It’s Chef’s Week on Martha Stewart

It’s time for another big Martha Stewart cooking week block! Remember as The Martha Stewart Show is syndicated, the channel and times vary by location. (You can find your time and chcannel at the handy Martha finder here, btw.) And if you miss one and forgot to TIVO it, each show is repeated the successive evening on the Fine Living channel at 8pm Eastern. Listings below are for the original first syndicated air dates (so for FL it’s the next day).

Monday: New Orleans restaurateurs Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan prepare two cocktails, sazerac and sidecar; chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson makes an Italian appetizer, frico caldo; Jimmy Bradley makes fried green beans; chef Frank Stitt prepares pickled shrimp; chef Michel Roux prepares a chocolate-raspberry tart.

Tuesday: Chef Jamie Oliver prepares squid linguine; chef Jim Botsacos of NYC’s Molyvos prepares roasted jumbo prawns; chef David Chang of Momofuku demonstrates a simple way to make salt-and-sugar pickles; chef Michelle Bernstein of Michy’s prepares heart-healthy banana-wrapped snapper; and Fabio Trabocchi cooks up grilled pork chops.

Wednesday: Martha prepares pear galette; pastry chefs Emily Luchetti, Pichet Ong, Johnny Iuzzini and Gina DePalma from Babbo prepare recipes for chocolate-caramel bread pudding, rice pudding with jasmine and coconut milk, German sable cookies and panforte.

Thursday: Amish friendship bread; chef Lidia Bastianich prepares a chocolate, hazelnut and orange torte; pastry chefs Beth Pilar and Ellen Sternau make peanut butter and chocolate ice-cream sandwiches; cook Virginia Willis prepares blackberry cobbler.

Friday: Chef Eric Ripert prepares hamachi tandoori; Everyday Baking host John Barricelli prepares single-serving pies filled with sausage and feta cheese; cookbook author Sara Foster provides three quesadilla recipes; and chef Suzanne Goin makes caramelized bread pudding.

The Recipes of the Moms of the Chefs

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.

2008 IACP Cookbook Awards Winners

Back in late March we announced the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2008 book awards finalists. Yesterday in New Orleans, the winners were announced.

Among the familiar names, the double Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto won two awards for his book and Jamie Oliver won best in the general category, plus NY Times Food Columnist Mark Bittman takes home yet another one.

The complete list of winners are:

2008 IACP Cookbook Awards Winners

Cookbook of the Year
Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood by Paul Johnson

American Category
The Pastry Queen Christmas: Big-Hearted Holiday Entertaining, Texas Style by Rebecca Rather, Alison Oresman

Bread, Other Baking and Sweets Category
Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers by Daniel Leader, Lauren Chattman

Chefs and Restaurants Category
Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto

Compilations Category
Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Techniques for the Artisan Confectioner by The Culinary Institute of America and Peter P. Greweling, CMB

First Book: The Julia Child Award
Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto

Food Photography and Styling Category
Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist - Photographer: Melissa Punch

Food Reference/Technical Category
Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman

General Category
Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You A Better Cook by Jamie Oliver

Health and Special Diets Category
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman

International Category
Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf

Literary Food Writing Category
Julia Child by Laura Shapiro

Single Subject Category - Cookbooks that focus on specific foods, cooking methods, techniques or appliances
Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood by Paul Johnson

Wine, Beer or Spirits Category
The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson

Jane Grigson Award (Tie)
Beans: A History by Ken Albala; and
To Cork or Not to Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science and the Battle for the Wine Bottle by George M. Taber

Design Award
Egg published by Flammarion

News Bites: Roker Show in Fall; Jamie Top UK Chef; London Mayor Ramsay ?

We just, I mean literally just the other day posted about ten new food shows coming on the Food Network and wham we found yet another one. This time we found it through the casting call pages. The current working title of the show is Food: True Life and would be on FN via Al Roker Productions, so you can guess who the host of the show might be. From the casting call:

Food Network is looking for amazing food related stories for a groundbreaking new series! (Just so you know, really, this was originally in all caps the entire sentence and had three exclamation points after it. It really did.) Do you or someone you know have an amazing food related story to tell? Do you know someone who has gone from being homeless to the owner of their own restaurant, makes pop art out of pineapples, or eats nothing but peanuts? Do you know someone who is battling food fears or phobias? Has food helped to cure an illness, changed the course of your life, or helped to inspire you in some dramatic way? We are looking for all types of stories even those that are odd or humorous to feature on and upcoming series for the Food Network. Casting is underway, so Email a brief description of your story with your contact information and picture of yourself ASAP to michaelraptis@alroker.com

In other news, “Jamie Oliver has beaten his culinary competition to be named the most iconic British chef of all time.” From the Manchester Evening News:

The 32-year-old TV chef and scourge of the Turkey Twizzler is now a bigger name than chefs of the past, who have changed the way Britons cook, as well as his contemporary rivals. Delia Smith, 66, whose reputation as the nation’s cookery queen began to crumble when she advocated tinned mince and frozen mashed potato in her latest TV series, ranks second in the poll. Gordon Ramsay’s foul-mouthed reputation does not stop the 41-year-old restaurateur and Kitchen Nightmares star from scooping third place.

