Food Network

Crepe Bar's Jeff Kraus: Caramelpalooza Candymakers 2013

As the chefs competing in Smeeks and Chow Bella's fourth annual Caramelpalooza -- coming 7 p.m. Friday, April 5, at UNION -- get out the candy thermometers, we've got our pens ready to introduce you to the faces behind the caramel. Crepe Bar isn't the kind of restaurant people would be likely stumb ... More >>

Chris Curtiss Leaves NoRTH Fattoria Italiana for Bourbon Steak

Chef Chris Curtiss, who has spent the past 19 months implementing a house-made pasta program for Sam Fox's NoRTH Fattoria Italiana, is leaving Fox's organization to work for James Beard Award-winner Michael Mina at Bourbon Steak in the Scottsdale Fairmont Princess. See also: -- Chris Curtiss Dishe ... More >>

Texaz Grill's Chicken Fried Steak Is a Classic Phoenix Guilty Pleasure

The Guilty Pleasure: Chicken Fried Steak Where To Get It: Texaz Grill, 6003 N. 16th St. (at Bethany Home Road) Price: $12.95 What It Really Costs: So big it's two guilty pleasures for the price of one. In restaurants, the trend is take a humble comfort food and turn it into an upscale dish. Sometim ... More >>

Guy Fieri Spends Time With Six Valley Restaurants for New Season of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives

Recently, Guy Fieri has been in the spotlight, thanks to Pete Wells utterly destroying his new Times Square restaurant, Guy's American Kitchen, in a New York Times review. But this week, the restaurateur and Food Network host has been quietly filming six Valley restaurants for the 14th season of hi ... More >>

Key Ingredient

Clash of the Cupcake Chains: Sprinkles v. Gigi's Cupcakes

Remember the 2000s, when cupcakes were just another bakery treat to enjoy on special occasions like birthdays and holidays? Yeah, so do we. But since those long gone days the little, frosted cakes have become America's sweetheart of sweet treats. They're everywhere we look it seems and have spawned ... More >>

Slade Grove Makes Gluten-Free Amaretti Cookies

Forks up, Phoenix! Chow Bella and Roosevelt Row present the third annual Pie Social Saturday, November 3rd, from 2 to 6 p.m. on Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix. We've got an all-star line up of bakers making pies for you to taste, and from now til Pie Social, we'll introduce them to you, one by on ... More >>

Cullen Campbell Dishes on the Stupidity of a Certain Catch-Phrase and Shares His Feelings about Skinny Jeans

Cullen Campbell Crudo 3603 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix 602-358-8666 www.crudoaz. com See also: -- Crudo at New Location: Get. In. The. Car. -- Small-Batch Spirits Dazzle at Micah Olson's Bar Crudo This is part one of my interview with Cullen Campbell, chef-owner of Crudo. Come back on Tuesday ... More >>

Cupcake Wars Challenge: OllieCake vs The Coffee Shop

See Also: America's Largest Cupcake Franchise Expands to Arizona Because Cupcakes, Chains We've all seen Food Network's Cupcake Wars, right? It's the show that puts four bakers up against one another to see who can make a few batches of cupcakes worthy enough for the queen of cupcakes herself, Mis ... More >>

19: Eliot Wexler

From now 'til we publish the 2012 edition of Best of Phoenix, New Times and Chow Bella present 100 Tastemakers -- Valley residents who make the cut in our culinary scene. Some you'll know; for others, it'll be a first introduction (but likely not the last). While you're here, check out our 100 Creat ... More >>

Nine Food Trucks We Wish Would Road Trip to Phoenix

See also: 10 Corporate Food Trucks Totally Bogarting the Mobile Kitchen Scene, Man Don't get us wrong, we're damn proud of the Valley's mobile food scene. And it's not like Phoenix doesn't boast some nationally recognized trucks. Now-defunct Truckin' Good Food from Jeff Kraus made a list of Most In ... More >>

