Something's Cooking

Top Chef is back and it's placing bets in Las Vegas. The sixth season begins with 16 very talented and diverse chefs. Here's a look at the culinary artists, who will be cooking up drama, cuisine, and much more in Sin City.

Preeti Mistry

Age: 33
Hometown: San Francisco, Calif.
Profession: Executive Chef, Google, Bon Appetit ManAgement Company
Culinary Education: Le Cordon Bleu, London
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Fennel Crust Marin Sun Farms’ Rack of Lamb, Saffron Parsnip Puree, Heirloom Carrot and English Pea Ragout with Pinot Noir Reduction
Foodie Fact: Preeti’s commitment to seasonality, and her relationship with small local farmers are at the core of her cuisine. If she were a food, what food would she be? “I would be a green zebra tomato – extremely distinctive from all the others, a little hard on the outside, but pure love at the center.”

Ash Fulk

Age: 29
Hometown: Pleasant Hill, Calif. – currently resides in New York City
Profession: Sous Chef at Trestle on Tenth
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Grilled Corn on the Cob with Mayonnaise – with a sweet tea to wash it down.
Foodie Fact: Fulk enjoys working with foods that are regional and seasonal and follows the motto "if it grows together, it goes together." Ash enjoys whipping up custards and cooking with leeks, and some of his favorite chefs include Dan Barber and Claudia Fleming.

Eli Kirshtein

Age: 25
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.
Profession: Executive Chef, Eno Restaurant and Wine Bar
Culinary Education: A.O.S. Culinary Arts, C.I.A
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Sous-Vide Octopus, Watermelon, Lemon Vinegar, and Nasturtiums
Foodie Fact: Kirshtein worked at restaurant Fishbone under Chef Richard Blais before moving to New York to attend school at the Culinary Institute of America. After graduation, Kirshtein returned to Atlanta to reunite with Blais, as Sous Chef at One, Midtown Kitchen.

Michael Isabella

Age: 34
Hometown: North Jersey – currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Profession: Executive Chef, Zaytinya
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Squash Blossoms
Foodie Fact: Isabella has traveled far and wide to perfect his culinary technique. While traveling through Greece and parts of the Middle East, he picked up the slight flavors and nuances of Greek cuisine. His favorite dish to prepare is octopus!

Jennifer Zavala

Age: 31
Hometown: Cromwell, Conn. – currently resides in Philadelphia, Pa.
Profession: Sous Chef, Xochitl
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Fiddle Head Ferns Sauteed in Butter Garlic Wine and Crushed Red Pepper.
Foodie Fact: Zavala is all about bringing "border food" to the city of Brotherly love, and takes great pride in her ability to cook Latino food - particularly Norteña and Tejas cuisines. She would have her last meal with Julia Child, and she'd let Julia do the cooking!

Eve Aronoff

Age: 40
Hometown: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Profession: Chef-Owner, Eve
Culinary Education: Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Salad of Ripe Tomatoes, Avocado, Red Onion and Fresh Lime – with Mozzarella di Bufala and some good bread
Foodie Fact: Aronoff has showcased a multi-course dinner before The James Beard Foundation, she's the author of her own cookbook - Eve: Contemporary Cuisine Methode Traditionelle - and she served as a delegate to Terra Madre, the bi-annual international slow food meeting in Italy.

Ashley Merriman

Age: 32
Hometown: Center Sandwich, N.H. – currently resides in Seattle, Wash.
Profession: Chef at Branzino in Seattle, Wash.
Culinary Education: Institute of Culinary Education, New York, N.Y.
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Pan-Fried Soft Shell Crabs with Ramps and Morels
Foodie Fact: You don't have to become a chef if you hail from a town named Center Sandwich, but don't tell that to Ashley Merriman. Merriman five kitchen must-haves are quality extra virgin olive oil, champagne vinegar, lemons and thyme.

