Chef Report

CHICAGO, Nov. 29 PRNewswire — Five-star chef Charlie Trotter will bring his superlative-culinary experience to the Elysian Hotel and Private Residences, flagship of a new ultra-luxury brand, under construction at 11 East Walton Street and scheduled to open in 2008. The venture marks Trotter’s first collaboration in the U.S. and the latest success for the Gold Coast development.

“We talked with some of the nation’s foremost chefs about creating a restaurant truly attuned to the quality and character of the Elysian. In Charlie, we found the ideal partner, whose standards of excellence equal our own,” said David Pisor, founding partner and chief executive officer of the property’s developer, Elysian Worldwide. “Widely regarded as one of America’s finest chefs, Charlie is an icon and true innovator in the worlds of food and service. We couldn’t be more thrilled about our association with him.” more…

Celebrity Chef Daniel Boulud screamed vicious obscenities at Hispanic workers and promoted unqualified white workers who fit the upscale image of his four-star French eatery Daniel, a lawsuit claims.Seven Latino and Bangladeshi busboys and runners who worked at Daniel sued Boulud in Manhattan Federal Court yesterday, accusing the award-winning chef of racial and ethnic discrimination.

“They don’t want to see anyone who is a captain who is Bengali or Latino,” said Mir Kadir Mamun, 30, a Bangladeshi busboy from Queens who says he was fired in May after airing complaints with federal officials. “They are never going to promote us.”

The workers say they were also forced to remain in back-breaking, low-paying jobs that require lifting heavy trays of food. more…

Christina Bayens — 26 and born with cystic fibrosis — needed a double lung transplant but she and her middle-class Louisville parents faced a dilemma.

How would they pay thousands of dollars of bills not covered by insurance?

Sitting on a hotel bed in St. Louis after visiting doctors in January — laughing and crying at the prospect of raising money — Christina and her mother, Linda, saw a television news report.

Twelve men from a New York Moose Lodge had posed partially nude for a calendar to raise money for a children’s charity.

“Naked chefs,” Linda blurted out.

Thus was born the “Louisville Chefs’ Best Kept Secrets” calendar — featuring male and female chefs from the city’s top tables, showing off their ingredients — which is now on sale at various local restaurants. more…

The first orders Walter Scheib III remembers receiving from Laura Bush’s new social secretary, Lea Berman, still ring in his ears: “We need to stop serving this country-club food.” Scheib, who was then the White House executive chef, was speechless for several moments before he finally blurted out, “We are not serving what we want; we are serving what the first family wants to have.”Within two months of Berman’s arrival, in December 2004, Scheib was asked by the chief usher, Gary Walters, who is in charge of White House operations, to hand in his resignation. Scheib agreed to stay on until his replacement was found, but the next day he told The New York Times that he had been fired. As soon as the article was published the White House asked him to clear out immediately.

Quite a comedown, he admitted in a recent interview, from his days in the previous administration, when Hillary Clinton had charged this fiercely competitive, meticulously organized chef with bringing “what’s best about American food, wine and entertaining to the White House.” His sophisticated contemporary food was generally considered some of the best ever served there.

But he was quick to say he would only talk about his difficulties as long as it was clear that he has no complaints about Laura Bush. more…

Jeri Ryan’s chef fiancé thrills her in the bedroom because he’s the first man she has met who really appreciates her lacy lingerie. The actress, who was previously married to politician Jack Ryan, insists her French lover Christophe Eme is a cut above most men because he makes her feel extra special when she wears sexy undies for him. more…

Homeless Philadelphians, Chef Foo may soon be teaching you the finer points of cooking.

Thanks to a deal reached with prosecutors, Susanna Foo, a nationally acclaimed chef and restaurateur, is to teach cooking to the city’s poor and homeless instead of facing trial for allegedly striking a Parking Authority ticket writer.

Foo, 63, of Villanova, was to have had a hearing yesterday in Municipal Court on assault charges arising from the Sept. 29 incident. Instead, prosecution and defense attorneys told Judge Francis Cosgrove that they had agreed to drop a simple-assault charge if Foo stays out of trouble for six months and devotes 50 hours to community service.

