May 23 2010
News
- Taste of the IE a Pleasant Event Literally, I stumbled upon (here I go again) The Taste of the I.E. (Inland Empire) when I dropped my dogs off at a pet hotel before flying to Oakland for my Chez Panisse Pilgrimage. While driving toward the airport, I noticed a sign on the side of the roa...
- Chino Air Show This Weekend The Chino Air Show, set for May 5-6, looks to be a packed, fun event--if you go, try Flo's Airport Cafe (if you can get in)
- Pechanga Food Truck Festival: And a Long Line Was Had by All The Pechanga Food Truck Festival was at an ideal location, behind a casino, but it was too crowded and hot for my taste
- Hangar 24 the Place to Be in Redlands Isolated near the Redlands Airport, Hanger 24 brewery is a lively and fun place. Try it before every Redlands Symphony performance, or before whatever you're doing in Redlands.
- Last Dinner on the Titanic Was Titanic Titanic Belfast is an exhibition opening to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic--enjoy your last supper as well
- Peter's Gourmade: 100 Square Feet of Success Peter's Gourmade in Tustin, Calif., all 100 square feet, serves yummy food and has a nice story behind its inception
- Combi Cooking Demo: Mixed Results SoCal Gas Co. offered up a combi oven cooking demo with smashing and ordinary food results
- This Crowd Will Have to Find a New Hangout Riviera at the Fireside, a Continental Cuisine destination in Westminster, Calif., will be shuttering for good on Oct. 23.
- IE Food Truck Fest II Gets It Right The second incarnation of the Inland Empire Food Truck Festival on Oct. 8 proved more creature-comfortable than the first
- Truck Norris: Best Shepherd's Pie Ever Truck Norris serves up the most phenomenal Shepherd's Pie anywhere, and for just $4!
- Slater's 50/50 Burgers: Half a Success After my first visit to Slater's 50-50 Burgers in Anaheim Hills, Calif., all I can say is half of what I experienced was stellar, the other half, well, ordinary or not to my liking.
- Chinatown Summer Nights: A Picture Book Chinatown Summer Nights in L.A. proved a largely successful affair, combining food trucks, art galleries, arts and craft stalls and more
- Vizzi's Serving Its Last Lunch: Does That Mean 'The Great Food Truck Race 3' Is Filming? I got this strange e-mail from the Vizzi coastal infusion cuisine truck yesterday that seemed to indicate the truck was joining another Food Network enterprise, perhaps The Great Food Truck Race 3. Here's what the trucksters wrote: ZaSo's FIRST ...
- Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo Continues at the San Diego Convention Center The ongoing Western Foodservice and Hospitality Expo in San Diego couples entrepreneurial gambles with savvy technology and food shortcuts
- They Came, They Ate, They Sweated a Lot You'd think a huge place like Orange County could get its act together to stage a food truck festival, but alas, bad planning and execution prevailed.
- My Dejeuner sur L'Herbe, of Sorts Servite High School held a food truck festival on Saturday, Aug. 13, with a good array of food offerings
- Food Truck Craze Over or Just Overloaded? Since I can't afford to eat in good restaurants anymore, I naturally latched onto the food truck phenomenon as the last refuge of the penniless seeking culinary fulfillment. Pennies were lavished everywhere, but fulfillments were few, alas. The Behemo...
- Trucks Galore at OC Farmers' Market The weekly food truck gathering at the OC Farmers' Market in Costa Mesa, Calif., featured a cooking competition on July 23
- Follow the Celebrity Chefs on OpenSky and Save 60% on Their Favorite Products OpenSky lets you follow your favorite stars and gives you 60% off their favorite products--join today!
- Will Chatting While Cooking Cost Someone $20,000 on 'Rocco's Dinner Party'? 'Rocco's Dinner Party' continues with its high profile guests at Rocco DiSpirito's New York pad
- 'Top Chef' Season Nine to Use San Antonio? The blogosphere is atweet with news that 'Top Chef' has been seen filming Season Nine in San Antonio, Texas
- Seabirds to Battle on 'Great Food Truck Race 2' Eight trucks, including seabirds from Orange County, will compete in the 'Great Food Truck Race 2' beginning Aug. 14.
- Saturday Night Food Truck Rally at the Concourse Proves an Ideal Destination The Concourse in Anaheim is the perfect location for a food truck gathering since you can go inside and finish off your food over a cold beer, or other drink of choice.
- Where's Waldo? 'MasterChef' Style 'MasterChef' used some CGI to increase the size of its participant crowds as revealed in this marked-up photo
- 'Rocco's Dinner Party': Surprisingly Good 'Rocco's Dinner Party' is surprisingly good given how shallow and egotistical I once held Rocco DiSpirito to be (he seems improved this time around)
- IE Food Truck Festival a Great Success, But Has the NomNom Truck Lost Its Mojo? The inaugural Inland Empire Food Truck Festival was hugely attended and great fun, but has the NomNom Truck lost its magic?