Bryan Voltaggio

Age: 33
Hometown: Frederick, Md.—currently resides in Urbana, Md.
Profession: Chef/Partner, VOLT Restaurant
Culinary Education: A.O.S Culinary Arts, C.I.A.
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Marinated Grilled Hanger Steak, Silver Queen Corn and Fava Bean Succotash, Cherokee Purple Heriloom Tomatoes, Rick’s Arugula
Foodie Fact: Voltaggio has become a strong advocate for meats, seafood, and produce that are local, sustainable and organic. He explains, “Through our choice of ingredients we become engaged in more than creating a great dining experience, but in supporting local agriculture.”

Michael Voltaggio

Age: 30
Hometown: Frederick, Md. – currently resides in Los Angeles, Calif.
Profession: Chef de Cuisine at The Dining Room, Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa
Culinary Education: The Greenbrier Hotel Culinary Apprenticeship Program
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Soft Poached Egg with Morel Mushrooms, Fava Beans, Jamon Iberico Consommé
Foodie Fact: Voltaggio has quite the impressive resume, with a number of culinary awards, include the "AAA 55 Diamond" and "Mobil Award." In addition, he was finalist for the James Beard "Best New Restaurant" award.

Kevin Gillespie

Age: 26
Hometown: Atlanta, Ga.
Profession: Executive Chef & Partner, Woodfire Grill
Culinary Education: Art Institute of Atlanta
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Creamed silver queen corn with a warm salad of small tomatoes and pole beans.
Foodie Fact: Name a prestigious restaurant in Atlanta, and Gillespie has probably worked there. He's held positions at Atlanta Grill at The Ritz-Carlton, Two Urban Licks, and Woodfire Grill. Gillespie's kitchen is never without banyuls vinegar, smoked pork, espelette pepper, lemon oil and lard, and if Gillespie had to pick a favorite junk food, it would be hot wings.

Mattin Noblia

Age: 29
Hometown: Biarritz, France – currently resides in San Francisco, Calif.
Profession: Owner, Iluna Basque
Culinary Education: C.A.P. de cuisine in southern France, the Basque Region
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Grilled Sardines and Fresh Tomato Sauce, or Boudin Noire with Caramelized Apples, or Stuffed Calamari in Ink Sauce over Rice
Foodie Fact: Noblia became enamored with cooking as a small boy watching his mother prepare “piment d’ espelette” –Basque chili. Noblia admires French chefs Hubert Keller and Rolland Passot, but for his last meal, Mattin would cook a candle-lit dinner for two for himself and Jessica Alba.

Robin Leventhal

Age: 43
Hometown: Sun Valley, Idaho – currently resides in Seattle, Wash.
Profession: Chef, Artist and Teacher
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad with a great piece of fish or meat.
Foodie Fact: Robin discovered her passion for food while pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts. The chef/artist currently uses her cooking and culinary connections to help raise money for Lymphoma research.

Jennifer Carroll

Age: 33
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pa.
Profession: Chef de Cuisine 10 Arts by Eric Ripert
Culinary Education: The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College, Philadelphia
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Compressed Watermelon, Chesapeake Bay Jumbo Lump Crab, Fennel Pollen and Wild Boar Prosciutto Chips
Foodie Fact: Carroll's culinary star is on the rise - she was personally selected by Chef Ripert as the Chef de Cuisine of 10 Arts at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. After a long day in the kitchen, Carroll likes to kick back late night with a great sandwich.

Jesse Sandlin

Age: 30
Hometown: Baltimore, Md.
Profession: Executive Chef, Abacrombie Fine Foods
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Julienned Summer Squash Tossed with Lemon, Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, and a Little Bit of Butter
Foodie Fact: She may be young, but Jesse has spent 14 years working in professional kitchens everywhere from Maryland to Australia. She's trained under chefs Andre Tescher and Kurt Spataro, and you can always find Bacon, butter, duck fat, cumin and trash bags in her kitchen!

Hector Santiago

Age: 41
Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico – currently resides in Atlanta, Ga.
Profession: Chef-Owner, Pura Vida ~ Latino Tapas Restaurant & Bar
Culinary Education: AOS Culinary Arts, Culinary Institute of America
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Charcoal Grilled Skirt steak with a Vegetable Ceviche (celery, radishes, tomatoes and whatever else is available from local farmers)
Foodie Fact: Santiago has a long list of culinary accolades - including two James Beard nominations for "Best Chef, Southeast." Santiago hopes to raise the cultural awareness of Latin American products and cuisine, and is currently working on a hot pepper-inspired culinary venture he refers to as "taming the heat."

