Guy Fieri Coffee - 'Flavortown Roasts' Coming Soon

Guy Fieri is launching a coffee line called 'Flavortown Roasts', which will be in stores soon.  In usual Guy fashion, he was pretty excited about the product, stating:

"Really good coffee’s always been super important to me. It’s gotta be the real deal with big bold flavors.  Over the past year, I’ve been working with an awesome team of coffee nuts to create a killer line that’s ready to rock! My fans are going to dig the huge taste, big aroma and funky flavors in my brand new collection.”

There will be eight different flavors of coffee, which will be available in K-cups.  The flavors with their actual descriptions are below:

•  Bananas Foster: Sweet banana, caramelized sugar and cinnamon flavors — brings me back to my days as a flambé captain!
•  Caramel Apple Bread Pudding: All the flavor from my righteous Caramel Apple Bread Pudding stuffed into your mug.
•   Chocolate Mint:  The rich and creamy taste of chocolate and cool, fresh mint is perfect any time of year.
•   Guy’s American Diner Blend: One thing you know about a diner is that they've got a great cup o' joe...so here you go!
•   Hazelnut Cinnamon Roll: Toasted hazelnut and big cinnamon flavors make this brew dessert in a mug.
•   Hot Fudge Brownie: My chocolate on chocolate Hot Fudge Brownie coffee comes to you straight from Flavortown!
•   Redwood Roast: Big, bold and strong like the mighty redwoods, this French roast will get your enginestarted.
•   Unleaded Decaf: Full of rich medium roast flavor, just packin' a little less horsepower.

Watch out Starbucks!

(Vending Market Watch)

Restaurant Impossible - Hillbillies Restaurant Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Murphys, California to makeover Hillbillies Restaurant.  Hillbillies is a failing breakfast and lunch spot that has decor consisting of rusty kitchen utensils on the wall and a dirty underwear clothesline hanging from the ceiling.  The owner Jami is supposedly a pushover, and Robert has to motivate her to become a successful business owner.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Hillbillies Restaurant to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):

'Beat Bobby Flay' Update - Premieres March 6th

Photo - Multivu

The Food Network issued a press release yesterday stating that Beat Bobby Flay will premiere on Thursday, March 6th at 10pm ET/PT on the Food Network.  The show will be an eight episode series and each episode will be a half-hour long.

When they were filming episodes of Beat Bobby Flay in December, I did a post about the judges, which included: Scott Conant, Katie Lee, Giada De Laurentiis, Sunny Anderson, Jonathan Waxman, Justin Warner, Eden Grinshpan, Brian Duffy, Michael Symon, Mo Rocca, Frank Prisinzano and Marco Canora.

After reading the press release, additional judges include: Anne Burrell, Alex Guarnaschelli, Simon Majumdar, Jack McDavid, and Ali Wentworth.

If you missed the pilot, the judges first must decide between 2 competitors who is a better fit to take on Bobby Flay.  Bobby then competes against that person, cooking his own version of the same dish, and the winner is decided by the judges after a blind taste test.


The press release about the show with the usual Bob Tuschman quote is below:

"BOBBY FLAY FACES OFF AGAINST CHEFS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN BRAND-NEW PRIMETIME COMPETITION SERIES "BEAT BOBBY FLAY"

Eight-Episode Series Premieres Thursday, March 6th at 10pm ET/PT

NEW YORK - January 27, 2014 - Skilled chefs compete for the opportunity to cook against culinary master Bobby Flay in the new eight-episode competition series Beat Bobby Flay, premiering Thursday, March 6th at 10pm ET/PT. The action starts with two talented cooks going head-to-head in a culinary battle using an ingredient of Bobby's choice, in front of a studio audience and a rotating cast of special guests, whose goal is to pick the challenger with the skills to potentially Beat Bobby Flay. The winner proceeds to round two for the ultimate food face-off against Bobby - but with an advantage: the contender makes their signature dish, and Bobby has only minutes to come up with his own interpretation of the dish. After a blind taste test, a panel of judges ultimately decides if the challenger has the chops to Beat Bobby Flay or if Bobby's food reigns supreme.

