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Another One...

Bern — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:13:58 GMT

More from Indexed...she actually has a book too...

Tilth is For Real

Bern — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:42:54 GMT

Got my first taste of Tilth the other night and Big Maria didn't disappoint. Hines is a former Food & Wine Ten Best New Chefs in America and 2008 James Beard Award finalist. Tilth was also recently named one of the NY Times top ten restaurants in the country. So basically, she's doing all right for herself. I felt like I did all right as well, sneaking in without reservations and sitting at the 'bar' trying not to annoy the waitstaff. I immediately panic ordered the penn cove mussels with scallion, smoked chicken and paprika - they were amazing and confirmed my desire to go on an all mollusk diet. Next was the hangar steak with potato gratin, fennel and a little line of chopped picholine olives. Um, yes. No stopping now, we went for the braised pork cheeks with rhubard confit, spring garlic and farro and backed it up with seared albacore with sea beans, quinoa and morrels. Put it in the books, another sick Seattle restaurant.

One of the Better Sites Out There...

Bern — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:13:02 GMT

Jessica Hagy's brilliant blog is worth a daily read:

Best Web Sites on the Web

Bern — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:51:00 GMT

The Favorite Web Site Awards site is amazing. But I have no idea what is going on in this Mentos Kiss Fight game...

Prison Food...Amazing...

Bern — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:50:51 GMT

Insane round up of prison themed restaurants. Let me know when you're ready for Alcatraz ER...

"While I was there, an unsuspecting birthday girl on another table was thrown the over the knee of a maniacal doctor, who prodded her arse with a giant syringe while she squealed.”

Top Chef Finale...Yes, Richard, You Choked...

Bern — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:58:56 GMT

But you are the man for stepping up and admitting it. Stephanie Izard edged out Richard Blais in a somewhat lackluster Top Chef Finale last Wednesday that was buzzing more for Richard's mea culpa at judge's table than the cooking. Richard just didn't bring it in the final round - his best meal of the last challenge (standard four course progression seafood-poultry-meat-dessert) being his dessert of banana "scallops" with bacon ice cream. His fatal flaw was not crisping his pork belly enough and Stephanie's consistency was enough to overcome. Lisa, despite wowing everyone with her tomka (can tomka soup really be impressive) had no chance of being Top Chef - she seems like an awful person. But Stephanie earned it and her lamb medallions with mushrooms, olives and braised pistachios looked outrageous. Ted Allen blogs about Richard's let down and Big Tom give his pennies as well. Not shockingly, the humble, bording on self-doubting, Stephanie was surprised to win.

Rumor has it the next Top Chef is in Seattle...and yes, I'm hiring a Coppola to direct my audition video...

This is Stupid

Bern — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:17:47 GMT

They've made a special jacket for dudes who can't talk to women. I guess Mystery wasn't getting it done for them...

James Beard Awards Go Off, Seattle Chef Featured in Food & Wine

Bern — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:11:48 GMT

The James Beard winners were announced this week and Sea-town had some solid representation. The JBAs are basically the Oscars of the culinary world and once you get one you are o-fishal. See all the winners here, but for Northwest Chef of the Year, my heroes E-Stowell and J-Will were beat out by Holly Smith of Cafe Jaunita. Other Seattle connections included Tom Douglas being nominated, but losing to Joe Bastianich and Big Mario of Babbo for Outstanding Restaurateur and Canlis being edged out for Best Service by Terra in St. Helena, CA.

Plus, Food & Wine's Best New Chefs issue just dropped and Ethan Stowell was named one of their top ten. Seattle Tall Poppy has more on the food baller here.

