To be quite honest, I've never been a huge fan of Bitchin' Kitchen. It's just that it's an assault on the senses. Loud, busy, with lots of costumes, oiled up half naked dudes and whatnot. It's too much. If you haven't heard of Bitchin' Kitchen, it's a show on The Cooking Channel (AKA The Other Food Network), and it's kind of like the cast of Jersey Shore came together for Thanksgiving dinner where both Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis were served to them. Now stay with me. So the Jersey Shore kids ate both Rachael and Giada, getting so full that they became pregnant with a loud, Italian food baby. That food baby, is Nadia G. I just don't know how else to explain it.
Anyway, I sort of wanted to hate her but I couldn't. She's not a bitch so much as a pussycat wearing leather, tons of studs and plenty of makeup. And she brought me chocolate fucking mousse. So I guess we're friends now.
Nadia was in town to promote Apothic wines, and so we sat down in the W Hotel to chat. Here's how it all went down.
Let's start with a bitchin' QUICKFIRE. Let's go!
How do you feel about cilantro? Nadia: Love it. foodbitch: Hate it. Truffle oil? Nadia: Sick of it. foodbitch: Same. Bacon? Nadia: Boyfriend. foodbitch: Over it! What's your favorite food? Nadia: Sweet and salty stuff. foodbitch: Sushi. Favorite color? Nadia: Reddish pink. foodbitch: Anything but pink.
Okay. Now tell me about the food and wine you brought to me, you sweet, sweet human. This first one is a pear, prosciutto and goat cheese crostini. The idea for these was to find something that was really simple to make and great for entertaining so you can spend time on the important things like drinking good wine. Drizzle them with balsamic reduction. This one is nice paired with the Apothic white, subtle peach notes, really smooth. I enjoyed putting these two together. The wine offsets the saltiness of the prosciutto.
This is a traditional chocolate mousse. A lot of people think that chocolate mousse is super complicated to make, but in fact it's just meringues with some melted chocolate. I use fresh, good eggs and I top it with fleur de sel and some cayenne pepper to give it some spice. Chocolate is excellent paired with the Apothic red. It's really decadent, so some nice earthy tones in the smooth red with a little of dark cherry and coffee...it pairs really well with the chocolate.
Where did the idea of Bitchin' Kitchen originate? I've always been a food-obsessed individual, love to eat, love to make a mess in the kitchen but I also am really passionate about comedy. I thought to myself, "How can I meld these two things together," and came up with Bitchin' Kitchen.
And how essential is the bitch to your kitchen? Well, "bitchin'" means cool, badass, hip, but that doesn't mean I'm not a bitch sometimes. I don't know if "bitch" is so much the correct term, but we definitely say it how it is on my show and we're not afraid to laugh at ourselves ...and others.
They say drinking alcohol brings out a person's true personality. Does wine make you mean or sweet? Oh jeez...well for me, I like to have a good laugh when I have a few drinks, so I would say sweet.
Speaking of sweet, which food fad do you hate the most? "Nose to tail" dining. My parents immigrated from Italy so, they spent like 40 days on a boat specifically so we didn't have to eat mule perineums for dinner. So, I'm not a big gizzard fan for sure. If you like it, go ahead.
No thanks. Your accent is so...distinctive. Where does that come from? I'm from an Italian borough in Montreal called St. Leonard. Most people always ask "Are you from Brooklyn or New Jersey, or..." but no. Growing up speaking Italian as a child in a French city going to English school, you get a bunch of those different influences all rolled into one.
How does that influence your cooking? A lot. Montreal is a very multicultural city. There are a lot of immigrants so you get everything straight from the source. I remember eating amazing Lebanese food, I had a lot of greek friends, obviously my family's food was Italian. Montreal is a port city so really, all kinds of foods from Creole to Iraqi, you name it.
A great combination to make you what you are, huh. Yeah. Bipolar.
Now, tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when I say...
EVOO? Nadia: Annoying. foodbitch: Ditto. Martha Stewart? Nadia: Pimpin'. foodbitch: huh? Pinterest! Guy Fieri? Nadia: Yellow hair. foodbitch: You're holding back. Jersey Shore? Nadia: Funny. foodbitch: Sad. Texas? Nadia: BIG. foodbitch: Hell yeah.
Anything else you want to let the people know about? We have one thing that's really cool about Bitchin' Kitchen is since we started online we really love the web and we take care of our community, so every day we have contests on our facebook page where people can come say "hi" and check out our recipes. The social stuff is always pretty cool. We have fun videos of recipes and wine pairings, too. Tune in on Wednesdays at 10:00 pm EST, 9:00 pm here in Dallas.
Bitches always be closing. After we talked, Nadia, her bad ass boots and her crew were off to do a cooking demo with (you guessed it) wine pairings at an event in the Arts District. And before I left they told me the Bitchin' Kitchen Halloween special was going to be "epic." You can all watch it on Halloween night, between doorbell rings, if you'd like.
Follow foodbitch and City of Ate on Twitter.
