Mario Batali

Ehren Litzenberger of BLD in Chandler on Mario Batali and Why It's Hard to Be a Three-Squares Chef

This is part two of my interview with Ehren Litzenberger, executive chef at BLD in Chandler. If you missed part one, where Litzenberger dished about simplicity, chocolate-covered grasshoppers and his beef with "foodies," read it here. See also: -- 11 Great Cooking Supply Stores in Metro Phoenix -- ... More >>

Ehren Litzenberger of BLD in Chandler on Simplicity, Chocolate-Covered Grasshoppers, and Who We Can Blame For "Foodie" Obnoxiousness

Ehren Litzenberger BLD 1920 W. Germann Road, Chandler 480-779-8646, bldchandler.com See also: -- Cork Earns Wine Honors From OpenTable -- Chou's Kitchen in Chandler Makes Travel Leisure's List of Best Chinese Restaurants in the U.S. This is part one of my interview with Ehren Litzenberger, execu ... More >>

Cowboy Ciao's Lester Gonzalez Dishes on His Kitchen Pet Peeve and His Grandmother's Tortillas

This is part two of our interview with Lester Gonzalez, comfort food enthusiast and Executive Chef at Cowboy Ciao. To catch up on Gonzalez's food truck fantasies and his take on the bacon obsession, check out part one of interview. See Also: Peter Kasperski Considers Using FnB Name in San Diego Ni ... More >>

Chow Bella's Gift Guide for the Foodie

What? Not done with your holiday shopping? Yeah, neither are we. But we've been making lists -- and checking them twice -- and we've got some suggestions for the nice people on your list. Today, Chow Bella's Gift Guide for the Foodie. They've been to all the new restaurants, know the difference bet ... More >>

Chrysa Robertson Dishes on Male Chefs, How She Handled a Customer Complaint and Why She's Not Really Arizona's Alice Waters

This is part two of my interview with Chrysa Robertson, chef-owner of Rancho Pinot. If you missed part one, where Robertson talks about what it takes to be a woman chef and whether she's a marshmallow or a hard ass, read it here. See also: Aaron May Dishes on Being a Chef, a Restaurateur and a Part ... More >>

Aaron May Dishes On Being a Chef, a Restaurateur and a Party Boy

Aaron May Praying Monk 7217 E. 1st Street, Scottsdale 480-398-3020 www.scottsdalemonk.com See also: -- Celeb Chefs Matt Carter, Beau MacMillan and Aaron May Cooking Up Four-Course Brunch at Superstition Farm -- Aaron May Heads Kitchen at Former Renegade Canteen, Now Called Renegade Tap Kitchen -- ... More >>

Cullen Campbell Dishes on the Food Network Star That Pumped Him Up and His Favorite Local Dishes

This is part two of my interview with Cullen Campbell, chef-owner of Crudo. If you missed part one, where Campbell dishes about the catch-phrase he thinks is pointless and explains how he under-estimated his customers. See also: -- Pete DeRuvo Dishes on the Phenomenal Chef Phoenix Lost to NYC and ... More >>

Chris Bianco Writing Pizza Cookbook with Local-Food Movement Guru Gary Nabhan

See also: Pizzeria Bianco Makes Food & WIne's 25 Best Spots for Pizza in America See also: Behind the Design of Pizzeria Bianco, Italian Restaurant and Pane Bianco with Chris Bianco Word's been out for a while that Chris Bianco's writing a book -- but Chow Bella just got the scoop on his co-author: ... More >>

What's Your Favorite and Least Favorite Cooking Show?

Welcome to Chow Bella's Bites & Dishes, where Valley chefs and restaurateurs respond to a question New Times food critic Laura Hahnefeld has on her mind. Have a question you'd like to ask? E-mail laura.hahnefeld@newtimes.com. Miss a question? Go here.Whether it's for education, entertainment, or a d ... More >>

86: Cullen Campbell

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 >>

The Daily Meal Dishes On the 60 (Plus) Coolest People in Food and Drink

With Phoenix New Times Big Brain Awards just around the corner (finalists will be revealed soon with winners announced in April), it seems fitting The Daily Meal, the website of all things food and drink, has recently released their first annual list of who's the coolest in the industry for 2012. F ... More >>

A Peek at the Homes of Your Favorite TV Chefs

​Who doesn't love peering into the lives of our favorite (and even our not so favorite) celebrities?Here at Chow Bella, we have food on the brain at all times and when we spotted this list of Top Ten Homes of Your Favorite Celebrity Chefs, we couldn't help but click through. We wanted to see what ... More >>

The Recipe Project Sets Recipes to Music

This last weekend on The Splendid Table, NPR's radio food show that airs here on Sundays at 2 p.m. KJZZ, the fabulous Lynne Rossetto Kasper interviewed Michael Hearst of the band One Ring Zero with a recipe project that marries food and music in an unusual way. Simply called "A Recipe Project," the ... More >>

Critics Claim Supreme Master Ching Hai's Followers' Restaurants Featuring Tasty Vegan Fare Front For an Exploitive Movement.

