This is a fascinating little piece in Eater about how restaurant critics go about trying to get a REAL interpretation of the food and service at a restaurant.  It’s quite difficult when they know who you are!!

New York Times Critic, Pete Wells, Drops DANIEL to 3 Stars, Uses Decoy

In this week’s review, New York Times critic Pete Wells took a star away from chef Daniel Boulud’s 20 year old flagship restaurant, Daniel. (The last time Daniel was reviewed by the Times it got four stars from Frank Bruni back in 2009.) In his review, Wells finds fault with both the food and the service at the long-time four star restaurant. In a sneaky move, Wells — who’s not exactly anonymous — used a decoy. He dined 15 minutes apart from one of his more anonymous colleagues and compared his experience to that of a standard diner. His findings were informative. READ MORE

The folks that run Freddy Smalls are about to do two amazing things that you must know about right away!

• Freddy Smalls is having a BARBECUE!  Yes you heard right. On Sunday, August 18th starting at 2:00p you can eat all the Tri-Tip and Maryland Blue Crab you want while whiling away the day with friends and jamming to music. Best to buy these tickets far in advance either at Freddy’s (11520 W Pico - just east of Barrington) or over the phone at (310)479-3000. Don’t miss out or otherwise you’re gonna kick yourself when you see pictures the next day of all of us who gorged ourselves on all that food! And drinks! And music!   

• New Santa Monica Lunch locale. The Shack on Wilshire & 26th has been taken over by the same people who own Freddy Smalls and started The Counter hamburger joints. While the final concept is in the works, they’re creating a limited engagement “lunchtime pop-up” Tuesday thru Friday next week.Starting Tuesday (July 30th) you can swing by between 11:00a and 2:30p for what will arguably be the best cheesesteaks (and caesar salads, hand cut chips, and bottled coke, water and beer) you will find this far from Philly. I’ll be there. Will you?  

Run.  Don’t walk.

Best,
Heather

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Anne Burrell’s Spaghetti Bolognese

Here’s Anne’s take on her bolognese direct from Food Network.

eatplusdrink:

Sunday Supper: Pasta Bolognese

I’m not a writer, I can barely craft a coherent thank you card.  I’m not a professional chef, but I do love to cook.  As a finance geek, cooking affords me what my profession does not:  a beginning, a middle, and an end - with immediate feedback.  Sunday Suppers are a labor of love and the menus for our Sunday Suppers continue to expand and evolve.  But I can definitely say it all started one afternoon while watching Anne Burrell create her famous spaghetti bolognese sauce on the Food Network.

Anne made me feel like I could follow her recipe and make something that would be every bit as mouth wateringly good as hers. My only dilemma was having 5 hours to prepare the way she does.  So I did what every ambitiously lazy chef/finance geek/mom would do. I cheated. I mean… improvised. I did all the steps as Anne would but I used Rao’s Marinara Sauce along with the tomato paste to help things along.  

Every good pasta must have accompaniments, just like any pianist would love an orchestra.  Heather is a master at creating the perfect Caprese Salad.  I do a traditional Ceasar’s Salad and I find the most perfect French baguette from Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica to create garlic parmesan crostini.  . 

A fun family fact:  Bay Cities has those little machines where kids can put a quarter in and get a toy in a little plastic container…I let the our kids do that the first Saturday of every month.

Anne Burrell’s Spaghetti Bolognese

Here’s Anne’s take on her bolognese direct from Food Network.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Sunday Supper: Pasta Bolognese

I’m not a writer, I can barely craft a coherent thank you card.  I’m not a professional chef, but I do love to cook.  As a finance geek, cooking affords me what my profession does not:  a beginning, a middle, and an end - with immediate feedback.  Sunday Suppers are a labor of love and the menus for our Sunday Suppers continue to expand and evolve.  But I can definitely say it all started one afternoon while watching Anne Burrell create her famous spaghetti bolognese sauce on the Food Network.

Anne made me feel like I could follow her recipe and make something that would be every bit as mouth wateringly good as hers. My only dilemma was having 5 hours to prepare the way she does.  So I did what every ambitiously lazy chef/finance geek/mom would do. I cheated. I mean… improvised. I did all the steps as Anne would but I used Rao’s Marinara Sauce along with the tomato paste to help things along.  

Every good pasta must have accompaniments, just like any pianist would love an orchestra.  Heather is a master at creating the perfect Caprese Salad.  I do a traditional Ceasar’s Salad and I find the most perfect French baguette from Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica to create garlic parmesan crostini.  . 

A fun family fact:  Bay Cities has those little machines where kids can put a quarter in and get a toy in a little plastic container…I let the our kids do that the first Saturday of every month.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

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Stephen Colbert & the Domino’s Pizza Drone

Is there really a Domino’s Pizza Drone?  Unbelievable.

