Celebs - - Page 31

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Our Food Network rant appears to have hit a nerve. Eick: I totally agree there are no good shows on Food Network right now. I watched The Next Iron Chef a while back, and that was aight. The first season of Next Food Network star was decent, but not good enough to make me watch the next season. Other than Throwdown and the occasional episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, there’s almost nothing worth watching there these days.

Very Very Good Girl : I do like Throw Down & Grill it with Bobby Flay, but can’t watch it weekly. Has anyone watched Jamie at Home? Maybe it’s the oddly tiny kitchen, ridiculous garden or rigging old tools into a spit, but I really enjoy that show.

– Meanwhile, Elizabeth @ Capital Spice (Mrs. JoeHoya!) excellently sums up that other train wreck of a food TV show: Ugh. I finally watched the episode of On the Road Again we’ve had on DVR forever. It’s a fun concept (if not ill-timed) but man Gwynnie bugs.

Random other guy: Tell me about your cooking.

GP: It brings me so much joy.

Me: Gagging.

Why is the woman who shoved macrobiotic diets down our throats 4 years ago allowed to be on a culinary travel show?

– Finally, Yvo is down with the fresh tofu, if it’s fancy enough:

Bourdain is Back

Yup, Endless Simmer’s favorite hero/villain is back in action with a new season of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. The first episode of the season, which airs tonight at 10 eastern, has Tony traipsing through Mexico, soaking up the sun and salsa, and making us really fucking mad about winter.

At least with Bourdain back and Top Chef returning, we won’t have to go outside much this week.

in Celebs / TV 5 comments

by BS

ES Editors’ Choice Awards: Best Food Moments of 2008

OK you’ve had your say readers. Hezbollah Tofu is the Eater of the Year. But you know what? This is a food-tatorship, not a food-ocracy, and you didn’t really think we were going to let you lowly readers get the last say, did you? In all seriousness, thanks for voting, but we want to continue the award season silliness and call out a few more of our favorite eating moments of 2008. What were your favorite moments? Holler back.

Most Improved Eater: The Political Media

There’s been a lot of criticism of the MSM this year — they were in the tank for Obama! They forgot to report about the war! They can’t afford to print papers! — but here at ES we noticed a marked improvement. Throughout the campaign, we could barely turn on our TV or crack open a magazine without learning important breaking news about what one candidate or another was eating. Hillary stops for ice cream! Huckabee fries squirrels! McCain gained five pounds! It was beautiful. I mean, look at this recent page from the Huffington Post. Not one, not two, but three top-of-page stories about what Barack Obama is eating this week — and he’s on vacation. Keep up the good work in 2009, media.

Best Food TV Moment

There is staged reality TV lameness, and then there are inevitable unexpected moments of genius. Top Chef 5 is not even halfway through, but we suspect we’ve already seen this season’s high-point: Ice Queen Padma Lakshmi, usually so adept at keeping her judgely emotions under wraps, simply lost it upon taking one bite of Jersey housewife Ariane’s super-sweet cherry surprise and literally gagged on it. Padma felt so bad about actually spitting out Ariane’s food that she let the old lady win every challenge since then. We don’t even care who wins Top Chef this year. We’ll just remember this one shining moment.

Best Use of Bacon

As you know, the best use of bacon of course means the most outlandish use of bacon. A dish that doesn’t crumble bacon or garnish with bacon, but creates something so bacon-y extravagant that your heart hurts just looking at it. FoodProof wins this one by a landslide with their remarkable woven bacon and cheese roll. Death on a plate in just seven easy steps.

More awards after the jump…

Hezbollah Tofu is Your Eater of the Year

Ah, another year gone, another Endless Simmer Eater of the Year crowned.

It’s only fitting that after Anthony Bourdain was crowned EotY in our inaugural 2007 poll, Bourdain’s veganizing nemesis Hezbollah Tofu took home the award in our second annual contest.

Winning an impressive 48 percent of your votes, HT held off all challenges from Julia Child, John Mayer, Michael Pollan, Kendra Wilkinson and Cindy McCain.

HT may be taking a break from the full-time recipe writing, but their spirit will live on with one of the most coveted honors in the eating community — a permanent spot in the Endless Eater Hall of Fame.

in Celebs / Contests / Veggie 3 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Eater of the Year Update

As far as we know, no one has ever carved Hezbollah Tofu’s likeness into a cornfield maze.

