PDC

Anyone been to Toque lately? Heading up to Montreal next month and wanted to make sure the quality hasn't slipped in the past year. Thanks for any input.

Wrong. "Food Network also aired its highest-rated series premiere ever on Sunday night as the third season debut of The Next Food Network Star (9p) delivered 4.7 million total viewers and a 0.8 rating among A25-54." - Cynopsis (a TV industry newsletter). It seems the more egullet folks say FN is dead, the higher the ratings get. Hmmm....

Well, the show's off to a solid ratiings start based on this blurb from mediapost.cm: "FOX CONTINUES TO ROLL WITH reality this summer. Its third-year reality show, "Hell's Kitchen," improved 13% over last year's two-hour debut, with a 3.7 rating/10 share among 18-49 viewers--making it the most-viewed show of the night in that demo"

Well, they're really milking old Gordon now. And from the clips I saw, it unfortunately looks like, as Bourdain once put it "Gordon doing Gordon five years ago" with the screaming and throwing things as opposed to the UK Kitchen Nightmares which is seems more, um, real for lack of a better term.

Let the fun begin. Here's an update on last year's winner: HELL’S KITCHEN WINNER HEATHER WEST JOINS TERRA ROSSA TEAM! Hell’s Kitchen winner Heather West joins Terra Rossa restaurant as Senior Chef. She will be working under the leadership of Executive Room Chef Renato DePirro.

How many more do you want? Google has 2,060,000 choices. Unless you go uber specialized in your spice needs, you will find everything you need at what's been mentioned already. Is there a particular spice or shop you're looking for? ← I don't really have any specialized needs, I'm just tired of using supermarket spcies that have been sitting around for God knows how long. I know how many choices Google has, that's why I came here for some personal recommendations. I figure if there's anyplace populated with people who have definite opinions on the subject this would be it.

Thanks for all the great leads everyone! Keep 'em coming!

As amusing as the rant was, isn't Bourdain bitching about Food Network shooting fish in a barrel at this point? Ok, we get it - Food TV is lowbrow and stupid except of course for (insert your favorite FN host here). Enough already. Food Network isn't going to change because the ratings are strong and it's hugely profitable. Besides, I think Tony's done a little bit of "selling out" himself - anyone else cringe when they saw him do the promos with the Bizarre Food guy? I wonder what that pitch meeitng was like "Let's take ACT/NR, remove all of the wit and useful information and boil it down to a guy doing stunt eating! And then we'll get Tony to bless the show in promo!"

I saw an ad asking for candidates in one of the trades a while back but haven't heard anything else. There's already going to be a lot of Gordon around this summer as BBC America will be airing The F Word and the UK Kitchen Nightmares on Thursday and Fox will be having another season of Hell's Kitchen.

Does anyone here know of any good websites or stores that sell spices? I've googled around a bit but personal recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

Find out tomorrow on Regis & Kelly. Heather is scheduled to be a guest.

The finale won its time period in the all-important adults 18-49 rating. So, say what you will about the show it is a ratings success and will be back next year. Personally, I'm a bit surprised Fox hasn't milked this a little more with a follow-up or reunion special. Or a DVD with outtakes (uncensored hot tub party anyone?)

"You may recall the NBC reality show The Restaurant from Mark Burnett Prods and starring restaurateur Rocco DiSpirito. In his second season, Rocco all but lost his restaurant, and you may have thought he was all washed up, at least in the reality TV business. Well, that cake isn't fully cooked yet. Rocco is back on A&E with a new project called simply Rocco, where he helps people solve various life issues with food - whipping up the perfect dinner for the future mother-in-law, or pulling together a romantic dinner for two. The pilot has been ordered from 44 Blue Prods, the same guys who are producing Designing Blind for A&E about an extraordinary interior designer who happens to be blind." - Cynopsis, 7/26 issue http://www.cynopsis.com/content/view/498/53/ I wonder how many of the life issues he'll solve involve giggly models.....