- Has Bobby Flay Met His Match? Bobby Flay got his way and Soul Daddy won 'America's Next Great Restaurant,' and a month later two of three locations have been shuttered
- And Then There Was One, Top Chef Master, That Is... This season's Top Chef Master will be crowned on Wednesday, June 15, and be awarded $100,000 for the charity of his or her choice
- Now I Know Why They Won! The Behemoth Burger from the Grill 'Em All Food Truck flexes its muscles against the Nom Nom Truck's traditional Vietnamese banh mi
- 'Top Chef Masters' Nears Season's End In its next-to-last segment, 'Top Chef Masters' fetes returning servicemen and women but still eliminates one challenger
- 'Top Chef Masters': She's Baaaack! Padma Lakshmi returns as a judge as the competition on 'Top Chef Masters' heats up--and winds down
- Blind Taste Test Goes Smell-less and Sound-less on 'Top Chef Masters' The remaining 'Top Chef Masters' undergo a taste test blind-folded, ear-folded, and nose-folded on the May 18 episode on Bravo
- Grill 'Em All Thrills 'Em All at Fullerton High School Food Truck Fundraiser Grill 'Em All is still riding a wave of popularity from winning the Great Food Truck Race on Food Network, and it showed at the Fullerton High School Food Truck Fundraiser May 13
- Going to the Cats? Former 'Top Chef' contestant Carla Hall is now a spokesperson for Fancy Feast cat food, leading a campaign for customer suggestions on new flavors
- 'Iron Chef Masters': Cooks Out of Water? Or Rocking to a New Beat? The remaining 'Top Chef Masters' contestants are challenged to create a feast for Grammy-winning rock group Maroon 5
- Turkinis and James Beard In impeccable timing, just as the annual James Beard Awards were announced, the Carl's Jr./Hardee's icon--Miss Turkey's bikini--went on auction on eBay
- Top Chef Masters Do Drive-Thru Contestants on the May 4 episode of 'Top Chef Masters' are challenged to operate a drive-thru restaurant
- Miss Turkey Is Adorable, But What About Her Namesake at Carl's Jr.? Miss Turkey probably never ate turkey before she promoted the Carl's Jr./Hardee's turkey burger. So how does it taste?
- Cavalcade of Carl's Jr. (Babe) Ads Through the years, Carl's Jr. (Hardee's) has featured a bevy of sexy women in revealing situations to tout their hamburgers--see them all
- 'Top Chef Masters': Three Squares But Only 1,200 Calories Allowed, Total! The 'Top Chef Masters' must create delicious dishes of less than 1,200 calories for all three meals (4/27/2011)
- 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational: Crowded and Fun The 2nd 8th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational in Los Angeles drew big crowds of hungry participants on Saturday, April 23, at the Center Studios parking lot
- Eureka: Did I Finally Find It? Eureka Burger specializes in craft beers, Angus beef chuck burgers, hand-cut fries, and gourmet salads--and brags about it
- 'Amazing Wedding Cakes': Winter Wonderland, BBQs, and Bridesmaids 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' episode 5 finds three teams with three unique challenges
- Celebs Visit 'Top Chef Masters' Two entertainment celebrities will bring their own idea of cooking challenges to 'Top Chef Masters' on Wednesday, April 13
- 'Top Chef Masters' Returns Tonight 'Top Chef Masters' begins a new season on Bravo with new host Curtis Stone on Wednesday, April 6, 2011
- Salade Nicoise or Bust; Instead, Lobster, Cheese and Mex Clones! Santa Anita Race Track held its second Food Truck Festival of the year on Saturday, April 2, with 80 trucks and thousands of hungry fans
- Life After TV: The NomNom Truck How are Misa and Jen with their Vietnamese-inspired 'banh mi' food truck doing after massive exposure on the Food Network? I finally caught up with the vehicle.
