Eat My Florida

Paula Deen will be in town tomorrow at the Florida Aquarium, brimming with “aw’ shucks” and butter. I could have devoted an entire blog post to the fact that this cooking demonstration, hosted by Publix’s Aprons Cooking School, costs $150, they had to limit the tickets to two per person and the the thing has been sold out for a while. She’s popular, no doubt.

Instead, though, I’ll just slap up a bunch of links documenting her ties to an oppressive organization known for intimidation, abuse and hogs. Yep, she’s the public face of Smithfield Ham.

Sure, Smithfield’s not the Khmer Rouge or Wal-Mart, but they apparently aren’t too nice to the fine workers in their North Carolina plant. And Deen, though confronted by information and questions about her ties to Smithfield numerous times, just brushes it off as the price of having a job. She even told Larry King that she’d meet with Smithfield worker organizers and discuss their concerns. She hasn’t, except under Smithfield’s aegis at their plant.

My favorite part of the whole controversy, though, is that chefs have been travelling around the country to her appearances and organizing picket lines. Do they hate Smithfield’s practices, or do they just hate Deen? Hard to tell.

For the record, I sort of like Deen, except for her ties to Smithfield. And her new show on the Food Network. She’s been rumored to chain smoke and swear like a sailor, so it’d likely be a blast to catch a beer and some hot wings with the ol’ union bustin’ lady.

Open invitation Paula, you hear? I’ll buy.

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In honor of this week’s upcoming Food Issue — The $20 Menu Challenge — EatMyFlorida will have a recipe o’ the day for the next ten days.

Our challenge to local chefs: Create at least three courses of wonderful food for two and keep the ingredients to under $20. Not too difficult for a home cook, maybe, but we wanted more. We wanted meals that are restaurant quality for all those being pinched by the economy who can’t afford as many nights out at the bistro as they could a few years ago. Exquisite food, light on the wallet. Turns out, that wasn’t too hard for most of the accomplished chefs who participated, either.

Today’s offering is from Elements Global Cuisine in Gulfport. Chef/owners Catherine and Jose Luis Pawelek went the extra mile by creating four menus, one for vegetarians, and three for meat and seafood eaters. Most of the dishes are not only easy for the home cook, they’re quick, with a lot of prepared ingredients bought from the supermarket. After the break is the first menu from Elements, an entirely vegetarian feast. (more…)

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Free wi-fi, refills and syrups begins today at Starbucks. Only two hours a day for the internet, and you have to sign up for their rewards program and buy some stuff, but kudos. My local ‘bucks just went 24 hours, so maybe I’ll use the free stuff after my favorite locally-owned coffee joint closes for the night. Their wi-fi has always been free.

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I’ve waxed mildly poetic about Tampa’s raw/vegan restaurant Grass Roots (the miso soup is worth a visit all by itself). I was less enthusiastic about Veggie Magic, a Sarasota raw food shop involving raw ambassador and amateur filmmaker Jenna Norwood. Hey, I support amping up everyone’s consumption of raw fruits and veggies, but on the whole I find this particular dietary fetish — no food cooked over 105-115 degrees, no flesh, no dairy — to be philosophically and scientifically flawed. More importantly, most of the “cuisine” created by raw chefs runs the gamut from blah to blecch.

That’s not stopping raw food impressario and culinary hottie Matthew Kenney from transplanting himself from progressive New York City to the most dreadful city in Florida. Yep, he’s opening a raw restaurant in Orlando called Cafe 118 (referring to the max temperature it’s food will reach). The place isn’t open yet, but the website already features a link for anyone interested in franchise opportunities. Before you jump on the burgeoning raw food bandwagon and start shelling out your uncooked dough, be forewarned that one of the reasons Kenney may be expanding out of his home base in NYC involves litigation and bankruptcy relating to some of his previous businesses. Whatever, Florida is all about second chances, right?

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Space beer, anyone?

A Japanese brewer is planning to brew beer using grain that descended from barley grown in space aboard the International Space Station.

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“The average mother of a child under 15 spends more on fast food every year than on books, music, movies and video games combined.” (NYT)

(Stolen from Serious Eats.)

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I’ve avoided the inevitable Top Chef blog posts this season because, well, there hasn’t been much to talk about. The crew of Bravo’s chef competition — set in Chicago this year — has got to be the blandest of the show’s four-year run, with challenges to match. I still watch the mild culinary drama, if only to see that evil-Lisa gets knocked out or to ponder how the three best chefs (Richard, Stephanie and Antonia) continue to be so darn upbeat, pleasant and polite. Curse them!

Last week, though, saw a teensy bit of controversy. The elimination challenge was held at Rick Tramonto’s high-end Tramonto’s Steak & Seafood, where cheftestants were supposed to create an appetizer and entree from what they found in the pantry and coolers. Eventual eliminee Spike (he’s from Clearwater!) had the ill-conceived notion of utilizing a bag of frozen scallops he found in the freezer. That’s a no-no, since frozen scallops almost inevitably turn out dry, rubbery and odd. These were no exception.

At the judges table, Spike continued his poor decision-making by calling out Tramonto for having the bag of scallopscicles in his kitchen in the first place. That’ll be good for your future job prospects, Spike.

Still, not a bad question. And Tramonto didn’t have a good explanation handy. Until now. Both he and Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio recently blogged explanations (Tom, Rick), claiming that some of the food was brought in just for the show. That sounds about right, wouldn’t want a reality TV competition to have to deal with a real restaurant kitchen, would we?

Coming up this week on Top Chef: someone wins! Don’t know who and — as long as it is not Lisa — don’t really care.

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