The Naked Chef goes Big Time

Always liked the way Jamie Oliver cooks. He's not one of those chefs who is overly inclined toward affectation, his dishes are nicely constructed and his tips are useful. Besides, he always seems to invite attractive women to dinner at the end of his shows (sorry, couldn't help it).

Now, he's venturing back into the restaurant field, as owner of a new chain of restaurants. The first branch of Jamie’s Italian is scheduled to open in the western English city of Bath next March, with pasta dishes starting at 5 pounds ($10).

“We’ve got four sites agreed,” Oliver said in a Bloomberg News interview at Fifteen, the London restaurant he founded in 2002 to help train unemployed youngsters. “I’m trying to create a restaurant in beautiful university cities that’s accessible to everyday people.” The other sites include Brighton and Cambridge.

“I’m not saying it’s cheap, cheap, cheap, but it will be really good value,” Oliver told Bloomberg of the new chain. “That’s my brief: To get a beautiful organic chicken dish on the menu for a tenner, not 15.99 (pounds), and get well-sourced beef, local produce. We’ll also be making pasta on every single site."

So sad -- Chef Tell is 86ed

Didn't know he was a Philly-area restaurateur. Check out the obit:

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Friedman Paul Erhardt, the German-born cook known as “Chef Tell” who was one of America’s pioneering television chefs, has died. He was 63.

Erhardt died of heart failure on Friday at his home in Upper Black Eddy, in Bucks County.

The mustachioed Erhardt was a fixture on the Philadelphia dining scene in the 1970s and 80s when he owned restaurants in Chestnut Hill, Wayne, Ottsville, and Upper Black Eddy. He also built a reputation as a culinary educator, cookbook author, and spokesman for major cookware and food product lines.

But it was Erhardt’s jolly personality, thick German accent and wit that helped pave his way into television, where he became a fixture, from appearances on local TV to national shows such as “Regis and Kathie Lee” and comedy skits on “Saturday Night Live.” He was also said to be the inspiration for the Swedish chef on “The Muppet Show.”

“Tell was able to incorporate humor and the entertainment factor into his cooking,” Victoria Lang, who regularly produced Erhardt’s segments for “Regis and Kathie Lee,” told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Born in Stuttgart, the son of a newspaper owner, Erhardt earned the nickname “Tell” after playing William Tell in a school play. He trained in restaurants and hotels throughout Europe.

He made his first appearance on a local Philadelphia TV show “Dialing for Dollars” in 1974. That was followed by a 90-second cooking spot on a nationally syndicated show, that blossomed into appearances on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” specials for QVC and a PBS program, “In the Kitchen With Chef Tell.”

“He was the first of the great showman chefs,” former Inquirer restaurant critic Elaine Tait said. “Up until his era, chefs stayed in the kitchen.”

It's Taco Bell time!!!

While it's hard to regard the tacos at Taco Bell as anything resembling real Mexican food, I do acknowledge an occasional fondness for the crunchy little buggers, especially when funds are tight, time is short and the stomach is growling.

I also enjoy a challenge, which is why I'm tempted to bag work today and see how many free tacos I can snag during today's "Steal A Base, Steal A Taco" World Series promotion. From 2 p.m.-5 p.m., you can stop by any Taco Bell for your free crunchy beef (?) taco. I figure I can hot 10 Taco Bells during that time, thus ensuring enduring gastrointestinal distress and the eternal joy of a free lunch.

Why didn't things like this happen when I was at UD?

College dining sure has changed since the days I used to sneak into the dining halls. This week my erstwhile alma mater even invited in some international chefs to give students some sustenance besides Cup-o-Noodles and such. Here's the tantalizing press release from UD:

4:53 p.m., Oct. 19, 2007--Gary Guan, a chef born and raised in Beijing who specializes in Western cuisine and worked as the sous chef at the Swissotel in Hong Kong, and Gu Yong Hong, a chef raised in Beijing with two decades of hotel culinary experience from all over China, prepared meals for students in the Pencader Complex dining hall on Monday, Oct. 15, and in the Rodney Complex dining hall on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Both chefs came to UD as part of ARAMARK's International Guest Chef Exchange, a program designed to showcase the company's finest chefs from various parts of the world. The two chefs arrived in the U.S. from China on Oct. 4 and visited Vassar College and Johns Hopkins University before coming to UD.

