You know Duff Goldman as the owner of Charm City Cakes and the central character in the Food Network's reality show, Ace of Cakes. I have a friend who has something of a crush on him and often says that she'd like to "put him in her pocket." Well, today is apparently her lucky day, as Charm City Cakes has teamed up with Diamond Select Toys to turn Duff into a very pocket-sized action figure. That's right Charm City Cakes fans, you can now have your very own Duff doll.
In addition to the doll, you can also buy an assortment of accessories, including "two of the shop's signature cakes, a drill-powered mixer, a chainsaw, wooden spoon, spatula, guitar and flame-thrower! Also included is an alternate baseball cap to recreate another Duff Goldman look!"
They're available this fall and would make the perfect holiday gift for the Duff Goldman fan.
One of my favorite early Saturday Night Liveskits was featured John Belushi as an Olympic athlete. The scene opens with clips of Belushi doing a high jump and running around a track, then cuts to a shot of him at the breakfast table. Clutching a cigarette, Belushi looks into the camera with complete gravitas and tells about his secret to staying fit: "I downed a lot of donuts. Little chocolate donuts. They taste good and they've got the sugar I need to get me going in the morning."
The commercial played off the classic "Wheaties" ads, which featured Bruce Jenner. The prevailing wisdom in those days stated that top-class athletes had to eat extremely healthy foods, like whole grain cereal and skinless, boneless chicken. However, as I recently read about Michael Phelps' daily eating regimen, I was surprised to see that his diet is much closer to John Belushi's than to Richard Simmons. To begin with, the Olympian consumes approximately 12,000 calories a day, roughly six times the RDA for a man his age. Second, it is heavily skewed towards carbohydrates and fats, which most diets eschew. Given Phelps' amazing energy expenditure (in the average week, the guy swims five hours a day, six days a week!
At any rate, Phelps' average daily menu is after the jump...
Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter picks up his second restaurant, Monkey Bar. His first, the Waverly Inn, has been luring a high wattage crowd for two years, despite not being officially open.
L.A.'s fast food moratorium raises questions about choice and personal responsibility.
No wonder the Internet is swarming with a horde of wanna-be celebrity chefs. Forbes reports that those faces we all know and love (or loathe) are making some decent coin as faces of the cooking world.
Sure, some of them are making a heck of a lot more because they're taking over the airwaves with a million different shows (Rachel Ray), but man, it just hurts me to see Paula Deen ahead of the likes of Bourdain, Flay, and Batali.
The Top 10 Earning Celebrity Chefs:
10. Anthony Bourdain - $1.5 million 9. Bobby Flay - $1.5 million 8. Tom Colicchio - $2 million 7. Mario Batali - $3 million 6. Paula Deen - $4.5 million 5. Alain Ducasse - $5 million 4. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa - $5 million 3. Gordon Ramsay - $7.5 million 2. Wolfgang Puck - $16 million 1. Rachel Ray - $18 million
(Click the photo to see TV's Top 7 Sexy Celebrity Chefs)
Food Network chef Tyler Florence and wife Tolan Clark Florence announced the birth of their daughter, Dorothy Tyler Florence on Friday. Born on August 8th, 2008 she Dorothy will forever have the delightful (and according to the Chinese, very auspicious) birth date 08/08/08. To see a picture of the newborn, check out the post welcoming her to the scene over at the Food Network Addict blog.
Dorothy has two older brothers, Hayden is 14 months old and Miles is 12 years old (Tyler's son from a previous relationship). I'm sure they're both just giddy over their pretty new sister.
Okay, I'm going to get something out in the open here: I am somewhat biased when it comes to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Just in case the title of this post wasn't enough to make my feelings clear, I want you to know that, from where I stand, the famed ice cream makers share moral ground with Kim Philby, John Walker, and Robert Hanssen. In my house, we don't use the term "Benedict Arnold." For us, the gold standard of betrayal takes the form of two Vermont pseudo-hippies, and the phrase "You're a total...Ben and Jerry!" can be the prelude to a massive battle royale.
Even so, I'll try to be fair.
When I was a kid, long before Ben and Jerry's became a household term, I met the pair at a book show in Washington D.C. They were hawking their ice cream cookbook and, as a young cook and avid bibliophile, I eagerly snapped up the signed first edition of their tome. Although I left the DC convention center that day with several huge bags of books, Ben and Jerry's slim volume was in my lap, and I read it and reread it repeatedly over the next few days.
Although it was to be a long time before Ben and Jerry's came to our neck of the woods, I mixed up several of their recipes in my little ice cream maker. I loved them all. In Massachusetts, where my family spent our summers, B&J's was available in a few of the markets, so my sisters and I were able to try out a few of the famous flavors. We absolutely adored them.
When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting.
Ironically, while I flunked chem, I aced my cooking classes. Even at the time, I thought that this was a little weird; after all, what is cooking if not a chemical process? The subtle adjustment of flavors, the cultivation of certain bacteria, the measured combination of leavening chemicals are all, basically, a mix of applied chemistry and biology. However, cooking class captured my imagination and attention in a way that chemistry didn't.