"Beat Bobby Flay aired as a special last year and viewers were immediately hooked. The show is fun and compelling - a heart racing competition with high expertise, infectious energy and a sense of humor, just like the man himself, "said Bob Tuschman, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Food Network.

In each thirty-minute, two-round episode, Bobby is joined by two culinary contenders who think they have what it takes to Beat Bobby Flay, along with a rotating cast of special guest duos who know him well. The visiting chefs compete against each other in round one using an ingredient of Bobby's choice - and it's the special guest's job to hand pick the contestant they believe can defeat him in his own kitchen. In round two, the winning chef battles Bobby with a distinct advantage - the challenger makes their signature dish, which will not be revealed to Bobby until the beginning of the round, and he must immediately come up with his own version. A judging panel then determines the winner based on a blind taste test. Special guests include Sunny Anderson, Anne Burrell, Scott Conant, Giada De Laurentiis, Eden Grinshpan, Alex Guarnaschelli, Katie Lee, Simon Majumdar, Jack McDavid, Mo Rocca, Michael Symon, Justin Warner, Jonathan Waxman and Ali Wentworth.

Viewers wanting more can visit FoodNetwork.com/BeatBobbyFlay for behind-the-scenes photos, interviews and more insider coverage.

Beat Bobby Flay is produced by Rock Shrimp Productions.

# # #

FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households and averages more than 9.9 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown more than 10 times and is now the second largest monthly magazine on the newsstand, with over 11.6 million readers. Headquartered in New York, Food Network has a growing international presence with programming in more than 150 countries, including 24 hour networks in Great Britain, India, Asia and Africa. Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), which also owns and operates Cooking Channel (www.cookingchanneltv.com), DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com), Great American Country (www.gactv.com), HGTV (www.hgtv.com), and Travel Channel (www.travelchannel.com), is the manager and general partner.

(Multivu)

Chopped Tournament of Stars Coming In March

Photo - Multivu

Beginning on March 9th at 9pm on the Food Network will be a Chopped tournament called Chopped Tournament of Stars.  The tournament will have 'sports stars' and 'celebrities' competing for $50,000 that will go to a charity of their choice.  It will be a 5 episode tournament, with sports stars, Rachael Vs Guy celebrities, actors, and comedians competing against each other, with the winners moving on to face each other in the final episode.  The 'stars' and 'celebrities' that will compete are below with a little bit about what they are known for:


Actors:

• Lucas Grabeel - Actor/Singer known for his role in High School Musical
• Michael Imperioli - Actor most known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos.
• Tasha Smith - Actress known for her role on Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse. Has also appeared on The Chew as a guest co-host.
• Peter Scolari - TV and film actor most known for his role on the show Newhart

Sports Stars:

• Jackie Joyner-Kersee - Olympic track and field athlete with 3 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze metals
• Greg Louganis - American Olympic diver with 4 gold medals
• Charles Oakley - Retired NBA basketball player for multiple teams, but most known for playing for the New York Knicks
• Brandi Chastain - Professional soccer player known for the game winning shootout goal  for the USA in the 1999 Women's World Cup where she ripped off her shirt and was in her sports bra.

Rachael vs Guy Celebrities:

• Coolio - Rapper, who also appeared on the first season of Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off (2nd place)
• Penn Jillette - Comedian/magician who is also on the current season of Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off
• Lou Diamond Phillips - Actor who won the first season of Rachael Vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off
• Carnie Wilson - Singer known for being in Wilson Phillips.  Appeared on season 2 of Rachael Vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off (2nd place).

Comedians:

• Sinbad - Comedian who also was on A Different World and The Sinbad Show
• Tommy Davidson - Comedian mostly known for role on In Living Color
• Gillian Vigman - Comedic actress who has appeared in small roles on both TV and film as well as many commercials.
• Robert Wuhl - Comedian/Actor most known for being the creator and star of Arliss on HBO.

