Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Mixed with mayo for sandwiches, wings, dumpling dipping sauce, pizza, grilled pork

As noted above, Wendy's chili is made from timed out burgers. They go into a container, are bagged, dated and then rotated through the walk-in cooler. At least that was the system when I worked there many moons ago. Depending on the person chopping the boiled out meat, you can get big chunks and corners or a smaller consistency which is better..

The hot sauce at Wendy's is sublime, always have to keep a couple packs in my desk drawer.

Our favorite employee non-menu item was chili cheese fries making sure the Wendy's fries were double fried. Since there was no "chili cheese fries" button on the register, it was rang up as "small chili" and "small fry" with employee discount.

If a "burger on the floor" comment makes you stay away from fast food joints, you should never go near any of them. And stay away from salad bars at all costs.

I like Bourdain and his show on Travel, which is now owned by the same company that owns FN.

It is funny that Tony's comments on anything being unhealthy as he does nothing but smoke, drink a lot and eat copious amounts of meat and fat on his show. On a recent episode in the Ukraine, he and his buddy Zamir must have drank at least a couple fifths of vodka in one sitting and continued to drink heavily the entire episode.

The thing about Paula Deen that irks me is the fake accent and her "consultant" made personality. She was nowhere near as annoying when she started. Also her willingness to put her name on any shoddy product that will pay her.

Thanks for making the point about Cincinnati chili and how the Detroit version has nothing in common. Spot on. As a Michigander living in SW Ohio for the past 11 years, I've never grown to like the sweet Skyline version of the coney and that doesn't even taken into consideration the sickening pile of cheese that's piled on them. I'd take the Detroit version right now, make that two.

Westside Deli pizza was always a favorite while at school at Michigan State.

Old Forester the best choice for a bargain bourbon.

Not sure if it can be found anywhere else but Kentucky, but Old Weller 107 is outstanding and usually only $20 a bottle.

Worked at Wendy's (a long time ago) and we always knew to put fries back in the fryer for about a half cycle and they would be perfect, crispier outside but still fluffy inside. The normal fry time has them softening up about 2 minutes out of the fryer. We also dipped them in mayo, because we were against healthy eating and they tasted really good. When we made our own chili fries, the longer frying time also let them hold up better.

Might be an interesting topic for fast food workers to tell how they doctored normal menu items.

Obviously it's gluttony, often he's consuming gigantic amounts of food only in the name of the challenge but he's only doing it once. Richman is not wasting that much food, certainly not as much that is wasted on ICA. Additionally, he eats most of it.

That being said, the challenges are coming across as more and more contrived. At least in the wing or hot food challenges, the food amounts are relatively small.

@seriousb, Kenny blew up when Alex was not eliminated following Restaurant Wars. He had a few other flashes of temper like the ballpark food episode.

-I don't know if this was the worst season of TC, but having to follow the previous season was going to be difficult. Ilan and Josea seasons weren't great either.

-Kevin was pining for his buddy Michael Voltaggio. It was over the moment he pulled his name on the knife.

-I'm sure Hung's help for Angelo wasn't just him being a nice guy. All three "sous" chefs had to be paid nicely including the free vacation to Singapore.

-For next season Bravo, please cut down on team challenges and gimmick challenges like "space food", one of the dumbest yet. Bones in space food?

One could blame Emeril Lagasse for this whole celebrity chef mess, but at least he's a chef and has since beat a hasty retreat from public consciousness.

I would say Rachael Ray - she laid the groundwork for chef turned media whore. This week she was on Shaq Vs. for a burger challenge. She even managed to get her husband on the show. Shaq even referred to her as America's greatest chef - yikes. She's neither a chef nor great. Maybe Shaq needs some stoup to reassess his opinion.

Zapps, with lots of great flavors like Cajun Crawtator. Available by mail order.

Franklin Cider Mill just outside of Detroit is a great childhood memory - freshly pressed cider and a cinnamon spice donut on a crisp fall Michigan Saturday.

http://www.franklincidermill.com/index.html