The Television Food Network GP

Giada Denies John Mayer Hookup; People Still Pissed at Cash-Only Restos

​Even Peter Meehan has experienced foodie righteousness gone mad: "What I'm worried about is that as the food thing gets trendier and trendier, at some point the know-it-alls will scare off the casually interested. Maybe even their fellow foot soldiers. Is that sustainable?" [T Magazine] The ... More >>

Food Network Launches an App; New Bacon Soda Is Gross

​Domino's Pizza in Japan has announced it will hire someone for a mysterious one-hour job in December that will pay 2.5 million yen ($31,000). [AP] Meanwhile, Domino's in Europe is opening its first store in Germany, in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, this Saturday. [PR Newswire] Food ... More >>

Where to Eat Along the Marathon Route; Grimaldi's Owner Sues Landlady

​In the kitchen with Adam Rapoport, the new editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, who believes the magazine "can and should build on the massive interest in food in this country." [NY Times] Wondering where to eat as you cheer on this year's marathoners? Mile 2: Bay Ridge's Longbow Pub and Pantry, ... More >>

The Guy Fieri Show at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City

​The chef steps away for a moment, and the duck begins to burn. Julia Moskin published an excellent piece in the NY Times this morning on the subject of a Guy Fieri show she'd witnessed in Atlantic City recently. As luck would have it, I attended the same show. Here are my personal impression ... More >>

Taco Bell Linked to Salmonella Outbreak; Thomas' English Muffins Go to Court

​Some people in L.A., where restaurant letter grades have existed for some time, apparently seek out eateries with a B or C grade, as that usually means great, authentic ethnic food. [NY Daily News] Just as Taco Bell launches its new Carnitos Tacos, the chain is being linked to two multi-stat ... More >>

Chopped's Mario Tolentino 'In' at Juliet Supperclub; David Burke 'In' at James New York Hotel

​Mario Tolentino, who recently won the latest season of Food Network's Chopped, has taken over the kitchen at Juliet Supperclub, and overhauled the menu to focus on street foods from across the globe. [The Strong Buzz] David Burke is rumored to be cooking at the forthcoming James New York bou ... More >>

Daniel Boulud to Go Grilling, Neelys to Pig Out

The Food NetworkPat and Gina Neely will bring yet more pork products to New York.​From the polar opposite ends of the culinary spectrum come new developments in the quasi-Upper Manhattan dining scene: Daniel Boulud's new place across the street from Lincoln Center will have a "grilling concept ... More >>

Tickets Are Now On Sale for the New York Wine & Food Festival

​As of today, you can buy tickets for the New York Wine & Food Festival, which will return to town for the third year in a row from October 7 - 10. The usual Food Network suspects -- Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis -- will be there, along with such actual chefs as Heston Blumentha ... More >>

Shocker: New Yorkers Don't Need a Yard to Grill; Big Salt Fights Back

​New Yorkers didn't need a backyard to grill this past Memorial Day weekend. There are 36 parks across the city that have areas for barbecuing, and people will even cook on their fire escapes. [NY Times] Flooding, poor construction, and a string of related delays made the long road for two wo ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Worst Food Show Hairstyles

​Tomorrow, we'll take a long, leisurely look at the worst hairstyles ever bestowed upon the viewing public by a televised cooking show. Our picks will be in no way limited to the Food Network, though its stable of talent has inarguably produced plenty of offenders. Whether or not they're more ... More >>

Slashfood Serves Up Some Cheesecake

Say 'cheesecake'!​ Slashfood's gone and singled out 10 lusty ladies for its 10 Hottest Women in the Food Industry list. Looking at the list, the "food industry" designation seems a bit inaccurate.

Food Network Back on Cablevision; Brooklyn Gets a Gay Cookbook

​A week after losing its high-profile chef, Fabio Trabocchi, who had only been in the position for three months, The Four Seasons restaurant is also saying farewell its dining room manager, James Olson, who will be the general manager at the new Tavern on the Green. [NY Post] The Cablevision- ... More >>

Starbucks Bounces Back; American Goes Crazy for "Cabbage Crack" (Kimchi)

​Restaurants are starting to offer more luxurious prix-fixe menus -- or more downscale tasting menus, depending on your perspective. Upscale Greek Milos Estiatorio, The Capital Grille, and Dovetail are all offering wallet-friendly multiple-course menus. [Nation's Restaurant News] Emeril Lagas ... More >>

Forget Food Network. Watch Your Gastro-Programming Online.