Ron Duprat

Age: 40
Hometown: Mare Rouge, Haiti—currently resides in Hollywood, Fla. and Naples, Fla.
Profession:: Executive Chef
Culinary Education: College Aimee Cesaire and La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Jumbo Scallop, Sweet Chili Tahini Sauce, Watermelon and Avocado Slaw.
Foodie Fact: Duprat is known for daring experimentation with exotic flavors, often incorporating his own Haitian Creole influences with French-Asian Fusion cuisine. His favorite dish to prepare? Flourless chocolate cake.

Laurine Wickett

Age: 38
Hometown: Rochester, N.Y. – currently resides in San Francisco, Calif.
Profession: Chef / Owner Left Coast Catering
Culinary Education: A.O.S Culinary Arts, C.I.A
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Grilled corn salad with summer beans and chanterelles
Foodie Fact: Wickett began her catering career preparing dinners for the executives of Silicon Valley. She went on to become the chef and owner of Left Coast Catering - preparing cuisine based on the hodgepodge of cultures found in the San Francisco Bay Area.

There Will be (More) Blood

Why True Blood Doesn't Suffer From the Sophomore Slump
Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Samantha Who?. Television series like these received such a big buzz during their first seasons, but headed south the second year around. And there is a large dossier of other shows that have fallen under this same fate. But not True Blood. Its sophomore season is filled to the brim with great writing, the perfect amount of drama, and terrifying characters.

Why it Sucks You in (Pardon the Pun)
It glamours us with story lines. True Blood does a wonderful job of making sure each episode brings you in at the show's opening before completely shutting you out by the credits. Is Layfayette going to become a vampire? Is Sam really going to die by a sacrificial killing??? Did Luke just blow everyone up??????? These questions are left to ponder through seven torturous days. True Blood fans are actually counting down to Sunday night--even though the workweek begins come sunrise (vampires have all the luck).

What Lies Ahead:
Great upcoming stars. Evan Rachel Wood makes her appearance on August 30, playing the vampire leader of Louisiana: Queen Sophie Ann. "Nobody’s ever entirely happy to see her," series creator Alan Ball tells Entertainment Weekly. "She’s very powerful, capricious, and most likely insane." And she's around the rest of this season--and the next one, too (which means True Blood has been picked up for a third season. Yay!).

The Eric/Sookie/Bill love triangle. This is a big arc in the True Blood book series and Ball promises that we will see it on the small screen...soon! Just another reason to look forward Sunday nights!


If you have not become a fang-banger, it's never too late. The first season is available on DVD and iTunes and the second season is also available on iTunes and can be viewed On Demand for Comcast customers.

New Moon Sneak Peek

This 14-second clip airs this weekend before Band Slam viewings. I know, I know. I'm a big nerd. But here you go...

Awesome Ausiello

Since June 2008, Michael Ausiello is why I am such a big Entertainment Weekly fan. He is in tune with what defines great television and supports the little shows that could (Chuck!). Here are the links to some of his interviews at the annual press tours, which promote the upcoming fall television seasons.

For The Office gossip:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=31798222001&bctid=32420416001

For a sneak peek at Chuck:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=31798222001&bctid=32420421001

On the big hookup on Bones:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=8902304001&bctid=7243112001

What's next for Fringe:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=8902304001&bctid=7203982001

Two words: Will Arnett:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=8902304001&bctid=7118675001

A look at Scrubs:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=1675979320&bctid=1675939905

Dollhouse Happenings:
http://www.ew.com/ew/video/ausiello_tv?bcpid=1670076574&bclid=8902304001&bctid=7066564001

Mad World

Set the DVRs for August 16, because AMC's Emmy-winning series Mad Men is back and better than ever. To celebrate its premiere, Vanity Fair shot a beautiful editorial with actors Jon Hamm and January Jones, who play the tumultuous husband-wife duo on this hit series. And, of course, it was the legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz who shot them in these dramatic elements. Check out the beautiful images below...

