The Pantry Is Open Again And It's Time To Eat Out!!!!

Welcome, welcome welcome as John Oliver opens his show. Foodie Pantry is back in business and it has been an interesting two months off. We  open up with the New York Times Fall Restaurant guide along with some odds and ends that happened over the summer.

First of all I had to recover from a hysterectomy which was really no big deal .I am cured (only a very early form of endometrial cancer was found and expertly cut out) I missed the Great British Baking Show controversy where Mary , Mel and Sue were replaced by Sandi, and Noel as the new hosts and South African chef/baker Prue Leith as Paul Hollywood's critic in crime. It turns out that the Brits actually like this new trio  however they're don't like the move to the commercial driven BBC1. Now the question is whether PBS will buy this new format and continue to delight Americans. The past one was a fun ride although I was rooting for the other two finalists, Jane and Andrew as opposed to the creative cutie  Candice. She did some amazing bakes like the marzipan peacock show stopped for the Tudor episode,along with the Episode 2 biscuit bake where she created a family pub - complete with a gummy green rug - for the showstopper and the Finals show stopper.  which won her the title - the Queen's picnic. I loved her little piggy sausage rolls., which had porcine puff pastry gobbling herb sausage.

On a more local level, the New York Times Wednesday Food section released their restaurant edition. There are some interesting eateries opening up for the fall, including ones that haven closed and now are being reopened. Trendy staples such as La Goulue and L'Atelier are reopening their doors  - although not at their original locations. Famed chef, Jean Georges Vongerichten's JoJo which was an upper East side staple for quarter of a century closed and now is back, with a lighter, airier look. Some ,like Eleven Madison Ave temporarily moved to the Hamptons for the summer while their Manhattan location was being fixed up.  LA chef Alvin Calain, will open up Paper Plane,a kind of  noveau deli and restaurant while chef Sunny Lee will bring Korean  home cooking to her restaurant Banchan. Diners can also go across the George Washington Bridge to try the Closter , NJ The Hill, run by former Oceana chef Ben Pollinger. Trend setting Jersey City will welcome the Piggyback Bar that features such quick noshes as yellow curry crab cakes and mapo chili dogs.  Staten Island has three new restaurants, Surf , Seppe, and  Vinum while Long Island has 2 Spring in the posh village of Oyster Bay.Other new restaurants from Italian to Eastern Mediterranean are opening up in Park Slope and Dumb.Another trend?More steakhouses are popping up throughout Manhattan and its' boroughs.

It feels soooo good to be back! I;m looking forward to reviews , and recipes .The Pantry is open and it's a welcoming feeling.

The Great American Holiday Bake Show

Can something very very English translate to American? Sort of, as we've seen in a variety of TV shows that originated across the pond. There's another reincarnation, this time an American version of The Great British Baking Show. It highlights some of this country's best amateur bakers with an Yankee twist.

There has been some criticism regarding the show which airs on ABC Monday nights at ten PM. The hosts husband and wife Ian Gomez (he of Cougartown) and Nia Vardalos of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding " fame  chat and banter with the judges, Mary Berry, imported from the British show and Johnny Iuzzini ,a renowned pastry chef and former head judge on Top Chef : Just Desserts. Gomez and Vardalos don;t have the plummy, highly witty panache that the British hosts,Sue Perkins and Mel Gieidroyc. These ladies would fit right in with Jeeves and Wooster with their puns and sarky asides, along with their Pythonesque silliness. Sadly the Gomezes are more like your neighbors , offering help along as with lame jokes. Even "Ready, set, BAKE!!!", the show's "Tally Ho"  comes off as a weak mew  where their Brit counterparts shout it exuberantly. The format is the same., three bakes an episode, starting off with a signature, followed by a technical, then the showstopper.. Mary Berry is the same on this four week competition, as she is on the British ,a  kind of sweet but crackly Home Ec teacher. What is missing is the beefy sexiness of Paul Hollywood along with his sharp tongue. He is the perfect foil for Ms. Berry, tart to her treacle. Johnny Iuzzini is good as a judge, offering suggestions, but he's kind of like the sycophant assistant teacher, trying to cozen up to Ms. Berry for a promotion,.There's no smoldering fire there  to bake anyone's cake. Mr. Hollywood was a judge on a similar American spinoff, The American Baking Competition with Jeff Foxworthy back in the summer of 2013. That interpretation was just a little more livelier.

