Hairy Bikers star Dave Myers has passed away

Dave Myers, one half of TV cooking duo The Hairy Bikers, has died at the age of 66, two years after revealing he had been diagnosed with cancer. Born and bred in Barrow-in-Furness, Dave Myers joined the BBC as a make-up artist, and while traveling the world with hit TV series he picked up recipes with Si King, who became… read more

Catching up with Carla Hall

Carla Hall burst onto the scene with her run to the finale on season 5 of Bravo's Top Chef. Since then, Hall has kept busy with a variety of projects, on television and off, including a stint on The Chew. Next up for the busy chef? A new show on Max: Chasing Flavor, which the NYT's Kim Severson says is… read more

New series chronicles the rise of Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart wearing an all-white outfit smiles at the camera. The background is an off white just darker than Stewart's outfit.
A new four-part series from CNN (which will be broadcast later on Max), “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart,” chronicles the rise of the iconic domestic doyenne, from model to stockbroker to controller of a media empire. Eater's Bettina Makalintal provides us with a glimpse of what the limited series has to offer. The first two episodes trace Stewart's trajectory… read more

JBF announces semifinalists for restaurant and chef awards

Today the James Beard Foundation announced its slate of semifinalists for its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards. Nominees will be announced on Wednesday, April 3 and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (The cookbook award winners will be announced a few days prior to the… read more

Alison Roman’s latest project? A grocery store

Alison Roman, viral recipe hall-of-famer, cancel culture survivor, and bestselling cookbook author, has embarked on a new project. No, it isn't the culinary show she's been shopping around since she lost her deal with Hulu, it's a small grocery store in upstate New York. Called First Bloom, the shop opened recently and according to food writer Callie Hitchcock, it feels… read more

Batali attempts a comeback

Back in October, Mario Batali resurfaced on Instagram and hinted at a comeback with a message that said "virtual events coming soon." This week, Batali made good on his announcement, hosting a livestreamed, $50 per person cooking demo last week that featured cacio e pepe and bucatini all' Amatriciana. Batali hosted the show from his home in a tiny Michigan… read more

Chef and author Bill Granger has died at 54

Today we learned the sad news that Australian chef, television presenter. and author Bill Granger died on Christmas Day at the far too young age of 54. His family reported that he passed away peacefully, with his wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, by his side. According to the New Zealand Herald, it is believed that… read more

GBBO returns on 26 September, names contestants

The Great British Bake Off has announced the contestants for the upcoming season of the show, which premieres at 8:00 p.m. on 26 September in the UK. The contestants, as always, are a fascinating slice of the population, ranging from deli manager Amos to database administrator Dana to science teacher Matty. It's fun to imagine what kind of bakes each… read more

Jamila Robinson to head Bon Appétit and Epicurious

The Philadelphia Inquirer's assistant managing editor for food and culture, Jamila Robinson, has been tapped to lead Condé Nast magazine Bon Appétit and its companion website Epicurious, the newspaper announced earlier today. Robinson has been with the Inquirer since 2020, first as its food editor and then as an assistant managing editor. She will be replacing veteran book editor Dawn… read more

The celebrity endorsement

As I was scrolling through Twitter today, an advertisement featuring chef Gordon Ramsay appeared in my feed. Ramsey was extolling the virtues of Triscuit crackers, something the chef has been doing since February, according to AdWeek. The advertising campaign "features Ramsay as his authentic and unfiltered self and celebrates the wholesome but crunchy things in life that are full of… read more

Top Chef announces new host and location

Following Padma Lakshmi's departure after Season 20 of the Bravo TV show Top Chef, fans of the series were wondering who the producers would tap as a replacement for Lakshmi. Now we know that beginning with Season 21, the new host joining Gail Simmons and head judge Tom Colicchio will be former Top Chef winner Kristin Kish. Kish has maintained… read more

World’s 50 Best Restaurants

The annual ranking of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants was announced yesterday. As usual, European restaurants dominated the list, although the number one restaurant, Central, is located in Peru and there is again increased worldwide representation. Only two US restaurants - Le Bernardin and Atomix, both in New York City - landed in the top 50. Many chefs on the list… read more

James Beard Award-winning chef to open indigenous food lab

Chef Sean Sherman, whose Minneapolis restaurant Owamni was named the Best New Restaurant for 2022 by the James Beard Foundation and whose cookbook The Sioux Chef also won a JBF Award, has his sights set on a new venture in the Twin Cities that he is hoping to expand across the country. In conjunction with his nonprofit NATIFS, the chef… read more