She will perform that community service for Project HOME, whose cofounder, Sister Mary Scullion, said she was excited to learn of the idea yesterday from the law firm defending Foo. “We have different programs that could utilize her expertise,” Sister Mary said in a telephone interview. “She’s such a phenomenal restaurant person.” more…

Follow up to this story

Fiance: Officer Miscarries After Fight With Chef

Susanna Foo’s alleged victim has miscarriage

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay opened his first U.S. restaurant on Thursday, with an assurance he would not try to push New Yorkers into their own kitchens as he did British women.

Ramsay said he would not interfere with the “fascinating scenario” in restaurant-loving New York, even though his television crusade for home cooking struck a chord in Britain, where he said young women had become a lazy “chardonnay and Pringle (potato chip) brigade.”

New Yorkers eat out at least four times a week, with the trend growing every year, a Zagat dining survey released last month showed.

Ramsay’s new restaurant, with formal dining for 45 people and a bar for more casual dining for up to 70, already is booked for the first two months. The menu feature dishes such as his signature Cappuccino of White Beans and lobster ravioli.

“I’m not here telling New Yorkers they have got to get into their kitchens,” Ramsay told Reuters as he stood in the sparkling $6.5 million kitchen of “Gordon Ramsay at the London” in the new luxury London NYC hotel. more…

Chef Edouardo Jordan started his culinary career at an early age in the kitchens of his mother and grandmother in St. Petersburg, Florida. As a top graduate of his high school, Edouardo had a decision to make: culinary school or college. He chose college. After graduating from the University of Florida with degrees in Business Administration and Sports Management, Edouardo, determined to apply his degrees, started an online restaurant guide for his hometown. His love for food and restaurants drove him to indulge his self in food. Spending nearly a year researching recipes, visiting restaurants, managing the website and critiquing food, Edouardo decided to follow his passion, he enrolled into culinary school. As a student at Le Cordon Bleu’s Orlando Culinary Academy, Edouardo excelled in the classroom and the kitchen, managing to graduate top of his class. Edouardo has studied under some of the greatest minds in the industry, spending time under pastry chef Ewald Notter in Orlando, Florida; Chef Marty Blitz at Mise en Place in Tampa, Florida; Chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, California and a stint at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. Chef Jordan is currently working under Chef Jerry Traunfeld at the Herbfarm restaurant in Woodinville, Washington and spends his days off catering to his magnificent clients in the King County and surrounding areas.

Thank you for your interest in Nouvelle Personal Chef Service. If you have any questions or would like to set-up an interview please contact Chef Jordan.

Ejordan@nouvellechef.com

Phone: 425-489-4127

PARIS - So much for Tang. The crew of the international space station will be dining upscale.

Top chef Alain Ducasse whipped up a little something for them to eat that’s worthy of his award-winning restaurants.

Meals cooked up by Ducasse were on board a Progress M-58 cargo ship that blasted off Monday for the international space station, France’s National Center for Space Studies said Wednesday.

The menu includes caponata, a Sicilian dish made of peppers, tomatoes and zucchini; roasted quails in a wine sauce from France’s Madiran region; smooth celery root puree with nutmeg; and rice pudding with preserved fruit.

Cooking for space isn’t like cooking in a restaurant. So the French space center says Ducasse had to do a fair bit of experimenting before the dishes were ready to go.

Ducasse, who has award-winning restaurants in Paris, New York and Monaco, and chefs from ADF, his consultancy and training department, developed recipes to meet the difficult requirements of dining in space, including zero bacteria. more…

Related article:

Station Crew to ‘Kick It Up a Notch’ With Chef Emeril Lagasse

NEW LONDON, Conn. — The most important person on a movie set isn’t always the director, writer, producer, cameraman, sound technician or even the star.

Sometimes, the most important person on a movie set is the chef. This makes Roger Poirier the big man on campus during the filming of the ESPN miniseries “The Bronx Is Burning,” which is taking place at Dodd Stadium.

On a recent Tuesday, Poirier made breakfast and lunch for 190 people. He turned out both meals from a restaurant-quality kitchen housed in a vehicle the size of a UPS delivery truck. Salads, vegetables, starches, chicken, beef and fish were all prepped and cooked in Poirier’s truck and served on a buffet line by his three assistants.