What about the bakers themselves?Are they as personable as their British counterparts? Yes,.as with the British mother ship, the bakers come from all over the country , offering a wider range of regional sweets and accents than the original show. They're not as catty or as backstabbing as other American reality show contestants. They're more like students attending an elite baking class ,. This makes watching the show addictive and refreshing . The bakers are all so nice, you find yourself rooting for all of them. The Yanks  face up to the challenges with the same , grace courage and determination as their English counterparts. Gomez and Vardalis joke with them, although it's not the same as Sue and Mel. The couple also tell the audience about each contestant's signature and show stopper bakes,with the same story book graphics, that explain designs and ingredients to the viewers. The challenges are interesting with the bakers coming up with gingerbread pagodas and Eiffel Towers (well this is the holdiay competition after all). There is a top baker chosen by Mary and Johnny and sadly one baker has to go home. The setting is done in an airy tent in the middle of a lush field where contestants are also interviewed.

Will Americans cozy up to The Great American Holiday Baking Show? ABC is probably hoping so, however diehard fans will still watch the original British one. It's a semi sweet treat that's fun for foodies to watch.

Nadiya's Baking Conquors All

Can a television baking completion hold the answer to race relations? Can politicians learn from competitors vying for a title as they bake cream puffs and eclairs? The answer is yes. Some of our Republican front runners; can glean a lot from "The Great British Baking Show."'

This wildly popular  English TV program recently crowned a winner for their latest season, She is as British as the Windsors, but not as traditional as one might think Nadiya Jamir Hussein is a thirty year old mother  of three from Northern England. She is the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants and a Muslim. While British politicos descry the influx of all sorts of immigrants and their effect on eroding everything that is good and British  (sound familiar? Listen to our debates) the rest of the country has embraced this expert baker. She is simply and lovingly known by her first name only, being a superstar and inspirations to millions of Britons,She has also turned around a lot of assumption about hijab wearing women heading off to join ISIS. . She is like any other English girl with a love of baking and a sweet tooth.The only thing scary about her is that her bakes are scary good.

I am in awe of her. It is not easy to please the show's formidable judges, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. They are quite critical when it comes to the trio of weekly bakes.that make up the series. A cake or cookie may look heavenly on the outside but in their discerning mouths could be nothing more than a scoop of sweet sand.What we deem as a perfect buttercream rose may be just another ball of colored  lard to them.They adored her raspberry mille feulle, and soda flavored cheesecakes. Her blue chocolate peacock and her mountain of eclairs in the shape of a nun won them over as it did Britain.. Nadiya also had her own style , crucial to winning an audience on any televised completion. Her cheeky humor won over viewers from Cornwall to the Orkney isles. During one stressful bake she joked that she would rather brave childbirth again than create a chocolate soufflé.Like any second generation her heritage shown through. Her lemon drizzle cake was decorated with jewels from her wedding, perched on a stand with a sari bearing the colors of the Union Jack. She is proud of both her blended backgrounds and that is important to young second generation Anglo girls trying to make peace with their identities.

The Great British Bake Off is not only an enjoyable show but it can be a great teaching tool for our American politicians.They should see how immigrants truly contribute to a country's identity, only giving their best.They need a Nadiya, not only for delicious treats and breads but to show them how people of different backgrounds make a country great.

The Bake Off Returns

Who doesn't like a competition show. There's drama, tears, back stabbing and Victoria sponge.Yep, the Great British Bake Off is back on the air in America at 7PM on Sundays, thanks to the good people at PBS.It's an informative and fun romp through the various levels of baking. Because it's British to the core, it's not as brutal as some Yank competition shows. It's sort of like a tea- but with bite.

