Celebrity Chefs

Hurrah for the James Beard Book, Broadcast and Journalism Awards Winners!

The James Beard Book Broadcast and Journalism awards were held this past Saturday night, and a whole new crop of book authors, TV and radio folks and food journalists were honored with what is still considered the food world's greatest honor -- a James Beard medal. You can see the full list of win ... More >>

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Casting in Southern California

Gordon Ramsay's restaurant turn-around show Kitchen Nightmares is casting in Southern California, and they want your help finding restaurants that need Ramsay's help. Casting directors are looking both for restaurateurs who are seeking Ramsay's council and recommendations from members of the public ... More >>

IACP 2013 Food Writing Award Finalists Announced

The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- yes, that's an old joke now, but you try googling IACP and see what you get -- announced their 2013 award finalists this morning for four of their prestigious ... More >>

Marcus Samuelsson to Cook at Govind Armstrong's Post & Beam in Baldwin Hills

Marcus Samuelsson, chef at New York's Red Rooster Harlem, will be cooking a special meal at Post & Beam, Govind Armstrong's Baldwin Hills restaurant.

Q & A With Lesley Nicol of Downton Abbey: Salty Raspberry Meringue, Adventures in Pretend Cooking How Mrs. Patmore is Like Gordon Ramsay

Downton Abbey starts its third season on Jan. 6 on Masterpiece Classic at 9 p.m. -- that would be tomorrow. Fans of the soapy period drama might be imagining the glorious nuptials of the long-suffering Matthew Crawley and the spoiled Lady Mary, or laying bets on whether or not Lord and Lady Grantham ... More >>

Q & A With Eddie Huang Watch Episode 2 and 3 of Fresh Off The Boat L.A. Installment

Eddie Huang can be a tough guy to wrap your head around. The New York-based chef who went to law school, passed the bar, then dropped out of law to cook and eventually opened Baohaus is now a bona fide food celebrity and, to many observers, full of contradictions. Huang's new show with VICE, Fresh ... More >>

Current TV To Air Health-Conscious "Currently: Feeding The Need" Series Featuring Wolfgang Puck and Mary Sue Milliken

Around Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, we think about food. (And not just what we plan to serve alongside the turkey.) We're grateful for food, and we think more consciously about those who don't have enough food, and those who don't have access to good quality food, and are suffering bec ... More >>

Tijuana Grub Crawl: Where To Eat, Drink and Walk on Your Tour of TJ

See also: Anthony Bourdain Told Me to Go to Baja. So I'd Be OK There. Right? See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately See also: OC Weekly's Column Tijuana Sí! You're going to Tijuana, and you want to eat. That's a very good pla ... More >>

Fabio Viviani on Life After Top Chef Why "Success Is Personal"

See also: Top Chef Tour: Richard Blais vs. Fabio Viviani at Hollywood & Highland See also: Top Chef Masters Recap: "Do You Want to Be Comforted, or Do You Want to Be Thrilled?" It's 10:00 a.m., and chef Fabio Viviani is eating cereal with chocolate milk. "Whole grain Cheerios, because fiber is good ... More >>

Charm City Cakes West: Godiva Truffles Take the Cake

That proverbial kid in a candy shop would have fought like crazy to get into last night's grand opening of Charm City Cakes West. The slightly older party crowd could take all they wanted from a massive display of Godiva cake truffles -- hundreds of them. Introduced Sept. 1, the truffles are the la ... More >>

Howdy, Sailor ... It's Top Chef, The Cruise!

Just when Top Chef apathy has reached a crippling level of "I just don't care any more," the brilliant marketing minds at Bravo have come up with a new way to garner cash interest. It's Top Chef ... on a boat!!

Life of Pie: L.A. Celebrates Its Pizza Moment

From our 2012 Restaurant Issue, celebrating everything pizza in L.A. On a Wednesday evening, 10 students sit along the counter at the Scuola di Pizza, the, yes, "School of Pizza" at L.A.'s premier pizza joint, Mozza. I'd like to say we're a varied lot, but that wouldn't be true -- we're uniformly w ... More >>

Caesar Salad Festival in Tijuana This Sunday: Did You Know Its Roots Are in Baja?

