Local Chef Signs On At The Abraham Lincoln Hotel In Reading

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay most likely had bigger challenges for chef Andrea J. Heinly on Season 5 of Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” but serving 160 French tourists carved top round in her new job as banquet chef at the Abraham Lincoln hotel definitely was top of the list of her new challenges.

“I didn’t know a lick of French,” Heinly said.

The French tour group is just the beginning of what’s in store for the 37-year-old Reading resident.

Heinly’s goal, she said, is to make the Abe the best place in Reading, the top banquet facility.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20131214/MONEY/312149985#.UqyRsfRDsxI

Racine Sets Down Roots In Pottstown

Greg Vassos has traveled a long road from his native Massachusetts to Pottstown – Providence, R.I.,, Barcelona. Grand Cayman, Palm Beach.

Now he’s a first-time solo act, 20 minutes up Route 422 from King of Prussia.

The Johnson & Wales-trained chef has been getting great notices in the early going of the fine-dining Restaurant Racine, a 30-seat BYOB that took over earlier this month for Funky Li’l Kitchen in Pottstown (232 King St., 610-326-7400).

It’s sustainable, locally sourced cuisine prepared with French technique and artful presentation.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/the-insider/Racine-opens-in-Pottstown.html#6iRm0DMv2PJGZEZq.99

Chef Appeal: Pittsburgh’s Growing Restaurant Scene Attracts Staff From Bigger Cities

Pittsburgh‘s up-and-coming dining scene not only is starting to generate buzz among locals, it’s also becoming known as a good place to build a career.

Indeed, the city’s new outcrop of restaurants is one of the industries — in addition to technology, health care, engineering and education — that’s drawing young people to Pittsburgh.

“The chef who wants to make a break for it has a paved path in Pittsburgh,” said Brandon Baltzley, 28, the Chicago-based firebrand chef who has spent the past year here working as a cook in restaurants and staging pop-up dinners.

“Easy living, affordable everything and a burgeoning food scene: This is an area that will soon get attention on a national level.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/dining/chef-appeal-pittsburghs-growing-restaurant-scene-attracts-staff-from-bigger-cities-686340/#ixzz2STEtrnO0

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Chef To Sizzle At Roma Ristorante

English: City of Allentown from east side

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While farm-to-table is a notable dining trend, Roma Ristorante is about to introduce TV-to-table fare to the culinary lexicon.  A special dinner hosted by the Allentown restaurant on Jan. 21 will feature a live demonstration by chef Clemenza Caserta, an alumnus of Fox Broadcasting’s popular “Hell’s Kitchen” series.  Caserta, who hails from Staten Island, was among the contestants in this year’s 10th season of the cooking competition that stars fiery-tempered celeb chef Gordon Ramsay — the sole judge of the show.

Eighteen initial contestants, chosen from 200,000 applicants, according to Caserta, are divided between two teams, with one chef eliminated each week.  The final six compete individually and receive a coveted black chef’s jacket.  Caserta withstood the blistering harangues of Ramsay to enter this elite group of finalists, exiting the show in the number four spot.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/restaurants/blog/mc-hells-kitchen-chef-to-sizzle-at-roma-ristorante-20121227,0,2815477.story

In Copenhagen, Noma Restaurant Offers Food For Thought

Few consider the faith of the food writer. And this is probably a good thing. I won’t say that to worship food and drink is to pray to a false god. But even with all the high-minded talk of farm-to-table or Slow Food movements, of molecular gastronomy or urban gardening, of locavorism or fruitarianism or whatever-the-latest-ism, in my experience it rarely leads one down the shining path of enlightenment.

Or at least that’s what I believed until this past spring, when I spent one of the most glorious weeks of my life eating my way through Copenhagen, capped off by a 25-course, five-hour lunch at Noma, considered by many to be the best — and most thought-provoking — restaurant in the world.

“Some people see going to Noma as a religious experience,” said Michael Bom Frøst, a food scientist and director of the nonprofit Nordic Food Lab, which was established by Noma’s owners. This was several days before my own meal at Noma, and we stood in the lab’s shiny test kitchen, inside a houseboat moored across the canal from Noma. The brilliant Nordic sun shone in the bluest Nordic sky as we ate a pink ice cream made from seaweed and looked across the cold water toward Copenhagen’s center.

Copenhagen has become the epicenter of the “new Nordic” cuisine, which has supplanted Spain’s formerly avant-garde molecular gastronomy as the latest, buzzy Big Idea in international cuisine.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/food-for-thought/2012/09/10/66300e1e-ed3a-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html

Strasburg Chef Out On ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

Logo of the Fox Broadcasting Company

Logo of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barbie has left the kitchen.

Strasburg resident Barbie Marshall made it all the way to the final four on FOX‘s “Hell’s Kitchen,” but the chef was eliminated at the conclusion of Monday night’s broadcast.

In its 10th season, “Hell’s Kitchen” is hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.  Marshall was one of 18 contestants competing for the head chef’s position at the Gordon Ramsay Steak restaurant in Las Vegas’ Paris Hotel.

At the end of Monday’s episode, Ramsay told Marshall, 34, that he considered her improvement to be significant.  He called her a smart woman who should take her experience on the show “and run with it.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/722446_Strasburg-chef-out-on–Hell-s-Kitchen-.html#ixzz24sHpOd2Y

Hell’s Kitchen Finalist Takes Top Job At Reading’s The Peanut Bar Restaurant

Chef Andrea Heinly, best known as Chef Andrea, one of 16 contestants from season five of “Hell’s Kitchen,” a popular reality TV show, is the new executive chef at Jimmie Kramer’s The Peanut Bar Restaurant.

Heinly, 35, of Reading came in third on the Fox network show.

Michael J. Leifer, president and CEO of Jimmie Kramer’s, said it’s a big deal for the Peanut Bar because Heinly has attained a bit of celebrity status.

Although taped in Los Angeles in November 2007, season five aired from Jan. 29, 2009, until May 14, 2009.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=398972

Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” Coming To An End

The Food Network‘s popular show “Ace of Cakes” will be airing its final season in 2011.  The show has had a long run and “Ace of Cakes” star Duff Goldman may be continuing his association with the Food Network.

Upper Pottsgrove Township native Geoffrey Manthorne stars on “Ace of Cakes” and also works as Executive Sous Chef at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore which is owned by Goldman.