Marco Pierre White Coming to American TV — Try to Stay AwakeAccording to Mediabistro’s FishbowlNY, Marco Pierre White is coming to NBC as star of the latest food reality show, The Chopping Block, an Apprentice-like elimination series about eight couples running two competing restaurants in New York. This show might actually be good: White is a true mentor, rather than a self-aggrandizing ogre after the mode of his former protégé, Gordon Ramsay, and NBC’s track record in food reality TV is short but stellar, with both The Restaurant and Top Chef to its credit. Not only will we be able to write about the show, but also to dine in! The restaurants the contestants create will be open for business, just like Rocco’s unlucky venture a few years ago — but there weren’t nearly as many food blogs back then.
Marco Pierre White Tapped for NBC’s New ‘Top Chef’/Hell’s Kitchen Killer [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
Related: Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America?
Back of the House
The New Face of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Not So Hellish AnymoreGordon Ramsay is a cruel, profane, rampaging jerk — which is why the world loves him. (It can’t be his food, which most critics consider by-the-book classic French.) So how can you replace a guy like that? That’s the problem the producers of Hell’s Kitchen faced, and they solved it by bringing in Marco Pierre White, Ramsay’s former mentor, then enemy. The problem is that, by all reports, White is a changed man, calm and peaceful in his middle age. Even in his prime, he was never as outrageously abusive as Ramsay. We don’t think he’ll be nearly as entertaining.
Hell’s Kitchen (Review) [Sydney Morning Herald]
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Food Network to Publish Magazine?; Food-Porn Photos for SaleHearst Publications is supposedly in talks with the Food Network to publish a new food magazine and has been stealing editors from Every Day With Rachael Ray for months. The only problem? The channel’s big stars don’t seem to be a part of the publication. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
Soto chef Sotohiro Kosugi responds to fears of too much mercury in tuna. “Eat with balance. Balance of meals is the key to a healthy life.” [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
Related: Sushi Eaters Face Tuna Fears
Neil Ferguson, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, and others are leading a full-on British culinary invasion on our shores. [Chicago Tribune]
Back of the House
Adam Platt: Latest Great Food Mind on WORFor those of you who only know Adam Platt from his mordant restaurant reviews and IM chats, the next best thing is Friday’s interview with Mike Colameco on “Food Talk.” Colameco has been on a tear lately — recent guests have included Frank Bruni, Tom Colicchio, and Marco Pierre White. But there’s only one Platt. You won’t get the hangdog expression, the pumpkin-size head, the blinking, beady eyes, but you’ll get a sense of what Platt is like in person. Listen to the MP3 to find out what Platt’s looking forward to in 2008.
Adam Platt on WOR’S Food Talk [mp3]
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Bobby Flay Enters the Burger Game; Serendipity 3 ReopensBobby Flay is entering the upscale-burger game with a chain of restaurants called Bobby’s Burger Palace. [GlobeSt.com via A Hamburger Today]
Gossip Girl fanatics will be happy to know that Gilt has added Serena’s much-beloved grilled cheese with truffle oil to the bar menu. Only $50! [Zagat]
Related: Is ‘Gossip Girl’ the Most Restauranty Show Since ‘Sex and the City’?