Something tells me that many of these people competing could use the $50,000 for themselves.  The full press release with episode descriptions for Chopped Tournament of Stars is below:

Damaris Phillips' 'Southern at Heart' Renewed for 2nd Season (Updated - Now Official)

Photo - Food Network

Damaris Phillips, who was the winner of Food Network Star season 9, had her show Southern at Heart renewed for a 2nd season.  The 2nd season of Southern at Heart should premiere sometime in March in a Sunday morning timeslot.  Look for this season to have 13 episodes as most shows on the Food Network have 13 episodes after they get past the first season.

The proof that there will be another season is on the Food Network's website.  If you look at the episode guide for Southern at Heart, you see that there is a season 2 listed (pictured below).  No specific episodes are listed yet because the Food Network schedule is only updated through February right now.

Pretty much all of the recent winners of Food Network Star have had their show renewed for at least a 2nd season, with the exception being Justin Warner, who only got a 1-hour special.  Whether the format stays the same or is switched up a bit for the 2nd season remains to be seen.  Maybe there will be females as well as males being taught how to cook this season?


UPDATED 2/4/2014 - From a press release highlighting the March programming highlights on the Food Network, the renewal of Southern at Heart is now official.  The 2nd season will start Sunday, March 16th at 10am:

"Southern at Heart

Premiering Sunday, March 16th at 10am

Southern spitfire and season nine Food Network Star winner, Damaris Phillips, whips up her modern Southern cuisine in a second season. She highlights easy, approachable recipes designed to give viewers a personal look into her culinary style. She also visits local purveyors for seasonal ingredients, adding a contemporary edge and dressing up the traditional Southern fare, all the while keeping the food deliciously simple for at-home cooks."

'Rewrapped' - New Food Network Competition Show

Photo - Twitter

The Food Network is currently filming a new show that will be called Rewrapped.  The show is a spin-off of the long running show Unwrapped that was hosted by Marc Summers and has aired on the Food Network since 2001.

They were casting for Rewrapped back in November, and filming just started yesterday.  Marc Summers has posted a few pictures on Twitter of the filming of the show, which reveal a bit more information about it.  Joey Fatone is the host of the show, while Marc will be the head judge of every episode.

The show will be a competition type show, where competitors will try to recreate popular food products (think of the type of things that appeared on Unwrapped).  There will be a judging panel that determines who did the best job, and that person will be determined the winner of the episode.  Each episode will have a different food product and different competitors.  The winner of every episode will supposedly win a year's supply of the food product that they recreated, and look for the show to begin airing in early Spring.


Joey Fatone is the 2nd celebrity from Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off to turn an appearance on that show into a hosting gig (Dean McDermott is the host of Chopped Canada).  Also, from the picture above, you see that Katie Lee will be judging an episode of the show.  She will also be a judge on the upcoming series Beat Bobby Flay.  It appears that besides being on The Kitchen, Katie Lee will be appearing on the Food Network regularly. 

Food Network In The News

Photo - Food Network

• Have you ever wanted to see Bobby Flay do yoga?  Here is your chance in his latest episode of his web series Bobby Flay Fit. (Food Network)


• Guy's Grocery Games will be back for another season and the Food Network is looking for ideas for challenges on the show.  The comments range from people actually offering ideas, to others complaining about the show and there being too much Guy Fieri. (Food Network)


• Chopped judge Amanda Freitag's New York City restaurant recently opened in the Chelsea neighborhood.  The Empire Diner opened on January 7th, and Eater recently reviewed the restaurant and has some pictures of the food. (Eater)


• Alex Guarnaschelli shared 10 dishes that made her career.  She also shares a story about Puff Daddy coming to her Butter restaurant to drop off a Bentley for Mary J. Blige as a birthday gift. (First We Feast)


• Alton Brown wrote an article in the business section of the New York Times, where he talks about flying commercially and some experiences he has encountered. (New York Times)


• Giada De Laurentiis recently previewed some menu items for her upcoming restaurant that will open in Las Vegas. (Eater Vegas)

Buy This Restaurant - New (Possibly Staged) Food Network Show

Photo - Food Network

Buy This Restaurant is a new Food Network show that will have its series premiere Wednesday, February 5th at 9pm ET/PT.  The premise of the show is a commercial real estate expert tries to help aspiring restaurant owners find the perfect space to start their business.  Keith Simpson, the expert, shows them three different properties that could work for the restaurant and helps them make a decision on which space to pick.