See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately. See also: 'Stick a Fork in It' column Tijuana Sí!. If you're up for a spur of the moment trip across the Mexican border (and who isn't these days) this weekend would be a good time to g ... More >>

Read This Now, or Almost Now: Lucky Peach Issue 4

It is now time for your regular Lucky Peach update. Because we love David Chang as much as you do, perhaps even more so after his recent pit stop at UCLA. (Dinner afterwards? At A-Frame with Jonathan Gold, Peter Meehan, and Amy Rowat, if you keep track of these kinds of things). Because the next ... More >>

Top 6 Weekend Food Events: Rick Bayless at Red O, Tequila Dinner, Rabbit Dinner, Mole Tour, Salsa 101 Design-n-Dim Sum Bike Tour

Rick Bayless at Red O On the occasion of Red O's second anniversary, chef Rick Bayless stops by during Street Food Social Hour to mingle and sign his latest cookbook, Fiesta at Rick's. Then he's in the kitchen during dinner, offering the strawberry shortcake gratis with each meal. WHAT: Rick Bayless ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/14 - 5/18

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Animals have been talking to me. And any shaman will say that that's not that weird." Q & A With Roy Choi: Slinging Tacos at Midnight, Calling Out Jamie Oliver Choi's Vegetable Moment. "After all, in Los Angeles, nothing ... More >>

Flavour Gallery T-Shirts: "I Don't SCREAM I Express Myself" Chef-Inspired Fashion

If it's already one of those "Say YES CHEF and that's it" or "I don't SCREAM I express myself" sort of weeks, you're in luck. Flavour Gallery, the L.A. based t-shirt designer with an eye for dining-inspired designs, has expanded recently beyond their typical "swirl and sip" logos. The company began ... More >>

Guy Fieri Gets His Stolen Lamborghini Back What You Can Fit Inside a Storage Container

The Associated Press reports that celebrity chef Guy Fieri can finally start driving his stolen $200,000 bumblebee yellow 2008 Gallardo Spyder convertible to all those diners and dives again. 17-year-old Max Michael Wade, from San Rafael, California, was charged yesterday with an assortment of crime ... More >>

Cascabel: Rick Bayless is Starring in a Play!

If you're going to be in Chicago sometime before April 29th, and want to earn some very esoteric food snob points, you cannot miss Rick Bayless making his acting debut in Cascabel at The Lookingglass Theater Company. Yes, chef Rick Bayless, author, restaurateur and champion of Mexican regional cui ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 3/5-3/9

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Tommy's chili is a flame-orange concoction that, no matter how many napkins you have at the ready, will inevitably leave its mark somewhere on your face, shirt or shoes." 10 Best Hot Dogs in Los Angeles. ​"We've all wished ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain: Now Portable Via Travel Channel's New Layover App

We've all wished we could carry Anthony Bourdain around in our pockets when traveling to a new city, and now, the marketing geniuses over at the Travel Channel have figured out a way to make such a thing possible. In digital form, at least. Today they announced the new "Travel Channel Layover Guide ... More >>

Paula Deen and Her Brother Bubba Accused of Sexual Harassment

Whether she's hiding a three-year-old type-2 diabetes diagnosis, inking deals with pharmaceutical companies for diabetes drugs or dropping two pants sizes, Paula Deen is riding an unpredictable public relations roller coaster with the media this year. And now, Deen is back in the headlines: a former ... More >>

Read This Now: Lucky Peach Issue 3

​Okay, it's not out just yet, but it's good to get advance warning for some things. (Obama traffic, windstorms, certain NBA point guards.) On March 13th, the third issue of Lucky Peach hits the stands and kitchen counter tops and behind tsukemen bars (where Ikemen keeps theirs). Lucky Peach, ... More >>

