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What Would Brian Boitano Make? Is Off to an Oddball Start

YumSugar — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:45:04 -0700

Question: what would Brian Boitano make? Answer: a pretty ridiculously offbeat cooking show. The Olympic figure skating champion's Food Network series, which was first announced back in April, debuted yesterday, and it was certainly not what I expected.

The skater described his show as "goofy and funny," but that's an understatement. The theme song riffs on the South Park movie's satirical tune "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" and although his cooking skills appear to be legit, recipes are interspersed with hammed-up interludes of Brian biking behind rainbows, lounging in a velvet robe, and running from an animated goat cheese log. He throws out corny lines, like, "I'm gonna holla at my homegirl, my mother from another grandmother." At times, he's hilarious; other moments, trying way too hard. All in all, the show is very uncharacteristic of the Food Network.

The strangest part of the episode was the party's theme. Brian decides to throw a soirée for a bachelor friend and proceeds to round up 15 bachelorettes. The show nears an end when Tony, Brian's pal, turns beet red as he enters a "party" - really, just a room filled with more than a dozen single, dolled-up women.

In case you missed out yesterday, this video sums up the episode's screwball scenes. Did you watch? What did you think of the show?

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Sam Sifton Is New York Times's Next Food Critic

YumSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:00:22 -0700

When Frank Bruni announced he'd be stepping down as the New York Times's restaurant critic, readers were left with a pressing question: Who will step up to the dinner plate? The food world waited collectively with bated breath until the answer was announced today: Sam Sifton, the paper's current Culture editor, will begin reviewing in October.

The blogosphere wasted no time compiling critical stats on Sifton, and Gawker has already come up with a slew of potential dining guises for him. One thing's for sure: The role of restaurant critic is evolving. Even execs at the Times admit critics don't wield the power that they used to, and with photos of him already abundant on the web, dining incognito will be virtually impossible.

Sifton may be new to the position, but he's no novice - in fact, he was rumored to have turned down the job once before. In addition to being the culture editor at the Times, he's contributed to the $25 and Under column, reviewed restaurants before Bruni's arrival, and even served as Dining editor. In last month's New York Times Magazine, he detailed making meatloaf for Nora Ephron. What do you think of the news? At a time when media is evolving so rapidly, does the role of restaurant critic still have a place in the food world?

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Frank Bruni Stepping Down as Times's Restaurant Critic

YumSugar — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:00:58 -0700

After five years as the lead restaurant reviewer of the New York Times, Frank Bruni is hanging up his napkin, the newspaper announced today.

As the restaurant critic at one of the nation's preeminent publications, in the last five years, Bruni has been arguably the most influential food writer in America, catapulting restaurants like Napa's Ubuntu to fame while sending others, like Jeffrey Chodorow's Kobe Club, to a controversial early grave. But come August - around the same time that his new food memoir gets published - he will step down from his position.

Despite the fact that his reviews have ignited as many haters as supporters, I'll miss Bruni's poignant and often hilarious reviews - although I am looking forward to learning more about him in Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater. Are you disappointed to see Bruni join the likes of former critics Craig Claiborne, Mimi Sheraton, Bryan Miller, and Ruth Reichl? Who do you think should be his successor?

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Do You Care About Michelin Stars?

YumSugar — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:15:19 -0700

This past week, the Michelin Guide announced its 2009 starred restaurants for New York and San Francisco. The Michelin Guide, Europe's best-known restaurant guide, is released annually in the form of a series of books organized by city. The red books award restaurants zero, one, two, or three stars, and the stars are arguably the most well-regarded rankings in the global restaurant industry, with three being an extraordinary honor.

Every year since the Michelin Guide debuted stateside in 2006, there have been shakeups over restaurants that gain stars and others that are stripped of stars. For instance, Tom Colicchio's restaurant Craft was stripped of its sole star in a big upset last year; this time, the big surprise was David Chang's new restaurant Momofuku Ko receiving the honor of two stars. Do these designations affect your dining selections in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Las Vegas?

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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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Reader Review: Sticky Fingers BBQ Sauce

YumSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:45:21 -0700

I was checking out the always inspiring Kitchen Goddess group when I came across a post from TeamSugar member JennyJen. In it she reviews a BBQ sauce she had never noticed before. Mostly, she fell victim to cute packaging - haven't we all? - and decided to give it a try.