Anatomy of a Chocolate Chip Cookie with Brady Breese of Urban Cookies

See also: Mail Order Cookie Clash: Urban Cookies vs. Goosebumps See also: Urban Cookies (OllieCake) Wins Food Network's Cupcake Wars See also: Urban Cookies' Brady Breese: Caramelpalooza Candymakers When you're cooking, it's all about a dash of this and a splash of that. But baking is another matte ... More >>

Food Network's Chopped: Grill Masters Premieres Sunday; Two Arizona Competitors and Chef Judge Marc Murphy Weigh In

See also: Beau Mac Gets Chopped Food Network fiends will soon get their dose of local Chopped love. This Sunday, July 22, a new show called Chopped: Grill Masters will premiere with not one, but two Arizona residents. Not only that, the two -- Jennifer and Tommy Duncan --are married, and they run ... More >>

Kim Brennan of Big Earl's Greasy Eats Pushes Back Against Conservative Cave Creek Columnist, Defends Mystery Diners Episode and Plans White Trash Bash

Kim Brennan, owner of Big Earl's Greasy Eats in Cave Creek, isn't ashamed to admit she was a stripper in another life. In fact, she's proud of herself for being smart enough to save her money, build a house and start a business in her adopted hometown. But Brennan, who once sat on Cave Creek's Tow ... More >>

Christopher Gross Compares Truffle Oil to Heroin and Dishes on the Foie Gras Ban

See also: Christopher Gross Makes Pig Feet You'd Walk a Mile For See also: Chris Curtiss Dishes on His First Phoenix Gig and Why Food Network Sucks Christopher Gross Christopher's Restaurant and Crush Lounge Biltmore Fashion Park 2502 E. Camelback Road, Suite #102, Phoenix 602-522-2344 www.christop ... More >>

Chow Bella's Top 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 >>

65: Mark Tarbell

From now 'til we publish the 2012 edition of Best of Phoenix, New Times and Chow Bella present 100 Tastemakers -- Valley residents who make the cut in our culinary scene. Some you'll know; for others, it'll be a first introduction (but likely not the last). While you're here, check out our 100 Creat ... More >>

Mark Tarbell Dishes on Beating Cat Cora and the Joy of Apricots -- and Gives the Best Answer Ever to the Death-Row-Last-Meal Question

Mark Tarbell Tarbell's 3213 E. Camelback Road 602-955-8100 www.tarbells.com This is part one of my interview with Mark Tarbell, owner of Tarbell's in Phoenix and The Oven Pizza E Vino in Lakewood, Colorado. Read part two here on Tuesday, when Tarbell talks about how he discovered wine and his advic ... More >>

Chomped

88: Jan Wichayanuparp and Helen Yung

From now 'til we publish the 2012 edition of Best of Phoenix, New Times and Chow Bella present 100 Tastemakers -- Valley residents who make the cut in our culinary scene. Some you'll know; for others, it'll be a first introduction (but likely not the last). While you're here, check out our 100 Creat ... More >>

Meet The Food Network's Giada de Laurentiis in Scottsdale This Sunday

Attention, Food Network fans! This Sunday, Giada de Laurentiis, the Italian-American chef, host of Giada at Home, and author of six cookbooks, including Everyday Italian and Giada's Family Dinners, is coming to Kierland Commons in Scottsdale. The event kicks off with a Q&A in the Center Plaza at 11 ... More >>

Epicuriad: The Finest Food/Beer/Wine Pairing Competition This Side of ANYWHERE

Trust us: With all the superb food festivals we have in the Valley, it's not easy to make it onto Chow Bella's radar.   But the Epicuriad is no ordinary event. On the strength of its unique premise -- top local chefs match dishes with beer and wine in an all-out food pairing competition ... More >>

Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis Coming to Sur La Table in Scottsdale

