inny

I'm curious... Is this a batch of actual new shows or is this more in the spirit of Series 2, where 90% was re-running the first series and tacking on a re-visit? Not that that won't stop me from watching...

I agree with everything Claudia Greco posted above, but the quote I pulled just nails it. That, right there, is the charm of the show. Sure, the producers may have their grubby little mitts on some of the set-ups, but the experience is pure Bourdain. That's what makes it watchable. That's what makes it fun.

I'd love to know whether the quality of students has improved since the "celebrity chef" bonanza hit. It seems to me that Ramsay might be doing the industry a favor by showing what can happen in a professional kitchen. If a student doesn't think they could handle it, they move on to something else. That might bite the schools in the bottom line, but I'd think they'd benefit from having a higher caliber of student. For me, every time I get the itch to go to culinary school, I just pick up Kitchen Confidentialuntil it passes. Then I cook something...

Priceless... and damn our siblings and our parents for remembering....

This is one of the funniest ones yet... thank you for my morning laugh! ← You're welcome. I hadn't thought about those stories in ages. Yet another reason I adore eG. Mom remembers the story to this day (some 30 years later). Whenever we eat fish together, she puts a bottle of windex on the table as a condiment. ETA: to also thank fifi

Oh my... oh my dear.... You did this on purpose? What did the poor poor food ever do to you? What is it? I'm having trouble identifying anything. Is that celery? Okra?

Someone should have really posted a warning with that link. It scared me... and I like Ramsay.

I wasn't a picky eater as a child, but for some reason I did not like chicken or fish. Something about the texture, I suspect. Anyhoo, my mother and grandmother had to convince me to eat the chicken by telling me it was 'bubblegum-flavored chicken.' My precocious 5 year old self fell for it... once. It most definitely did not taste like bubblegum. However, given that my mother is a well-meaning but horrid cook, it definitely chewed like gum. I got my revenge several years later... Mom had made fish and I absolutely refused to eat it. We argued as only an exasperated mother and an 8 year old can - to the point where I was not allowed to leave the table until I finished my fish. She left the room so I could contemplate my situation and that foul-smelling fish. I defiantly went over to the pantry, pulled out the bottle of windex, and poisoned the entire pan of fish. Then I tattled on myself. I was grounded for a week, but I didn't have to eat that damn fish.

I guess I should be offended, but I'm not. Not one bit. I am a bit older than his target demographic in the article, but I've been making the same argument about my generation since the 80s. (Before the days of Food Network). I'd played with cooking as a kid, but it was really college where necessity won out over hobby. I either had to eat pizza for the rest of my life or teach myself how to cook. Out of my circle of friends, I was the only one who could cook. Anything. They lived on pre-packaged foods, take-out, dorm food... some of my friends probably didn't have a veg their entire time in college. Over time, I did meet other cooking enthusiasts, but we were a rare breed (always popular at the office/lab potlucks). I'd argue that FN had a lot to do with popularizing home cooking in the 90s. At the very least, it brought some of us out of the closet. Of course, it appears that we're backsliding now. A little grocery store reconnaissance demonstrates this easily. Most grocery carts I see are full of pre-packaged "heat-n-eat" crap, canned veggies, and (horror!) pre-cooked processed meats. And most of those carts are pushed around by women 25-45 who are at least 40lbs. overweight. Many have small kids in tow. So, yep. I have to agree with GR based on my own unscientific observations over the last 20 years. Sad, isn't it.

We've seen the funny hat, and now dancing... 2 down, karaoke to go... Great installment overall - good mix of history and culture, great looking food, and lots of fun. Two instances of Tony-torture? Good tv. Ruhlman may be the perfect tv foil for Bourdain, but Zamir seems to be the perfect partner in crime. Impishly wicked sense of humor. Indeed. It looked painful enough, but the sound editors really came through. The previews for the NZ show? Ouch! I'd read about the rollover in a Q&A somewhere, but wow. And ouch.

I can't believe I'm telling you guys this... I had a craving for freshly baked bread. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to bake bread at the time. Easy - I have cookbooks... no problem! Problem. I read 3 or 4 recipes to get the gist of the process, gathered my ingredients, and made 2 lovely perfectly risen loaves of bread dough. I prepped the pans while waiting for the oven to pre-heat to 425 degrees. I recalled that the recipe instructed me to 'butter the pan', so I buttered the pans with... butter! 10 minutes after I popped those babies into the oven, the smoke alarm started howling and smoke was pouring out of the kitchen. My beautiful loaves of bread were reduced to ashy hocky pucks with a doughy center. Not my finest hour.

I was wondering which one was Fear and which one was Loathing... now we know.

really... must I be the first to make a head joke?