Reading a recent profile of Alton Brown, I realize that the problem lay with Mrs. Olech and her ilk. The simple fact is that science can be a lot of fun, if it is applied in a way that is relevant and exciting. I was surprised to learn that, like me, Brown found his science classes "boring beyond words." Even now, as he has built his own store of scientific knowledge, he admits to having discarded academic journals and scholarly papers because of their inability to engage his interest.
Yes, proceeds from the sales of Nutrish will indeed go toward funding no-kill shelters and awareness campaigns, and it's not as if she's the first media-centric chef to go to the dogs -- or cats (remember Rocco DiSpirito's Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys?). Still, I'm continually shocked by the branding stretches some of these folks are making.
(Aaaannnd I've just run across Paula Deen's Butt Massage. I know it's likely a handy and delicious mix of herbs, spices and faerie dust, but still. Ew.)
Have you ever wondered about why it's important to salt your food at various stages of the cooking process? Or wished for someone to talk you through a good technique for poaching an egg with humor and understanding? If so, Michael Ruhlman's 2007 book, The Elements of Cooking should be given a place in your kitchen as this book has the answers and guidance you seek.
This is a book that walks you through basics, gives you insights into the ways in which chefs think and offers lots of little things you can do to make your home cooking more successful and delicious. It is the best-written and most instructive book I've clapped eyes on in a long time. If my educational texts in college had been this engrossing, I probably would have stayed a student for ever.
In addition to offering lots of immensely helpful tips, there are also a handful of recipes scattered throughout the book, mostly tucked in the A to Z section. They might not look like recipes as you're used to seeing, as they come in narrative form, but they are there, in the form of instructions on how to macerate berries or make lemon confit. I can't say enough good things about this book, I just recommend that if you have any interest in learning more about cooking and the food you eat, you should check it out.
In his forty-plus year career, Elton John has had no lack of awards: in addition to an Oscar for his work on The Lion King, he can boast five Grammys, a place in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a CBE and a Knighthood, as well as hundreds of other honors, great and small.
However, in some ways, none of these honors is as sweet as the one recently bestowed on the famed singer/songwriter. This week, Ben and Jerry's will launch Goodbye, Yellow Brickle Road, an Elton John-themed flavor that it will sell in its scoop shops from July 18th to July 25th. Named after his seminal 1973 breakthrough album and unveiled in honor of his first-ever concert in the Green Mountain State, all proceeds from the sale of the ice cream will go to the Elton John AIDS Fund.
A chocolate ice cream base with peanut butter cookie dough, butter brickle, and white chocolate chunks, one wonders if "Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road" might spawn sequels. After all, is it hard to imagine a market for "Rocky Road Man," "Can You Feel the Carbs Tonight" or "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blueberry Bonanza"?
Do you make amazing grilled lamb chops with gremolada? Out-of-this-world ribs with tamarind-Jack Daniels sauce? Burgers so good your friends say you should open a concession at the football stadium? Submit your grilling recipe with a short video demonstration (three minutes max) to Mario Batali's Ultimate Grilling Challenge for a chance to win a ton of great (and some just plain weird) prizes.
Submissions are due July 30 and the contest winner will be announced in October on The Rachel Ray Show. The grand prize winner will receive a VIP weekend at Texas Motor Speedway including a pre-race tailgate party with Mario Batali and Rachael Ray at the Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Semi-finalists will console themselves with $500 worth of Mario Batali The Italian Kitchen products and a year's supply of VIVA paper towels (though apparently two rolls a month is a lifetime supply). Quarter-finalists receive a bunch more Mario swag, including - get this - His n' Hers Mario Crocs (AKA, the only thing more embarrassing than riding a tandem bike). $1.00 will be donated to The Food Bank For New York City for every entry received.
The contest is intended to promote the portly redhead's new Italian Grill cookbook. The book goes universes beyond burgers and hot dogs, with recipes for grilled flatbreads, vegetables and pizzas as well as meat. Think grilled Guinea hen breasts with rosemary and pesto, grilled baby octopus with olive-orange vinaigrette. Italian grilling, as Mario explains, never involves thick, sweet barbecue sauces or salty, soy- or Tabasco-based marinades. It rarely involves more than olive oil, wine, citrus juice and herbs and spices. Though, as he admits, the recipes in the book are not pure Italian, they are somewhat influenced by America's grand grilling culture. We are, after all, the country that invented the backyard barbecue.
Healthy officials say celebrity chefs often fail to maintain basic hygiene standards, according to an article by BBC news.
Interestingly, however, the article only cites one health official, but it states that the issue was brought up at a medical conference in Edinburgh. Crimes by the celebrity chefs include not washing lettuce and using the same utensils for raw meat and cooked foods. Guilty shows include BBC's Ready Steady Cook and Celebrity MasterChef, which I've actually never seen.
I'm not sure whether the problem, if it exists, happens here in the U.S. as well, as I have never thought about the issue while watching food TV. I guess I always presume that ingredients are pre-washed, or that the washing is edited out of programs like Top Chef and Iron Chef America. Your thoughts?
