Here’s a mix of songs from D. that will get you in the holiday spirit without making you feel like you’re trapped in an elevator with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Another good Christmas album, not available on iTunes, is Kindercore Christmas Two, an $8.99 download on Amazon. It includes the Kings of Convenience singing an a cappella version of the traditional Norwegian hymn “Deilig Er Jorden” and other rare finds.

She’s not just a proponent of fresh, organic food for all, she’s also a Radiohead fan. Who knew?

It’s definitely worth listening to Alice Waters’ guest DJ set on KCRW, if only to be hypnotized by her surprisingly sexy voice intoning, over Nina Simone’s “I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl”:

It’s a beautiful sensual song, and I am always trying to get people to open up and to touch and to taste and to smell and really engage in a different way with food…. I play it when I’m cooking in the kitchen and it’s so beautiful and so deep in its sensual appeal.

Put out the fire! Other highlights: bribing a taxi driver with dinner at Chez Panisse, dancing in the kitchen to David Byrne, going to a peace march in Berkeley, and other zany facts you never knew about her.

KCRW: Alice Waters – Guest DJ Project

Here’s an October mix of some of the best new songs coming out and a few rediscovered classics. Favorite sources include KCRW, the recent Fever Ray concert, the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack and more. It has already accompanied us on several very long weekend drives, and we’re still not sick of it!

Dozens of NYC’s top chefs gathered on Sunday to turn out their best meatballs for the Meatball Madness event. A $5,000 prize was at stake, with proceeds from the event benefitting the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength.

Here’s one sample of the deliciousness: Joey Campanaro’s meatball sliders for Little Owl. More meatballs and a video of the winner, after the jump. Continue reading…

Perhaps the most controversial part of the NYC Wine & Food Festival is the reason it exists at all: The Grand Tasting mixes mass-market sponsors like ShopRite, Barilla and Skyy Spirits with upmarket chefs like Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy and Jason Neroni of 10 Downing. (Sponsors – can’t cook with ‘em, can’t eat without ‘em.) Fortunately, any umbrage guests might have taken at the commercial nature of this festival was offset by tons of tasty food and wines by Joseph Carr, Antinori, Chalk Hill and more.

photo via Marie Fromage

Marie Fromage headed into the fray this past Saturday to sample ocean trout tartar from 10 Downing, house-smoked meat stew from Inside Park at St. Bart’s, and coffee glazed pork belly from Yerba Buena Perry – all while scoring a free nail file courtesy of… Aruba?

Marie Fromage: New York City Food & Wine Festival

Two legendary pizzaiolos, one 700-degree oven, dozens of pizzas, and 35 lucky diners: imagine the pizza feast that followed. Serious Eats founder and Pizza: A Slice of Heaven author Ed Levine and Slice founder Adam Kuban got these two major talents in the same kitchen (once Una Pizza Napoletana, now Motorino) to talk about the craft of pizza and then dish it out.

A pizza shop in a central Jersey strip mall doesn’t seem like a natural starting point for a celebrated chef, but that’s one leg of Anthony Mangieri’s unusual path to pizza stardom. Before Mathieu Palombino owned his own pizza place in Williamsburg, the French-trained chef rose up through the ranks in Laurent Tourondel’s restaurants. After the talk, both chefs got to work in the kitchen, dishing out dozens of pies until everyone was stuffed. A transcript of the talk and some delicious photos, after the jump. Continue reading…

You can taste the difference between an aged cut of beef and a supermarket steak, but what exactly goes into the aging process? DeBragga and Spitler, one of the few remaining butchers in the Meatpacking District with a facility that ages millions of dollars of beef, let a few of the curious in to witness the process, and Marie Fromage was one of them.

photo via Marie Fromage

Turns out that aging beef is a lot like aging cheese, with elements like temperature, humidity, and bacteria working over a specific period of time to yield the desired results. As you might have guessed, the main difference between wet aged beef, the sort you find in supermarkets, and dry aged beef, the sort you find in a steakhouse, is the expense: Up to 50 percent of the dry aged beef product can be lost due to water loss and trimming of the less attractive aged bits. Mary Connolly a.k.a. Marie Fromage gives some details on the aging process, after the jump. Continue reading…

This weekend’s NYC Wine & Food Festival reflected the current state of the food industry: corporate sponsors mixed with independent chefs, TV cameras were everywhere, and the competition was fierce. One of the kickoff events was a particularly good interview of Frank Bruni by Eater cofounder Ben Leventhal, who, after some initial palling around, leveled some tough questions at the former Times restaurant critic. Let’s hope the interview cleared up some questions about whether or not a “blogger” can be a “journalist.”

Bruni recounted some memorable times he was recognized at restaurants, discussed the evolving NYT star system, bristled at some feedback by restauranteurs, and chose what he would eat if stranded on a desert island. Some key excerpts from the evening, after the jump.

Continue reading…

The annual Atlantic Antic festival on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn isn’t your average tube-socks-and-Italian-sausage street fair: Hundreds of local Brooklyn businesses set up shop, from clothing shops like Steven Alan to favorite neighborhood restaurants like Building on Bond. Oysters on the half shell, vintage dresses, pulled pork sandwiches, live music and Six Point Ale: it’s all here. Many came out in their Sunday best to check out the festivities.

Love the flower in her hair, green eyeshadow and beads. Continue reading…

As much as designers try to predict how music, art and film will influence fashion the next season, it’s always a wonderful wild card to see how things will turn out. Though Disney has seen to it that there’s a designer connection with the anticipated Tim Burton project Alice in Wonderland – they commissioned Tom Binns to design a jewelry line – the film that really seems to be tapping into our collective fashion subconscious right now is Where the Wild Things Are.

At last night’s amazing Fever Ray concert at Webster Hall, the famously shy Karin Dreijer Andersson appeared on stage in what looked like a massive, dreadlocked headdress, surrounded by band members in costume. Continue reading…