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Watch No Reservations at Hollywood Alley

Here's something unusual that caught my eye: TV night at a local hangout. A couple weeks ago, Hollywood Alley started hosting No Reservations night on Mondays, and it's exactly what it sounds like, three back-to-back episodes of Anthony Bourdain's awesome eat-drink-travel show. That means you can h ... More >>

Waiter Confidential: Tableside Narcissism

For the movie version of my professional life, I'm tossing around ideas on whom I'd like to see in the starring role. Given the magnetic machismo he and I share, De Niro might seem an obvious choice. Still, juxtaposing my polished, fine dining persona with Robert's renowned, raw pugnacity could cre ... More >>

Light Dining

Sweet and savory fare, without the foam

Gomo Often

It's the bomb, in a good way

No Reservations

Change is on the menu for Pretty Girls Make Graves

Man Bites Dog

If we had it to do over, would we publish the satirical saga of Chef Kaz Yamamoto? Hell yes! Punk you, if you can't take a joke!

Xtreme Cuisine

Arizona's cunning culinary wizard Chef Kaz Yamamoto prepares taboo illegal moveable feasts for the elite and über-rich

Dragon Catcher

Chow yum

Scenic and Heard

Band supplies soundtrack for SMoCA

Behind the Bar: J.K. Grence at Trader Vic's

Lauren Gilger J.K. Grence, behind the bar at Trader Vic's.​J.K. Grence has big dreams. He's planned out the ideal bar -- the one he would like to open one day in the distant, fuzzy future. "I'd want it to be some tropical hideaway," he says. "You just sink into the atmosphere of it and hav ... More >>

Beach Bites: Cooking Dirty

Here's a juicy summer read we can't wait to dig into: Cooking Dirty by Jason Sheehan. Sheehan happens to be the food critic at Westword, New Times' sister paper in Denver, but long before he launched his award-winning career as a food scribe, he worked his way through kitchens across the ... More >>

8 Places for President Obama to Try on His Next Phoenix Visit

Call me a shameless arugula eater, but I still can't get over the Obama family's choice of dinner destination when they were in Phoenix this past Saturday night: Macayo's Mexican Kitchen on Central Avenue, the flagship among the Southwestern chain's 18 locations. Seriously? Sure, Macayo's has b ... More >>

House at the End of the World

Japanese DJ/producer has been everywhere – but here

Turntable Settings

Japanese DJ/producer has been everywhere – but here

Women Call Bullshit on Dodge's "Man's Last Stand" Commercial, and Falling in Love with Marcela Valladolid, in "TV Dinner"

Looking for the latest in tasty television? Need to know the need-to-watch episodes of your favorite foodie shows? Chow Bella is here to help with reviews of the delectable and dreadful along with a handy, must-see schedule so you won't miss a thing. Wow, men sure have it tough with us masculinity- ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain's Spring Break Plans, Food Wars Flops, and This Week's Must-See Shows, in "TV Dinner"

OMG! Spring breaaaaaaaaak! Quick, pull out anything Abercrombie, Hollister, or Forever 21 and get your ass down to Dos Gringos Tempe Trailer Park for Jägerbombs, now. And don't worry about Anthony Bourdain. He'll just be in China for the fourth time, eating, suffering through cold temperatures, eat ... More >>

Kitchen Ink: A Photo Essay That Shows Off the Tattoos of the Valley's Rock-Star Chefs

OMG! Spring breaaaaaaaaak! Quick, pull out anything Abercrombie, Hollister, or Forever 21 and get your ass down to Dos Gringos Tempe Trailer Park for Jägerbombs, now. And don't worry about Anthony Bourdain. He'll just be in China for the fourth time, eating, suffering through cold temperatures, eat ... More >>

Alice Cooper'stown Nabs Top Celeb Restaurant Honors, Appears on Man v. Food

​It's nice to see Arizona in the news for good reasons these days. Alice Cooper'stown, the downtown rock n' roll restaurant slash sports bar owned by legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper, has been named one of the Top 10 Celebrity-Owned restaurants by TripAdvisor.com. Cooper'sto ... More >>

Tranzit Screens His Chronicles of a DJ Documentary Tonight at Cream Stereo Lounge

​Few DJs in the Valley pimp themselves as hard as Tranzit.  Every time the award-winning house mixmaster has an event to promote, my cell phone, Facebook, and e-mail seem to blow up with announcements aplenty from the dude. This week was no exception, as the 29-year-old has been promotin ... More >>