It sounds pretty much like House Hunters, which airs on HGTV, however it is with restaurant spaces rather than houses.  Also, while the show is claiming to help people find the perfect space for a restaurant, that may not be the case.  More on that after the press release.

Restaurant Impossible - Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill Update

Photo - Facebook

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Auburn, Washington to makeover Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill.  When Robert first sees the restaurant, he encounters 'inches of dust, mounds of grime, years of neglect, and an owner who doesn't seem to care at all.'  Aside from the health code violations, there is also below average food and design complications.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about the Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):

Worst Cooks In America Season 5

Photo - Multivu

Season 5 of Worst Cooks In America will premiere on the Food Network on Monday, February 17th at 9pm ET/PT.  The show will take over the Monday 9pm timeslot the week after Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off is finished.  This year has Anne Burrell competing against Bobby Flay for the 3rd straight year.  They have each won 1 season, with Anne winning season 3 and Bobby winning last season.  In the first season, Anne beat Beau MacMillan and in the second season Anne beat Robert Irvine. 

This season will be 7 episodes long and each team will have 7 competitors.  One competitor will be eliminated from each team every episode.  The contestant that achieves the most impressive culinary transformation will win the $25,000 grand prize and bragging rights for Anne or Bobby.


Press Release with more information from Multivu is below:

ANNE BURRELL AND BOBBY FLAY ARE BACK TO TRANSFORM KITCHEN DISASTERS INTO SKILLED COOKS IN FIFTH SEASON OF WORST COOKS IN AMERICA

Superstar Chefs Return With New Roster of Hapless Cooks on Monday, February 17th at 9pm ET/PT

Hit primetime series Worst Cooks in America is back for a fifth season this winter, with superstar chefs Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay returning for a brand-new battle to turn kitchen disasters into culinary success stories. Premiering on Monday, February 17th at 9pm ET/PT, the seven-episode season pits formerly undefeated series champ Anne against last season’s winner Bobby, each leading a team of disastrous cooks in an intense culinary boot camp designed to turn them into confident kitchen heroes. A $25,000 grand prize will be awarded to the contestant who achieves the most impressive culinary transformation, in addition to delivering a victory and bragging rights for their team leader.

"Watching Anne and Bobby compete and teach these truly kitchen-challenged contestants is both hilarious and inspiring," said Bob Tuschman, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Food Network. "With the help of these masters, the contestant's comical mishaps early on lead to some serious cooking chops and remarkable transformations."

In the season five premiere episode, the fourteen recruits, each nominated by family and friends for their exceptionally awful cooking skills, are greeted at boot camp by team leaders Anne and Bobby. After each contestant makes their "signature" dish, the challengers are split into two teams and the recruits head to a high-stakes pizza challenge, with a twist. Anne's team attempts a Grilled Pizzetta with Ricotta, Sausage, Arugula and Chili Oil while Bobby's team attempts Pizza with Parsley Pesto, Cremini Mushrooms, Fontina and Goat Cheese. The two recruits with the least successful dishes are sent home, while the remaining twelve cook on. Upcoming episodes feature an on-location farm challenge complete with milking cows, a fast-paced sushi preparation and a "breakfast in bed" competition. The series culminates with a finale on Monday, March 31st at 9pm ET/PT, where the two most improved contestants prepare a three-course menu for a judging panel of culinary experts and the $25,000 grand prize winner is named.

Viewers wanting more can visit FoodNetwork.com/WorstCooks for photo galleries, interviews and more insider coverage.

Worst Cooks in America is produced by Optomen Productions LLC, an All3 Media company.

FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households and averages more than 9.9 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown more than 10 times and is now the second largest monthly magazine on the newsstand, with over 11.6 million readers. Headquartered in New York, Food Network has a growing international presence with programming in more than 150 countries, including 24 hour networks in Great Britain, India, Asia and Africa. Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), which also owns and operates Cooking Channel (www.cookingchanneltv.com), DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com), Great American Country (www.gactv.com), HGTV (www.hgtv.com), and Travel Channel (www.travelchannel.com), is the manager and general partner.

Also, if you want to watch a video preview of the season (video section), see pictures of the contestants (images section), or see descriptions of each of the contestants (docs section), there is more than enough information after the jump to get your fix.  I am sure many contestants are looking for their 15 minutes of fame.

Ree Drummond Dominates 2013 Cookbook Sales

Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman, dominated the cookbook sales for the year of 2013 with both her new cookbook and previously released cookbooks.  Despite not releasing her newest book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays, until October 1st, the book was the top selling book of the year with 367,000 copies sold.

Ree also had the third best selling cookbook (190,000 copies) from her cookbook released in 2012 and the sixth best selling cookbook (113,000 copies) from her cookbook released back in 2009.  The total copies sold for all three cookbooks was 670,000.

Some other things of note from the 10 Best Selling Cookbooks of 2013:

• Ina Garten had the 4th best selling cookbook, which was released in 2012
• Giada De Laurentiis had the 8th best selling cookbook despite releasing it in November of 2013
• Kay Robertson of Duck Dynasty had the 2nd best selling cookbook with 290,000 copies sold after a November 1, 2013 release date.  She sold 145,000 cookbooks per month vs. Ree Drummond's 122,333 per month, so that proves how popular Duck Dynasty is.  Maybe the Food Network should go after her for a new show instead of their attempts at "redneck programming" such as Bubba Q and The Shed.

The full Top Ten list courtesy of Eater and Nielsen is below:

Rank	Book	Author	Copies Sold	Release Date
1	The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays	Ree Drummond	367,000	October 2013
2	Miss Kay's Duck Commander Kitchen	Kay Robertson	290,000	November 2013
3	The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier	Ree Drummond	190,000	March 2012
4	Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust	Ina Garten	174,000	October 2012
5	Wheat Belly Cookbook	William Davis	127,000	December 2012
6	The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl	Ree Drummond	113,000	October 2009
7	Jerusalem: A Cookbook	Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi	109,000	October 2012
8	Giada's Feel Good Food	Giada De Laurentiis	106,000	November 2013
9	Forks Over Knives — The Cookbook	Del Sroufe	104,000	August 2012
10	Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation	Michael Pollan	100,000	April 2013

Does anything on the list stand out to you?  With the amount of cookbooks released by Food Network related personalities this year, are you surprised some of those didn't make the list?

Google Surveys - More Information About Them

Some of you may have been seeing Google Surveys appearing on this website, so I wanted to give you some more information about them and try to answer some questions you may have about them.

The users seeing the surveys will see something like the picture to the right that says, "Answer a survey question to continue reading this content" and the content below the survey will be blanked out.  To reveal the content below you can either answer the survey or share the post to Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

The surveys will only be 1 or 2 questions, meaning 1 or 2 clicks of a mouse which should be very easy and only take a few seconds.  After answering the survey, you should not see another survey for at least 32 hours (Google recommends anywhere from 1-24 hours, but I put in a special request to move it to 32 hours).  If you happen to see more than 2 questions, the questions after the 2nd are optional and you can end the survey to reveal the content.  However, if you do answer the additional questions (should be 7 total), you will gain access for a week, and not see another survey for a week rather than 32 hours.

You answers are completely anonymous and is not connected to any information about you or used to develop any type of profile.  They are simply aggregated with other anonymous responses to conduct market research.

Each survey answered helps support the site by earning a little bit of revenue (a few cents).  So, think of it as a few seconds of your time to help out this website.  There are only about 200 websites that are using this, and they have to be approved by Google, so this is pretty new.  As it is new, it may feel invasive, but I feel it is less invasive than a full page pop-up or making you watch a 15 or 30 second commercial like many sites do before viewing videos.  As I said, it should only take 1 or 2 clicks of a mouse and a few seconds to answer a question or 2 to reveal the content.