On Monday night, the chefs prepared a dinner consisting of handmade dumplings with traditional dipping sauce, Szechuan fried chicken with dried chili pepper, ShanXi handmade fried noodles with assorted vegetables, Beijing-style pan-fried bean curd with ham and shrimp, and Beijing sweet pumpkin soup with papaya.

On Tuesday, the chefs cooked a lunch that consisted of Shan Dong Kung Pao Prawn with spicy chili pepper sauce, traditional northern hand-pulled noodles with chunky beef broth, fried bamboo shoots with asparagus and a Chinese egg cake tower served warm.

Article by Adam Thomas

Ciao bella

I'm off for a three-week adventure which will include amazing Italian foods and wine. (Even a few Slovenian ones!)

Eric Ruth will be your delightful host during my absence. (He'll be on vacation next week, so probably no Eric until Oct. 22) I may check in during my travels, but given the long, leisurely lunches that I plan to enjoy, don't count on it. Well, maybe I'll stop in at the cute little Internet cafe in Florence....we'll see. (To the right, is the view from the villa that I'm staying in the tiny town of Impruneta. Woo-hoo!)

We'll catch up in early November and have lots to discuss. Eat and drink well, my friends. I'll raise a glass of Chianti to you.

Ciao, ciao.

Check this out - updated.

Hearing about lots of new places popping up or are soon to open, including:

- Thorobreads at 115 Christina Landing Drive, directly across from the Riverfront Market at the new residential towers and townhomes; 472-0055, is now open and is serving soups, salads, sandwiches, sweets and spirits. Owners also run The Exchange and Costa's.
- The old Brandywine Brewing Co. in downtown Wilmington at Eighth and Orange streets, will become a new restaurant soon ....Stay tuned.

- Heard the old Pala's Cafe is going to become an Asian restaurant? Got any scoop on that?
- Have you checked out Sapori Ristorante Italiano, 3801 Kennett Pike, Suite 120, Greenville Center, 654-7613 a new, upscale Italian restaurant right across from Talbots in Greenville? I glanced at the menu - and shared it with Eric Ruth. It looks very enticing with some very authentic Italian - not Italian-American - dishes.
- Lucia's Cucina, 3801 Kennett Pike, Greenville, 654-7613, an Italian take-out owned by the Lubrano family. (Same shopping center as Sapori and Janssen's.) Sicilian pizza, stromboli, paninis, seafood dishes, chicken, veal, desserts.
- Cosi, 3828 Kennett Pike, Greenville. A chain eatery based on a Parisian café. I've been to Cosis in Philly and D.C. Not bad.
- Lucky's Coffee Shop & Restaurant, 4003 Concord Pike, Wilmington, 477-0204. The former Ranch House has a new look. New owners also run the Corner Bistro. Unbelievable banana cream pie. A review is coming soon.
- Pancho & John's near Stanton on Rt. 4, soon to come - supposedly, a new Mexican place - not far from Delaware Park.
- Prince on Delaware in Old New Castle. The location - old Cellar Gourmet. The eatery will be run by owner/chef Prince Johnson, a Culinary Institute of America grad who was formerly a private chef and caterer for the president of Swathmore (Pa.) College.
- Blue Pear Bistro, 275 Brinton Bridge Road, village of Dilworthtown, south of West Chester, Pa.; (610) 399-9812. Reservations strongly suggested. (The bistro is next door to the Dilworthtown Inn; the photo by Bob Craig is of the bistro's second floor lounge.) I wrote about this casual, "hip-storic" eatery, created in an 18th century general store, a few weeks ago - it's run by Bob Rafetto and Jim Barnes, the guys who also own the Dilworthtown Inn. I'm dining there soon and will fill you in! Looking forward to it.

Great gravy!

I hope a chill is in the air this weekend. Because Sunday dinner is going to be spaghetti, meatballs and sausage. My mom doesn't know it yet, but she will be getting her marching orders to head into the kitchen and make her Italian gravy. I adore my mother's gravy. Hands down, I'd pick it as my last meal over any Michelin starred restaurant in the world.

Part of the reason is that the sauce brings back so many great memories of sitting around the dinner table with my mom, father, sister, brother and Grandmom Talorico - one of the funniest people I've ever know - and sometimes various aunts, uncles and cousins and just enjoying each other's company.

The other reason is - it's a great sauce to sop up with crusty bread. And mom's meatballs! Oh, the meatballs! A blend of pork, veal and beef - it must be pork, veal and beef - along with pecorino romano cheese, fresh parsley, garlic, a splash of milk and a few other family secrets. I'm hungry right now.

