CBS has CSI; NBC has Law and Order. Both have spun off myriad incarnations.
FOX has Gordon Ramsey. Hells, Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Cookalong, and coming later this year Masterchef.
Masterchef is another BBC import, and turns amateur but passionate cooks into cheftestants, competing against each other, until only one is left.
I am going to be attending a casting call in San Francisco later this month, bringing the elements to plate a prepared dish with five minutes preparation – a different thermos for each part of the dish, presentation plate, spoon, tongs, cutting board, knife, steel, towels, napkin.
I’m bringing my involtini on polenta with homemade Italian red sauce, and a bottle of red wine. I think wine is part of a meal, and ingredient of the dish. So I’ll also be bringing wine, corkscrew, and wineglass as well as all of the food pack. I think I may look for a cooler with wheels and handle.
I’m hoping my brother auditions in either New Orleans or Los Angeles, we could be the Masterchef version of Top Chef’s Voltaggio brothers.
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I applied for a fellowship award to attend this year’s Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley, February 16-19, 2010.
On the Symposium website’s page for Fellowship Opportunities, it says, “awardees will be notified by telephone and or e-mail by January 8, 2010, and their names will be posted on the Fellowship page at the Symposium website…those who are not awardees will be notified by e-mail.”
Last night, looking at the site’s page for registration, I found the statement, “Fellowship recipients will be notified by January 15, 2010.”
I thought I would know whether the writing samples I provided scored well enough with five judges to earn a Fellowship award by tomorrow, and I was already antsy, anxious, at waiting. Now I think I may have to wait another week before finding out my fate.
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I did win two tickets to a terrific food and wine tasting Friday evening, February 19, 2010 (and yes, I can attend the Symposium and tasting on February 19, 2010), Dark & Delicious 2010 in Alameda, CA. Dark & Delicious pairs Petite Sirah from great producers with foods prepared by some of the top chefs in the Bay Area.
I am hugely excited to taste great wines and foods, I love Petite Sirah, so this is right up my alley. I am also going to get to meet some other wine bloggers, including Eric Hwang. Eric handles social media marketing for Windsor Vineyards, I used to handle tradeshow marketing for Windsor Vineyards.
I think there might be a few tickets left, here’s the link to info: http://psiloveyou.org/dd10/
Thank you Jo Diaz for running a ticket contest.
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The mailman has been busy. I received the winter issue of Washington Tasting Room, an attractive, colorful new wine magazine, featuring beautiful photography and solid written content. Recipes, feature articles on selected wineries, a tasting room calendar of special events, and wine columns make this a worthy stand out magazine. I love that the writing puts me right in some of Washington’s tasting rooms, tasting wines; my wine knowledge is limited to California wines, mostly north coast wines, so any magazine that can educate me while entertaining is a must read.
I loved reading about Yakima’s downtown restaurants waiving corkage fees for folks who bring a wine bought that day from a neighboring downtown Yakima tasting room. The news piece quotes a restaurant owner “We’ll wash two glasses any day to sell more dinners…the program is working. The wineries love it and they’re sending customers our way.”
Thanks to John Vitale for sending me this complimentary copy.
From the Wine Appreciation Guild, I received Dr. Richard Baxter’s “Age Gets Better With Wine.” You’ll read my review when I read it – I’m in the middle of a novel so embarrassingly trashy I won’t share the title. I’ve skimmed Age Gets Better With Wine, and I look forward to getting into it soon; with 20 pages of references listed, it appears to be a solid work, and yet my skim suggested a user friendliness. More later.
Also from the Wine Appreciation Guild, I received a new wine preservation system. I am half way through my evaluation of the product and will post a review over the weekend.
Thanks to the Wine Appreciation Guild.
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Completely not related to wine or food, the mailman also delivered a package from a good friend Mike Jasper. The outside of the package was torn, trampled, dirty, cut, a letter of apology from the post office was included. The contents appear perfect however. Jasper sent me a boxed set of 4 discs covering the complete season one of A&E’s Rollergirls. I think Jasper actually knows some of the girls, and when visiting him a while back, we watched an episode and I was stunned by the “there is room on television for anything” aspect of the show’s existence. I am delighted to receive this fine gift, although it will likely wait some time before I view it.
Jasper also sent the October 2009 issue of Playboy so I could read the feature on the 1970s Oakland Raiders.
While I might read this issue of Playboy for the articles, I’m pretty sure my 12 year old son wouldn’t even glance at the Raider article, so I have to put this away.
Thanks Jasper.
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I was just going to put a pair of tri tips on the grill, when I got a call from my local grocery…my order of pork belly is available for me to pick up. Hurray, this is going to be a great week of eating in the Cesano house.
I’m thinking of trying Top Chef cheftestant Kevin Gillespie’s pork belly recipe.
As always, I’ll let you know how it goes.
January 7, 2010 at 2:06 PM
Wow John, your audition sounds incredibly exciting and from the sounds of it, you’ve thought of every detail. I’m thrilled and delighted for you (kind of a secret dream of mine I guess)! My wishes for the best of luck with that (and your brother too!). I hope you hear back about your fellowship soon and I hope it’s good news, you are certainly worthy!! Enjoy your Playboy articles, I’m sure they’ll be very stimulating reading 😉 Cheers to good eating!
January 7, 2010 at 5:30 PM
You’re welcome. More tickets are still available. They’re $60… three hours of GREAT food and Amazing wine (PS), FREE PARKING, no gratuity… did I mention FREE parking?
January 7, 2010 at 6:08 PM
Good luck with the audition and the wine writers symposium!
January 7, 2010 at 10:19 PM
Thanks Tamara, Jo and Vinogirl.
I certainly don’t expect to make it onto a FOX Gordon Ramsey cooking show, but I can cook, the experience will be a blast, and the next day’s blog entry practically writes itself.
Waiting to hear about the Symposium is, well just waiting, something I’ve never been good at.
In addition to the fantastic Petite tasting in February, I confirmed a blind tasting pitting Sonoma County vs. Napa County Zinfandels late this month in Rutherford. Now I have to try to arrange a tasting and meet with Jon and Julie of Tres Sabores earlier for that same day.
More great news in my search for great wines that don’t break the bank; many others have been been out blazing trails, and there is a great book with 150 recommendations to help me.
http://www.thewinetrials.com/
I’ll taste things myself, but it is nice to have some of the work done already. Of course, I’ll be tasting other wines independently; it isn’t about work as much as it is about the experience of exploration and the joy of finding treasures.
Continued thanks for all of your support and kind comments.
January 12, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Just wanted to let you know I went to the New York auditions and it was nothing like I expected so I wanted to give you heads up. I thought it would be like a one on one. Nope–you will be asked to stand with up to 8 others at one time to plate and they go down the line and you have maybe two minutes with them so back those two minutes good because I sure didn’t. My food rocked but felt I could have handled the Q&A better.
Good Luck
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January 24, 2010 at 9:01 PM
Thanks Hector, I hope you continue to visit.
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Note: TANSTAAFL = There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
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February 3, 2010 at 12:37 PM
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February 5, 2010 at 11:58 AM
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