Earth to Chicago: You Lost ‘Iron Chef’ Fair and SquareMonday’s Iron Chef, in which Chicago chef Graham Elliot Bowles lost to Bobby Flay, has occasioned a gale of protest from the Windy City. For proud Chicagoans, it’s just not possible that Bowles could have lost; as A.J. Liebling put it, the prevailing local belief is, simply stated, that “everybody in the world is trying to put one over on Chicago.”
The New York Diet
Raw Foodist Sarma Melngailis Drinks Grapefruit Sake Mojitos Before Noon
You may remember Sarma Melngailis as half of New York’s Most Beautiful Feuding Foodies (the other half being Matthew Kenney, her cookbook co-author, ex-boyfriend and former partner in raw-food restaurant Pure Food and Wine). Regardless of gossip tales that she stabbed angry notes into vegetables, she’s revered by raw foodists as a champion of organic eating. That’s why we were surprised when, recounting what she ate this week, she confessed to indulging not just in “weirdo shakes” and Master Cleanse martinis, but also venison carpaccio, and at least one lamb meatball.
Back of the House
Soup Nazi Ladles Out Ego; DiSpirito Waits Tables; ‘Top Chef’• Public hearing reveals support for trans-fat ban and printing of calories on fast-food menus. [NYT]
• And KFC makes it official: minimal trans fats by April — coincidence? [NYS]
• Soup Nazi ponders a self-glorifying museum at the site of his original store. [NYO]
• Alerting us to video restaurant reviews, Andrea Strong somehow fails to nod to America’s Amusingest Food Videos. [NYP]
• Public opens a wine bar; another izakaya, this one with buttons at the table to summon waiters; gourmet pizza on Bedford Avenue. [Strong Buzz]
• Rocco DiSpirito waits tables with Gilbert Gottfried. (A benefit, not our dream reality show.) [NYP]
• Batali goes bi-coastal: Pizzeria Mozza finally open. [Chowhound]
• Absolut, Bacardi, and other reformed booze bizzies fork over $2.3 mil to end Spitzer probe. [NYS]
• “Top Chef” Marisa busts out the bikini. [Chow]
Back of the House
New York Burger Co.’s Dirty SecretNew York Burger Co. has two profitable locations in the city that have won some praise, so naturally, the company’s founders are poised to make the leap into megafranchising. We’ve often wondered at burger joints that are obviously created as franchise pilots; Long Island’s American Burger Company didn’t even bother giving itself a local name before initiating its nation-conquering mission.
