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Yummy Link: Celebrity Chef! The Game

YumSugar — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:30:36 -0700

For anyone hankering to play a Top Chef-style tournament at home, allow me to suggest Celebrity Chef! The Game. This trivia-based board game challenges players to answer questions, score virtual endorsements and TV deals, and win awards for their cooking. - The Epi Log

Who's the Better Chef?

YumSugar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:15:36 -0700

Click on the celebrity chef you think is better! Game ends when you get one wrong.

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Emeril Hosts Atlantic City Stadium Show - Sort Of

YumSugar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:00:05 -0700

Don't enjoy amateur cooks facing off on TV? Maybe you'll have different sentiments if you're watching them in person. At least, that's what Emeril Lagasse is hoping as he launches his new Atlantic City game show: Taste of Emeril's Cooking Challenge. It begins Oct. 21 at Caesars Atlantic City, and will run several times a week through Nov. 12.

Each night, the casino show will choose six members from the audience to square off onstage at two cooking stations, first competing in two teams, then facing elimination until the last two standing face off to take home the prize. Emeril will appear via the big screen to offer taped commentary and critique. While he admits the casino show is risky, the veteran culinary personality said he was looking for the right show that could be marketed to audiences at a reasonable price.

Tickets are only $35 each, but for that amount, I'd still expect to see more than video footage of Emeril. What about you? Do you see the "interactive cooking competition" being a success?

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Emeril to Open Las Vegas Sports Restaurant

YumSugar — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:30:27 -0700

File this under random news of the day: in addition to his stints with Martha Stewart, Discovery, and the Fine Living Network, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse is getting ready to open his own sports-themed restaurant.

Nation's Restaurant News reports that the sports restaurant, aptly named Lagasse's Stadium, will take over a space in Las Vegas resort The Palazzo. In addition to a lounge, the 24,000-square-foot spot will have stadium-style seating, luxury boxes for private events, and custom viewing walls with 100 HDTV screens. “I’m happy to team up again with our friends at The Palazzo to create the ultimate sports establishment," Emeril said in a statement. "At Stadium, we’ll be serving serious food for serious fans.”

As for the menu, the chef plans to feature game-day favorites, several New Orleans-style dishes, and updated takes on American classics. Does this sound like a restaurant that would interest you?

Who's the Better Chef?

YumSugar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:15:36 -0700

Click on the celebrity chef you think is better! Game ends when you get one wrong.

Meet the Newest Dining Hotspot: The Ballpark

YumSugar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:00:29 -0700

Masaharu Morimoto isn't the only celebrity chef to be serving stepped-up stadium food at future Yankees games. As part of the stadium's new Legends Culinary Series, at select games, famous New York chefs will serve up signature dishes at the stadium's Legends Suite Club.

In addition to Iron Chef Morimoto, the star-studded lineup of chefs will include Alex Guarnaschelli of The Cooking Loft and Butter restaurant, April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig, and Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque. Chocolatier Godiva will also be on hand to create signature chocolate desserts.
Food Network has announced that it, too, will be rolling out its first-ever food stands. The stands will feature "quality takes on classic" foods that incorporate "the ethnic cuisines of New York City, Food Network's hometown," according to a statement from the network. Hot dogs, burgers, and fries will be in the mix - but so will Puerto Rican pork sandwiches and Chinese cold noodles.

Since variety is the spice of life, and because dining options at sports events do seem to be trending toward the upscale, I suppose premium dining at the stadium makes business sense. PartySugar and I both agree, however, that canapés can never take the place of chili dogs at the ballpark. What do you think? Would you want to eat gourmet cuisine at a sporting event?

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Emeril to Judge Top Chef Finale in New Orleans

partysugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:00:15 -0800

Listen up Top Chef fans: yesterday Bravo released highly anticipated news about the fifth and current season of Top Chef. On Feb. 18, the four remaining cheftestants will head to New Orleans for the final two shows of the season. Expect the episodes to be "supersized" with "a shocking twist that changes the face of game."

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse is the guest judge. Although the finale does not air until Feb. 25, it was already filmed. Of the experience, Emeril said:

In Louisiana, we have an amazing selection of local ingredients: andouille sausage, frog legs, turtle, catfish, and rabbit. I was interested in seeing if the chefs would venture out and really try to explore our local flavors and culture.

The challenge for some was finding a balance between the bold spices we love and their own personal style. All I can say is that you'll definitely want to go back for seconds for some of their final dishes!

There are still eight cheftestants remaining, but things are sure to heat up on tonight's restaurant wars episode, and definitely when they head to Louisiana. Are you excited to watch the NOLA finale? What do you think about Lagasse's participation on the show?

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"Nice" Girl Corey Couldn't Cut it in the Kitchen

partysugar — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:01:05 -0700

While she may not be celebrating a Hell's Kitchen win anytime soon, this week's booted contestant, Corey, is celebrating something: her recent wedding! Corey was in good spirits yesterday when we spoke over the phone. She's enjoying her time out of the kitchen free-lancing and hopes to someday have a cooking travel show. To see what she has to say about HK, Gordon Ramsay, and her fellow contestants, read more.

