PDC

Thanks for the thoughtful, detailed response. One question on the marinade - after cooking down and cooling the wine, do I put the raw aromats in the marinade, then take them out for the first hours of the braise and then put them back in? Or do I marinate sans aromats?

The pork that I just made recently no, but other times I have braised meat on the bone.

Since it's winter, I've been making a lot of braised hunks of meat (leg of lamb, pork shoulder, etc) and stews. While I consitently get the meat to turn out the way I want to texture-wise and it does have a nice "meaty" taste, I can't seem to get it to absorb the flavor of the aromatics and herbs that I but in the braising pan or slow cooker. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can make this happen? I do salt the meat before I cook it so it's not underseasoned. For instance - last night I made a pork shoulder in the slow cooker based on a Mark Bittman recipe from the NY Times. Cubed shoulder, carrots, a whole lot of whole peeled garlic cloves and I even threw in a couple of shallots that he didn't mention in the recipe. Cooking liquid was a 2 to 1 ratio of red wine to chicken stock. After about 3 hours the meat was beautifully tender and porky but didn't absorb any of the flavors of the wine or aromatics. (The garlic cloves however, were great!) It wasn't bad, mind you, but I expected more "bang for the buck" flavor wise given the time invested. Any ideas?

Agreed. It was a bit odd to see recipes with fresh tomatoes, basil, etc airing in the middle of winter. If they really did seasonal shows for all four seasons, why didn't they air a winter show last night?

Alton Brown has signed on for three more years at the Food Network which includes new eps of Good Eats, Iron Chef America, a spinoff of Feasting On Asphalt called Feasting On Waves and "various other specials", whatever that means. I look forward to the effusive praise of FN for keeping AB on the network equal to the bashing they received for cancellling the well-past-its-sale-date Emeril Live. Or maybe all the Alton haters will come out of the woodwork and re-cast him as "part of the problem". In any case, the reaction should be interesting, so let 'er rip, Internet foodies!

Watching ACT last night reminded me of how much of a better show ACT was than NR is. I think only having a half hour kept Tony away from doing too much of the shtick that drags down NR. Don't get me wrong, NR is a solid show, but as so many of you said on the Holiday Special thread the scripted comedy bits are, well, let's just say not good. If Tony could do a one-hour revisit of the annual pig feast at the Merielles (sp?) home in Portugal that would be amazing.

And she just re-signed with Food Network through 2010. 60 new 30 MM per year (down from 80) and they revamped the travel show yet again to focus "more on travel and lifestyle and less on food". So RR is basically the Samantha Brown of Food Net now I guess. I bet she got a big raise too.

Try this http://recipes.bravotv.com/top_chef/season...tch_pudding.php

Loved the special, and watching just this one episode to me proved once again what an utter train wreck "Next Iron Chef" was.

Some curling friends of mine were involved in shooting part of this. Tony went curling at the Nutmeg curling club in Bridgeport, CT. Of course, since this is a Christmas special this was shot around Labor Day weekend. Wonder how much (if any) of the curling scenes will air. And I wonder how much other stuff they shot back then. It was pretty warm then I recall.

A very niche one. Food Network has never been more profitable than it is now.

Hey, careful with that, they don't like it when you slam ex-FN personalities around here Seriously, all those years of "serious foodies" making fun of Emeril, the Bourdain slam on ACT (though he did later retract it), the NYT article (think it was Hesser maybe?) accusing Emeril of being a crap cook, the complaints about sloppy technique and now the guy's a hero because his flagship program got cancelled? Jeez Louise, I can't wait to see the gnashing of teeth when 30 minute meals bites the dust. The groundwork has already been laid in the "Sandra Lee is sooo much worse" commentary. As for Batali's comment, well, all that has to happen is for him or one of his cronies to get a show on FN and the tune will change. Look at what Bourdain did after Ruhlman got the NIC gig. It's all showbiz and a yard wide.

I don't feel duped or dissed. Let's call it "vaguely disappointed with a healthy side of unsurprised". The disappointment comes not from who was chosen, but how the process went (irrelevant challenges, obnoxious Alton, perceived conflict of interest of a judge). But hey, it's just a TV show. I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. Now I'm just waiting for Bourdain to gush about how it was the best FN show in years. Logrolling is fun and profitable!

Agreed! I forgot to mention that the other towering achievement of this series was that somehow Alton Brown became an unlikeable jerk. Which he may very well always have been but it never showed up on camera so clearly before.

