The Television Food Network GP

On the Line: Britta Kvinge Pulliam

Photo by Todd Barnes​Orange County--fleeting, impermanent, forever-discarding Orange County--is severely lacking in longstanding food personalities who aren't afraid to open new places while keeping a signature style. There's the Goodells, Pascal Olhats, Chef Abe and...who else? Definitely on that ... More >>

Five Reasons to Like Bobby Flay

​Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is coming to South Coast Plaza this week (see end of blog post for event info!) to promote his latest book, and again: I won't be able to attend a food celebrity's gracing of our backwater 'burbs because the day job beckons. I don't have any pressing questions for the ma ... More >>

UPDATE: What Happened On the Finale of The Great Food Truck Race?

Food Network ​If you think five previous straight wins secured by the unstoppable Nom Nom Truck was going to make the finale of The Great Food Truck Race a bore to watch, you'd be wrong. The episode, which took the final two trucks, Nom Nom and Grill 'Em All, to New York City turned out ... More >>

What Happened On Last Night's The Great Food Truck Race

The Food Network​If you're still folowing The Great Food Truck Race, last night's episode is the semi-final of sorts. By the time the hour was over, two trucks roll on to next week's finale. Here be a summation of what occured last night. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

OC Foodie Fest

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Ronnie Arnold of K'ya Street Fare, Part Two

Photo credit: Meg Strouse​Ronnie Arnold of Anaheim's K'ya Street Fare is on the line with us this week, at the helm of a menu that spans the entire globe, from Paris to Korea. Prices are lower for the small plates than at the original K'ya in Laguna Beach, which makes it a place for sun-dazed and ... More >>

This Week in Food

flickr user Kitchen Wench​ How to create your own liquor infusions, epicurean confessions and more of what you missed this week in food after the jump!

Matching Food Network Stars with their TBN Alter Egos!

​​I see Food Network shows occasionally, about as much as I watch the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Maybe I'm just a fool (actually, I am!), maybe I've seen too much of each channel, but some of their star personalities start melding into each other until the TBN and the FN personalities are ind ... More >>

Oh For Sweets Sake! Makes Yummy Cupcakes. But...

​Eighth entry in our series where we promise to review, for better or worse, every "high-end" roach coach that visits the Weekly's world headquarters. Another truck visits next Monday--when will YOUR mobile food truck come? Inquire with Jessica Ford at jeford@ocweekly.com!Behold this beautifu ... More >>

Jeff Duggan of Portola Coffee, Part Two

John Gilhooley​Jeff Duggan is a coffee geek, and the county is better for his efforts. Those efforts will soon be redoubled; Portola will be opening later this year in Costa Mesa's ersatz Ferry Building-type gourmet marketplace, the MIX (currently called "South Coast Collection", over west of IKEA ... More >>

Guy Fieri's Latest Show. Yeah.

​For those of you who have managed to avoid the Food Network show Diners Drive-in's and Dives, here is the whole premise:Guy Fieri, a 40-year-old self-described "kulinary gangsta," with spiked blond hair and a perpetual sunburn, goes to independently run restaurants in whichever city his rock star ... More >>

David Kesler of the Cellar, Part Two

Courtesy of the Cellar​Executive Chef David Kesler of Fullerton's The Cellar Restaurant is on the line this week. Here's a random fact for the readership: people who excel at both cuisine and pastry are rare in the extreme. Every culinary arts student studies pastry, but it's like being both an ou ... More >>

Food Network Chef Arrested in Alleged Murder-For-Hire Plot

​LA-based chef Juan-Carlos Cruz, who hosted the cooking show Calorie Commando on the Food Network from 2004-2006, has been arrested and is being held in LA County Jail for allegedly asking homeless men to commit murder.  One of the homeless men went to police, upon which "investigators l ... More >>

Mariela Rebollo of Barcelona On the Go, Part 2

Photo by Kimberly Valenzuela​This week, On the Line is featuring Chef Mariela Rebollo of the mobile tapas bar Barcelona on the Go. If you missed yesterday's questions, you can find them here. Tomorrow, Chef Mariela gives us a recipe for octopus cooked with wine and potatoes.

