David Chang's Ego-Driven Burrito Failure

If you're a fan of David Chang's three Momofuku restaurants in New York, or just a fan of cookbooks in general, the recently released Momofuku Cookbook is a must-read. David Chang is a great writer, and while the recipes are uniformly strong and easy to follow, the real meat of the book is the story of how he grew from an okay chef working the lines in a string of New York kitchens to the burgeoning star chef that he is. Here are some of the juiciest tidbits that he drops along the way:

--Chang's diet consists almost exclusively of Chinese take out and fast food

-- The previous restaurant in the Sssam bar space housed a brothel in the basement

-- The night before opening the Noodle bar, Chang blew most of his remaining budget on strippers

-- Chang graduated with B.A. in Religious studies from Trinity College

-- He found his first sous chef (now right-hand man) on Monster.com

-- Chang's loves "Lies" by Guns and Roses

-- He once went to the emergency room seven times in two weeks for undiagnosed stress-related injuries

-- Chang cites cooking American food with Japanese ingredients at a Hyatt in Tokyo, as a formative kitchen experience

-- His Momofuku bakery was originally planned to be in an abandoned gas station in Virginia

-- Chang's a big Modest Mouse fan. Also: The Hold Steady

-- Tom Colicchio helped him with the paperwork for The Noodle Bar

-- When re-locating The Noodle Bar, to throw off bloggers, he put up a fake menu for "Paul's Grill W/24 Flat Screen T.V.'s"

-- Chang describes the attention from the press as like being "in The Truman Show"

-- Chang's childhood hero was pro-golfer Ben Hogan

-- One of the inspirations behind Ko was a meal from a tiny, obscure Parisian restaurant, L'Astrance

-- He describes the early days of Ssam bar as " my ego-driven burrito failure".

Yankees, You've Just Won the World Series, Where Are You Going to Go Next?

Not Disneyland. Try downtown Manhattan velvet-rope mainstay, 10ak, where A-Rod and co. enjoyed 200 bottles of Champagne with Kurt Russell, a few Gossip Girls, and the entire cast of Glee. Keep it classy, boys.

Quicklink: Dog Food

Jonathan Safran Foer penned a piece for the Wall Street Journal this week asking why Americans are so averse to eating man's best friend. Dog meat, you see, is a delicacy in many countries, so what's with the the social stigma around eating fido in the states? If you're planning on attending any smart-people dinner parties this weekend, you've got your cocktail fodder right here.

5 Great Chef Disses

While many great chefs leave the steamy hell of restaurant kitchens for the cushy life of successful restaurant owner, or even television celebrity, sometimes the competitive spark, and ability to trash talk-- both invaluable skills to any line cook --- never leave them, they just get directed at other food world compadres. Here are five notable recent chef disses:

Anthony Bourdain Vs. Alice Waters.

When asked by a reporter from DCist about his thoughts on Waters, Bourdain remarked "Alice Waters annoys the living [expletive] out of me. We're all in the middle of a recession, like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There's something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic." Just a few months later, at the New York Wine and Food Fest, when asked about Waters again, Bourdain noted “She’s Pol Pot in a muumuu. I saw her on 60 Minutes. She used six cords of wood to cook one egg for Lesley Stahl.”

Mario Batali Vs. Gordon Ramsay

In late 2008, after Ramsay’s continually referring to Batali as "Fanta Pants" in the press, Batali officially banned him from any of his restaurants in an interview in The Guardian, saying "I won't have him in there. If he called me himself and said, 'Let's sit down for a drink,' I'm sure it would be fine. We'd be cool. But right now it's not cool."

Clarrisa Dickson Wright Vs. Jamie Oliver

For an interview in The Independent, Wright, one of BBC's "Two Fat Ladies" was asked of her opinion of Jamie Oliver and replied, "He is a brilliant cook...But his restaurants are lackluster, I'm told. I don't know. I don't eat in them. I don't want to risk being poisoned."

Tyler Florence Vs. Andrew Zimmerman:

After an appearence by Florence on Ryan Seacrests's reality show, "Momma's Boys", Bizarre Food’s Host Andrew Zimmerman delivered this barb via his personal blog "Monday’s episode featured the worlds least talented TV chef, Tyler Florence, once again churning out the questionable cooking advice and leading the ladies through a menu of the Mom’s fave recipes. Watching Florence wolf down the food, stare and ogle every a** that strolled by his cutting board and play the role of local TV stud was high comedy of the highest order." Florence quickly posted a response on his Facebook blog that included this nugget: "I guess it’s hard to have a sense of humor when you're on your 10th take of eating Yak testicles, smiling to the camera, wondering where your life went wrong......... mmmmm, Delicious! Go get 'em guys."

