rant: fine dining

[Jocephus]

Jack Hartounian: My father was Armenian. My other was half Jewish, half English, half Spanish.

Chandler Young: That's three halves.

Jack Hartounian: Oh, she was a big woman.

[M1IRONMIKE]

My Aunt Millie fried everything in lard, and was always a heavy set farmer women who lived until she was 94. She would have made it to 100 except death got her when she was 94. Otherwise, 100 fosho.

i wondering why you never had Aunt Millie cook your northend brothers a few meals!!

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

You can bake it in an oven on some aluminum foil. It's a perfectly cromulent way to make bacon.

Not at work

[tlombard]

If you are celebrating a birthday today or just named Adam, stop by Adam's Smokehouse for a free lunch. They are doing that in honor of what should have been Adam's 29th birthday today.

[jim]

.

[heyzeus]

I want to drink with Jim some day.

[Jocephus]

[Diddy]

So with the James beard awards in town is the Chicago dinning scene crazy right now?

[tlombard]

I saw a show last night where there are four contestants and two are professional chefs and the other two are not. Each round one person is eliminated by the judges and the judges are constantly critiquing while trying to figure out who is not a professional. Some of the comments drove me insane.

The entire celebrity chef thing is out of control. They just pump themselves up so much and it is all complete bull at this point. I'm not saying that they can't put out some awesome food but they drive me nuts. At one point a contestant was pairing the mint cookies with lamb and they decided she had to be professional because professionals know that mint and lamb pair well together. Everybody who watches your stupid shows (Graham Elliott was one of the judges) knows that moron. You fools say it EVERY time somebody uses lamb.

Later they decided that one was professional because she was showing advanced technique with her mashed potatoes. She was using an icing bag to make her mounds of mashed potatoes. Apparently my mom was using advanced culinary techniques every day at work for years before she even went to culinary school (she was a cake decorator for a solid decade plus... and then eventually the executive chef at Glen Echo Country Club).

These people are out of control!!!

All that being said, I still do love Cutthroat Kitchen. The sabotages that they auction off are hysterical at times. The guy who had to make fish and chips in a simulated hurricane/thunderstorm was probably my favorite. He didn't stand a chance.

[Cheddar Tom]

Niche is closing and reopening as Sardella....http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/d ... ad3a5.html