The cooks have been at the stadium since Sept. 23. They all work for Hanna Brothers Catering of Slidell, La., an eight-year-old company that specializes in catering film- and television-production locations. “The Army runs on its stomach, they say, and I think there is some truth to that in the film business as well,” said Jim Hanna, a co-owner of the company. Poirier, 43, has worked for Hanna for seven years, but he has been feeding crews on the sets of commercials, movies and TV shows since his father bought a catering truck when he was a teenager. He is a self-taught cook who keeps all his recipes in his head.

It is almost literally a life on the road. Poirier, who is married with two children, figures he is home in Missouri about two months a year. He has worked TV shows ranging from “Cheers” and “Dynasty” to “Star Trek: Next Generation” and “LA Law.” He has worked just as many movies, ranging from the current “The Guardian,” starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher to the upcoming “The Good Shepherd,” starring Al Pacino and Angelina Jolie. more…

A parking authority officer allegedly attacked by a celebrity chef has miscarried, says the officer’s fiance.Parking authority officer Juanita Lewis is recovering in her West Philadelphia home. In Monday, NBC 10 spoke with her fiance, Phillip Rhedrick.”She’s not doing good emotionally. Devastated. Shocked. Terrified. She’s under a lot of pressure,” said Phillip Rhedrick.Rhedrick says Lewis is having a tough time. Since Friday, the parking authority officer has been recuperating from what police are calling a beating by Susanna Lan, also known as Susanna Foo. Foo was later arrested by police.Rhedrick also told NBC 10 over the weekend that Lewis, a mother of five children, was two months pregnant and miscarried after the confrontation.Witnesses tell police that Lewis was issuing a parking ticket to a deliveryman outside Foo’s restaurant near 15th and Walnut when Foo started swinging.Rhedrick says Lewis had not had any problems with her pregnancy before she was attackedNow, the couple has hired an attorney. more…

Video 

Philadelphia police are taking a closer look at restaurateur Susanna Foo’s alleged assault of a Philadelphia Parking Authority employee because the alleged victim suffered a miscarriage over the weekend.

Juanita Lewis, 38, was seven weeks pregnant and writing a ticket when the confrontation occurred next to Foo’s Center City restaurant Friday afternoon, according to Phil Rhedrick, who identified himself as Lewis’ boyfriend.

Though Rhedrick was not at the scene, he described Foo as “real violent, punching, kicking, scratching… She was just outraged.” Lewis, he said, “tried to ward her off.”

The police report of the incident says the 63-year-old Foo - arrested under the name Susanna S. Lan - struck Lewis in the stomach and the face with an open hand after seeing Lewis ticket a van making a delivery to her restaurant. Foo was arrested and spent the night in a holding cell before she was released on her own recognizance Saturday morning.

Thomas J. Bader, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, said direct trauma was unlikely to cause a miscarriage so early in a pregnancy. It is later - when the uterus has expanded with the fetus - that direct trauma could seriously injure the baby, he said. more…

Susanna Foo

CHICAGO — Don’t come between foodies and their foie gras.

That was the message sent by Chicago diners who dug into foie gras dishes Monday, on the eve of the city’s ban on foie gras. High-end restaurants had special foie gras tastings to protest the ban, and even a few down-home sandwich and pizza joints added it to their menus for the occasion.

At the 676 Restaurant & Bar on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, chef Robert Gadsby topped foie gras with Pop Rocks candies, wrapped it in prosciutto, and blended it into hot chocolate as part of an “Outlaw Dinner” that also featured such controversial ingredients as wild morels, absinthe, unpasteurized imported cheese, and hemp seeds. While the seven-course, $140 dinner was completely legal, all the ingredients have been banned at some point.

Gadsby called the foie gras ban ridiculous.

“What’s next?” asked Gadsby, who also hosted an Outlaw Dinner last month at his Noe Restaurant & Bar in Los Angeles, where foie gras will be subject to a statewide ban by 2012. “They’ll outlaw truffles, then lobster, beluga caviar, oysters. There are diners who eat to fill a hunger urge, and there are diners who eat to be dazzled. If you take away the luxury ingredients, how can you dazzle them?”

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK A waiter at a trendy brasserie linked to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was charged with stealing credit card information from customers.

Dennis Szyller is accused of using the information to make 12-thosuand dollars in unauthorized purchases.

