Photo by Helen Presnell/Courtesy of Berky’s.

Some of you may recall that the Travel Channel was at Lee-Hi Travel Plaza in Lexington in August to shoot video at Berky’s restaurant for the show “Food Paradise.” It’s usually impossible to know whether such footage will actually make it on television, but I’ve finally received word from a public relations person that Berky’s will make it on the air this week.

Travel Channel’s Truck Stop Paradise will feature Berky’s this Wednesday, March 27. The show is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. EST, so make a note to watch it or set your DVR if you’re interested.

This past Friday, the RLTV network had a crew at The Inn on Campbell, downtown Roanoke’s only bed and breakfast, to shoot video at an open house for a future episode of “Second Act.” According to the network, the show “provides baby-boomer participants with the real life skills needed to make it through challenging career transitions.” Owners Keith and Cindy Hummer are accomplished professionals, but this is the first time they’ve owned a B&B. I’ll keep an eye on when that footage might air and let you know.

Finally, Blues BBQ in downtown Roanoke will be the scene of another film crew visit, this time on April 5. Owner Patrick Maggi confirmed that Destination America is sending some folks to shoot for the show “BBQ Pitmasters.” Again, I am not sure when or if the footage will actually end up on the show, but I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I hear so you can catch it if you are interested.

Congratulations to these local businesses for catching the eye of these national television shows!

Today’s Front Burner column is about Buddy Valastro, star of the TLC reality shows “Cake Boss” and “The Next Great Baker.” On Dec. 9, Valastro is coming to the Salem Civic Center to share stories and cake decorating tips with the audience. A few lucky audience members will go home with a Cake Boss cake.

Tickets are $35.75, $45.75 and $85, but you could win a pair of tickets by entering our fall cupcake contest! Decorate a cupcake with an autumn theme, then send us a picture. We’ll show the images to Valastro, who will pick the final winner. I know some very talented bakers read the Fridge Magnet blog and I hope you will enter to win. If nothing else, this could be a fun weekend activity for you and your children or grandchildren.

To enter to win, you must:

>> Bake and decorate the cupcake yourself or with friends and family members.

>> Take a photo of the cupcake that shows all the elements of your design.

>> Write a brief description about how you decorated your cupcake, including any special or unusual steps you took.

>> Email the picture and description, along with your name, hometown and daytime telephone number (for verification purposes), to lindsey.nair@roanoke.com or mail the materials to The Roanoke Times, c/o Lindsey Nair, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA, 24010.

To keep reading rules and tips, click “Read more.”

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Photo by Helen Presnell / Courtesy of Berky's Restaurant.

If you want a chance to see a food show filmed up close and in person, think about heading over to Berky’s restaurant at the LEE HI travel plaza in Lexington tomorrow.

The Travel Channel will have a crew there shooting for an episode of its show, “Food Paradise.” The show, which airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., features all kinds of different restaurants and food. This will be the second time the travel plaza appears on the Travel Channel; in 2008, Berky’s was featured on the show “Extreme Truck Stops.”

According to LEE HI spokesperson Teresa Cummings, “The show will feature Berky’s popular steak dishes, including its ‘King of the Road,’ a 1 lb. beef steak charbroiled and smothered in fried onions and brown gravy and its 8 oz. hand-chopped steak. To encourage a packed-house for its national television premier, on Saturday, Berky’s will offer a Ribeye Special for $9.99 and welcomes the public to come out to support the restaurant during filming.”

The crew will be on site at Berky’s tomorrow from 2:30 to 7 p.m. Berky’s Restaurant at LEE HI Travel Plaza is located at 2516 North Lee Highway in Lexington. The phone number is 540-463-3478.

Inage courtesy of PBS.org/food

The talented and delightful Julia Child, who taught so many people to be more adventurous in the kitchen, would have turned 100 years old on August 15. Even though she died in 2004 (just two days shy of her 92nd birthday), fans of the “French Chef” are remembering her on what would have been her big day.

