Reality Competition Shows

Former American Idol Contestant Victim of Theft By Dummy

Remember Todrick Dramaul Hall? If you don't, don't worry because we kinda forget his face too, but he was on American Idol back in 2010. But that's not why he's in the news this week. Hall was the victim of a theft while performing at a retirement ceremony for Hazard Elementary School's principal. ... More >>

Long Beach Pride Parade and Festival

Parade on Ocean Blvd.; Festival at LBCC

The Amazing Race Apologizes for Pissing Off Vietnam Veterans and a Token Fox News Liberal

My colleague R. Scott Moxley recently wrote of the shitstorm kicked up after The Amazing Race had contestants visiting Vietnam watch a pro-communist musical show, recite a pro-communist poem and then gather at an anti-American military site in Hanoi. If there was increased interest (and ratings?) ... More >>

Margaret Cho

Irvine Improv

Life After Top Chef Show Announced By Bravo

No one needs to know what Fabio Viviani, ex-Top Chef cheftestant and general media butterfly has been doing. He's everywhere, most recently at the OC Fair. But how about that Jen Carroll or Richard Blais. What have they been up to after the show? 

Jamie Oliver's New Competitive Cooking Series To Debut In The Fall

Anthony Bourdain is slated to do one. Now so is Jamie Oliver. I'm talking about yet another cooking competition show. This time, the British chef who was recently most notable for making America wretch over the substance called pink slime, is executive producing a new series called Chef Race: U ... More >>

Weekend Food-Event Roundup: Grillin', SoCo Farm-to-Food Truck Competions, and Top Chef OC!

As we ease into summertime, everyone finds a excuse reason to gather. Our lineup includes two BBQ, one luxe lonchera, and Placentia's answer to Top Chef. If your schedule allows, check one out.Friday - Bistango's "Great American Grill-Off"To kick-off the weekend, this business lunch mainstay is thro ... More >>

OC BBQ and Music Festival

OC Fairgrounds

The Broadway Comedy Showcase

Pizza Pi

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Coach House

ABC Developing Sitcom About Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger

http://marysueandsusan.com/​The "Too Hot Tamales" and two Top Chef Masters alums Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, who, oh yeah, also have a restaurant called Border Grill, will be the subject of another TV show, this time a comedy for ABC. The network has ordered a pilot t ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas--Five Predictions

© Bravo​ Did you watch last night's first episode of Top Chef Texas? Episode summaries are usually Edwin's beat, and he usually weighs in toward the end of the season after we've learned which cheftestants to root for. I'm going to take a different approach at the head-end of the season and make ... More >>

Gavin Degraw and David Cook

Fox Pomona

Yvon Goetz And Mary Sue Milliken Throw Down This Weekend In Irvine, Courtesy Of Cadillac

Cadillac Facebook page​The Cadillac Culinary Challenge Test Drive pulls up to Irvine Spectrum this Saturday and Sunday. Why this sounds more like a hybrid between Cars and Coffee and the Top Chef Tour is a conundrum we'll never know the answer to. At least they're offering sleek cars and free eats ... More >>

Gay Days Anaheim

Disneyland

Canadian Band The Sheepdogs Sell their Souls to Rolling Stone, Tim Gunn

Persephonemagazine.com​If this blog seems less than timely, I apologize. But I just can't get last Thursday's episode of Project Runway featuring Canadian rock band The Sheepdogs out of my mind. 

Calorie-Counters Duped by Costa Mesa-based Galeos Salad Dressing May Be Entitled to a Full Refund

​Those who purchased a bottle of Galeos Salad Dressing got more than they asked for. Like love handles and a double chin.   In a real-life version of the Seinfeld frozen yogurt episode, the Costa Mesa-based manufacturer was sued last year for allegedly misstating nutrition facts. An inde ... More >>

Top Chef Coming to Tustin Market Place TODAY

​As Top Chef Masters heads into the finale this week, the timing is just right for a visit from some of the Jedis-in-training. Oh yes, the Top Chef Tour has reached Orange County. With promises of games, prizes, photo and autograph opportunities, the question remains: When will they find time for ... More >>

Michael Voltaggio Among Chefs to Appear at OC Fair

Flickr User Erik Anestad​Michael Voltaggio, the brooding champion of Top Chef Season 6, will be one of four celebrity chefs who will talk, and perhaps do a cooking demonstration, at the upcoming OC Fair.

'Burn the Floor'

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Katharine McPhee

Segerstom Concert Hall

Anthony Bourdain in Cerritos Tonight!

