Food & Drink

If you’ve had quite enough, thank you, of hi-tech food manipulation techniques and long for simpler, perhaps more barbaric times when you might drown sparrows in brandy to prepare it for roasting or order a Mexican chicken tamale from a NYC street vendor made with ground veal, meet your newest…

  With the Arizona State Fair headed our way tomorrow, we at Chow Bella decided on our latest challenge: Create a “fair food” that kicks it up a notch No one dared to cook with bugs, but we did have some creative entries. Check back later this week, when critic…

​When a new spot opens in town, we can’t wait to check it out — and let you know our initial impressions. Share a few photos, some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead a peek inside restaurants that have just opened,…

The Saguaro hotel in Scottsdale (formerly Hotel Theodore and Mondrian) won’t be open until November, but for foodies looking for a sneak preview of tastes from its flagship restaurant of modern Mexican cuisine, Distrito, along with its new chef de cuisine, both can be found at the Arizona Taco Festival…

​In the Kitchen with: Chef Eugenia Theodosopoulos of Essence Bakery CaféMaking: Croissants and Chocolate CroissantsOn an early Wednesday morning, when the sun is hanging low in the sky and the sounds of rush-hour traffic mingle with the gentle hum of leaf-blowers, six people are milling about outside Essence Bakery Café…

Are you a meat lover? If you are, you can thank chef Matt Carter for the wood-fired cuisine at Bonfire Grill in Scottsdale. Carter consulted on Bonfire’s menu, creating a selection of American dishes with hints of the extravagant, heavy on the skewers, and approachable enough, in ingredients and in…

Philosophy or quantum physics (or some combination of the disciplines) suggests that one of an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters will eventually type a Shakespeare play. This leads me to believe that the average person can make a salad without a recipe.

Somewhere along our evolutionary timeline, man discovered that he liked the taste of cooked meat. This revolution may have come about as an accident. Perhaps, before hungrily ripping into a chunk of raw animal flesh with his pointy canines, he accidentally dropped it into a fire, or left it next…

Farrelli’s Cinema Supper Club, the upscale restaurant and movie theater combination housed in a 1940s-style theater in Scottsdale has closed. Opened in 2001, Farrelli’s had this to say on its Facebook page: “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the closing of Farrelli’s Cinema Supper…

You know what that is? It’s a bacon wrapped jalapeno matzoh ball from the Scottsdale champagne bar Narcisse’s new menu.  The picture is impressive, sure, but really, bacon around a matzoh ball? Aside from the fact that Jews eat matzoh balls but are prohibted from Jewish law from eating bacon (what’s next, wrap…

This week we’ve been chatting with personal chef David Hall of Thyme for a Chef. Today he’s sharing his recipe for Braised Beef in Cabernet Sauvignon. Braised Beef in Cabernet Sauvignon Serves six Ingredients: 2 tablespoons, olive oil, divided 2 pounds, beef chuck roast, lean, boneless, cut into 2 inch…

In need of a quick gift for a CenPho pal that likes to eat at locally owned restaurants? Have I got an idea for you. Check out Phoenix Dining Cards. Packaged like a deck of cards, each of the 52 cards inside is a gift certificate to a local restaurant…

With the Arizona State Fair headed our way at week’s end, we at Chow Bella decided on our latest  challenge: Create a “fair food” that kicks it up a notch. No one dared to cook with bugs, but we did have some creative entries. Check back later this week, when…

Since 2008, a dad in San Diego, California, has been drawing amazing art on his kids’ sack lunches while on his own lunch break. Inspired by (mostly) all things geeky, the over-500 lunch sack canvases include everything from Star Wars characters, to comic book heroes and villains, to anime. Which…

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 and a few of his friends will be appearing on the premiere of a new Food…

Not one to sugar-coat anything, writer and breast cancer survivor Tania Katan has her own version of a public service announcement this October. ​It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and boy am I hungry! Every October, we gather with friends and loved ones to race for a cure, think about how…

Hey Phoenix, are you excited that quasi-local majorly-talented national celeb chef Stephanie Izard is coming to town this weekend? We are. We bet her parents are, too — they live in Scottsdale. Izard’s been absolutely rockin’ the the foodosphere since her Top Chef Season 4 win. She is the chef/partner of…