In particular, PBS has planned a big celebration featuring special programming and online features. They’re encouraging folks to cook a favorite Julia Child recipe and share pictures and comments about it on their website or Facebook page. They’ve also got some other commemorative coverage planned. Here are the details:

* Cook your own version of a classic Julia Child recipe, then share pictures or thoughts by tweeting with the hashtag #CookforJulia. Or you can post pictures and comments at PBS Food or on the PBS Food Facebook page.

* At PBS Food, you can see almost 100 “exclusive, limited-time full episodes from: In Julia’s Kitchen with Master Chefs, Cooking with Master Chefs, The French Chef Classics, Baking with Julia and three Cooking in Concert specials.” There’s also recipes, articles, links and a Julia personality quiz there.

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"Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro is coming to Salem in December. Maybe this photo, courtesy of the Salem Civic Center, will cool you down.

It’s time for the latest roundup of food-related event information. Check out these ideas:

* Member One Federal Credit Union will be hosting a hot dog eating contest today at noon on the Roanoke City Market. The contest will raise money for the Wounded Warriors Program and donations will be exchanged for a raffle ticket with a chance to win New England Patriots memorabilia signed by Danny Aiken. The winner of the contest will be awarded with a $150 gift card. I don’t know if I could choke down one hot dog in 100-degree heat, so more power to the contestants.

* Also hot will be the Great Downtown Grill Out tomorrow (Saturday) on the Roanoke City Market. For Haley Toyota’s City Market Saturday, six downtown restaurants will serve a variety of grilled food, from seafood to barbeque to burgers. All food will be available for purchase at each restaurant’s tent either in Market Square or along Market Street, and some restaurateurs will be grilling up local meats from vendors on the market. Take advantage of the fact that YOU don’t have to stand over the grill yourself! In related news, Downtown Roanoke, Inc. has decided to extent the Market at the Y through July.

* The Chef’s Circle at the Salem Farmers Market kicked off on June 23 and continues this Saturday with chef John McCrady of the Salem Civic Center. Check out the entire summer line-up by clicking here. It runs through August 18.

* Star City Motor Madness is largely about classic cars, but if you saw the special insert in today’s Roanoke Times you may have noticed there are almost a dozen food vendors involved in the two-day event, as well. These vendors will be set up along “the strip” of Williamson Road where the cruise night will take place tomorrow evening from 6 to 10 p.m. If you don’t have anything to do tomorrow evening and you can get to the strip without too much hassle, I recommend it. It’s quite the interesting scene.

Vendors include:
Angel and Teresa’s Shaved Ice
Big Squeeze Concessions (lemonade and kettle corn)
Blue Nile Halal Food’s Italian ice
Buffalo Mountain Concessions (lemonade and funnel cakes)
Grandma’s Lemonade (more lemonade and funnel cakes)
Homestead Creamery ice cream
Lunch Box, Inc. (variety)
Mark’s Very Good Candy Apples
Mom’s Fine Foods (chicken and BBQ)
Primo Wood Fired Pizza
Zach Swift Pizza and Calzones

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Photo courtesy p200eric/Flickr

Are you a fan of the Discovery channel series “Deadliest Catch,” which chronicles the highly dangerous work of King crab fishing on the Bering Sea? If so, you’ll want to drop by one of the three Roanoke Kroger stores where Capt. Keith Colburn will be signing autographs this coming Saturday (April 28).

Colburn, captain of the ship Wizard, will be at:

* Bonsack Kroger at 3970 Valley Gateway Blvd. from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

* Vinton Kroger on Hardy Road from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

* Towers Kroger on Brandon Avenue from 2 until 3:30 p.m.

Even if you don’t give a rip about the TV show, which is now in its 8th season, you might want to stop by to take advantage of the special price on Alaska King crab legs. They’ll be selling for $19.99, while snow crab legs will be on sale for $7.99. According to Kroger folks, this crab was all caught from Colburn’s boat.

“Deadliest Catch” airs in more than 150 countries. In these parts, it comes on at 9 p.m. every Tuesday.

The Palisades Restaurant. Roanoke Times file photo.