The district attorney’s office says the customers dined at Les Halles in Manhattan between May, June or July. more…

NEW ORLEANS - Katrina left a number of restaurant industry heroes in her wake. There were the chefs who rushed back as soon as possible to dish out food such as John Besh, Scott Boswell, Bob Iacovonne, Paul Prudhomme and Donald Link.

And there were big restaurant companies that didn’t panic, like the various Brennan families, who kept employees on their payrolls for several weeks after the storm.

But mere mention of two of the city’s highest-profile exports - Emeril Lagasse and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse - still draws venom from New Orleanians who feel scorned and abandoned.

The Ruth’s Chris chain, which laid its roots in New Orleans in 1965, moved its headquarters to Florida within a week after the storm. Its original Broad Street location, behind which founder Ruth Fertel lived until she died in 2002, is closed for good.

For superchef Emeril Lagasse, meanwhile, Katrina’s aftermath was also anything but happy, happy, happy. The most famous TV chef in the world - and most certainly Louisiana’s best-known citizen - was criticized for quickly firing employees at his New Orleans corporate office.

He was also taken to task in a commentary titled “Where’s Emeril?” by Times-Picayune restaurant writer Brett Anderson for failing to even visit the city where he owns three restaurants until months after the storm. The Bam! chef told Anderson that he was preoccupied with a national book tour for his 11th cookbook.

New Orleanians were nonplussed.

“That Lagasse, one of popular culture’s great media masters, took a pass on the chance to put his own mega-celebrity to good use at such an unprecedented moment,” Anderson wrote, “is just one of the many post-Katrina mysteries.”

After a New York Post columnist quoted Lagasse dissing the city (”It’s lost. It’ll never come back.”), Lagasse complained that he was harassed at a supermarket near his West Bank home, and then got “cut off on the road by a family throwing me the bird.”

Lagasse has since denied ever making the comments attributed to him in the Post. Eric Linquest, Lagasse’s vice president of operations, also said it was a “team decision” for Lagasse to stay in New York where “he could best help the situation” by raising money. more…

Who could possibly be next in the battle of Cheesecake photos? Some I would like to see, some should just stay in the kitchen. Please add your comments and be heard.

Gale Gand

Giada De Laurentiis

Ina Garten

Paula Deen

Sandra Lee

Sara Moulton

Not to be outdone by Rachael Ray, Cat Cora has now broken the seal on “sexy” in the kitchen. The 39-year-old Greek beauty, who hails from Jackson, MS, is the only female Iron Chef on the Food Network series. more…

Please leave your tasteful replies below.

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, known from the Food Network, had two horses running Monday.

He entered 2-year-old filly So phie’s Salad in the second race. Named after Flay’s daughter, So phie’s Salad finished last at 2-1 odds in the 1-1/16 race on the Mellon turf.

Unlike her 5-furlong debut at Saratoga on Aug. 9, when she came from behind to finish third, So phie’s Salad went straight to the lead under jockey Javier Castellano. She led entering the stretch before fading badly to finish more than 17 lengths behind winner Limoncella.

Flay is also part-owner of Unbridled Success, who finished third in the Grade I Hopeful Stakes, 5-1/4 lengths behind winner Circular Quay. more…

A chef from a ritzy Manhattan hotel was discovered naked and strangled in the living room of his Westchester County home, authorities said yesterday.David Webb, 44, had just returned home from an eight-hour shift at the tony Benjamin Hotel and was preparing to take a shower when he answered the door wearing only a towel after 1 a.m. Monday, cops said.

A housemate found Webb, known for his love of music and extravagant clothing, dead on the floor. An autopsy later ruled the death a homicide.

Since Webb’s strangulation bore a resemblance to Tuesday’s mysterious slaying of Martin Barreto, a former press aide to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New Rochelle police have contacted the NYPD.

“We’ve been in contact with New York City about similarities in the cases, but, as of now, we have no other concrete similarities,” said New Rochelle Detective Lt. Christopher Hearle. more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applebee’s International Inc. on Friday said it hired Tyler Florence, a chef from cable television’s Food Network, to develop four exclusive menu items for its casual dining restaurants.

Applebee’s and other sit-down restaurant chains have been struggling over the last year, as higher gas prices and interest rates conspire with a housing slowdown to tighten consumers’ dining-out budgets.

