Chef Anne Burrell first entered our homes with Mario Batali in 2004, on the hit Food Network show “Iron Chef”.  She is currently hosting both “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef” and co-hosting “Worst Cooks in America”. Each week Chef Anne, along with Beau MacMillan do their best to transform 12 of the worse cooks into culinary stars. Sunday we’ll learn who represents Chef Anne in the final challenge: cook a restaurant quality meal to esteemed food critics to win the $25,000 prize.

As a foodie, I am always looking for the next great cooking show to help achieve my goals. I hope to master the basics and come out smelling like Mario Batali. Well move over Top Chefs and make room for “Worst Cooks in America”, premiering January 3rd at 10pm on Food Network. If “cinnamon meatloaf” and “cottage cheese mac” sounds offensive or, like something you’ve tried, this is the show for you. It's not just a catchy title. They have searched the country for the worst cooks America has to offer. Chefs Beau MacMillan and Anne Burrell will do their best to transform the 12 worst cooks, and get them ready to serve a restaurant quality meal to top food critics. In the end the winner takes home a $25,000 prize.

1. Go to upload page http://www.ifood.tv/uploadpage and click on "Create a Gallery" option.2. Give a name to your Gallery. You can think of it is equivalent to a Blog title. Example Top 10 Healthy Foods etc.3. Write a brief desc of gallery. Think of it as equivalent to the first 2-3 lines of a blog, it is more about introduction to upcoming photos.4. Go to http://www.ifood.tv/uploadpage and click on "Upload a photo" option.5. Upload the photo or give the URL aka link of the photo. Write accompanying text in About Photo section. Make sure to select the gallery you just created form the drop down.6. Upload the next photo just like the last step. Repeat till done.

In the world of Food TV, it doesn’t get any bigger than “The Next Iron Chef”. Sunday night Seamus Mullen lost the battle leaving Jose Garces and Jehangir Mehta as the last chefs standing. The final 2 will meet at Kitchen Stadium, Sunday on The Food Network, to compete for the supreme culinary title “Iron Chef”.

Since opening his first restaurant Amada, in Philadelphia in 2005, Chef Garces has opened 4 other restaurants in Philadelphia and is the executive chef at Chicago’s Mercat a la Planxa.  In 2007 Chef Mehta opened Graffiti in the East Village of New York City after gracing the kitchens of Aix, Mercer Kitchen and serving as pastry chef of Compass.

Chef Mehta and Chef Garces spoke with me about the “Iron Chef” challenge, their inspirations and all things food.

Is there any preparation for “Iron Chef” knowing you won’t have the ingredients until the last minute? Is it as spontaneous as we see on TV?

I got to spend the day on everyone's favorite mobile bakery, The Treats Truck. Kim Ima and her truck named Sugar bring goodies to adoring fans everywhere. I was excited to help sell Kim's treats and being happiness to my customers. You can learn more at www.funfoodwithmonica.com and www.treatstruck.com.

http://www.ifood.tv/video/monica_dinatale_amp_the_treats_truck

When I talked about chocolate dresses and bikinis made of lettuce, I assumed that they would be worn just once for the ramp or for making statement and thrown out. But celebrities like Kate Perry seems to be taken by these food based fashion wear. What else could it mean when she graces the Japanese MTV Video Music awards with a very fishy Sushi Dress!!!

 

 

 

Recently she was seen flaunting a Fruit Dress at the 2009 Grammy Awards. Both these dresses were designed by The Blondes ( Phillipe and David Blond).

 

 

Ever heard of the internet radio station ‘Pandora’? Well, there is something here that will get your interest. Every band featured in at the Pandora radio station has a food item in their name:

 

Casper and the cookies, The String Cheese Incident, Papas Fritas (Spanish for French fries) are some of the bands here.

 

 

Following a friend’s suggestion, Jonathan Ryan made the radio station with artists and bands with foods in their names. Here is the link to it -

 

http://www.pandora.com/stations/4db0db7ab728a485e2c274dfe7c1d49b68f6545495cedc47

 

Check it out…. Now you can sing food too!

 

Image credit:

neatorama.com

Yes, even celebrities do have their food favorites that they love to indulge in forgetting all the hard-core fitness and diet regimes, once in a while! So here are some of my favorite starts and read in to know what they love to eat!  Angelina Jolie is a die-hard fan of McDonald’s fast food; in fact the actress has found munching on a few packs even in some movie sets. She loves to sip on tequila and teat; also Cheerios is one among her favorites!  

Few things give me more joy than eating peanut butter. I was happy to host an event for The National Peanut Board and interview celebrity chefs about all things "peanutty". It was fun to get tips from the best! Enjoy the video...

Hanging out in the celebrity restaurants is considered a cool thing among the starstruck like me – yeah, it’s ok if you can’t eat like a celebrity, but it is a must you dine-in any of those celebrity-owned restaurants at least once! Whether for the food they serve or to catch a glimpse of your favorite star, you would definitely want to pay a visit to some of these celebrity-owned restaurants – The pop-diva JLo owned Madre in Pasadena, CA is a must dine-in spot for her hard-core fans!  

Charlize Theron, the former supermodel cum actress, nearly shocked me with her 6 meals a day diet plan to stay slim!  I have always wanted to know the secret behind Charlize’s svelte figure, and it turned out something like a portion diet sort, a celebrity diet that allows one to have a piece of everything they love, rather than depriving them of something they love to eat!  Anyhow, Charlize’s is a sensible take on celebrity diet – something like eating to stay slim rather than blotting up without eating anything!  

Bollywood sex-symbol Mallika Sherawat, who has recently made her entry in Hollywood, is busy shaking her milkshake as a part of the promotional event of her upcoming movie Hisss! The milkshake has been named Mallika Shake!!!... which is a deadly combination of berries with chocolate sauce topped with shipping cream.  Whether or not Mallika shots to fame in Hollywood, (the chances of which are less looking into her Bollywood history), her luscious Mallika Shake may make its way to some of the hot celebrity diet list, coz it’s all full of goodness of anti-oxidants. Picture Courtesy:backseatcuddler.com

Well, Scarlett Johansson has made herself so special among those skinny-scary celebrities by denying to go on an extreme diet to shed a few pounds for her new movie – the sequel of Iron Man!

Sources say that Scarlett Johansson was required to lose about 14 pounds, which the actress though wouldn’t be practical for a frame as thin and petite as hers!

Whether Scarlett Johansson finally decides to lose weight or not, it’s pretty good to hear such stories at least once in a while, where celebrities choose a sensible take on their diet. After all, we are sick tired of watching the bone and skeletons!!!

Read the full Scarket Johansson story here!

 

Jennifer Aniston, the “Friends” beauty, is a strict follower of zone diet, famed as the hottest of all celebrity diets! No wonder why and how she manages to be one among those ever gorgeous ladies.  But why she chose this- well, for Jennifer, zone diet, unlike some celebrity diets can well fit into the daily system and is simple enough to follow, mainly because the diet advocates moderate and healthy eating, which unknowingly slips into become your habit!  

Angelina Jolie has gone crazy to follow a complete liquid diet for a new movie; seems like not so happy with the healthy diet she been following! The news is not shocking as the actress has earlier been addicted to diet pills! Angelina choice of this liquid or Maple syrup diet is said to be for cast in an upcoming thriller movie, where she is has to lose about 21 lb! Gosh, with the body condition I am in now, I would barely exist, if I were to lose 21 lb! Thankfully, reports say that she is not forcing Brad and kids to follow the same.