I've been taking a brief break from Unapologetic Foodie, but I have been keeping track of the local phenom known as Chef Danny Veltri.
He's now the winner of the Fox reality show "Hell's Kitchen" and seems happier 'n hell every time you see him on TV, which is a lot lately. One of the oddest match-ups, I think, was his appearance opposite Regis Philbin on "Live! With Regis and Kelly" the morning after the win was made known on Fox-TV.
Danny gave a shout-out to the New Smyrna Beach restaurant where he's been working while trying to keep the results quiet for months, Flip Flops Grill and Chill in New Smyrna Beach. I have to say, though, the rumors were all over town, to the point that I thought it was some kind of strategy to mask the real winner's identity.
I'm glad it all played out in Danny's favor, though. He grew up where I grew up, Sarasota, and wound up living in my current neck of the woods, so if I was ever going to cheer for a home-town boy, Danny was it.
It's a safe bet hiss new digs at the Borgata Resortl in Atlantic City won't have any of the decor Danny wanted -- no mounted fish or distressed wood floors. But the new place, Forneletto, will be a fine showcase for the Italian cooking Danny began practicing in his youth.
If you haven't yet seen the finale, Fox.com has a new player for full episodes that will make it super easy to view. His emotions were really all out there; the producers couldn't have hoped for anything better. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.
Danny celebrates in this photo from FOX-TV. If you missed the recipe he made with Regis the next day, it's below.
Our own Danny Veltri of Edgewater, executive chef at Flip Flops Grill and Chill in New Smyrna Beach, will be among the final two in Chef Gordon Ramsay's own personal hell on May 7.
The other finalist is "Paula" a slow-pulsed sous chef from Pompano Beach.
Tonight, the final three, which included "Andrea," battled it out on Fox-TV's Hell's Kitchen, and this was Danny's take, going in:
Since another episode of "Hell's Kitchen," featuring Edgewater's own Danny Veltri as one of the final four contestants, will be broadcast on Fox-TV at 9 tonight, I have to get this out of my system:
Someone should stab star/host Gordon Ramsay's chef's coat with a hook, set his picture on fire and tell him he has to go home. He is just intolerably mean and has really gone 'round the bend in the last couple of episodes. I'm not sure if the finalists simply can't manage to finish a dinner service in good order at this point, or if they're just so flustered they can't cope.
Anyway, I've been holding on to this video from Fox for a while. It explains a lot about the dread tyrant Ramsay:
Last week, chief Chef Gordon Ramsay twisted the knife a couple of times on a crucial episode of "Hell's Kitchen."
In the end, Giovanni was axed on the basis of a bad attitude during a punishment session and one evening's bad service, it seemed, although Chef Ramsay toyed with two of the most irritating remaining contestants, Andrea and Ben, at the beginning of the show.
Contestant Danny Veltri of Edgewater, executive chef at Flip Flops Grill and Chill in New Smyrna Beach, is still in the running, and that's the important thing. He was a close second during last week's opening challenge, and I'm looking forward to seeing him begin his end game tonight at 9 on the Fox network.
So far, I haven't been too great at predicting who would be the next chef out this season, but I will hazard a guess: Ben. Not only is he Danny's least favorite competitor, this windbag is becoming the one I dislike most, as well.
Author Kate Jacobs - best known for her New York Times Bestseller "The Friday Night Knitting Club" - and I have a couple of things in common. Both of us think Food TV programs are great for relaxing, and Ina Garten of "Barefoot Contessa" is our favorite.
All the while Kate has been relaxing, though, she was also thinking about characters and a new book plot. And that's how "Comfort Food," her newest novel, came to be. Why couldn't I be more like Kate? Anyway, she talked to me on Friday from New York, where she was on book tour at the time. Now she's in Palm Coast and scheduled to appear at 6:30 tonight at By the Book in European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Parkway (386-597-1044, if you want some more info about the free event). Or see her in this recent video:
Meanwhile, here is a bit of our chat:
Besides the Food network, what other interest do you have in cooking and food?
What I wanted to do was write a story about family relationships. When I think of family, I think about food because I come from a family that really expresses itself through food, as many families do. I'm the youngest child of a big family, one of five, and we always had these big Sunday dinners or birthday parties, where all the family would get together, you know, cousins and everything. That kind of " comfort="" food,="" essentially,="" was="" really="" a="" strong="" association="" for="" me="" about="" family="" dynamics.="" />
When the whole family's gathered together, you know you're going to have potentially, some kind of drama, so that provides a lot of material.
I happen at the same time, as an adult to really love to watch food shows after I finish writing. ... It's very soothing for me to watch somebody knit dishes together. ... I like to try things I see on TV sometimes; I do like to cook. No one's going to give me a cooking show. I don't deserve one; I'm not good enough, but I do like to cook.