Hell's Kitchen Season 7 Opener: Continued Abuse, Crazy Contestants, and a (Yech!) Chef Ramsay Make-Out Session

Another Hell's Kitchen, another ride on the Chef Ramsay roller coaster. In last week's first episode, it didn't take long for Gordo to send food flying all over the kitchen, repeatedly kick defenseless stainless steel appliances, and shout out such gems as, "You're gonna blow someone's mind off!" ... More >>

DJ Tranzit Talks Kaskade, Old Town Scottsdale, Gui Boratto, House Music, and More

​Name: Steven Chung AKA: DJ Tranzit Current nights: Giant Wednesdays at Cream Stereo Lounge. Genres spun: Electro-house, progressive house, tech house, minimal. How did you get started as a DJ? Same ol' typical cliche DJ story. Got sick of hearing someone else's CDs at a house party so ended u ... More >>

Tracy Dempsey: Tracy Dempsey Originals

We recently caught up with Tracy Dempsey, pastry chef and business owner, scooping samples of Tracy Dempsey Originals ice cream at The Phoenix Urban Market and Wine Bar. We got the scoop from the scooper. Tracy Dempsey at Phoenix Urban Market and Wine Bar​Tracy Dempsey grew up traveling the ... More >>

Food Network's 24 Hour Restaurant Battle Is an Eternity of Boring

​Dreams are awesome. Especially the ones with zombies and double rainbows (oh my God!), but what about the waking dreams we have for our lives? Losing weight, running a marathon, starting a business. Those are cool, too. And for the most part, they take planning. Which is why Food Network's new ... More >>

Five Figments of Phoenician Food Porn

Yes. YES!​In his latest book, Medium Raw, Chef turned Food Writer turned Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain posits the following: "Who doesn't like a good wank now and then?" Bourdain is talking about food porn; written chronicles of culinary exploits that make you feel glad to be alive and in ... More >>

Top Chef All Stars Season 8, Episode 1 Recap (Season Premiere): It Shoulda Been Me!

We came so close!​Unpack those friggin' knives, yo! The so-close finalists from the past seven seasons of Top Chef ain't playin' this time around, as they compete to win the grand prize of $200,000 on Top Chef All Stars. Redemption? Saving face? Insults? How can this not be good TV? The premie ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 2 Recap: Fight at the Museum

She did not just say that! This season, Top Chef All-Stars ain't playin', yo, and it's only episode two. Shocks plus surprises equal quickly vanishing memories of the Top Chef D.C. snoozefest. Thank you, Bravo. Let's get started. Just when things are already awesome 'cause we're starting out in ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 3 Recap: Missing Cash Cab Tie-In

How may we worship you, David Chang?​ David frickin' Chang? Chang the Man? Chang Minus Eng? Chingy-Chingy Chang-Chang? Dudes at Top Chef All-Stars on Bravo are clearly not messin' around, yo. As the chefs walk into the kitchen and see bad-ass David Chang, you can almost hear the sound of the ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 6 Recap: Fish 'n' Filler 'n' Boring Ahoy!

With last night's episode of Top Chef All-Stars, there was some serious hatin' going on in the aftermath of the dim sum elimination challenge last week where EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET thought Two-Stitch Jamie was goin' home. Nope. Still here. Still annoying. Plus, Dale and Teen Wolf Marcel are fighti ... More >>

A Novel Approach to NaNoWriMo

With last night's episode of Top Chef All-Stars, there was some serious hatin' going on in the aftermath of the dim sum elimination challenge last week where EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET thought Two-Stitch Jamie was goin' home. Nope. Still here. Still annoying. Plus, Dale and Teen Wolf Marcel are fighti ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 7 Recap: Restaurant Wars, Restaurant Bores.

"My arm tats rock."​Ugh. It's "Restaurant Wars," yo, the most overhyped episode of the Top Chef season. It's all about seeing which team can come up with the worst-ever name for a restaurant, argue over which font to use for the menus, and see who can yell the most at their servers. Shhh...d ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 8 Recap: It's All-Stars, They're Gonna Do What They Want

Shameless flirting, shameful challenge.​Since Teen Wolf Marcel left last week with his facial hair grooming products and "You haven't heard the last of me!" exit line (until Top Chef All Stars: Foam and Rap airs), nine cheftestants are left to duke it out for the title. On last night's epis ... More >>

Emilio Morales of Sunshine Moon Peking Pub, Part Two

Keyon Fareghi​Yesterday we chatted with Emilio Morales of Sunshine Moon Peking Pub about what has brought him to this point in his life. Today our conversation continues as we discuss his plans for the future, Korean food and Anthony Bourdain. Morales comes from quite a large family, which ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season 8, Episode 12 Recap: Ferry, Family, and For Serious?

