Bryan Voltaggio on Top Chef Masters

Bryan Voltaggio, who finished second to his brother Michael on Top Chef season 5 in Las Vegas, will be the first former Top Chef contestant to appear on Top Chef Masters.  Washington Post has an interesting interview with him about the show, which will premiere on July 24th on Bravo. 

Bryan is competing against some pretty big heavyweights in season 5 of Top Chef Masters, and his charity is Share Our Strength.

David Burke (David Burke Townhouse, NYC);
Douglas Keane (formerly of Cyrus, Healdsburg, CA);
Sue Zemanick (Gautreau's, New Orleans);
Richard Sandoval (Richard Sandoval Restaurants);
Bryan Voltaggio (Volt, Frederick, MD);
Franklin Becker (The Little Beet, NYC);
Lynn Crawford (Ruby Watchco, Toronto, Canada);
Odette Fada (formerly of San Domenico, NYC);
Neal Fraser (formerly of Grace, Los Angeles);
Jennifer Jasinski (Bistro Vendôme, Denver, CO);
Jenn Louis (Lincoln Restaurant, Portland, OR);
Herbert Wilson (Sushi Samba, Las Vegas); and
Sang Yoon (Father's Office, Los Angeles).

I really liked Brian when he was on Top Chef, and I still think that was still the best season of Top Chef so far.  I hope he does well on Top Chef Masters.  The other one I'll be rooting for is Sang Yoon from Father's Office. 

Game of Thrones Beer

Now this is something Mr. Y will get excited about.  The New York Times reports that a line of beers inspired by the show Game of Thrones will start debuting next spring.  HBO is collaborating with Brewery Ommegang, a Belgian-style brewery in Cooperstown N.Y., to create the beers. 

EW.com has the picture of the first beer, Iron Throne, to be released next March, in conjunction with the premiere of season 3 of the show.  The bottle is 25 ounces and will retail at $8.50 a bottle.  It is also a corked bottle.  EW.com quoted Phil Leinhart, brewmaster at Ommegang, as stating, “It made us approach development in a completely new way and I think the first edition Iron Throne reveals that.  With a Lannister currently on the throne, it made sense to do a delicate, but piercing Golden Blonde Ale with Noble hops. Iron Throne is certainly fair in color and soft in appearance, yet it still possesses a complexity and bite to be on guard for.”

New York Times Posts a Scathing Review of Guy Fieri's Times Square Restaurant

Pete Wells, the New York Times' dining critic, posts a scathing review of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar today.  The review is written as a series of questions to Guy Fieri, and starts off asking, "Guy Fieri, have you eaten at your new restaurant in Times Square?"  I find the review quite funny.  Some of my favorite lines:

• "Hey, did you try that blue drink, the one that glows like nuclear waste? The watermelon margarita? Any idea why it tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde?"
• "By the way, would you let our server know that when we asked for chai, he brought us a cup of hot water?"
• "What accounts for the vast difference between the Donkey Sauce recipe you’ve published and the Donkey Sauce in your restaurant? Why has the hearty, rustic appeal of roasted-garlic mayonnaise been replaced by something that tastes like Miracle Whip with minced raw garlic?"
• "And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?"
• "Why did the toasted marshmallow taste like fish?"

Now I realize that this review really doesn't accomplish anything.  Anyone who reads the New York Times Dining section for their restaurant reviews would never set foot in Guy Fieri's restaurant even before the review.  Most New York restaurants would not survive if it is this terrible, but this restaurant is that special exception to the New York dining scene - the Times Square phenomenon.  Most of the Times Square restaurants are overpriced and underwhelming, and locals avoid it like the plague.  However, they make a lot of money from tourists, especially the kinds of tourists who love Guy Fieri and who make his Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives a hit. 

Mathemusician Vi Hart

New York Magazine's Grub Street blog has a cool video on "mathemusician" Vi Hart manipulate tortillas into mathematical shapes. 

Victoria "Vi" Hart calls herself the "Full-Time Recreational Mathemusician" and has become famous for her mathematical Youtube videos.  She currently works for the Khan Academy, which provides free online video lectures on various subjects. 

Inventor of the California Roll

Meet 62-year-old chef Hidekazu Tojo, who invented the California Roll in Vancouver in the 1970s.  He couldn't find any fish fresh enough for the sushi, and a lot of the Western customers didn't eat raw fish, so he invented the California Roll.  Apparently it was called the California Roll because many of his customers came from Los Angeles.

