TV Chefs Blog is where we cover the celebrity chefs and cooking personalities: the news they make, the new products they sell, the restaurants they're opening. We also review the television cooking and food shows. We report on the more famous food authors and their new cookbooks too. If it has to do with eating it, making it and the star cooks who do it, it's here.
Pack Your Knives and … Enter.Broadcasting & Cable has the scoop on the mega-blitz Bravo is launching to capitalize on all things Top Chef:
Bravo Media is striking new partnerships to sell everything from cruises to cookbooks tied to its shows, in an effort to take its brand name beyond television. The deals, which include a Top Chef cruise, calendar and cooking class. For “Chef”, the network will launch a 20-city mobile tour with an 18-wheel semi-truck branded with show graphics and staffed with former contestants. The truck makes its first appearance at the upcoming NCTA cable show in New Orleans. Separately, Bravo has paired with Jazz Cruises for a Top Chef cruise in May 2009. The boat will hit Mediterranean cities, with former contestants presenting how food is made in each one.
Bravo has also paired with the Culinary Institute of America on Top Chef-branded classes, and with Rizzoli to create “Top Chef: The 2009 Calendar” with fan-favorite chefs and a monthly cooking challenge. A Top Chef cookbook published by Chronicle Books has sold more than 65,000 copies since launching this spring and has been in the top 10 cookbooks on Amazon.com. It is also selling well at Costco, Target and other retailers, and has been ordered for a reprint. Separately, the network has paired with Calphalon to package the book with cookware at retail outlets.
Amadeus, Amadeus. That’s right TMZ broke this one. And man someone is going to get pucked up big time. Seems that down the street for Wolfgang Puck’s Spago, someone has opened up a restaurant called Wolfgan’s Steakhouse. Thing is, yes, Wolfgang does have a chain of steakhouses and they are called Cut, but folks certainly do (search Google if you don’t believe me) often call them Wolfgang’s Steakhouse. According to TMZ: “The most common reaction is, ‘It says Wolfgang’s Steakhouse and you are Wolfgang.’ […] The lawsuit claims trademark infringement and unfair competition. Wolfie wants an injunction.
Robin Uncorks Vegas. I’ve commented before how Robin Leach’s Luxe Life blog is the most amazing chronicle of everything-Vegas any where. Check out today’s for a textural and photographic wrap-up of last week’s Vegas Uncorked F&WF. Yeah we did a good job telling you what to expect, now go to Robin’s and find out how it actually went off.
Seems the Food Network is just rolling out new shows left and right lately. Seems too they’re finding talented cooks/hosts as well. There seems to be a bit of irony in the fact that last years Next Food Network Star produced, in my opinion at least, a dud of a winner Sorry Amy, but to me you and your food were both uninspired. Yet the new shows and the cooks that host them that have come out of left field since that time — Ingrid, Neelys, Sunny — have all been winnners. Let’s see if Mary Nolan can make it four in a row.
First off, just who is she? From Food Network: Born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, Mary Nolan was inspired by a creative and food-loving family who exposed her to hands-on epicurean adventures including working on her grandparents’ rural farms, preparing meals, and culinary-focused vacations. While studying journalism at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mary enrolled in nutrition and food science courses and began catering bridal showers and parties. Spending a semester in Italy provided yet another source of inspiration for Mary’s cooking. After graduating from college, Mary moved to New York City to become an assistant at premier culinary magazine, Gourmet where she eventually became an advertising copywriter. Dedicated to sharing her fresh perspective and passion for accessibly chic entertaining, Mary is currently attending The Institute of Culinary Education.
As for the show, it’s described as this: Whether it’s a ladies-only soiree, a posh picnic, or big movie night, Mary Nolan proves that successful entertaining results from mouth-watering menus and stylish, welcoming atmospheres. Her exciting twists on the traditional create entertaining delights like Stilton-Stuffed Dates, Sweet and Smoky Popcorn, and Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting. Whether highlighting her practical approach to using local produce, showcasing a single splurge ingredient, or impressing guests with a unique flea-market find, she always offers crowd-pleasing and affordable solutions to make memorable entertaining Chic & Easy.
To be honest, my gut feeling here is … I dunno. I’m just not personally a big of fan of the Sandra Lee meets Martha Stewart meets “Party Girl” thing of turning a lamp O-ring into a napkin something, a carved watermelon into a planter or any of that stuff. And while I’m not totally sure this show is or isn’t going that way, it seems they might. Two things though, if this show does go that way, I’m cool enough to say that there aren’t enough of these kind of shows on for the folks who do get a kick from them. And the second thing is, again, it might not go this way afterall, not fully. Like you, I’ll have to take a peek and find out.
