Press

Two Exciting Bits of News

Guess what folks? This week I’m in New York Magazine’s “Everything Guide to Deliveries: New York Food Experts Pick Their Favorite Neighborhood Delivery Options.” One of my suggestions is based on a tip from a reader; so whoever out there turned me on to Tue Thai, thanks! I really do love their duck noodles. The other exciting bit of news is that Amanda Hesser, Merrill Stubbs and and Charlotte Druckman have asked me to M.C. Food52‘s Piglet Party! For those who don’t know about The Piglet, it’s a tournament of cookbooks featuring distinguished judges (Mario Batali, Ezra Klein, Susan Orlean) who select among the best cookbooks of 2010. At the end, one cookbook is declared the winner and that’s announced at The Piglet Party. So get your tickets here and I’ll see you there!

The Big Reveal: Amateur Gourmet on Food2

Remember a long time ago, after I finished The FN Dish, I told you I had a top secret project I was working on, something I couldn’t tell you about yet? Well, at last, the project is here and I’m incredibly excited to share it with you: it’s my brand new web show The Amateur Gourmet on Scripps’s brand new site, Food2.

This show–which I co-created with my friend, co-writer and director, Joshua Hume–takes you, the viewer, along with me as I learn how to make classic staples from incredibly talented chefs. In our first episode, for example, we tackle the omelet; Josh Grinker from The Stone Park Cafe demonstrates the right way to do it and then you watch me fumble and flail until I, too, get it right. (Now, almost every weekend, I make an omelet based on the techniques I learned in this episode.)

In our pasta episode, Marc Forgione of Marc Forgione restaurant (formerly Forge) gives us his grandmother’s recipe for homemade pasta dough (a ratio even Michael Ruhlman might like) so I can appease the evil pasta puppets who attack me vis-a-vis A&E’s “Intervention.”

Yes, it’s pretty silly, but that’s part of the fun. And in upcoming episodes we learn how to make steak from Chris Lim of BLT Steak, fish from Rebecca Charles of Pearl Oyster Bar and chocolate souffle from Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin. So please, by all means, click over, watch the shows, send them to your friends, rate them, leave comments, embed them on your websites and hopefully we’ll be able to make more!

Food Tech #4

Doesn’t he look a little familiar? And why does he smell so much like wood?

[Ok, I’ll explain: when I hosted The FN Dish, I interviewed Ted Allen on the set of his show “Food Detectives.” They asked if I wanted to be a “food tech” and there I am! Not sure if this clip is online legitimately, so watch it before it’s taken down.]

Me in Time Out New York

A few weeks ago I was a judge for Time Out New York’s Iron Sommelier Competition. What a fun afternoon of free food and free booze. You can read the article (and see the picture) here. Thanks Time Out New York for trusting me to judge. Hope I did the competition justice.

Sunday Styles

Check out tomorrow’s NYT Sunday Styles section (or, for the impatient, see it here) and read all about me and my fellow New York food bloggers. I think the article has a bit of a negative spin (gossipy and competitive? Maybe a few, but not most) and I think it unfairly characterizes my Alain Ducasse experience (it says I wrote a letter “begging to be invited for free” when, in fact, I was responding to a P.R. e-mail asking me to promote their white truffle menu on my site). Ultimately, though, it’s very exciting to be showcased by the Gray Lady in the “newspaper of record” (and the one I read religiously each Sunday). To all new readers, welcome! To all the old ones, thanks for reading! Ok, time to roast another chicken.

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