Julia Child has solidified her second place position in our Eater of the Year awards, but she’s still miles behind Hezbollah Tofu, and Alex is not happy: OMG people don’t STOP being important just because they DIE. SHE WAS A FREAKING SPY. The Mata Hari of duck a l’orange!!! The Tokyo Rose of the tarte tatin! I respect Michael Pollan and all, but seriously, people, we’re vying for legend status here.

And Hezbollah Tofu seems to have developed a nemesis of her own in Matsumi: Don’t get me wrong, I kind of liked the idea behind H. Tofu in the beginning, even if the creator seemed a tad creepily obsessed with the chef she claims to disdain. But that obsession has only escalated into the absurd (no, really, I’m sorry Bourdain won’t sleep with you or killed your puppy or whatever it is he did to incite *that* kind of obsession…maybe you should seek therapy or get a new hobby. Just sayin.)

While Rachel stands by the frontrunner: I love Hezbollah Tofu! It brings a funny and very intelligent approach to one of the most pressing problems around food facing us today. How do you create delicious and wonderful food that is also cruelty free and environmentally friendly? HT encourages people to experiment and create these types of meals and share them with others. Michael Pollan just reports on the problem that HT addresses. As far as the others, Julia Child is dead, Kendra deserves props for embarassing Olive Garden but can’t legitimately be considered an informed eater. And Cindy McCain hasn’t eaten anything since 1987.

Love that last line, Rachel. Don’t know what the eff we’re talking about? Check out the nominees here, and vote below:

[Poll=30]

Photo: The Ethicurean

in Celebs / Contests / TV 1 comments

by BS

Who Will Be the Eater of the Year?

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it’s time to start thinking about our next favorite end-of-year ritual: The Second Annual Endless Simmer Eater of the Year Awards!!!

Last year, Tony Bourdain was crowned the inaugural Eater of the Year, beating out such luminaries as hot dog eating champ Joey Chestnut, amuse bouche eating champ Padma Lakshmi, Chocolate Jesus, Al Gore, and the Locavore Four.

But which eater made the most impact in 2008? Is Bourdain primed for a repeat? Was this the year Michael Pollan ruled them all? Or should it be Sarah Palin and her moose meat? Duffy Lyon and her cow sculptures? Will 2007 runner-up Joey Chestnut rise to the top? Or will long underexposed chef Rachael Ray finally get her due?

The only thing we know for sure is that it’s all up up to you. Once again, Endless Simmer readers will get to choose who deserves this highly coveted title. But first, we need to figure out the nominees. Have ideas? Hit us up in the comments. Finalists will be announced next week.

in Celebs / Contests / Trends / TV 4 comments

by gansie

A French Chef and a Jrzy Girl

I don’t know about your TV, but the percentage of saved programs on mine that are food related is, um, pretty high. And really, they’re all of Jacques Pepin’s show. Or as 80 refers to him, Jacquy P. Don’t tell him I wrote that on the blog though. Anyway, I’m so lucky that I didn’t cave to 80’s pressure to delete the old episodes because for a few months there, his show disappeared. But then a KQED intern, Joseph, emailed ES about Jacques’ status and his new show: Jacques Pepin: More Fast Food My Way. First, thank you Joseph! Because, I mean, Jacques is truly my heart, especially after reading his auto-bio and I was so pumped that ES was on Joseph’s radar. After a few emails, I was able to secure a phone interview with the French chef. I was pretty freaking nervous about interviewing my favorite cooking celeb. Would I be able to hide my admiration? Would I be able to think of any questions he hasn’t already been asked a million times? Would I be able to understand his heavy French accent?

Well, I thought the interview went pretty well AFTER I insulted cruise food. So, I knew that Jacques was winding down on this crazy press tour for the show and the companion book and I asked what he was up to next. Jacques said he was off to Barcelona via a cruise ship. Now, I’ve never been on a cruise (sea sick issues) but all I’ve ever heard about was the terrible food. Like a completely unprepared interviewer, I asked him what he thought about bad cruise food and this is when Monsieur Pepin kindly let me know that he is the *culinary director* for Oceania Cruises and that was why he’d be on the ship.

So Saucy: Chef Jacques Pepin [Express]

Photo: KQED

in Celebs / TV 4 comments