Earlier this week the company, which has nearly 1,900 restaurants across the U.S. and abroad, said sales at its restaurants open at least 18 months fell 2.7 percent in August as customer traffic declined. That marked the fifth straight month of declines.

“I don’t think the alliance with a celebrity chef is a result of difficult operating trends, it’s more reflective of their desire to continuously evolve their menu,” said Johnson Rice & Co. analyst Mark Sheridan. He bet the company would have taken the same route even in good times.

“But maybe in this kind of environment this means they’ll be less negative than they would be otherwise,” Sheridan said. “They are clearly fighting a pretty strong headwind, so this might make the results not as visible in the short term.”

Applebee’s said the new items — a pasta dish, a hamburger, and two chicken dishes — would be available September 18. more…

BremertonSubmarine cooks are rumored to be the best in the Navy. They have to keep hundreds of sailors happy for months while they’re stuck underwater in tight quarters.

Well, the rumor may be true, if a competition Friday among cooks from local bases, ships and subs is any indication.

A three-man team from the USS Nevada Blue crew emerged as the winner after six teams of Navy cooks went head-to-head in their own version of the Food Network’s popular “Iron Chef” TV show at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton.

It was the second time in the two-year history of the event that a submarine team has won.

This year, teams found themselves judged by a panel that included former Seattle Mariner Edgar Martinez, comedian Cris Larsen, Nestle Chef Ron Coneybeer and Capt. Lindsay Perkins, the commanding officer of Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Puget Sound. more…

Famed Michelin-starred chef, author, television personality, and former professional soccer player Gordon Ramsay will open his first U.S. restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at The London, in New York City at The London NYC Hotel (formerly the Rihga Royal), part of the LXR Luxury Resorts collection.

The restaurant will offer intimate modern French dining taking cues from its renowned London counterpart, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, the only restaurant with three Michelin stars in London. The bar and more casual area of the restaurant, The London Bar, will be based on Ramsay’s exciting Maze restaurant on Grosvenor Square in London featuring a daily offering of market specials and a variety of tasting dishes that encourage guests to construct their own menus in a relaxed and informal environment. more…

SAVANNAH, Ga. Paula Deen, the Food Network’s queen of Southern cuisine, is celebrating the birth of her first grandchild. The proud parents are Deen’s older son, Jamie Deen, and his wife, Brooke. Nancy Assuncao, Deen’s publicist, says Jack Deen weighed six pounds, nine ounces when he was born yesterday. Deen, hostess of “Paula’s Home Cooking” and the upcoming “Paula’s Party,” was in Nashville, Tennessee, when her daughter-in-law went into labor. Deen hired a car and driver to rush her 500 miles back to Savannah so she could be there for the birth. more…

Celebrity-Making Channel Seeks Share of Stars’ Non-TV Endeavors

The network has begun negotiating deals with new talent that go beyond hosting shows and give the network a share in online ventures, merchandise and cookbook sales and other deals that have made folks like Emeril Lagasse rich.

Mr. Lagasse, who did his first Food Network show for $50 an episode, now generates $150 million a year, including $90 million from restaurants, according to Mr. Lagasse in an interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine last year. There are Emeril sausages, Emeril seasonings, Emeril bowls, Emeril knives and Emeril wines.

Food Network doesn’t get a piece of that, but it wants to in the future.

“Once we determine that somebody is going to be a Food Network talent, then on a going-forward basis for new talent it will be our position that it’s good for us and it’s good for them if we work together on all ancillary businesses,” said John Lansing, president of Scripps Networks, parent of Food Network.

With an eye on growing its nontelevision business, Scripps is also broadening Food Network President Brooke Johnson’s authority to include all brand activities. Ms. Johnson is looking to add a general manager to the network. The GM’s role will be either to handle the day-to-day operations of the channel or to oversee new business development.

“We’re getting into a position where the brand is going to be able to live in a lot of different venues and platforms,” Ms. Johnson said. “As we go into the future, we’re looking to a more partnership relationship with our talent than perhaps we had when we just thought of ourselves as a television brand.”

