Iron Chef

How's Your Week Goin'? Jamburritos Food Truck's Michael Brown Has Been Busy Closing a Deal on a Brick-and-Mortar Space Downtown in the Midst of Being Rejected by the Food Network

When discussing the highs and lows of food truck ownership, chef Michael Brown of Jamburritos Cajun Grille Express knows they can happen at any time -- sometimes around the same time. See also: - Six Phoenix Food Trucks, Rated - Food Truck Caravan Rolls Into Downtown Scottsdale The ex-New Yorker, ... More >>

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 >>

Sonoran Lee's Liquid Dinner Puts Honey-Drizzled Biscuits and Roasted Parsnips in Your Beer

Beer: Lee's Liquid Dinner Brewery: Sonoran Brewing Co. Style: English Brown Ale ABV: 5 percent If we've learned anything from Sonoran's Chef Series beers so far, it's that the cooks tapped for these brews aren't afraid to get a little weird. First we had Jeremy Pacheco, who threw seven different i ... 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 >>

Distrito Kicks Off Fourth of July with Barbacoa Tasting Dinner and Prix Fixe Menu

Slow-cooked meats went fast at Chef Jose Garces' Distrito Barbacoa Tasting Dinner Thursday night. The dinner, which was led by Chef Michael Fiorello, Culinary Director for the Garces' Restaurant Group, served as both a barbacoa how-to as well as a preview for the restaurant's upcoming prix fixe di ... More >>

Beau Mac Dishes on Wayne Gretzky, Fried Chicken, and Photo Radar Trucks

This is part two of my interview with Beau Macmillan, executive chef at Sanctuary. Read part one here. You're dining at a restaurant. What's the one thing that makes you crazy?: When the check is presented, the server has got to be on top of it; if you say you will be right back, you'd better be ... More >>

Beau Mac Dishes on His Favorite Herb and What It's Like Being Famous

Beau MacMillan elements Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa 5700 E. McDonald Drive 480-948-2100 www.sanctuaryoncamelback.com This is part one of my interview with Beau MacMillan, executive chef of elements at Sanctuary Resort and Spa. Come back on Tuesday for part two. If Phoenix has a bon ... 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 >>

Point-Counterpoint: Alton Brown Is the Man and I Challenge You to Say Otherwise

We had so much fun chucking Chow Bella contributors Ando Muneno and Lauren Saria into the ring over food trucks, we decided to do it again. This week's burning topic: Alton Brown. Ando: Alton Brown is the man and I challenge you to say otherwise. Lauren: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. Ando: Seriously, wha ... More >>

Bourbon, Scotch, Rye and Duck Fat at Old Town Whiskey

​ Last month, Team Distrito, led by Jose Garces chef de cuisine Dave Conn, earned the title of grand champions at the 2nd annual Arizona Taco Festival -- whetting our appetite for their mahi-mahi, carnitas and chicken rapa vieja tacos and setting us up to eagerly await the Scottsdale opening of Di ... 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 >>

Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding Features Members of Cheap Trick and Brian "Head" Welch of Korn

​Talk about tying things together. We recently blogged about former-Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch dropping a new single and about Alice Cooper's twisted maze in Hollywood. But now we can blog about The Coop and Head at the same time. That's because Welch is scheduled to perform Saturday ... More >>

Bobby Flay Signing New Cookbook at Sur La Table in Scottsdale's Kierland Commons

​Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, best known for his colorful personality, his interpretation of Southwestern food, his television shows, his two New York restaurants and, most famously, jumping up and down on a cutting table on Iron Chef, is coming to Scottsdale. Flay, who recently made a cameo on ... More >>

Mark Tarbell, the "Urban Cowboy," on Cooking Channel's Food(ography) Tonight

Lori MidsonChef Mark Tarbell​From several small video appearances for his restaurant to Iron Chef America, Mark Tarbell, chef and owner of Tarbell's, the award-winning neighborhood restaurant in Central Phoenix, can hardly be called camera shy -- plus, c'mon, he's so damn engaging. Food(ograp ... 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 >>

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 >>

How to Survive the Menu of the Apocalypse

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 >>

Chad Burnett of Parc Central, Part Two

Keyon Fareghi​Yesterday we talked to Chad Burnett of Parc Central about breakfast at grandma's and a love of cereal. Today our conversation resumes. Not being a part of a corporation definitely has its perks. Burnett has license to be pretty much as creative as he wants to be with Parc Cent ... 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 >>

The Last Supper: Beau MacMillan Dishes Up Gluttony for XII at elements

Chef Beau MacMillan laughs it up with guests at XII's raw bar. Forget the Biblical connotations of dinner for twelve hosted by a food guru -- XII, the private dining room at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain's elements restaurant would be an amazing site ... More >>

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 >>

The Next Food Network Star: Let's Just Cut to The Finale, OK?

Unlike reality show cooking competitions in which it's all about the food and one bad dish can send a front-runner packing, The Next Food Network Star is more about on-air personality -- and that ain't anything that's gettin' fixed overnight. That said, this season looks pretty clear cut, so let's ... 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 >>

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 >>

Where it's Cat

First Lady of the culinary world visits

Top Chef, Ye Olde Bravo Standby, Comes To Snoozeville (Washington D.C.)

