FN Dish – Food Network Blog: Go behind-the-scenes at Food Network featuring your favorite chefs, shows, recipes, events and more.

Thanks, Slow-Cooker! - Image Courtesy Food Network Magazine

Break out your favorite green sweater and pick up some stout because St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. Here are a few favorite Irish recipes we’re cooking up for March 17th.

In Ireland cabbage was eaten with ham or bacon, not corned beef. The Irish began choosing beef in the mid-19th Century after they immigrated to the States and were unable to find suitable pork products. Foodnetwork.com’s recipe for Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage is an ultimate American fave.

For a classic dish, try cookingchanneltv.com’s recipe for Irish Stew. It’s made with lamb, barley, potatoes and onions, and one bite will send your taste buds straight back to the old country.

While Irish Soda Bread was first made with just flour, baking soda, buttermilk and salt, contemporary recipes, like this one from food2.com, features currants or raisins as well. Dunk a piece of this dense bread into that heavenly Irish Stew or serve with a generous layer of butter.

Celebrate good times with Food.com’s recipes for Guinness-Ginger Cupcakes and a Dancing Leprechaun cocktail. The cupcakes are made with molasses and stout beer, while the cocktail is shaken with Irish whiskey, lemon juice and Drambuie, a Scottish liqueur that has been around for hundreds of years.

Guy is one of many chefs giving back.

Many Food Network stars contribute to local causes as well as national charities close to their hearts. A few recent sightings…

This past weekend, Guy Fieri cooked with students from more than a dozen Chicago area schools to benefit the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program. The students worked with Guy preparing appetizers to be served at a reception. CCAP works with students across the country interested in pursuing a culinary career and offers scholarships, job training and internships.

Chef Giada DeLaurentiis is visiting schools in South Carolina to film an effort that’s bringing food to hungry children. Every Friday the Back the Pack program adds non perishable items to the backpacks of children who need food for their weekend at home. Educators in the area realized the need when many children would ask for seconds and wrap part of their meal to take home. Meetings with counselors and other school workers led to the discovery that one in 17 students leave school on Fridays without another full meal until they return on Monday. During her visit, Giada will tour a local school where children receive the packs and meet with high school students who participate in a warehouse distribution course where they pack and then ship the items to elementary and middle school students in the area.

Saturday, April 23^rd Chef Duff Goldman will be in Richmond Kentucky for an event to benefit the Grace Now Food Pantry. The organization was started by a local church and provided 90,000 food items to about 1,100 families last year. The event will include a cake decorating competition for amateurs and professionals. Amateurs can compete in different categories, one for adults and two for youngsters, ages 17-13 and 12-6. Professionals may enter in three classes: tiered, holiday/special occasion and sculpted.  For more information on the rules and cost of the event, or to purchase tickets you can visit the organization’s website, www.gracenowky.com.

The Food Network Fans are constantly looking for info and sharing links on where we can find your favorite stars, discuss your favorite show, visit a book signing, or see an appearance in other venues. We invite you to stop by and visit at FoodNetworkFans.com

Doron's winning cupcakes, like her "cracked-up strawberry" (center), were delicious AND funny.

Cupcake Wars judge Candace Nelson is the founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the world’s first cupcake bakery. She joins us on the FN Dish each week to recap all the sweet details of the competition from her seat at the judges’ table. Here’s what she had to say about Season Two’s final episode, Ice House.

I can’t imagine anything harder than being asked to make a cupcake funny! But, our cupcake bakers this week were up to the challenge and I was absolutely tickled by the results. Starting with Round One, Doron used seltzer water in her chocolate cupcake, which led to a fabulously fluffy texture. Mona brought in an entirely new flavor, saffron, which, in Persian culture, is said to make you laugh. Alina created a fun take on a jello shot in cupcake form. And Kim made us a yummy coconut and kiwi cupcake, but the kiwi tripped her up—beware of the kiwi, bakers!—and she was asked to go.

In Round Two, our bakers threw themselves into the task. Doron was gutsy by working with kiwi after it had just sent Kim home. But she pulled it off beautifully and her decorations, which included a word bloop and a “cracking up” strawberry were funny! Most importantly, I couldn’t even tell her cupcakes were vegan! Mona worked with rich, European flavors and the overall theme “they’re all a little nuts” was lots of fun. Alina also did a good job, but her decorations were not on par with the competition.

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Make easy Shrimp and Chicken Etouffee for dinner tonight.

