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.
Here’s the video preview of what’s happening on this week’s episode of The Next Food Network Star on Sunday night at 10pm.
The remaining three finalists shoot scripted promos at iconic Las Vegas locations. Then they meet Season Two winner Guy Fieri and are told to each create a lavish buffet for the ultimate Vegas crowd – entertainers from famous Vegas shows and top Vegas chefs.
Also new and worthy on Sunday night is a new Iron Chef America where Bobby Flay takes on Gabrielle Hamilton of NYC’s Prune. I first saw Hamilton on television during an episode of No Reservations this spring when Anthony Bourdain came back to cover NYC. He, Eric Ripert and two other chefs needed a place to chow down. Where do top chefs go to eat? I mean wherever they go must be incredible. And yes, they went to Hamilton’s Prune to feast. That to me is impressive so this should be an excellent battle. That’s on at 9pm Eastern before NFNS.
And flanking it like a bookend at 11pm is our first preview of the revamped Dinner: Impossible with new chef in charge (another Iron Chef), Michael Symon taking over the reigns of departing Robert Irvine. His first mission is to Wildwood, NJ where he has to upscale boardwalk food. This is a teaser. The actual show which is moving from the half-hour to an hour format officially starts in August.
Here’s the fourth episode of Next Food Network Star recap video followed by my commentary … so if you didn’t catch it Sunday night and are planning to watch it during one of the repeats this week, don’t click. Otherwise, enjoy.
With a proviso, ok, a slight reprimand, I’m upping my ratings of this show from three out of five stars to 4 stars.
First the reprimand. “Bobby Who?” First the big deal was that Bobby Flay was going to be the host of this show. And that would add a needed consistant element the show has always otherwise lacked. That’s how all the pre-show publicity went, anyhow. But it didn’t turn out that way. Later, about the time the first show aired, I heard or I read somewhere (and I mean in official places, not off some board or blog where people guess things) that Flay might not be the host, cough, per se, ahem, not exactly — funny, it sure looked that way to the photos they put out, such as this one here — but that he would most definitely unequivicably be at each and everyjudges table for each and every episode. Not a big deal considering unlike a competeing program like Top Chef which goes on for something like four and half months, NFNS is a scant eight or nine episodes.
And wham, take a guess who wasn’t there as host? And guess who wasn’t at the judges table? And who wasn’t on last night’s episode at all? That’s right — Flay. Now am I mad at Flay. Hell no. Not at all his fault for how he’s being promoted by the network. I’m not even mad at the Food Network; I am however once again disappointed that what the Food Network says, you cannot necessarily believe. It’s annoying; and I should be used to it by now. Eh, move on. So that all said, the show is getting better and more enjoyable all the time. In fact looking back at last week and this week …. well, what did I say on Day One? I said put the food first and let the drama fall where it may. And — gasp — they’ve been doing that!!
From the picking up ingredients and answering culinary questions challenge (before the train ride), to skinning and deboning fish, cutting a pineapple or coconut, shucking an oyster, using sweet ingredients in a savory dish… etc. Awesome! They’ve been doing all the correct things. All the things the premiere episode, with it’s “let’s make them crash and burn and take the food down with it” style, did compltely wrong. Now they’re doing it correct. And for that, four stars.
As to the details of this episode …. Let me jump to the end. First I figured Jennifer was going to go with her second episode in a row of apologizing. And yet when it came down to two left she was for some reason not one of them. It came down to Nipa and Adam instead. I shook my head. Knowing how much they sooooo want Indian cusine on FN I said oh, damn and thn “goodbye Adam” cause they always keep Nipa. Kiss of death time …. and then wham, they actually got rid of her! Yeaaa!!
Why the yea!? She was so annoying. No personality other than a sneer. If it’s not in her culture she can’t do it. But as Sunny Anderson says to the Amateur Gourmet over on the FN site “India is a penisula; its surrounded by water on three sides” as in ‘don’t tell me there’s no squid or fish over there’ sorta way. My “friends” over at ChowHound didn’t put it as graciously, recalling Nipa’s brilliant quote (which for a moment I’d forgotten): “I’ve never touched a dead fish before. It’s slimy and gross and I hate it.” And as the Hounders say, how can anyone after that ever be given a cooking show to host? No way!