Thomas Keller

Thomas Keller is one of the best haute-cuisine chefs in America, and I've had the pleasure of dining at three of his restaurants: Per Se in New York, Ad Hoc in Napa Valley, and Bouchon Bakery in New York.  I also love his recipe for simple roast chicken.  His most famous restaurant is the French Laundry in Napa Valley, which some consider to be the best restaurant in America, and one of the best in the world. 

Vanity Fair recently published a bunch of iPhone photos taken by Chef Keller.  I'm especially fascinated by the tidbit that all of the Bouchon kitchens are connected by live video feed, and NY Mag mentioned that French Laundry and Per Se are also similarly connected. 

Alinea and Eleven Madison Park Switch Places

Two of this country's most celebrated restaurants, Alinea in Chicago and Eleven Madison Park in New York, decided to switch places.  Tickets for this venture were sold out very quickly.  First up is Alinea taking over Eleven Madison Park's kitchen for five days, and next month Eleven Madison Park will take over Alinea. 

Here is New York Magazine's account and pictures of the first night of Alinea's takover. 

Bizarre Foods America - Blues Trail

Mr. Y and I were watching Bizarre Foods America last night.  Andrew Zimmern was traveling down the Delta Blues Trail from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi.  A lot of the foods did not look appetizing - full of fat and random meat parts.

One of the most interesting parts of the show was when Andrew visited a pork rind factory in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  The owner is a Chinese-American named Kim Wong, and he came to the United States when he was pretty young.  A lot of the Chinese immigrants came to work in the fields after the Civil War, and eventually worked their way up to owning grocery stores.  Kim Wong's family owned one of these stores, and he got the idea of improving on the pork rind recipe by using the Chinese recipe to make roast pork.  Now his factory makes pork and chicken rinds, and they look really delicious.  It was so weird listening to Kim's son, a first-generation American, speaking in very thick Southern accent.

Andrew also visited the Chow family, who had been living in Mississippi for four generations.  Again it was very odd to see Chinese people in our parents' generation speaking with very thick Southern accent.  They had invited Andrew over for a big family meal, and had four wok stations set up in a car port.  The food was a mix of Southern and Chinese food - Crawfish Cantonese, Venison Pepper Steak, Fried Rice, Chinese-style spareribs with Mississippi honey, Pig's Feet, etc.  The food looks absolutely delicious.  From a historical perspective, we usually assume that the Chinese are the more recent immigrants to the United States, and it was fun to learn about the Chinese who came to Mississippi in the 1800s. 

Perfect Snack for the Oscars

Eleni's, a New York bakery, is making Oscars-themed cookies in honor of the Academy Awards.  There's the Best Picture collection:

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/02/08/if-you-only-consume-one-box-of-oscar-themed-cookies-this-year-pick-these/#more-182322

Best Actor:

http://elenis.com/store/product/best-actor/?cat=148

Best Actress:

http://elenis.com/store/product/best-actress/?cat=148

They also come in cupcake form:

http://elenis.com/store/product/oscar-cupcakes/?cat=148

I've only ever had Eleni's red velvet cupcake, which was amazing, and they do make incredible-looking cookies.  Their New York collection makes a great gift:

http://elenis.com/store/category/shop-by-theme/new-york-city-theme/gift-boxes-new-york-city/

I think I'm going to have to pick up some of these cookies for the Oscars.  :)  Too bad I can't send them to kdipity, who will totally appreciate them.

Yao Ming's Wine

Mr. Y found this article about basketball star Yao Ming and his foray into wine-making.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/chompions/201111/better-age-yao-ming-enters-world-wine

I'm really curious to try this wine, but it's pretty expensive.  I don't know if the curiosity factor is worth the money.

I thought it was funny that Dikembe Mutombo was the one who introduced Yao to wine.  If you don't know who Dikembe Mutombo is, he's a 7'2 former NBA player from the Congo.  He's a great humanitarian and a pretty decent player, but who knew that he was actually into wine?

The Next Iron Chef

Mr. Y and I haven't watched The Next Iron Chef since the first season when Michael Symon won, but this season looks pretty intriguing because the cast consists of mostly familiar Food Network and Top Chef chefs.  (Note: Mr. Y provided a lot of the content below.)

