Food Network

Recent Openers

Recent Openers

S.F. Resident Wins National Manischewitz Cooking Competition

It ain't the legendary Pillsbury Bake-Off, but San Francisco resident Josie Shapiro won the country's only kosher cooking competition, the Manischewitz Cook-Off Contest, which took place today in Manischewitz HQ in New Jersey. The winning recipe? "Faux pho," a soup made in under an hour with Manisch ... More >>

M.Y. China: High-End Cuisine Finds a Niche in a Busy Mall

Top Chefs and Restaurants Come Together for Two Charitable Events

Share Our Strength Dinner Where: Spruce, 3640 Sacramento (at Spruce), 931-5100 When: Tues., Jan. 22, 6 p.m. Cost: $250 The rundown: Give us the chance to see celeb chefs (including Food Network alum Amanda Freitag) and taste a sweet chocolate cremeaux from Belinda Leong and we'll find a way to pu ... More >>

Tyler Florence on His New Cookbook and What to Make Right Now

Local celeb chef Tyler Florence -- he of Wayfare Tavern, SFO T2, and Food Network fame -- has a new cookbook out, and will be signing copies of it in the city and at his Mill Valley shop next week. Tyler Florence Fresh is the chef's most ambitious book to date, a gorgeous volume showcasing the seaso ... More >>

S.F. Food Legend Jeremiah Tower's Kindle Quickie

Jeremiah Tower, the chef and former San Francisco restaurateur who left an indelible impression in molding "California cuisine" as a chef at Chez Panisse and with his Eighties restaurant Stars, has released a short e-book for Kindle. A Dash of Genius is ostensibly his ode to and a history of French ... More >>

The Great Food Truck Race Features Lame Truck Design, Tyler Florence's Neck Beard

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, The Great Food Truck Race, a one-hour show that once saw a food truck drive past it, Sundays at 9 p.m. on the Food Network. Part of the fun of eating at a food truck is hanging around the trucks themselves, with t ... More >>

Extreme Chef: So Extreme We Had to Write an Epic Poem About It

Each week, we take a quick, caution look at food TV. This week, Extreme Chef, a one-hour show about watching the world burn, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on the Food Network. On the premiere Extreme Chef, seven chefs were dropped by helicopter to the "modern day hellhole" of the Salton Sea and asked to "en ... More >>

Bobby Flay Would Like You to Know That He's Not the Screaming Type

Last week we published an installment of Michael Leaverton's darkly funny Food on TV column criticizing Bobby Flay for not behaving badly enough in his new restaurant fix-it show, 3 Days to Open: Also, Bobby Flay's mild and tempered personality forgets to scream and rage at the owner of the chicken ... More >>

Bobby Flay, if You Must Subject Us to 3 Days to Open, at Least Have the Decency to Scream and Rage

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, 3 Days to Open, a one-hour show about empires crumbling to dust, Fridays at 10 p.m. on the Food Network. In the past few years the Food Network's programming moved from the time-honored strategy of having people c ... More >>

Tonight: Top Chef Masters Premieres With S.F. Chef Chris Cosentino

San Francisco chef Chris Cosentino (Incanto) represents the Bay Area on the fourth season of Top Chef Masters, which premieres tonight (July 25) at 10 on Bravo. Cosentino is competing to win money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Since he's often pigeonholed as the king o ... More >>

The Food Network's Health Inspectors Is Awfully Gross, Kind of Great

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, Health Inspectors, a half-hour show about real food cooked simply and honestly by the best chefs in the world. To paraphrase Anthony Bourdain, I like the nasty bits, the sick parts of Kitchen Nightmares when Chef ... More >>

Baron Ambrosia Is So Full of Awesome WTF That We'll Even Watch The Cooking Channel

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, The Culinary Adventures of Baron Ambrosia, a half-hour show about Aladdin Sane, Fridays at 7 p.m. on the Cooking Channel. In this space, usually I end up steering you away from cooking shows, not because I want to ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

You Can Watch the Food Network a Full Day and Only See Five Shows

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's on going with food TV. This week we review Monday, airing Monday on the Food Network. Most cable channels can't withstand scrutiny. They're good to catch a quick show like Tommy Lee Goes to College but stay too long and the bottom drops out and yo ... More >>

The Food Network's Invention Hunters Is Predicated on a Bigger Lie Than Most Food Shows

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at food TV. This week, Invention Hunters, a half-hour show about hunger in America, Mondays at 9 p.m. With Invention Hunters, the Food Network returns to a genre it's had much success with in the past, the Tumbledown Effort Outside Our Core Competency That ... More >>

Cupcake Wars: The Problem With a Cupcake Show Is That It's a Cupcake Show

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, Cupcake Wars, an hour-long show about one thing, over and over, until death comes, Sundays at 8 p.m. on the Food Network. Cupcake Wars has been on the air just two years, but they're already finishing up their fif ... More >>