On future posts on the homepage, I plan to remove page breaks, so you no longer have to click "Read More" to read the rest of the post (unless it is very long or has spoilers).  That will be one less click for many readers to help cancel out the 1 or 2 additional ones.

For those that have answered questions, I thank you for doing that, and for those with questions about the surveys, hopefully this clears some things up for you.  I do spend a lot of time rooting through content to create posts here, so those few cents per survey do add up and make it worthwhile and I appreciate it greatly.

Oops! - Food Network Canada Doesn't Air Chopped Canada In Timeslot

Last week, Chopped Canada premiered on Food Network Canada to record breaking ratings, making the show the highest rated series premiere in the network's history. So, you had to think they would be excited about this week's show and were promoting the new episode set to show at 10pm ET/PT.

It's almost chopping time! New episode of #ChoppedCanada starts @ 10 ET/PT. Follow @ChoppedCanada for live tweeting fun!
— Food Network Canada (@FoodNetworkCA) January 10, 2014

The only problem was, at 10pm, despite Chopped Canada being scheduled to show on the network, an episode of Restaurant Takeover was airing on everyone's TV.


Viewers went to Twitter to complain to Food Network Canada as well as Chopped Canada, who were just as shocked that the episode didn't air correctly.  Food Network Canada handled the situation pretty well though, with apologies to many, and were able to get the new episode of Chopped Canada to air an hour late at 11pm.

Thanks for sticking with us! Due to technical issues, tonight's new episode of @ChoppedCanada will air at 11 ET/PT.
— Food Network Canada (@FoodNetworkCA) January 10, 2014

Food Network Canada also made the episode available online at its website.  Who knows how this will impact ratings, but I wouldn't expect any more records this week.

*Eater Montreal also has some tweets from last night during the fiasco.

Paula Deen To Appear At South Beach Wine & Food Festival 2014

Paula Deen will be appearing at the 2014 South Beach Wine & Food Festival according to the Miami New Times.  While she is not advertised on the SOBEWFF website as appearing, she apparently will host a cooking demonstration at the Grand Tasting Village on Sunday with her sons Jamie and Bobby.

Although Paula is not on the website, the Grand Tasting Village event has "The Deen Family" on the schedule (see picture below) for Sunday at 4:15pm to 5:00pm.

Paula has appeared at other cooking shows after her scandal, such as in Dallas and Houston, but what makes this one kind of significant is that the South Beach Wine & Food Festival has the Food Network as the title sponsor.  Who knows if the Food Network has any say in who appears at the event, but you would think they would have been notified about Paula appearing.

Last year at SOBEWFF, Paula appeared on the Today show, where many people thought she appeared drunk.  In 2011, she licked butter off of Robert Irvine's abs and rode him like a horse, which spawned the Paula Deen Riding Things tumblr.  In 2009 at the festival, Paula accidentally mooned the crowd while she was on stage.

She will probably be on her best behavior this year if she has hopes of having a successful comeback.

(Miami New Times article)

Chopped Canada Premieres Tonight In The US

Chopped Canada will make its premiere tonight in the United States at 9pm ET/PT after premiering last week in Canada.  When Chopped Canada premiered last week in Canada, it 'smashed' previous audience records, and was the highest rated series premiere of Food Network Canada's history (link).  Whether that success translates over to the US remains to be seen.

Chopped Canada is pretty much the same as the normal version of Chopped with the differences being Dean McDermott as host rather than Ted Allen, $10,000 Canadian Dollars instead of US Dollars, Canadian chefs instead of US chefs, and a different set of judges.  I think the production companies may be different as well, so the editing and normal sob stories may differ in the Canadian version of Chopped.

Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell Cancelled

After 3 seasons on the Food Network, it appears that Chef Wanted with Anne Burrell has been cancelled.  A fan asked Anne on Twitter, "When will new episodes of Chef Wanted come on???"  Anne responded to this question with, "sadly there will be not be any new episodes of chef wanted"

Ratings for the third season of Chef Wanted were down significantly from previous seasons, with an episode later in the season getting only 597,000 viewers (10/10/13 episode).  To put that in perspective, most of the prime time shows on the Food Network get over 1 million total viewers, and the shows the Food Network seems to renew or bring back for more seasons tend to be able to draw around 1.5+ million viewers.

Rachael Vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-off Season 3 Premiere

Photo - Food Network

Tonight at 9pm ET/PT on the Food Network is the season 3 premiere of Rachael Vs Guy: Celebrity Cook-off.  In case you didn't know the 'celebrities' that are going to be on the show, they are listed below and split up by the team they are on.

Team Guy:

• Vanilla Ice (pop icon, rapper and reality star)
• Chris Kattan (comedian, actor - SNL)
• Tiffany (singer, actress)
• Herschel Walker (former NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner, MMA fighter)

Team Rachael:

• Florence Henderson (actress - The Brady Bunch, singer)
• Penn Jillette (magician, comedian)
• Judy Gold (actress, comedian - has appeared on celebrity edition of Chopped)
• Jake Pavelka (reality star, The Bachelor)

Food Network's 'The Kitchen' Premieres Tomorrow

Just a reminder that the new talk show on the Food Network, The Kitchen, will premiere tomorrow at 11am/10am Central.  It will be interesting to see how co-hosts Sunny Anderson, Katie Lee, Jeff Mauro, Marcela Valladolid and Geoffrey Zakarian interact with each other and if the show works.

The only one with their own show that is current on the Food Network is Jeff Mauro, although Geoffrey Zakarian is on Chopped and Iron Chef America.  Katie Lee is new to the Food Network, and is known for being married to Billy Joel and as the host of the first season of Bravo's Top Chef.  Many complained about her on Top Chef and compared her to a robot, so we will have to see if she has improved since then.  She was replaced by Padma Lakshmi after the first season.

After the jump are some other things to watch for this weekend on the Food Network as well as the episode descriptions of The Kitchen.  I am interested to hear your opinions on The Kitchen if you do happen to watch it.

Food Network's Ratings Down 7% in 2013

Deadline released the Basic Cable ratings for 2013, and Food Network's total viewers decreased by 7% from 2012.  The total viewers in the key demographic (Adults ages 18-49) decreased by even more, and was down 12% from 2012.

Here is how the viewership for the Food Network has changed over the past few years (according to Deadline - Links are there for each year):

Restaurant Impossible - Heather's Country Kitchen Update

Photo - Food Network

Tonight on Restaurant Impossible, Robert Irvine and crew are going to Plains, Montana to makeover Heather's Country Kitchen.  Heather, the owner of the restaurant, was a stay-at-home mom who decided to buy a restaurant and is supposedly 'clueless' about the restaurant industry.  The restaurant has been open for three years, and Robert has to manage high food and labor costs along with getting Heather to embrace working with her daughters.  As I normally do with Restaurant: Impossible episodes, I searched around the Internet to read stories, comments and reviews about Heather's Country Kitchen to get an idea of how the restaurant is doing since Robert Irvine visited, and here is what I found (note - all reviews are post Restaurant Impossible):

Pier West From Restaurant Impossible Has Closed

Pier West in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, which was featured on season 6 of Restaurant Impossible has closed.  In November, the restaurant said they would be closed until Spring, however last night, they had a 'Drink The Bar Dry' New Year's Eve party.

The description of the event stated that the end was here for the Pier and it was their last hurrah. The event description is below:

"The end is here.........for both the year and the Pier. This holiday weekend is the last hurrah for Pier West. If you want to take one final long walk on a short Pier West, say hello and goodbye, join us on the New Years Eve night to end it all. Hats, champagne toast, party favors and poppers provided to all. Shot and drink specials all night. Plus a $30 drink the bar dry special. (Optional.) Happy New Year to all, and to all a Merry 2014."

This is the 4th restaurant from season 6 (2013) of Restaurant Impossible to close, and the Restaurant Impossible Update Page has been updated to show this.