Now comes word the effusive chef and owner of Table Fifty-Two in the Gold Coast is getting his own show on TLC -- and the topic is one that seems to fit Smith like a glove.
"Craving Comfort" will explore the "obsessions, triumphs and secrets behind some of America's favorite comfort foods," according to a release. The show, slated to debut late next year, has Smith traveling across the country seeking out renditions, and stories, of apple pie, fried chicken and more.
TLC couldn't have picked a better host. (Smith, who's on the road now, tells us the show came about exactly because of his Top Chef Masters performance!). And now we have an excuse to run one of our favorite recipes in recent memory: Smith's goat cheese biscuits. These are a snap to put together, and they're homey, crusty and delicious. Comfort, indeed.
Update: A TLC rep tells us the foods to be covered in the series are apple pie, donuts, chocolate, burgers, fried chicken, mac 'n' cheese and breakfast grub. And the crew is planning a Chicago stop. Mmmm.
By guest blogger and New York writer Seanan Forbes
On Friday, Rodelio Aglibot abandoned Sunda, 110 W. Illinois Street (leaving it in the hands of a more than able crew) and took over the kitchen of the James Beard House, 167 W. 12th in New York City.
Aglibot's fantastic, the menu looked phenomenal, and I wanted in - not in the dining room, but the kitchen.
As is his way, Aglibot did the unexpected: He said yes.
That was Wednesday. This is three o'clock on Friday afternoon, and I find myself in a compact kitchen with an impressive array of chefs: Aglbot; James Gottwald, executive chef of Rockit Bar & Grill and corporate chef of Rockit Ranch Productions; Jesse Deguzman, Sunda's sushi chef, and chef Frank Fronda (below, right). Volunteers from the French Culinary Institute are putting in hours, as well.
Gottwald and Deguzman look like undergraduate students, but the kitchen buzzes with professionalism - and camaraderie. Aglibot, Gottwald and Deguzman are a three-man Chicago team. Fronda and Aglibot travelled around Asia together, and they co-own Baba's Pasta, an artisanal pasta company.
This isn't a tight-knit group; it's a strong, effective sailor's knot - one flexible enough to add a writer to its curves.
Last week I read, in the Sun-Times Showcase section, that celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, star of the shows, "Hell's Kitchen," "The f Word," and "Kitchen Nightmares," has signed a deal for a new show on Fox, tentatively titled "Master Chef."
In it, Ramsay will attempt to take people who have no experience in the food industry into expert cooks. The contestants will whip up dishes that will then be judged by a panel of expert chefs. Are they kidding? Really? I'm sure that Fox will have no trouble finding people to take part in this because people will do anything to get on TV, but what sort of masochistic person, with no professional kitchen experience, would ever subject themselves to the foul-mouthed, short-tempered Ramsay? It's one thing for Ramsay to shout and swear at professionals who can't run a restaurant or cook food worth putting in front of a paying guest but I don't see how his act will work on those who haven't worked in kitchens before. Restaurants, like bars, are among the best places in the world to work, but much like newsrooms, the folks who work in these places are quite a different breed. Everyday behavior in working restaurants (like newsrooms) might get you fired from just about any other workplace, with the exception of perhaps a pirate ship.
I predict lots of tears, some people storming out of the kitchen, some on-camera asides from the contestants remarking about how mean Ramsay is, and maybe a few people who will swear and scream back at him. Fox may as well call it, "So You Think You Can Cook?" The carnage could be horrible. And I can't wait to tune in.
The inimitable Ina Pinkney of Ina's, 1235 W. Randolph, is one of three chefs up for a Golden Bowl Award from the culinary organization Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. The award, to be presented in Washington D.C. this weekend, recognizes excellence in baking and pastry arts.
While the nomination alone makes her giddy, here's what really tickles Pinkney: She and 20 fellow female chefs will get a tour of the White House kitchen Sunday from White House commander-in-chef Cris Comerford, she says.
