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by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: I Want My HDTV

(Artist’s rendering of what Food Network looks like on my new television.)

Dear Comcast,

I know a lot of people give you a hard time, bit I don’t think you’re so bad. My service is pretty reliable, any problems I’ve had have been addressed quickly and accurately, and it’s cool living in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where I get both New York and Philly stations (I’m impossible to get off the couch on football Sundays). And I was really excited when I bought a new HD television so that I could start watching those HD signals that you run.

However, while my wife is thrilled to be able to watch Toddlers and Tiaras in stunning high definition, I’ve found the lack of Food Network in HD to be quite disappointing. You see, when they first announced that Food Network would be broadcasting in HD, I dreamed of the day when I would upgrade my unit, experience succulent dishes in amazing clarity and come one step closer to Emeril’s mythic “smell-o-vision.” And yet here I am with my snazzy new set and no HD signal with which to decipher the hidden messages in Guy Fieri’s tattoos.

Look, I know it takes a while to roll this stuff out, but anything you can do to fast-track HD Aida Mollenkamp would be greatly appreciated.

XOXOXO,

TVFF

Remember, the smörg always comes to you in the highest possible resolution.

– Padma insists that the odds aren’t stacked against women on Top Chef, but I do find the unusual requirement that all female cheftestants be both barefoot and pregnant to be a bit unfair.

– Here’s an article that includes the words “Jamie Oliver” and “testicles.” Bon appetit!

After the jump…a double dose of awesome news from Paula Deen and Duff Goldman wants to entertain your daughter.

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by BS

Endless Questions: New Food Network Host Jeff Corwin

Many of you already know TV host Jeff Corwin from his wildlife and conservation shows on Animal Planet. And while we’re all about saving the earth here at ES, we’re more likely to get excited about animals when they’re thrown on a grill, which is why we’re glad to hear this hungry heartthrob is turning his attention to food. In Extreme Cuisine, which debuts on the Food Network this Thursday, September 17, Corwin travels the world in pursuit of the tastiest, most far-out food he can get his hands on. In short, he has a job that makes us very, very jealous. We caught up with Corwin to find out how he’s handling this difficult new assignment.

We mostly know you from your shows about wildlife and conservation. What made you decide to transition into food?
In my heart of hearts I’ve always been a passionate foodie. I’ve worked in the restaurant business for a lot of my life, since I was 12 with my family. And as I travel around the world I always look forward to getting to that restaurant everyone talks about or getting to that great food destination. So I’ve always wanted to take the spirit of adventure and exploration that I bring to a nature show and apply that to food.

Working in restaurants since 12? Tell us more about that.
My great-grandfather, Maximallian Macadelli, opened one of the first pizza shops in the United States. Some would dispute that. There are those who say the first pizza came from New York, but if you ask anyone in my family, the first pizza came from Brick Bottom in Somerville, Massachusetts. So when I was a little kid I worked in restaurants, everything from dishwasher to busboy to prep cook to line cook to bartender, waiter – I did it all.

Do you watch the Food Network yourself?
I do. That was very much an inspiration. I’ve been a fan of Food Network for like 8 or 9 years and like seven years ago I had a conversation with one of their executives and this show eventually grew out of that. Food for me has always been an adventure. So part of the impetus for this show was so that my own family, my daughters, will know where food comes from. I once had a conversation with a little kid who told me food comes from the refrigerator. Well what if you didn’t have a refrigerator? What if you didn’t have electricity? What if every morning you woke up and your day began with making sure you and your family have enough food to eat for the day?

How did you chose what locations to visit on the show?
There are a lot of food shows out there, so I wanted to make sure we were doing new things that people haven’t seen, to give them the spirit of a new place they haven’t experienced. We wanted to be able to not just walk into a home and shoot, but to be there at five o’clock in the morning with a fisherman as he paddles out, or in the Andes as they go out to harvest potatoes.