The judges are back - the suave but stingingly honest Paul Hollywood,the sweetly stringent Mary Berry, and the hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc. These two are a comedy duo but have also hosted other English  food shows  such as Light Lunch and Late Lunch.Ms Perkins also was featured with food critic Giles Coren on the Supersizers series where they ate dishes from various centuries. Together this band  creates the perfect blend of serious and funny. The hosts offer encouragement and laughter to stressed out bakers, while Mr. Hollywood and Ms Berry offer advice in a teacher like way similar to Tim Gunn's way on Project Runway. The show is divided into three sections, the signature bake where bakers have to make their own recipes according to a certain theme (such as sponge or pies) the technical which is where they all  must follow one recipe) usually one contributed by  Mr. Hollywood or Ms. Berry) and the show stopper, This last tests the bakers on their skill and talent. All the shows a have a theme, whether, breads, pies, cakes, and biscuits - or cookies here.

Unlike some competition show, the competitors aren't cut throat or even that back stabbing. Maybe it's because they're British and they possess a certain civility there. Like American competitions, the backgrounds are varied. There are no professional bakers here. This season,  Season 5 is just starting here (it's the middle of season 6 in the UK). There is Beca, a Welsh military wife who loves both singing and baking, Ali, from Birmingham is the only baker in his family  and loves to create tarts while Rob is a space satellite designers who has a thing for foraging mushrooms The bakers are as young as 18 such as Ruby and , older more experienced home bakers such as Deborah and Howard. There are ten bakers per season and the final three compete for the title of Britain's best baker. PBS will air the second show tomorrow.The best moment , came from Josh , a baker eliminated  in the very first show. He accidently subbed in salt for sugar in  the technical challenge of angel  food cake. Seeing Mr. Hollywood choke on it was priceless. Sad to say it was one of the reasons josh was voted off.

The Great British Bake Off is a sweet treat on a Sunday night. Watch it for the drama but also  for the great rcipes. It''s a fun and educating race to be the best bakers  the United Kingdom has to offer..

The Great British Bake Off : Rule Britannia Sweets

Competitions are usually thought of as a solely American idea. After all we compete with each other on everything, from survival to dress design. However the British  are just as blood thirsty - yet in a very polite genteel way.Watch The Great British Bake Off on PBS and you'll see  that in action.

I loved the American version shown here during the summer of 2013. That was hosted by the funny and folksy Jeff Foxworthy, with the great British baker and judge Paul Hollywood and Mexican chef Marcella Valladolid. The British version, where the American  one stems from has Mr. Hollywood and Mary Berry, a very genteel lady who's kind of like the Margaret Thatcher of judging. Rounding out this are an English comedy duo.Mel Guidroyc and Sue Perkins. The last  two have a sharper repartee with the contestants than Foxworthy and at times it seems they're almost mocking the contestants.. The bakers  come from all over the UK which means a variety of different accents. Some are easy to understand, some you just scratch your head and ask :what did he or she just say ?"Like their American counterparts , they are passionate about baking, being experts in a variety of different categories.Thankfully the losers are gently let go despite the sometimes brutal and acerbic critiques. One truly refreshing aspect of this are the contestants' attitudes towards each other. Instead of being rivals, they are more like a caring and supportive team. That could just be the genteel British nature.

What I love about the show is the different English sweet and savory bakes. I thought that they and the American recipes were similar but no. Both Yankee and Brit versions of the show  are divided into three sections.There is the signature challenge, a bake using a tried and tested recipe that the amateurs bakers make for their friends and families. Then there is the technical bake which is one using the same ingredients and recipe provided by Hollywood and Ms Berry. This is perhaps the most grueling because the finished product has to be exact, a sometimes difficult trick, The last is the  showstopper a bake designed to impress the judges with both looks and taste. The recipes are completely different from what was on the CBS show.. There are lavish meat pies, filled with everything from haggis to prunes and pork to the quintessential meringues. There are also sponge cakes as well as baked puff pastry wrapped pears, unusual here in the States. I'd love to seefuture contestants conquer true American recipes like chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie and cornbread.Most of the English recipes are French influenced as well  and not as hearty, or as as rustic as ours. They look elegant in a Jane Austen tea party kind of way  and have definitely sparked my urge to make them at home.

The Great British Bake Off is on every Sunday at 4PM.EST.If you have time or are tired of football or ice skating watch this. It's interesting on so many levels,a truly well baked show