This Week In Food

Flickr user HeadOvMetalBacon and eggs on the brain?​Do you love breakfast more than this guy? Doubt it.See what you missed this week on the Stick A Fork In It blog after the jump!

Greg Daniels of Haven Gastropub, Part 2

If you missed the first part of our interview with Greg Daniels, executive chef and partner at Haven Gastropub, you can find it here. If you've missed the fantastic "spaghetti", the burger par excellence and the great beer, you can find that just south of the Orange Circle. Meanwhile, back to the qu ... More >>

New Food Competition Series With Bobby Flay Announced

Photo Courtesy of FoodNetwork.com​Do we really need another food competition show? I'm inclined to think not. The two Top Chef shows are more than enough for me. Heck, we could've stopped at the original Iron Chef. Every show since has proven that the genre suffers from the law of diminishing ... More >>

Ehrline Karnaga of Valhalla Table

​Ehrline Karnaga and her sister Liz have built a successful bakery at Irvine's Layer Cake. Now they've ventured into making homemade sausages and serving them with beer at Valhalla Table. Here are her answers to our silly survey. 1. Dish you cook that most represents you. Balinese wild boar s ... More >>

On The Line: Craig Strong of Studio at The Montage

​Top Chef fans may already know that recent winner Michael Voltaggio now cooks at The Langham in Pasadena.  Well, Voltaggio's getting Craig Strong's sloppy seconds.  Strong was the Chef de Cuisine there -- earning both himself and the restaurant accolades from Michelin, Gourmet Magazine, ... More >>

On the Line: Ray White of the Veggie Grill

Courtesy of Veggie Grill​The first time I heard tell of a group of people who eschewed not only meat but all animal products, I was stunned. I put down the fork and steak knife and said, "Exactly what do these people eat anyway?"As I started dating a woman whose father and sister are strict vegeta ... More >>

Guy Fieri: Annoying Even At Disneyland

​There's lots of things we hate, but Disneyland isn't one of them. But Food Network's Guy Fieri at Disneyland? We're so torn.Fieri has brought along his entire family and starring in his very own one-hour holiday special centered around the many seasonal treats Disneyland Resort serves up especial ... More >>

On The Line: Daniel Stevens of Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill

Courtesy of Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill​When not in the kitchen, Daniel Stevens, executive chef of Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill at South Coast Plaza, can be found surfing the waves in Huntington Beach. This Connecticut native graduated from culinary school in 1996 and has been leading the Costa Mesa ... More >>

On the Line: Santiago Vallejo of Mariscos Puerto Esperanza

Courtesy of Mariscos Puerto Esperanza​Santiago Vallejo has an impressive résumé: formerly at the Ritz, he left to open his own restaurant, Mariscos Puerto Esperanza, in a tiny shopping center in Orange. It caused an immediate sensation on the food boards (Chowhound, Yelp, etc.) and Edwin himself ... More >>

On The Line: James Sar of Cambinos Asian BBQ

​ Of all the chefs and restauranteurs we've profiled on this blog feature, I can't say that I've met any of them in person. But I can say that I have had the pleasure of meeting James Sar of Cambinos Asian BBQ . If you eat at there, you will too. James will be the one taking your order and serv ... More >>

On the Line: Mark Cleveland of Avanti Cafe

Cleveland: Ex-cellent!​I'm still mad at Avanti Cafe for stopping their International Tuesdays, so that just means I now try to visit once a week instead of every other day. I usually visit in the evening, when Mark Cleveland relieves his co-owner Tanya Fuqua in a transition as seamless as a Jamaic ... More >>

On The Line: Yves Fournier of Andrei's Conscious Cuisine

Photo Courtesy of Andrei's​Yves Fournier was born in Paris and has worked just about everywhere in the world, including France, England, New York, and, of course, Irvine, where he was Chef de Cuisine for 6ix Park Grill at the Hyatt Regency.  Now he is the Executive Chef of Andrei's, which c ... More >>

On the Line: David Slay, Chef at Park Ave

​Stanton may be an unlikely place to open a destination restaurant, but, with Park Ave, chef and managing partner David Slay has made it work. OK, you may find a burger on the menu, but it'll be sitting alongside the likes of scallops and filet mignon. And those 'fresh-clipped greens (which, as yo ... More >>

