To get in the Halloween spirit, the Dish took a few minutes to chat with Sandra Lee while she baked up mini pumpkin bundt cakes in Food Network Kitchens. Sandra’s Semi-Homemade Cooking Halloween special airs this Sunday at 11:30am/10:30c, and believe us, you don’t want to miss it. The theme is Renaissance Faire, the costumes are amazing, and there are some surprises, including … Sandra as Cher?
Semi-Homemade is now in its 14th season on Food Network — “I think Friends was only on for 10 seasons!” she says — and to celebrate, Sandra worked with Food Network to publish Semi-Homemade: The Complete Cookbook, stocked with 1,000 recipes.
Read on for Sandra’s dish on the new book, Halloween tips and buy bid-worthy tablescapes.
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- Garlic Bread: Everyone’s Eating It
Trend Alert! Garlic Bread? The Wall Street Journal was surprised to find two trendy NYC restaurants serving spruced-up garlic bread. Will we start to see the garlicky favorite making menu appearances all over the place? Will garlic bread be the new bacon? [Wall Street Journal]
No Cash for Cookies: Shoppers who pay for groceries with cash are less likely to splurge on cookies, cakes, candy and other guilty pleasures than those swiping credit cards, the Journal of Consumer Research reports. This news is either an excellent dieting tip or takes all the fun out of “rewards cards.” [New York Times]
Loud Noise Drowns Out Flavor: Researchers studying students as they chomped on snack foods and listened to various volumes of white noise through headphones have found that volume levels affect flavors registered. “Turns out the students listening to blaring static rated the chips as less salty and the cookies as less sweet—even though they were tasting the same foods as the other groups,” the Scientific American reports. We’re hoping this helps explain the cardboard-y taste of airplane food. [via newyork.grubstreet.com]
A Celery Situation: A Florida produce company is introducing red celery to select supermarkets on December 1, the AP reports. It took 20 years for Duda Farm Fresh Foods to breed these colorful stalks, and the company’s president assures that the veggie will retain the same flavor and crunch of its green counterpart. [news.yahoo.com]
Letter Grades Come to Food Trucks: Los Angeles food trucks will soon have to post inspection results on their rigs for would-be customers to view. We trust whatever grease and oil they’re working with, right? [The Nation’s Restaurant News] [The Great Food Truck Race]
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.
- After the shoot, the crew took home 35 quarts of various pickles from the Secret Ingredient challenge
Food Network’s culinary production team is in charge of everything food-related on the set of The Next Iron Chef. Executive culinary producer Jill Novatt shares some behind-the-scenes tidbits from the Resourcefulness episode of Season 3.
Secret Ingredient Challenge (Pickles): “We had pickled garlic, pickled tomatoes, pickled chiles, whole dill, hot pickle chips, bread and butter chips, kosher halves. After the shoot, we gave away over 35 quarts of various pickles to the crew.”
Chairman’s Challenge (Fishing): “There were 42 crew members on both boats (the one the chefs fished on and the “follow” boat!) Eight crew members got seasick. We picked up our live sardine bait from a bait boat anchored out beyond the harbor. One of the crew members of the boat who was also fishing actually got “stung” on his hand by one of scorpion fish. The Next Iron Chef medic who is on set for every challenge fixed him up!”
Check out our behind-the-scenes gallery for more about this episode of The Next Iron Chef.
What do Alton and the Chairman have in store for the next challenges? Tune in this Sunday at 9pm/8c.
- Pear-Pecan Upside-Down Cake from Food Network Magazine is baked in a slow cooker
We’re teaming up with other food and garden bloggers to host Fall Fest 2010, a season-long garden party. Each week we’ll feature favorite garden-to-table recipes and tips to help you enjoy the bounty, whether you’re harvesting your own goodies or buying them fresh from the market. To join in, check out awaytogarden.com.
Pears are at their peak, sweet, juicy and great for baking into tempting fall desserts. Whether you’re having a casual get-together, thinking ahead to Thanksgiving or craving an everyday indulgence, bake up one of these sweet pear treats for a taste of the season.
Pear-Pecan Upside-Down Cake
Rarely is such a beautiful dessert so amazingly simple: Just layer the fruit and batter in your slow cooker and then let it cook gently for about three hours.