Just because it’s Tuesday doesn’t mean there isn’t time to celebrate Mardi Gras. Cook up a sweet or spicy Big Easy-inspired dish tonight for a taste of New Orleans at home. With a little bit of chopping and simmering, you could mix up a hearty, traditional Shrimp and Chicken Etouffee served with rice. For super quick fixes, try Rachael’s 30-Minute Jambalaya or the Neelys’ easy Dirty Rice with Smoked Sausage.

Pancakes (along with donuts and other fatty foods) are traditional Mardi Gras fare. It's a good night to make breakfast for dinner.

Or, indulge in another quick and easy traditional Mardi Gras food: Pancakes! Serve one of the Neelys’ dueling pancake recipes for dinner, or browse 50 pancake ideas from Food Network Magazine. Prefer the classics? Go for Buttermilk Pancakes topped with maple syrup and butter.

More Mardi Gras Feasting Ideas:

• Food Network’s Best Mari Gras Recipes
• New Orleans Favorites from Cooking Channel
• Fat Tuesday Foods from Food.com
• Cajun Spices 10 Ways from Healthy Eats
• A Taste of New Orleans from Food2

What are you serving for Fat Tuesday?

What music did this bottle listen to?

The Audio Files of One Oenophile: An Austrian winemaker has invented a sound system that plays classical, jazz or electronic music to grapes as they ferment. “The sound waves, he claims, positively influence the maturing process and produce a better tasting wine.” [thehour.com via grubstreet.com] [Food Network Wine]

NYC Restaurants: ‘The Customer Is Not Always Right’ The New York Times takes a look at a few persnickety restaurants whose chefs refuse to make certain adjustments to orders. Want ketchup for your fries? Too bad. Your bagel toasted? Good luck! “Instead of trying to make a menu that’s for everyone, let’s make a menu that works best for what we want to do,” chef David Chang told the Times. [nytimes.com]

Morimoto on the Status of Japanese Cuisine: Speaking of chefs who won’t serve certain popular items in their restaurants, you won’t find over-stuffed maki rolls at a Morimoto establishment. The Chicago Tribune checks in with the Iron Chef, asking him about the progression of Japanese food here in the states. [chicagotribune.com via eater.com]

Color-Correcting Foods at the Store: Grocers are enlisting a new kind of light bulb to show off their foods in the best, well, light. Using digital LED lighting technology, stores can “nearly replicate the true color of the sun’s illumination,” which means berries seem brighter and veggies appear greener. [news.discovery.com via eatocracy.com]

Here’s our round-up of food news, trends and happenings across the web. Check back for more, and tell us what else you’re loving in the comments.

Chopped host Ted Allen weighs in on Round One of the most exciting season yet.

Dog lovers everywhere can breathe a collective sigh of relief: Michael Proietti pulled it out in the dessert round to win the first round of our Chopped All-Stars series, a full-on face-off between four fan favorites from The Next Food Network Star. We’ve had our fair share of aggressive competitors on the show, but I think Michael is the first one so dedicated to culinary victory that he’d threaten puppies in exchange for a win.

Michael Proietti is the first to move on to the Chopped All-Stars finale.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Michael was joking and would never harm a domestic animal, excepting, perhaps, a lobster. He was, in fact, arguably the sweetest and definitely among the funniest contestants ever to compete on The Next Food Network Star—both major reasons we wanted him to compete in All-Stars. But it was his cooking skill, not his personality (or even his elaborate hair) that now have taken him to the April 3 finale, where he’ll compete to win $50,000 for the charity of his choice, the Jed Foundation.

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On Chopped All-Stars, Alex is tasked with judging some good friends.

There’s never been an episode of Chopped that wasn’t intense, but starting this Sunday night, things are about to get crazy. Alex Guarnaschelli is a fixture on the judges’ panel for Chopped All-Stars, where she’ll taste the mystery basket creations of Food Network heavyweights (Robert Irvine, Claire Robinson, Anne Burrell, Duff Goldman), some of The Next Food Network Star’s most memorable finalists (Brad Sorenson, Michael Proietti, Lisa Garza, Debbie Lee), celebrity chefs (Beau MacMillan, Nate Appleman, Jacques Torres, Anita Lo) and even fellow Chopped judges (Geoffrey Zakarian, Aarón Sanchez, Amanda Freitag, Maneet Chauhan).