Did you get to take anything home with you?
Absolutely. Anything I can. I brought back this mortar and pestle from Peru and I’m using it to grind up my spices now. We also went to a salt mine in Peru where these families harvest salt as it dribbles out of a mine and I brought some of that salt home. I’m putting it on everything.

Extreme Cuisine premieres on the Food Network Thursday, September 17 at 9pm ET

Also on Endless Simmer: ES Chats with Ted Allen about Chopped

by BS

ES Chats with Ted Allen About Chopped

As you are all well aware of by now, we can’t get enough cooking reality TV here at ES. Fortunately, Food Network is feeding our addiction with a brand new season of Chopped, which premieres tonight (Tuesday, September 8), at 10pm ET. ES caught up with host Ted Allen to ask about cooking with string cheese, whether he misses Top Chef, and what he’s doing with all his tomatoes.

ES: So tell us about this new mini-season of Chopped.
Ted Allen: One of the things that sets Chopped apart from other cooking shows is that we have different chefs each week – it’s kind of like a culinary game show. But people have expressed a lot of interest in seeing particular contestants — for example, James Briscione from the first season — return. So what we’re doing is having four episodes where all the winners from season one return and compete against each other. These contestants have never been chopped before, they’ve only won, so it raises the stakes. And of course they’re the winners so they’re all great chefs.

Any other changes in store for this season?
One thing that’s different is the mystery ingredients. Last season we did a lot of processed junk food — gummy bears, string cheese — the network thought it was funny to ask real chefs to cook with fake food. But this year they decided to do less of that. We still have some junk food ingredients like root beer and donuts, but we’re moving away from the string cheese and gummy bears. There’s just not much good cooking you can do with string cheese. So we’re no longer driving them insane with string cheese, instead we’re driving them insane with sea urchin and eel.

What’s the key to making a winning dish on Chopped?
You have to figure out the ingredients. The ingredients are chosen very carefully — the producers sit around and if they can’t think of something that could feasibly be made from them, they empty out the basket and start over. The thing is they set a trap. So let’s say they give you three Asian ingredients — bok choy, soy sauce and sesame seeds — and then they throw something in like blue cheese. Some chefs are gonna plow ahead and make an Asian dish and then crumble a little bit of blue cheese on top, hoping the judges won’t notice it. But the person who wins will be the one who figures out how to make a blue cheese souffle that works — I don’t know what that would be like, but if they can do it, they will win.

Do you watch other shows on Food Network?

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by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: (Thy)Roid Rage

Isn’t it funny when a word or topic that you rarely hear comes up two or three times in a short period of time?

As you probably know, there’s a discussion going on in the comments of the recent Spend vs. Skimp post about the virtues of sea and kosher salt and the need to make sure we actually get some of that healthful iodine that you find in table salt.

Despite the fact that the phrase “tincture of iodine” is one of my all-time faves, the topic is not one that you regularly hear at cocktail parties. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard on the news that the health department of Pennsylvania is calling on residents that live near the state’s nuclear power plants to pick up new iodine tablets since the old ones have expired.

Iodine twice in one week…what are the chances?

Frankly, if there’s a meltdown, I’d be more more concerned with the giant rabbits. But never let it be said that Endless Simmer doesn’t provide a public service: If you hear the sirens go off, start chugging your Morton’s!

On to the smörg…which is always a low-sodium product.

– ABC brings us the most brilliant child in the world: “Bacon is good for me!”

– The Food Network Mafia brings home a bunch of daytime Emmys, including the statue for “Outstanding Achievement in Making Sandra Lee Seem Lifelike.”

After the jump…How Food Network spent its summer, Jamie gets his groove on and TLC breaks new ground (no, not really).

in Bacon / Celebs / TV 0 comments

by Russell Warnick

Behind the Scenes

Nothing pleases me more than waking up on a weekend morning and switching on the Food Network. I love watching marathons of Iron Chef America or Food Network Challenge, hours and hours of great entertainment. I’ve always wondered what it actually takes to make a food show (even though we’ve all seen behind the scenes footage of our favourite studio audience sitcoms).