​This post is for those of you who have this blog bookmarked or on Google Reader and do not actually venture anywhere else in our paper but here. There are, believe or not, other sections of this rag and its website, and some of it has some food-related news, such as the indispensable Calendar of ... More >>

Lake Forest Christian Crusader Gets an Entire Chapter in American Idol: The Untold Story

Idol InfernoLeesa Bellesi with Idol-judge-no-more Paula Abdul ​What does a pastor's wife in Lake Forest have to do with Fox's top-rated singing contest? Enough to fill an entire chapter in American Idol: The Untold Story, the new book by LA Times writer Richard Rushfield that gives a behind-the-sc ... More >>

Karaoke! Wednesdays

Gaslamp

Johnny Rockets CEO to Appear on CBS's Undercover Boss

©2010 STUDIO LAMBERTJohnny Rockets CEO John Fuller, nickel-and-diming it...​I don't think I've been to Johnny Rockets since I took some Mexican girl out on a date a decade ago at the location at the Block in Orange; she was immediately turned off by my obsession with politics (surprise, surprise) ... More >>

Celeb Watching and Tasty Vittles at Bowlmor Lanes

​For heterosexual guys who think watching a show like Dancing With the Stars is only for those who are light in the loafers, it's time to wake up. Yes, the ABC dance contest features lots of muscular and semi-shirtless male dancers, but the females are beyond compare: Edyta Slwinska, Kym Johnson a ... More >>

Richard Blade's New Wave Party

The Pike

Margaret Cho at the Grove of Anaheim Last Night

Ali Lerman/OC Weekly​Margaret ChoGrove of AnaheimSept. 23, 2010The Hype: Gays and straights packed the house and laughed in perfect harmony last night at Margaret Cho's "Cho Dependent" comedy show at the Grove of Anaheim. For a Thursday "school night" the size of the crowd was pretty impressive. T ... More >>

Cloris Leachman: A One Woman Show

Laguna Playhouse

Steven Tyler New 'American Idol' Judge

Christopher Victorio/OC Weekly​MSNBC reported yesterday that Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler is the new American Idol judge, although Fox officially says "no comment."   Apparently negotiations were finalized late last week, meaning Tyler got his request for a top-notch wardrobe and makeu ... More >>

American Idol Live!

Honda Center

Ellen DeGeneres No Longer American Idol Judge

​The much-maligned ​Ellen DeGeneres won't be back as a judge on American Idol after just one season on the show. The LA Times wrote that DeGeneres "told the show's producers a couple of months ago that the show 'didn't feel like the right fit for me,' partly because of increased work commit ... More >>

Last Night's Top Chef Masters Didn't Have Me Saying "D'Oh!"

​Did you catch last night's Top Chef Masters? Finally, a worthy episode on what seemed like a season in danger of backsliding into the histrionics of regular Top Chef with the F-bombs and manufactured drama. That's not to say there wasn't some of that last night, just less.

Local Bloggers Judge This Week's Top Chef Masters

Photo Courtesy of Eddie LinFrom left to right: Jay Rayner, Kelly Choi, Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Food), Eddie Lin, Marc Moss (Weird Food Festival), Bill Esparza (Street Gourmet LA).​I know we write a lot about Eddie Lin. He--the author of Extreme Cuisine and the blog that started it all, Deep End ... More >>

Mario Lopez Signing

Barnes and Noble

Taste of Ladera

Founders park

Top Chef Tour To Include Stop at Irvine Spectrum on June 17

bravotv.com​"Top Chef: The Tour," a 21-city tour -- which trots out recent and past chef'testants from town-to-town crammed inside the trailer of a semi truck like animals in a traveling circus (actually, I'm sure they'll be put up in posh hotels and stuff...but wouldn't it be funny?) -- will stop ... More >>

Southland Strutters Ball

The Woman's Club of Orange

Travel Channel Bought By Owner Of Food Network

Photo Courtesy Travel Channel​I don't like where this is going. Scripps Network Interactive Inc., owner of the Food Network, which has slowly but noticeably descended into semi-homemade mediocrity, bought a controlling stake in the Travel Channel last week. For Anthony Bourdain's sake, I hope ... More >>

Taste Of Newport, featuring David Cook

Fashion Island

Plain White T's; Vedera; Danger Radio

Karaoke Madness

KIIS-FM's Jingle Ball 2008

NBC's Last Comic Standing Live Tour at The Grove

Fancy Footwork

So You Think You Can Dance Tour

Korean Exchange

Ko Su Hee Korean Dance

Starry 
Night

Don McLean

Electric Boogaloo

Groovaloo

Rock and Roll Bar

Aleks Syntek

Dat Phan Begins

Dat Phan and Friends