When did you work the Bernie Madoff-like character (David Fazio, who cons Kate's main character in a Ponzi scheme) into the plot?
In 2007. How bizarre is that? I'm not psychic, (but the Madoff news) all came out in 2008; the book was done and out in hardcover before all that happened. I remember some people saying, "Could that really happen?" And I would say I imagine it could; I think it could. And then, lo and behold, look, it happened. ... Life is always stranger than fiction; it's a truism that bears repeating.
Would you say your books are like chick lit, but for older chicks?
I think of them actually as realistic fiction -- a little bit of fairy tale; every story needs a little bit of fantasy in it -- but characters that real women can relate to.
All of my novels are multi-generational and multi-racial. So I think that they're truly for readers of all ages. You can read it in your 20s and truly understand where Gus's daughters, Aimee and Sabrina, are coming from. Or you can be a little bit older and look at it from (television cooking star) Gus's perspective.
Notice that you pay careful attention to the clothing the characters wear in each scene. Is fashion a big interest, and did you learn about it when you worked at magazines?
I do have a magazine background, but I would not describe myself as a fashionista, in any way. In terms of talking about a TV show, it very much matters what the characters are wearing. In some scenes they're clashing with each other, which is also indicative of how they're relating to each other on an emotional level. In other scenes they are coordinating and presenting a cohesive visual ...
Speaking of television, and movies, is there any possibility that your works may end up there in some form?
I have been approached by some folks in Hollywood. The movie rights for my first novel are optioned, and that was the Friday night knitting club. And there is other interest, but more than that, I'm not at liberty to say (she laughs a little).
Heads up: Tonight's the night when my current least favorite chef/contestant, "Lacey," may go down in flames on "Hell's Kitchen" (Fox-TV, 9 p.m.)
I have to apologize to our guy, Danny Veltri of Edgewater. In my last blog entry, I said he was something of a whiner, but he was positively positive in last week's show, compared to Lacey. I can't believe she threatened to quit again! The fact that her teammate "Ben" was shown up on the meat station during the dinner service was bad, but Lacey's continued terrorism and, as Danny puts it, "pi**-poor attitude" are unforgivable.
Both Ben and Lacey were lucky Chef Gordon Ramsay sent "J" packing during dinner service and decided to spare their chef's coats.
"Robert," who can be really sweet, said his tapas dish in the show's opening challenge was inspired by his mom, but then he destroyed the soft spot he has made in my heart by calling Lacey a fat bitch. I mean, I don't like her either, but that's uncalled for.
"LA" had it right when she said it couldn't happen in the real world after Ramsay called her "a silly cow." She said, "In the real world, if someone called you a cow or a bitch, you would walk up to 'im and sock 'im in the face."
A very low but funny point from the show? When Robert tells Lacey, "If you win this, I will hang up my coat and become a crack whore." I have an idea that won't be necessary -- or possible, for that matter.
Danny's shiniest -- not whiniest -- moment? When he made a filet mignon with wild mushroom ragout tapa that Ramsay thought was "absolutely delicious." In his honor, here's one of his recipes from the fox.com Web site
I have to face it: "Danny" on "Hell's Kitchen" -- a k a Danny Veltri of Edgewater, executive chef at Flip Flops Grill and Chill in New Smyrna Beach -- is a bit of a whiner.
He was falling all over himself making excuses for his plates' having dirty bottoms on tonight's episode. Meanwhile, the real-life Danny seemed to be having a roaring good time within the last week, cooking in the VIP tent at a Bike Week event. He was spotted by show fan Denise Covert, former copy editor and current gen2gen columnist for The Daytona Beach News-Journal. She's posing with Danny in the photo above, which was snapped by her husband, William, a Bike Week enthusiast and correspondent for the newspaper.
Danny, regardless of sloppy plates, still makes me very proud, as the food he cooked was fine tonight and he seems an above-board contestant. His Blue Team won both the challenge and the dinner service, "Hell's Kitchen's" first Bar Mitzvah party, profanity included, free of charge. What was Bar Mitzvah boy Max's family thinking? And who was it who yelled, "Look at the little pimp!" when Max appeared in his sport coat?
The women, minus "Lacey," who's now on the Blue Team, had a very bad night, indeed. After they were finished tearing each other apart, mild-mannered "Coi" was sent home. I like her, although she has struggled for several segments.
Aside from local boy Danny, my favorite contestant to this point is "Robert," and I'm glad he and Danny are friends. Next to go? I'm hoping Lacey, who seems prepped to show her bipolar, quitter true colors next week. We'll all think about it until 9 p.m. next Thursday. Until then, as Chef Gordon Ramsay has said, far too many times, "Piss off!"
