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.
This is a pretty sweet find I stumbled on. Just nine days ago the prestigious James Beard Awards were given out in New York City. And now, from that event, here is almost a half hour of video, broken into three parts, where cookbook author and television personality David Rosengarten interviewed celebrity chefs on the Beard red carpet, compliments of devour.tv and Bravo network.
Here, David talks with event hostess Kim Cattrall and event host Bobby Flay, along with José Andrés, Drew Nieperont, Terrence Brennan, Cesare Casella, Ted Allen, Tom Collechio and Todd English.
Part 2 of the video for some bizarro reason starts out with a total repeat of the Kim Cattrall interview. Don’t let that fool you though, for this is plenty of new material here. In fact the entire rest of the clips is with interviews featuring Masaharu Morimoto, Pichet Ong, Katie Lee Joel, Michael Psilakis, Donatella Arpaia, Thomas Keller and Douglas Rodriguez.
We go a slightly different place in part three with interviews as well as some background on the Beard Awards, and then interviews with chefs Wylie Dufresne, Marcel Vignenon (from Top Chef, season 2), Tony May, Dan Barber, Cindy Wolf, Michel Richard and Danny Meyer.
And yes David, we too find it both ironic and very scary a food award show has no food!
We’ve mentioned Foxwoods before back in March. Well, finally the casino’s expansion, plus the opening of the MGM Grand there, all happens this weekend. And of course while there are tons of new and wild things to mention about rooms and casinos and such — we’re choosing to ignore all of that and just concentrate on the food. From the Hartford Courant:
Foxwoods was always bigger, but foodwise, Mohegan Sun cast a large shadow over its nearby casino neighbor. With Michael Jordan’s Steak House, Todd English’s Tuscany, Jasper White’s Summer Shack, SolToro Tequila Grill and many other venues that offered great burgers, barbecue and Asian fare, Mohegan Sun always trumped Foxwoods when it came to good eats.
That changes this weekend. With three high-powered chefs opening restaurants at Foxwoods Resort Casino and the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods, the casino giant in Mashantucket can now rightly claim that it’s as much a culinary destination as a gaming and resort destination. With the arrival of Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak and Michael Schlow’s Alta Strada (both at MGM Grand, which opens this weekend) and David Burke’s Burke in the Box (which opens this weekend at Foxwoods, to be followed later in the summer by a lavish steakhouse called David Burke Prime), Foxwoods is now a culinary high roller.
Robert Mondavi, the vintner who built his career and helped an iconic Northern California industry blossom by insisting that Napa Valley wines can compete with the best in the world, died in the valley Friday. He was 94. […] ”It is hard to imagine anyone having more of a lasting impact on California’s $20 billion-a-year wine industry than Robert Mondavi,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.
[…] When Mondavi opened his winery, California was still primarily known for cheap jug wines. But he set out to change that, championing use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, all commonplace in the industry today. He introduced blind tastings in Napa Valley, putting his wines up against French vintages, a bold move. His confidence was rewarded in 1976 when California wines beat some well-known French vintages in the famous tasting known as the Judgment of Paris.
L to R: Peter Mondavi, Sr., Magrit Mondavi, Martha Stewart and Lee Schrager and Robert Mondavi, (seated)
And lastly, CBS spends nearly two billion dollars to acquire the vast CNet holdings. From The Times:
CBS said Thursday it would buy CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in cash, marking its biggest online acquisition since hiring Quincy Smith, a former media and technology investment banker, to lead its interactive unit in late 2006. The deal came as CNET, whose assets include a popular technology-news Web site, was trying to fend off a group of activist investors seeking to take control of its board of directors.
And from CBS itself a list of CNETs holdings and why they wanted it:
Based in San Francisco, CNET Networks owns many of the Internet’s leading entertainment, news and information sites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic. The company, which reported significant profits in 2007 on revenues of $406 million, has a large international footprint, particularly in China.
The news to us foodies is that in buying CNET, CBS now owns Chow.com and the ChowHound food forums.
We haven’t mentioned the Vegas Uncorked F&WF in a while and, well, seems like a blink of the eye and it’s here already! Well, two days away: running May 8 thru 11, and featuring tons of chefs and myriad food tastings and competitions The event, officially the Second Annual Vegas Uncork’d: A Bon Appétit Epicurean Experience is billed as “a delicious and inspiring star-studded weekend is guaranteed to satisfy every craving when it comes to providing access to world-class chefs, sommeliers, great restaurant design, and Bon Appétit editors and contributors” and looking over the attendees and events it’s hard to disagree with that.
Among the celebrity chefs and foodies are event co-chair Wolfgang Puck who has six restaurants in Vegas, Bon Appétit Executive Chef and Iron Chef Cat Cora, Daniel Boulud, actress and vineyard owner Lorraine Bracco, Daniel Burke, Todd English, Hubert Keller, Michael Mina, Joel Robuchon, Guy Savoy, Kerry Simon, Susan Spicer, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and many others.
Among the many event highlights are: Shop Like a Chef workshop in which Wolfgang von Wieser and “Cat Cora share their expertise on how to get the most out of your organic markets.” Editor Lunch Series, one of which is “an intimate lunch with Barbara Fairchild and Sirio Maccioni, the famed restaurateur behind Osterio del Circo and the legendary Le Cirque in New York City, one of the world’s most celebrated destinations for luxurious dining. Meet the man behind the legend.”
One of the four Masters vs Rookies, Pro-Ams features Cat Cora emceeing, Barbara Fairchild, Alan Richman, Andrew Knowlton, and Bruce Seidel judging. Lorraine Bracco as honary sous chef and competing chefs Todd English and John Church. Or how about the Five Chef gala at the Bellagio where in five master chefs will be in one kitchen serving up the evening’s five-course banquet: Julian Serrano from Picasso, Todd English of Olives, Jean-Georges Vongerichten of Prime, star chef Michael Mina, and desserts by Jean-Philippe Maury.
And those are just three of dozens of inventive events during the four days here. Among others which we can’t even go into detail it would take up too much room here: the intimate Bellagio Editors-at-Lunch Series at Picasso, Le Cirque and Sensi, Cocktail Smackdowns, a decadent Grand Tasting at Caesars Palace, editor-hosted Star Chef Luncheon series at Wynn Las Vegas, A Tale of Five Chefs Gala at Bellagio, Midnight Blackjack and Midnight Poker at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Mother’s Day Brunch at Wynn.
Yesterday the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the 35th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award Nominations. For anyone living in a cave, this in the American television industry’s highest awards and seperate from the Evening Emmys which concentrate on the big network prime time shows, these are for … well, as they say, “daytime” TV, everything from the soap operas to animated cartoons, from kid shows to heavyweights like “The View” and “Oprah” to game shows, and include some (not all) synidcated programming and cooking shows.
Our interest here of course is anything mentioned in regards to the food and cooking shows, which there was plenty of. The Food Network was nominated for eight Daytime Emmys. In regard to multiple nominations for food shows, the leader is Everyday Italian (FN) with three — and not just any old three, but best show, host and directing — followed by Food Trip with Todd English, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie (both PBS) and Nigella Express (FN) tied with two a piece.
In the category of Outstanding Lifestyle Host all the candidates are food shows: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa (FN); Bobby Flay, Boy Meets Grill (FN); Giada De Laurentiis, Everyday Italian; Todd English, Food Trip With Todd English; Nigella Lawson, Nigella Express.
In the category of Outstanding Lifestyle Program four of the five candidates are food shows (the fifth being a DIY Network craft show): Everyday Italian, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, Lidia’s Italy (PBS), Nigella Express.
In terms of Outstanding Directing In A Lifestyle Show only a single food show was up: Everyday Italian with the others being a smorgasbord from a travel show to a Cargnegie Hall special on PBS.
The remaining nominations in which a food show was involved are: Outstanding Achievement In Single Camera Photography (Film Or Electronic): Chefs A’ Field (PBS) and Food Trip With Todd English. Outstanding Achievement In Single Camera Editing: Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie.
And, in what seems to be a major oddity, at least to me: Outstanding Achievement In Hairstyling: Semi-homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee (FN). I mean she’s going up against “The View”, which is a whole lot of hair and wigs! Also “The Price Is Right” is up for this same award; we assume it must be for the models — either that or Drew Carey’s crewcut is a much more complicated affair than anyone could ever have imagined!
The Daytime Emmy Awards are to be broadcasted June 20, 2008 on the ABC Network 8pm Eastern, shown live from from Hollywood’s’ Kodak Theatre.
Jim Burke of James in Philadelphia; Gerard Craft of Niche in St. Louis; Tim Cushman of O Ya in Boston; Jeremy Fox of Ubuntu in Napa, Calif.; Koren Grieveson of Avec in Chicago; Michael Psilakis of Anthos in New York City; Ethan Stowell of Union in Seattle; Giuseppe Tentori of Boka in Chicago; Eric Warnstedt of Hen of the Wood in Waterbury, Vt.; and, Sue Zemanick of Gautreau’s in New Orleans.
The winners were fêted last Thursday night at a party in New York City. Twenty former F&W Best New Chefs, including Daniel Boulud, Tom Colicchio, Wylie Dufresne, Dan Barber and Todd English, created signature dishes and Level™ Vodka cocktails in honor of the 20th anniversary milestone. Addtionally, Hung Huynh, winner of the third season of Top Chef on Bravo, also prepared tastings for the celebration.
And the shoes will be on the other feet when the 2008 F&W Best New Chefs prepare an exclusive tasting dinner at the 26th annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, June 13 to 15.
The F&W Best New Chefs are chosen as part of a six-month selection process. The magazine works with trusted restaurant critics and food writers around the country to identify outstanding chefs who have been in charge of a kitchen for less than five years. Then the editors travel, incognito, to taste the food themselves.
As America’s talent-seeking epicurean magazine, Food & Wine has awarded the Best New Chef title to such luminaries-in-the making as Thomas Keller (1988), Nobu Matsuhisa (1989) and Rick Bayless (1988).
Our interest here of course is anything mentioned in regards to the food and cooking shows, which there was plenty of. The Food Network was nominated for eight Daytime Emmys. In regard to multiple nominations for food shows, the leader is Everyday Italian (FN) with three — and not just any old three, but best show, host and directing — followed by Food Trip with Todd English, Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie (both PBS) and Nigella Express (FN) tied with two a piece.
