restaurants

Super chef Gordon Ramsay has admitted that he goes to fast food places like Burger King and McDonald's and orders food at the drive-thru...in secret. He goes in a car with tinted windows and calls ahead. Though I wonder who but a celeb would call ahead for a meal at Burger King or McDonald's.

He says that "there's something very sexy about the way they flame grill a Whopper." Um, alllllrighty.

But he's really not a fan of fast food establishments. He says the food is bland and that it's bad for you. Another famous chef, Marco Pierre White, recently said that McDonald's offers great value and Ramsay calls that "utter crap."

The new season of Hell's Kitchen premieres this Monday on FOX.

This poll in the UK edition of Esquire isn't too much of a surprise I guess. I can understand why chef and TV host Gordon Ramsay is the most admired guy, especially in a popular, "of the moment" sort of way. But what I find funny is that he beat scientist and author Stephen Hawking, a man that has literally changed the way we look at space, time, and the universe.

Other people on the list after Ramsay (17%) and Hawking (14%) are Ray Mears (a TV survival expert - probably unknown to many of us here in the U.S.), who got 11% of the vote, new James Bond Daniel Craig, who also got 11%, and comedian/writer Ricky Gervais, who somehow only got 9% of the vote.

The new season of Hell's Kitchen, the U.S. show that Ramsay hosts, starts on FOX, June 4 at 9pm.

[via TV Tattle]

Well, this news is going to make some people very, very happy.

Kitchen Confidential, the comedy that was on FOX last year for about a minute and a half is coming to DVD on May 22. Not only will the two disc set have the four episodes that aired on the network, it will also have the nine episodes that never aired. Extras will include cast interviews and a trailer.

I found this show rather disappointing. It was OK, but just not as funny or involving as I thought it would be. Of course, this was based on two or three episodes, so I'll make an effort to check out the rest. Michael Vartan, Bradley's Cooper's costar from Alias, guest starred on one of the unseen episodes as a French chef. The show also starred Nicholas Brendon, Bonnie Somerville, John Francis Daley, Jaime King and Frank Langella.

HBO has launched yet another quirky, viral marketing campaign - this time to promote the return of Rome on January 14th. From January 10th through the 13th, 100 Italian eateries in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be offering complimentary bottles of Rome wine, a cabernet sauvingnon bottled in California and labelled for maximum ad appeal. Rather than have servers push the wine on customers, a card will be placed on each table offering diners "a taste of Rome."

The brainchild behind the promo is Lime Public Relations & Promotions who feel that the campaign is "innovative but tasteful." Lime president Claudia Strauss reported to AdAge that, "The show is all about indulgence, and we just felt this was a great way to bring to life one of the key aspects of the story line." In keeping with the show's over-the-top sex and gore, participating restaurants will also allow diners to drink the blood of Christian martyrs, sodomize select servers and retire to a vomitorium following their meal.

When fighting broke out in the Middle East recently, chef, author, and TV show host Anthony Bourdain found that he was trapped in Beirut with his crew. They were filming an episode of the Travel Channel series No Reservations. Bourdain and the four people with him were stuck in the city for a week, and eventually found their way back to the U.S. Bourdain held a chat at The Washington Post web site recently.

Bourdain not only talks about the food he tasted there, but also offers a view of the people he encountered, in a way you might not see on the cable or network news coverage.

[via Bookslut]

These finales are becoming predictable. They always bring back the last few contestants to either judge or help in the finale's last challenge. This one was a little anti-climatic. I've been rooting for Harold to win for several weeks now. I think his food has been better (ha - funny how us viewers will say one meal is better than another, as if we has Taste-O-Vision on our TVs - but I'm going by the judge's comments), and Tiffani just seems like the type of person I wouldn't get along with in the kitchen. Not that Dave is any better. But he's "over the top" annoying. Tiffani is "slow boil" annoying.

A superficial way to pick a favorite? Maybe, but it's a reality show, edited to show drama and not everything that happens in the competition, so how else can we judge?

Everyone here at WIN is very excited about the launch of our new blog, Slashfood. As you can probably tell from the title, it's all about the world of food and drink. Like you, we here at WIN love to eat and drink and talk about what we eat and drink. New restaurants, recipes, food hacks, industry news, celebrity chef gossip, fun foods, food porn. You name, we'll cover it.

Mmmmmm. Go check it out.