Watch Bear's Chef Natasha on Chopped

In case you haven't yet heard, I wanted to make sure you guys tune into some Astoria culinary goodness on the Food Network tomorrow.  Astoria's very own, Chef Natasha Pogrebinsky from Bear will be featured on the popular Chopped program tomorrow at 10:00 p.m.  I'm so excited to see Chef Natasha competing on the show for many reasons, one being that she's the only female competitor in the episode, the other being that she's really talented and also because she accurately represents the culinary prowess found in Astoria and LIC.  

Chef Natasha will be competing with 4 other national acclaimed chefs, all with diverse backgrounds.  For those of you familiar with the show, their given list of ingredients they have to cook with tomorrow include lemon bars, acai juice, upland cress and whelk snails.  Have a go at that guys - can't wait to see what Chef Natasha comes up with.

If you'd like to get a little preview of what's to come tomorrow, take a look at this preview clip.  Tune in tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. on The Food Network.

Bear - 12-14 31st Avenue, Long Island City NY 11106
917.396.4939
N/Q Train to Broadway
www.bearnyc.com

Foodista's Inside Scoop with Ted Allen

For a lot of you, the man pictured above needs no introduction.  But for others who might not be as familiar with him through TV shows such as Chopped, Top Chef, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and of course, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, he's Ted Allen, TV personality, cookbook author, food writer, wine connoisseur and everything else culinary. 

I had the opportunity to have breakfast with Ted, along with six other awesome food bloggers, during which he revealed a lot of fun food and entertaining tips.  The breakfast was sponsored by Cascade, (for which Ted is a spokesperson of) in honor of their Best Food Mergers promotion, where participants get to vote for their most popular food pairings that are the hardest to clean.  You can vote here and get Ted's personal recipes for popular and delicious, but also hard-to-clean foods such as spaghetti and meatballs, mac and cheese, and fried chicken and gravy. 

But back to our breakfast with Ted.  We each got to ask him a couple of questions and the setting was pretty intimate and personal, which we all appreciated.  It was great to see what a genuine person Ted is, and his answers really came from the heart--you can see his passion for food and entertaining just pouring out of him.

Here are a couple of video clips from our breakfast that I think you'll enjoy.  Some of the topics he touches on include:

Why He's Passionate About Food - See video

The Foods Ted Isn't Fond Of - See video

Ted's Personal Food Recommendations for Falling in Love with NY - See video

As you'll notice, Ted is a proud Brooklynite and a lot of his answers give insight into his hood.  I definitely related with him about appreciating his local nabe and its wonderful and underrated finds.