Food Network magazine this week released the no doubt intentionally provocative results of an anonymous chef survey, in which chefs copped to stealing ideas, showing up for work sick, recycling bread and sabotaging orders that were sent back for recooking. As a former restaurant server, I’ve seen chefs do all…

According to the official corporate description, Pop-Tarts are toaster pastries. But after decades of pushing the treat as a ready-made breakfast, Kellogg’s seems to be repositioning the foil-wrapped snack as an ingredient. Since the Pop-Tart debuted in the 1960s, cooking with Pop-Tarts has generally meant sticking them in a toaster…

I was recently seated at Charlie Palmer near a group of seemingly-sophisticated diners (I was listening in on their conversation about the best way to get to Tanzania until Jon Voight showed up and I refocused my eavesdropping). They were working their way through a pile of sweetbreads when a…

As The New York Times reported this week, Mexico’s in a dour mood on the eve of its bicentennial: An increasingly brutal drug war has dampened citizens’ enthusiasm for Thursday’s celebration. But nothing’s stopping the party at local Mexican burger chain Burguesa Burger, which plans to roll out two new…

Now that the Korean taco thing’s been done to death — except maybe in Dallas — my friend and I were batting around new can’t-miss concepts for food trailers. He’s currently refurbishing a few of them, and plans to roll out at least one soon. (And if I knew anything…

Kent Rathbun, who cracked the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog this year with a lobster shooter kit, has advice for other restaurateurs looking to turn their signature recipes into retail sensations. “You got to start small, and you got to think in terms of what people can use at home,” Rathbun says…

Hill Country, the wildly popular New York City barbecue joint that’s been busily indoctrinating Yankees in the ways of traditional Texas ‘cue, is now garnering attention for a dish of less certain provenance. As Grub Street recently reported, the menu at Hill Country Chicken — an homage to buttermilk-fried chicken…

An event designed to celebrate tightly corseted wenches and bloodthirsty jousters isn’t exactly synonymous with restraint, but organizers of this year’s Texas Renaissance Festival are promoting the fair’s healthy snacks. The festival, billed as the nation’s largest, hasn’t leached all the fat and calories from its standard food line-up: Concessionaires…

Two veterans of the restaurant group that includes Houston’s have announced plans to open a Thai-Vietnamese restaurant in West Village. Braden Wages — who most recently served as general manager of R+D Kitchen — and Yasmin Wages, his wife and former assistant general manager at Park, will debut Malai in…

Big-name food stars, like most sane travelers, have pretty much steered clear of Dallas this summer: While Houston hosted Anthony Bourdain, and the University of Texas announced an upcoming lecture by Michael Pollan, Dallas has been making do with its homegrown talent and a one-off appearance by Mexican cooking legend…

Yesterday’s Blues, Bandits & BBQ competition in Oak Cliff was a success on every score but flavor. Organizers estimate more than 1,000 people turned out to celebrate tunes and barbecue at the grassroots festival, which may have been the first in the nation to require its pit teams to use…

The still-current trend in menu-writing is to append a place name to every dish, proclaiming its local origins. But back when Texas was largely unsettled, folks did it the other way around: They named their towns after food. Dozens of Texan towns have shared their names with fruits and nuts…

A new spice shop opening this weekend in West Village stocks sugars, salts and 150 types of spices, but a company spokesman says most customers come for their blends. The top 10 sellers at The Spice & Tea Exchange, which has 14 locations nationwide, include “Tuscany Blend,” “Signature Blend” and…

Balcones Distilling’s True Blue corn whiskey, which City of Ate told you about yesterday, is not bourbon. “I accept that criticism,” says head distiller Chip Tate, who’s proud that he uses copious amounts of blue corn in his mash bill and uncharred oak barrels for aging. Bourbon, of course, sloshes…

Ms. Magazine took on food politics this month, arguing in a cover story that women aren’t getting enough credit for their contributions to the changing culinary landscape. Author Jennifer Cognard-Black fingers a “fantastic foodie four,” an all-white, all-male group of food thinkers she claims are “eclipsing the many women in…

Balcones Distilling has released the blue corn whiskey it’s always intended to make, but head distiller Chip Tate’s been too busy fixing broken equipment to tell too many folks about it. Asked whether the cask strength spirit has been well-received, Tate says: “It has, and it hasn’t. Every person who’s…

Although the staff at Abacus doesn’t consider the restaurant’s lobster scallion shooters a beverage, the Food Network this week featured the liquid dish on its drink edition of The Best Thing I Ever Ate. “It’s not actually a drink,” Kent Rathbun’s assistant Abir Sower said. “I don’t know why they’d…

An upcoming dessert promotion is a good deal for diners, but may be an even better deal for the pastry chefs responsible for the free sweets. Bravo has partnered with OpenTable to offer free desserts at restaurants in 10metro areas — Dallas included — on September 15, the night its…

One of Santa Fe’s most highly rated restaurants is readying to open in Dallas. Chef Eric DiStefano, co-owner of Geronimo, confirmed two versions of the 18-year-old restaurant — which touts itself as “New Mexico’s only Mobil four-star, AAA four-diamond restaurant” – are Dallas-bound. Geronimo’s will open later this year in…