Results tagged “tedallen”

This month's Bon Appetit features this year's winners of the Bon Appetit awards, which honor leaders in the culinary field. The intimate awards ceremony took place at Del Posto earlier this week, where current and prior winners dined on a seasonal Italian tasting menu created specifically for the occasion. The awards presentations were held between courses, hosted by Ted Allen, who did his best to entertain the crowd.

On Wednesday night's episode of Top Chef, judge Ted Allen (pictured here with Padma Lakshmi) attributed the birthplace of the Waldorf Salad to somewhere in "middle America," an error that raised the eyebrows of foodies who know the salad's true inventor: Oscar Tschirky, who created it in the late 19th century while working at New York City's Waldorf Hotel (precursor to the Waldorf-Astoria).

The following open letter from The Ghost of Oscar Tschirky does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Gothamist. We would like a plate of Waldorf Salad now, though.

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

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

During our soiree with Ted Allen, we were introduced to some of the delicious tapenades at O & Co. In our goody bag from the event, we scored some of the green olive tapenade with pistachios that we had sampled earlier in the evening. Now this was no ordinary tapenade -- the two tapenades we sampled that evening were custom made for O & Co. by chefs fom Michelin-starred restaurants. Now O & Co. is selling one of the tapenades we had, plus 5 others:

It's easy to bring out your inner sommelier -- just step outside. At our doorstep are some of the finest ingredients just begging to be matched with wine. A stroll down Bleecker Street with Ted Allen, the food and wine expert from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (pictured at right tasting the pulp of a cacao pod for the first time) showed us how simple it was to create elegant and seemingly fancy pairings without even having to turn on your stove (or even your microwave). Turns out the key to a great pairing is picking high quality ingredients and highlighting what makes them special. For example, if the food is only made in a specific area, pick a wine from that area; if it has a citrus accent, select a wine with a crisp acidity. A great paring highlights the unique attributes of both the food and the wine. On this particular evening, all wines were provided by Robert Mondavi's Private Selection.