She says that the sauce, which is actually from the infamous Sticky Fingers chain of restaurants, is amazing and that she wasn't sure how she restrained herself "from chugging the entire bottle of delicious goodness!"

Now that grilling season has started, I think I'm going to have to hunt down a bottle. How about you? Have you ever tried it, and if so, do you agree with JennyJen?

Rats Off To Ratatouille!

YumSugar — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:03:39 -0700

I usually leave the movie reviews for my gal BuzzSugar, however I was lucky enough to catch a preview of Pixar's Ratatouille and based upon the amount of food in it, this is definitely Yum territory.The film, which features over 270 pieces of food, is every foodie's dream cartoon. The exquisite morsels are drool-worthy, and you'll have to remind yourself - more than once - that it's only animation. The fare is a fantastic testament to Pixar's desire for quality and detail. In fact, the folks at Pixar actually studied at The French Laundry aside Thomas Keller, as well as several fine dining establishments in Paris. They also employed our favorite kitchen bad boy Anthony Bourdain as a consultant. To see what I thought (mostly spoiler free) and see a great scene from the film, read more

Set in Paris, Ratatouille is the story of Remy, a talented budding chef who happens to be a rat. Separated from his family, Remy is guided through life by the ghost of celebrity chef Auguste Gusteau - whose famous words are, "Anyone Can Cook." He meets Linguini, the new restaurant dishwasher, and helps him save a ruined soup. At that point, a new friendship is formed and you're taken on a fantastic ride with several plot twists and great laugh-out loud moments. It's one of those films where, if you didn't feel like thinking, you could easily slip away into its universe. However, if you stop and think about it, there are several interesting comments being made. There's the obvious premise of "anyone can cook." Although it is a bit of a Food Network-like mantra, it says that no matter where you're from or who you are, you can do it. There's also a large commentary on critics and criticism. However the part that I found most fascinating was how it perpetuates this whole "foodie nation" thing. Imagine, chefs and sous-chefs are going to be the new make-believe go-to character. When I was a kid I memorized scenes from my favorite Disney films and believed I was going to grow up to be a fairy princess. Will children grow up pretending to be chefs and sous chefs? Will they matter-of-factly tell their mom that the omelette would be better with saffron? It's a little odd and gourmet-y, however, I don't think it's a bad thing. After all, just think of dishes these saffron yielding five year olds will prepare when they hit the kitchen.

If you can't wait until Ratatouille opens, here's a great 9-minute scene. It was actually one of my favorites from the film, but then I loved it all, so that's not saying much.

Oh and before I forget to mention it, Ratatouille is paired with a cute Pixar short called Lifted. Consider it your amuse-bouche.

Should Vegetarian Restaurants Only Be Reviewed By Vegetarians?

partysugar — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:53:41 -0700

There was a post over at Just Hungry about whether or not non-vegetarians could accurately review vegetarian restaurants. What do you think?

Do You Use Online Restaurant Reviews?

YumSugar — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:03:33 -0700

This weekend the San Francisco Chronicle ran a pretty interesting front page story about how food bloggers impact the restaurant industry. While mainstream critics generally wait 30 days before reviewing a new restaurant (so that the chef and staff can work out glitches), everyday people, who use sites like Yelp to voice their opinion, review places as soon as they can. So if your chicken was overdone and rubbery, the whole world is going to know. Some savvy restauranteurs use the customer feedback to their advantage (if patrons say portion sizes are too small, or service is too slow you can fix it), while others just end up struggling against the bad reviews. After all, who wants to go to the publicly-voted 1 star restaurant when the publicly-voted 4 star is right next door?

So what do you guys think about all of this. Do you think that online restaurant reviews are valid? And do you use them?

Do You Know What's Cooking This Week?

YumSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:29 -0800

We've had Thanksgiving on the brain so much recently (the bourbon-glazed turkey! the creamed collard greens! the cocktails!) that it's almost easy to forget the other things that happened this week.

Did you pay attention to YumSugar? You'll know when you give our quiz a whirl.

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