A disappointing end to a disappinting series. I've been a fan of IC from the days of the original show on FN and I have to say that other than the Shatner UPN version this was the worst IC-related show yet. And the fact that the winner and one of the judges have a long-standing relationship leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. I know, Ruhlman has tried to spin this as it being HARDER for Symon because of their history but come on....does anyone who works in the food OR the media business believe that having a friend on the panel is a disadvantage? I'm not saying the show was a total fix, but Symon definitely had an advantage. Finally, as others have pointed out the challenges leading up to the finale had little to do with what actually goes on on the series that this was essentially an audition for. Say what you will about Next Food Network Star, but the challenges there are at least relevant to the job that is being sought. What, exactly, would have been wrong with making this show basically like the NCAA tournament of Iron Chef battles? You could do a week one show where maybe you have some sort of "quickfire" challenge that decides the seeding of the tournament and then every week after you do a Kitchen Stadium battle between two hopefuls, one gets knocked out and one advances to the next round. That format would also have the advantage of being cheaper to produce than flying the chefs and judges all over the place. Oh well, I guess they won't need to do this again until another IC leaves the show.

Most of you don't remember, but my original title for this thread before it was merged was "Ruhlman to judge FN reality show, will Bourdain finally stop ripping the network?" Well folks, we have the answer here. In a true shocker, Tony loves the show. What were the odds, huh? http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2007/10...ck-of-hair.html Count me in with the folks who think the show feels rushed and a bit boring. Top Chef Lite.

You are right, plus Symon was on the Cleveland episode of No Reservations with Ruhlman. Can you say "the fix is in"?

Probably a bit nitpicky, but why not have someone from the Cleveland punk scene like David Thomas or one of the surviving Dead Boys instead of a Ramone? Ah well, maybe he can have them do "DVD commentary" if they ever do a remake of this episode like they did for the infamous Iceland episode.

Amy Finley's The Gourmet Next Door debuts Oct 14 and 12pm. Wow, they're not burying her early in the morning.

Even better - here's a release for the casting call. Note that it specifically says "you will not be demonstrating your cooking skills". I think that explains a lot about the quality of the contestants, no? Casting Call: FOX will host open auditions for the culinary competition series Hell's Kitchen. Aspiring chefs should consider attending one of the upcoming open auditions and please note you will not be demonstrating your cooking skills; an interview session will take place instead and interested cooks should come prepared to discuss their experience and why they want to appear on the show. Applicants must be at least 21 years of age, U.S. citizens and come with a completed application form. Applications, information and the full list of open audition cities and exact contact information for each can be found at www.fox.com/Hellskitchen .

Just read that there will be a season 4 next summer. Can they get a bigger bunch of crybabies than this season? We'll find out.....

BBCA is airing Beyond Boiling Point at 1:30p (ET) all this week. They aired the first Boiling Point last week. Soon BBCA will be all Gordon all the time when it isn't Cash In The Attic....

http://tinyurl.com/2ufs5a The title news item is at bottom of the article about Food Network in Broadcasting and Cable magazine. The show in question is The Next iron Chef and the judes will be Ruhlman, Andrew Knowlton, and Donatella Arpaia.

Last night I noticed on FoodTV that they were doing promos for Discovery Channel shows. Now, normally it seems that networks only promote other networks owned by their parent company, right? So (if that is the case) does that mean FTV and Discovery are now affiliated? And wouldn't this mean potentially not-good things for the quality of Discovery shows, Anthony's in particular? Sorry to take this to such a worrisome extreme, but that's the first thing that popped into my mind. ← It's probably a local insert from your cable provider, not a network spot. Discovery and Food are still seperate companies. Food is owned by Scripps which also owns Fine Living (BTW - Molto Mario has popped up there recently), DIY, HGTV and rather incongruously GAC.

Caught this tid-bit online. Those of us with VOD will get a head start on season 3: Travel Channel will debut new episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on VOD July 13, two weeks before season three premiers on air July 30 at 10 pm ET/PT. Anthony is going to New York, Brazil, French Polynesia, Cleveland, Hong Kong, Argentina, Charleston and Tuscany this season. Hmmm....3 domestic shows this season. Guess they're is cutting Tony's budget. I wonder if that means we can look forward to hatchet jobs on Discovery Communications on Ruhlman's blog in the near future. That would be cool.