The heat is on when the Quickfire Challenge demands that the chef’testants create a sweet treat without using any sugar.  And when it comes time for elimination, the chefs must serve to an especially judgmental crowd when Toby Young, food critic and best-selling author joins the judges table.  Will the chef’testants be able to prove their place in the Top Chef kitchen?

Mistake. I don’t know if all the Hometown Buffet franchises follow the same breakfast menu, but what I was subjected to at the City of Industry location was your basic lunch buffet with some scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and french toast thrown in. That turned out to be okay as I gorged on salad and eggs. The bacon was, unfortunately, almost inedible, which is darn hard to do with bacon.

I won’t be back for breakfast, lunch probably, but never breakfast.

Anyway, I spent my Christmas Eve, which is also my eternal 39th birthday, at a place (pictured at the entrance driveway) called Orange Hill Restaurant.

Though the picture makes it look like a Spanish Mission from Old California, the restaurant is actually quite modern, but its main attraction is the celebrated view it affords of the valley below. You see, the Hill part of the name literally refers to the fact that the restaurant sits on a hill in Orange, Calif., and thus the spectacular–some would say romantic–vistas from its dining rooms.

The food is good, but I wouldn’t return just for the menu. My wife complained about her rice but said her salmon was fine. Though I tend to eat fish over other types of protein, I’ve developed a habit when visiting restaurants for the first time of ordering their best steak on the menu. Usually, restaurants get their steaks down pat, but fish, since they involve sauces and side goodies, can be problematical. And indeed, my New York strip steak was very flavorful.

Most people would probably judge the food at Orange Hill excellent, but my tastes are a bit more demanding since I cook a lot at home and expect to be wowed when I shell out money (lots of it usually, these days) at an eatery.

So, overall Orange Hill Restaurant is highly recommended, especially for special occasions.

After a few minutes of trying to get the lady on the phone to admit that the credit card had nothing to do with "hold" and everything to do with "penalty" if I decided not to show up, I said I’d think about it and call them back. I half lied. I didn’t need to do any thinking about it, but I never did call them back. I doubt they’re waiting with bated breath.

To me, giving a credit card number to hold a reservation is the equivalent of a TARP fund for restaurateurs who doubt their own business model or clientele level (shades of GM). And the owners of this restaurant (and several others) are the scions of the El Cholo Mexican restaurant chain started in Los Angeles in 1923. As I recall, they live the grand old life down on the ocean in Newport Beach or some such.

They should give me a credit card to dine there.

Which is too bad since the Wine Exchange definitely has the right approach to tastings. The tastings usually amount to about 18 or 20 bottles either sorted by varietal, country or distributor. And since there’s no bar or tables where cliques can hang out and force their war stories–and superior taste buds (read: lots of BS)–on you, it’s an overall pleasant experience that you can take at your own pace.

If you’re in the area, remember that Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons are the usual wine tasting dates, but you do need to book in advance on the Winex Web site.

The Wine Tailor is a franchise of Wine Not, which came up with the concept and the accoutrement to make all this possible.

How it works is a variation on this: 

You visit The Wine Tailor (or similar franchise), taste some wines, find one you like, and decide whether you want to make a half or full batch.  A half batch is about 14 bottles, a full about 29.  I chose a wine called Tre Grande, which is a sort of Meritage of Cabernet, Merlot and Sangiovese.  You also get to design your own labels.

The first step of the process is quick and easy.  Staff members prepare a carboy filled with the must (crushed grape juice) of the wine you want to produce.  You get to pour in a package of yeast and then wait for maturity to come back five or more weeks later to bottle everything.

In other words, there’s not much excitement in the wine production stage, but the bottling is way fun. I brought my wife and daughter along (pictured) to help. Actually, they did most of the work while I sampled my wine and that of others who were bottling at the same time.

First step in the bottling process is to clean out the bottles and then stick them one by one into a pump mechanism (shown left in the photo) that automatically fills the bottles from your carboy of finished wine.  You then cork each bottle on a pneumatic machine, take it over to adhere labels on it, and finish things off by heating the foil top on.

Voila–you’re done.  (I make it sound easy, huh?)

This scene is highly recommended for producing wines for the holidays with your name on the bottles. 

Another option is to choose the wines the store has already bottled and put your own lable on them.  The store will produce the labels for you.  In this scenario, you can buy a small quantity, even one bottle if you like, for a gift or special occasion.

Great concept. The wines are pretty good too, but we’re not speaking Bordeaux or Burgundy here–just good stuff from around the world.

First, Martha will be guest judging a holiday-themed quickfire challenge (I have some pics of Martha and Padma chillin in the Top Chef kitchen, let me know if you’d like me to send them to you).  Then, in the spirit of the holidays, the chefs use their skills to give back to the community by catering a seasonal cocktail party hosted by special guest judge, actress and foodie Natasha Richardson, for AmFar, the foundation for AIDS research.

The waitress suing him, Nessa Rapone, worked for his Craftbar location in Manhattan, one of many restaurants owned by Colicchio’s Craft Worldwide Holdings, LLC.  She also claims that she was fired in retaliation for broaching the subject with her employers.

The lawyers representing Ms. Rapone are seeking to make her effort into a class action suit for all Craft Worldwide employees.

Colicchio for his part labeled the allegations "baseless," but we’ll see if this is the ultimate karmic revenge for all those Top Chef contesants who protested that Colicchio didn’t know what he was talking about when he labeled their dishes "tasteless"–or even worse.

What goes around, comes around, eh?

Watch the video for the group’s rendition of "Popcorn Lung Roadhouse Blues."