I know I am a bit late to the party but I finally saw Julia & Julia. It’s not that I was trying not to see it, but between summer vacation and childcare issues, it took until this week. The delay was due in part to my husband wanting to see it as well, but we could never get the babysitter timed quite right so I finally had to ditch him and go during the afternoon under the guise of “it’s work!”

Listening to friends, I did not go to the theater hungry, which was a good thing. Even still, watching the cooking scenes made me wish I had planned something more adventurous to make for dinner that night. Overall, I thought the film was entertaining, sweet, and yes Meryl Streep is a fabulous actress. But it didn’t make me want to rush to my stove the way other food films have, like Dinner Rush or Mostly Martha (though the latter also made me reach for the kleenex!).

What about you, were you inspired? And if so, was it more Julie, or Julia, or both? Did the movie live up to your expectations?

In honor of Julia, we are offering a 20% discount on all purchases until October 15th. Just enter code JULIA when you purchase online.

Happy cooking!

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I recently read an interesting blog post by Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago, about whether or not it “matters” if a celebrity chef is actually in the kitchen of his/her restaurant. If you are a chef, you toil for hours upon hours in the kitchen, trying to achieve some level of success (or you just play a round of Celebrity Chef! The Game!!). For a small handful, this success comes not only in the form of a packed house night after night, but also “stardom” – a restaurant empire, cookbook deals, press appearances, product lines, the works.  But by nature, this type of celebrity pulls you away from the kitchen, at least on an occasional basis.

As Chef Achatz points out, if you threw down a lot of money on a U2 concert, but instead of Bono got his “sous singer,” there is no doubt you’d be disappointed, even if the show was great. You paid money for Bono, not this no-name. And the same is often true for diners, hoping to eat a meal skillfully prepared by the hands of Daniel Boulud or Wolfgang Puck. Rock stars (and movie and TV stars and athletes and most other types of celebrities) only perform a limited number of times a year, which leaves the other times for doing the things that make and keep them famous. Chefs are not so lucky. If they own a restaurant that is open 6-7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, that doesn’t leave a lot of “free” time. So appearances, etc, have no choice but to conflict, at least to some degree, with being in the kitchen. And chefs may have more than one restaurant! Not to mention-  as Achatz calls attention to- as a chef, you want to acheive growth in your career, which means some new and different ventures, not just cooking in the kitchen every day, week after week, year after year.

But even if we “get it” intellectually, are we still upset to know that these chefs are not in the kitchen when we are sitting out front at our two-top?

One the one hand, I understand that a chef can’t always be there, and I trust that the people s/he has left running the kitchen are well-schooled in his/her way of cooking. And if the chef has done his job right, in a taste test most diners would not be able to differeniate whether a plate from that kitchen was touched by “the big guy” or not. But there are certainly times – and certain chefs -that I think have overextended or refocused their energies elsewhere to the point where it does affect the restaurant diner’s experience. And those chef’s restaurants I tend to avoid.

What do you think? Does it matter to you if the chef is at the stove?

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Well, it’s been a long time – too long – since my last post. Celebrity Chef! The Game was hit by the country’s economic woes in a way that was unexpected – in late January the company that warehoused the game and fulfilled all of the orders suddenly shut its doors. Sadly, it was a victim of this economy, and many wonderful individuals were affected. For us, it was two plus months of dealing with the “suits” as we tried to get our inventory out, which put an immediate, though thankfully temporary, stop to almost all business.

But now, I am pleased to say all the games have been relocated to Amazon, and I am THRILLED that they will be doing the fulfillment from now on (though games can still be bought on celebritychefthegame.com and on Amazon). Of course, having not been able to evangelize about the game for the first quarter of 2009 (for fear of promoting a product I might not have been able to rescue from the warehouser) makes me feel like I am back at square one.

So thanks for your patience, and I promise more regular blog posts from here on out.

Cori

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How fast time flies. A year ago we were just launching Celebrity Chef! The Game, and now we are about to enter our second holiday season. So it seemed only fitting that we launch a blog – a tasty “side” to go with the game.

The past year has been a whirlwind. In addition to my first “child” – the game – I also gave birth to a daughter, who at 6 months is just now moving beyond an all-formula diet and experiencing the joys of pureed carrot and applesauce. It’s been so much fun to watch her face as she tries each new food, and I hope that she is as interested in food and cooking as her mom and dad.

So many of you have mentioned that you play the game with your kids- albeit making up different, more kid-friendly rules – and I love to hear those stories. Today’s kids have such a different appreciation for food than most of us did growing up.

Why a blog you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you. The game is about having fun, maybe learning a thing or two, and about playing with friends and/or family- at a dinner party, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, during family game night, etc. Now I can’t play the game with all of you, but I can try to extend the game experience just a little bit through these posts, which will be not just about the game, but also about other food and chef related topics, some serious, some not so serious. So thanks for joining me this past year as we launched – and continue to grow – the game, and I look forward to your company and input as we grow the game and this blog!

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