Italian American chef, writer, television personality, self-proclaimed chocoholic, and holding a #6 ranking on CafeMom's 2010 "Sexiest Moms Alive" list, the Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis is coming to Scottsdale. At 11:30 a.m., Sunday, April 29, De Laurentiis will be visiting Sur La Table's Kie ... More >>

Laurie Notaro's Eight Food(ie) Terms Past Their Expiration Dates

​Some people, such as readers of Eatocracy, followers of multiple food blogs, and Food Network devotees, consider themselves as inductees in a special club of "culinary provocateurs" who rise far above the standard chewers of mealtime. So much to the point that as any exclusive rank, they've inven ... More >>

Iron Chef Jose Garces Shows Star Power at Old Town Whiskey, Needs a Little Help at Distrito

Chances are if you're a fan of Food Network's Iron Chef America, you've heard of chef Jose Garces. Recently, two of Garces' concepts, Distrito, a modern Mexican restaurant, and Village Whiskey (altered for Scottsdale to Old Town Whiskey), an upscale tavern, have come to the Valley, inside The Sagua ... More >>

Cake Ace Colette Peters To Be Featured at Hermosa Inn's Artist in Residence Dinner

Michael Oppenheim PhotographyColette Peters​For someone who's made cakes for the likes of Yoko Ono, Al Pacino, and the Rolling Stones -- not to mention a couple notable weddings and two White House stints -- you could say Colette Peters knows her fondant. The owner of Colette's Cakes in New Y ... More >>

Sugar Bowl

Roll Call

Iron Chef Jose Garces of Distrito at The Saguaro

Jose Garces​This week in Chef Talk we bring you a few words from the man behind The Saguaro's new restaurant Distrito, Chef Jose Garces. Winner of the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Mid-Atlantic award in 2009, Garces owns and holds the title of executive chef at a handful of restaurants ... More >>

Jessica Cuff on Portion Control and Pie-ing Her Kids

Cupcake Wars Jessica Cuff​We're counting down the days to Pie Social 2011 -- 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 12 at 408 E. Roosevelt in downtown Phoenix. Don't forget, you can get in on the action yourself. Here are details for community bakers. And don't forget about our celebrity bakers ... More >>

Blueberry Pinot Noir, Green Apple Riesling, White Chocolate Ale and Other Sips of the Kokopelli Wine Festival

"Going once....going twice...sold!" Kokopelli winemaker Dennis Minchella auctions off one of the 1,000,000th bottles.​We spent more time (okay, all of our time) sipping at grapes rather than crushing them over the weekend at the 10th Annual Kokopelli Krush, a wine festival put on by Kok ... More >>

Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy and Five Other Self-Help Books From Eccentric Sources

Sometimes help can come from the unlikeliest of places. You might not think of Ozzy Osbourne as a self-help guru, but you sure as hell can't say the the dude doesn't know how to survive. His years of hard living benefit his new book, Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy, out on bookstore shelves today. In the b ... More >>

The Great Food Truck Race: Vote for Your Favorite AZ Wheels to Roll Into Next Season's Line-Up

Short Leash Hot Dogs is currently ranked at #35 -- we can do better.​With all the national television love Phoenix eateries have been receiving lately, the time to strike is now -- while the karma iron is hot -- to get our favorite food trucks (possibly) on the next season of Food Network's Th ... More >>

Urban Cookies (OllieCake) Wins Food Network's Cupcake Wars

Sal and Brady on the set of Cupcake Wars in Los Angeles.​A tomato soup and grilled cheese cupcake? That sweet creation was one of four made by owner and baker Brady Breese and lead baker Salvador Garcia of the Valley's own Urban Cookies (the name changed to OllieCake for the show) to win last ... More >>

Urban Cookies To Do Battle in Food Network's Cupcake Wars Under the Name OllieCake

OllieCakeUrban Cookies, er, OllieCake, gets ready for battle.​Sweet Republic last week, Paletas Betty yesterday, and now this? Phoenix is gettin' some major TV time. ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY TV GODS, FOR THEY HAVE SMILED DOWN UPON OUR HUMBLE VALLEY. Seriously, nice to see. Urban Cookies, the neig ... More >>

