Since day one, Alton Brown's been host of the competition The Next Iron Chef, and this star-studded season, which premieres tomorrow night at 9 p.m., the Food Network favorite will be back and bigger than ever. Earlier this month, I ran into Alton at the New York City Wine & Food Festival, where he talked about what makes The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs different from previous seasons, and Read more

Michael Chiarello is no stranger to reality TV cooking competitions: he was a runner-up on the first season of Top Chef: Masters and has been a guest on Bravo's regular Top Chef series. When I caught up with him briefly at the New York City Wine & Food Festival, I was curious to know what would compel the seasoned chef — who's a fan of YumSugar! — to put himself on the cutting board once Read more

Between Alex's Day Off, her two restaurants, and a column on Food Network, star chef and restaurateur Alex Guarnaschelli has her hands pretty full. Still, she's somehow made room to compete in the forthcoming star-studded season of Next Iron Chef, which premieres this Sunday, Oct. 30. We caught up with her at the New York City Wine & Food Festival to get her thoughts on competing under Read more

Food Network personality Anne Burrell has come a long way since appearing as Mario Batali's sous chef on Iron Chef America; this coming Sunday, Oct. 30, she'll have come full circle, appearing as a contestant herself, as part of the star-studded cast of Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs. Earlier this month, we sat down with the brazen blond chef to ask her a few questions about appearing on the show's Read more

Eggplant parm is one of our favorite vegetarian entrées, and we love how it's ideal for feeding a crowd. But did you know that it makes fancy-looking party bites, too? I came across the creative idea at Carts in the Parc, where FoodParc vendor Fornetti was serving bite-sized antipasto skewers — along with miniature stacks of eggplant parmesan. The execution was elegant, but the idea simple: Read more

To kick off the third morning of the NYC Wine & Food Festival, four of the industry's top tastemakers, restaurateurs Mario Batali and Marcus Samuelsson, TV host Andrew Zimmern, and Food & Wine editor in chief Dana Cowin gathered for a panel discussion to talk about what makes the best restaurant experience. They all had plenty to say about the state of dining — especially the jocular Read more

We've hit the ground running at the New York City Wine and Food Festival, and last night we kept busy (and full) stuffing our faces at Meatball Madness (our favorite: a brilliant duck and porcini creation). While our mouths were pretty much full the entire time, we'd have been remiss not to catch a word with the evening's host, Giada De Laurentiis, who had the weighty task of evaluating all 25 Read more

I just attended our first event of the New York City Wine & Food Festival, Giada De Laurentiis's Meatball Madness (check out that meatball selection!), and our favorite meatball of the night was — gasp! — not even made from red meat at all. First, a disclaimer: a delayed flight meant that by the time I'd arrived, most of the meatballs were entirely picked over. But of those that were Read more