Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

these stories are amazing! i'm lucky in that my mother is a great cook and she made us wonderful sandwiches - not for long as she was a single parent and we quickly had to learn to make our own.

never tried miracle whip though so now i'm totally mistified - how bad can it be?

Ko is definitely an experience and delicious but the menu does not change that much. lunch at Ko is even more elaborate than dinner (and more expensive but possibly easier to snag a reservation), if you want to make it truly over the top.

Ssam's menu changes a lot and it's the kind of place you can go any time. the food is good but not as intricate as Ko. Plus you only get the shaved foie at Ko :-)

if you have the reservation already, go to Ko; if you don't, try to get it. If you fail, you can always go to Ssam.

no dress code, it's all very casual and don;t expect plush anything at Ko - you'll be sitting on stools around a counter. but the food will be sublime.

hunched over? looks more like sitting in a chair. you can see the chair painted on the side.

so, did you bite it?

i just caught one show, found the student concept contrived, everything was very scripted and the slow speech pattern made it even more so - i bet Alex Guarnaschelli has a lot more personality than she's shown in that tomato episode. maybe she can relax into it over time and feel more comfortable, be more natural. the tempo is a little slow for me - sorry but Ina puts me to sleep - i like more energy.

my least favorite part was how she was shot - the camera is too close and she looked a little scary - the eyes & eyebrows movements made her look a little strange and the chest was distracting. too close for me, and it took away from the cooking part.

i was very disappointed with the Ted Allen show. fluff is correct. too bad

grizz - maybe it's naive of me but when she said beets were her favorite i didn't take it as filler - it sounded to me like she really likes beets (maybe because so do i), she was very enthusiastic about them. or perhaps i don't watch FN enough, lol

the pork chop episode today was fantastic, i thought. Anne seemed very comfortable and relaxed and the dish was terrific. i could eat that right now!

grizz - what's wrong with liking beets? i happen to like beets a lot and cook them at least once a week. disagree with putting citrus on it though, everybody else does it, kinda old hat... the pistacchio pecorino combo is a fresher idea, i think. she didn't use much salt in the salad at all

it WAS a bit over the top but very enjoyable, i think. (i'm sorry but Ina Garten almost put me to sleep - totally different pace, didn't hold my attention.)

i assume the next few shows are already taped but i hope she gets to do more and they take all these comments into consideration... balance it more on the learning side and it can be truly fab. there is a lot of potential there, imo

chiff - heehee, you have no idea - i never cook meat anything!! that bolognese though - that looked like something i COULD make. and feed a bunch of friends. just looked fun and super-easy.

@boscompb - your comment "I'm sorry, but either she is extremely bipolar and off her medication, or NEEDS it badly." - you call this "simply telling it like it is"?? no, it's offensive and unnecessary.

you know, some people thought Julia Child came across as drunk on her show when she first started because of her voice an uncoordinated movements.