While Food Network may have missed the boat on some of Mr. Lagasse’s ventures, Ms. Johnson said that “we’ve gotten a great deal out of that relationship and it remains a really important relationship to us.” (The network does have an interest in the new King World-distributed syndicated talk show featuring Food personality Rachael Ray.) more…

Chef Ramsay calls both Heather and Virginia upstairs.  Chef Ramsay tells Heather that she started off as a young girl and the way she has matured is amazing and tells Virginia that you can’t buy a palette like she has.  Chef Ramsay tells the chefs that one of them had a very slight edge on the customer comment cards.  Chef Ramsay hands both Heather and Virginia a key and says that the winner’s key will open a door.  Heather’s key opens the door, and she wins the restaurant.  Chef Ramsay says Heather won Hells Kitchen because “she stuck to what she knew best and she controlled her kitchen from start to finish.”      more…

On Saturday at 5 pm, things will really heat up during the Reality Chef Competition. It is the ultimate showdown of reality television, where the Hamptons own Ralph Pagano (Hell’s Kitchen/Iron Chef)  battles it out with Harold Dieterle, the winner of Top Chef. They have honed their skills to razor sharp precision and competed against the best by creating spectacular food under extreme conditions. This competition is live, unedited and not to be missed.

http://hamptonswineandfood.com/cooking.html

Celebrity chef GORDON RAMSAY has been slammed by road safety campaigners for driving without wearing a seat belt.
In a scene for his British TV show THE F WORD, which has already been screened, Ramsay can be seen warning some female passengers, “Seat belts on please, ladies.” However, the chef doesn’t take his own advice and drives off without fastening his own seat belt, much to the annoyance of road safety campaigners. more…

NEW YORK, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Cat Cora, acclaimed chef, author and UNICEF spokesperson has been named Executive Chef of Bon Appetit magazine. more…

We’ve written about Anthony Bourdain’s recent experience in Beirut— the globe-trotting chef was there taping an episode of his show No Reservations when fighting broke out. (He was safely evacuated.) At the time, he wasn’t sure whether the episode would ever air. Now comes word that it will indeed be broadcast on the Travel Channel Monday, Aug. 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. more…

Celebrity chef Kylie Kwong blamed a single glass of white wine for landing her in a Sydney court today.It cost her $750 and the loss of her driving licence for three months.

The chef and author, who fronted the ABC TV cooking series Kylie Kwong: Heart and Soul, had downed the drink at her Paddington home four hours before police pulled her over in Surry Hills last year, the court heard.

But the 35-year-old, who has prepared countless meals for diners at her popular Billy Kwong restaurant and before that as head chef of the acclaimed Wockpool, said she had not eaten all day.

She returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.07.

Kwong pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court today to low-range drink driving over the incident on November 30. more…

At ~1:30pm EDT, the crew participated in a special interactive PAO TV event with New Orleans Chef Emeril Lagasse, host of the show “Emeril Live” on the Food Network. [Experimental samples of Emeril’s Louisiana cooking had been sent up to the ISS on STS-121 for the crew to evaluate in terms of taste, ease of “work” (dehydration/rehydration), personal preference, etc. Also included in the exchange were to be other samples of American and Russian food, eating utensils, and condiments used by the crew. The interview aired live on NASA TV and was taped for editing and airing on the Food Network in September.] more…

Thanks in large part to the $58,000 celebrity chef Bobby Flay spent on options to breed to two of the top Thoroughbred stallions, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation raised an excess of $500,000 Aug. 7 at its annual gala at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club.

The TRF is the nation’s oldest and largest horse rescue operation. The funds raised Monday will go toward the care of the more than 1,300 retired race horses under the group’s responsibility.

Throughout the night, options to breed in 2007 to some of the sport’s hottest stallions at 2006 prices were put up for bids to the more than 450 people attending the party. Flay paid $47,000 for the right to breed to Distorted Humor at his 2006 fee of $150,000 and $11,000 to breed to More Than Ready at his 2006 fee of $30,000. more…

NBA notable, celebrity chef star in new Lincoln ads

Dwayne Wade, chef Rocco DeSpirito tapped for Lincoln ads

Years ago, when cooking at even the best restaurants was considered menial labor, blacks often worked the stoves. But as employment options opened up for blacks in the 1960’s and 70’s, kitchen work became less attractive. Now, with the restaurant industry booming and chefs becoming celebrities and wealthy entrepreneurs, few blacks are sharing in that success, and as young black men and women enter the profession they are finding few mentors or peers. >>More…

Chef Matthew Raiford

TV CHEF Gordon Ramsay is taking on his biggest challenge yet - teaching Homer Simpson how to cook.