Paletas Betty on Cooking Channel's Food(ography) Tomorrow

Paletas Betty​Following Sweet Republic's stint last week on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate, looks like another Valley ice cream eatery will be getting some cool television exposure. Food(ography) host Mo Rocca​Paletas Betty, the paleteria with locations in Chandler and Tempe a ... More >>

Sweet Republic's Toffee Banofi Sundae to Be Featured on Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate

Sweet Republic's toffee banofi sundae gets TV time.​Looks like Sweet Republic, the artisan ice cream haven in Scottsdale, has caught the attention of the national media -- and it hasn't been the first time. Prior to celebrating their third birthday last month, Jan Wichayanuparp and Helen Yung ... More >>

Rock Biters

Anthony Redendo of Sofrita and Redendo's Pizzeria

Courtesy of Anthony Redendo ​For Anthony Redendo of Sofrita and Redendo's Pizzeria, having a successful restaurant of one's own is not enough. Redendo is a teacher and mentor to his culinary students at Phoenix College as well as his followers on Facebook. Is this guy really a ch ... More >>

Make-A-Wish Kid Snubbed by Barefoot Contessa; Two Food Network Chefs (One Is Beau MacMillan) Come to the Rescue

​Enzo, a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with life-threatening leukemia, wanted to spend an hour or two of the few he might have left with his idol, Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa (bed-ridden, he watches her Food Network show with his mom). But when the folks at the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked Ga ... More >>

Beau Mac Gets Chopped

Food NetworkBeau Mac competes on Chopped​ Last night's line up on Food Network's All Stars Tournament Round 3 pitted Beau MacMillan against Nate Appleman, Anita Lo, and Jacques Torres. You all know Beau from elements at The Sanctuary, as Iron Chef winner besting Bobby Flay at his own American cu ... More >>

Spring Training Eats: North Scottsdale

The D-Backs and Rockies now call Salt River Field home, at least for spring training.​Peanuts and Cracker Jacks? Uh, sorry, but even the most hardcore baseball fan will eventually get fed up with all the ballpark junk food and start looking for a real meal. Where to go for some good grub ... More >>

Christopher Nicosia of Sassi, Part Two

Keyon Fareghi​We covered background, heritage and his son's exotic eating habits yesterday. Today we cotinue our chat with Christopher Nicosia of Sassi. Nicosia's "garlic and Gaelic" heritage, as he put it, has contributed to why he became a chef. He took an interest in cooking at a young a ... More >>

Matt's Big Breakfast Threatens to Flatten Joe's Diner Like a Pancake

A real pancake is a thing of beauty. Not Bisquick or the fast food version, but an honest-to-goodness made from scratch griddle cake filled with love and real buttermilk. Some people, like my earnest dining companion, grew up with these comfort food treats. Others of us were ... More >>

Joe's Farm Grill: Lunch $10 & Under

Joe's Farm Grill may be way the heck out in Gilbert, but it's definitely worth the hike, especially if you're into Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Joe's is the first in the list: A renovated farmhouse has a classic 1950's feel in a picturesque setting called Agritopia.

Guido Saccone of Cibo Urban Wine Cafe & Pizzeria, Part Two

that makes his heart melt and his appetite roar. "Pasta's something I really have passion for," Saccone says. "That's what I eat every day, sometimes twice a day. I tell my wife it's going to kill me."

Chelsea Brown, What Are You Baking?

Photo courtesy of Chelsea Brown​Even if your oven sits cold all year, chances are you're considering firing it up, right about now. As a holiday twist on our "What Are You Eating?" feature on Chow Bella and "What Are You Wearing?" on Jackalope Ranch, for the next few weeks we'll be bringing ... More >>

Competitive Eating: Zach Fowle's Adventures in Man vs. Food

May Day

Going tapas

Beggar's Banquet

Sticking a fork in 2005