Pancake Art

In one episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, host Guy Fieri was presented with a pancake -- in the shape of his own head! (Check here if you want to see -- the resemblance is spot-on).

Chef Mustache Bill isn't the only pancake-maker-artist, though. I found this picture of Marine Invertebrate pancakes floating around on Pinterest!

Well, that really got my curiosity going, so I went to Google. And boy, did I hit the pancake-art jackpot! I've snagged a few of my favorites below. 

and of course:

Thoughts While Watching Chopped and Sweet Genius

I love Chopped. Three Courses, Four Competitors, Secret Ingredients: I just love it. So after a long week, I tend to be very content to spend my Thursday nights with the Food Network watching Chopped (followed by Sweet Genius).

I've come to the conclusion that not only are the Food Networks programs amazing, but the commercials that play on the network are incredibly entertaining. 

Thus, I present to you a list of thoughts that are going through my mind at the moment. I invite you to comment on them, answer my rhetorical questions, or add a few of your own.

• Announcing that you have no chance of getting eliminated during your chef intro often results in you getting chopped within the first two rounds.
• The most common ways to trip the competing chefs: including an 'Asian' ingredient, including multiple proteins, including savory ingredients in the dessert baskets, or including an already prepared/cooked/or processed commercial ingredient. 
• If I was going to compete in Chopped, I think that I would have my friends help me practice-- you know, give me mystery ingredients and a time limit. 
• I wonder if any chefs have every tried this ^^
• A McCormick seasoning commercial claimed "Life is a pulled pork sandwich." I have never eaten pulled pork, but I have to belief it's not? Do we agree or disagree?
• Another McCormick seasoning commercial claimed “Life is a Fajita” – well which is it, McCormick?
• It seems that every Chopped competitor believes in the notion: "When in doubt, find the blender."
• Chefs: Why would you not taste your food while cooking??
• Chefs: Why would you keep cooking and ignore blood if you cut yourself??
• In a different commercial, Velveeta is branding itself as "Liquid Gold". Oh, good Lord. 
• Are French Chefs not whimsical enough for Food Network competition shows?
• Good dishes should have the following elements: a texture contrast, a kick of flavor, and a sour/sweet, bitter/sweet, savory/sweet, or salty/sweet contrast.

Fat Chef

The Food Network has recently added a new show to their line-up: Fat Chef. I caught an episode earlier this week.

First of all, kudos to the Food Network for creating an original programming concept. I love competition shows as much as the next person, but there's only so many times a chef can travel around the country tasting food (Triple D, Sugar Rush, Heat Seekers, etc.).

Secondly, the premise of the show is particularly poignant in today's more health conscious world. The show, for those who haven't seen it, is a weightloss journey for obese chefs. For them, conquering a food addiction is particularly difficult, as they must be surrounded by food in order to make a living. "It's like an alcoholic working in a liquor store," said one chef in the show's promo.

Needless to say, as both a fitness fanatic and a foodie, I am in favor of Fat Chef. Has anyone else caught an episode? What did you think of the new series? 

Some Fun with Alton Brown

Chuck Norris jokes are a relatively common meme. But have you heard the ones about Food Network personality, Alton Brown?

My brother recently emailed links to 60 hysterical jokes about everyone's favorite gastronomical guru. The web pages can be found here and here, but I've decided to showcase the ones I liked best:

• Alton Brown grinds his own peppercorns. With his teeth.
• Alton Brown doesn't reduce sauces. He demoralizes sauces.
• Alton Brown's blender has four speeds: 'stir', 'mix', 'frappe', and 'plasmify'.
• Grown men have been known to weep for joy in the mere presence of Alton Brown's vinagrette. His hollandaise sauce can kill a man from sheer ecstacy at forty paces.
• Alton Brown's cakes don't rise. They ascend.
• Alton Brown's show is called 'Good Eats', because 'Multiple Shuddering Mouthgasms' didn't play with the network's target demographic.
• Gordon Ramsay calls Alton Brown 'sir'.
• The Eskimos have fifty words for 'snow'. Alton Brown has fifty words for 'kosher salt'.

Just a bit of food fun for this Tuesday morning -- Happy Cooking!

Life Lessons I've learned from Iron Chef America

People say I have an irrational obsession with the Food Network. But I'm not alone: almost everyone I know is addicted. Do students go away to college, only to be drawn back to the kitchen or its dorm room proxy?

Living with parents who didn't appreciate the merit of background noise when studying, I lack TV in my Boston University dorm. Fortunately, a kind soul with YouTube alias mchan2048, uploaded dozens of Iron Chef episodes, enabling me to present to you:

Life Lessons I've learned from Iron Chef America

1) Presentation matters -- Whether we like to admit it or not, human beings judge. In Iron Chef, each judge can award five points for presentation. Three judges, given five points each, makes 15 points (25%!) of a chef's 60 point total. Thus presentation matters, because people remember first impressions.


2) Nix the Trout ice cream -- Some flavors, like people, mesh badly. While Ben and Jerry never reached this foodie extreme, Battle Trout, pitting Iron Chef Bobby Flay against challenger Hiroyuki Sakai, featured an infamous trout ice cream dessert, which undid its maker, Sakai. On a larger scale, I may hope two friends get along as well together as I do with each individually, but better to separate them, rather than risk the two snarling at each other.


3) Five dishes, 60 minutes, eight seasons -- Wikipedia.org files 120 episodes spread over eight Iron Chef seasons. That's roughly 1200 dishes, an incredible amount of food bespeaking a passionate love of cooking. And that, dear readers, is Iron Chef's takeaway lesson - to find that one thing that both challenges and makes us happy - and do it until we are physically exhausted. Or until the buzzer summons us to face the judges - whichever comes first.