The fiery cook caught the attention of the producers of The Simpsons following the US version of his reality show Hell’s Kitchen.

They now want him to show Bart’s dad Homer what to do in the kitchen.

Gordon, renowned for his foul language, said: “I was really honoured.

“I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but I hope they keep the swearing in.” more…

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay hopes he has the recipe to become a graded stakes winner when his filly Gilded Gold takes on six rivals in Saturday’s $100,000-added Floral Park Handicap (gr. III) for fillies and mares at six furlongs at Belmont Park.

The 4-year-old Gilded Time filly has won five of 12 career starts. She’s in tough, with Areek, a winner of five of her last six starts, heading the field.

“We bought Gilded Gold off (trainer) Tom Amoss last summer,” said Flay, whose filly is now trained by Alan Goldberg. “We ran her in a grade III (Safely Kept) at Pimlico. She didn’t run at all that day, and it turned out that she developed a real bad respiratory infection. She got over that, and we ran her at Aqueduct and she stumbled and came up with a foot infection. It was like we went from one thing right into another, so we decided to give her a lot of time off.” more…

Also…

Gilded Gold Could Be Saturday’s Chef Special For Bobby Flay

The crew of the International Space Station will indulge next week in the ultimate “take-out” food, a meal delivered by a NASA space shuttle and designed by chef Emeril Lagasse of the Food Network’s “Emeril Live.” After tasting several of Lagasse’s creations, the three-person crew will talk to the chef at 1:30 p.m. EDT Aug. 10 in a special hookup carried live on NASA TV.

Lagasse sent NASA some of his special recipes for potential use in space. After the required testing and processing, five different meals were selected. Emeril’s Mardi Gras jambalaya, mashed potatoes with bacon, green beans with garlic, rice pudding and mixed fruit were delivered to the station aboard the shuttle Discovery in July. more…

Inside Charlie Trotter’s, the celebrated restaurant of arguably Chicago’s most well-known chef, everyone is doing something. They’ve been at it since dawn.

The restaurant usually is closed on Sunday. But tonight, it will open its doors to 104 people, many of them flying in from across the country, each of whom has paid $650 to toast the restaurant’s 19th anniversary.

It’s a dream lineup of guest chefs for the night: Andoni Luis Aduriz of the two-Michelin star Mugaritz in Spain; Wylie Dufresne of New York’s WD-50; Paris pastry chef Pierre Herme, and Chicago’s own Grant Achatz of Alinea.

And this is only the warm-up, Trotter says — kind of like how “Dennis Rodman used to celebrate his birthday for two months.” more…

Deep in concentration, chefs work in tandem as they plate Trotter’s wild salmon dish, one of nine courses guests enjoyed at the Sunday dinner. (TOM CRUZE/SUN-TIMES)

Dry ice wisps rise from the center of the stage as “the Chairman” approaches to raise a large cover, dramatically intoning, “and the secret ingredient isŠ” Two chefs await with anticipation: an Iron Chef and a challenger, ready to prepare five dishes in one hour, to be judged by a panel of experts. It’s the opening scene of Food Network’s “Iron Chef America,” a TV program that’s attained near-cult status among foodies and chefs across the nation.

Trading the heat of battle for Napa Valley’s scorching temperatures, Cat Cora, the only female Iron Chef among a group that includes culinary luminaries Mario Battali, Bobby Flay and Masaharu Morimoto, visited last week to participate in the Festival del Sole culinary lineup at Copia, Beringer and the Culinary Institute of America, Greystone. more…

If you find Food Network’s Alton Brown to be a fascinating fountain of information as the host of Good Eats, you won’t want to miss what he’s serving next. The four-part series Feasting on Asphalt (premiering Saturday, July 29 at 9 pm/ET) seats Brown and his buds on motorcycles as they travel cross-country for what has to be the most impressive progressive dinner on record, sampling regional cuisine all along their way from Savannah, Georgia, to the California coast. Brown paid TVGuide.com a visit to recount his travels. more…

Globe-trotting, show-hosting chef Anthony Bourdain, back safely from Lebanon (where he was filming a Travel Channel show when the conflict began) fielded questions online this morning from Washington Post readers. Asked if a No Reservations episode was in the works based on the trip, he replied: “We’re trying to figure some way to show how beautiful and hopeful Beirut was before the bombing, how terrible a thing it is that happened, what we’ve lost, the pride and hopefulness and optimism that was smashed…It will not be a regular episode of No Reservations.”

