theminx

Considering how infrequently I post here, I would hardly call me a "participant." et alors - how was the trip?

Pick up a copy of the Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore, a new publication from Globe Pequot, for a slew of recommendations for area dining.

As a food blogger who reads a lot of other blogs, I am pretty happy with just about any and all descriptive words that actually mean something. Unctuous, gelatinous, drizzle, melted - they are all good. "Tasty," "yummy," and especially the overuse of exclamation marks are what stick in my craw.

I'm a woman, and I can't stand looking at Curtis Stone. He's like some creepy cartoon character. Or a muppet.

IndyRob - Spike had an online show with Kelsey Nixon, called Kelsey and Spike Cook. Food2 belongs to the Food Network.

I got to see a preview of Rocco's Dinner Party and am surprised at how mean-spirited his comments are. He seems to think that because he's a household name he's better than the chefs competing for the $20K prize.

I only watch Food Network Star so I can make fun of it in recaps on my blog. That said, I hope SexyBack gets eliminated fairly early in the competition. I'd rather watch Orchid, Jeff, or Whitney. Not that I get up at 7am on Saturday to watch cooking shows....

My favorites are: Chez Pim Serious Eats The Bitten Word Ruhlman's blog Alinea at Home and of course, mine... Minxeats

Batali hasn't been a part of the Food Network family for over a year now. They're hiring his replacement. Freitag is already a Food Network employee, so my money's on her.

I mostly read cookbooks from cover to cover and then cook stuff loosely based on what I've read. The first cookbook I remember devouring in that way was James Beard's American Cookery. Other books that stuck with me over the years are the Silver Palate cookbooks, and Cold Weather Cooking by Sarah Leah Chase (a co-writer on the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook).

Ah...sorry that went so badly for you. I would have tried all of it! I suppose I've just been very lucky with potlucks. Our office Christmas party is usually a potluck affair and I've brought "weird" stuff like savory bread pudding and sesame noodle salad and all of it was devoured. One of my co-workers is Thai and she usually brings something like homemade Pad Thai and it disappears in a wink. There are only two other real foodies in the group, but apparently everyone is fairly adventurous. For other occasions I usually make a double batch of brownies (from the recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli Sweet Chocolate and Cocoa tin), and they always go fast. Sometimes I'm told that I *must* bring them. Kent D, your avatar looks like Rick Bayless.

My Cajun Kate's story: Back in 2000, my husband and I made a pilgrimage to New Orleans with a group of Emeril fans. There was a group reservation to eat at his flagship restaurant, but hubby and I wanted to try NOLA too. Although we were told it wasn't as good, we went anyway, for lunch. At lunch, we had the best seafood gumbo I have ever eaten. It was dark and rich and flavorful and I practically licked the bowl clean (ok, I did). I thought about that gumbo a lot over the next several years, tried to reproduce it, and failed. Fast forward to 2008. My best friend had moved to Wilmington and while there stumbled upon Cajun Kate's, just over the border in PA. She suggested that the next time I came up to see her we pay a visit to sample the gumbo and po boys. She had become friends with Don, the owner, and said he had worked for Emeril some years back. You guessed it - he had made that stupendous bowl of seafood gumbo we ate at NOLA. Now my freezer is full of quarts of gumbo - I pick one or two up every time I head north. My favorites are the duck and wild mushroom and the pork, but they're all fantastic. I'm also a fan of the brisket po boy, the regular crabmeat/tasso mac and cheese, and the crawfish pies. Don is a great guy, and a hard working chef. I'm so happy to read the praise he's getting in this thread, and I'm happy to now call him a friend.

Ottavia, dear, you and the baby must be making Tony very happy. He's a much kindler, gentler guy in this season's shows. Anyone else notice this?

It's fine to be "Little Miss Sunshine," but when the personality is the only reason why she is on TV, it becomes grating. One 30 Minute Meals show is fine. Broadcast in the same rotation patterns as any of the other TVFN shows (other than the daily Emeril). But when it's on every day, and then wow, let's give her ANOTHER show, one where she doesn't cook but eats other peoples' food and mugs for the camera about how "yum-o" it is. And even more wow, lets give her a THIRD show where she basically does the same thing, but without the $40 budgetary restraint. And then the ridiculous talk show thing, and the magazine....ugh. That's why she's so hated. Overexposure. She's become the culinary Paris Hilton - her face is everywhere. I, for one, stopped buying Nabisco products because I couldn't stand looking at her.

If not for his writing, I doubt anyone would know who Bourdain was. It was his skill with a pen that brought him his fame, not his prowess in the kitchen. That's what sets him apart from Rocco. I thought it was funny that he even tried to make the comparison. I do love Bourdain; his particular brand of evil snark is right in line with my own. Doing a TV show to educate the masses about interesting cuisines and travel is fine, but crossing over into Top Chef judging and Bravo bloggery is getting close to media whoring. And that's ok too - the more Tony, the merrier. Rocco, on the other hand, still a little defensive over his Restaurant fiasco and the demise of Union Pacific, is whoring himself to 1) make money; 2) keep himself in the public eye. He's not stupid. He's not being defeated. His blog on the Bravo site is full of insight and judging from the positive comments he is getting there, he's being forgiven for his mistakes. I think he'll come back, eventually, but he'll not be the same ingenious young chef he once was. That chapter of his life is over. He's moving on, and really, we should too. Why do we waste time hating someone we don't even know for mistakes he's made that hurt only himself? There's plenty of room in this word for both Bourdain and DiSpirito.