Earlier this week, FN Dish caught up with Aarón Sánchez for a Facebook chat about Season 3 of Chopped All-Stars. Aarón answered questions about the current season and what it was like competing in Season 1. He also chatted about some of his favorite foods and gave some tips on cooking the classic Mexican dish of mole.
On a cool, crisp Thursday night in New York City, there was no better place to be than tucked inside Chef Marc Murphy’s swanky Midtown Manhattan restaurant, Landmarc, surrounded by the entire judges’ panel of Food Network’s Chopped. Yesterday together with Chef Murphy, Chefs Ted Allen, Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian, Aarón Sanchez, Alex Guarnaschelli, Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant, Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Santos kicked off the first night of the New York City Wine & Food Festival with a late-night party to celebrate the show with more than 100 hungry guests.
Each chef cooked up a signature creation, and while their plates ranged from savory snacks and beefy main dishes to sweet dessert treats, they were all reinvented, dressed-up versions of classic comfort food, like pasta, sliders, ice cream sandwiches and more.
Chef Freitag, pictured above, was dishing out an oversized batch of Truffled Orzo With Broccolini and Parmigianino Reggiano. This creamy, cheesy risotto-like pasta was pure comfort in a bowl.
In honor of the newest season of The Great Food Truck Race, we asked Food Network stars, as well as some familiar faces from Cooking Channel and Travel Channel to share with us their vision for the ultimate food truck while FN Dish was at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival.
Click the play button on the video below to hear what Marc Forgione, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Michael Symon and Aarón Sanchez had to say.
Talk to us: What kind of food truck would you open?
Alex Guarnaschelli will be featured at the 11th Annual Kohler Food & Wine Experience October 20-23 in Kohler, Wis. The event offers a weekend of wine seminars, demonstrations, book signings and delicious tastings from a lineup of regional and national chefs and restaurateurs. Chef Guarnaschelli will also be among those competing for the title of Next Iron Chef starting October 30.
Duff Goldman is getting everyone in the mood for Halloween. During a recent appearance on CBS’s The Talk, Duff showed Sharon Osbourne how to make Halloween cupcakes and unveiled a zombie-head cake in the likeness of her rock star husband, Ozzy. Watch the video on AOL Video.
Chef Aarón Sanchez has formed a partnership with the House of Blues to bring his signature Latin flavors to their tables. According to Las Vegas Weekly, “The new menu will include meals inspired by many types of cuisines, including dishes like shrimp and grits in a garlic chipotle sauce and meatball sliders.” In addition to his new show Heat Seekers, Aaron is set to launch his third restaurant this fall in Kansas City.
Guy Fieri will launch a fourth location of Johnny Garlic’s later this month in Dublin, California. Guy tells the Dublin Patch, “I’m always thinking of new dishes and I get my culinary inspirations while visiting mom-and-pop shops around the country for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” If you can’t get to California for the opening, you can make one of Johnny Garlic’s menu items in your own kitchen: Penne With Chipotle Shrimp and Hotlinks.
Rachael Ray cooked with Graham Kerr, host of The Galloping Gourmet, on a recent episode of the Rachael Ray Show. Graham is known for launching one of the first classic cooking shows and has inspired many television chefs (including Rachael) to follow in his footsteps. Try some of his classic recipes and see the video on AOL TV.
Guy Fieri dished out tips in a video with Extra revealing his three simple rules to follow when dieting. He cites, “Moderation, exercise and eating in courses to ensure that even when surrounded by food you don’t give in to temptation.” Guy makes sure that the food he consumes is “really good” since he doesn’t count calories and tries not to waste them — his guilty pleasure is anything salty. Watch the video on ExtraTV.
Iron Chef Morimoto is serving up recipes to aid his Japanese homeland in Keep Recipes for Recovery, a 21-recipe cookbook filled with Japanese classics, fusions, haute cuisine and more. Donations start at just $10 –proceeds will go to The American Red Cross to help Japan recover from the devastation of the recent earth quake and tsunami. Last month, Chef Morimoto made his singing debut at The Thousand Hearts benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the survivors of the tragedy. You can still donate to the benefit through Thousandhearts.org and see his vocal performance on YouTube.