Black Mamba

Bern — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:11:20 GMT

I hope kobe doesn’t do it to me to night again. Yeah, his skills are re-dic but I loved the super astute observations on Kobe’s dereliction of teammate duties in game two from Curt Schilling’s blog:

5) Kobe. This one stunned me a little bit. Who doesn’t know Kobe Bryant right? I only know what I have heard, starting awhile back with the entire Shaq debacle. I don’t really have an opinion one way or the other on or about him other than to know that people feel he might be one of the 4-5 greatest players to ever lace it up. What I do know is what I got to see up close and hear, was unexpected. From the first tip until about 4 minutes left in the game I saw and heard this guy bitch at his teammates. Every TO he came to the bench pissed, and a few of them he went to other guys and yelled about something they weren’t doing, or something they did wrong. No dialog about “hey let’s go, let’s get after it” or whatever. He spent the better part of 3.5 quarters pissed off and ranting at the non-execution or lack of, of his team. Then when they made what almost was a historic run in the 4th, during a TO, he got down on the floor and basically said ‘Let’s f’ing go, right now, right here” or something to that affect.

I am not making this observation in a good or bad way, I have no idea how the guys in the NBA play or do things like this, but I thought it was a fascinating bit of insight for me to watch someone in another sport who is in the position of a team leader and how he interacted with his team and teammates. Watching the other 11 guys, every time out it was high fives and “Hey nice work, let’s get after it” or something to that affect. He walked off the floor, obligatory skin contact on the high five, and sat on the bench stone faced or pissed off, the whole game. Just weird to see another sport and how it all works. I would assume that’s his style and how he plays and what works for him because when I saw the leader board for scoring in the post season his name sat up top at 31+ a game, can’t argue with that. But as a fan I was watching the whole thing, Kobe, his teammates and then the after effects of conversations. He’d yell at someone, make a point, or send a message, turn and walk away, and more than once the person on the other end would roll eyes or give a ‘whatever dude’ look.

Bill Simmons backs him up:

2. The Kobe anecdotes are so damning you have to read them to fully grasp the significance. All I can say is I sat close to the court for Games 1 and 2 and can confirm everything -- the glares, the yelling, the extended staring, the poisonous body language and everything else. If this had been pickup hoops, some of Kobe's teammates would have intentionally thrown a game just to get back to the sidelines, then done the "No, I'm running with these four guys" routine when he came over to ask if they wanted "Next" with him.

3. It has been hysterical to watch the city of Los Angeles rush to Kobe's defense by ripping Schilling -- as evidenced by this T.J. Simers column Wednesday -- instead of coming to grips with the fact the last five months of hunky-dory, "Good Ship Lollipop" Lakers stories was Hollywood's biggest B.S. story of the year other than everyone in the Writer's Guild pretending they liked how the strike turned out. Kobe is a wonderful basketball player. We all concede this point. Just don't keep trying to sell us on the fact he's a good teammate. We have a decade's worth of evidence that says otherwise. When the going gets tough, he goes into "me mode" and it's way too late for him to change. Sorry.

UPDATED: Celts won (amazing) and Sports Guy did a brilliant running diary of the most exciting finals game in the last 10 years.

The Kobe-MJ thing ... done. Over. Jordan never would have let that happen in the Finals. Ever. Under any circumstances. Nobody is ever allowed to bring this up again.

Food Ballers...They Rule My World

Bern — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:13:26 GMT

That's right. Food ballers. What is a food baller? They own restaurants. They're chefs in great kitchens. They run underground dining experiences. They host addictive TV Shows. We all know the easy ones...Mario, Bobby, Tony, Danny, Nobu, Giada and Marco. And then there are the other heavies...Thomas Keller, Wyle Dufresne, Jody Williams, Joel Robuchon, Traci Des Jardins and Paul Kahan to name a few. Seattle has some as well...Tom Douglass, John Sundstrom, Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez, Holly Smith, Matt Jenke and Thierry Rautureau among others.

Plain and simple, food ballers are the chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, movers and shakers of the swelling dining industry. We are on pace to spend over $558 billion dollars on food this year in America alone. TV and the movies are great...be entertained for a few hours, maybe even discuss it a day or two after. But nothing compares to the interactive experience of dining out. The decor, the ambiance, the service, the smells, the flavors...when it all comes together, like it did at Joule, Wolf, Steelhead, Boom Noodle and Carmelita's, it's pretty f-ing money.

Any other food ballers people like out there?