- Judgment Day for Top Chef All Stars For the series finale of 'Top Chef: All Stars,' finalists Richard Blais and Mike Isabella get to create the menu of their dreams
- 'Top Chef: All Stars': Down to Three Reality begins to sink in for Richard Blais in the next-to-last episode of 'Top Chef: All Stars' as Mike Isabella begins looking more and more like a real winner
- 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' Returns March 27 for All-New Competition 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' begins an all-new season on WE tv, debuting on Sunday evening, March 27
- It's March Madness as Final Four Top Chefs Do a Battle of the Sexes With just a quartet of contestants remaining, 'Top Chef: All Stars' on March 16 features its own version of the Final Four
- Top Chef Finalists Vie in the Bahamas The five remaining 'Top Chef: All Star' competitors find themselves on the Bahamas in a face-to-face challenge with the winners from their respective seasons
- Oporto Not Quite (or Yet) the In-N-Out Phenomenon It Claims An Australian favorite, Oporto opened a week ago in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., serving its famous chicken burgers with hot Portugese chili sauce, along with other chicken concoctions
- Seafood and Southern Cooking Vex Top Chefs as Paula Deen Helps Judge Paula Deen is on hand to judge a deep-frying Quickfire Challenge, and John Best joins her for the Elimination Round on the Feb. 23 episode of 'Top Chef: All Stars'
- Top Chefs Meet Cookie Monster Sesame Street invades the kitchen at 'Top Chef: All Stars' for the Feb. 16, 2011, episode in the continuing elimination challenge
- Fondue and Jimmy Fallon a Potent Mix Jimmy Fallon orders up a birthday fete and feast while fondue separates the winners from the losers tonight on 'Top Chef: All Stars'
- Toranoko: Can You Say 'Oishii'? Aburiya Toranoko Sushi Bar and Izakaya in L.A.'s Little Tokyo serves up some of the most delicious food anywhere
- Top Chefs Meet The Sopranos On the Feb. 2 episode of 'Top Chef: All Stars,' the Quickfire Challenge is judged on presentation only by Isaac Mizrahi, and then the Elimination Round features Italian dinners prepared at Rao's and judged by Soprano Lorraine Bracco
- Day at the Races, Roach Coach-Style Some 20-plus fast food trucks were the center of attraction on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011, at Santa Anita Race Track, drawing thousands and thousands, who appeared to have no interest in the horses
- An Afternoon of Grands Crus Bordeaux Tasting amid Vintage Aircraft James Suckling leads an extraordinary private Bordeaux tasting at the Barker Hanger at Santa Monica Airport on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011
- Celebrate 300 Years of Smithwick's with a Free Home Brewing Kit* Smithwick's Brewery is celebrating 300 years of beer making in Ireland is giving away 300 home-brewing kits to celebrate!
- Return of Restaurant Wars Anthony Bourdain and Restaurant Wars both return to 'Top Chef: All Stars' for the Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011, episode
- Colicchio v. 'Top Chef' Contestants As 'Top Chef: All Stars' returns for 2011, judge and chef Tom Colicchio faces off with the contestants in a Quickfire challenge
- L.A. Times Food Critic Outed Los Angeles Times 'anonymous' food critic S. Irene Virbila has been outed by an irate restaurant owner, who took and posted her picture with scathing remarks online
- Things Get Bloody on 'Top Chef' Top Chef: All Stars on Dec. 22 forces the chefs to prepare a holiday dish using only their hands and not utensils
- Tonight on 'Top Chef: All Stars': Mise en Place Relays and More For its Dec. 15, 2010, episode 'Top Chef: All Stars' has the contestans competing in four of New York's top restaurants.
- They Give Free Peanuts, Don't They? Five Guys Burgers and Fries may be getting rave reviews for some unknown reason, but my visit left me completely unsatisfied--full of meat and potatoes but not taste
- Zwacked-Out Oatmeal Cookies Zwack is a traditional Hungarian after-dinner liqueur that smacks of licorice and other spices but is best mixed in a drink called an Oatmeal Cookier
- Singer Joe Jonas to Serve as Guest Judge on 'Top Chef: All Stars' Singing sensation and Disney star Joe Jonas will be a guest judge on the 12/08 episode of 'Top Chef: All Stars'
- 'Top Chef All Stars' Debuts Dec. 1 Get a sneak peak at the opening episode of 'Top Chef All Stars,' which reunited 18 'losers' for a final chance at redemption!
- 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' Wraps Up It's down to the final three chef'testants, Yigit, Morgan and Danielle, but it's still anyone's guess who will take the cake and top honors this season on Bravo's Top Chef: Just Desserts airing tonight (Nov. 17.)
- 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' Season Finale Tonight on WE tv The we.tv series 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' comes to a close with a champion crowned tonight, Nov. 14, 2010
- As Season Finale Approaches, Down to Four on 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' The Wednesday, Nov. 10, episode of 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' finds the remaining four contestants battling it out over truffles for a spot in the finale
- 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' Declares War in a Sugary Type of War 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' uses a version of restaurant war called dessert war on the Oct. 27 episode
- Wanted: A Quickfire Souffle! Top Chef: Just Desserts melds fashion and chocolate on the Oct. 13 episode
- 'Top Chef: Just Desserts': Stress Test The heat is on as contestants weigh their fates in week three of Top Chef: Just Desserts.
- Will the Pea Puree Thief Stand Up? Will Alex own up to stealing the pea puree on tonight's Top Chef Reunion?