For the third year, the Celebrity Chef Tour will be stopping at The Palisades Restaurant in Giles County for two nights of extraordinary five-course meals with wine pairings. This will be the tour’s only stop in Virginia. The event happens on Friday and Saturday, March 30 and 31 and begins at 6 p.m. on both nights.

The tour is just what it sounds like: A traveling troupe of talented chefs who stop in various cities around the country to offer their food and personalities for folks who might not otherwise get a chance to experience them. Not every stop includes the same chefs; they take turns appearing in different places. The event benefits the James Beard Foundation.

In 2010, The Palisades hosted former White House chef Walter Scheib, who returned again in 2011. This year, the lineup will feature some chefs from the Bravo television show, Top Chef, as well as a local guy, Aaron Deal, who will be cooking at The River and Rail, a restaurant scheduled to open in Crystal Spring in Roanoke this spring.

This year’s full lineup:

Barton Seaver was named Esquire magazine’s “Chef of the Year” in 2009 and, in 2008, was named a ”Seafood Champion” by the Seafood Choices Alliance and a “Rising Culinary Star of the Year” by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Seaver is also the author of a book, “For Cod and Country.”

Jennifer Carroll was a finalist on the sixth season of Top Chef. She’s currently chef of the award-winning 10 Arts Bistro & Lounge in Philadelphia. She used to be the sous chef at Le Bernardin in New York.

Also from Top Chef’s sixth season, Mike Isabella has opened his first restaurant, Graffiato, in Washington, D.C. and competed against Chef Richard Blais in the final episode of Top Chef All Stars.

Pastry Chef Dana Herbert is from Top Chef Desserts and TLC’s “Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker.”

Aaron Deal was recently named one of the “12 to watch in 2012″ by Restaurant-Hospitality magazine.

Muldoon. Roanoke Times file photo.

Tickets to the Celebrity Chef Tour at The Palisades sell like hotcakes, so if you are interested you should snatch them up right away. Tickets are a little pricey at $140 per person, but that includes all food, drinks, gratuity and taxes.  Tickets must be purchased in advance by calling (540) 626-2828.  Tickets are not refundable but are transferable.

Congratulations and a big thanks to The Palisades Restaurant owner Shaena Muldoon for bringing such an amazing event to our little corner of the world. For more information about the tour, click here.

This Sunday, Feb. 5, a very important television event is going to occur. It is going to be a big, huge deal and highly entertaining. It’s called the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, earlier that day on a different network, you’ll be able to watch yours truly as I join Kroger chef Steve Alls in an episode of “Cookin’ with Kroger.”

I don’t mean to downplay the cooking show; I’m only giving myself a hard time. In reality, “Cookin’ with Kroger” is an awesome local gem that you ought to check out if you have not already. Since June 2011, Kroger’s in-house production crew has been shooting and editing this 30-minute cooking show with special guest chefs and cooks from around the valley.

The show airs on WSET (Channel 13) on the first and third Sunday of every month at 7:30 a.m. If you are like me, you are thinking, “Yikes! I don’t want to get up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning!” But that’s why some genius invented the VCR and the DVR machines.

Past guests on the show have included Kroger chefs Jeff Doudiken, Drew Buzik and James Fisher, as well as radio personalities Dick Daniels and David Page of Q99′s “Dick and Dave”.

My episode is the Valentine’s Day special, so I’ll be showing you how to make a lovely salad, a divine main course and a decadent dessert, all with a special Valentine’s touch. I will let the recipes be a surprise for now, but if you check the PlateUp recipe database on Monday, they’ll be posted there. They will also be available on the “Cookin’ with Kroger” website.

File photo

As most of you probably know, Food Network star Paula Deen, well known for her fat- and sugar-laden Southern recipes, confirmed Tuesday that she has Type 2 diabetes.

She made the announcement on the Today Show during an interview with Al Roker. The news has caused a storm of controversy, with many criticizing Deen for promoting the kind of eating that is associated with Type 2 diabetes. Others are ticked by the fact that she apparently waited three years to make the news public, that she told Roker she has always preached “moderation,” and that she has already formed a promotional partnership with the diabetes drugmaker Novo Nordisk.