"I'm going to call David Axelrod," Pinkney says. "He was a regular here [at her restaurant, Ina's], as was Rahm Emanuel and Valeria Jarrett. So I'm going to see if David's working and see if I can get a glimpse of the West Wing!"
She says this with a laugh, but she's serious. And don't think she doesn't have pull.
In 2007, the Wall Street Journal named her West Loop restaurant one of the nation's top power breakfast spots. Pinkney says that's because she never feeds the press tidbits on her powerful dining guests and because "it's very, very quiet and the tables are far apart. The deals get done."
Daley eats there. Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda have eaten there. Judy Baar Topinka just announced her candidacy for state comptroller there Sunday, with a photo in our paper to boot. ("Republicans don't tip as well, but they're still welcome here," Pinkney had to explain to a Democratic friend who groused about this to her.)
Ok, so she kind of did it cheekily at the suggestion of a regular customer, after Jesse Jackson Jr. and Luis Gutierrez dropped out. In her monthly newsletter mailed out to customers in December of that year, she offered up a list of city departments she would create if elected (our favorite: the Dept. of Snacks and Morale).
It was after a call from one alderman, a visit from another and a call from Daley's chief of staff that she realized, "they had no sense of humor whatsoever" -- and formally threw her toque in the ring as a write-in candidate.
Pinkney got 2,302 votes. "And three unannounced inspections from the city that day."
"Even now, it makes me laugh," she says.
You know, Ina, 2011 is coming up fast.
Oh, she knows. "And I keep saying, 'You never know,' " she says.
It was bound to happen: Bravo is launching the pastry chef edition of Top Chef!
Auditions for "Top Chef: Just Desserts" are getting underway nationwide this week, with a casting call today in Chicago that runs until 2 p.m. at Wells on Wells, 1617 N. Wells. Producers there also are auditioning for the seventh season of the original "Top Chef" series (which has chefs from at least one uber-high profile Chicago restaurant licking their chops.)
We are loving the idea of Top Chef, the dessert edition. Desserts are a universal weakness for most Top Chef contestants. We can only imagine what wacky challenges the Bravo execs have in store for the pastry chef-testants but something tells us it isn't going to be a .... cake walk.
Those of you who couldn't get enough of "Top Chef Masters" can rejoice: Bravo is bringing it back for a second season.
Not surprising, considering the series snagged the highest rating for first season shows for Bravo (also, Rick Bayless, who can forever lay claim to being the first Top Chef Master, told us back in August after the series finale that the chefs for season two had already been lined up.)
Of course, "Masters" was made all the more exciting because of Bayless' big victory. And let's not forget the delightful appearances of Graham Elliot Bowles and Art Smith, who made it to the final six.
Host Kelly Choi will return as will judges Gael Greene, James Oseland and Jay Rayner. They'll be joined by "Top Chef" judge Gail Simmons.
They're at it again. LTHForum, the chat site for food lovers, doled out its awards for Great Neighborhood Restaurants last night to 18 Chicago area eateries and bakeries (see the full list here). For the first time this year, the group also recognized Great Neighborhood Resources, giving the nod to five food-related shops, including Northwestern Cutlery and the Spice House.
Picking up their awards at the dinner at Marie's, 4127 W. Lawrence:
Hoosier Mama Pie Co. owner Paula Haney, with her husband and 21-month-old twins in tow, offal-loving hubby/wife team Rob and Allison Levitt of Mado; Spice House owners Patty and Tom Erd, and Pastoral's Greg O'Neill and Ken Miller.
Dobra Bielinski of Delightful Pastries, another winner, delighted us with the news that she's opening a second bakery at 1710 N. Wells on Nov. 1. She and the Pastoral team also will have a presence at the Chicago French Market inside the Ogilvie Metra station.
This is the fifth year of the GNR awards, which began, as LTH-er David Dickson said, "with the question of, 'Where should I go eat?' " Forum members nominate and vote on places that have that certain culinary je ne sais quoi.