Check out my story today on the Italian gravy competition held this past Sunday at the Vendemmia Wine Festival in Wilmington.

What do you think makes a great Italian gravy?

Should it have tomato paste?

What kind of meat should be in the sauce?

Do you prefer chunky tomatoes or a smooth puree?

Comment, comment. There are no wrong answers here.

Don't I know you??

Almost forgot to tune into the Next Iron Chef program on the Food Network. It's a new show where eight "celebrity" chefs compete for the chance to be, well, the next Iron Chef.
It's actually not bad. So far, lots of cooking and, unfortunately, sweating.
Yuck, the drippy balls of sweat forming on the end of the noses of the chefs as they worked in the kitchen reminded me of persistently schweaty contestant Howie from "Top Chef." Tho, I did read on Michael Ruhlman's blog they couldn't use fans in the kitchen because it screwed up the audio during Next Iron Chef taping this past summer. The heat supposedly rose to 132 degrees at some point. Yowsa!
Anyway, the whole point of this post was about one of the Next Iron Chef judges, Andrew Knowlton. He's the restaurant editor for Bon Appetit magazine. I thought Knowlton looked familiar and I just went through a stack of cards on my desk. Yup, I had dinner with Andrew several years ago in New York. He came to the James Beard House when former Deep Blue chef Robert Lhulier, now at Harry's Savoy Grill, cooked a dinner. We were seated at the same table.
I didn't recognize Andrew at first because his hair was different. (It was shorter back then.) I haven't talked with him in a while, but he did call and congratulate me when I was nominated for a James Beard Award for best newspaper food writing a few years ago.
That was a nice gesture. Well, we'll just see how nice he is to some of these contestants.

Getting lucky at Lucky's

Remember the old Ranch House on Concord Pike?
Hadn't been in years. I recall the food always tasted better late at night, after tastebuds have been obliterated by too much beer.
Well, the Ranch Hous is gone and it's been reincarnated as Lucky's Coffee Shop & Restaurant. The interior got a facelift - it needed one! - with cool red leather chairs and soft green booths, but it's not completely unrecognizable. Stopped by the other day and had a great chicken salad sandwich ($6.95) - all chunky white meat- and a surprisingly good crab cake sandwich $9.95 . (Lumps of crab meat, little filling.)
One of the owners is Mickey Donatello who also owns the nearby Corner Bistro.
I grabbed a booth for a recent lunch, but next time, I want a seat at the retro counter.
Still diner-esque menu - breakfast served all the time - but Lucky's also has a complete vegetarian menu with interesting offers like Asian dumpling soup and chilled japanese soba noodles with peanut sauce and eggplant rolantini. Small dishes and starters include pierogies and chicken satay.
Wow, at the Ranch House...uh, I mean, Lucky's.

Italian gravy and Italian prison food

No reader mail on Friday. Sorry, gang. I had the day off because I worked Sunday and helped judge the Italian gravy contest at the Vendemmia Wine Festival on the Wilmington Riverfront. Look for my story this Wednesday.
Good time, really nice people. But tasting 23 sauces on Sunday afternoon - with high humidity, beating sun and temperatures soaring into the 80s - got to be a little grueling. If it was 15 to 20 degrees cooler, if would have been perfect. I didn't even sip any wine - at a wine festival for Pete's sake! Just couldn't do it. Water, not wine, was my vice that day.
I'm gearing up for my annual trip next week to Italy (woo-hoo! I love autumn in Tuscany!) and one of my co-workers just shared a story about a restaurant in an Italian PRISON that's attracting a lot of customers. (Thanks Mary!) This sounds like a joke story from The Onion, but CBS, The Independent in the U.K. and other legitimate sources have all done stories on the prison eatery. Here's one link.
My food calender is filling up. I'm already planning on visiting Il Cibreo restaurant in Florence and Al Covo, a great place in Venice recommended by New York Times food writer Mark Bittman, and, hopefully, the Isole e Olena winery in Chianti.
I don't think I can talk my crowd into dining in a pokey near Pisa.

See Tom cook

My favorite baldie was cooking with Mistress Martha in her New York studio on Oct. 2 and prepared Stuffed Cornish Game Hens with Leek Stew.

Think she'll make him pack up his knives and go?

Tune in to "The Martha Stewart Show" on Oct. 9

Top Chef recap

Hung won. Are you surprised?

