Chef2Chef.net recently launched The Dish a new culinary student blog centered around the educational adventures of five culinary students. The blog covers everything from student life to class room encounters.

Below you can see one of The Dish’s bloggers,  Sweet Kell, who is studying at Johnson and Wales University in Denver, CO. Kell’s background in baking and pastry arts has been the topic of most of her posts so far; we’re looking forward to reading more in the future.

Other bloggers include Shun Slinger, who just completed his freshman year at Johnson and Wales University, Charlotte; SaucyA, who is currently in Level 4 of the Classic Culinary Arts Program at the French Culinary Institute; Miss Meingue, enrolled in the Classic Pastry Arts program at the French Culinary Institute in New York City; and Culinary Canary, another French Culinary Institute student.

We’re hoping that they will share some great internship stories in the future. Please check out their blog entries and let them know what you think.

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So On the Line’s

Big MacChicken Challenge turned out to be a bit of a let down. Our challenger, who prefers to remain anonymous, downed that monstrous pile of breaded chicken and meat in 6 minutes without a single gag. There wasn’t any of the guilt or self loathing that MF Grocery clearly experienced attempting the same feat. Nor did he need to take any sick leave. Honestly, I think our challenger was sorry that he hadn’t ordered fries with that. The whole thing was kind of anticlimactic, and well, I’m not gonna lie, made MF Grocery look like a bit of a softie.

The most difficult part of eating the Big MacChicken turned out to be keeping all the patties in single pile while taking a bite.

Next up, the Mega Bacon Big MacChicken, our new concoction that combines the Mega Big Mac, the Big MacChicken, and a little bacon for flavor. What do you say Grocery Eats? If that’s a success, I think we have no choice but to move on to Taco Town’s Taco in a Bag, although we have to find someone with a deep fryer.

Saturday Night Live - Taco Town

 

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Grocery Eats actually tried to eat the “Atkins-friendly masterpiece” made up of three 3 McChickens and a Big Mac. But shortly after completing his culinary triumph, he felt like this:

Fast forward 35 minutes and I’m presently at my work desk and miserable. Thoughts of running to the restroom to vomit are racing through my head.”

I think it’s safe to say that the Big MacChicken experiment, while impressive, was not a success. Try at your own risk.

Check back for our own in-office Big MacChicken challenge next week!

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For those of us almost teetolers out there, McAuliflower at Brownie Points has just done something incredibly wicked. She just posted a recipe for “Homemade Bacon Vodka,” and then actually suggests giving it away as a gift. I know! As if!

I know that vodka doesn’t really go with ice cream in general but I’m thinking that bacon vodka and bacon ice cream would be like the Superman and Robin of culinary pairings, not to mention the best dessert ever (ice-cream being Superman in this scenario).

McAuliflower has once again proved what we all know (except vegetarians, but especially flexarians!); bacon makes everything better. She deserves our thanks.

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Spring has sprung and the artichoke is definitely the vegetable of the week. As a fan of the artichoke I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of tasty looking artichoke recipe posts this week. Here’s an artichoke round-up from some of our favorite blogs (besides ours of course):

Susan the Food Blogga wrote a great post this past week on “How to Clean, Cook, and Eat and Artichoke.” I prefer a dab of mayonnaise on my artichoke leaves, but seasoned with lemon and olive oil sounds like a much healthier alternative. By the way, congratulations to Susan on her NPR piece.

If you’re itchin’ for a new and unique artichoke recipe check out both the Artichokes and Rhubarb and Artichoke and Brown Butter Gnocchi recipes from Ideas in Food; both look pretty tasty.

I came across yet another artichoke post on Eddybles.com. This recipe for Walnut, Bacon and Rice Stuffed Artichokes (pictured above) looks delicious; can’t wait to try this one out.

Mark Bittman, of The New York Times Blog Bitten, posted a recipe for Shaved Artichoke Salad. Mark writes:

Artichokes make everything else taste better — they contain a compound called cynarin, which stimulates taste bud receptors and makes even mediocre food delicious.”

Here’s another great recipe for Risotto Della Lunigiana: Mushroom, Sausage, and Artichoke Risotto from the Chef2Chef.net recipes section. I have tried this one and it’s very good (as long as you don’t mind stirring).

Please share your favorite artichoke recipes!

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So apparently slow food has nothing to do with crockpots. My bad. I know people that insist on cooking everything on low heat for hours (green bean mush, anyone?), but the slow food movement has nothing to do with that, either!

According to a fabulous slow food article on Chef2Chef this month, the ideals of slow food are:

• Food should taste good and eating should be a pleasurable activity.
• Food should be produced in a clean, environmentally-friendly manner that promotes good health. Eco-gastronomy, or the intimate connection between what’s on the plate and our planet’s well-being, is emphasized.
• Producers of food should be fairly compensated for their work.
• Consumers of food are considered co-producers who should be informed about and supportive of sustainable food production efforts.

Fresh, organic, locally grown food healthfully prepared is in, and McDonald’s is out.

But really, so much of American life depends on fast food, not just fast food restaurants. Who has the time with 40+ hour work weeks (excluding commute time) to make it to the supermarket a few times a week, much less the local farmer’s market? Throw in a spouse, kids, pets, maintaining a house, and what do you do? And then try to compost, and recycle, and take yoga to find your inner balance, and somehow find time to cook a healthy, tasty meal from scratch with fresh produce and organic meat? Crazycakes, I say.

According to the SlowFoodUSA blog, because it’s Earth Day today, I should plant a garden to have my veggies at my fingertips to make lunch or dinner in minutes. I just looked at my office bamboo plant, and it’s looking a little worse for the wear. Can I really be trusted with tomatoes, or (heaven forbid) escarole?

