Month: October 2009

Bobby Flay wins cupcake Throwdown vs. Terri Wahl

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This week’s episode of Bobby Flay Throwdown is a repeat from season 2. Bobby went up against Terri Wahl, the owner and chef of Auntie Em’s Kitchen in LA. Terri used to play guitar in an all female punk rock band. Now, she sells 250 cupcakes per day (over 700 on weekends and holidays), in 4 flavors: coconut, dark chocolate, carrot cake, and, the most popular, red velvet cupcake. Terri’s cupcakes have won accolades from LA Times and others. But surprise, surprise: Bobby Flay won!

Terri Wahl made her famed Red Velvet Cupcakes (click here for recipe).

Bobby Flay made Gingerbread Cupcakes with Caramelized Mango Buttercream (click here for the recipe).

Resident Foodies say: This has to be one of the most shocking victories for Bobby in the history of Throwdown. At the start of the show, Bobby barely could put a cupcake together, while Terri Wahl was acclaimed as one of the best, if not the best, cupcake baker in LA. But Terri was a great sport about the judges’ verdict and praised Bobby’s cupcake for its excellent and unique flavors.

Wall St. Journal: growth of food festivals

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Wall Street Journal has an excellent article discussing the growth of food festivals, even in the current economic downturn (“Despite Down Economy, Large Apetite for Food Festivals,” by Pervaiz Shallwani).

The two oldest food shows — Aspen and South Beach — have now been joined by nearly a dozen others, including the two-year old Food Network New York City Food & Wine Show that we attended last week. The festival was packed!

Other food shows around the country: Chicago Gourmet Food & Wine Festival, Kohler Food & Wine Experience in Kohler, Wisc., Atlantic City, N.J., Eagle, Idaho, Kitsap, Wash., Shelburne, Vt., St. Joseph, Mich., Newport, R.I., Oxon Hill, Md., and Hudson Valley, N.Y. And that’s not even counting all the Food Network shows in different cities.

What this shows is that people still love to eat, even when the economy is down. The celebrity chef phenomenon and the Food Network have turned the food industry into an even bigger mega-industry where people vote with their mouths.