On the Line: Aron Habiger of The Crosby

John Gilhooley​Aron Habiger is the wunderkind chef behind the scenes at the so-hip-it-hurts hangout The Crosby in Santa Ana. Here are his answers to our survey. 1. Dish that you cook that most represents you. Jerk torta. 2. What was the last meal you had at home? Peanut butter and jelly ... More >>

On the Line: Jason Kordas of Jason's Downtown

Photo Courtesy of Jason's Catering​Jason Kordas has catered for Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Pete Wilson. And for the past two years, his Santa Ana restaurant Jason's Downtown has been a fixture of the downtown dining and music scene.Kordas also still offers his catering services if you have people a ... More >>

On the Line: Rich Mead, Chef/Owner of Sage and Sage on the Coast

​Three decades ago, Mead ditched his job at the IRS in Washington, DC, and moved to the west coast to pursue his culinary dreams. After opening restaurants in and around LA, he set his sights further south, launching Sage in Newport Beach in 1997. Seven years later came a posher sibling, Sage on t ... More >>

On The Line: Rachel Klemek of Blackmarket Bakery

Tim MelideoRachel Klemek is the owner/chef/instructor of Blackmarket Bakery, her made-from-scratch bakery in Irvine.You'll also see Blackmarket weekly at farmers' markets around O.C., but most especially at the Saturday Irvine Farmers' Market across from UCI. Here are her answers to our survey. 1 ... More >>

On the Line: Vincent Muraco of Zimzala

​When he enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco at the tender age of 17, Vincent Muraco was its youngest student ever. Since then, his culinary career has taken him to the Park Hyatts in that city and in LA, as well as Vix in Miami. Muraco is now Executive Chef at Zimzala, th ... More >>

On the Line: Walter Rowin of The Slidebar

​For the rock groupie The Slidebar is Jeremy Popoff's restaurant/club/local worship temple for Fullerton's home-grown rock group, Lit.  For the foodie, the place is all about Walter Rowin and his cooking.  He's the man behind the bar's uncommonly good food; mac and cheese better than mom's, stea ... More >>

On the Line: Amar Santana of Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's

​This week we grilled Amar Santana, Executive Chef at Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale's, South Coast Plaza. As well as cooking, the Dominican Republic-born chef also teaches regular kitchen technique classes at the restaurant (for information, check the website).Here, he talks about his love of por ... More >>

On the Line: Dave Mau of The Retreat

Dave Mau (left) and his brother Chris Dave Mau is the chef and raconteur behind the Dinners with Dave event, a night of free music and free food, held every second and fourth Wednesday at Memphis at the Santora. When he's not doing that or cooking at the Vermilion Valley Resort in the High Sie ... More >>

On the Line: Cathy Pavlos of Lucca Café

Enthusiasm and authenticity are the bywords at Lucca, the Quail Hill café/deli/wine bar run by Cathy and her husband Elliott. The couple both trained in architecture before turning to the restaurant trade--and we're glad they made the move. We grilled Cathy with our usual set of questions.1.  ... More >>

On the Line: Steve Samson of Pizzeria Ortica

It's hard to believe that Costa Mesa's Pizzeria Ortica, co-founded by David Myers and Executive Chef Steve Samson, has only been open since January. An instant hit, despite being slightly off the South Coast Plaza beaten path, it's known for its stunning pastas, meats, fish and p ... More >>

Chubby British Chef* Looking For American Town To Kickstart His Anti-Obesity Crusade

*No, Not Gordon Ramsay, but Jamie Oliver.Not satisfied with a worldwide culinary empire that includes several charity restaurants, numerous cook books and various TV shows and appearances (over here, Jamie At Home airs on the Food Network), Oliver wants to take on the seemingly insurmountable task o ... More >>

The Crystal Cove Shake Shack Still Brings 'Em In

Besides seagulls, no other group has monopolized eating by the shore than Ruby's. Along the O.C. coast, at the end of almost every pier, there's a Ruby's. But it doesn't stop there. Ruby's owns and manages The Beachcomber, a beach-side restaurant set inside a rickety cottage in the Crystal Co ... More >>

LOWBALLASSCHATTER

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