How about a little cycle with that bake?​Cablevision customers may not be able to get their Food Network, but with the proliferation of quality online culinary programs, they might no longer need it. There's Liza de Guia's delightful mini documentaries about the city's chefs, farmers, and othe ... More >>

Food Network Fans Start a Facebook Page; A Vegetarian Author Gets Meaty

​Mollie Katzen, author of vegetarian bibles The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, started eating meat again recently, and so has included several recipes in her latest cookbook for vegetarians that incorporate meat. [Newsweek] Muslim immigrants who own small businesses lik ... More >>

Cablevision Drops Food Network; Quarter Pounder Inventor Dies

​Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is up in arms about Cablevision dropping HGTV and Food Network. He recently twittered: "Bang away at Cablevision... can't believe there [sic] not showing Food Network," after the channels were dropped in a fee dispute with owner Scripps Network. [NY Post] An upstate ... More >>

Michelle Obama hosts Iron Chef America tonight

​First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting her signature healthy eating initiative on Iron Chef tonight with a fresh vegetable challenge. The secret ingredient is anything the contestants can gather from the White House garden. White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, a holdover from the Bu ... More >>

Under the Toque: Anne Burrell Talks Worst Cooks; Daniel Boulud Shares NYC Love

​Anne Burrell reveals the worst thing she tasted on her new Food Network show Worst Cooks in America: "The turnip surprise. It was hollowed out turnips and rutabagas, stuffed with tri-tip beef, asparagus, and rhubarb, tossed in a saute pan and put in the oven-- no salt, no oil, whole turnips, ... More >>

Top Buzzy Openings of 2010; Worst Food Safety Scandals of 2009

​What are some of the buzziest openings to look forward to in 2010? Keith McNally and Nate Appleman's Pulino's Bar and Pizzeria, natch. But also Loreley Williamsburg, Zak Pelaccio's Fatty Cue, and No. 7 Sub in the Ace Hotel. [Metromix] The city is getting increasingly lax on smoking speakeasi ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain Pauses to Reflect on 2007, the Year That the Food World Tilted on Its Axis

Anthony Bourdain in a reflective moment.​As this miserable decade exhales its last, poisonous breaths, Anthony Bourdain has a few thoughts to share about what's changed in the food world not over the last 10 years, but the last three.

Things to do this weekend for (mostly) free

​Sunday: Free screening of Spellbound at the Mid-Manhattan library Sunday. Ingrid Bergman is (say it with me) an icy, unapproachable blonde (what are the odds) freudian psychiatrist who falls for amnesiac patient Gregory Peck and runs off with him to analyze his nightmares and prove he didn't ... More >>

Rachael Ray in the Nude, Floating in the River Evoo

​ It's no Paula Deen pot roast doll, but this classical (and classy!) nude painting of Rachael Ray by Alex Gardega is up there with foodie gift idea no-nos.

11 of the Absolute Worst. Gifts. Ever.

​Unless you're trying to express discernible disdain for your Secret Santa pick this year, you'll want to avoid the gift ideas on Food Network Humor's list of 11 Awful Gifts for Foodies and Cooks. It includes such cringeworthy gems as the eerie Paula Deen Makes a Pot Roast doll, inappropriatel ... More >>

From the Annals of the Randomly Hilarious: Top 10 Foodies Who Look Like Old Lesbians

​ Food Network Humor, living up mightily to the last part of its name, has compiled a rather hilarious photo gallery of the Top 10 Foodies That Look Like Old Lesbians. Anthony Bourdain, Richard Blais, and Alton Brown, we're looking at you. [Via Eat Me Daily]

The Food Network Shows Brian Boitano Another Season of Love

The Food Network has by now so thoroughly abandoned any pretense of building its programming around actual professional chefs that a show like What Would Brian Boitano Make? seems less a glaring anomaly than an embodiment of the channel's unstated belief that cooking is a matter of personality, no ... More >>

Marshall Efron's Screw-You to the Food Network: Sardine Rarebit

Marshall Efron, of The Great American Dream Machine fame and author of such children's books as Bible Stories You Can't Forget: No Matter How Hard You Try, takes on the Food Network with a recipe so vile no cooking show host could stomach it. It begs the question: just how mmm-delicious are all th ... More >>

Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cooking Schools Appropriated by Wannabe Terrorists

​The goons who were allegedly plotting to kill politicians, mall shoppers, and American troops in Iraq apparently spent some time watching the Food Network: According to an AP story, Tarek Mehanna and his conspirators allegedly used the code words "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Soma ... More >>

Assorted Food Industry Folk Offer Their Thoughts on the Future of American Food and What Food TV Has Wrought

Mike Licht/NotionsCapitol.com/flickr​Yesterday, NYU held a panel discussion entitled "Food Show: When Performance Becomes Lunch and Why We Finally Have an Appetite for a New Sort of Cooking Show." Though the title could have used a bit of editing, the panelists were a well-curated bunch: Harol ... More >>

Pix from the Fringes of the New York City Wine & Food Festival

​ The most frightening part of the festival was certainly the pumpkin Guy Fieri. This last weekend from Thursday through Sunday, Chelsea Market was the epicenter of a welter of classes, demonstrations, personal appearances, food seminars, and frenetic promotional activities that were part of ... More >>

Food Network to Go Global; Daniel Joins Michelin Three-Star Club

​A group of food corps is launching the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a national, multi-year campaign to help reduce obesity -- especially childhood obesity -- by 2015. [PR Newsire] A study reveals that customers at fast-food chains, such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and KFC, ... More >>

Foods Go High Fiber; Taco Bell Gets a First Meal

​In a response to consumer demand for more nutritious foods, food companies are putting out fiber-rich products once again. Danone, Kellogg, and General Mills are among those that have added extra fiber to some of their product lines. [Wall Street Journal] Food equals ratings on networks like ... More >>

Shows This Weekend: TV on the Radio in Central Park, Hangover-Obliterating Techno, and Alcoholic-Chef Competitions

Friday Noted Björk collaborators the Dirty Projectors join 2008 Pazz & Jop winners TV on the Radio in Central Park Friday night to benefit this year's free Central Park SummerStage slate. Beware of projectile vomiting at Webster Hall; Chromeo's Dave 1 is DJing tonight. Trumpet virtuoso Ralph Ale ... More >>

The Next Food Network Star--Who Do You Like?

Photo borrowed from Food NetworkThe Next Food Network Star premieres this Sunday and the contestants have been introduced. There's the perky mom next door (Jen Isham), the less perky mom next door (Melissa d'Arabian), the soulful Korean mama (Debbie Lee), and the health nut who secretly loves bacon ... More >>

POUR SOME BEER ON ME

Amateur cook-offs escalate to alcohol

Swine Flu Unrelated to Actual Pigs; Meat Will Still Kill You

The United Nations' food agency sent animal health experts to Mexico to determine if swine flu is really linked to pigs. So far, there is no evidence that humans contracted this strain of flu from our porcine friends. [Reuters] Food Network has launched Food2, a new website aimed at a young, hipper ... More >>

Food.com Launches--Get Ready to Seach Recipes From Bon Appetit to Recipezaar

Food.com, owned by Scripps, which is the Food Network's parent company, has launched in beta form to little fanfare. The new site allows home cooks to search recipes from every major food media outlet (blogs excluded, for now). Sporting a minimalist look, the site touts itself as "the best ever onli ... More >>

This Week in Chef News

-According to a press release, Gavin Portsmouth will join Chai Trivedi in the kitchen as a Co-Chef at Pranna; the two previously worked together at the late Sapa. Read between the press lines: "The pair will continue to cook Pranna's travel-inspired Southeast Asian fare however, Gavin will lend his ... More >>

Recipe Improv with Alexandra Guarnaschelli

Ted Allen's New Show, Celery, and why Anthony Bourdain won't Guest Star

Anne Burrell's 'Secrets,' Plus Resto Reccs and Why Being a Girl Chef isn't a Big Deal

NYC Wine and Food Fest: Tickets On Sale Monday!

Iron Chef Boyardee

Our man Sietsema opens up a can of worms

Jamie Oliver Cooks in a Beenie, Naturally

Food Network: Emeril Out, Batali Close Behind?

Coming Soon: Virtual Food TV

Top Sous Chef?

Almost Famous

Reality TV spawns spin-offs: Wannabes compete for spots and hope to become Mega Stars

Like Pater for ‘Chocolat’