From Eater: “Last night on the Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert explored Domino’s new robotic pizza delivery technology. According the news clip sampled, thesmall, unmanned, helicopter-like machine "can deliver two large pizzas in ten minutes in a four mile radius.” Colbert praises Domino’s for “innovating new ways to make food get in my face.“ He also praises the ”pizza drone“ itself for being ”a great way to make our drone program more appealing to Americans. Because no one likes the idea of US citizens being targeted with Hellfire missiles, but who wouldn’t want want to be targeted with a Cali Bacon Chicken Ranch?“ READ MORE

http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:428009

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

Stephen Colbert & the Domino’s Pizza Drone

Is there really a Domino’s Pizza Drone?  Unbelievable.

From Eater: “Last night on the Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert explored Domino’s new robotic pizza delivery technology. According the news clip sampled, thesmall, unmanned, helicopter-like machine ”can deliver two large pizzas in ten minutes in a four mile radius.” Colbert praises Domino’s for “innovating new ways to make food get in my face.” He also praises the “pizza drone“ itself for being ”a great way to make our drone program more appealing to Americans. Because no one likes the idea of US citizens being targeted with Hellfire missiles, but who wouldn’t want want to be targeted with a Cali Bacon Chicken Ranch?” READ MORE

(Source: http://media.mtvnservices.com/)

eatplusdrink:

Best Places to Brunch in Los Angeles

Daily Candy sent out a little listing of great brunch places in LA.  I pretty much agree with all of them.  They are only missing two that I adore: Rick Bayless’ Red O and Cheebo. You’ll have a great time at all of these!! 

Best Places to Brunch in Los Angeles

Daily Candy sent out a little listing of great brunch places in LA.  I pretty much agree with all of them.  They are only missing two that I adore: Rick Bayless’ Red O and Cheebo. You’ll have a great time at all of these!! 

New Organic Raw Ice Cream

I’m a meat-eater.  Everyone knows this and I eschew people who aren’t.  But to be fair, I will from time to time post something veggie.  This is one of them.  It’s non-dairy, organic and coconut-based.  Veggies rejoice!

From Eater LA: How oh so very Venice. Right around the intersection of Lincoln and Rose is a new non-dairy, organic, coconut-based ice cream shop called Kippy’s!. Partners Kippy Miller and Max Wolf are behind the Truly Raw brand of dairy-free ice cream (sold at Whole Foods), and as of about three weeks ago they’ve soft opened their very first ice cream shop, scooping raw organic coconut cream ice creams and coconut water sorbets sweetened with raw local honey and (starting next week) dates. As it so goes with most raw foods, the ice cream is rather pricey at $4.50 a scoop or $8 for two scoops, in flavors like mojito, strawberry coconut, and chocolate creme.

The Los Angeles Diner en Blanc

With the first Los Angeles White Dinner about a month away, everyone’s starting to hype it up.  Eater LA has a bit about it too.  But you guys have known about it for months, haven’t you?

From Eater LA: “The self-named “worldwide Epicurean phenomenon” imported from France, Diner de Blanc, is finally coming to L.A., after making its debut in twelve other cities around the world. The 25 year old, invite-only event is hosted on a public site revealed at the last minute on August 21. There’ll be plenty of chairs, picnic tables, dancing, live music, and more, but everyone brings their own basket of food to share. Think of it like a culinary flash mob where everyone dresses up in white.”  READ MORE

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Paella Contest

Love this!!!!!!

Westport, Mass. — It all began innocently enough. “Valerie and her sister make the best paella ever,” my friend Ihsan Gurdal said. Even though Ihsan happens to be Valerie’s husband, no one who had ever tasted her paella had any reason to doubt him.

But our mutual friend (and my frequent collaborator) Chris Schlesinger was listening. And Chris has a well-demonstrated knack for turning what might be considered work into fun, very often by making it into a competition.  READ MORE

By John Willoughby at the New York Times

The Colbert Report
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Stephen Colbert’s rant on McDonald’s

Eater posted Stephen Colbert’s piece earlier this week about McDonald’s slightly condescending website devoted to teaching employees how to “budget" their earnings.  I say slightly condescending because when someone puts up a video telling you that if you buy $1 worth of candy each day, that equals $365 a year, it feels like McDonald’s doesn’t think that their employees know how to do simple math.

From Eater: “Last night on the Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert addressed McDonald’s efforts to provide financial guidance to its workers with a website providing handy budgeting worksheets. Colbert explains: “Instead of raising salaries, they’re giving their workers something more valuable than money: A website.” He goes through the suspicious math of McDonald’s sample budget and concludes the fast food giant’s assertion that “you can have almost anything you want as long as you plan ahead and save for it" works, “unless the thing you want is money.”  READ MORE

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The Cronuts Craze continues.  Today with Jerry Seinfeld

Time to Stock Up?

I noticed a friend’s very fancy outdoors glassware recently and when I saw this sale, thought you should know about it.  All the Williams-Sonoma products are a little pricey but generally well worth it.  I’m sure these will last forever!