Fortnum & Mason winners

On May 11, food and drink celebrities gathered at The Royal Exchange in London to fete winners of the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. These prestigious annual awards celebrate the achievements of the UK’s current and emerging food writers, publishers, photographers, broadcasters, and personalities. The ceremony was presented by Andi Oliver, alongside celebrated chef and Awards judging panel… read more

Another management shakeup at Bon Appétit

Food editors and writers who were recently laid off might want to dust off their résumés because Bon Appétit will be in the market for a new editor, as Dawn Davis resigned last week to rejoin publishing giant Simon & Schuster (gift link). “I’ve made the difficult decision to return to book publishing,” Ms. Davis wrote in a note to… read more

MasterChef judge and chef Jock Zonfrillo dies at age 46

On the eve of the latest season of Masterchef Australia, the family of judge Jock Zonfrillo posted that he had passed away on Sunday at the age of 46. No cause of death was given, and a police spokesperson said that were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. The program was set to premiere on Monday but was pulled after… read more

Boston chef Barbara Lynch accused of workplace abuse

Chef Barbara Lynch has long been the darling of the Boston restaurant scene. Her rags-to-riches story was chronicled in a 2017 memoir that recounts her rise from a hard-knocks South Boston childhood to culinary stardom. Now the James Beard Award-winning chef is facing criticism for alleged abuse and harassment at her restaurants (gift link; no account required). The New York… read more

The remarkable ‘mother of French cuisine’

Lyon is renowned for its culinary achievements, thanks in part to legendary chef Paul Bocuse. However, well before Bocuse reached the height of his success, another Lyonnaise chef was setting culinary records. Yet few people know about the chef, Eugénie Brazier (aka Mère Brazier). Her story is fascinating and deserves more recognition, says the BBC's Anna Richards. Brazier never completed… read more

Too many (celebrity) cooks in the (TV) kitchen

The term "celebrity chef" used to mean a chef who became a celebrity. Now it is taking on a new meaning as more and more already famous people - actors, singers, reality show stars - create their own cooking shows. From Paris Hilton to Selena Gomez and now to Florence Pugh, these programs are proliferating on networks and streaming services.… read more

René Redzepi is closing Noma

Award-winning restaurant Noma, which sat atop the list of World's 50 Best five times since its debut nearly 20 years ago, is slated to close at the end of 2024, according to a statement posted on the restaurant's website. But the restaurant, its pioneering owner, and unique team of fermenting researchers and avantgarde chefs, are not disappearing altogether. Rather, they… read more

Celebrity chefs take branding to the next level

Celebrity chefs and lifestyle gurus like Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray have created vast empires of branded products that include cookware and food products sold at various retailers ranging from K-Mart to Williams-Sonoma. More recently, this concept has expanded to include entire stores dedicated to a single chef's curated product selection. This allows these celebrities to become a presence not… read more

Bestselling Canadian cookbook author Jean Paré dies at 95

One of Canada's most prolific and beloved cookbook authors, Jean Paré, passed away in Edmonton, Alberta this week at the age of 95. Beginning in 1981 with the publication of 150 Delicious Squares (Company's Coming) through 2018, when she co-authored Instant One-Pot Cooking (New Original), Paré wrote 200 cookbooks. Paré ran the three-generation publishing business called Company's Coming. "My grandma… read more

Julie Powell, of Julie & Julia fame, dies at 49

We have just learned that Julie Powell, whose blog about her quest to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, died on October 26 at age 49. Powell's blog attracted the attention of NYT reporter and Food52 founder Amanda Hesser, who wrote about Powell's efforts. Powell wrote a book about her experience,… read more

Cookbook author Sheila Brass of The Brass Sisters has died

Today is a day of mourning as the world copes with the loss of one of its most iconic individuals, Queen Elizabeth II, England's longest-ruling monarch. Food & Wine published a feature earlier this year about how the Queen affected dining habits the world over. The term 'end of an era' is often overused, but it certainly applies here. Whether… read more

Andrea Nguyen discusses the cookbook business

Adam Roberts, one of the first breakout food bloggers, launched a new podcast earlier this year called The Amateur Gourmet Podcast (named after his blog and taking a bit of a turn from his previous podcast called Lunch Therapy). Several episodes feature the topic Eat Your Books Members love best: cookbooks, including the most recent episode, in which Roberts interviews… read more
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