I think the guy rightly deserved the 100 Gs. Yeah, he was pretty arrogant all season, but that is often, from my experience, a top chef trait, like it or not. From the very beginning, Hung was in it to win and that earned my grudging admiration. I don't mind someone tooting their own horn, as long as they have the food to back it up. His sous vide duck sounded outstanding.

Great twist having celebrity chefs Todd English, Michelle Bernstein and Rocco DiSpirito serve as sous chefs for the contestants.

I found this pretty interesting in light of Frank Bruni's article yesterday in The New York Times about celebrity chefs getting further and further away from the kitchen.

Thought it was funny - and telling - that all the celeb chefs thought the competitors were using too many ingredients and too many components in their dishes.

That said, wouldn't you think some of those thoughts - and concerns - would cloud their judgment when it came to tasting? If you've already seen and participated in what goes on "backstage," isn't it a little more difficult to surrender yourself to the magic of a meal? Just saying....

You knew the contestants were going to be thrown a slider - so no shocker when they were asked to make a fourth dish in the final hour of cooking. (Hung, machine that he is, already had a recipe in his back pocket. Too bad it was a molten chocolate cake. Man, that early 1990s dessert is as tired as creme brulee. I saw those cakes and immediately thought he was going to get nailed for it. Hung can defend this dessert all he wants, but I gotta go with Todd English and say it certainly isn't a dessert that will blow away a table of discerning and jaded palates.)

Was Casey suffering from altitude sickness? (Ugh, something I've had before and it's no fun at all.) She certainly didn't look on her game.

Dale aka "Mr. Soundbite" had all the great lines this week:

Cracked up when he said wanted to "punch" chef Tom in the face after being told about the fourth dish.

And calling chef English his "prep bitch"? Hoo-ha! Priceless. (Though notice he didn't say it to his face? I'm pretty sure he would have gotten a Boston beatdown from the Beantown restaurateur. Though, Duff Goldman, the Ace of Cakes guy on the Food Network, told me he once worked for English and said he was cool guy.)

Now, it's over and Wednesday nights just aren't going to be the same. I tried to watch Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares but can't muster any enthusiasm. It doesn't hold a candle to "Top Chef."

Looking forward to next season.

Claymont Steak Shop

Got my cheesesteak fix today with sandwiches from the Claymont Steak Shop, 3526 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, 798-5319.
It's a bustling place. I stood in line - you order at the counter and wait for them to call your name - and asked the guy ahead of me it was always so crowded.
He nodded.
Was the wait worth it?
He smiled and said, "Yes, it is."
The sandwich shop has been around since 1969, but this was my first visit. It looked very clean and neat and had a mix of tie-wearing businessmen and casually dressed customers. A flat screen TV was tuned to a sports channel. You can eat in or take out.
Everyone stands around the counter waiting for their sandwiches with a look of eager anticipation. It reminded me of a group of kids waiting to get picked for a kickball team.
I got a small cheesesteak ($6.50) with onions and ketchup. (Cheese was American, not Whiz.) My dining buddy Chris, who lives near Philly's Italian Market, opted for a large cheesesteak ($7.75) with provolone and ketchup.
The drive back to The News Journal was killing me. The steaks smelled so good I almost pulled over on 495 to take a bite.
Here are my thoughts:
Claymont packs its cheesesteaks full of meat and the onions have a nice caramelization. This is one fat sandwich and you get your money's worth. I think a small would satisfy most appetites. It isn't run-down-your-arm greasy. (Is it wrong to say, I kind of missed the grease? Sorry, doc, I know I will regret writing that after my next cholesterol test.) Nor was it oozing with cheese. It had just enough cheese to bind the meat and fried onions, which I liked, because I wanted to taste the beef.
(Side note: My mom, who grew up in South Philly, claims when she was kid, cheesesteaks were never made with Whiz, but rather provolone. I don't think her memory is faulty. Cheese Whiz wasn't introduced until 1953.)
My only quibble was with Claymont's roll. It's a pretty good roll, but I was hoping for something a little more crusty. Chris agreed.
All in all, we both thought these are cheesesteaks worth driving for in Delaware - if you don't want to head to Philly.
And, I gotta tell you, the grinders coming out of the kitchen looked pretty darn good.
But that's another sandwich for another day.

Doughnuts, paninis and cheesesteaks

Mmmmmmm, doughnuts.

If you get a chance, read my story on the apple cider doughnuts at Milburn Orchards, near Elkton, Md. Now, I know, other orchards make doughnuts. (Someone here in the newsroom just waxed poetic about Linvilla Orchards apple cider doughnuts.)

