Iron Chef

Mark Tarbell on Iron Chef!

Is cuisine an artform?

Get ready for a Food Fight

Fun with fake food!

Local chefs on national TV

Brew Review: Dead Guy Ale

Bon Headed

Valley foodies get a taste of the big time

So, How Do We Look?

Chow Bella's been running for more than two years now. Can you believe it? (Me neither -- I should've at least put up a Chow Bella birthday post, huh?) What started as a ramshackle one-woman-show is now a sprawling empire of food bloggery, with a whole cast of assorted characters. Alas, yours truly ... More >>

Cooking School Secrets: Con Fusion

I'm a Food Network devotee. I love the Iron Chef challenges. The pressure is thrilling but mostly I'm blown away by the way chefs like Hiroyuki Sakai, Masaharu Morimoto and Bobby Flay combine traditions and ingredients. Fusion cuisine. It's innovative...and a big part of why I wanted to go to cu ... More >>

Phoenix Phoodies: Chef Beau McMillan Took Out an Iron Chef, Now He's Headed Back to TV

Chef Beau MacMillan, Beau Mac to his friends, is down to earth. Which is actually no small feat, since as of late, he's had his share of face time on TV. Best known for his stint on the Food Network's Iron Chef America, Battle Kobe Beef, where he made quick work of Iron Chef Bobby Flay, he's sti ... More >>

Beggar's Banquet

Sticking a fork in 2005

Iron Chef

Maybe the Valley's best

Nibbles 'n' Bits

Maybe the Valley's best

Food and Fights: Highlights of the 2009 Scottsdale Culinary Festival

Everyone who's anyone in the Phoenix metro culinary scene, from local foodies to the stars of Hell's Kitchen and Bravo's Top Chef, turned out for this weekend's Scottsdale Culinary Festival. Libations flowed at the Southwest Festival of Beers and inside the Robert Mondavi wine garden. Restaurant che ... More >>

Your Meal Ticket to Combat Cookery & Destination Dining

​Love Food Network's combat cookery shows? In this week's Meal Ticket dining newsletter, find out which upcoming competition will be hosted by Iron Chef America winner Mark Tarbell of Tarbell's Restaurant, and which two local chefs will battle it out in the kitchen. We've also got the wo ... More >>

Iron Chef 2: The Duel in the Desert Pits Mel Mecinas Against Payton Curry

Jonathan McNamaraChef Mel Mecinas plates his final dish as time runs out. ​Allez-Cuisine! Whether you're viewing the uniquely Japanese original or Iron Chef America, the concept of pitting culinary greats against each other in a timed cooking battle has been proven time and time again to resu ... More >>

Oct. 1 In Blogs: Tent City, Kanye West, TASTE, and "Desert Divas"

​In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries: Feathered Bastard: Outlaw Fleetwood, the "Tent City" Video by Dennis Gilman Up on the Sun: Kanye West /Lady Gag ... More >>

How to Eat a Carrot, and our Favorite Food Shows This Week on 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. We're reviewing the most delectable and dreadful with a handy, must-see schedule so you won't miss a thing. If there's one thing we need to get our hearts ... More >>

Chef Talk: Gio Osso of Estate House

When Chef Gio Osso graduated high school and told his parents that he wanted to go to culinary school, they weren't surprised. He wouldn't eat as a child unless he could stir a few ingredients in a pot with his wooden spoon (all from his high chair).   Years later, after graduating from Ne ... More >>

Guy Fieri Is Too Crazy for All of Us, and This Week's Must-Watch Shows 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 most delectable and dreadful, and a week-long, must-see schedule so you won't miss a thing. Whoa. Is NBC sure it wants Guy Fieri to host ... 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 >>

Cat Cora Event With Chow Bella and Changing Hands, Coming Soon!

​Yes, you read that right. Iron Chef Cat Cora will be the star of our next Chow Bella event, on June 23 at 7 p.m. We're thrilled to team up with our favorite local bookstore, Changing Hands, for a special night of cooking and chatting with Cora, who'll give a food demonstration and will ... More >>

TLC Launches Best Food Ever (or Yabba-Dabba-Done-to-Death)

Napoleon Dynamite: This is pretty much the worst video ever made. Kip: Napoleon, like anyone can even know that. Let me go, I need to narrate. Wilma!​Kip's right. How can anyone know what's the worst (or the best) of anything? TLC's hoping we'll trust their judgment with its new show, Best Food ... More >>

Ask the Cook: Where Can I Buy Black Garlic?

This week's question: Where can I find Black Garlic? Black garlic has been touted as a top food trend and a super health food, and it's been featured on Top Chef and Iron Chef episodes. Yet it remains an obscure ingredient, not easily sourced even at specialty food stores or Asian markets in Ph ... More >>

Cat Cora Chats With Chow Bella, Part 1

After spending so many hours glued to the TV watching chef Cat Cora make unexpected ingredients into glorious dishes that get the Iron Chef America judges waxing rhapsodic, we figured we'd never attempt to cook like the master. But as it turns out, Cora's just as much of a whiz at devising unp ... More >>

Cat Cora: Part 2 of Our Interview With the Iron Chef

​Yesterday, we gave you an appetizer for next week's main dish: a Chow Bella- and Changing Hands-hosted booksigning with Iron Chef and cookbook dynamo Cat Cora, who's currently touring the country to promote Cat Cora's Classics With a Twist. She'll be at the bookstore at 7 p.m. on June 23, a ... More >>

Where it's Cat

First Lady of the culinary world visits

June 16 In Blogs: Jason Rose, Tuey Burns, Devo, Fried Ice Cream, and SB 1070

​​​In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries:

This Week In Chow Bella

Another week has come and gone leaving us to ponder the upcoming events that will shape our lives and, more importantly, our dinners out. But before we move on, let's have one last look at the blog posts from this week: Mötley Brüe RyePA Sam Haldiman, What Are You Eating? Cat Cora Chats With C ... More >>

MasterChef With Gordon Ramsay, The American Idol of Cooking Shows, Coming to Fox in July

With no restaurant experience, a passion for cooking, and a dream of one day working as a professional chef, 50 just-like-us contestants will test their skills and palate in hopes of becoming the winner of MasterChef, the cooking competition show coming to Fox on July 29. Gordon Ramsay, the show's ... More >>

What's Cat Cora Cooking Up Wednesday Night in Tempe?

