Top Chef Masters: Finale Round 3

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I had such a nice intro planned about how TC fans and food aficionados may disagree on a lot of things, but we can all agree on who’s a tool. The preview for this week’s Top Chef Masters seemed to indicate Dale of TC Season 4 would be causing all sorts of havoc. But in reality, Dale didn’t end up having nearly as much of an impact as we were lead to believe. Turns out TCM had multiple tools acting up this week.

All in all, this was a tough round for the competitors. A few curve balls and a lot of personalities filled this week’s episode. Lo, Bayless, Keller and Chiarello are the last ones standing, each with very different culinary perspectives and each very, very close to winning the grand prize.

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Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Amtrak is a Culinary Wasteland

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Would it kill Amtrak to sell reasonably good food?

I spent five hours total on the North East Corridor yesterday, traveling from from Trenton, New Jersey to Washington, D.C. for work.  Normally, I have a pretty high tolerance for shitty food — as long as someone else is paying for it.  Unfortunately, my employers have decided that the 150-mile trip doesn’t qualify for meal reimbursement, so I’d have to shell out my own cash if I wanted a dirty water hot dog or whatever else they were hawking.  I settled for reading food blogs and toughing it out until I made it home for dinner.

Look, I understand why the folks who fly steerage on airlines get crap (if they’re lucky).  There’s only so much space on the plane and the equipment used to cook/heat the meals isn’t exactly ideal.  But why can’t Amtrak, which makes tons of stops where good food can be loaded and has the luxury of a roomy cafe car, offer some higher-quality fare for its riders?  Isn’t this the kind of thing that Emeril, Wolfgang or someone like that should be jumping on?

It’s nothing but first class when you ride the smörg…

– Really, Wall Street Journal?!? You don’t say…” Another boost came from Mr. Ramsay’s blossoming media career, with the success of reality television shows such as “Kitchen Nightmares,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “The F-Word” — so-named for Mr. Ramsay’s frequent use of expletives.”

– The fact that a cheftestant on the upcoming season of Top Chef has left her job has NOTHING to do with her performance on the show.  It has EVERYTHING to do with her snagging a better deal at one of Philly’s higher-profile spots.

After the jump: the culinary scourge of the nation, the world’s least surprising medical update and Spike tells you how to sign off in style.

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The Best Birthday Present a Girl Could Ask For

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Amidst the farm/Amish/cow shit stereotypes, I’ve come to realize that Pennsylvania really does love food.  Bon Appetit recently featured Philadelphia as being a “scrumptious” city. I’m not sure what happened to the “fat” label, I’m thinking maybe they meant Philadelphians are scrumptious rather than the food itself. But now really isn’t the time for technicalities.

Now that we’ve moved from “fat” to “scrumptious,” imagine my shock, surprise, and delight when I stumbled upon the news of the Reading Phillies’ Gluttony Night. The first Gluttony Night was May 19th, 2009, when the Reading Phillies served more food in one night than at any game in the team’s history.

On this night, 2,576 fans participating in the feast set a stadium record by consuming:

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ES Has a Face

facebook

Well, not really. But you can connect with your fellow foodies via the Endless Simmer facebook group. Everybody’s doing it.

Join ES on facebook here.

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

80P and I just took a week trip. We didn’t cook very much, although we snacked on this wonderful cheese called Prima Donna which was nutty and creamy and grainy. We started our vacation down the Jersey Shore and ended with a wedding in Hartford. But in between there was a tiny ES reunion at BS’ apartment in Brooklyn.

When we got there BS was sent a package from our kick ass advertising partner, foodbuzz. A few of us hoped guessed the gift could be a mini box of wine, but alas, we were graced with other products.

Check out the video:

Just like Britannia, I’m completely attached to my iPhone.

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Jacques Torres Shows How to Make a Chocolate Sculpture

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Famed Brooklyn chocolatier Jacques Torres recently showed ES (and some other folks) how to make one of those fancy-pants chocolate sculptures you see at weddings and bar mitzvahs but would never think to make yourself. Seems like it would be really difficult, right? Turns out it’s child’s play. All you need is some high-quality chocolate and a few balloons.

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Step 1:  Jacques melts down a pot of dark chocolate over indirect heat, and then spreads a six-inch circle of it out on a papered baking sheet. Then he blows up a balloon and sticks it on the chocolate (really!)

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Step 2: Jacques pours the rest of his chocolate into an icing-squirter thing (what are these things really called, anyone?) and starts drawing chocolate lines from one end of the balloon to the other.

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Eat Your Stomach Out, Girls

schlitz

I’m a little slow on trends that don’t involve ancient grains, bitter greens and multi-use flip flops. I’ve only just started watching Mad Men.

While the slick hair, dark suits and incessant cocktails allure me to watch four episodes in a row, the intoxicating, yet infuriating, masculinity reminds me of how far working women have come. (Although it still takes women SIXTEEN MONTHS to make what men earn in ONE YEAR. YES, THAT’S FOUR EXTRA MONTHS. And yes, this applies to women and men right out of college in the same field. BULLSHIT.)

Anyway, the 2009 office treats women much more professionally. And women’s status in general has greatly improved. And then I saw this bullshit:

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