Bourdain and Lawson are the new odd couple

June 8, 2012 by
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Via the Eater, ABC has just announced a new competition cooking show for the fall starring a real odd couple - Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson. And here's the best part - if you think you're a good cook, you can be a part of it. The competitor casting calls are now open: "Do you sizzle in the kitchen and… read more

Julia Child’s top 100 recipes

June 3, 2012 by
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Like many food-related sites, Food Republic is celebrating Julia Child's upcoming 100th birthday with celebratory articles. We thought this effort -- asking a group of top food people, including Amanda Hesser, chefs Thomas Keller and Jacques Pepin, and Ruth Reichl, to select their favorites from Julia's recipes - was particularly stimulating. The list is fascinating, whether you're looking for new recipe ideas, old… read more

British food critic spares no feelings

May 30, 2012 by
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Jay Rayner is a well-known (though not, perhaps, well-loved) dining critic in England, about to publish a book: My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways to Have a Lousy Night Out. In this Zagat interview he wastes no time in explaining, about other things, how to tell if a restaurant is likely to be dismal, what the difference is between U.S. and U.K. restaurant… read more

Two chefs ignore lofty food goals in favor of brilliant food

May 22, 2012 by
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The New York Times has a thought-provoking article interviewing two famous chefs - Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz of Spain. In the article, For Them a Great Meal Tops Good Intentions, both push aside the social idea of social responsibility that many chefs (Alice Waters leading the field) regard as their raison d'être. As these two argue: "Supporting local agriculture and food… read more

Food Blogger Controversy: A Follow-up

May 17, 2012 by
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We recently took notice of a blog on the IACP site attacking food bloggers, (see our blog, Should amateur food bloggers be paid to develop recipes?) and the web has energetically picked up the argument. We wanted to follow up with a couple of items. First, the IACP has weighed in now with their entry, A Brief Bit of Context… read more

Cookbook collaboration: How it should work

May 15, 2012 by
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Andrew Friedman is a highly regarded cookbook collaborator and on his website, Toqueland, he's just finished a fascinating two-part series on how to create a unique cookbook. Admittedly spurred on by the recent controversy about cookbook collaborations, he presents the opposite story - how a good working relationship can produce a valuable and unique cookbook. Harold Dieterle, the winner of Top… read more

Cocktail preferences from famous fiction writers and from famous chefs

May 10, 2012 by
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 Over at theKitchn, they're celebrating Cocktail Week. We found two of their articles, 10 Famous Fiction Writers and Their Cocktails, and 25 Food Writers Share Their Safety Drinks especially informative. The first article deals with what famous fiction authors, e.g. Hemingway, Faulkner, Chandler, preferred to drink. Among some of the fun facts: James Bond ordered 19 vodka martinis and 16 gin… read more

Did Rachael Ray exorcise Martha Stewart’s evil spirits from her studio?

May 8, 2012 by
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I guess it's Wacky Tuesday, at least according to the New York Post. As reported in this article, "Tv chef  Rachael Ray has asked staffers to perform a wacky exorcism ritual while planning her move into arch rival Martha Stewart's Chelsea studio, ordering them to burn bundles of sage to chase away negative 'spirits'." The Post goes on to quote an expert from… read more

A day in the life of Fany Gerson

May 5, 2012 by
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  Fany Gerson, author of the delectable cookbooks Paletas and My Sweet Mexico shared a day in her life on Food52.   It sounds completely exhausting between getting up at 6am, making and selling ices all day and retrieving her car late at night from the pound. read more

Jeffrey Steingarten goes on the Master Cleanse regime

May 4, 2012 by
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The Master Cleanse is one of those fad/extreme diets that seems to pop up every ten years or so. Currently, it's hot -- with celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé rumored to follow the regime. It's a simple diet, just consume 6 to 12 drinks day, making the drink from water, fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. The… read more

Who’s the richest chef?

April 30, 2012 by
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Over at Eater, they've calculated who the richest chef in the world is. Admittedly, we were surprised. Yes, Wolfgang Puck made the list, as did Rachael Ray, but who would have guessed Jamie Oliver? Check the names out here. read more

How much celebrity chef news can you take?

April 30, 2012 by
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As reported in the New York Times, a new website, The Braiser will go live in a couple of weeks with constant coverage of "chefs who have cultivated a worldwide reputation".  It will be interesting to see if they can come up with enough news and features on a daily basis to fill an entire site. Or will they end… read more

A tour of Mario Battali’s kitchen

April 29, 2012 by
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Most of us who love to cook have experienced kitchen envy. And editors know this; glossy tours of famous chefs' kitchens have been standard articles in food magazines and online. So while this tour of Mario Battali's home kitchen from Chew is not unusual, we found it had a few surprises. First, it's not full of monstrous, gleaming commercial appliances;… read more

What do celebrity chefs eat when they get the munchies?