Anne Burrell - former sous chef of Mario Batali and therefore familiar with the Iron Chef kitchen.  She has been hosting a few shows on the Food Network, including the competition show The Worst Cooks in America where she is undefeated, beating fellow The Next Iron Chef contestants Robert Irvine and Beau MacMillan.  She has also competed in Chopped All-Stars (beating Irvine again!), but getting knocked out in the Finals.
Michael Chiarello - former Food Network chef of Easy Entertaining, before returning back to Napa Valley and being a restaurant chef.  He competed in the first season of Top Chef Masters, placing 2nd (behind winner Rick Bayless).
Elizabeth Falkner - mainly known as a pastry chef, but did compete in the first season of Top Chef Masters, but never made it past the preliminary round. Mr. Y and I remember her best as the chef on Top Chef Masters that spontaneously whipped up chocolate chip cookies from scratch while waiting for the judges' decision.  She might be the dark horse.
Alex Guarnaschelli - judge on Chopped and Food Network Challenge, as well as host of a couple of Food Network shows.  She's also competed on Iron Chef America, but lost to Cat Cora.  Her restaurant Butter, in NYC, is awesome.
Chuck Hughes - Montreal-based chef and host of a show on Food Network Canada (that was then later ported to the Cooking Channel).  He's also competed on Iron Chef America and beat Bobby Flay.  His food looks pretty good, but never tried any of his recipes.
Robert Irvine - the infamous Dinner: Impossible chef who was fired for lying about his resume, then brought back because he was so popular on the show.  Totally abrasive, but used to working under time pressures.  He competed (and lost) on a special Iron Chef America where he was partnered with Tyler Florence against Paula Deen and Cat Cora.  He's also winless against fellow cheftestant Anne Burrell in both Chopped and The Worst Cooks in America.
Beau MacMillan - Don't know too much about him other than he owns a highly-regarded restaurant in Arizona and was the original co-host of The Worst Cooks in America (losing to co-host Anne Burrell).
Spike Mendelsohn - the infamous chef from Top Chef.  Seems a bit young for this group of chefs, but he's certainly a personality.  Plus, since he's now been through both Top Chef (Season 4) and Top Chef All-Stars, he's got as much as experience as anyone competing in a season-long cooking competition.
Marcus Samuelsson - won the second season of Top Chef Masters and is highly talented.  He's competed twice on Iron Chef (once on the very short-lived Iron Chef USA, where he lost to Alessandro Stratta and once on Iron Chef America, where he lost to Bobby Flay).  He has also been a judge on Chopped.
Geoffrey Zakarian - another Chopped judge.  I don't know if he's still cooking full time because my impression was that he's more of a businessman nowadays, but he can certainly cook as he did compete in Chopped All-Stars, losing to Aaron Sanchez in their preliminary round.

My early pick to win is Marcus Samuelsson.  He's very competitive, talented, and experienced.  If you can win Top Chef Masters, you can certainly win this competition.

Burger Joints

Mr. Y and I were watching The Best Places I've Ever Been, a show on the Travel Channel where hosts like Andrew Zimmern, Samantha Brown, Adam Richman, etc. talk about their favorite places.  In this episode they talked about their favorite burger joints.

Adam Richman mentioned that his absolute favorite burger place is Red Mill Burgers in Seattle.  This is also kdipity and Mr. dipity's favorite burger place.  The burgers do look amazing, and the toppings look so yummy.  The stack of bacon on the grill does not hurt, either.  Next time we're in Seattle we definitely have to try that place. 

They also talked about various other places with good burgers and fries, including some of our favorites like DB Bistro Moderne, Maison, and my personal favorite, In N Out.  Mr. Y's favorite burger is the one at DB Bistro, which is a burger with short rib and foie gras.  It is very tasty, but I'm still an In N Out devotee.  

Lost Connection

My friend adiva called me tonight to let me know that she saw Carlton Cuse at Uchi in Austin.  Carlton was one of the executive producers of Lost, along with co-creator Damon Lindelof.  He was brought in to work with Damon after co-creator J.J. Abrams left to do the Mission: Impossible III movie.  His other credits include The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Nash Bridges.  

As an aside, adiva said Uchi was fantastic.  Uchi is a Japanese restaurant with Tyson Cole at the helm.  Tyson won the James Beard award in 2011.  If you're in the Austin area, it's definitely worth checking out this restaurant.