In case you’re wondering the list when like this: 4. Rick Stein, 5. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, 6. James Martin, 7. Nigella Lawson, 8. Keith Floyd, 9. Nigel Slater, and, 10. Elizabeth David. And if you would like to know who made 11 through 20 and in what order … go read the article.

So Jamie gets the position of “Top Chef”, but it’s Gordon Ramsay who the people want for Mayor of London! A recent poll of who besides the two actual candidates running would Londoners like to see had Ramsay come in at an amazing 31 percent (which is as high or higher than what the real candidates running currently have in the real polls.)

Little Britain star David Walliams came in a distant second, with almost 15 percent of the votes, whilst the former Mrs McCartney, Heather Mills, took the title of ‘Least Desirable Celeb Mayor’ with less than one percent of the vote:

Kate Moss: 4.05%, Kelly Osbourne: 7.05%, Prince Harry: 13.87%, David Walliams: 14.68%, David Beckham: 7.05%, Heather Mills: 0.92%, Madonna: 3.35%, Gordon Ramsay: 31.21%, Hugh Grant: 7.40%, Other: 10.40%

Other celebrities nominated by public: Richard Fairbrass, David Tennant, Katie Price, Stephen Fry, Prince William, Gary Barlow, Mick Jagger, Richard Madeley, Paul McCartney, James Nesbitt, and Jeremy Clarkson.

Delia Smith: UK Cooking Icon — and Rebel — Turning Things on It’s Ear

Ok, so what exactly is going on there in England when it comes to cooking? Basically, as with cooking in other parts of the world, Canada, America, Australia, France … The whole “organic” movement is taking root. Organic and artisan and free-range poultry and local veggies grown in a local farm or your back garden (we see this exemplified by television shows shown in the US such as Chef’s Afield on Public Broadcasting or UK’s own Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home on the Food Network, or the show Manic Organic on one of the Discovery Channels, or this summer’s Emeril Green.

Back to England now, and we’ve seen Jamie who keeps saying use free-range chicken and in every one of his recipes they no longer start off with “two eggs” they always start off with “two organic, free range eggs” and even more than he, chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has wept openly over hens pleading for the nation to stop on several occasions. And between those two chefs alone, well, see my previous post: Thanks to Chefs, UK Food Industry ‘Runs A Fowl’ of Ready Supply.

So with all of this laying down the landscape, giving you the “bead” of the land, world wide to some extent, and really dramatically in England … in steps the woman who is pretty much to England what Julia Child was to America. Consider her the returning elder leader, the matriarch of UK cookery, Delia Smith who does what? Turns everything on it’s ear. Here’s an example I mentioned previously.

Ok, so what’s she done now? Basically while the UK about her is all tuned into the organic, free-range movement and chefs are all pontificating how not to eat tortured animals and such, she’s telling folks how to open a tin of meat and some potato flakes and freaking out the food world there. The Restaurant’s Raymond Blanc (the program known in the US as Last Restaurant Standing has — quoting TV Scoop” “already had a go, saying that he has lost all respect for Delia and feels that she has sold out.”

Or look at this headline in The Times: “Delia Smith has sinned against the foodie priesthood” the article goes on to say:

Delia’s sin in her new book and series is to stray from the organic orthodoxy preached by the priesthood of celebrity chefs. She champions cheap and quick recipes using (the horror!) frozen and tinned food, and has offended the Green and the Good further by insisting that battery chicken is necessary to feed hard-up families.

Here comes the interesting thing though, TV Scoop ponders, is this grand mother of English cooking the only rebel?

Watching the show left me with one major question: Is Delia the only real rebel in cookery? Seriously. Think about it. Jamie Oliver may play the drums and have a camera man who is a little unsteady on his feet, and with that, has gone on his crusades to save us all from Belly’s Gonna Get You … and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has wept openly over hens, soothing their hock burns with his tears… but who is the only one in the maelstrom saying ‘y’know what? Stick your lofty notions, some people can’t cook to save their lives and if taking a few short-cuts is gonna kick-start a love affair with the hob, then here’s the big F.U!’ It’s Delia that’s who.

There isn’t a show on the box that shows people how to start cooking. Ramsay et al are useful for people like me who aren’t afraid to have a go in the kitchen… but if you’re nervous about the difference between flours or how rare a piece of beef can be, then this new Delia show might just be a godsend.