Steve Albini Has A Food Blog

Crotchety genius Steve Albini* has a food blog. It's called Mario Batali Voice. Why? As Albini explains it on the blog: "This is what I made Heather for dinner. The name comes from the way I bring her food in bed and present it to her using an imitation of Mario Batali's voice from TV. When she post ... More >>

New Food Network Show Fat Chef to Premiere Jan. 26

A new batch of chefs is joining the Food Network later this month, but they won't be doing much cooking. Instead, the group of chefs deemed "fat" will be a part of Fat Chef, a Biggest Loser-type program, focusing on helping twelve professional chefs lose weight while improving their mental and physi ... More >>

Rachael v. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off: Pitting Celebrity Non-Chefs Against Each Other to See Who Sucks the Least

​Have we learned nothing from Famous Food? Only disaster can come from letting half-wit D-listers anywhere near a set of knives. Shouldn't the fact that a New Jersey Housewife is now part owner of a Hollywood restaurant teach us we should leave culinary arts to professionals? Unfortunately Rac ... More >>

Q & A with Wolfgang Puck: The Hotel Bel-Air Interview

For anyone who's lived in Los Angeles longer than a decade, it's impossible not to feel caught in some sort of time-warp pulling up to the recently reopened Hotel Bel-Air. The swans still float serenely on the pond and wander the lush grounds, but the first thing you notice aren't the Cygnini, it's ... More >>

Taste Awards Nominees Announced: Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown Steve Jobs

Taste Awards​What do Steve Jobs, Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Chew have in common? They'll each be recognized during the next annual Taste Awards. Contrary to the name, the award ceremony, held January's 3rd in Hollywood, honors not just food but style and home lifestyle programming in television, ... More >>

PBS FOOD: PBS Launches Food Website

PBSJulia Child and Jacques Pépin​Another day, another food website. This latest site, however, was not launched by a grandmother who likes to bake chocolate croissants in her Reseda kitchen, a university food policy center or even a vegan start-up, but PBS. Who, of course, had us at Jacques P ... More >>

The Chew An Exclusive Clip of Michael Symon

​Daytime talk show The Chew, which may or may not rhyme with The View on purpose, premieres Monday, and we can't wait. Mostly because we're just so curious about what this show will really look like. It promises to be a groundbreaking and innovative take on exploring life through food, style ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain Gets His Own Line of Books at Ecco

​ Anthony Bourdain can now add yet another title to the long list of those he has already: chef, crime novelist, non-fiction author, television host, HBO writer, and eater of odd foods. No, not political candidate, but publisher. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced th ... More >>

"Pico de Gap" Taco Truck Launches

flickr user atle brunvollJust Add Denim​ It was only a matter of time before the L.A. taco truck craze collided with our penchant for denim. Lucky us. But hey, free jeans and tacos are involved. Sort of. Gap is launching a new nationwide marketing campaign for its 1969 denim line that focuses ... More >>

Noooooooooooo! Alton Brown to End "Good Eats"

​One of our favorite cooking shows ever, right up there with the Galloping Gourmet when he was still a drunk, is finito. Alton Brown announced yesterday that after 249 episodes, his Food Network show Good Eats is done. (Chicago Tribune reports Brown announced it as his first post on Twitter, b ... More >>

LAX Concessions: SSP "Shocked" By Airport's Snub Of Celebrity Chefs

Not much to smile about: Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger were snubbed by LAX​These are tough times to be a celebrity chef. Last year, a star-studded group of L.A. chefs (including Nancy Silverton, Joaquim Splichal, Mary Sue Milliken, and Susan Feniger) came very close to winning a spot at L.A. ... More >>

Q & A with Eric Greenspan, Part 2: Culinary School or Not Culinary School, Etc.