On Trisha's Country Kitchen, Trisha Yearwood Can't Stop Proving How Damn Country She Is

Each week, we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with food TV. This week, Trisha's Country Kitchen, a half-hour show of executives laughing at us, Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Trisha Yearwood is a two-time cookbook author with a new show on the Food Network about souther ... More >>

Meat Men Offers TV's Best Meat Porn

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going with food TV. This week, Meat Men , a half-hour show about three male strippers in a Taco Bell, Mondays at 11 p.m. on the Food Network Meat is all-encompassing, all-embracing. Panoptic. When marbled cuts enter the picture all talk of ramps, o ... More >>

Rachael's Vacation: When Rachael Ray Pretended to Visit San Francisco's Restaurants

​Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Rachael's Vacation, a half-hour show you didn't hear about from me, Fridays at 4:30 a.m. on the Food Network. Rachael Ray has 31 television shows and a line of car wax. I try to know as little as p ... More >>

Why Are There So Few Black Chefs in High-End Restaurants?

​Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune asked a question of its city's chefs and restaurateurs that could also be asked in the Bay Area: Why are there so few black chefs working in higher-end restaurants? As reporter Christopher Borelli phrased the problem, "Interviews with scores of black chefs and ... More >>

The Sandwich King Is Not Especially Informative about Sandwiches or Royalty

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Sandwich King, a half-hour show about the Black Plague, Sundays at 11 a.m. on the Food Network. Jeff Mauro, former stand-up comic, is the Sandwich King, but how he ascended to nobility I know not. I fear ... More >>

Worst Cooks in America: A Hater's Guide

​Each week (except last week) we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Worst Cooks in America, a one-hour documentary about Arizona, Sundays at 9 p.m. on the Food Network. The premise Imagine a competition in which the worst cooks in America -- let' ... More >>

Food Hoarders Is Pretty Much Regular Hoarders, Just with Food

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Stuffed: Food Hoarders, a one-hour special that sours as you watch it, Feb. 11 and 12 on the Cooking Channel. Kudos to the Cooking Channel for showing food in as disgusting a light as possible, and for pr ... More >>

Top 5 YouTube Cooking Shows

B​ig news in the food world: Food Network exec Bruce Seidel is jumping ship for YouTube's new food channel. Considering that the internet seems like it might be here to stay, it's probably not a terrible idea. While Bruce is most likely pondering YouTube's food channel future, we'd like to humbly ... More >>

Fat Chef Is 400 Pounds of Bad Food TV

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Fat Chef, a one-hour show about steamed vegetables, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on the Food Network. In another effort to put even more distance between itself and food preparation so skilled it demands to be pu ... More >>

Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off: The Food Network Craps Out

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off, a one-hour show about the debt ceiling, Sundays at 9 p.m. on the Food Network. There used to be only A and B-list celebrities, divided by movies and television. Then te ... More >>

The Food Network Somehow Even Ruins Its Ice-Carving Show

​ Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Ice Brigade, Fridays at 4 a.m. (fuck!) on the Food Network. Ice Brigade is a show about ice carving, and if I didn't like ice carving so much all of a sudden I might have some pretty terrible things t ... More >>

Bama Glama, The Terrible Food Network Show to Hatewatch at 4 a.m.

Bama Glama: One part cupcakes, one part "Break Stuff"​Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Bama Glama, a half-hour show not about food, Fridays at 4 a.m. (yes!) on the Food Network. With Bama Glama, the Food Network pivots from food-ce ... More >>

The Food Network Show So Cruel and Dumb Even They Aren't Re-Running It

Food Network has no images from this show available, so here's some trophies from the strip-mall bar ofsadness​ Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Mystery Diners, a half-hour show you will never see again, on the Food Network or anywh ... More >>

Late-Night Food Programming and Chocolate Gifts: This Week in Food Bloggery

Generik11/SF Weekly Flickr pool​Highlights from the blog this week: 1. Some of you are spending your afternoons ignoring your work in favor of stressing over what you're going to be sending to the folks back home for the holidays. Laura Beck has done some of the work for you, IDing seven loca ... More >>

Have Cake, Will Travel: If Fail Were a TV Show About Cakes

Not your best choice, even at 4 a.m.​Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Have Cake, Will Travel, a half-hour show about reaching for the bottom, Fridays at 4 a.m. on the Food Network. Dear Food Network, So it's four in the morning, ... More >>

Chef Hunter Would Be Better if the Food Network Actually Hunted Chefs for Sport

Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Chef Hunter, a one-hour show that does not take place on a private island, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on the Food Network. In Chef Hunter, unemployed chefs show up at the door of an important restaurant (like ... More >>

