Posted by wannabetvchef in From My Other Blogs.
Tags: coastal Creole, Emeril Lagasse, Emeril’s Gulf Coast Fish House, Gulfport, hurricane, Hurricane Katrina, Island View Casino and Resort, Jason Lonigro, Katrina, Mississippi, Steve D’Angelo
Originally Posted by Well Fed on the Town (wellfedonthetown.net) on July 2, 2007.
The Katrina-ravaged city of Gulfport, Mississippi, has a new place to go for vittles. On June 21st the Island View Casino and Resort completed Phase II of its construction with the opening of a beautiful new restaurant. The Island View is situated on the property formerly occupied by the Gulfport Grand Casino and is a major cog in the rebuilding effort along the Gulf Coast.
Thanks to the manmade drama in New Orleans following Katrina, the national media largely ignored the devastation in Mississippi. It was actually the Magnolia state, not the Big Easy, that took the brunt of the storm. The property damage in New Orleans, though widespread, was superficial compared to that of the Gulf Coast. The storm surge in New Orleans was around ten feet, the storm surge in Waveland, MS was 32 feet. Not a single edifice in Waveland survived Katrina. The entire town ceased to exist overnight. Flood waters recede but complete annihilation is a little harder to come back from.
Mississippians are resilient folk and they began their recovery effort the very next day, all by themselves. Despite far more extensive destruction, the Gulf Coast’s recovery is slow but astoundingly sure. The casino industry is back on its feet. The jewel of the area, the Beau Rivage reopened last year and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is about to open. And now with the new restaurant at the Island View the good people of Mississippi have something they can really hang their hats on.
The new restaurant is a magnificent tribute to the area with thousands of hand-blown glass bubbles hanging from the ceiling and a 4000 bottle wine tower that partially conceals an 80 seat private banquet room. The menu features “coastal Creole” cuisine a mixture of the New Orleans style food found just to the west and the local seafood and produce found in the Gulfport area. The restaurant is guided on a daily basis by General Manager Jason Lonigro a veteran of the Crescent City restaurant scene, and Chef de Cuisine Steve D’Angelo who worked in New Orleans and Las Vegas prior to opening his own place in Bay St. Louis, MS six years before Katrina destroyed it.
The name of this new world class eatery in the heart of Katrina country? Emeril’s Gulf Coast Fish House and it is owned by Chef/Proprietor Emeril Lagasse whose family weekend home in Pass Christian, MS was also destroyed by Katrina. Alden Lagasse, Emeril’s wife, was born in Gulfport and played a large part in her husband’s decision to build there.
Here is hoping all of the best to Chef Lagasse and the people effected by Katrina from the flood devastated streets of New Orleans to the decimated fishing villages in Alabama. God speed.
Tags: google, Hell's kitchen, ramsey, gordan, gordan ramsey, Petrozza, Christina, Corey, LouRoss, Matt, Jen, London West Hollywood, hell's kitchen winner 2008, louis petrozza, christina hells kitchen, petrozza hell s kitchen, christina machamer
I do not watch this show. I love Gordan Ramsey as a chef, but American TV has taken what made him a star in England and filtered it down to just a potty mouthed Brit with a bad temper. Watch the BBC Kitchen Nightmares and you will see what I mean. Or better yet google some of his vids that are on the net. Bloody brilliant! I his amazing but Hollywood can’t just leave well enough alone.
Anyway for those of you who do watch Christina won and here is the recap.
Tags: 4th, al, barbeque, bbq, carbon, charcoal, chef, cook, cooking., cool, day, de, dog, earth, eco, eco-friendly, environmental, food, funny, gas, gas or charcoal, gas vs. charcoal, gore, green, greens, grill, grilling, grist, guia, hamburger, hot, how, humor, inconvenient, jones, july, labor, liza, Liza de Guia, meat, morgan, news, planet, pollution, propane, renewable, roast, titan, Titan Green, to, treehugger, truth, versus
There is and probably always will be a debate as to which grill is better gas or charcoal. Gas grillers argue for the ease of use of their and quickness of lighting. Charcoalers rightfully argue that propane simply does not taste as good and jokingly remind their rivals that seem to always run out of gas in the middle of cooking almost every time. After all these years that is what the argument has come down to, ease vs. taste.
