Tuesday, July 31, 2012

AC Food and Wine Festival 2012 - Food Network Personalities Impress

AC Food and Wine Festival 2012This past weekend, the Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival was held in Atlantic City, NJ and Food Network personalities such as Tyler Florence, Paula Deen, Robert Irvine, and Anne Burrell were all in attendance.  I took a look around to see what people were saying about the event and it was interesting to see.

It seems like Robert Irvine impressed a lot of people at his event with his outgoing personality and interaction with the guests. 

Friday, July 27, 2012

3 Days to Open With Bobby Flay - Restaurant Updates/Reviews

3 Days to Open Bobby FlayWith 2 episodes already airing for 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay, and another scheduled to air tonight, I thought it would be interesting to look at the reviews for the restaurants on Yelp.  Of course the restaurant is going to have a good amount of business after opening with Bobby Flay visiting and the free local publicity.  Also, the restaurant gives their update to Food Network, so they will definitely not say anything bad about themselves or the business and say everything is going great.  Onto the first 3 restaurants reviews of 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay:

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell - MET Back Bay Update

Chef Wanted MET Back BayThis week Lisa Odom, David Quintana, Josh Breen, and Won Kim competed to become MET Back Bay's executive chef.  David Quintana was the first chef eliminated on this episode after his burger was too dry.  Josh Breen was the 2nd chef eliminated when they didn't think he could handle a restaurant of that size.  

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Food Network Star Season 8 Recap

Well, season 8 of Food Network Star is now complete with Justin Warner declared the winner during Sunday's finale.  His new show is scheduled to air in the Fall, but right now, there is no set date.  So lets take a look back at the season as a whole.

Food Network Star Finale Season 8The order of eliminations this season were: Cristie Schoen, Kara Sigle, Josh Lyons, Eric Lee, Judson Allen, Linkie Marais, Emily Ellyn, Malcolm Mitchell, Martita Jara, Nikki Martin, Ippy, Martie Duncan, Yvan Lemoine, and Michele Ragussis.  Nikki and Ippy were eliminated during the same week to get us down to the final 4, and Martie, Yvan, and Michele were eliminated during the finale.  Martie was eliminated first during the finale, but I don't think it was because she had the least votes, but because they wanted 1 person for each mentor in the end.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Food Network Star Finale Tonight aka Justin Warner Winner Party

Tonight, the season finale of Food Network Star will air, and the season 8 winner will be revealed.  The episode will feature never before seen footage of the season as well as some of everyone's favorite moments.  I do not have any insider info or anything, but this poll has Justin Warner receiving a whopping 70% of the about 300 votes.  Also, by looking at Twitter, all other finalists went home after the filming of the finale (in case you didn't know, the finale was taped this week and is not live).  So, I have no doubts that Justin Warner will be the winner of Food Network Star Season 8.  I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Chef Wanted with Anne Burrell - Info On Contestants

Chef Wanted Anne BurrellAfter watching last night's episode of Chef Wanted with Anne Burrell, I was curious about some of the contestants and stumbled upon what looks like a webpage that was put together for the casting of the show.

For each restaurant, it has a list of the chefs considered to be on the show along with video's of their audition, facts about the chef, as well as their resumes.

Last night's episode, Episode 5, was for the Old Homestead Restaurant in New York, in which Richard Mancini won.  Jenard Wells aka the "Love Chef" was also on this episode and stated that he had 9 kids.  I was shocked to see that he was only 31 years old and has 9 kids already. 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Robert Irvine And Wife Gail Kim To Share Their Wedding In Food Network Special - Wedding: Impossible

Robert Irvine Gail Kim WeddingAs stated earlier, Robert Irvine and his wife Gail Kim will be featured in a special on Food Network that will air on Saturday, August 18th.  Now we know more details about the special that will be called Wedding: Impossible.

Description of Wedding: Impossible:
"When he's not rescuing a restaurant, Restaurant: Impossible's host Robert Irvine is busy planning the wedding of a lifetime: his own -- and you're invited! This new "mission" gives viewers an intimate look into the personal life of the star chef, Robert Irvine, as he gets ready to marry wrestling star and entertainer, Gail Kim. Featuring famous culinary guests and set against one of the most magnificent backdrops in the country, Napa Valley, Robert will introduce us to his family, his friends and allow viewers to be a part of one of the most important moments of his life."

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Food Network Star Voting - Poll

As Food Network does not show current percentages of the voting for the next Food Network Star, I put up this poll to try to determine who people are voting for.  If all the people voting here come here randomly, the sample size could help us determine who is leading in votes, but I am no statistician.  These votes do not count towards the winner, so no need to go and campaign for your favorite star.  Hopefully this helps us determine the Food Network Star vote results.


