Culinary Arts

Monti Carlo and Le Cordon Bleu Hold MasterChef Contest This Saturday

Friends and family swear you're a champion cook, but do you have the chops to make it on MasterChef, Season 4? My 103.9 Morning DJ and former MasterChef contestant Monti Carlo has partnered with Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Scottsdale (Sky Bridge Campus) to hold a MasterChef contest th ... More >>

Top Five Phoenix Food Stories of the Week

Every week, there's a cornucopia of Phoenix food news, features, and reviews to report here at Chow Bella. If you're like most people, you probably just don't have the time to get to all of it. It's kind of like those burgers at Old Town Whiskey; it just won't all fit in your mouth ... or in this ca ... More >>

Stephen Jones Explains Why Fried Bologna Is on the Menu and Whistling Is Never Allowed in the Kitchen

See also: Well, Gastro My Lounge! See also: Winner of Arizona Cocktail Week is Lead Bartender at Blue Hound Stephen Jones Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails Hotel Palomar, CityScape 2 E. Jefferson Street, Phoenix 602-253-6633 www.bluehoundkitchen.com This is part one of my interview with Stephen Jones ... More >>

Damon Brasch of Green and Nami, Part 2

Lauren Saria​Yesterday we shared the first part of our talk with vegan chef and owner of Green, Damon Brasch who shared the story behind the century-year-old buildings that now house his most recent culinary endeavors in the middle of downtown Phoenix. Today Brasch, known also for his mad mu ... More >>

Chef Veronica Arroyo of Bourbon Steak

Maya DukmasovaChef Veronica Arroyo prepares one of Bourbon Steak's signature desserts​This week we chat with Veronica Arroyo, pastry chef of Bourbon Steak at the Scottsdale Princess. Some of you may recall her delicious contributions to Chow Bella's Caramelpalooza and Pie Social. Originally from ... More >>

Andrea Volpi of Local Bistro

  Courtesy of Local Bistro Milan-born chef Andrea Volpi fancies himself a gypsy. After learning to cook in his mother's kitchen, Volpi enrolled in a top Italian culinary school; then traveled through Italy and Spain for several years before crossing the ocean and set ... More >>

Luis Millan of Canteen Modern Tequila Bar, Part Two

Chef Luis Millan of Canteen Modern Tequila Bar fuses together his Mexican heritage, French cooking techniques, Spanish food adoration and Arizona kitchen experience to create really interesting dishes with international flair.

Chef Talk: Peter DeRuvo, Sassi

​Peter DeRuvo's come a long way since he started as executive chef at north Scottsdale's Sassi a couple years ago. Since he's been in the kitchen, the beautiful Italian restaurant has received the AAA Four Diamond award, a high honor indeed. Part of Sassi's appeal is its ever-changing menu ... More >>

CRAVE Arizona is Perfectly Balanced Gluttony

​Celebrity chefs. Blind wine tasting contests. Food samples from dozens of Valley restaurants. Only two weeks after Scottsdale's Dine Out With the Chefs event, culinary afficianados from across the Valley loosened their belts for another huge epicurean event: CRAVE Arizona ... More >>

This Week: Crave Arizona Culinary Festival

​The folks behind Crave Arizona set the bar really high with the event's debut last year (it was originally dubbed Eats3), but round two, set for October 22 to 24, promises to be an even bigger culinary blowout, featuring 50 high-profile Arizona chefs and a handful of celebrity guests who'll ... More >>

Cafe: Nine 05

​If there's one thing missing from our monthly outing to First Friday it's blueberry mochi cake. Don't get us wrong. We like street-side brats and popcorn as much as the next guy, but even once in a while we want to class it up. Seems Matt Carter of Nine 05 feels the same way. Food Critic Mi ... More >>

Dine Out with the Chefs Impresses Sophisticated Palates

Last night at the 4th annual Dine Out with the Chefs event at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, some of the Valley's hottest local chefs came out of their respective restaurant kitchens to cook, serve and wander among us mere mortals. Chef James Porter, whose newly-opened ... More >>