Sweet Genius Is Pretty Much the Most Ridiculous Thing on the Food Network

​Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what is going on with televised cooking. This week: Sweet Genius, a one-hour show about lollipops and death, Thursdays at 10 p.m. on the Food Network. Oh, hell. It's come to this. The Food Network sees pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel with his evil bal ... More >>

Food TV Weirdness: Guy Fieri's Best Thing I Ever Made

​Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what is going on with televised cooking. This week: The Best Thing I Ever Made, a half-hour show about the end of the world, Sundays at 11:30 a.m. on the Food Network. The premise of Best Thing is simple: Each episode, a handful of chefs cook thei ... More >>

Sandra Lee's Ridiculous Halloween Special: All the Hard Drinkin' Highlights

​Do you remember how Joe Camel got into trouble for making cigarettes look like a fun thing for kids? This is a recap of Sandra Lee's Food Network special Sandra's Halloween Wonderland. The Nightmare Before Christmas The beginning is largely preamble, with Sandra waking up on a lawn, disorien ... More >>

Elizabeth Falkner's Iron Chef Run and Ice Cream Making, and a Moving Farm

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. Chef Elizabeth Falkner (Citizen Cake and Orson) will flambé, sauté, and chop her way through the Food Network's Next Iron Chef: Super Chef. Eater SF reports the battle starts Oct. 30. And while that's g ... More >>

Jane Goodall's Fight Over Baby Food, Chairman Bao Wants to Race, and More Pizza

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. We can honestly say we didn't see this one coming. Jane Goodall, mother to all primates, is suing local celebrity chef Tyler Florence's baby food company Sprout. Grub Street shares, via the New York Post, ... More >>

Nom Nom (Nom), Burger News, a Restaurant Scam, and a Butchery's Request

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. Nom Nom Truck is rolling its expansion up I-5 and parking in S.F. Inside Scoop shares that the L.A. Vietnamese street-food truck may seem familiar due to its appearance on the Food Network's "Great Food T ... More >>

Tyler Florence is Sued, SOMA Gains a Wine Tavern, Little Joe's Moves Again

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. As American as apple pie, grilled cheese, and the Fourth of July -- is the freedom to sue. Today, Inside Scoop reports, via Courthouse News, that chef Tyler Florence (of Food Network fame and Mill Valley ... More >>

Bam! by the Bay: Emeril Checks Out S.F. in Debut of New Show

Cooking ChannelEmeril Lagasse chats with Buena Vista Cafe's Robert Freeman.​The original bam!-tastic O.G. Food Network veteran, Emeril, just debuted a new show, The Originals with Emeril, on its sister Cooking Channel network. Last night's show may have been a premiere, but there was nothing n ... More >>

The 8 Sexiest Women on TV Cooking Shows

Last week SFoodie brought you the hot and hunky men of food television. Today, the companion post so hot it'll melt your listicle, their sultry female counterparts, the women you've watched tying up your meat, sizzling your pot, and making you run your Tivo in slow-mo. We give you the eight sexiest ... More >>

Charlie Sheen Wants to Be on Food Network?

Charlie Sheen's Winning Recipes from Charlie Sheen Via funnyordie.com comes "Winning Recipes," featuring Charlie Sheen. "My plan is to make an appearance on every television network," Sheen says here, his pitch to land a slot on Food Network. Frankly, we're waiting to see his pitch to land on A&E, ... More >>

Best Practices for Shopping High at Costco

​clarksworth/FlickrSmoke up in the car first, and this can feel like a fucking blast.​Like complaining about people on welfare while collecting unemployment yourself, eating 99-cent double-bacon cheeseburgers while voting down health care, shopping at Costco is one of our God-Given Right ... More >>

Standing Up for Bullies, Taking the Rest of the Beef Out of 'Taco Meat'

​SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats. • Uh, did you know that if you live in S.F., you can get a free spay or neuter at the SFSPCA for your dog or cat during the month of February? TRUE FACT. So if any of you are running around with companion animals ... More >>

Top 10 Food Stories in San Francisco 2010

Jun BelenLumpia from 2010's breakout Hapa SF Filipino food truck.​Deciding on the top 10 food story threads of any year is tricky (did the things we ate in the past two month somehow obliterate all memory of those from the prior 10?) but this year the task was especially arduous. It was a year ... More >>

Want to Pretend You're Opening a Restaurant? Food Network Wants You

​If you want a chance to suck up to some Food Network casting agents, get your gear ready for an audition this Friday. The show is called 24 Hour Restaurant Battle and Food Network's trying to get the message out to any "San Francisco foodies" with a three-hour weekday window to pursue fame's ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Saving the Gravenstein, enjoying the Wayfare's Hangtown Fry

I'd Like to Thank the Ground Beef

Television awards make us hungry for an S.F. burger and Maine lobster