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 >>

Jared Porter of The Parlor, Part Two

Courtesy of Jared Porter​Yesterday we began our conversation with Chef Jared Porter of The Parlor and today the conversation continues beginning with what pushes this chef's buttons. An allergy to olive oil...Come on, really? What pushes my buttons? Special instructions, allergies. It sound ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

David Johnson Pours Big Bad Reds and Spills Stories at Avalon

Wine dinners with Sommelier David Johnson always feel more like an eccentric dinner party with an array of characters you never knew you wanted to meet but suddenly can't believe you didn't know. Johnson is the most popular guy in school: No, not the quarterback who got all the girls, but the gregar ... 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 >>

Chef Wade Moises Leaves Adobe Restaurant

​After leaving PastaBar, the now-defunct downtown eatery that he founded two years ago, onetime Mario Batali protege and former Sassi chef Wade Moises headed to Adobe Restaurant at the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club with the goal of revamping the off-the-radar eatery's breakfast and lunch me ... More >>

Payton Curry Plays Reindeer Games

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."

Chef Wade Moises Unveils New Menus at Adobe Restaurant

​If you're not a regular at the swanky Arizona Biltmore Golf Club, Adobe Restaurant probably isn't on your radar. And even if you are, you might think of the restaurant as just a pitstop on your way to the championship courses. But that might change now that Wade Moises is in charge.The chef ... More >>

Chef Wade Moises Leaves PastaBAR

​Chef Wade Moises has parted ways with his downtown restaurant PastaBAR and co-founder Nicholas Gentry. Moises opened the tiny Italian eatery a year and a half ago, after heading up Sassi in North Scottsdale (where Gentry was the sous chef), and working for Mario Batali's New Y ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

"Sophisticated" Reality TV Returns with Top Chef Masters, and Tucson Makes Food Wars Watchable, in This Week's "TV Dinner"

Wading through the grease pit of bland food, cooking, and eating shows focusing on cheap shopping, bogus belly busters, and chefs more familiar with cursing than conjuring up a decent dish, we've paid our dues to the TV gods (Kraken release avoided!) -- at least for the time being. In return, we ... More >>

Chef Talk with Stacy Phipps of Stacy's Smokehouse

Claire Lawton​Stacy Phipps is ready for a challenge. No, really. He wants to challenge every barbecue master in the Valley to a cook off. "I want Don and Charlie (they won our Best Of Ribs in 2009). I want the guys from Honey Bears. I'll even take Bobby Flay." Anyone up for it? Phipps opened ... More >>

Chef Talk: Charles Stotts of Avalon (part two)

​Yesterday we sat down with Charles Stotts of Avalon in south Scottsdale. Lucky for you, there's a part two! Want to hear about Stotts recent foodgasm? Read on ... What's the best tool in your kitchen drawer? A spoon. I am against tongs; they're something else you won't find in my kitchen. Tongs ... More >>

Chef Talk: Jamie Santoro of That Italian Place

That Italian Place​Chef Jamie Santoro has been in the same Ahwatukee kitchen for ten years. She actually might be the only constant in a venue that's been a bagel joint (Beyond Bagels), a lunch spot (Mary Ann and Richie's) and finally a dinner restaurant (That Italian Place). "I've been able to wa ... 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 >>

Chef Talk: Wade Moises, PastaBar

Many restaurants that use local produce love to brag about the fact, plastering the words all over their menus, windows, and Web sites. But you won't see Wade Moises use hip buzzwords like organic and locally-grown on his menu.What he does say is that creating dishes from local foods should be the r ... More >>

Prado at InterContinental Montelucia Resort Doesn’t Live Up to Its Atmosphere, Thanks to Lousy Service and Watery Paella

Chef Wade Moises, Owner of PastaBar, Hopes His Italian Eatery Will Help Put the Corner of First and Pierce on the Map

Chef Wade Moises Opens PastaBar, New Downtown Eatery

It's been months in the making -- surely more months than chef Wade Moises originally planned on when he and business partner/sous chef Nicholas Gentry left their gigs at Sassi, the swanky north Scottsdale fine dining spot, last June. But after finally getting the green light from the city ... More >>

"Handsome" Dick Manitoba compiles lists of punk rock's greatest hits and biggest tools

Humble Pie fires up the oven in Scottsdale

May Day

Going tapas

White Elephant

Sassi serves up swanky ambience and appetizers, but seems to fall off the (main) course