Monday, July 16, 2012

Food Network Star Season 8 - Episode 10 Recap


Food Network Star Final 6This week the six remaining finalists had to shoot a 30 second promo video about their show that would then be reviewed by a panel of current Food Network personalities such as Robert Irvine, Sunny Anderson, Jeff Mauro, Melissa D'Arabian, and Aaron Sanchez.  After the promo, there would be an elimination where all remaining contestants would film a pilot.  All of the promos were filmed in a bright green trailer and each of the finalists had only 3 takes to film their promo.  Everyone used all 3 takes and stumbled a bit in their first 2 takes to make their third take dramatic.   Who knows if they actually limited them to 3 takes as all of the promos had no stuttering or errors.

When the promos were reviewed by the Food Network panelists, each promo had mostly positive remarks, with a few questions of if it would work as a show.  The finalists were then lined up team by team and were told that half of them were going home.  The first team up was Team Bobby and they told Michele that she would be the one from team Bobby to film a pilot, and Nikki Martin was sent home.  Then for Team Giada, Yvan was told he would be the one to film a pilot episode, which meant Ippy was eliminated.  Finally, Team Alton was up, and we were ready for the surprise of the show.  They told Justin that he would be shooting a pilot episode, and after the tears and celebration, Bob and Susie then told Martie that she would also be shooting a pilot episode as they couldn't eliminate her.  This caused many tears for Alton Brown, Martie and Justin.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Chopped: Food Network Stars To Air Before Next Food Network Star Finale. Also Chopped is Casting

Chopped Food NetworkThere will be a special episode of Chopped with previous winners of Food Network Star that will air at 8pm on July 22nd, 2012.  This will air right before the Food Network Star finale at 9pm where the newest winner will be announced.  The competitors will include: Melissa d’Arabian, Amy Finley, Jeff Mauro, and Aarti Sequeira.  Also, instead of the normal Chopped judges, Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis and Alton Brown will be judging the contestants.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Yvan Lemoine Reveals He and Justin Warner Made It To The Food Network Star Finale?

Yvan Lemoine sent out a tweet to Justin Warner (@EatFellowHumans) yesterday that pretty much revealed he is going against Justin in the final vote and expects to lose to him.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Iron Chef Cat Cora Cited for DUI - Was Twice The Legal Limit

News has come out that Cat Cora has been cited for a DUI after a minor traffic accident on June 17th in Santa Barbara, California where she blew twice the legal limit.  From the Santa Barbara Police report :  

Cat Cora DUI6-17-12, 1815 hours, Catherine Cora (age 45) was driving and involved in a minor traffic collision where she rear-ended another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle reported that he believed that Cora might be under the influence. Officer Battaglia arrived and contacted Cora and noticed that she displayed symptoms of alcohol intoxication. Cora stated she had consumed three bottles of beer prior to driving. Officer Battaglia conducted a DUI investigation and determined that Cora was too intoxicated to safely operate a motor vehicle. Cora provided two breath samples which registered her BAC at .20 and .19 and a blood sample which registered her BAC at .19. Cora was issued a citation and admitted into the Sobering Center.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Food Network Star Season 8 - Episode 9 Recap

Remaining Finalists Food Network StarThis week, the remaining finalists were tasked with doing a 3 minute live cooking demo to a hired audience at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival.  I am guessing the hired audience had to sign a waiver to appear and swear they wouldn't reveal the finalists they saw at the festival.  During their 3 minute cooking demo, they had to present their dish and give cooking tips, but the twist was that each of their presentations would be sabotaged to try to exploit their weaknesses.  No matter what the results, we all knew that someone from Team Giada would be going home to keep the teams even for the next episode.

I think this may have been the first time all season that the contestants were tasked with cooking and talking at the same time (although they didn't do much cooking with only 3 minutes), which is kind of crazy as that is what they will most likely have to do if they have their own show.  All prior challenges have been cooking food, then presenting their dish to the camera, but no cooking and talking at the same time.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Vote: Who is going home tonight?

With the predictable Team Giada elimination tonight, who do you think will be the contestant eliminated on Food Network Star?

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Gordon Ramsay and Tyler Florence Team Up For New Food Network Show - Food Court Wars

Gordon Ramsay Food Court Wars
Executive producer Gordon Ramsay is producing a show called Food Court Wars that will air on the Food Network and be hosted by Tyler Florence.  The idea behind the show is that "two teams will battle head to head to win a restaurant space rent free for an entire year within one of Alabama's biggest malls; a prize worth 100k."  Not sure if that means they are only going to cast 2 teams and have them compete for multiple episodes, or if more than 2 teams will be cast and there will be eliminations.

They are now casting for the show, but contestants must have local ties to the Alabama region.  For more info, visit http://foodcourtwarscasting.com/


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Food Network Gossip Returns - Happy July 4th!

Hello all.  I am back from vacation so look for more frequent updates regarding all things Food Network.

I have caught up on the Food Network Star episodes that I missed and the episode 2 weeks ago saw Emily Ellyn go home as she found out what her retro rad obsession really was, although I am still not so sure what it is.

Food Network Star Emily Ellyn Eliminated