Hearts across America have barely started to beat regularly again after last week's amazing finale of Top Chef Masters (congrats, Marcus Samuellson!) and now comes Season 7 of Top Chef. The time-tested Bravo standby will premiere this week, take place in our nation's capital, and, once again, feat ... More >>

Cat Cora Contest Winners Announced

​More than 50 readers entered our Cat Cora contest, and we've held a drawing to choose three winners, who will each receive the following: *One Chow Bella apron. *Two front-row spots for Cora's reading/cooking demonstration June 23 at Changing Hands. *Two spots in the "A" group to get Cora's ... More >>

Cat Cora is Coming! And You Can Win Prizes.

  ​Here at Chow Bella, we're weak in the knees at the thought of Cat Cora's upcoming book signing at Changing Hands Bookstore, June 23. And we've got a friendly competiton to get you fired up. (Learn all about the contest after the jump.)

Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern in Arizona Is Made Even More Bizarre, Thanks to Confusing and Creepy Play-Date With Chris Bianco

​So last week, Andrew Zimmern goes on a quest for real Sonoran cuisine in Arizona on Bizarre Foods and hooks up with Chris Bianco, the wait-in-line-for-two-hours pizza guy of Pizzeria Bianco. Huh? What? Why? Were all the Mexican foodies in the Valley busy? Did Silvana Salcido Esparza, owner of Bar ... More >>

Hell's Kitchen Season 7: Meet the Cast, and What Andrew Zimmern's Doing in Arizona

Cast of Hell's Kitchen, Season 7 ​"Don't act like a cry baby!" "You (bleep) donkey!" "Get out!" Uplifting comments like these from Chef Gordon Ramsay are just a taste of what the 16 culinary contestants competing on Hell's Kitchen's seventh season, premiering Tuesday, June 1, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, w ... 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 >>

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Finale: Fizz-Out, Fat Rascal Flatts, and Weird-ass Montage

There, there, Jamie, at least you tried. You came up $20,000 short of your financial goal to keep fresh food on the plastic cafeteria trays of Huntington School's youth, some of the parents called bullshit on your healthy school lunches by sending more of their kids to school with bags of jelly be ... More >>

Battle of the Dishes: Caramelpalooza Edition

Photo by Jonathan McNamara​ ​Last Friday, locals descended on the parking lot behind Smeeks to snag free caramels at our first-ever Chow Bella event, Caramelpalooza. Meanwhile over at Frances, a handful of judges including Chow Bella reader and haiku poet Jackie Porter, New Tim ... More >>

Huntington, West Virginia, Needs More Than Jamie Oliver, in This Week's "TV Dinner"

Ding! Ding! Ding! America, thanks to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (the best reality show on TV right now) we now have a winner for the Glad-I-Don't-Live-in-This Hellhole award: Huntington, West Virginia! Great job, Huntington! What's your secret? Children who don't know how to cut food with a knif ... More >>

WestSide Throwdown Draws Big Names, Small Crowd

Host Beau MacMillan was in fine spirits -- or shall we say, in the fine spirits -- last night at the inaugural WestSide Throwdown culinary challenge at Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria. The event was bizarre. Attendance was spotty, and everyone (even the host) seemed to have tapped into the f ... 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 >>

A Sweet Ending for the Devoured Culinary Festival

FnB's butterscotch pudding. ​Maybe it was the calming influence of arts maven turned Devour Phoenix spokesperson Kimber Lanning, or some new Zen-like mojo brought on by the event's name change, but today's installment of the Devoured Culinary Classic went on without a hitch ... More >>

Chef Talk: Christopher Mayo of Metro Brasserie

​​Christopher Mayo may be a fresh face at Metro Brasserie (he was named executive chef when Matt Taylor left in November), but he's certainly no food-scene virgin.  At the tender age of 20, Mayo opened Grilled Expedition at Desert Ridge. Later he split for culinar ... 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 Beau MacMillan Takes On Worst Cooks in America

​Executive Chef Beau MacMillan of elements at Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain is somewhat of a local legend. He's been on NBC's The Today Show three times. He cooked at The James Beard House. He even beat Chef Bobby Flay with his delicious Kobe beef dishes on a 2006 episode of Iro ... More >>

Reading: Feasting in Phoenix

Blog name: www.feastinginphoenix.com Who writes it: The author of the blog is named Seth Chadwick, a 40-something with a passion for food. The blog's been around since 2005 and contains hundreds of reviews from eateries around the Valley and, occasionally, the country. Most reviews are of American o ... 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 >>

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 >>

Scottsdale Culinary Fest Comprises 12 Events This Week

The Scottsdale Culinary Festival sounds monolithic, but the granddaddy among the Valley's culinary festivals is surprisingly multifaceted -- a dozen different events at 16 different restaurants and venues around town, ranging from casual tastings to semi-formal sit-down occasions.

Brew Review: Dead Guy Ale

So, who won the Food Fight?

Blarney Boned

Turning of the green

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks