Results tagged “ironchef”

    

Last night Gourmet magazine held a big party at the soon-to-open Shang, a new restaurant helmed by the acclaimed, formerly Toronto-based chef Susur Lee. In an uncharacteristically non-restaurant world domineering move, Lee closed his Toronto flagship restaurant (called Susur) in May in order to concentrate fully on his New York opening. Shang, which means growing upwards, will open next month.

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.

About a year ago, Village Voice restaurant critic Robert Sietsema attended a taping of Iron Chef America at the Food Network's Chelsea studios. Thanks to a friend's invite, the Food Network had no idea he was watching and waiting to blow the cover off the whole phony operation once the episode finally aired. Now Sietsema is here to report that the series is “more bogus than even I had imagined.”

MOVIE: Every national election year reminds us of that part in The Dark Crystal where the hideous Skeksis systematically drain the Gelfling’s “essence” and drink it to increase their power. If you don’t know the scene we’re talking about, you need to go see it on the big screen tonight – a regular-sized TV monitor just doesn’t do Jim Henson’s creepy masterpiece justice. The one-night-only screening will be introduced by one of the film’s puppet makers, Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim. She’ll be joined by Robbie Barnett, who operated some of the main Skeksis; the pair will sign merch after the screening.

You might have had a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style on your desk in high school or college. It was your go-to reference book whenever you forgot (yet again) where you should stick that damned apostrophe. Michael Ruhlman, food writer, trained chef, and most recently, judge on the Food Network's Next Iron Chef, has created his go-to reference guide for the kitchen, The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for...

The New Oxford American Dictionary has selected "locavore" as its 2007 word of the year. According to the OUP blog, "The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation." Locavore beat out...

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Next Sunday is the finale of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network). Michael Ruhlman has a comment from Chef Chris Cosentino on his blog about the airplane episode—he was clearly getting crowded by cameras, but for him the crowding was to the degree that he couldn’t work, and he wanted to clarify that fact “now that 1/2 the country thinks i am an asshole.”...

If you’ve got a sweet tooth and a couple hundred bucks to blow, you’ll want to mark your calendar for Friday November 16th, when the Food Network throws New York’s “largest dessert party ever.” Called Sweet, the event will unleash a massive tsunami of temptations from some of NewYork’s top pastry chefs, confectioners, cheese makers, bakers and chocolatiers. To wash it all down there’ll be a wide selection of champagne and wine, including samples from Sopranos star Lorraine Bracco’s Italian wine company, Bracco Wines. (Dr. Melfi herself will be on hand to talk through your feelings about her wines.)

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

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

Got a tidbit for us? Send it to the feedbag.

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-relatedTV this week?

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television:

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.

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

This week on food-TV, we've got:

What's worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week?

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.

April 5: Italian Festa to celebrate the paperback publication of George deStefano's An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America. A reading and signing, followed by a Sicilian wine tasting, with antipasti served. Free. Hunters Point Wines and Spirits, 47-07 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens.

Reader Stanley sent us this photograph of what he described as a "low key PETA protest" from the other day. Two PETA demonstrators were protesting an Iron Chef America outside of Chelsea Market, where the show films. An episode of the cooking showdown featured a lobster challenge - Morimoto vs. Eme from Season 3. But the protest may have had an unintended effect: Stanley tells us that he was inspired enough to buy a lobster bisque at Hale & Hearty.

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."

Mario Batali, Iron Chef, TV personality, cookbook author, and restaurateur sat down with us at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria in Greenwich Village to discuss his latest philanthropic project -- a cookbook with recipes from celebrities, including the likes of Kristen Davis, Ashley Judd, and Harrison Ford. Mario paired up with fellow Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis to edit the recipes. The cookbook is free and available online at CelebrityPastaLovers.com. Each time the book is downloaded, Barilla pasta will donate $1 to America’s Second Harvest, or one of its local branches, up to $100,000

Where can you taste dishes from Bobby Flay, Lidia Bastianich, Dan Barber, Tom Valenti, Joey Campanaro and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto all under one roof? At New York Magazine's annual Taste of New York, a fundraiser for City Harvest. The cocktails (from some of the city's best: Pegu Club, Flatiron Lounge, and Little Branch) were flowing and the crowd was on a mission to taste everything these chefs could dish out.

Tofu is like chopped liver in the world of haute cuisine—overlooked and undervalued. A handful of restaurants are challenging that attitude though by presenting dishes with tofu front and center. A few even take the next step and make tofu from scratch. At En Japanese Brasserie in the West Village, the menu makes a big deal over the homemade tofu, listing the timeslots that the kitchen makes up a batch each evening. It may seem like a silly touch, but on the other hand, you’d wait for a risotto or a soufflé, wouldn’t you? The white stuff here is surprisingly rich; you’d swear it’s laced with cream. You can order it warm or chilled ($7), but warm is better. And douse it liberally with the flavorful dashi broth on the side. You’ll be tempted to slurp the last morsel from the bowl. It only makes sense that tofu would be a signature dish at Morimoto, the latest restaurant created by the eponymous Iron Chef. Everything here is glimmering white; walking in feels like entering Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. The menu’s Yose Dofu ($16) is prepared tableside with the kind of panache you used to find only in fancy French places. The waiter sets down an earthenware vessel of warm soy milk, pours in a little salt mixture, and uses a little paddle to slowly stir in a most mesmerizing way. The pot is then covered and you’re instructed not to peek. Ten minutes later, ta-da—a solid pristine block of tofu. The accompanying sauce varies seasonally and recently included octopus and mushrooms. This represents a key principle in bean curd enjoyment: Tofu doesn’t have to be a strictly vegetarian food. In fact it’s most interesting when combined with meat or fish. Its allure (especially with soft tofu) is more in its texture than its taste.

ART: Local artist Jen Dunlap is having an art show tonight. It's called Yeep! Yeep!, so it's sure to be fun. Check out her work here, then head over there to see it all up close, while enjoying some free drinks!

Gothamist's Star Chefs report is brought to us by Regina Varolli, a Manhattan-based freelance writer. Though most of her private clients are in DC, she lives here because the food is better, in general.

Gothamist's Star Chefs report is brought to us by Regina Varolli, a Manhattan-based freelance writer. Though most of her private clients are in DC, she lives here because the food is better, in general.

Foodies attack the silver screen! In today's Times Arts & Leisure section, the long history and current feast of food in film is given another look. Would there have even been a Big Night if not for the food? In the coming months, Russell Crowe, the first person we think of when the phrase "good taste" coming up, will star as a man who inherits a vineyard and Nora Ephron is working on an adaptation of Julie & Julia, the Julie Powell book that came from her blog. Fast Food Nation has been filmed, too, and, there will be acompetitive eating movie, All You Can Eat, to add some low-to-middle-brow enjoyment to all the wineries and roux.

PARTY: Disorient & Kostume Kult invite you to The Black & Light Ball; a Black-Lit Burner Formal. It's like a rave, in your dorm room...but in a gallery, with a lot more blacklighting than you could afford in college. With lighting art on display and blacklight flooding the space - we think it's okay if, just this once, you wear your sunglasses at night. Much more art, craziness and music (er, of the "techno" and "house" variety) will be a backdrop to the ball, a summer fundraiser. There will also be a blacklight sensitive fashion show by PHil's PHads and Caitlin Stolley at 10 pm.