The Today Show clip can be viewed for free on Hulu.com. Here’s the link. I have also transcribed Deen’s exact words on the show and will paste them below for anyone to read.

What is your reaction to this news? Should Deen be ashamed of herself or should her critics lay off?

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You eagle-eyed readers who spotted a “coming soon” sign at a Hardee’s on S. Main Street in Blacksburg were correct. I have confirmed with the corporate spokeswoman for Cook-Out that they are putting in a restaurant there. This is in addition to the Cook-Out restaurant planned for Fairlawn.

I still cannot get the actual location of the Cook-Out restaurant in Fairlawn. For some reason she could not tell me. But the speculation has been that they might be building a new one where a Golden Corral once operated.

I can tell you that she says both of those restaurants will open sometime in December. To my Fairlawn readers: What are you seeing lately in terms of construction in possible locations?

I traveled to Spartanburg, SC this weekend to see my sister, and Mom and I saw many billboards for Cook-Out restaurants along I-85. It’s obviously a big deal down there, and my sister said it’s really good for a fast-good burger joint.

Thanks again to everyone who offered suggestions as to where we should eat while shopping in Greenville this weekend. I was amazed again by how many chain restaurants and retail stores are located in Greenville. It’s like a shopper’s paradise or something!

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Daniel Knight. Photo by Cathy Benson/The Roanoke Times

Daniel Knight, owner of Blue Collar Joe’s in Botetourt County, finished in fourth place among four contestants on the Food Network Challenge last night. The challenge required each contestant to create several doughnuts for the judges, as well as to make a sculpture of an animal entirely out of doughnuts.

Daniel told me after the show was filmed but before it aired that it was a hectic few days, and I could definitely tell from watching the show last night that it was a stressful event. All four contestants were critiqued heavily by the judges, and the time constraints caused some problems for Daniel, as well as the others.

Also, may I just ask: What does creating a huge sculpture out of doughnuts have to do with a person’s ability to make good doughnuts? I got a bit annoyed watching these talented doughnut craftsmen (and women) burn up a lot of time creating silly doughnut creatures when they could have been focusing on the unique gourmet doughnuts instead. Daniel’s creations included a banana pudding-filled doughnut, a balsamic-berry basket pastry and an ambitious doughnut with pear, pomegranate and pistachio topping. One judge called him a “closet pastry chef,” a nice compliment, I think.

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File photo | The Botetourt View

Hi, Kathy here filling for Lindsey and I’ve got some breaking food news!

The Botetourt View has gotten word that Daniel Knight of  Blue Collar Joe’s in Daleville has been invited to a Food Network Challenge involving, of course, donuts.

Knight will be one of four contestants on the show, which will air sometime in 2011. He’ll be heading to Denver to film the episode next month. And the toughest part, Knight said, won’t be the cooking.

Read the whole story here.

Speaking of donuts, what’s your favorite flavor — in general or from Blue Collar Joe’s? I’m partial to anything chocolate, but not a fan of the jelly-filled kinds.

As noted in comments on the previous blog post, some folks who attended Paula Deen’s live show at the Salem Civic Center on Saturday did not get copies of the recipes demonstrated. Chef Jeff Bland, the U.S. Foodservice chef who demonstrated the recipes on stage for Paula, e-mailed them to me this afternoon. Thank you, Jeff! I will post them below.

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As you all might remember, I gave away two pairs of tickets on this blog for the Paula Deen Live performance at the Salem Civic Center this past Saturday, Oct. 2. Both winners were extremely excited to go or give the tickets to relatives who desperately wanted to see Paula. I asked both winners to let me know how the show went and send pictures, if possible. They sincerely promised to do so.