Celebrating Mr. Hughes

His scripts spoke to a generation. His direction turned unknown actors into iconic characters. His name was John Hughes and he will be terribly missed.

Hughes wrote such memorable films as Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The Brat Pack read their lines like the prose of a teenager in The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles (films he both wrote and directed). Molly Ringwald wouldn't have been, well, Molly Ringwald without Hughes.

A tidbit of trivia: For certain films, he used the pen name Edmond Dantès, a homage to the protagonist from Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo. These movies included Beethoven and Maid in Manhattan.

All in all, Mr. Hughes was a visionary that left a memorable mark on Hollywood. There will never be another one like him. Here's a look at some of his memorable scenes.


The Breakfast Club:




Sixteen Candles:




Pretty in Pink:




Ferris Bueller's Day Off:




She's Having a Baby:




Some Kind of Wonderful:




Planes, Trains & Automobiles:









Home Alone:




National Lampoon's European Vacation:




Weird Science:

Bringing Back Summer

(500) Days of Summer: The Review

There's something so thrilling about the prospect of an inventive and original film hitting movie theaters during a time of tired sequels and lackluster comedies. And as the lights dimmed and the first scene was revealed, it was obvious that (500) Days of Summer was this type of film--and so much more.

The novelty that this film carries is endless, beginning with the script. Writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber create pure and original dialogues that you watch with a stew of jealousy. As the story unravels about a boy named Tom who falls in love with a girl and figuratively dies on impact, you sit in your seat just wishing you had thought of it first. Fitting of the title, the story spans over 500 days of Tom's love, laughter, tears, and confusion with a girl named Summer. But don't expect it to take place chronologically. No, it switches back and forth from the highs and lows of their relationship: from the euphoric couple on Day 32 to the stormy destruction Day on 288. This film was what many wished from the film Revolutionary Road--to properly catalogue the demise of a relationship from the early happy moments to the later not-so-happy ones.

And you couldn't have asked for two more qualified actors to portray Tom and Summer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gone somewhere few child actors go--film success in adulthood. He is the king of indie films, with memorable roles in films like Havoc and The Lookout. And he continues his streak with (500) Days of Summer. Gordon-Levitt successfully captured the rose-colored innocence of Tom, whose character whole-heartedly believes in fate and that one true love. Through Tom's blissful stroll/musical number through the park (a cartoon bird is involved, natch) and his depressed state amongst black and white penciled environment, Gordon-Levitt presents a lovable and real character that you root for.

Zooey Deschanel is a breath of fresh and beautiful air. With her innocent appeal and quirky wardrobe, Deschanel perfectly captures the lust and appeal Summer has over Tom. And for audiences, it is easy to see why Tom succumbs to her will. The camera desperately loves her. With her smooth as silk voice, dark cascading hair, and quirky style, Deschanel has this classic Hollywood look that has been missing for decades. Not to mention she is also a very talented singer and songwriter (if you haven't heard her avant-garde voice, not to worry. She belts out karaoke in the film). She is a rare beauty whose beautiful blue eyes will grace silver screens for years to come.

The dark horse of the film is Tom's geeky best friend McKenzie. Actor Geoffrey Arend was well cast in this film. His mix of quirkiness and addiction to karaoke comes off as lovable and entertaining. Most of the film's laughs come from Arend.

Another shining star is the director, Marc Webb. This is his first big venture (he previously has directed music videos) and it was a big success. For a film that could have come off as trying too hard, he brings it down a notch and makes it lovable and real. He successfully nurtured a chemistry between Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel and gave them characters traits that define human connection. Their mannerisms and actions encapsulate what any lover would do in their position. From his camera close-ups of Summer's eyes to his slow deconstruction of Tom, Webb creates a film of utter beauty.

All in all, (500) Days of Summer is not one to miss. On rare occasions do films like this strike a chord with both the romantic and skeptics. And this film does so in the most original way. You will never want Summer to be over.

Here are some clips from the film to whet your appetite:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Here is another bonus: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and director Marc Webb teamed up again for a She & Him music video, which is Deschanel and boyfriend M. Ward's band. It's cute and quirky. Check it out...