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.” How bogus is it? Well,......

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......

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......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? We’re in the thick of it now on The Next Iron Chef (Sundays at 9pm on the Food Network). The Amateur Gourmet says “Finally, it gets juicy!” and puts his money on Symon or Besh. He also points out that these chefs—with national reputations—have much more to lose than your average reality food show competitor. “It’s not really a laughing matter when your business hinges on your......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? We’re pretty hooked on The Next Iron Chef (Sundays at 9pm on the Food Network. Bourdain likes it too: “I’ve scoured both episodes with increasing frustration, trying to find something bad to say.” He also says “After the humiliating public clusterfuck of Next Food Network Star, it’s nice to see [the Food Network] doing something right.” We agree. Of episode two, in which Chef Davie was eliminated......

Get thee to Flushing -- according to the Times, it's much more than the city's "other Chinatown." Michael Ruhlman discusses this week's episode of the Next Iron Chef and the loss of Chef Davies: "But sad I was to see her go—what a camera friendly smile, and what a buoyant presence generally. I much prefer her to the head sweater, the meat man, or the bald guy with the Neanderthal brow! But for those who......

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......

What’s worth watching on food-relatedTV this week? Tonight on No Reservations--in another repeat--(10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Brazil. ">Martha Stewart has Chef Tom Colicchio on Tuesday making Cornish game hens. The show airs Tuesday through Friday this week at 1pm (NBC). Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares is on Wednesday at 9pm (Fox). This week, Ramsay makes over Seascape in Islip, NY. The LA Times calls the show “noisy and dissident.” All the TV......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: The Next Iron Chef (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Food Network) Alton brown hosts this new reality series which searches for the chef for the next season of Iron Chef America. Life Is Wild (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WPIX 11) A widowed doctor moves his family to South Africa and family friendly programming ensues. Mystery!: Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series 6: Chinese Walls (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13; Tuesday, 9:00......

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. Also in the Times, Peter Meehan visits BarFry for $25......

What’s worth watching on food-related TV this week? Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Shanghai (repeat episode). This week on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (Wednesday at 9pm on Fox, Ramsay makes over the Mixing Bowl Eatery in Bellmore, NY. On Top Chef, part 2 of the two-part season finale airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Rocco’s back as a guest judge, along with Todd English and Michelle Bernstein. The Village......

This week on food-TV, we've got: Tonight on No Reservations (10pm on the Travel Channel), Bourdain goes to Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina. On Top Chef, Episode 11 airs Wednesday at 10pm (Bravo). Chef Jimmy Canora is the guest judge. Frank Bruni blogs about the show in the Times, calls Howie “the season’s best villain, the toque you’d love to choke.” And Bourdain is guest judging again this week as well; says that this episode......

What's worth watching, food-wise, on TV this week? Fox has Episode 8 of Hell's Kitchen on Monday at 9pm. Brad surprisingly got the boot last week; now five contestants remain. Read the latest episode roundup on EW’s TV Watch. This week on Top Chef: Rocco DiSpirito is appearing as a judge! And—allegedly—looking a little more plastic than he used to. Also, check out the proposed rules for next season in the Village Voice: we’re right......

Centro Vinoteca: The owners of Gusto have teamed up with Chef Anne Burrell in this two story corner spot in the West Village. Burell's experience as Batali's Sous Chef on Iron Chef America shines through in her Italian menu. 74 Seventh Avenue South, at Barrow Street, 212-367-7470. 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......

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. April 7: Russell Simmons & Jivamukti Yoga School hold a benefit for Farm Sanctuary, which provides a refuge for farm animals and works to end......

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......

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......

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,......

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. One of the......

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......

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! 7 to 10pm // Riverfawn [11 Harrison St #1] // Free THEATER: Anne Washburn’s The Internationalist begins previews tonight. Originally presented in 2004, it’s about a young American businessman assigned to an unspecified foreign......

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. On day two of the International Chefs Congress, Pierre Hermé was announced as “The God of Pastry.” With many foreign chefs requiring English assistance, only Hermé had award-winning cookbook author Dori Greenspan as his translator, pictured below. With Hermé on stage......

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. After 11 years on the web, StarChefs.com held its inaugural “International Chefs Congress” last week. Gathering chefs from around the globe, the event boasted an impressive line-up including pastry god Pierre Hermé, elBulli’s Albert Adrià, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, NYC chemist-chefs......

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......

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......

Tonight, after a day of rooftops and BBQ...head over to UCB Theater for some indoor BBQ. Sure, it sounds dangerous (that's a pretty confined space!) but that'll make it even that much more fun. And funny. Aziz Ansari's Crash Test show will host the BBQ Battle. He and Paul Scheer (as well as three audience members) will be judging 3 chefs as they bring it to the UCB stage. Don't you worry your little chef......

- Bruni gives Iron Chef Morimoto one star. D'oh! - Two new greenmarkets are being considered for the Upper East Side (remember greenmarkets? They were what we had before Whole Foods and Trader Joe's) - Neighborhood fave Zum Schneider is circulating a petition to prevent it from being evicted -- go sign it so we can keep drinking gi-normous glasses of weisse beer and eating wurst and schnitzel! - Astor Wines' new location has opened......