And LifeBeginsAt30’s blog assures me in her 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food that eating locally can protect me from bio-terrorism, something I wasn’t even afraid of until JUST. NOW.

I’m more inclined to agree with Alanna Kellogg on this. “Buying locally” is the way to go–not just food, but books and other products as well. Since we all can’t have gardens, attempting to buy only locally grown or made products in the age of globalization is a feat until itself for many of us.

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Fine, I’ll admit it. I am not a big fan of beets. At all. I had a very traumatic borsht incident as a child. Go ahead and laugh, but just keep the borsht very, very far away from me, okay?

I know it’s getting close to the season for them, but they just keep showing up at an alarming rate. I have received four, FOUR!, beet recipes in my inbox in the last week. And while I was checking out some of my favorite food blogs, there they were again.

Beet gnocchi, of all things, from La Tartine Gourmande. I’ve seen many a beet gnocchi recipe (complete with Play-doh pink dough pics), but her gorgeous pictures somehow made it seem perfectly natural, and even rather chic, to eat hot pink pasta with a pistachio, arugula, and basil pesto.

Picture from La Tartine Gourmande

And the so-very-lovely Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey? has a Baked Beetroot with Apple Horseradish Dip that I could definitely handle.

Picture from What’s For Lunch, Honey?

Perhaps even the Roasted Beet Salad from Closet Cooking is doable, but that might be the generous use of bleu cheese. Everything is better with bleu cheese!

I found some very interesting beet recipes in the comments for the Gluten-Free Girl’s blog post this week on, you guessed it, beets! Beet pesto, beet risotto, and beets over rice with cilantro and chili.

How about it? Do you have any beet recipes for me?

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When you’re gluten-free, dining out options are limited. Italian retaurants are usually a no-no, but gluten-free options are easy to find in ethnic cuisine like Mexican, Indian, Thai (it’s all about the rice noodles!), and, of course, sushi.

When I go out to eat with my friend with celiac disease (no gluten for her!), we usually wind up at one of our favorite Indian restaurants. Everything comes with rice! You just have to make sure that they don’t add flour to their curry gravies to thicken them up.

One of her favorite Indian dishes are dosas, a type of South Indian crepe. They are perfect for celiacs because they are usually made of rice flour and chickpea flour. Plus you can stuff them with all sorts of lovely things.

Confession: I’ve never attempted to make a dosa. With all the amazing Indian places nearby, why would I? But after a quick search online this morning, I found a ton of dosa recipes that seem easy and yummy.

Mansi at Fun and Food has a great gluten-free spinach-onion recipe that I am dying to try this weekend. Cooking 4 All Seasons has an Aloo Dosa recipe that looks divine.

Dosa pic from Fun and Food

And this guy kinda scares me, but he seems to be really excited about making dosas.

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As you would expect, the topic of what makes a vegetarian a vegetarian has generated a lively discussion on Accidental Hedonist. Apparently, people are labeling themselves “vegetarian inclined” these days, or at least the Vegetarian Times survey is. Is that different than a flexitarian?

Asking the “vegetarian inclined” what a vegetarian actually is will bring up all sorts of culinary, health, and ethical issues. Can you be a vegetarian and eat fish? How about eggs? Milk?

The consensus in the comments at Accidental Hedonist seems to be that you cannot eat fish and still be a vegetarian, but you can eat dairy products because animals do not have to be killed to produce them. I guess that’s where vegans come in. But things can get confusing with additional degrees of vegetarianism like pesce-vegetarianism, lacto-vegetarianism, and ovo-vegetarianism. I kind of like the comment by Mithrandir who thinks it’s easier to think about everyone’s eating choices as dietary restrictions–some voluntary, others required. However, the vegetarians I know would not be comfortable with having their eating choices labeled as required. It’s the choice not to eat foods made from animal products that sets them apart.

What do you think about the idea of being “vegetarian inclined?”

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Today’s culinary enthusiast is overly obsessed with fresh ingredients. The fact is “fresh ingredients” carry all sorts of bacteria and diseases unnoticeable to the human eye; take for example bird flu, salmonella, and the Ebola virus. One may argue that if these “fresh ingredients” are cleaned and cooked the risk of transmitting diseases is minimal. Well, I’ve got a better idea; trust the science of food preservation and try going a week using only the freshest of aerosol alternatives.

Following are a few advancements in culinary technology that you’ll no longer be able to live without:

We’ll start with my favorite, Batter Blaster! If you have a hankering for pancakes but don’t want to deal with the usual time and mess associated with preparation, check out this canister of colossal culinary prestige!

PAM the pan, gently spray the batter onto your skillet, and watch as a beautiful pancake forms in front of your eyes. The best thing about it: not only is it organic, clean up is minimal. Simply clean the nozzle, put the can back in the fridge, and your batter is already ready for your next pancake party.

Another wonder of the aerosol revolution is a well-known and long time favorite, Kraft Easy Cheese. I don’t really want to call it cheese because Easy Cheese is superior to blocked cheese in almost every way:

• You don’t have to cut it
• Clean up is virtually non-existent, and…
• It can be easily sprayed onto virtually everything (perfect for pancakes)

The final pressurized cylinder of sweet sensation is Reddi Wip. Remember the days of popping the top off the Reddi Wip canister and slowly overflowing your mouth with that lovable whipped topping? I do (it was yesterday).

Anyways, good luck conquering the cans this week. If you need a little extra motivation check out aerosol mashed potatoes reported on by ModernMechanix Blog, or the wide variety of aerosol essence from the Flavor Spray Diet.

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