To be honest, there's not much in my neck of the woods. But, I'm flirting with the idea of starting one. Granted, Tulsa isn't exactly a bubbling metropolis, but all there is to do here is shop and eat. And the shopping ain't that great Once you get away from the chains, there are some great eats here. I thought about blogging it, but maybe a free broadsheet to start isn't a bad idea. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Finally caught this episode... Not my favorite of the bunch, but you can't beat Bourdain and Ruhlman doing Thompson (unless they're bitch-slapping each other in a thread here). Vegas has never been a destination for me, so I probably over-identified with Bourdain's perspective. Seeing Washington Square in mini form was heartbreaking. I hugged my NYU t-shirt and wept. Maybe it's just me, but I found this more painful than the pig-killing in Malaysia. Interestingly enough, I'd lay odds that Bourdain did too.

I took your advice... I started the bonfire (which sucks when it's 90 degrees outside), danced around the apartment (to the Clash), and drank a nice bottle of wine, then took the damn day off and read the Les Halles cookbook cover to cover. I'm in a much better mood, and I knocked out an entire chapter in a single day. Life is good. Thank you both. Carrot Top noted; If not too personal, could you elaborate on this? I'm looking for anecdotal examples for the damn book, and I'm starting to think I want to bring this issue into it. This would be useful, if you care to share. I could make something up, but that might take too much thinking on my part. And more wine

Please tell me that you hang out in the semi-ho TWoP forum.

Great link. I think this synopsis really lays out the state of the science as I understand it (it's not my field at all). The effects of nutrients on the brain are so difficult to measure, and mood is equally as difficult - but for very different reasons. I could design the perfect experiment, but it would involve things similar to A Clockwork Orange, so I don't think I'd get many volunteers The family Thanksgiving conversation...? Hilarious! And familiar. I don't remember you being at the table last year. I wonder what it says about my mood when, after writing for 10 straight hours today (after writing 14 hours yesterday), all I wanted to do was make lamb kabobs over rice, eat both with my bare hands, then drive the skewers through my brain...

Given this... ... I'd change my name too. But I think I'd do a better job

If true, that would be a neat trick on my part. I'd like to take this opportunity to opt out of any study. ← Damn. I was already designing an experiment and hatching a plot

← I don't see how one can use this to even suggest a conclusion that one may be able to change mood by changing what is eaten. Even if what one eats does reflect one's mood, it certainly does not necessarily follow that what one eats effects one's mood. It may, but one cannot draw that conclusion from this. ← Absolutely - this was one of my 'major quibbles'. From what I can tell from the limited info in the article, they have correlational data, at best. If you can measure 2 things, you can calculate a correlation between them. No causality can be implied. The math simply does not allow for causality. The claim that 'mood reflects food' may be spruious on correlational grounds, to claim that 'food may alter mood' is outta left field. But, I'll still give the researchers some slack. This issue may be a function of a newspaper reporter using a common vernacular that a scientist would never use. End of statistics lesson

This is actually done quite a bit, particularly in the clinical/therapy fields. The key is that case notes should be the beginning for more rigorous experiments, not the end-all from which to draw conclusions. The article does note that the conclusions about food and mood are part of a larger study on addiction, so who knows. I'll cut the researchers some slack - I've even had textbook authors misinterpret my research, so I don't expect a newspaper to do better. PMS? I like to eat these hard crunchy foods in bed to announce "not having a good time here, ya know??" ← That's when I break out the seduction food, but that's another thread... GG - glad you enjoyed it. Food and psychology don't cross paths often enough. ETA:

I ran across this in The Sunday Times Online (UK) and thought we could chew on this until the next juicy bit of gossip rolled around. Here's the meat; As a research psychologist, I have a few major quibbles with the methodology used in this study. But newspaper accounts of science are notorious for describing experiments badly, so I'll hold my quibbles until I can read the study. What do you guys think? Does it fit with your personal and/or professional experience? How are you feeling today?

<hands her Freudian Food Award to Bill> You win, man. I can't compete with that. I didn't think they actually turned blue. I stand corrected

Let me get this straight... to make a New York Style cheesecake, I need to buy a New York Style cheesecake? I would have never thought of that. MHarney - when you become FDA Potentate, can you add the following to the list of directives? 1. 'Thick and rick and delicious' can never be used in the same sentence when describing any food product, particularly a sweet one. (A Sandra Lee-ism that makes my head explode) 2. One is not allowed to pass off store-bought processed food as real food. 3. One is prohibited from adding "No cholesterol" (or fat or sugar or whatever the food fad of the week is) if the original product never possessed it in the first place. Megan - save some for me! And don't bogart that whipped cream