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Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest Serving Up Reality Show

YumSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:45:14 -0700

Seems Jamie Oliver and Ryan Seacrest have more in common than a shared love of spiky hairdos. They also want to help Americans eat better. The British chef is preparing a new reality show produced by Seacrest, where Oliver will touch down in America's unhealthiest cities and give its residents good-food makeovers using local resources.

This isn't Oliver's first stab at improving the eating habits of everyday folks. In the UK, he has worked extensively on children's nutrition, including a 2005 TV series called Jamie's School Lunches, which prompted education officials to remake school meals. The idea struck a chord with radio host/TV producer Seacrest:

Seacrest said he talked about school lunches during a segment on his KISS FM morning radio show and was struck by the amount of listener response. Then he heard Oliver was looking to bring his public service campaign stateside. The resulting ABC show will not only tackle a city's schools, but workplaces and other avenues for change.

ABC has already ordered at least six hours of the show, which will focus on cities that have shown on up lists of "America's fattest." But ABC exec Vicki Dummer says the point isn't to make fun of Americans: "Jamie has been through this mission before. He will be an advocate for change, but not act like, 'I'm from Britain and you Americans are fat.'"

What do you think of this idea for a show? Do you think it sends the right message?

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Tyler Florence and Andrew Zimmern's Public Feud

partysugar — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:00:19 -0800

Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern doesn't like Tyler Florence and he's not afraid to publicly express his disgust for the Food Network chef. Last week on his personal blog, Zimmern said in a discussion of Ryan Seacrest's reality show, Momma's Boys:

Monday’s episode featured the worlds least talented TV chef, Tyler Florence, once again churning out the questionable cooking advice and the leading the ladies through a menu of the Moms fave recipes. Watching Florence wolf down the food, stare and ogle every ass that strolled by his cutting board and play the role of local TV stud was high comedy of the highest order.

To find out what Florence had to say about ZImmern, read more. Florence's quick response was posted on his Facebook account:

Normally I have pretty thick skin when it comes to blogs and what people think. It is a free country after all, But this guy Andrew Zimmern, the guy who eats dried camel cock for a living, has decided to dis my life's work because I did, my personal friend, Ryan Seacrest, a favor and helped him out with his first big television production, "Momma's Boy's" It was a big hit for NBC and something I had a fun time doing. It's bubble gum reality, who cares. It was funny. I guess it hard to have a since of humor when you're on your 10th take of eating Yak testicles, smiling to the camera, wondering where your life went wrong......... mmmmm, Delicious! Go get'em guys. Let's put an end to Chef on Chef violence in '09.

I think it's interesting how Florence asks for an end to chef feuding after he violently disses Zimmern. What do you think of the battle? Who do you side with: Zimmern or Florence?

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Let's Dish: Hell's Kitchen 4.5

partysugar — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:16:09 -0700

Last night on Hell's Kitchen things started to heat up. The chefs clearly showed signs of stress and low morale. They competed individually, each making their own gourmet pizza. The girls won the challenge for the third week in a row, beef wellington was finally mentioned - I was beginning to wonder if Ramsay had taken it off the menu, the dinner service was completed, and Ben looked like a donkey, again. To discuss all of this and more, read more.

I was surprised at how well the chefs did during the gourmet pizza challenge. I thought it was going to be another signature dishes disaster. Now let's talk:

Do you think they had to make their own pizza dough? Or did Ramsay provide each chef with premade dough?
Does anyone know what a ding-a-ling is? Where is this term from? Petrozza called Matt one and I found it insanely funny . . .
Why can't the boys work together?
Wasn't it ironic when Ben - who has a mohawk - was making fun of Louross' mohawk?
Were you surprised by Vanessa's decision to leave Hell's Kitchen?
Petrozza's meat-slicing trick: gross or acceptable?
In your opinion, who is a better chef, Rosann or Christina?

In case you missed it, here's the best of Gordon Ramsay!

On gourmet pizzas: You take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary and serve it for an extraordinary price. This is my white truffle pizza. Who would have thought there could be a $200 pizza?!
On Matt's crappy eggs: Ugh, they're like implants!
On Rosann's mashed potatoes: They're like piss cream, what is that? I don't know when you are going to think about waking up, but I hope it's soon. Can you stop tapping and do something? She gets confused over a f***ing vegetable. Rosann: not good enough!
On Jen's comment that she has the power to control her status in the kitchen: Let me just tell you something, that's my f***ing job chef!
On Rosann's performance in the kitchen: Madam, you completely screwed your team!

Finally, did anyone catch the very end of American Idol? Ryan Seacrest hilariously introduces Gordon Ramsay as the "nicest chef on TV."

Photos courtesy of Fox.

Can I See Some ID?

YumSugar — Fri, 18 May 2007 10:03:19 -0700

In a recent survey conducted by The Nielsen Company on behalf of Anheuser-Busch, 95% of American adults think that, while inconvenient, ID checking is a worthwile way to reduce underage drinking. The survey was taken to determine how people view the effectiveness of ID checking. The survey also discovered that 94% of the people think that those who sell alcohol should be trained to spot fake IDs.

"Checking IDs is one of the keys to keeping alcohol out of the hands of minors. Simply put, if teens can't get alcohol, they can't drink it, and the survey reflects that America's retailers are doing their part, and that American adults fully embrace this concept," says John Kaestner, vice president of Consumer Affairs for Anheuser-Busch Cos.

In addition to the straightforward questions, the survey also asked a few ridiculous ones. The three that really stood out to me were:

The person we want to see the ID of (and get to know their real age) is: Joan Rivers (26%), Oprah Winfrey (23%), Simon Cowell (16%) and Ashton Kutcher (15%).
The lady we want to check our ID when purchasing alcohol is: Ellen Degeneres (32%), Kelly Ripa (24%), Tyra Banks (22%) and Ann Curry (9%).
The guy we want to check our IDs is Regis Philbin (29%), Conan O'Brien (21%), Ryan Seacrest (19%) and Al Roker (18%).

First of all, who thought to ask those questions? The ID stuff I can understand, it's really interesting, but who do you want to check your ID? What? Also, are you telling me that Regis Philbin really beat out someone like George Clooney? America, I don't get you sometimes...

Source: PR Newswire