Before she left West Village restaurant Centro Vinoteca to embrace her new life as a Food Network star, Anne Burrell spent her days toiling in the kitchen, making killer meatball sandwiches, pasta, and offensive insults about the female front-of-house staff, a lawsuit alleges. The suit, filed in March, accuses Burrell of repeatedly harassing employees with offensive slurs, and claims that after they complained to the restaurant's owners, they were terminated. A bartender says Burrell called her a "ho" and told her she had "saggy boobs," while others were constantly called whores by Burrell, who once allegedly told a waitress, "You must be tired today from f--king all night." more ›

Our coverage of that same party mentioned the appearance of Madhur Jaffrey, who, regardless of the fact she’s known more as a food writer than a chef, has taught more people to cook good food than any number of debonair or bad-boy, mustachioed chefs in the city. On the subject of gender and cooking, one of the city’s more prominent female chefs—Anne Burrell— had just opened Centro Vinoteca in 2007 when we interviewed her, and she weighed in on the subject of women chefs:

[T]here’s been this whole big thing about female chefs, and I don’t really know why. I’m a girl, and I’m a cook- I just like to cook, and I don’t like to worry about the distinctions. We’re just supposed to make good food.

In the year 2009, omelettes and their cheesy fillings will be delivered in vaporized streams emanating from subway grates like lasers; hickory bacon vapor will only be available through the Astor 6 subway grate closest to Starbucks. Pastrami sandwiches from Katz's will travel through the city's long-abandoned pneumatic tube system to old police call boxes. more ›

Anne Burrell has "parted amicably" with trendy West Village wine bar/Italian restaurant Centro Vinoteca. As reported earlier, Burrell has been keeping herself extremely busy as of late, primarily with her new Food Network series, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, which has 13 new episodes coming up. Her appearance on the show (and ostensibly as Mario Batali's sous-chef on Iron Chef America) had also postponed her scheduled start date at Gusto, which was supposed to take place in June. more ›

Food Network fans are no stranger to Anne Burrell, whom they know as the spiky-haired blonde sous-chef to Mario Batali's Iron Chef. Now they will get to know her more intimately as the star of her own upcoming show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, where she'll take her years of restaurant experience and culinary expertise and distill them into practical techniques for home cooks to work with in their own kitchens. more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Centro Vinoteca. Says of chef Anne Burrell “The woman can fry,” and you’ll be happy with your food provided you choose anything fried, especially those items on the piccolini (small plates) menu. The rest is erractic: “Both on and off the plate, Centro can elate and deflate you.” more ›

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Wakiya in the Gramercy Park Hotel, gives it no stars. “There’s a crushing sense of letdown” in the restaurant, he says, and “the slickness of the red and black setting and the poise of the best servers are undercut by dishes that too often look three times as good as they taste.” He likes the desserts, though. more ›

Anne Burrell has barely gotten any sleep in the last month. Almost all of her time has gone into the opening of the new West Village restaurant Centro Vinoteca. Its small, trench-style kitchen features a pass window that looks out onto the bar area; the dining room itself is spread out over two levels with about 75 seats total. 1960’s era Italian glass chandeliers hang over the tables (“They make me think of Lite-Brite,” says Burrell). A good amount of early press for the restaurant has been about its piccolini, or small plates menu, which features items like Fried Cauliflower Wedges with Parmigiano Crust and Agliata ($6), and Stir-Fried Marinated Olives ($3). Entrees range from $19 to $36. more ›

Omido: Designed by Avroko (who did Public, among others), this high-end sushi restaurant brings a bit of luxury to midtown West with touches like foie gras and gold leaf among the raw fish. 1695 Broadway at 53rd Street, 212-247-8110. more ›

- Ed Levine has a short round up of the Il Buco annual pig roast; looks like it should be on the calendar next year. more ›

- As early subscribers to their email dispatches, we really enjoy the work done by our -ist based cousins at Thrillist. After today’s article in the NY Daily News about their “48 legit destinations, each serving 'til at least 3am on weekends”, we are inclined to love’em more. more ›