Chef Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago appeared alongside the Foo Fighters on last night’s Thanksgiving themed Top Chef New York episode (which was actually filmed last summer). Reached last night by telephone, Achatz himself was settling in for Thanksgiving Eve. Spoiler-free insights below. more ›

Last night at the Astor Center was the Alinea Experience, an event that brought the staff and a few dishes from the Chicago restaurant—named best in the country by Gourmet in 2006—to New York. Stations were set up around the space, each with a different Alinea bite to try. In one room was the restaurant’s “Black Truffle Explosion”: a sort of deep dish ravioli nested in a spoon. It was filled with warm truffle juice and butter; then topped with sliced black truffle, parmesan, and a small bit of romaine. Elsewhere, crispy-chewy dollops of spiced cider meringue filled with apple and foie gras were held up in a basket made of thin wires, a prime example of the restaurant’s unusual serviceware. The meringues looked like halves of a hard-boiled egg, only centered with square yolks. more ›

Another day, another chef panel: Last night at the New York Public Library, the chef Grant Achatz met up with former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold for a talk moderated by Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky. The topic was the experimental and sometimes maligned cooking techniques like the ones practiced by Achatz at his restaurant Alinea and Myhrvold at home in his kitchen/high tech laboratory. more ›

Acclaimed chef Grant Achatz, who recently put out a deluxe cookbook called Alinea (named for his Chicago restaurant), will be making a few NY appearances in the upcoming weeks, most notably a scaled Alinea dinner at the Astor Center on November 6th. At $225 a head, the price is steep, but each guest receives five courses (including ‘hot potato, cold potato;’ above left) from the restaurant, and some crazy-ass Champagne. more ›

Yesterday, chef Grant Achatz of Alinea was slated to deliver a presentation on his eclectic serving implements (the antiplate, tripod, and squid) at the StarChefs ICC. First, however, he had a few words in response to “something that came up with a group of gentlemen,” referring to Anthony Bourdain and English chef Marco Pierre White’s controversial Sunday night panel. more ›

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Maybe it was just the red carpet, but most of the people we spoke to seemed particularly excited about the new digs for the James Beard Foundation Awards, black-tie affair held last night at Avery Fisher Hall to honor some of the country's best chefs, restaurateurs, and culinary professionals. Susan Ungaro, the President of JBF, noted that originally, James Beard had moved to New York to become an opera singer, but had to earn a living until he hit the big time. He started a catering company and the rest, as they say, is history, but she noted that he would have been pretty excited to be up on that stage. more ›

Anthony Bourdain, who has taken to guest-blogging for Michael Ruhlman, has already offered his opinions on Top Chef contestants. Now, he's on to bigger and better targets -- the personalities on the Food Network. He admits to watching it, "I find myself riveted by its awfulness, like watching a multi-car accident in slow motion," and has plenty to say about those who grace its airwaves. Emeril: "I STILL find him unwatchable." Giada: "Food Net seems more interested in her enormous head (big head equals big ratings. Really!) and her cleavage--than the fact that she’s likeable, knows what she’s doing in an Italian kitchen--and makes food you’d actually want to eat." Rachel Ray: "She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that '[e]ven your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!'" Sandra Lee: "Pure evil. This frightening Hell Spawn of Kathie Lee and Betty Crocker seems on a mission to kill her fans, one meal at a time." more ›