Atop which who’da thought Lisa the Dallas Diva gets better every episode? Although the crazy cook still cooks in very high heels and $300 blouses. (sigh) And who thought Kelsey could both turn down the over-the-topness and also win both challenges? Wow!
Good to see Tyler Florence at the top of the show and Michael Symon as second-half host and replacement judge; he always does a fine job.
It’s anybody’s game. And I’m interested in watching. Oh and, officially, here’s your new stars.
Here’s the video preview of what’s happening on this week’s episode of The Next Food Network Star on Sunday night at 10pm.
Tyler Florence tests the remaining seven finalists’ culinary skills by having them create videos for foodnetwork.com. Then Iron Chef Michael Symon and Red Lobster’s Senior Executive Chef Michael LaDuke challenge the finalists to create unique fresh fish dishes – and serve to a ship full of Coast Guardsmen. The winner discovers his-or-her recipe will be featured on Red Lobster’s Daily Fresh Fish menus nationwide. And, of course, another finalist will be eliminated.
What is “Cafe Una Notte”? It means Cafe One Night, and that’s exactly what it is, one night a year when a restaurant becomes Rachael Ray’s restaurant, a 75-seat affair in which five young (and we mean young) aspiring chefs cater the affair. In this case, having been picked up at the airport and then hooked up with Iron Chef Michael Symon.
In addition to the chance to hang in the kitchen with [Bill] Clinton and Food Network notables, the teens also each got $10,000 scholarships [….] It also kicked off the launch of Ray’s new cookbook, “Yum-o! The Family Cookbook,” all of the proceeds from which — including her $500,000 advance — will benefit the group.
The fundraiser attended by Bill Clinton, Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Joy Behar and Katie Lee [Joel] among others turned into a private concert when [Carly] Simon took the stage to sing a four-song set
The event which transpired on April 28th was shown for the first time on yesterday’s Rachael show.
From l to r: Chloe Langis, Bernie Roles, Rachael Ray, Rhiannon Wildman, former President Bill Clinton, Aria Anastasio, Brett Bush, and Iron Chef Michael Symon. AP Photo/The Rachael Ray Show, Mark Von Holden
Didn’t see this one coming! Food Network has decided on it’s replacement of Robert Irvine for the new host of Dinner: Impossible. And who is this new-comer stranger? That’s the surprise; it is apparently a familiar face instead, none other than Iron Chef Michael Symon.
That’s right, Symon is taking over the helm of the Food Network’s third highest-rated show.
He begins shooting 10 “Dinner: Impossible” shows next week, finishing at the end of May. […] One episode of “Dinner: Impossible” will air in July, said (the show’s) executive producer Marc Summers, with the new season slated to start in September.
Symon, who won the network’s The Next Iron Chef competition in 2007 and appears on its Iron Chef America series, replaces Robert Irvine, who left last month following revelations that he’d exaggerated details of resume. Irvine had hosted the show for four seasons. Btw, new episodes of “Iron Chef America” will begin airing in November, Symon said.
The format of the show won’t change. Symon won’t know where he’s going until he gets to the airport and won’t know his cooking mission until he arrives at the site, and will have a set time to finish the mission. Past missions included catering a wedding for 200 and preparing an 18th-century meal for food historians in Colonial Williamsburg.
“This is my cup of tea,” Symon said. “Tell me something’s impossible, that gets me going to prove you wrong.” What will change is the length of the show — from 30 to 60 minutes. Symon says it’ll give viewers a chance to see more of how the mission unfolds
Didn’t see this one coming! Food Network has decided on it’s replacement of Robert Irvine for the new host of Dinner: Impossible. And who is this new-comer stranger? That’s the surprise; it is apparently a familiar face instead, none other than Iron Chef Michael Symon.