- 'Top Chef: Just Desserts' Debuts Top Chef: Just Desserts makes its debut on Sept. 16 on Bravo TV following the crowning of the new Top Chef.
- 'Top Chef' Real Finale Tonight Top Chef reaches its finale tonight, Sept. 16, in Singapore, as Angelo falls ill and Hung springs to the rescue!
- Whitney Doesn't Collapse This Time Master Chef finals, coming up Sept. 15, looks to be a contest between the men and the women, two each for the final title and $250K in filthy lucre.
- Top Chefs Sling It Out in Singapore With the remaining four Top Chef contestants slugging it out in Asia, will this be a human version of the Singapore Sling on Top Chef Sept. 8, 2010?
- An 'Edward Scissorhands' Wedding Cake? See It Tonight on WE Tv A bakery team is challenged to create a cake based on "Edward Scissorhands" tonight on 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' on WE Tv
- Slim Lusts for Joe Bastianich? Wow! With Slim gone, there's not much charm left on Master Chef, so I'll have to root for beauty-cum-brains in contestant Sheetal Bhagat.
- Amanda Gone, Others Set to Blast Off Acerbic chef-author-raconteur Anthony Bourdain is set to liven up proceedings on the Sept. 1, 2010, episode of Top Chef.
- 'Amazing Wedding Cakes' Returns Amazing Wedding Cakes, a new competition, premieres on WE Tv this Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010.
- Is Sheetal on the Master Chef Black List to Reduce Her Exposure? Sheetal Bhagat is not only a surviving participant on Gordon Ramsay's Master Chef TV competition, she is also a natural beauty with talent and ambition, who may be getting reduced in air time because of her marketing efforts.
- How About Squid on a Stick? Will the remaining six Top Chef contestants consider the Japanese baseball snack squid-on-a-stick as they prepare 'innovative' treats for fans at a Washington Nationals baseball game?
- Is There Life After Kenny? Top Chef takes on a secret mission as the finalists cook at the CIA for a group of spymasters.
- Western Foodservice Expo Hits L.A. The Western Foodservice and Hopistality Expo runs at the Los Angeles Convention Center through Monday, Aug. 16, 2010. Next year—back to San Diego.
- Restaurant Wars Return to 'Top Chef' As 'Top Chef' Washington, D.C., draws to a close, the producers rolls out the legendary restaurant war competition.
- 'Top Chef' Finalists Face Ethiopian Challenge on Quickfire The remaining Top Chef contestants tackle a variety of foreign cuisines for Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson and foreign dignitaries on the Aug. 4, 2010, episode.
- 'Top Chef' 7/21: Let the Sniping Begin 'Top Chef' on July 21 lets teams of finalists judge one another--let the sniping begin!
- Thipthara Thai: You Can't Go Wrong It seems hard to beat Thai restaurants in a pinch--the food is usually reasonable and tasty.
- Seafood Tryst Comes to 'Top Chef' If you’re a seafood person, this week’s Top Chef episode is guaranteed to make your mouth water, because what’s a season in D.C. without a little bit of blue crabs in a Quickfire Challenge? Then for the Elimination Round, it’s a cl...
- U-No: There Is Truth in Advertising Who was it who said, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker"? I agree, but I'll take a U-No candy bar any day--and quaff it down with Guinness.
- True Lemon Contest Closes July 7 True Citrus is sponsoring a recipe contest that must include use of one of their products; it closes July 7, 2010.
- Not Route 66, Not a Dive Viva Villa Tagueria in Fontana, Calif., is neither one Route 66 nor a dive in the classical sense, but it sure serves tasty Tex-Mex food with great salsas.
- Soul of a New Cuisine Is the cooking of Marcus Samuelsson truly stellar? If my trip to the Signature Kitchen in Costa Mesa is any indication, yes, it is.
- Ripert to the Rescue: 'Top Chef' Returns for a Lucky Seven French chef extradordinaire--and ultimate gentlemen--Eric Ripert is joining the Judges' Table when season seven of Top Chef gets under way June 16.
- Of Cabbages and Kings, Top Chefs, Head Chefs and Wannabe Stars Now comes Next Food Network Star to round out the summer's reality cooking shows.
- Handicapping 'Top Chef Masters' Finale: Who Wears the Crown? Le Food News predicts Susur Lee will win the 2010 competition for the title of Top Chef Master.
- Top Chef Masters Called On to Improvise, Or Be Eliminated During the next-to-the-last round of competition for the Iron Chef Master title, the contestants are given a three-word riddle by which to prepare their Elimination Round dish.
- Welcome to Le Food News™ 4.0 Le Food News somehow survives and endures despite hackers and database glitches by yours truly, the owner-operator-food-newsie.