The Times says the entrée is on its way out at restaurants all over the country, thanks to a loss of interest in “big, protein-laden main dishes.” [NYT]
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‘Times’ Discovers Molecular Gastronomy; Invite Yourself toCooking as chemistry has never had more meaning with the use of “hydrocolloid gums — obscure starches and proteins usually relegated to the lower reaches of ingredient labels on products like Twinkies … helping Mr. Dufresne make eye-opening (and critically acclaimed) creations like fried mayonnaise and a foie gras that can be tied into a knot.” [NYT]
Marco Pierre White claims he never reads reviews, and Thomas Keller knows blogs are out there but doesn’t read them. [Epicurious]
These tips for dining in high-end restaurants insist that while some may consider it crude to ask the price of a special, even the owner of Aquavit believes “it’s tacky if the waiter does not volunteer the information without having to ask.” [Bottomless Dish/Citysearch]
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Chodorow, While Still Bitter, Lifts Ban on PlattAdam Platt and Frank Bruni are no longer banned from Jeffrey Chodorow’s restaurants. Even though, says the restaurateur, Platt “missed the whole point of Wild Salmon.” [Restaurant Girl]
Related: Salmon Cured? [NYM]
In a revealing interview, Marco Pierre White takes a stand against the star-chef game: “Can you imagine: You take your wife out to my restaurant for dinner, and I’m not behind the stove. You find out I’m in America — how would you feel when you’ve just done $1,200 for dinner? It’s a sour taste, isn’t it?” [Salon]
Thomas Keller announces that he isn’t really the man at Per Se: “I [speak] as someone who is somewhat detached from it because it is a Jonathan Benno restaurant.” [MSN]
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Marco Pierre White Sets Himself on Fire With Flaming CocktailJust another night at the Spotted Pig: Marco Pierre White, trying to demonstrate a flaming cocktail to Mario Batali, Tony Bourdain, and friends, sets himself on fire, gets doused with wine and Champagne, and stabbed in the hand. [NYP]
Related: Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America? [Grub Street]
There are so many high-end restaurants looking for good ingredients that the world will literally run out of them, a world-famous Australian chef claims. [Australian News]
Utterly dependent as it is on illegal workers, the restaurant industry is lobbying hard against the new immigration bill in Congress. [Nation’s Restaurant News]
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David Chang to Las Vegas? Marco Pierre White Slams Gordon Ramsay“I don’t believe in that whole superstar celebrity-chef thing,” David Chang says in an adoring Times profile. Side note: A Momofuku may indeed open in Las Vegas. [NYT]
Related: The I Chang [NYM]
At a book signing at Borders, Marco Pierre White responds to Gordon Ramsay’s admission that he stole White’s reservation book some years ago: “That just shows what kind of person Gordon is. He’s a liar, a thief, and a huckster.” [Serious Eats]
Related: Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America? [Grub Street]
Which won’t get in the way of Ramsay’s selling the movie rights to his life story: “I’ve been approached by some amazing guys who see it as a kind of Billy Elliot–style film, only with chef’s whites instead of ballet shoes. The climax will be our young hero picking up his first Michelin star.” We’re already tearing up. [Digital Spy]
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Sam Talbot Has a Mystery Suitor; Marco Pierre White Is Still the ManSam Talbot bailed from Spitzer’s Corner because some powerful restaurateur made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and something big is in the offing. [NYP]
Marco Pierre White’s rags-to-riches memoir continues to inspire struggling cooks on both sides of the Atlantic. [Gothamist]
Related: Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America? [Grub Street]
A shocking new study reveals that — are you sitting down? — there are more bodegas and fast-food restaurants in Harlem than on the Upper East Side. [NYP]
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Gordon Ramsay Attacks; Bush Fails EatersGordon Ramsay lays into Marco Pierre White, Frank Bruni, and Big Macs in this wide-ranging interview, which ends with this complaint: “I’m being judged on my persona as opposed to my food, and you know what? Fuck it.” [The Independent]
Morgan Stanley and other firms won’t let their executives entertain clients or expense lunch at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone because it’s too much like a strip club. “We are a totally misunderstood restaurant,” claims the owner. [NYP]
Less than 10 percent of food imported to the U.S. is even examined by the FDA, which is “woefully understaffed and underfinanced” by the Bush administration. [NYT]
NewsFeed
Batali, Bourdain, and Ramsay Mentor to Finally Take on America?
Marco Pierre White, the London restaurateur who became perhaps the first celebrity bad-boy chef and the youngest to earn three Michelin stars, may arguably have been the man responsible for teaching his onetime protégé Gordon Ramsay how to show his temper. “Perhaps I created the monster,” he confesses in his new memoir, The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef, out next week. Like Ramsay, White was a famous hothead, but don’t expect him to revive his practice of eighty-sixing customers if and when he takes on the American market (possibly as a partner of Mario Batali). We talked to White about his plans for expansion and his upcoming stint as the new host of Hell’s Kitchen.
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Neroni Leaves Porchetta; City Hates Big Pink CupcakeChef Jason Neroni leaves Porchetta, citing “irreconcilable differences,” and claiming that pastry chef Mandy Brown and “most of the kitchen staff” are leaving with him. We don’t know the details (yet), but this seems pretty harsh: The restaurant gave him absolute creative license, as far as we can tell, for as long as it’s been open. [Eater]
Related: Chef’s Desperate Plea: Nominate Me for an Award! [Grub Street]
New Yorkers aren’t really spooked by health violations: “If you take the subway, you know what’s down there.” [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
The city wants Burgers and Cupcakes to take down its huge, incandescent pink cupcake sign because it’s too close to a hydrant, saying, “This isn’t a campaign against cupcakes.” [NYP]
