known what Citysearch said about the place before we set out:

Eurotrash's slam and later parody of Hesser, Felix Salmon on Hessergate, and Amateur Gourmet's Moderate Defense of Amanda Hesser. Gothamist on Masa's chef, Masa Takayama, and his strict ways. And Gothamist on Amanda Hesser.