Kai Alum Takes Over at Central Grille

It's only been open two months, but Sunnyslope's Central Grille is already undergoing a menu overhaul -- and an upgrade, from the sounds of it. Executive chef Bruce Griffin III, who took the helm in the kitchen last week, is the former sous chef at the AAA Five Diamond dining destination Kai, a ... More >>

5 Upcoming Culinary Events to Plan For

Get out your calendars, folks. And your credit cards. You've paid your dues through the most boooring part of summer, and now you can finally treat yourselves with tickets or reservations for some exciting culinary events coming up in the next month or so. It's just the beginning of the culinary/so ... More >>

Open Casting in PHX for Next Food Network Star

The Food Network has certainly found its fair share of TV fodder from Valley restaurants; will it find a future TV personality here, too? Maybe so -- the popular reality series The Next Food Network Star is coming to town July 8 for an open casting for its 2010 season. "We are looking for pe ... More >>

Cooking School Secrets: A Pint, a Pound, the Whole World Round

Measure liquids in a liquid measuring cup - dry ingredients in a dry measure cup. All my cooking life, I've paid attention to this detail painstakingly, figuring that cooking and baking was so scientific that even the slightest mis-measurement would end in disaster. Ah, the things you learn in cul ... More >>

Local Celeb Chefs Bail On Their Own Restaurants for V-Day

All right, I'm having fun with headlines. But I couldn't help but notice how many local "celebrity" chefs are listed in the "all-star" lineup of a charity event that just so happens to take place on Valentine's night -- one of the busiest nights of the year for most restaurants. It's a night wh ... More >>

Cooking School Secrets: Meet the Future Chef

All my life, passion, rather than reason, has led to my relationships, my jobs and my extracurricular activities. It's why I ended up in culinary school when I have a house, some kids and a few pets to support. Here's the short version: I've always been a late bloomer. Dated late.Married late. Had ... More >>

Saturday: Arizona Culinary Institute Hosts Open House

Last night at dinner, discussion came up about whether it's a good idea to go back to school during a recession. Of course it is! You're going to be toughing it out on a student budget whether the economy's good or bad, so you may as well bide your time, study hard, and then bust out with a new car ... More >>

Opening Monday: J&G Steakhouse at The Phoenician

  In the past few months, a lot of local restaurants have postponed openings (indefinitely, for some), but the most high-profile, highly anticipated one is making its debut before the end of this year, as promised. It's J&G Steakhouse, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's upscale ... More >>

Chef Matt McLinn Leaves BLT Steak

Top Chef at Phoenix Public Market

Slow Foodie at the helm of new PV resort's restaurants

Shopping destination for chefs and foodies

Top Chef: Jack Strong

Incredible, Edible

Health inspectors everywhere shaken to their core

Ready, set, eat!

Bradford Thompson says farewell to Mary Elaine's at the Phoenician

How to Bake a 14-Layer Cake

Assuming you can cook in the first place. . .

Power to the people

Xtreme Cuisine

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

Virgin Island

Culinary fest tries new tropical theme

Conspicuous Consumption

The Scottsdale Culinary Festival gets cooking

Inn Sync

New resort restaurants set a tony table

A Meal of Living Dangerously

The Valley of the Sun gets a heaping helping of "cuisine de sol"

Not Your Mama's Recipe

When the 'contesting' bug bites, the cooks get creative

The Radicchio's Red Glare

Valley eateries raise funds for the survivors of slain NY restaurant workers

Chop Screwy

House of Rice dishes up classes for the culinarily clueless

The Range Loner

Personal chef caters to those with more disposable income than time

Party Hardy

Pleasures of the Palettes a success

Best School Meal

The Desert Oasis
Scottsdale Community College
9000 East Chaparral, Scottsdale
480-423-6241

Group Grub

Communal dining is the latest rage for restaurants hoping to woo diners with the promise of fine food, fun and new friends

Waiting for Gourmet

Valley diners search for variety

Spring Roll

Food FX

Second Helpings

Food Fighter

Time and again, Valley restaurant legend Nick Ligidakis has cooked his own goose. Will Cafe Niko be another overtrimmed turkey?

Second Helpings

EPICured

Has Todd Hall, the chef boy wonder, grown up?

SECOND HELPINGS