It was the first year I had the pleasure of chowing with LTH members at their awards dinner. Marie's is a pizza joint attached to a liquor store. It has red booths and paneled and mirrored walls. Its pizza is the stuff of dreams.
One might be inclined to judge a book by its cover and pass up Marie's, were it not for the enthusiastic eaters who make it a point to seek out these neighborhood gems. Chicago needs places like Marie's -- but it needs a forum like LTH just as much.
Rockit Bar & Grill this week is celebrating the bar food of bar foods: chicken wings.
Five different styles of wings (or really, five different sauces) will be on the menu this week for the first annual Wingfest: super spicy buffalo with a blue cheese dressing; sweet chile and lime (pictured above); pomegranate and port wine with a mango sauce; lemon-grilled with wild oregano, garlic and feta fondue, and, brace yourself, truffle butter-tossed with a foie gras gravy. The wings are $10 a dozen. And for dessert, strawberry milkshakes!
Higher wing prices notwithstanding, chef James Gottwald is a big believer in wings -- and in weeklong promotions that, to him, are kind of like their own holiday. The restaurant's early summer Burgerfest is going on five years now.
"To be honest, sometimes I get bored with the menu. We have the favorites we just can't take off ... or I'll be shot," he says. "These food celebrations keep me and my staff excited."
Gottwald talks like a wing aficionado. With their high skin-to-ratio, wings are "kind of like pork belly," he points out. And, mind you, we're not talking piddly 25-cent numbers. "I pay a premium for my wings, the big jumbo ones, no hormones, none of that garbage."
He soaks the wings in a brine for a good hour (1 cup of kosher salt per half gallon of water, for those of you wanting to try this at home) to season them. He then roasts the wings to render off the fat, and crisps them up in the fryer. (The Greek-style ones, by contrast, are grilled).
Mark your calendar: Gottwald already is planning a Mac 'n' Cheese Fest for January.
Let's drown our sorrows about Gourmet's closing the Chicago way, shall we? With bacon. And get this man (chef John Manion of Goose Island Brewpub) his own TV show, or get him on Conan, or something.
This video was done in anticipation of the VIP Pro Bacon Cook-Off on Oct. 24, which should tide folks over until the main event, Baconfest, in April.
Reminder: Vie's Paul Virant and sous chef Nathan Sears are the latest Chicago entrants to the Iron Chef America fray. They battle Japanese master Masaharu Morimoto on Nov. 1.
Join Virant, Sears and the rest of the Vie family to watch the episode (8 p.m., Food Network) at the Tap House Grill, 6010 S. Cass in Westmont. The chef there is Virant's friend.
And keep an eye on Sears, who we first met back in January. He's "ripe and ready" to head the kitchen at Virant's second restaurant, location t.b.d., Virant says.
Virant was thisclose to signing a lease on Vie Part Deux (our nickname, not his), just south of Grand Avenue, near May Street Market, but things just didn't work out.
"We're still looking," Virant says. "We do want to do something downtown.
"Obviously, it'll harbor the same style of food, the same philosophy of food as far as trying to support a lot of local farms, but it'll be more casual."
Sun-Times Food editor Janet Rausa Fuller is always thinking about her next meal.
Lisa Donovan
For almost 20 years now, reporter Lisa Donovan has been hitting Chicago's neighborhood markets and restaurants not only for the
best grub at the best prices but also as a way to understand the city's melting
pot.
James Scalzitti
As Rhoda Morgenstern would say, food is the first thing Sun-Times Wire Service reporter James Scalzitti remembers liking that liked him back..
Sun-Times Food editor Janet Rausa Fuller is always thinking about her next meal.
For almost 20 years now, reporter Lisa Donovan has been hitting Chicago's neighborhood markets and restaurants not only for the
best grub at the best prices but also as a way to understand the city's melting
pot.
As Rhoda Morgenstern would say, food is the first thing Sun-Times Wire Service reporter James Scalzitti remembers liking that liked him back..