Chic and Easy debuts Sunday, May 18th at 10:30am Eastern.
Sometimes you gotta wonder what the problem is with Gordon Ramsay. Does he open his mouth and spew out stuff and then think about it? Does he do things knowing he’s going to look like an idiot afterwards? Even if his own house were in order and if he indeed really did mean things from the heart, just who does he think he is to try and get legislative fines introduced for anything?
Yes, Gordon Ramsay shot his mouth off on Friday and now, with the weekend having passed and critics having gathered, they’re firing back. Looking at things as they are at the moment, Ramsay has managed to anger every United Kingdom cook and chef who wasn’t already annoyed by him.
You see, his general message was rather well-intended. Um, we think. From Friday’s Telegraph, Ramsay was saying that
the industry [is] at risk of “spiralling out of control” as food is flown into the UK from all over the world. Ramsay, whose restaurants include Maze, Petrus and Foxtrot Oscar, said chefs should be confident enough to remove a dish from the menu if the right ingredients were not available.
He said: “Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on their menu.” “I don’t want to see asparagus in the middle of December, I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown.
This is where a decent thought turned into draconian craziness though:
There should be stringent laws, fines and licensing laws to make sure produce is only used in season. If we get this legislation pushed through the Houses of Parliament then the more unique this country will become.”
Ramsay said he had spoken to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly about the issue and warned that buying food from abroad made cooks lazy. “If we don’t restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control,” he told the BBC.
It didn’t take long for the country’s cooks and chefs and media to retaliate. From Saturday’s Telegragh came:
But Ramsay was accused of hypocrisy after it emerged that more than 15 unseasonal ingredients – including blackberries, parsnips and fennel – are currently being served at his own restaurants and would fall foul of a fine. [….]
Anthony Worrall Thompson, a television chef, was also circumspect: “I trawled through his menus from Claridges and Maze and there were at least 15 items that would have warranted a fine,” he said. “The principle is right but as for fining, I think it is a bit of a nonsense – he likes to keep in the limelight.”
It’s the Guardian’s comments section that Interneters are having the most fun pointing our Ramsay’s own restaurant flaws though:
Poster benbush wrote: “Leaving aside steak flown in from Japan and the USA (bring it on), the raspberries in the quail salad are maybe a little early? And which red fruits are in the Eton mess exactly. Presumably Padron peppers wouldn’t be shipped in from Padron would they? And all those apples they’re using must have been keeping well … What a chump.”
HowardV followed up with: “I heard the story on the radio this morning and immediately thought, ‘Oh no, Gordon again.’”
As today is Mother’s Day where better to go for a delicious and appropriate article than Epicurious …
That’s right recipes for Jamie Oliver’s mum’s Rhubarb Daisy Cake, Spain’s Jose Andres‘ delicious Beef with Cabrales “Mama Marisa”. Anthony Bourdain’s mom never taught him to eat those strange things, she taught him good stuff like Coquilles St.-Jacques. And there’s more, again just click the article link above.
And while we’re talking about Mom’s, there’s some good cookbooks out there that follow this line of thinking, such as: Behind Every Great Chef, There’s A Mom - More Than 125 Treasured Recipes From The Mothers Of Our Top Chefs which includes, Art Smith’s mom’s Pear and Cranberry Cobbler, Sara Moulton’s mom’s Meatball Stroganoff, Nigella Lawson’s mother’s Italian Sausages with Lentils, and Jacques Pepin’s mother’s Potato Lace to name just a few.
You’ll recall on April 23rd we spilled the beans about Paula Deen getting a syndicated talk/lifestyle television show (off Food Network, on to one of the major networks, a la Rachael Ray) sometime next year.
Today we find this video on You Tube someone just uploaded. It’s taken from a very recent Paula’s Party taping and you can tell whoever took the video is in the control panel area. In it, Paul announces to her cooking show audience not only the show but the date: September 2009.
Tomorrow, want some non-primetime Iron Chef meets Top Chef? How about a bunch of your favorite tv cooks on the tube together in one place? Then Friday’s ‘Oprah’ is a don’t miss.
From Tyler Florence’s own site: “Cheer on Food Network’s own Tyler Florence and Ingrid Hoffmann as they face off in the first-ever Oprah’s Sandwich Showdown on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ Together with TLC’s [Take Home Chef] Curtis Stone, each celebrity chef is paired with an Oprah viewer (and die-hard fan) to see who can cook up the best sandwich. Watch as the teams develop delicious recipes while working against the clock, and then…the moment of truth as Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi declares a winner with the help of her fellow taste-testers Oprah and Gayle King.