PartySugar: How did it feel to be eliminated?
Corey: It didn't feel fabulous, but I felt like he made the right choice. Christina had her heart in the right place, she's ready for that next step, and she played the game while staying true to herself. Petrozza is the same, you know, he had his heart in the right place too.

PartySugar: What was it like working in the Kitchen? Did you ever really feel like you were in Hell?
Corey: Yeah, it was beyond Hell. It was like a living nightmare for four weeks. It's such an intense experience. There's an intense pressure when you are all living in a house together, you know sharing a bathroom with Bobby. You have to do interviews every five minutes and you walk into the kitchen and Chef is there waiting to tell you the next challenge.

PartySugar: Who are you rooting for?
Corey: I'm rooting for both of them, but I think Christina will end up winning. She's young, she's just out of culinary school. You know it's not that Petrozza is a bad cook but he's a 50 year old man who's sloppy in the kitchen. I don't really think that's the image Ramsay wants send to the world with his executive chef. Christina is moldable, fresh and Ramsay can create something out of her.
PartySugar: Do you think being sneaky and strategic helped you make it to the final three?
Corey: Not at all. See? That's how they edited it to look, but I didn't go in thinking strategy. It doesn't matter if you do think like that, Chef Ramsay puts his own spin on everything and he's not going to ignore it if you can't cook. Without my talent I couldn't have almost made it to the top two.

PartySugar: You talked a lot about being able to seduce men, how do you think your husband felt when he was watching you use your body/image to get ahead?
Corey: When I see that [laughs] that was editing. My husband doesn't like it because he is Columbian. It was a TV show, they have to edit it to make it entertaining. What Louross and I had was a friendship. I was just being funny, being myself when I was in the hot tub. They portrayed it in a different way than it was.

PartySugar: At the end of last night's episode, Ramsay said, "nice girls don't make great chefs," do you agree?
Corey: I don't know. I thought that statement was funny because I don't really think I was that much of a nice girl on the show. I wasn't all that nice. You can't be a nice person and be afraid to be mean if you are chef. I think what Ramsay was referring to was being emotional. Sometimes I would get upset and let my emotions be involved in what I was doing, but as a chef you can't let that happen.

Photos courtesy of Fox.

Foodie Fight = Fantastic Fun

partysugar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:15:10 -0700

Last Friday night, my sister surprised me with a new trivia game by publishing house Chronicle Books. Created for serious food lovers, the game is addictive and informative. The Foodie Fight ($18.95) is like Trivial Pursuit but with questions related to food history, celebrity chefs, cultural cuisines, cooking techniques, and more. The game can be played in teams or alone. Each correct answer is rewarded with a small playing piece that fits into the color coded cards. The first team to answer the most questions, and completely fill in the card, wins. To find out what I thought of the game, read more.

I love the concept and even though my team lost (!), I had a fabulous time playing. Many of the questions (Whose best-selling 1980 chocolate cookbook was recently republished?, What chef was known for his Italian cooking show in the 1970s?) seem geared toward an older generation of foodies and proved to be very difficult to answer.

Other stumping questions were related to pop culture (What was the name of the deli frequented on the series Roseanne?) and food processing techniques (in the produce and vegetable freezing process, what does IFQ stand for?). The easiest to answer were those about cooking and food identification.

The game's main flaw isn't the puzzling questions (trivia wouldn't be trivia without baffling questions!), but the lack of trivia cards. The compact box contains only 168 trivia cards and while this may seem like plenty, if playing more than one round or several times over the weekend, there aren't enough questions. When played infrequently, the game will retain its mystery.

Despite the shortage of trivia cards and the occasional head-scratching question, the game is superb fun and makes an excellent gift for any food lover. Have you played? What did you think?

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Jamie Oliver and Atari Cooking Up a (Virtual) Storm

YumSugar — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:00:39 -0700

This October, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will be releasing a handheld cooking game on Nintendo DS. What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver will simulate real-life cooking situations, from selecting ingredients at the supermarket to plating meals at the table. The Atari video game will have an interactive cookbook featuring 100 of the celebrity chef's original recipes, alongside photographs taken by David Loftus. Oliver believes that the game will help him reach his goal of motivating more people to cook simple, delicious food:

I'm really excited about bringing a book's worth of my recipes to a game for the first time. You can cook my recipes for real at home or in the game's 3D kitchens, but what's brilliant is that you can come up with your own recipes then share them with your mates and family over wi-fi. Lovely.

The game will include a series of real-time virtual challenges that involve real-life chopping, stirring, and plating; recipe cook-offs with other players; and a timed competition against the clock. All of this will take place in three-dimensional kitchen settings with measures of quality and taste.

Are you into video games? Will you play What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver?

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