April 22, 2012 by
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The people at Eatocracy (CNN) asked numerous celebrity chefs - Daniel Boulud, John Besh, Michael Chiarello, Gail Simmons, Marcus Samuelson among others - what they eat when they get the munchies. They confess to eating the same things most of us resort to when we want to indulge; but the funniest part of the whole video is at the beginning,… read more

Where are cookbooks headed?

April 20, 2012 by
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  Cookbook author Denise Vivaldo is the owner of more than 1,000 cookbooks and the author of several herself.  In her article today in the Huffington Post she explains why holding a cookbook in her hands is so important to her. read more

It’s all competition, cleavage, nastiness

April 11, 2012 by
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Mark Bittman, long time columnist for The New York Times and author of How to Cook Everything had a frank discussion recently with Ruth Reichl. The subject of Food TV came up and Bittman held nothing back. Besides commenting that "it's all competition, cleavage, nastiness" he added that no one could even learn how to scramble an egg from the… read more

A peek into America’s Test Kitchen

April 10, 2012 by
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  Dianne Jacob of the Will Write for Food blog interviews Doc Willoughby, Executive Editor of the Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines.  He explains how they test recipes (over and over and over) and shares his thoughts on free recipes.  And you can calculate how much they earn from their websites - it's stunning! read more

Advice for future food writers

April 10, 2012 by
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In Cooking From Every Angle, Advice for Future Food Writers, Food 52's Amanda Hesser gives indepth and realistic advice to anyone looking to make a career in food writing. Of particular interest is that she notes how much her advice has changed from just a few years ago. Besides the explosion of food writing online (blogs, etc.) there is also… read more

Anthony Bourdain is much more than just a not so pretty face

April 6, 2012 by
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Like him or loathe him, Anthony Bourdain is one of the most fascinating figures in the food world today. After exposing the "seamy underbelly" of a commercial kitchen in Food Confidential, he moved on to traveling the world and introducing lesser-known food and cultures. But he has taken on other personas, including being the voice that punctures the adoring fan… read more

IACP expands its awards to infinity and beyond (or at least the new media)

April 3, 2012 by
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The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) has traditionally handed out annual cookbook awards, among the most prestigious in the industry. Additionally, they have honored great culinary writing with the Bert Greene Awards. This year, in a further outreach, they expanded their awards to include "New Media and Broadcast," a group containing online food blogs, websites, and culinary video and… read more

Are food blogs over?

March 30, 2012 by
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Adam Roberts, over at The Amateur Gourmet (@amateurgourmet), has been a successful and popular food blogger since 2004 and has experienced first-hand the explosion of food blogs over the internet. He has just published a thoughtful piece of whether food blogs are passé. As he comments, "Food blogs couldn't be huger; everyone with a camera and a soft palate has one."… read more

The favorite cookbooks of Jeremiah Tower

March 24, 2012 by
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  Jeremiah Tower, the founding chef at Chez Panisse and the founder of the legendary Stars restaurant in San Francisco, has now retired from professional cooking.  But he is still writing and reading and he shares in Eater's column The Cookbook Shelf, which are the most important books he owns. read more

Gail Monaghan on what makes a great chef

March 22, 2012 by
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In this brief (less than 2 minute) video, Gail Monaghan explores the mind of a chef, including the difference in mentality between a pastry chef and a cook. She also gives some basic tips that any good cook should follow to become a great cook, including a visual aid for adding the right amount of salt and a reminder to trust… read more

Andrew Carmellini comes clean on ghostwriters

March 19, 2012 by
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I just saw a funny tweet where chef Andrew Carmellini owns up to the important role his co-writer played in the writing of his two cookbooks.  If only all cookbook "authors" were this honest.  Though in full disclosure, his co-writer is also his wife! read more

Now Gwyneth too denies using ghostwriters

March 18, 2012 by
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Gwyneth Paltrow has added her voice to the chorus of cookbook authors denying they use ghostwriters.  It is interesting though that her book My Father's Daughter was used to illustrate the article in the New York Times that stirred up this hornet's nest.  What exactly did her co-writer Julia Turshen do if Gwyneth wrote every word herself, as she now claims? read more
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