The World of Scott Mindeaux

Cat Cora, Team Rainbow and Babies

How is it that I seem to be the last person on Earth that knew that Cat Cora played on Team Rainbow? Reports are out that Cat and her partner Jennifer, are pregnant. That’s right, they are BOTH pregnant. Jennifer, who has had two sons already, is due in April, while Cat is 4 1/2 months along. In another twist, they both have the same sperm donor. Their 23 month old son was Cat’s egg implanted in Jennifer.

In their current pregnancies, they were both impregnated with both sets so they don’t know who’s egg is whose. (Sorry if I got the grammar wrong). With that said all four children had the same sperm donor so they are all biologically related.

Cat currently serves as one of the Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America. She currently has several cookbooks and recently collaborated in the creation of the Signature Kitchen at Macy’s Home Store at South Coast Plaza.

5 Second Rule

Tonight we get a sneak peek at Ted Allen’s new show “Food Detectives” on the Food Network. It’s a little Alton Brown Good Eats, mixed in with George Duran’s Ham on the Street.

In tonight’s episode we look into:

The 5 Second Rule
How to extinguish a hot mouth
Does Celery actually have Negative Calories?
Does Baking Soda really clear the air?

First up: How to Extinguish a Hot Mouth
Ted has the “Food Techs” eat a hefty Habanero Salsa. Then he has them rate the pain from 1 to 5. 4 out of 5 choose 5 on pain index and one at 4. First try is the good ole standby, water. Water actually has no effect on capsasin (the part that causes the heat). Capsasin is not water soluble. Water only spreads it around. So next we try milk, beer, bread and cola. Bread did nothing. Soda actually makes it worse. Beer also makes the pain worse. The alcohol does nothing. Last up, milk. Milk contains something that washes away the capsasin. Pain level is reduced. Ever notice why hot wings come with ranch dressing, or sour cream with spicy Mexican food?

Second: 5 Second Rule
Is it ok to eat it if it falls on the ground if you pick it up within 5 seconds? They tested three kinds of food: candy, french fry and shrimp. Why shrimp you ask? The more expensive the food, the more likely they’ll eat it off the floor. Haha. They test three surfaces, an office desk, the “clean” floors at the food network and a high traffic sidewalk. Technically, bacteria does NOT wait to contaminate anything that falls on anything other than your plate. Beware!

Third: Does Celery Have Negative Calories
The idea is that you have to chew so much to eat celery that you lose the calories more than you can consume it. Celery has 8 calories per stalk. THe act of chewing it only burns 5 calories, an hour. However if you add in the digestion factor of the fibers, you end up with a deficit. Now don’t go out and consume mass amounts of celery now, you hear?

Fourth: Does Baking Soda Really Clear the Air in my Fridge?
We all buy a box of Baking Soda for our fridge. Does it really work? It fact it does – technically, but even better when it can be spread out to expose more of it. But what works even better than Baking soda?? Activated Charcoal. In fact, activated charcoal does much better than Baking Soda ever could.

Dinner: Impossible 2.0 and TNFNS

Well the new season of Dinner: Impossible did a sneak peek tonite after The Next Food Network Star. Chef Robert Irvine is now replaced by Chef Michael Symon, one of the Iron Chef America stars.

In Food Network Star news, our final three contestants are down to Lisa, Aaron and Adam. They are still in Vegas. They had to come up with a Vegas-Style buffet. First they each had to record a 30 second promo touting their supposed new show and each of them had a different place in Vegas to do their shoot. Lisa was a Wine Angel at Charlie Palmer’s restaurant, Aaron a big shot on the casino floor and Adam as a host of a tried and true Vegas show. For their buffets, the each had to serve a 5 course buffet for 50. The special guests would consist of cast members from Spamalot, Tony and Tina’s Wedding, several impersonators like Cher, Joan Rivers and Donna Summer as well as the executive chef team from the Wynn.

In the end, the judges couldn’t decide who to kick off. If they had it their way, each one would have a part in one show as each of them had positives and negatives. So who was kicked off??

No one! For the first time in Food Network history, all three will compete in the Finale for their own show. They head back to New York and next Sunday we find out who is the Next Food Network Star.

Move Over Alton Brown…Ted’s Here

On tonite’s episode of The Next Food Network Star, a commercial came on the screen. The premise? Learn the science about food. Ted Allen, the food connoisseur from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and frequent guest judge on Bravo’s Top Chef will be hosting the new show.

Now before you all have a conniption, like I did for 5 minutes, the show isn’t recipe based from what I can say. Alton will always be the king with Good Eats. Ted’s show, Food Detectives, really does focus on the science side. They ask, when you chew gum does it really stay in your stomach for 7 years? Does the 5 second rule really hold up? Can an apple a day really keep the doctor away?

The show seems interesting. Now, you all know from my previous blog posts about Ted Allen, that I’m not his biggest fan. But now that I have seen him on more shows and on Top Chef I have come to an understanding with Ted.

Viewers can submit their questions online and can even upload a video which may be used online. Should I do it??

Ted’s new show is scheduled to debut on the Food Network on July 29.

The Next Rachael Ray and other FN News

Sunny Anderson is one of the newest additions to the Food Network family. Her current show “Cooking For Real” is in it’s first season and she is already branching out to a 2nd show – “How’d That Get on My Plate”. Her style is very much like the “sunny” disposition of another Food Network star, Rachael Ray.

On other Food Network news, it appears that Alton Brown with his famed show “Good Eats” will focus more on sustainability and being “green” in future episodes of Good Eats. He still is commentator on Iron Chef America and has completed his 2nd season of “Feasting on Asphalt”.

Cute, hunky Danny Boome on his new show “Rescue Chef” hasn’t been impressing me. Yes, he’s fun to look at, but I question his ability to “answer 911″ calls from cooks across America. On a recent show he said the tomatillo was part of the tomato family. That is far from the truth. The tomatillo is actually more akin to the gooseberry, not the tomato.

On Who Will Be the Next Food Network Star, Nipa is let go for her lack of “fish knowledge”.

Anne Burrell comes to the Food Network to host her new show “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef” scheduled to premiere on June 29. Anne is the Executive Chef of Gusto in NY but probably more known as Mario Batali’s assistant on Iron Chef America. Anne Burrell translates your favorite restaurant foods into amazing at-home meals.

So there is the host of the FNDish, Adam Roberts, who is the Food Network’s official video blogger. He’s kinda cute. Wish I could have his job! He had “back of the house” access to all that is happening at the Food Network. He is best known for his blog “The Amateur Gourmet“. Wanna go on a date Adam? You make it into my Just Too Cute category!

So Food Network, some constructive criticism, focus on the food and stop crowding your pages with ads! Also make it so the video play when we want them to, not when the page loads, that’s really annoying!

Is Food Network Re-Branding again?

I’ve never been a fan of the Food Network branding with the flourishy graphics and that GREEN.

I was watching Titans of Tastes tonight and a commercial for an upcoming episode of Food Network Challenge came on. It had bold graphics, modern, clean and color-rich.

If they take that to the rest of their look it might do alot to attract a bigger crowd.  I went to the website and it still has the frilly-flourishing graphics and that GREEN!