Photo by Felicia Friesema.​In Part 1 of our interview with Eric Greenspan, we discovered that The Foundry on Melrose is somehow a tight ship and a wild ride at the same time. The chef waxed poetic (and, well, dropped a lot of f-bombs) as he discussed the challenges of owning a restaurant, the ... More >>

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution: Los Angeles Premiers Tonight

JamieOliver.comJamie Oliver​ Tonight you'll finally get to see what all the fuss -- the Facebook petitions and Ryan Seacrest appearances and bus-and-sand stunts and tomato suits and trailing camera crews -- was about. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, "Maybe L.A. Was a Big Mistake," premiers thi ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Final Pho, Guy Fieri's Pepper Grinder $250 Worth of Food in L.A.

-- Very cool old kitchen tools. [Alice Medrich] -- An elegy for Bernard Clayton Jr. [The New York Times] -- What $250 Will Get You in Los Angeles. (Love this.) [Diana Takes A Bite] -- The Final Pho championship game, um, dinner. [OC Weekly] -- Guy Fieri is overcompensating. [Warming Glow, v ... More >>

Is EATaly Really Coming To L.A.? Lidia Bastianich On The Possibility -- Or Not

EatalyBastianich At EATaly In New York, Not L.A.​Yesterday, EaterLA reportedly confirmed rumors that "EATALY IS COMING TO LA!!!!!" (their emphasis, not ours). As co-owner Lidia Bastianch told us something very different in our interview two weeks ago, we went directly to the source for confirm ... More >>

2011 IACP Finalists Announced

​The IACP, which would be the International Association of Culinary Professionals and not the International Association of Chiefs of Police -- which comes up first on a Google search, proving maybe that cops can SEO better than writers -- yesterday announced the finalists for both the 2011 Coo ... More >>

And Now, A Brief Message From Jamie Oliver (& The Jonas Brothers, Or At Least One of Them)

screenshot of Jamie Oliver's Twitter page​

Loving the David Lynch Interview

New Jersey Woman Eats 30,000-Calorie Christmas Meal

Donna Simpson​When Donna Simpson dreams, she dreams big. The 650-pound New Jersey mom aims to be the fattest woman in the world. And to be the best, you have to make sacrifices. After gaining more than 50 pounds this year, Simpson celebrated by downing a 30,000-calorie Christmas meal. Yes, yo ... More >>

Q & A With Joan Nathan, Part 2: Kosher Wines, "Newish Jewish" How Tom Colicchio (Literally) Saved Her Life

Joan Nathan​In the first part of our conversation with Joan Nathan, we drove around the hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, (via speakerphone) of this award-winning cookbook writer and authority on all things Jewish cuisine, as she explained who loves matzo in France (apparently everybody), ... More >>

The Other Red O: The Original Red Onion

Parking is plentiful. There are no bouncers to prevent you from entering before your allotted hour. Here, the unwashed masses are welcome. With the much hyped and much criticized opening of posh Mexican restaurant Red O, we thought it was time to take a look at the other Red O, the one that doesn't ... More >>

A Brief Spago Update: Chef de Cuisine Tetsu Yahagi

Tetsu Yahagi​Since we've been documenting the chef de cuisine changes at Wolfgang Puck's downtown restaurant, WP24, we thought we'd check in at Spago, where they had a chef change a few months ago. Although Lee Hefter is the executive chef, the chef de cuisine position was vacated in September ... More >>

Look, Up in the Sky!

It's the Ritz! It's Chinese! It's Wolfgang Puck!

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/8-11/12

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "But if it's really not too much trouble, could we all declare a moratorium on implicit comparisons between spherical foods and the male anatomy? Thanks. It would mean a lot." A Food-Writing Misstep of Which I've Been Guilty ... More >>

The LAUSD Says No Thanks to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Jamie OliverOliver's Food Revolution petition: maybe he should make one for the LAUSD​ British cookbook author and food personality Jamie Oliver, who has turned his quest to bring better food to American schoolchildren into the television show Food Revolution, has marched into a roadblock in ... More >>

Flesh and Bone

Playing with Kobe at mighty Cut

Quest for Fire: Out of the Flames

L.A.'s best roasted, grilled sizzled and wood-baked cooking