They own a chunk of the Boston Globe, too, and it shows in their respective food coverage as well. i read both newspapers daily and the overlap in their food sections--both the weekly Wednesday section and the Sunday magazine--is so predictable as to be commonplace. This past Sunday, for example, both magazines' food sections featured gazpacho. The greenmarket theme featured in both of last weeks food sections. Occasionally the Globe has to wait a week so the Times can run the story first, but it happens regularly. It happens in other sections too (travel especially--northern Italy last Sunday, for example) but you get the point. Thank you, corporate mergers... Interestingly, they don't run exactly the same article. Although I haven't kept careful track (maybe I should?), it's always "local" reporters writing on the same topic. I suspect there's some focus group research guiding the choice of topic and it gets assigned or contracted out accordingly. Even so, IMHO this type of homogenization really detracts from a newpaper's ability to reflect local culinary strengths, never mind reporting the news. ← Interesting, I hadn't considered the content overlap. Rich noted the SI Advance food section at tje start of this thread; I wonder if that section is basically the Newark Star-Ledger's food section with SI restaurant reviews tossed in. I know the sports sections of the two papers used to be the same for the major league teams in all sports with the only differences being the local (i.e. high sohool and rec league) coverage.

I don't think anything is scripted per se, although it is possible that the producers may have asked her to do it, yes. The way "reality" shows (or "unscripted dramas" as they're less popularly known) generally work is that producers tell the contestants what to talk about in general terms without specifically directing what's actually said. F'rinstance, it's painfully obvious that the conversations before the nominations for elimination are set up, probably with something like "Go in there and tell Keith why you should stay", etc.

From a TV industry newsletter: FOX has ordered up third seasons of So You Think You Can Dance? and Hell's Kitchen, as both shows have seen surges in key demos over last summer. So You Think You Can Dance? is up 19% among A18-49 over last summer's Wednesday/Thursday average. Hell's Kitchen is up by 16% in the same adult demo year to year. ___________________________ And regarding Gordon not smacking the "you've got your tits on my hotlplate" girl: a. It was mentioned in passing on the show that all participants have to sign a contract that includes a clause stating that they won't get physical with anyone else on the show b. I'm 99% sure that anyone who eats in the restaurant does it for free so whoever espoused the "desperate actress" theory is likely right-on.

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Yes, if there's one thing I've learned in my time in the media biz, it's that there's never been a bad show in the whole history of television. It was either scheduled wrong, promoted poorly, or "the network suits just didn't understand it". BTW - according to the 10/3 NY Times, the show has already been pulled from the schedule although not officially cancelled. Yet.

I have my own personal Golden Rule Of Using Critics (applies to any critic - music, art, food, whatever): If you're using a critic as a guide for spending your money, the critic has no value unless his/her taste is the same as your own. In short, you should look at the critic's opinions of things you've tried already and see how the critic's likes/dislikes match your own. Of course, for educational purposes it pays to read all sorts of criticism.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and brownies. That's my winter holiday-time dessert. There was also a bar 8th avenue in NYC between 46th and 47th street called Scruffy Duffy's that had super buffalo wings that I used to wash down with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Unfortunately, they appear to have switched owners or something because the wings have slipped in quality and they no longer have Sierra Nevada. They replaced it with Smithwicks (WTF???)

It's a hit...and coming back. From Cynopsis (a TV industry trade pub): Fox will return with a second season of Hell's Kitchen (Granada America/A.Smith & Co.) and Chef Gordon Ramsay. The summer reality series surprised many with its regular time period win on Mondays nights in the coveted A18-49 demo, an accomplishment attributed largely to Ramsay himself. While Ramsay began the series as a Simon Cowell sound alike, unlike Simon he also showed a humorous and even "nice" side, setting him apart from many of the other apprentice style programs. Naturally, Fox is saying there will be new twists in the next season, tho declined to elaborate

SO...what your saying is : Micheal got crap all!? (except for winning on the show?) ← Well, he allegedly got a job with Ramsay which I wouldn't exactly say is "crap-all". Plus anyone who wins or comes close to winning a popular reality show can parlay that into other jobs on other shows if they choose (e.g. there'll always be a home for Mikey on VH1).

According to the interview with Michael on the official HK website, he went to culinary school in London and tried unsuccessfully to intern with GR back then. He claims there's a 2-3 year waiting list just to work for the guy for free (!) He also says he's opening his restaurant in Vegas in 2007, no word on whether or not Fox is ponying up any of the dough.

Next week should be hysterical -"Don't die on me now Dewberry" in the preview had me rolling.....

THe chicken pepperoni pizza steak was theirs, and it was with sliced up chicken (probably processed and formed, but who cares for this purpose), pepperoni, tomato sauce, and what they called "sharp provo" which I assume was supposed to be provolone but wasn't really although it was still damn tasty.