A few weeks ago I gate crashed was invited to the filming of Kelsey & Spike Cook, a show of roughly five minute webisodes from Food2.com. Kelsey & Spike Cook is a fun spin on classic dishes. Kelsey, of The Next Food Network Star, tends to go by the book, while former Top Cheftestant, Spike, in true form, turns it around and breaks from the norm of conventional cooking. I actually witnessed him rolling out pastry with the handle of a broom.

Check out those shenanigans and a few behind the scenes secrets after the jump.

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by tvff

Cheflebrity Smörgåsbord: Welcome to the Rock

Let me start off by making something perfectly clear: I don’t give a rat’s ass who wins on any reality competition show. For the most part, I think the contestants on these shows are the equivalent of tissues — made to be used and discarded as quickly as possible. I don’t find these people in the least bit interesting and if your most impressive “skill” is your ability to get chosen to appear on American Idol, or that sewing show that used to be on Bravo, I have no interest in following your exploits after the season is over, even if you are the big winner.

And although I pretty much feel this way about Top Chef Masters, I’d say I only have about 99% apathy. Why? Because I totally want Hubert Keller to win this thing.

Two reasons:

He’s a PBS show host and I always like seeing those guys get props.
He looks exactly like Sean Connery at about the 14 minute mark in The Rock. After he washes off the prison grime but before getting the full make-over by the barber.

I figure this as good an excuse as any to root for him. Oh…brainstorm! We need a Michael Bay-directed food movie. Given his love of fire and slow-motion, that is going to be one AWESOME crème brûlée scene.

Enough silliness…on to the smörg.

– I pray to you, oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, let there be a reality show involved: Human Train Wrecks Rocco DiSpirito and Jeffrey Chodorow could hook up again?

– How can you tell that a controversial issue is reaching the mainstream? Shaq tweets about it. Er, I mean: When the folks in the industry embrace it. Chipotle will be screening Food, Inc. at locations around the country.

After the jump…the vocal stylings of Mr. Mario Batali, a link to a story that includes the words “Giada” and “testicles,” and confirmation that Food Network and a former Olympian are completely in on the joke.

in Celebs / TV 3 comments

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

If you haven’t already, check out the dozens of great after school snack memories ESers are sharing. Anyone else surprised that the majority of them involve peanut butter? I guess PB is the real kid-tested, mother-approved snack. Although Hugging the Coast clearly places first in weirdest snack category:

Mayonnaise sandwiches! I used to eat Hellman’s mayo on Arnold’s white bread after school before my mother came home.

– AK thinks DC’s rising star chef has a shot at winning the Next Food Network Star:

I think Teddy will end up surprising people on NFNS. It’s unfortunate that they’ve made him look like a cartoon but the guy is seriously talented. His food is fantastic and he’s a natural teacher which makes him perfectly suited for doing a cooking show. Hopefully we’ll get to see a little more as the show goes on that his goofy behavior isn’t “acting”, he’s just a naturally outgoing, ebullient goofball who loves food and loves to teach people to cook.

– La Morgan is ready to follow Paul and Yoko’s lead:

I’m a fan of meatless Monday too – I also really like Mark Bittman’s approach (The Minimalist) where every meal is veggie or vegan until dinner. Not that it means I follow this, but managing meat consumption by abstaining within one day or meal is a good way for carnivores like me to learn to design meals without meat, without having to be as careful as a vegetarian about my meal balance/protein consumption. Definitely nay on Yoko’s hat, btw. Yikes.

But ladygoat disagrees on both counts:

Most Catholics can’t even manage meat-free Fridays during Lent, so I don’t think meatless Mondays is going to make anyone vegetarian. But, it’s a fine idea – at least it gets people thinking about other food options. And YAY on her hat. Awesome.

(Photo: RachelBruce1)

in Celebs / TV / Veggie 1 comments