Dave Chang Vs. San Francisco Chefs: During a Q & A with Anthony Bourdain at the 2009 NYC Wine and Food Fest, Bourdain asked Chang about food trends that he hates. His response:"Fuckin' every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate. Do something with your food." After the SF Asia society cancelled a book tour event due to the comment, Chang stood his ground saying, "Why would people get upset? I'm not gonna retract what I said. I think everybody needs to chill out. People need to smoke more marijuana in San Francisco."

Amazing/Useful/Pointless new Food and Dining Apps for the I-Phone

In our new modern age, every coming week offers ton of new apps made available to i-Phone users. And while Food and Dining apps may not be as plentiful as, say, arcade game apps staring ninja pandas, there are still a lot of options out there, and it can sometimes be a lot to wade through. Here's a breakdown of prominent new food and dining apps from the past two months:

The Amazing:
The Epicurious App — It’s no secret that Epicurious.com is a great resource for recipes from some of the best food glossies of past and present. While finding and printing out a recipe at home is a simple task, the Epicurious app allows you the convenience of not having to plan your trip to the grocery store. With Epicurious on your I-phone, you can walk into Whole Foods, pick up an ingredient, and plan an entire meal around it on the fly, Iron-Chef style. Price: Free

The Bionic Eye -- There are certain situations in which even the most adept foodie finds themselves in unfamiliar territory, and in search of a solid meal. The Bionic Eye uses the GPS system on the I-phone 3GS to enable you to point your phone's camera down any street, and it will find the nearest resources and points of interest around you with directions. If you're ever on lunch break from Jury Duty downtown by the courthouse, or staying at a hotel on a business trip in a foreign town, having this app will easily point the way to a variety of dining destinations. Unfortunately, for now, The Bionic Eye is most adept at finding chain restaurants, but hey, sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

The Useful:

The Chipotle App -- The perfect tool for those extra slothful burrito lovers who can't be bothered to move five feet from the couch to their computer and place an order online at Chipotle.com. The Chipotle app has a clean, easy interface that lets you quickly and precisely pick your fillings, pay, and place the order for delivery without even having to whip out your credit card or talk to a delivery person. Couch Potatoes, rejoice! Price: Free.

Open Table App: Again, like the Chipotle app, if you have a computer nearby, there's no real reason to use this app over the actual website. But, I-phone apps have always been more about privilege than practicality, and this is no exception. Just imagine the value of this for businessmen chatting up women at a bar -- with just a few key strokes, they can surprise their lady friends with reservations at the newest hotspots just seconds after she mentions a desire to go there! Sneaking off to the bathroom to fiddle with the phone's web browser, or calling assistants and yelling at them to get that coveted resy, are now things of the past! Price: Free

The Pointless:

The Starbucks App: Want to arrange a coffee date with your friends at Starbucks via your phone, in a way that is more convoluted than texting them or even calling them? There's an app for that. The Starbucks app also has full updated menus, and a series of fields that lets you mix and match ingredients to create your own virtual drinks that you can share with friends via texts. As if it were necessary, the Starbucks app can also help you find a location near you. Groan. Price: Free.
The Yelp App: For years, disgruntled diners actually had to leave the restaurant to complain about it on yelp. With the Yelp I-Phone App, diners can slag off restaurants tableside! Price: Free.

Fake Eater National Map: 38 Great Farm To Table Restaurants

While the concept of a farm to table restaurant - restaurants that use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients -- is nothing new, over the past decade, the idea behind this style of restaurant has started to influence not only the ingredients that chefs use, but the way they put their menus together. While many years ago, farm to table was associated with haute cuisine palaces like Chez Panise in Berkeley, today, there are a number of great restaurants, of all shapes, sizes and price ranges across the country that are incorporating farm to table philosophy, and making delicious, innovative food as a result. Here are a list of 38 great farm to table restaurants in the Country:


View Top Farm to Table Restaurants in a larger map

New FDA Seafood Regulations Jeopardizing Fate of New Orleans Oyster Houses?

The New Orleans Times-Picayune brings word that within the next two years the FDA plans to implement new sterilization regulations on domestically harvested oysters from April through October to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially fatal, bacterial illness. While this will completely end the service of raw Gulf oysters for 7 months out of the year, this could also have another huge impact on the local cuisine---the sterilized oysters have a different texture and flavor that may affect century-old recipes for things like oyster po-boys and seafood gumbo, and may lead restauranteurs to remove such items from their menus completely. What's more, Gulf oyster prices are expected to jump to twice or even three times the current market value during that time frame, another vexing proposition for restauranteurs and the mostly independently owned and operated Oyster harvests in the Gulf, which supplies over one third of the country's oysters each year. With the deployment of these restrictions on the horizon, those affected may try to work with the FDA to obtain a postponement, if only to allow the harvesters more time to raise the funds needed to retrofit their operations.