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Food TV

“The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs” recap — a fateful match up

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA And so it has begun. Outside in a field. By a pile of wood, a couple’a campfires, a lake so pure one of the chefs will make a sauce of it, and random crates and piles of fruits and veggies stacked up on hay bales. Oh, and also a slew of slain pigs on ice. OK, actually it really began in hallowed Kitchen Stadium, where the chairman appears all buggy-eyed and choppy-hands on a gigantic screen before the contestants. Alton explains the new rules— Chairman’s Challenge first, losers’ shoot-out second — ramped up to test […]

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“The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs” bows Sunday on Food Network

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA Food Network fans — nay, food lovers and food-TV fans all around — it’s finally here! The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs — aka our version of the playoff season, leading to our version of the Super Bowl (played in a stadium, even) — debuts Sunday night at 9pm ET on Food Network.

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History’s “Hairy Bikers” explores America’s culinary underbelly

by Karl J. Paloucek Follow @ChannelGuideK Like a lot of shows, this one started in Britain: Two hairy guys on motorcycles who really know their food set out to explore the local cuisines their country had to offer and in doing so established a template for a show that was all but tailor-made for America. With its inventive food history rooted in its incredibly varied cultures, to say nothing of its highway infrastructure and motorcycling tradition, America was the next logical step, and as such, Hairy Bikers premieres Friday, Oct. 14, on History. At the center of Hairy Bikers are […]

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Goodbye “Good Eats”: Alton Brown on putting the show on paper and what he’s cooking up next

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA Yes, Alton Brown knows how sad you are about the impending end of Good Eats, his long running, game-changing Food Network megahit. He hears about it at each performance of his month-long Good Eats 3: The Later Years book tour, which has him cracking up — and educating — audiences in different cities across the country nearly every evening in October. But rest assured, lovers of Brown’s acerbic wit, large vocabulary and quirky sense of narrative — you haven’t seen the last of him. Not by a long shot. “My wife is the president of our company […]

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Food Network’s Anne Burrell serves up a rockin’ new cookbook

By Lori Acken Anne Burrell — Mario Batali’s right-hand woman on Iron Chef America who’s gone on to star in Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks In America — is awed that Food Network’s faithful fan base has turned her and her pals into the rock stars of the gustatory set. Now she’s looking to return the favor. Tomorrow marks the release of Burrell’s first cookbook, titled Cook Like A Rock Star, which spotlights Burrell’s infectious wit and fearless personality — and her sincere belief that you can cook well, too, with a little friendly guidance. “That’s what the message […]

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Chuck Takes Off: Chuck Hughes is a hot commodity on Cooking Channel

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuideLLA Chuck Hughes still can’t believe what’s happened to him. Specifically — fame. The 34-year-old, tattooed star of Cooking Channel’s popular Chuck’s Day Off — and star-struck competitor on Food Network’s upcoming “Super Chef” version of The Next Iron Chef (premiering Oct. 30) — would love to call his meteoric rise from Montreal restaurateur to food TV favorite a dream come true. But “honest truth” — a favorite Hughes expression — he can’t. “It’s way more than that,” Hughes exclaims in a charming French-Canadian-with-a-dash-of-Brooklyn accent, “because I never dreamt this big! I’m a normal guy! I cut carrots […]

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Lucinda Scala Quinn Saves Us From Being “Mad Hungry”

By Emily Mitchell Martha Stewart is Lucinda Scala Quinn’s boss… pressure much? The executive food director at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is expanding her appreciation of and experience with food to the Hallmark Channel, where she will debut her new daily cooking show, Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn, on Sept. 13. Scala Quinn’s work with Martha Stewart is a collaboration of two like-minded domestic mavens with the same opinions about food. “Starting with Martha, certainly in terms of all of our food properties, our ethos has been about fresh, seasonal, healthy eating. We don’t believe in deprivation; we believe […]

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Noshing With Nigella

Best-selling author and British television personality Nigella Lawson, who has appeared on programs in more than 20 countries around the world, comes to Food Network for the first time in her career. Lawson brings her unique signature style to home cooking in Nigella Feasts, where she explores the world of cooking with a refreshing sensibility because Lawson, like many of her viewers, has neither a culinary degree nor the time to make extravagant feasts. Nigella Feasts comes off of the stove and onto viewers’ tables beginning Sunday, Oct. 1. What do you think people find most surprising about your style […]

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Alton Brown Searches For Classic Road Food

In spring, Alton Brown (Good Eats) left what he terms the “highly manipulated” world of the Food Network kitchens to embark on a motorcycle trek across America. Feasting on Asphalt, the four-part series covering Brown’s long ride, premieres July 29 at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network. Here are his thoughts on an experience that he says changed his outlook on food and hospitality. What made you decide to take this trip? Alton Brown: I went out mostly because of my concern that we are losing a huge section of our American food culture, which is road food. American cuisine before […]

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“Sopranos” Actor Steve Schirripa Creates A Diet For Life

Steve Schirripa, who plays Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri on The Sopranos, says of his new book The Goomba Diet (Crown Publishing, $23), “Obviously it’s a humor book, you know. You can tell by looking at me.” In his thick Brooklyn accent, he spills some beans about life, living large on The Sopranos set, and his future. What prompted you to write “The Goomba Diet”? Steve Schirripa: This is the third in the series of Goomba books, you know. … And when we talk about a diet book we’re talking about, you know, people with an appetite for life, who like to […]