But, let me tell you, Milburn's makes a Homer Simpson drool-worthy doughnut. I don't even want to think about the calorie count, and I don't, whenever I eat one.

Speaking of good food, I recently had a grilled Italian panini at Presto! Coffee Bar, 1204 Washington St., Wilmington, 777-3780. Melty provolone cheese, salty deli meats and toasty bread. Oh yeah. The spicy, pickled pepperoncinis served on the side was a perfect accompaniment. Bite of sandwich + bite of pepper = one good lunch.

But today is about cheesesteaks and I'm ordering one for lunch - Go PHILS!

I'll let you know later this afternoon where I went and what I tried.

Did they order what I ordered?

Are "Today" viewers tasteless?
Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant reviewer Craig LaBan tasted the $11 Vesuvio BLT cheesesteak that was voted by viewers of the NBC morning show as the country's best sandwich.
Yeah, well, according to LaBan, it ain't. In fact, he said it wasn't even the best in Philly. After reading LaBan's account, said sandwich sounded pretty bleak. Or is that bleech?

Off the market

Andrew Firestone, the man meat on ABC's dating show "The Bachelor" in 2003, is engaged to model-actress Ivana Bozilovic.

They plan to marry in the spring.

Firestone came to Wilmington in April 2006 and hosted a wine tasting at the now-closed Columbus Inn. It was pretty hilarious. There was more cleavage showing that night than at a Hooter's sports bar.

It was a day of wine, but no longer roses, for Freestone. He was living, quite happily, with Bozilovic, but that didn't stop more than 120 women from showing up to see him.

"I could care less about his wine. He's just hot," Michelle Schweizer said.

That was pretty much the sentiment that night and it made me wonder: Do all these women have Cinderella fantasies about some reality TV guy sweeping them off their feet and taking them to his California winery for a happily ever after ending?

While Firestone hails from the famous tire family, "The Bachelor" helped draw attention to the family's 35-year-old, relatively small estate winery, which produces about 150,000 cases each year.

We chatted for an hour before the event, and while I thought Firestone sometimes came across as smug on TV, in person, he was a nice and very interesting guy. We had a laugh about one of the contestants on the show saying Olive Garden was the best Italian restaurant ever. Then, I asked him if he still watched "The Bachelor." Firestone said that would be a big, fat no.

"It's like watching a child run with scissors. You know it's going to end badly," he said, laughing.

Bourdain blasts

Anthony Bourdain's take-no-prisoners approach to food writing is always right on target. Never one to tout the emperor's new clothes, he will gleefully scream to the world that "The guy is NAKED for God's sake."

Bourdain never nips at food posers. Nope, he chows down. And now, taking on overly eager restaurant chefs, he's skewering pretentious restaurant menus.

Read and enjoy. (I've definitely seen a few of these eye rolling terms on menus.)

Phillies phever and phood

What a fabulous weekend of baseball.

Went to the Phils game Friday night and it was electrifying. Plenty of Del. fans. I ran into Xavier Teixido, owner of Harry's Savoy and Harry's Seafood grills.

The weather was perfect and fans hung onto every pitch, clutching their rally towels and chanting "MVP" every time J Rol came to bat.

We were rewarded for our belief - who's dismissing Rollins' soothsaying abilities now, baby? - and those endless nights of sitting through games that stretched well past 9 innings.

What a game on Sunday! (OK, we just forget Saturday's blip. Sunday made everything all better anyway.)

It feels like '93 all over again. I know because I went to many games that year. I have a photo on my desk when the Phils became the 1993 National League Champions and the ticket stub to prove it.

Got to Citizens Bank Park early on Friday and got in line for a Tony Luke's $7.25 roast pork sandwich. Only had to wait about 15 mins., which wasn't too bad. Couldn't get my partner in crime to try one. The broccoli rabe scared him. He went for a cheesesteak with onions and provolone. (Though, he did have a bite or two of my sandwich and thought it was really good even with the greens. See? Told you so.)

Tony Luke's makes a very garlicky and juicy sandwich. It's not the easiest thing to eat when you're sitting in the stands. (I could only eat a 1/4 of it.) I was tempted to use my rally towel as a napkin, but that seemed sacrilegious.

Keeping in the Philly spirit, I'm going to order cheesesteaks on Wednesday.

What's your favorite place for cheesesteaks? Normally, I go to Jim's on South Street in Philly, but I want something closer to home.

Casapulla's? Capriotti's? Some place else?

Let's hear it.