The chefs will compete in four rounds, tournament-style, and the winner of each will go on to the finale battle on April 3. Before the five-week mini-series kicks off this Sunday at 9pm/8c, we chatted with Alex about what it was like to critique the food of her peers and friends, whether she’d ever throw her own hat in the ring, and the difficulty of Chopped vs. Iron Chef America.

Were these Chopped All-Star battles more intense than “regular” rounds? Or did the chefs come to have fun and play for charity?
Honestly, every episode of Chopped is insanely stressful. When people are colleagues and know each other and then engage in a competition like this, it adds a whole other layer. People are amped up. They want to get along and they also want to win. That really added more complexity and tension, which is cool.

Did you have to judge chefs you know well?
Many. I didn’t enjoy it at all. It’s very painful to factor in. Anyone who competes on Chopped, you end up developing a personal relationship because you go through the whole thing with them. When you add knowing them personally on top of that, it makes decisions much more complicated.

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Spring for Peas

Spring is almost here, which means longer days, chirping birds, blooming flowers and, of course, the start of pea season. Pea plants do best in cool-weather environments, making the fair months of March and April the ideal time to grow these teeny green veggies. Whether you like them pureed in soup, scooped alongside meat or mixed in a salad, peas are sure to liven up any spring dish.

At your next get-together, trade in the carrots and ranch for Giada’s Sun-dried Tomatoes and Peas on Endive Spears from cookingchanneltv.com. When pureed, the peas and sun-dried tomatoes take on a light dip texture, making this appetizer a classy starter to any meal.

For a vibrant green dish to match the blooming plants outside, try this Pea, Feta and Mint Salad With Pistachios from food.com. Sweet sautéed onions, tangy crumbled feta cheese and crisp peas combine for light-yet-satisfying salad, perfect for a simple lunch or dinner.

Dress up those drab frozen peas with Bobby Flay’s classic recipe for Peas With Shallots and Pancetta from foodnetwork.com. Salty and robust, pancetta adds a perfect contrast to the delicate flavors of sweet shallots and the crunch of green peas.

Michael Chiarello’s Spring Pea Soup from food2.com is a cinch to make and filled with fresh garden ingredients, like leeks, celery, English peas and thyme. Whip up a batch of this creamy soup any night of the week.

Ice Brigade ice sculptor extraordinaire Randy Finch chills out with his Justin Bieber ice sculpture.

Baby, baby oh: Ice sculptor Randy Finch, star of Ice Brigade, chips away at massive blocks of ice with cool tools and an artist’s hand. His latest subject? Pop star rock star teen star everywhere Justin Bieber. Happy 17th Birthday, Justin! Nice haircut, Biebs. Up next: Selena Gomez. Maybe. Never Say Never.

Tonight at 10 pm ET, watch as Randy and his crew head to Michigan to design an entire lounge–complete with a working bar, sushi station and pool table. Cool stuff.

What celebrity would you most like to see as an ice sculpture?

Alton

I don’t clearly remember the first time I had macaroni and cheese. It’s just always been there. The first time I made mac ‘n’ cheese, my friends and I made it out of a box and we added Bac-O’s for flavor. It wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t bad either. Lesson learned: even bad mac ‘n’ cheese can be delicious.

It wasn’t until I was an adult and eating in restaurants that I realized how good a real baked shells and cheese could be. I became obsessed with finding down-home cheesy perfection.

Chat ‘N’ Chew, a downtown NYC staple, has one of my favorite basic baked versions. It’s not fancy, but you get a lot of it, and it hits that perfect blend of crispy topping, warm cheese and noodle-y goodness.

When I’m craving a taste of my Bac-O’s disaster, I indulge in Tipsy Parson‘s Mac ‘N’ Cheese with slab bacon. The smoky flavor perfectly slices through the sharp Vermont cheddar and delivers an extra protein punch.

More recently, the newly opened Little Cheese Pub has set my obsession on its head with rotating versions of the comfort classic. The Dutch Kas Mac has all the traditional elements, but the cheese is Gouda and it’s topped with beer pretzels. It’s exactly what mac ‘n’ cheese should taste like, but somehow better. They also have versions with Manchego and mozzarella cheese. It’s practically criminal.

Hungry yet? Try one of our chefs’ versions at home or tell us where the best mac ‘n’ cheese is in your town.

• Alton Brown’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese
• Paula’s Crafty Mac N Cheese with Pancetta
• Giada’s Macaroni and Cheese
• All Macaroni and Cheese Recipes