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In the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished category: Celebrity chef Paula Deen, while helping out the homeless today in Atlanta, took a honey-baked ham to the face.

According to a wsbtv.com report, here’s how the incident went down:

Read More “Flying Ham Hits Paula Deen in the Snout” »

Comerford and Flay get fresh (veggies) in the White House garden.

Jeesh, speaking of predictions, Y&H should have guessed this would happen as soon as the White House broke ground on its kitchen garden in March: Iron Chef America has trotted out three of its, ahem, heaviest hitters to cook a meal from ingredients plucked from the hugely symbolic garden.

The special two-hour episode of Iron Chef America, dubbed with a stunning lack of subtlety, Super Chef Battle, features Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse, who take on Bobby Flay and White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford in the competition.

The episode has already been filmed, and according to The New York Times‘ account, First Lady Michelle Obama laid out the ground rules to the teams (they had to cook five dishes using ingredients from the White House kitchen garden) and put in a good plug for her Healthy Kids Initiative.

The show will air on Sunday, Jan. 3, on the Food Network.

Not surprisingly, the air date is politically tinged. So says Y&H’s virtual friend, Obama Foodorama, who writes:

Read More “Should Have Seen This Coming: ‘Iron Chef’ Visits White House for ‘Kitchen Garden’ Challenge” »

If you want to learn how to make Boston clam chowder, all you have to do is turn on the Food Network or wander over to Borders and browse through the American regional cookbook section. Or, hell, just type the words into Google and watch the recipes and videos stream into your home.

When François Haeringer, the 90-year-old founding chef of L’Auberge Chez François in Great Falls, learned how to make the dish, he had to do it the hard way.  The following antecdote anecdote comes from The Chez François Cookbook, Revised Edition, written by Haeringer’s son, Jacques, who would eventually take over the French country inn’s kitchen for his graying father (a native Alsatian who’s still kicking it today):

Read More “How François Haeringer Learned to Make Boston Clam Chowder” »

I’m not sure how I missed this delightful dust-up from a couple of years ago, but some enterprising Food Network viewer captured this moment on Iron Chef America, in which the show’s sponsor, McDonald’s, allegedly sliced in a frame of subliminal advertising. The Dark Mouse denied all, of course. But Y&H really would love McDonald’s if it suddenly assumed a Fight Club-like persona, fully aware of its evil doppelgänger.

I rarely get effusive about things that have so little to do with drinking, but this is great news. Food Network’s Good Eats with Thomas Dolby lookalike Alton Brown is now available to watch on Hulu.

Now before you get your gluten strands in a knot, note that you can’t watch full episodes yet, only clips. I’ve asked Hulu if we can expect more and will update you when I hear back.

Read More “Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” Comes to Hulu” »

Y&H loves Anthony Bourdain, because he’s not afraid to say things like this: Celebrity chef shows are “the new pornography. It’s people seeing things on TV, watching people make things on TV that they’re not going to be doing themselves any time soon, just like porn.”

Giada: Fit to be wrapped in foil

Talk about shooting fish in a barrel — or farm-raised salmon in their pens. Huffington Post’s sustainable/organic hawk Isabel Cowles goes after a trio Food Network celebrity chefs, hoping to point out their anti-environmental ways and, of course, rack up some easy page views along the way.

Cowles attacks Giada de Laurentiis for wasting aluminum foil, Guy Fieri for encouraging excessive meat-eating, and Sandra Lee for being….well, a lousy cook and relying on pre-packaged products. Here’s Cowles’ closing kick in the teeth:

Read More “Huff Post’s Cowles Takes a Swipe at Food Network Chefs” »

Folkman (front) in his pre-Star days

Teddy Folkman, a fixture on our Best of D.C. lists, will soon have a chance to prove his worth to a wider audience. The chef at Granville Moore’s (and spanker of Bobby Flay) has been selected as one of ten finalists for the fifth season of The Next Food Network Star, which premieres on Sunday, June 7.

The winner of the contest receives his or her own Food Network show; four previous winners have already launched their own programs, including Aaron McCargo, Jr. (Big Daddy’s House) and Guy Fieri (Guy’s Big Bite). Whether or not Folkman becomes the next Food Network darling, the chef already has a protective layer of PR bureaucracy around; when Y&H tried to phone Folkman for comment, he immediately returned the call but said we needed to go through official Food Network channels.

Y&H dutifully did so and got only this canned, promotional quote,  allegedly from Folkman:

“Being on The Next Food Network Star was truly an amazing experience. It was intense, challenging, fun, chaotic, emotional and just one crazy roller coaster of culinary competition. I am proud to be part of what should be the best season yet.”

Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Y&H is thrilled for Folkman, but he also has some questions: What does Folkman’s appearance mean for Granville Moore’s both in the short and long term? And what does it mean for the other Joe Englert projects that Folkman has a hand in (lower in the story)? I’m still searching for answers.

Read More “Granville’s Teddy Folkman to Compete on ‘Next Food Network Star’” »