Crab Boil–Santa Fe Style
When Chef Dakota Weiss celebrates with her family, she brings her wealth of food knowledge together with her savvy know-how to bring […]
Is My Chili Good Enough to Win a Competition?
Promise. This is the last of my question blogs. I intended posting three separate question-blogs to stir up some social heat. The third question eluded me–although the temptation to ask if my morals were lesser than yours kept stirring about in my head like a steaming bowl of beans. The bowl of beans analogy, along with an invitation to judge a community chili cook-off enlightened the third—and possibly—the most important of my three question-blogs: “ Is My Chili Good Enough to Win […]
Pressure Cooking: Duck and Cover or Relax?
1956: Blub, blub, blub. Wheeze, whistle, spit. KABOOM! A silver lid with an attached gauge becomes a projectile and looks like a flying saucer shooting forth from its aluminum pot base. Scalding hot water takes to the air. Someone screams, “Oh, my God,” in the background, followed by a 3-pound beef brisket that explodes like the A-bomb tests out in the Nevada desert. A mushroom cloud of brown meat rises above the white Westinghouse range. Shrapnel-like bits of beef plaster themselves to […]
Now I’ve A Soon-To-Be Celebrity Cat
Author’s Note: Here’s the link to the podcast on Animal Radio http://animalradio.com/top.php The interview begins at 00:33:20 Before the day’s commotion begins I like to rise ahead of the sun and either soak under the stars in the hot tub or spend quiet moments in a chair in mindful contemplation. Don’t get too impressed with this early riser routine of mine. It’s a reluctant pleasure. Today’s late winter morning, in the 5 a.m. neighborhood, and the day after some serious gardening, […]
Sit Back–Enjoy The Show–Nosh Venison Sliders
Author’s note: This is a continuation of a series of blogs about the experience of watching my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, make her way through Bravo TV’s Top Chef Texas, currently airing on Wednesday nights. Over 250 Los Angeles chefs and restaurant industry professionals swarmed the W, Westwood (where Dakota is executive chef) this week for a red carpet roll out of Dine LA 2012. What’s this to do with my daughter-on-Top-Chef series? Read on. News cameras rolled and media photographers clicked […]
It’s Trite, But Winning Top Chef Isn’t “Everything”
Author’s note: This is a continuation of a series of blogs about the experience of watching my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, make her way through Bravo TV’s Top Chef Texas, currently airing on Wednesday nights. Check for updates at bottom of post. “June Gloom” also known as a “thick marine layer” that typically hangs over California’s coast during June, lasted most of the summer. It was the kind of summer when I wore fleece instead of gauze while Dakota, in the hellish […]
Top Chef Texas–Dakota’s Sauce Sinks and Gazpacho Flies
Ah, it’s holiday time in LA. Lit like drunken fireflies, 50-foot yachts cruise the harbors at night. Steaming sweet tamales delight the air above a Los Posadas procession on Olvera Street. Scientology Santa greets menorah lighting Santa in Hollywood. Ice skating hotel guests, in shorts and tank tops, slip, spin and slide on synthetic ice in the 70-degree sun over the pool at the W, Westwood.
My Top Chef Cheftestant Kid Plays With Food
Author’s note: This is a continuation of a series of blogs about the experience of watching my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, make her way through Bravo TV’s Top Chef Texas, currently airing on Wednesday nights. Early in Dakota’s career she worked under the chef de cuisine at The Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas. There she met and observed celebrity chef Dean Fearing. This was a natural transition from her time with chef Mark Miller and his chef de cuisine, Jeff […]
Cowboy Up & Ride This Rodeo Called Top Chef, Dear Daughter.
Author’s note: This is a continuation of a series of blogs about the experience of watching my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, make […]
Chef Dakota Weiss & Her Top Chef “Mother Effin” Snakes
Author’s note: This is a continuation of a series of blogs about the experience of watching my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, make her way through Bravo TV’s Top Chef Texas, currently airing on Wednesday nights. Spring break at Scottsdale Culinary Institute gave my daughter, Chef Dakota Weiss, now a Top Chef Season 9 contestant, time to stay with us in our northern New Mexico log house in the middle of an apple orchard. Beautiful place. True to the Top Chef public relation […]
The Muse Pallet 