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- Imagine This X 2,000
What a Truffle With 443,330 Calories Looks Like: The world’s largest truffle has been created, with Guinness World Record officials weighing in the giant ball of brandy and chocolate at roughly 560 pounds. The British choco-engineers responsible for the truffle plan to chop up it up into 2,000 bite-sized pieces and sell them off to benefit a local children’s hospital. [dailymail.co.uk]
A Fishy Situation: This year’s sockeye salmon returns in the Fraser River, one of the world’s richest salmon streams, are the best in nearly a century, with an estimated 34.5 million red guys headed back upstream. As a point of comparison, only one million sockeye returned last year on their annual run. [The National Post]
The Death-Defying Happy Meal: What happens when you leave a Happy Meal on your coffee table for six months? Not much. A curious Sally Davies, who purchased the burger-and-fries combo and photographed it daily, noticed zero visible decay after 180 days. McDonald’s issued an official statement regarding Burger-gate 2010, replying, “It is not possible to provide a detailed explanation regarding these claims without knowing the conditions in which these food items were kept.” [gizmodo.com]
Ronald McDonald Now Pronounces You Man and Wife: The other reason Happy Meals are so happy? Because they may be enjoyed on the happiest day of your life! That’s right, you can now get married at Hong Kong McDonald’s, and if the above story is any indication, you might not even have to take up any freezer room for a year preserving that slice of wedding cake. [gawker.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.
- Blue Cheese Fondue with Tomatoes and Roasted Cipollini Onions From CookingChanneltv.com
Company coming over? It’s a great time to fire up a pot of molten cheese. Fondue is a classic, sophisticated dish that brings people together– talk, dip, and enjoy great company. Choose your recipe from some of our favorites and grab friends for some cheesy fun.
For tradition, you can’t beat Tyler Florence’s Cheese Fondue. Two kinds of cheese combine with garlic, wine and kirsch to warm up your whole party. Need some interesting dippers? Besides bread, sample some bacon-wrapped chicken with spinach, blanched vegetables and apples.
The whole family will love this Tex-Mex Fondue from food.com. And—don’t tell the kids—it’s got vegetables inside.
Feeling saucy? Buck tradition with Alton Brown’s Fondue Vudu. It packs a flavorful punch with curry powder and hard apple cider that goes great with this savory biscotti recipe from Food2.com.
Michael Chiarello’s Blue Cheese Fondue is sure to impress your guests. This garlicky dip is complemented by cherry tomatoes and roasted cippollini onions.
And after all that cheese, skip dessert in favor of a sophisticated but simple Cherries Jubilee cocktail, courtesy of Sandra Lee.
Most importantly, don’t forget the cardinal rule of fondue. No double dipping!
- This week, Chef Marco Canora "may have lost his artichokes, but he certainly found his mojo," says Judge Majumdar.
Next Iron Chef judge Simon Majumdar joins us on the FN Dish each week to share his insider’s take on what went down Sunday night.
Episode 3 of The Next Iron Chef should have been subtitled “Chef Canora Gets It.”
I didn’t see what went on in the kitchen, I was judging only what was on my plate, not how it arrived there. I am, however, pretty sure that at some point during the “Resourcefulness” challenge, a bright cartoon light bulb suddenly popped on above Marco Canora’s head as he finally realized that it would take more than just his considerable skills to reach Kitchen Stadium. His New World/Old World take on a classic Italian seafood stew not only mastered The Chairman’s challenge, but marked him out as the chef to beat amongst his rivals. Chef Canora may have lost his artichokes, but he certainly found his mojo.
As Donatella put it to him so perfectly, “Welcome to the race.”
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- Chef Dumont on the Next Iron Chef experience: "I take with me amazing friendships with the other chefs and a renewed belief that nothing ventured is nothing gained."
So here it is, the end of the line for me on The Next Iron Chef, but I am walking away with my head held high. I looked at this competition in the way that I have learned to look at all things that life has presented to me: This is no dress rehearsal, so grab life and live it to the fullest for all its ups and downs. That is how I was on the show.
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- Pat and Gina Neely pose with a fan holding a pulled pork sandwich from their restaurant, Neely's Bar-B-Que
Last Sunday’s Grand Tasting at the New York Wine and Food Festival promised to be the ultimate New York City culinary showcase, and that it was. The event featured samples from two hundred of the city’s best restaurants and wine and spirit purveyors offering samples on a pier overlooking the Hudson river. Attendees ate their fill of fabulous food and mingled with their favorite Food Network stars who were all in town for the festival.
Paula and Michael Deen came all the way from Georgia to take in the festival, greet fans and sign copies of Paula’s cookbooks.
- Paula and Michael pose for a pic with fans
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- Two Next Food Network Star winners ham it up on Guy's set in L.A.
Guy’s Big Bite is back with all new episodes starting this Sunday, and that’s season 6 Next Food Network Star winner Aarti Sequeria hanging out with him on set. You’ll see her “stopping by” on Sunday’s episode—and no, this was not staged!
Guy‘s show was filmed in Los Angeles this year so he could be closer to his California home, and one morning L.A. native Aarti decided to stop by to say hello to him and the production team. They’d met during NFNS season 6 and got along instantly. Before she knew it, Guy had asked Aarti to cook with him on camera.
Sunday’s show is all about one of Guy’s favorite activities: Tailgating. We know Guy is a major Raiders fan…does Aarti also have football loyalties? Don’t miss Guy’s Big Bite this Sunday at 11am/10c to catch the two Star winners making game day grub.
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