Dana Cowin

Link Time

Yummy Links: From Ribs to Breakfast Sandwiches

iPad

Dana Cowin Introduces the World to Food & Wine's iPad App

Today one of my favorite magazines, Food & Wine, launched its first-ever iPad app.

Today one of my favorite magazines, Food & Wine, launched its first-ever iPad app. The glossy's editor in chief, Dana Cowin, who was in the Bay Area earlier this week for the American Wine Awards, took some time out of her busy schedule to chat with me. For the app, Food & Wine reimagined 95 percent of the magazine's content. It plans on releasing six issues per year, starting with today's debut app, the wine issue. Right now iPad owners can download the wine issue for free; future issues will be about $3.99 each and cover the following special themes: holiday, healthy foods, travel, and chefs.

To learn more about the app and see how Cowin distinguishes it from Gourmet Live, keep reading.

Top Chef

Quickfire Faceoff! Rick Bayless vs. Michael Voltaggio

The final Aspen Food & Wine event is the Classic Quickfire, a timed cooking competition between the most recent Top Chef winner and an acclaimed chef (such as Jacques Pepin).

The final Aspen Food & Wine event is the Classic Quickfire, a timed cooking competition between the most recent Top Chef winner and an acclaimed chef (such as Jacques Pepin). This year, Top Chef champion Michael Voltaggio was up against stiff competition: Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless!

Host Sissy Biggers announced the theme was "sexy vegetables." Just like on the show, the two contenders drew knives to determine their main ingredients: Rick drew "surf," which meant whole lobsters, while Michael took "turf," which equated to rack of lamb.

They were also given leftover ingredients from previous cooking demos to work with and one sous chef each (Michael's was the fun and feisty actress Allison Janney). Rick Bayless stunned the judges with a roasted tomatillo salsa-topped lobster and potato course; meanwhile, Michael Voltaggio wowed the crowd with his frozen sangria starter and seared lamb loin and eggplant crostini with tomato seed "caviar."

See the two chefs in action — and find out the winner of the quickfire! — when you read on.

ming tsai

A Look at the Food & Wine Classic Quickfire

The final event at the Food & Wine Classic features the current winner of Top Chef on Sunday morning.

The final event at the Food & Wine Classic features the current winner of Top Chef on Sunday morning. Normally it's a cook-off between the cheftestant and an acclaimed chef like Jacques Pepin. However, this year they decided to do something different and pit two Top Chefs, Stephanie Izard and Hosea Rosenberg, against each other. The chefs were given 25 minutes to create a gourmet breakfast for Gail Simmons, Tom Colicchio, Dana Cowin, and a lucky audience-member who bid $15,000 to act as a guest judge. Want to know what went down at the quickfire? Keep reading

TV

Top Chef 3.10 Chef Overboard Recap

After last episode's shocking elimination — I really thought Tre was going all the way — and a week hiatus, Top Chef lost a little luster in my book.

After last episode's shocking elimination — I really thought Tre was going all the way — and a week hiatus, Top Chef lost a little luster in my book. However, I knew I couldn't let you down, so I ponied up and forced myself to turn on the tv... oh who am I kidding? You know I was going to watch it anyway!

This week's episode — entitled "Chef Overboard" — begins with the "Aisle Trial" quickfire challenge. The cheftestants are greeted by Padma and guest judge Michael Schwartz and asked to draw knives. Each knife has a number on it and that number corresponds to an aisle in the grocery store. Once numbers are chosen, the chefs head to their aisles with a $10 budget. So who won? Who bombed and who went home? To find out read more