​We've got the scoop -- Wednesday, June 23, Iron Chef Cat Cora is coming to Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe and she's making.... (Insert sounds of fork tinging against Champagne glass and lots of throat clearing.)

Cat Cora Dishes on Oprah and Iron Chef at Changing Hands

Jonathan McNamaraCat Cora prepares an Egyptian bread salad at Changing Hands bookstore.​It's no shock that Cat Cora didn't really cook anything for her book-signing at Changing Hands Bookstore last night. On errant whiff of smoke from a cook top and the overhead sprinklers at Changing Hands wo ... More >>

June 24 In Blogs: Andrew Thomas, Evil Dead, Erykah Badu, Cat Coa, and Jan Brewer

​​​In the 24-hour news cycle, it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times' blogs. Today's entries:

Adam Richman, Host of Man v. Food Takes On Chompies, Los Reyes de la Torta, Alice Cooper's Big Unit, and Scottsdale Guilt This Wednesday on The Travel Channel

​This Wednesday, former All My Children actor and current host of Man v. Food, Adam Richman, travels to Phoenix to stop at Los Reyes de la Torta and Alice Cooperstown, before taking on the Ultimate Slider Challenge at Chompie's. The challenge, which will air Wednesday night at 9 p.m. on the Travel ... More >>

Cook Like an Iron Chef with Michael Symon Starts With Dissing The Food Network

​Iron Chef Michael Symon breaks out of Kitchen Stadium this Thursday with his new show on The Cooking Channel, Cook Like an Iron Chef. Symon, who owns Lola, Lolita, Bar Symon, and the B Spot restaurants in Northeast Ohio, as well as Roast in Detroit, says the show is for people who've watched ... More >>

MasterChef, the American Idol of Cooking, Premieres This Tuesday -- Prepare for Stomach for "Funeral Potatoes"

This Tuesday on Fox, Mr. needs-a-nap chef Gordon Ramsay brings the world's biggest cooking competition to America with MasterChef. Featuring home cooks competing for $250,000 and the chance to publish their own cookbook, this American Idol of cooking shows doses out more drama than the wildly pop ... 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 >>

Kings of Leon: Come Around Sundown

​Some Tennessee band named Kings of Leon releases their fifth album today. They were once edgy and full of youth, but all that has been replaced by a workmanlike stance on musical accomplishment and profit. Lead singer Caleb Followill is at the front of all this -- dismissing indie bands and hatin ... 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 >>

The Chew: Do We Really Need Another Food Show?

​What happens when not one but two soap operas are canceled on the same day? The Earth shakes on its very foundation and giant worms from its core rise to the surface, making slaves of all mankind forever. They are replaced by equally ridiculous (but cheaper to produce) programming. Whee -- TV is ... More >>

Grilled, Double-Cut Pork Chop From Tarbell's

​ Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we're back - with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you'd like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 71: Grilled, Doub ... More >>

Toffee Banofi Sundae from Sweet Republic

​Last year we marked the hundred day countdown to Best of Phoenix by sharing our 100 Favorite Dishes with you. Now we're back - with the 2011 edition. Have a suggestion for a dish you'd like us to try? Leave it in the comments section or email laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. 40: Toffee Banofi ... More >>

Topps Puts Celebrity Chefs on Baseball Cards. Batter Up!

Jennifer Woods​ So my baseball card enthusiast husband tosses me an Iron Chef "Marc Forgione" baseball card the other night.  "Hey, you should write about this for Chow Bella, I wonder if anyone knows that they're putting chefs on baseball cards." And so here we are. If you notice ... More >>

Iron Chef America's Mark Dacascos' Raceway Material Needs Work

​Last week, Mark Dacascos (CALL ME!), who plays "the Chairman" on Food Network's television series Iron Chef America, as well as Wo Fat, the recurring villain in the reboot of Hawaii Five-0 on CBS, did some laps in a pace car at the Phoenix International Raceway and then told a joke that wasn' ... More >>

Beau McMillan and Nine Other Celebrity Chefs to Compete on The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs

​If an Iron Chef is "a king among chefs" then what's a king among Iron Chefs called? A SUPER CHEF, YO, THE ONLY TITLE THAT MATTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a move that has nothing to do with sagging ratings, the fourth season of The Next Iron Chef, premiering October 30 on the Food Network, ... More >>

Mark Tarbell to Judge First "Top of the Crop" Competition at Premier Food and Wine Festival in Maine

​If the kitchen at Tarbell's, the award-winning neighborhood restaurant in Central Phoenix, is absent one culinary whiz a few days in October, it's because its owner and chef, Mark Tarbell, is in Portland, Maine. The winner of season five of Iron Chef America, Tarbell will be one of a panel o ... More >>

Beau McMillan To Appear On Premier of Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Made

elements at Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain​Celebu-chef Beau MacMillan, of Elements inside Paradise Valley's Sanctuary at Camelback Mountain, is no stranger to television gigs (let's see...Chopped All-Stars, Worst Cooks in America, Iron Chef America...) ​Makes sense then that Beau Mac a ... More >>

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 >>