Posted by Gary McCarty on May 23, 2010, under News | No Comment
I guess it's nice to get one's blog back after others set out to destroy it.
Now, at least I'm ahead of the overall Web world in general, which is merely up to Web 2.0. In contrast, I'm up to Le Food News 4.0.
What I mean is that this is the fourth time I've created this site, having lost all the three years' worth of previous content to a) first a hacker and b) then myself, who stupidly, erroneously deleted my WordPress database over the weekend (May 22-23, 2010). In the process, however, I've now reconfigured the site a bit.
My favorite Top Chef contestant from one of my favorite restaurants—Amanda from the Water Grill in Los Angeles—is gone, but the remaining five are set for a NASA-style adventure to create space-age food that will literally be consumed (I'm told) up, up and away beyond gravity's pull. We'll see about that one tomorrow night (Sept. 1, 2010) on Bravo TV.
Amanda was never a serious finalist on the competition, but as she herself observed, she was the only sous chef to make it so far. What I enjoyed about her was her personality and her smarts. She even knew what the KGB was. How many 20somethings know that?
An added plus for this episode is the appearance of acerbic chef-author-TV-show-guy Anthony Bourdain.
The final competition is set for Singapore. Now that sounds exciting.
I'm not sure I even get WE Tv, but my friend Karen Ram alerts me (and you) to the premiere* of Amazing Wedding Cakes on that network this Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, at 10 p.m. (9 Central).
From what I understand, the concept is that contestants from nationwide bakeries compete to produce wedding cakes tailored to the engaged couples' tastes and demands. One couple specifies, I hear, a cake based on "Steam Punk."
That should prove interesting, if for no other reason than to find out what "Steam Punk" is.
* Actually, as I reread Karen's e-mail, this is the "return" of the show, and from the video below it appears to be Season 3 of Amazing Wedding Cakes. I also noticed that there's a wedding cake photo contest for viewers to enter and win up to $2,500.
The Chicago teacher-cum-complete-beauty Sheetal Bhagat has somehow receded from view on the ongoing Master Chef TV series.
Sheetal was featured prominently early on with her distress over her eggs being cooked in a non-oven-ready dish. She aced that round, but since then has hardly been heard from, although last night (Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010), she was overheard muttering something about "salt and pepper" at the truck stop hamburger challenge.
I wonder if this is because she's gaming the system, albeit in a smart, professional, classy way.
While I was working in Tokyo ere these many years decades ago, I once ventured out to the ballpark, where fans routinely and widely enjoyed their favorite baseball repast—and it wasn't a hot dog.
Try squid on a stick.
Anyway, this week's Top Chef contestants are sent to the Washington Nationals ballpark to staff two concession stands and come up with innovative treats.
Now, I ask you: Did they consider the Tokyo mainstay?
Posted by Gary McCarty on Aug 22, 2010, under Reviews | 1 Comment
Actually, I'm not sure if the proper name of this Oceanside, Calif., main street restaurant is Cafe 101 or 101 Cafe. The sign has the two words on top of one another, so I guess it could go either way.
At any rate, I stumbled upon Cafe 101 (or vice versa) while returning from Mexico, where I had my teeth worked on. Since even with insurance, I couldn't afford to have the work done in the U.S. ($4400 estimate after insurance copays!), I opted for South of the Border and found a great dental clinic in Tijuana to do the work for a fifth or less of the U.S. estimate.
And I was impressed; the attention to detail and service (and work) were equal to or better than anything I've ever experienced in the U.S. of A.
Driving back in grinding-to-a-halt Saturday afternoon traffic, however, I grew hungry about 3 p.m. as the anesthetic wore off near Oceanside, so I turned off the freeway and spotted the 101 Cafe.
The corner stop definitely exudes the feel and charm of a '50s diner, and the food is good diner-style fare as well (I had a BLT with fries and an iced tea). However… Continue Reading…
I'm still not clear why Kenny was eliminated this past episode on Top Chef.
The others on the low end of the Totem Poll seemed to get worse critiques, leading me back to my suspicions that these shows are as much scripted as they are spontaneous (or at least manipulated).
Anyway, life goes on with the thief and clearly incapable Alex hanging in there. After last week's shocking elimination, the chefs must regroup to guess the ingredients inside a mystery box for their Quickfire Challenge while Top Chef Masters past contestant Wylie Dufresne serves as guest judge.
The element of the covert carries over to the Elimination Round when the chef'testants face the chellenge of cooking for CIA Director Leon Panetta and his closest allies inside the agency's closely guarded headquarters. (This would be an ideal time to introduce a "secret ingredient" or "spy quotient" or some such, but that would smack too much of Iron Chef. Oh, well, nice idea.)
Remember, the show starts an hour later this week (due, I think, to competition from Gordon Ramsay's Master Chef, which is now airing at Top Chef's old time).
I remember when the annual Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo used to alternate between San Francisco and Los Angeles; now it rotates between L.A. and San Diego.
This year was the Angel City's year, and I once again made my pilgrimage—only this time, I felt fairly past the illusion that I'd someday open a restaurant of my own. Hell, I'll be lucky to retire to a locale other than my car.
Thus in place of lofty entrepreneurial aspirations, I merely went as a consumer to sample the consumables.
Now that Food Network has created a whole series about dueling start-up restaurants (to say nothing of Gordon Ramsay's tirade- and expletive-infused Hell's Kitchen duels), Top Chef, which may or may not have initiated the whole craze, is pairing off the remaining contestants for its version of Restaurant Wars on Wednesday, Aug. 11.
Before that, during the Quickfire Challenge, the contestants will man (and female) up for a relay-race competition (since cloned by Food Networks' Chefs v. City). Anyway, I find gems in all of these shows but especially enjoy the professionalism of Top Chef.
The remaining Top Chef contestants welcome Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson to the show while attempting to create Ethiopian delights for the Quickfire Challenge. During the Elimination Round, the finalists get to create home-style cuisine for ambassadors and dignitaries from foreign countries. Should be interesting….
In the pantheon (nay, panoply) of filmed cooking competitions, Japan's (not America's, which is a ersatz ripoff of the transparently rigged Japanese original) Iron Chef was probably the first. Then came Bravo's Top Chef here stateside (followed by a bunch of minor variations on Food Network and elsewhere) and now Master Chef from none other than the volatile (and somewhat financially bankrupt) Gordon Ramsay.
From what I've read, Master Chef, which solely features home cooks with no professional experience, finds the curse-flinging Ramsay at his mellowest best.
We can discover if this is true ourselves tonight, Tuesday, July 27 (9 p.m. my time), on the inaugural episode. Meanwhile, Top Chef—so far the most popular and well done of the U.S. shows—continues tomorrow night, but I'm already thinking they're dragging this thing on too long. Let's get rid of the competitors we all know can make it and get this over with!
Anyway, the producers have a set number of weeks promised to Bravo, so we're stuck. Meanwhile, tomorrow night—much to my chagrin—D.C. politicians get involved in the proceedings. Let's leave the double-talkers in their pleasure domes and stick to serious business, but here's a preview clip:
I guess it's nice to get one's blog back after others set out to destroy it.
Actually, I'm not sure if the proper name of this Oceanside, Calif., main street restaurant is Cafe 101 or 101 Cafe. The sign has the two words on top of one another, so I guess it could go either way.
I remember when the annual Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo used to alternate between San Francisco and Los Angeles; now it rotates between L.A. and San Diego. 