chef news stories on Newser

Wanted: Volunteer Foodies ... for Mars

Matt Cantor — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:38:05 CST

NASA is on the lookout for a few good cooks to experience life on Mars. Researchers backed by the space agency are seeking a team of volunteers for a simulation of the journey. Its aim: to determine what to put on the menu for a hypothetical future trip, which would...

Iconic Chicago Restaurant to Close Doors

Matt Cantor — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:19:05 CST

A Chicago landmark will soon be history. Legendary chef Charlie Trotter is closing his restaurant in August, after a quarter-century of service. It's not a financial matter: "We’ve always been profitable, that’s for sure," he tells the Sun-Times . But Trotter is ready "to put the flag in the sand" and...

YouTube's Culinary Star: Vegan Black Metal Chef

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:03:06 CDT

How much more extreme can cooking get? Not much now that a black metal chef cooking with the "heat of Satan" has moved onto YouTube. Thank God he's not a cannibal. The Vegan Black Metal Chef wields sharp instruments of terror that look like torture tools to brutalize his meat-free...

The Secret Foods Famed Chefs Crave

Evann Gastaldo — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:40:02 CDT

Even a world-renowned chef sometimes needs a good old-fashioned cheeseburger. Daily Meal got a number of chefs as well as restaurateurs, food critics, and other VIPs in the food world, to admit to their secret food vices. A sampling: Mario Batali : "Three things: Really well-made ice cream; really well-made Mexican...

Hottest Trend in Dining: Gardens

Kevin Spak — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:26:30 CDT

Chefs have responded to the local food movement by going as local as it gets: their own gardens. In a survey of 2,000 chefs by the National Restaurant Association, a third identified gardening as the top restaurant trend of 2010, the AP reports. Growing produce, they’ve discovered, is often...

Kitchen Nightmares Chef Leaps to His Death

Rob Quinn — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:05:51 CDT

A New Jersey restaurateur who celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay warned was likely to see his business "swim down the Hudson" was found dead in the same river after leaping from the George Washington bridge. Joe Cerniglia's debt-ridden Italian restaurant was featured in a 2007 episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares .

Ahmadinejad Stinking Up the Hilton

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:46:13 CDT

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York for the UN General Assembly, and he brought along his own chef. Remember how some of the state’s top politicians greeted Ahmadinejad’s arrival with protests ? Well, some of his neighbors at the Hilton Manhattan East would like to do the same...

Texan Chef Cooks Up Deep-Fried Beer

Rob Quinn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:27:00 CDT

Food scientists told him it couldn't be done, but after much experimenting Texas chef Mark Zable proved them wrong and invented deep-fried beer. His ravioli-like creation, to be unveiled at the Texas State Fair, contains beer inside a pocket of pretzel dough. The beer remains alcoholic after the frying, and...

Toad-Kissing Chef Fined

Rob Quinn — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:10:00 CDT

There's no place for toad kissing in restaurant kitchens, health inspectors warned an Iowa chef. The man was fined $335 after inspectors saw a video of him licking and kissing two small toads before putting them in his mouth, then placing them on a prep table, the AP reports. The...