Anyone seen the Doritos?​Only one step away from the finals, yo! Our episode begins with Blais lamenting about the loss of Dale which must mean Fabio is off his short list to Barbados. Note to Blais: One bromance at a time please, playa. Back at the house, the cheftestants are wondering wha ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Season Premeire: Haiti

​​Anthony Bourdain is back! And he is looking a little grayer, and his pancita has expanded a bit as well, despite an attempt to cover it with those flowy shirts. Season 7 of No Reservations opens with Bourdain in Haiti. Haiti? What? Not the first place you think of these days as a ... More >>

Top Chef All-Stars Season Finale: Finally, What We All Knew Would Happen Did

​We made it, yo! After what has seemed like an eternity in the Bahamas (BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!), we're finally down to crowning a Top Chef, and Bravo is all business right out of the gate -- straighten that tie, Bravo! Padma and Tom tell the chefs there will not be a Quickfire and tha ... More >>

Billy Bessinger at RnR

​Billy Bessinger is probably more educated than you. An Arizona State graduate, he has a bachelor's in real estate as well as an M.B.A. -- but after trying his hand at the corporate world, he realized bartending was still the best gig in town -- luckily for us. Now a seven-year veteran of the ... More >>

Top 6 Celebrity Chef Parodies

Paula Deen chewing "butter gum," Rachael Ray at 7-Eleven, and wait -- is that Gordon Ramsay yelling at a nun in a soup kitchen? Like many celebrities, TV chefs get jabbed by the spoof stick, too. We don't mind, as long as it's all in good fun. And now that it's summer, we thought we'd chill inside ... More >>

The Five Dirtiest Food Terms

TetsumoThere have to be easier ways to eat fruit. ​Today, the worlds of cooking and sex have never been more intertwined. With raunchy, fouled mouthed food celebs  like Anthony Bourdain constantly in the public eye, and delicious food porn all the rage, we live in an age open to oral stimulat ... More >>

Seven Favorite Fictional Chefs

​Yeah, yeah, we know -- these days you can get more than your fill of real-life chefs, doing real-life chef things, all over the airwaves, in books and online. But the real thing isn't nearly as fun as the made-up chefs on this list. Don't believe us? Read on. Here's our list of the Top Seve ... More >>

Flame On: 10 Spicy Dishes in the Valley That Really Bring the Heat

​Yeah, yeah, we know -- these days you can get more than your fill of real-life chefs, doing real-life chef things, all over the airwaves, in books and online. But the real thing isn't nearly as fun as the made-up chefs on this list. Don't believe us? Read on. Here's our list of the Top Seve ... More >>

Man v. Food Nation Visits Big Earl's BBQ in Scottsdale: Chef James Porter Says Adam Richman Is "Juilliard School Meets Rachael Ray Meets Anthony Bourdain"

Chef James Porter with Man v. Food Nation's Adam Richman​Big Earl's BBQ got some mad TV love this weekend when Adam Richman and his 16-person crew of Travel Channel's Man v. Food Nation, (the evolution of Man v. Food, in which Richman recruits locals to take on food challenges instead of doing ... More >>

The Five Most Disgusting Foods in the World

everythingisdirty.com Bugs for sale at a market in Thailand​From bugs to dirt to rotten animal parts, there sure are plenty of disgusting things to eat out there. You may think you've seen it all but we've complied a list of what we believe to be the five most disgusting, truly gut-wrenchin ... More >>

Mayhem: Murder, Arson, and Scottsdale Exorcisms With One of Norway's Darkest Bands

everythingisdirty.com Bugs for sale at a market in Thailand​From bugs to dirt to rotten animal parts, there sure are plenty of disgusting things to eat out there. You may think you've seen it all but we've complied a list of what we believe to be the five most disgusting, truly gut-wrenchin ... More >>

Alice Cooper, Balam Acab, Savant, and More in This Week's Issue

​Alice Cooper is a lot of things: Shock rock pioneer, radio personality, golfer, restauranteur, and advocate for at risk youth. This weekend's 11th annual Welcome 2 My Christmas Pudding event is yet another instance of Alice Cooper atoning for his dark, dark past (you know, like the chicken t ... More >>

Chow Bella Book Club January Selection: Blood Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

​We're starting the year in style by choosing the memoir  so stellar, it inspired us to create Chow Bella Book Club. We're reading Blood Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton this month and it will be capped off with a visit from the author ... More >>