Well now we have a new factor - ecology. If you are green minded then this may be the dicieding factor for you. As Liza de Guia reports on the Internet-based show Titan Green charcoal briquets soaked in lighter fluid are much dirtier than gas. Gas is equally significantly nastier on the planet than grills using all natural charcaol chunks and a chimney starter. Check out the video HERE.
I am not an enviromentalist whacko but at the same time I do not believe this planet is something that will survive without our help. My green-ness goes like this - I want us to develop alternative fuel vehicles because I am tired of being a slave to the government and big oil. I prefer organic, locally sourced foods not because it is better for the enviroment but because the food tastes better and it helps the local economy. I am a green out of selfishness.
Tags: Capone’s Italian Restaurante, Capone’s Italian Restaurante in Huntington Beach, chiefs, football, gonzales, Heimlich maneuver, Huntington Beach, kansas, kansas city, Ken Hunter, olive, southern california, te, tight end, tony gonzalez, usc
All Pro tight end Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs has long been considered a grid iron hero. Now the Southern California grad is a true hero.
Last Thursday Gonzalez and family were dining at Capone’s Italian Restaurante in Huntington Beach, CA when the man at the next table began choking on his steak. 10 seconds later the man was breathing again and Gonzalez was seated with his family like nothing had happened. What had happened, however, was that the record breaking pass catcher had performed the Heimlich maneuver. No biggie. “Tony saved my life. There’s no doubt,” Ken Hunter, a shipping company manager, told The Associated Press.
Check out the story in the Kansas City Star.
Tags: aaron, adam, Adam Roberts, Adventure Guides Italian Riviera: San Remo, amy finley, Bob Tuschman, Bobby Flay, booted off, cassoulet, Dish, fn, FN dish, how'd that get on my plate, kelsey, lisa, mesa grill, net food network star, next food network star, nfns, Paula Deen, Portofino & Genoa, rachael ray, shane, spoiler, sunny anderson, Susie Folgeson, the hearty boys, throwdown, vegas
First a little confession. I have not seen this week’s episode of the Next Food Network Star. I was at a friend’s house, a friend who hates Reality TV and finds Food TV boring. The DVR is on the fritz so I did what every obsessed fan would do. I went crazy. Then I went to the NFNS website.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an exit interview with Shane. Shane who had finally gotten over his awe at meeting the TFN celebs and had really been on a hot streak. I was even more surprised to see that he and Kelsey were the last two left in the room after the others were given a pass. I think that more than once I have mentioned that I think Kelsey is by far the best talent in this group. I was even more surprised when I saw just how bad Lisa stunk the joint up with her performance on Rachael Ray’s show. She should have been booted off. Aaron hit a grand slam, finally we saw an Aaron that was fun to watch.
The site has a nice string of behind the scenes interviews and previews that really give you an in-depth feel for what the judges are thinking and how the contestants really feel. There is a vlog with Susie Folgeson in which she reveals that Bob Tuschman just never liked Shane’s youth and inexperience. I think that Susie has a similar problem with Kelsey, but that is just my own conjecture. Bobby Flay joined Susie on her vlog and it is clear that if Bobby is actually rooting for anyone it is Kelsey going so far as to say that if he needed someone to baby sit his kid it would be Kelsey hands down. Even Susie agreed.