Yesterday, I had e-mails waiting from them both, but they didn’t describe the wonderful, priceless experience I thought they would. In fact, it sounds like the show was rather disappointing for several reasons. I’ve talked to a colleague who attended the show with his wife, and while he said they had a good time and thought Paula and her husband, Michael Groover, were funny, he confirmed there was some cursing and bawdiness and said they, too, were surprised that Paula didn’t actually cook. He added that the show lasted about 90 minutes, with Paula saying she was in a rush to leave and catch a plane.

Here are excerpts from the e-mails I exchanged with the winners:

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Are you a big fan of that Southern charm that Paula Deen exudes from every pore? If so, you might want to get your tickets to see the Food Network megastar at the Salem Civic Center on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

The “Queen of Southern Cuisine” will cook, share stories and — if I know anything about her — probably engage the audience, too. I interviewed Paula over the phone a couple of years ago, just before she came to the Hotel Roanoke for a Smithfield ham event. She munched on Sun Chips while we talked. Here’s the resulting Q&A.

When I met her in person at the Hotel Roanoke, she didn’t treat me like a small town reporter at all. Instead, she let me in with my puny little video camera after the professional videographers from local TV stations had finished their interviews. I found Paula and her husband, Michael, who often travels with her, to be very down-to-earth and friendly. Here’s the story about that visit.

Tickets are $53.75 $54.75, actually, and go on sale Friday, Aug. 13 at 10 a.m. Get them at the Salem Civic Center box office or www.ticketmaster.com.

Joshua Smith

I want to share several quick, exciting news items with you this morning:

1. Josh Smith, the Executive Chef of Local Roots Cafe in Grandin Village, has been invited to cook with nationally known garden design expert P. Allen Smith in an event called the Tale of Two Farms Heirloom Tomato Festival. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it’s in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 24. Here’s more info from the event publicist, Julie Wray:

“The event, which is hosted by garden designer and lifestyle expert P. Allen Smith and features Executive Chef Joshua Smith of Local Roots Café in Roanoke, Va., will benefit  The Oxford American magazine. The dinner will be held at Allen’s Garden Home Retreat in Little Rock, Ark., and is a celebration of the farm-to-table movement.”

If you are interested in more information or you will just happen to be in the Little Rock area at that time, click here. Congrats to Smith, who just keeps building a name in the culinary community for his talents with local food. Local Roots Cafe is currently closed because they are moving to a new location down near Grandin Theatre. It is scheduled to reopen later this month.

2. A Roanoke, Va. resident named Donna Blankenship has won a blue ribbon for her Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie on a neat little website called Just A Pinch. The website features a lot of recipes and even some downloadable coupons (I’ll have to tell our coupon blogger, Hollie Wingate, about that!) Check out Donna’s recipe here.

3. Blue Collar Joe’s donut shop in Daleville has INDEED been mentioned in a national FOX news article about extreme donuts! To see the article, click here.

4. Finally, I just wanted you all to know that Hotel Roanoke sent me the chimichurri recipe from Saturday’s cooking demonstration, so I will add a link to yesterday’s post as soon as I get the recipe entered into the database. Chimichurri is a very popular Argentinian condiment made from fresh herbs and garlic. It is delicious on grilled meats.

Eric Ripert l The Associated Press

Blog reader Debbie drew my attention to this interview with celebrity chef Eric Ripert on the food and restaurant blog Eater. The writer interviewed Ripert about such topics as the strength of his New York City restaurant, Le Bernardin, during a tough economy, his upcoming stint as a guest judge on the reality show “Top Chef,” and the new season of his own show, “Avec Eric.”

While I was interested to see that he plans to “explore the South, starting in Virginia and moving down” for “Avec Eric,” I was more drawn to his responses to questions about that Restaurant Marc Forgione fiasco that was chronicled in The New York Times last week. We had a pretty healthy discussion about that on this blog, so I thought you all would like to read what Ripert had to say about it. Here’s a quote to whet your appetite:

Ripert: “At the end of the day, the chef who is screaming cannot be happy. Maybe he is feeling powerful, but he is blind powerful.”

There was a nice opinion piece in The New York Times Sunday about the former Roanoke cooking show with Larry Bly and Laban Johnson, “Cookin’ Cheap.”

Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/opinion/29mon4.html

Hi, this is Kathy, Lindsey’s editor. Lindsey is taking a day off today, so I’m filling in for her a bit.

Just wanted to alert you to a story about Robert Cooper, a senior in Pulaski County High School’s culinary arts program. He is one of six students statewide who has been chosen to work in the kitchen of Guy Fieri, who hosts three programs on the Food Network. Cooper will spend more than eight hours behind the scenes building on the lessons he’s picked up in class. It’ll be interesting to hear what he learns.

The story ran in today’s New River Valley Current. Read it here.

Guy Fieri/www.foodnetwork.com

“Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” is my favorite show on the Food Network. Even if I’ve just consumed an entire turkey and a pie (which I’ve never done before, but I’m just saying), I would probably still have to go find a snack while watching D, D & D. It just makes me so hungry.

Every greasy spoon visited by host Guy Fieri has obviously been highly recommended by the locals, and always has at least one really good signature dish. Fieri spends time back in the kitchen while the chef or head cook shows him how they make those signature dishes. Usually, it’s a lengthy, from-scratch process. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone start by throwing a frozen beef patty on the grill or hauling out cartons of ready-made stock, but then again, I don’t watch every episode or I’d weigh 400 pounds by now.

Every time I do tune in, I wonder what greasy dive Guy Fieri would find worth visiting in Southwest Virginia. Would he love watching the guys at Texas Tavern making a batch of chili? Drool behind the scenes at Short Sugar’s Bar-BQ in Danville? Moan with ecstasy while devouring a plate of biscuits with sausage gravy at The Roanoker? Do any of those places even qualify as diners, or drive-ins, or dives? What does?

I posted this question over Twitter and Facebook last week and got some interesting suggestions about where Guy should go in Southwest Virginia. Read on for the list so far. Please keep adding to it, and if we can come up with a solid suggestion or two, I will send them to Mr. Fieri.

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Bryan

All of you “Top Chef” fans out there have probably seen the season premiere already. If you have, you noticed something rather unusual: Two men are vying for the title this season who are brothers! Their names are Bryan and Michael Voltaggio

Bryan is Executive Chef/Partner at Volt, a restaurant in Frederick, MD.; Michael is Chef de Cuisine at The Dining Room, Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa in Los Angeles, CA. There’s already a nice brotherly rivalry bubbling between them, so it ought to be interesting to see how that plays out. Read more about them on their biographies on the Bravo Web site.

Michael

Why should you care specifically about these guys? Because Bryan Voltaggio sources some of his ingredients from our neck of the woods. He buys lamb from Border Springs Farm in Patrick Springs, Va. Farmer Craig Rogers is pretty excited that one of his buyers is on the popular Bravo television show. Rogers says Bryan Voltaggio also buys from EcoFriendly Foods in Moneta, Va. That wouldn’t surprise me since EcoFriendly supplies a lot of fancy, big city restaurants on the East Coast, particularly in New York. But Volt is not listed on their Web site.

A new episode of Top Chef airs tonight on Bravo at 10 p.m. If you’re watching, let me know what you think of the V-boys and the rest of the contestants. Oh, sorry, “cheftestants.”

Images from www.bravotv.com

Word on the street is that the Top Chef contestants tonight will have to make a meal out of nothing but canned and processed ingredients. And they’ll have to do it in 15 minutes.

I drop in and out of watching Top Chef, but I have to tune in tonight because I’m guest blogging about the episode for That TV Blog on Roanoke.com. So if any of y’all are going to watch the show tonight and have comments about it, be sure to head over to the TV blog and chime in.

In honor of the chefs’ challenge tonight, I need to find a simple and easy recipe made from canned and/or processed ingredients. Hmmm…. how about this recipe for Bourbon BBQ Turkey Dogs from the cookbook “Tech Tailgates: Good Food to Gobble up on Game Day” by Kirsten Titland and Melissa Moncrief Cobbler? It’s got hot dogs, it’s got jarred jelly, it’s got bourbon. What else could you ask for on a cold day?

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