Would you like to meet Chef Aarón Sánchez? In honor of his partnership with Cacique, the largest Hispanic cheese brand in the U.S., you and one lucky friend could have Sánchez “crash and cook” in your very own kitchen! To enter, visit and ‘like’ Cacique USA’s Facebook page from Apr. 13 to Aug. 31, 2011: http://www.facebook.com/CaciqueBrand.
In this corner: Chef Michael Proietti, a fan favorite from season 5 of The Next Food Network Star, competing on behalf of the Jed Foundation;
Next: Chef Nate Appleman, James Beard Award Winner, Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef cover boy, Iron Chef America challenger and competitor on The Next Iron Chef, cooking for the Kawasaki Disease Foundation;
And then: Chef Anne Burrell, star of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, co-host of Worst Cooks in America, and longtime right hand for Mario Batali on Iron Chef America, competing to help the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation;
And, finally, the Chairman of Chiles, the Tortilla King: Latin-cuisine impresario Chef Aarón Sanchez, beloved Chopped judge, veteran of Iron Chef America and The Next Iron Chef, co-star of Chefs vs. City, playing for the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
The day had finally come. We started with 16 chefs competing for $50,000 to be awarded to a charity of their choice and in the end, it all came down to dessert. I don’t think we’ve ever seen competitions this close or food this outstanding. This competition has been rigorous for the contestants but almost equally challenging for the judges. Every deliberation in this All-Stars series has been tough. These contestants have been consistently dishing up truly killer food under nearly impossible conditions.
Our Food Network fans are full of great ideas. In a comment on our blog after an episode of Chopped All-Stars, fan Eric Londergan suggested that we post a list of all of the contestants’ charities. We took him up on it and pulled together this rundown of the organizations that each All-Star chef played for — plus, we asked host Ted Allen to weigh in with his own charity pick. Thanks, Eric!
Of course, there are only four left standing to compete in the All-Stars finale this Sunday night: Aaron Sanchez, playing for the Greater New Orleans Foundation; Anne Burrell, supporting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; Michael Proietti, competing for the Jed Foundation; and Nate Appleman, representing the Kawasaki Disease Foundation. All are beyond worthy causes, to be sure, and all four chefs are hungry to win for their causes.
Which charity will get a hefty $50,000 donation, and who will walk away with bragging rights? You’ll have to watch and see! Don’t miss the super-charged Chopped All-Stars finale this Sunday at 9pm/8c.
The cast and producers of Chopped get this all the time from fans, on Facebook, on the street, at festivals: Yeah, sure, those judges of yours can pick apart a dish all day long—but could they handle the pressure on the HOT side of the chopping block? For four of our judges, this episode finally put that question to rest for good.
From our newest regular critic, Maneet Chauhan, to veterans Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Zakarian and Aarón Sanchez, the energy and enthusiasm was incredible—and so were the nerves! In the judges’ lounge before the battle, Geoffrey acted cool as a cucumber (as always), but I didn’t believe him. Aarón was hopping up and down with nervous energy and even more bluster than usual—a different person than the sensitive, hilarious judge you see seated at the Block. Amanda confessed to some butterflies, too, but as a formidable competitor who came in third on The Next Iron Chef, we knew she would be vicious at the stove. Maneet, also a NIC veteran, seemed the least ruffled to me.
For me, this battle was the most anticipated of the whole series. But for the judges, it was the most dreaded. It is not easy to criticize the work of your friends, colleagues and peers, face-to-face, on national television, let alone to chop three out of the four, and Alex Guarnaschelli, in particular, was not looking forward to it. But everybody came in knowing that this was for charity and for fun, and that only one Chopped judge was going to come out on top. So we started the clock and got down to business.
Of course, our judge/competitors had a huge advantage over the average Chopped contestant — they’re all top-flight New York City chefs with years of experience, they know the palates of their colleagues, they know the kitchen inside and out, and not only are they not afraid of cameras, they know how to seduce them.
Watch the ICA: Tournament as the Iron Chefs battle in a special five-part series. Sundays 9/8c.
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