Sunny Anderson joins Adam Roberts on FN Dish to break down the episode. They are both “shocked” that Lisa was not booted. Sunny even says, “Dead air is deadly.” She also said that Lisa, “has five seconds of material for a ten minute show.” Sunny predicts that Kelsey will be the next to go and then Lisa. If that is true then this year’s winner will be the next Amy Finley or Hearty Boy. If they have another winner who does their six episodes and then disappears it will be a sign that the selection process is the problem, not the contestants. Speaking of Amy, did you know she wrote a book? Yeah, Me either.
There are two exit interviews with Shane and in both he seems genuinely grateful for the chance he was given and the experiences he has had. Like I have said before Shane is so easy to root for that it is sad to see him go. After watching all of the post show vids I, like most people who watched, cannot believe that Lisa isn’t gone. This show is a Reality Show and the reality of life is that polarizing characters like Lisa bring viewers flocking to their sets. When Lisa is good, she is very good but when she is not on her game it is painful to watch.
There is a 10+ minute preview of the next episode where Adam takes on Lisa in variation of Throwdown. That should be ugly as Lisa is by far the best pure cook in the contest and Adam is by far the worst. They each have to prepare a signature dish of their own and then they have to prepare their opponent’s signature dish. Adam chose macaroni and cheese for signature dish which almost seems like a gimme for Lisa. Lisa’s signature dish is the classic French Cassoulet a white bean and sausage stew that Adam has never tried in his life. Paula Deen also joins the Flay and the final four for dinner at Mesa Grill (Las Vegas) and the spoiler show a very interesting conversation that I am looking forward to seeing more of.
Tags: beef, E. coli, E. coli bacteria, Escherichia coli, foxnews.com, ground beef products, Kroger, m'kay, recall
Every time there is another recall it only enforces my desire to eat locally sourced foods, plus they taste better. Mass producing foods also means a mass of possible things that can go wrong. Here is a segment from a story at foxnews.com and a link where you can read the full article.
“Fourth of July picnic tables are getting a careful look as familiar hamburgers are feared to be among the tainted ingredients in separate food safety scares.
On Wednesday, The Kroger Co. expanded its voluntary recall of some ground beef products to its stores in more than 20 states, saying the meat may be contaminated with E. coli.”
READ ON
For those who do not know E. coli is bacteria found in the excrement of warm blooded animals and when it occurs in food products it is usually from rodents. Here is what wikipedia has to say on it:
“Escherichia coli (commonly E. coli), is a bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded animals. Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some, such as serotype O157:H7, can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for costly product recalls. The harmless strains are part of the normal flora of the gut, and can benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2, or by preventing the establishment of pathogenic bacteria within the intestine.
E. coli are not always confined to the intestine, and their ability to survive for brief periods outside the body makes them an ideal indicator organism to test environmental samples for fecal contamination. The bacteria can also be grown easily and its genetics are comparatively simple and easily-manipulated, making it one of the best-studied prokaryotic model organisms, and an important species in biotechnology. E. coli was discovered by German pediatrician and bacteriologist Theodor Escherich in 1885, and is now classified as part of the Enterobacteriaceae family of gamma-proteobacteria.”
E. coli is bad, m’kay. Because ground meats are, well, ground you need to cook them well done, an internal temprature of 160 to 165 will kill the E. coli bacteria. For solid cuts of meat like roast or steaks you need only get the outside flesh to a safe temperature as E. coli does not penetrate the muscle tissue. Meaning that a medium rare steak is perfectly safe, in fact medium rare is far healthier than well done since well done red meat is a common cause of colon cancer. If you are squeamish about blood strive for medium, anything beyond that and you are getting into Cancer Country. So when it comes to steak, choose your poison - squeamish or dead?
Tags: BBQ Joints: Stories and Secret Recipes From the Barbecu, Bozo’s Seafood Market, Coastal Living, Coastal Living magazine, David Gelin, Gibbs Smith Publisher, Kindle, New York Times, R&O Seafood, Vineology, Wintzell’s Oyster House
Originally Posted by Paper Palate (paperpalate.net) on May 7, 2008.
A collection of small dishes from the realm where paper meets palate.