In another highlight, one reader asked how Bourdain’s world view, particularly as it relates to food and travel, has been changed by the experience. more…

CHEF Roy Yamaguchi turned 50 on Saturday with a celebration befitting a man who rules an empire.

Greg Gomes, president of Advantage Webco Dodge Hawaii, threw a birthday party for 150 at his Hawaii Loa Ridge home, with food by Yamaguchi’s best chef friends, among them DK Kodama, Russell Siu, Hiroshi Fukui and Alan Wong.

“They all wanted to do something for him,” Gomes said. “They think Roy is the leader of all of them.”

Gomes has been Yamaguchi’s friend since he brought 50 guests to Roy’s Hawaii Kai when the restaurant opened in 1988. That was the first Roy’s; today there are 33.

The reach of Yamaguchi’s Hawaiian-fusion cuisine stretches coast to coast. In fact, today’s request comes from Dette Griffin of Marco Island, Fla., who’s dined at Roy’s in Bonita Springs and Naples, Fla., as well as all over Hawaii. more…

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 26, 2006–The new August issue of Guideposts magazine features a cover story by Alton Brown, host of the Food Network’s Good Eats, telling readers about his personal journey to finding the many rewards of good food. Though he didn’t start out as a cook, Alton had a passion for food, a good idea and the yearning to know more that sparks any true quest. Taking a huge risk, he left his job to polish his cooking skills and make a demo tape of his show idea. The only problem: as an unknown no one even wanted to look at his demo tape. He had to go back to his old job, but Alton tells Guideposts he believes that things happen for a reason - especially the call “out of the blue” one day that got his show back on track and on TV. more…

Food Network star, Alton Brown, talks about the physical and spiritual nourishment of good food in August Guideposts magazine. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Food Network is banking on one of its most popular hosts in a campaign that aims to draw in viewers to its new show “Feasting on Asphalt.”

The show premieres this Saturday and stars Alton Brown, host of the “Good Eats” series, who travels around the country exploring American road food.

Brown and his crew travel by motorcycle “on a quest to find out what’s left to eat in America that’s not a chain or a drive thru,” according to a Food Network statement. more…

Chefs Step Up To Promote Accessibility At World Wonders, A unique culinary gala is being hosted at the Pyramids of Giza on July 20th, 2006 to address to the needs of people with disabilities. The Living Pyramids

This is a unique series of food events to be hosted at World Wonders to Address Awareness Issues and to Raise Money for Different Causes around the World, A vision as unique as the chef himself, the World Chefs Cooking for Life is a part of Vikas Khanna Banner “Cooking for Life”

MEDIA CONTACT: Starkman & Associates

Dao Tran 212/252-8545 ext. 17

dtran@starkmanpr.com

Celebrity chef ROCCO DiSPIRITO has his sights set on Broadway, New York after declaring he wants to play BILLY FLYNN in musical CHICAGO. more…

Harold Dieterle’s new place

http://www.perillanyc.com/ 

America’s Youngest Professional Chef, Author, CEO is taking on Prime Time Television. Chef Adrianne Calvo opens Maximum Flavor Productions, Inc. Her very own production company in which she is personally developing cutting edge cooking shows. more…

Whew. Reuters caught up with the host of the Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on a U.S. Navy ship, where he was reclining on an army cot among hundreds of other evacuees. As we noted earlier this week, the globe-trotting chef was in Beirut with a crew to shoot an episode of his show when the violence began. Bourdain left a very different city than the one he found when he arrived just days ago. “It was paradise, sort of the western dream of the way we’d all like the Middle East to be—enlightened, progressive, multi-cultural, and multi-religious,” he told Reuters. No longer. “I was in love for two days,” he said, “and had my heart broken on the third.” more…