I didn't put it down until I had at least looked at every single wine on the list. It's Gary first list of favorite and recommended wines, and it's chock full of enthusiasm, energy, and genuinely great recommendations.
Here are some ways this book can be useful for you:
Exploring wine if you've never really tried wine before and have no idea where to start.
Choosing great wines for specific occasions from Gary's very cleverly organized and insightful lists for any event.
Finding the best wine for that flavor profile you really like (best dry Reisling, best "fruit bomb" red, etc.).
Learning how you can become better at recognizing what you like about wine and what wines you're passionate about (hint: drink more wine!).
Understanding that wine can be fun, and that it doesn't have to be serious or snobby.
What I really love about this book is the genuine authenticity that just reverberates from everything that Gary has to say. Each individual wine write-up is like getting to read an episode of Wine Library TV, chock full of enthusiasm, honesty, and insightful wine wisdom. The only thing I would change about the book is that, for a truly ignorant wine novice like myself, it's hard to tell which wines are white or red, etc., which is important for me since I have a hard time really enjoying reds and wanted to go through and pick out all of the wines that I knew I would want to try right off of the bat. A quick cheat sheet or wine primer at the beginning of the book (Petite Sirah is red, Reislings are white, etc.) would have been really helpful for me.
Overall, the book is well written, very straightforward in Gary's typical style, and I think it has potential to really help the everyday wine enthusiast reach a level of immersion in the wine world that many of us don't think we can reach. It can be expensive to start out in wine and buy a bottle of everything, especially if you're back at square one when the wine isn't a quality example of the genre you're trying to explore. This book makes jumping into every corner of the wine world a real possibility for every wine drinker, and that is something really worth sharing. Keep a copy handy for your own trips to the liquor store, and give a copy to a wine-loving (or wine-curious) friend!
Right now, anything organic is hot in the food industry. That's one reason that soup making giant Campbell's Soup Company bought the Wolfgang Puck line of organic soups from Country Gourmet Foods. In addition to purchasing the soup line for an "undisclosed sum," Campbell's Soup had to negotiate a licensing agreement with Wolfgang Puck Worldwide to keep using Puck's image on the soup.
Campbell's Soup may have made forays into the organic or natural market with a few products, but according to Advertising Age the brand is really hoping that the Wolfgang Puck line will add some prestige, not to mention get their foot in the door at Whole Foods.
How do you feel about Campbell's Soup owning the Wolfgang Puck line? Do you think they are unfairly buying their way into the organic market, or is this an acceptable tactic?
What's up with these 'cleansing' diets and why are they so popular? In the latest high-profile example, Oprah has just completed a three week vegan cleansing diet, and, according to Access Hollywood, she feels not only refreshed, but awakened. She states that she is now more aware of the global food crisis.
Oprah's diet was based on Kathy Freston's book "Quantum Wellness." To find out more about her cleansing experience, you can read her blog. Apparently, everything she ate, with the exception of olive oil, came from her garden. I can understand feeling healthy after a cleansing diet, but I'm not sure I'd say that it made me more sensitive to the world's food problems. Oprah, coming from you, that just seems a little ridiculous, not to mention a bit insensitive!
Have you tried a cleansing diet? If so, which ones and how did they work out?
You know Duff Goldman as the owner of Charm City Cakes and the central character in the Food Network's reality show, Ace of Cakes. I have a friend who has something of a crush on him and often says that she'd like to "put him in her pocket." Well, today is apparently her lucky day, as Charm City Cakes has teamed up with Diamond Select Toys to turn Duff into a very pocket-sized action figure. That's right Charm City Cakes fans, you can now have your very own Duff doll. .jpg)
One of my favorite early Saturday Night Live 
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Okay, I'm going to get something out in the open here: I am somewhat biased when it comes to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Just in case the title of this post wasn't enough to make my feelings clear, I want you to know that, from where I stand, the famed ice cream makers share moral ground with Kim Philby, John Walker, and Robert Hanssen. In my house, we don't use the term "Benedict Arnold." For us, the gold standard of betrayal takes the form of two Vermont pseudo-hippies, and the phrase "You're a total...Ben and Jerry!" can be the prelude to a massive battle royale..jpg)
When I was in high school, I had a love-hate relationship with science classes. Geology was fine, biology was okay, and chemistry...well, chemistry was hell. Mrs. Olech, the troll who taught the class, regularly flunked half her students and had a teaching manner that made Alan Greenspan seem bouncy and exciting. 
In response to the unleashing of 
Have you ever wondered about why it's important to salt your food at various stages of the cooking process? Or wished for someone to talk you through a good technique for poaching an egg with humor and understanding? If so, Michael Ruhlman's 2007 book, 
Do you make amazing grilled lamb chops with gremolada? Out-of-this-world ribs with tamarind-Jack Daniels sauce? Burgers so good your friends say you should open a concession at the football stadium? Submit your grilling recipe with a short video demonstration (three minutes max) to 
Healthy officials say celebrity chefs often fail to maintain basic hygiene standards, according to 
If you're a Vayniac, you already know that Gary Vaynerchuk came out with a book called 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