New Yorker David Gelin publishes a book on Southern BBQ. The 43-year-old Gelin’s opus, BBQ Joints: Stories and Secret Recipes From the Barbecue Belt (Gibbs Smith Publisher, $15.95) is less a book about BBQ recipes and more an exploration of the people who devote their lives to “Que.” Gelin traversed the Southern states in search of the best, most authentic “joints” in the country; he lists 60 in all. According to the author, “They don’t have these kinds of places up North, and I believe we all ought to seek them out and celebrate them.”
Coastal Living magazine has just released its list of the Top 25 dives in the country. The list includes places like Bozo’s Seafood Market in Pascagoula, MS, R&O Seafood in New Orleans, and Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile, AL. The list appears in the April 29 issue of Coastal Living.
What is Kindle? Imagine carrying only one book with you the rest of your life. It is a magic book, mind you, that mystically changes its pages to provide whatever book you want to read. Sounds like science fiction, right? Kindle is Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device and it does just that. Kindle allows you to download hundreds of thousands of books in less than a minute, as well as magazines, your favorite blogs, and even newspapers. Available publications include the New York Times (home of the best food and restaurant section in the country), Vineology (a wine blog), and hundreds of books on diet and nutrition.
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
Tags: A Love Affair with Southern Cooking, Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook, Fast Food My Way, IACP, International Association of Culinary Professionals, Iron Chef America, Jacques Pépin, James Beard Foundation, Jean Anderson, Masaharu Morimoto, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking
Originally Posted by Paper Palate (paperpalate.net) on April 8, 2008.
Both the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) and the James Beard Foundation have announced their finalists for 2008 honors. Each organization features thirteen categories, like Food Reference/Technical, Americana, and Healthy Focus, for publications printed in 2007.
Many of the publications have made both lists like A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson and Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto (Iron Chef: America). The venerable Jacques Pépin appears on both lists as well but with different books Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook which is one of three finalists for the James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook and Fast Food My Way is a finalist for the same category from IACP.
The IACP will gather in New Orleans on April 15th through the 19th for its annual conference held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, with the award ceremony being held on Saturday the 18th. For more information about the IACP Awards and to view the nominees, visit their web site.
The James Beard Foundation Awards are presented each Spring at Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City. The date for this year’s event is Sunday June 8 and a gala reception follows. For more information about the James Beard Foundation Awards and to view the nominees, visit their web site.
Tags: Grocery School, Popcrunch, Sarah East
What is Grocery School you might ask?
Grocery School is an online video series that gives you tips and tricks for navigating the world of the mega market. Host Sarah East takes you on a quick lesson on how to shop for quality. East is most popular for her Internet-based show Popcrunch that takes digs at celebrities. In Grocery School she gives solid information on how to purchase everything from steak to asparagus. All of the vids are under 3 minutes are less so even if you have 56K you should be able to enjoy them.
Don’t take my word for it, check it out:
Tags: fda, food, garlic bread, recall
FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.
Giant Food Alerts Customers to Voluntary Recall of Giant Brand Garlic Bread and Garlic Spread
Contact:
Jamie Miller
(301) 341-8776
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — June 27, 2008 - Landover, MD — Giant Food has announced a voluntary recall of Giant brand garlic bread and garlic spread products sold in its Bakeshop as the items contain milk products which are not declared on the labels. Giant removed from its shelves all 16 ounce packages of Giant brand garlic bread and all 16 ounce packages of Giant brand garlic spread products.
The following products are affected by this recall:
- 16 oz. Giant Garlic Bread: UPC #21476670000
- 16 oz. Giant Garlic Spread: UPC #20173310000
People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to dairy products run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products. No illnesses have been reported.
Customers who have purchased the affected products may return them to Giant for a full refund. Customers looking for additional information may call Giant Customer Service at (88 
469-4426 for more information. Customers can also visit the Giant website at www.giantfood.com.
