Last year was nothing short of insane (in the best sense of the misused word). 125,000 miles of flying, 14 countries, six solid months of taping, an overly ambitious number of appearances, dinners, judgings, etc—and that was the easy part. Burning the candle at the other end is what required the serious focus and determination. [...]

Vanilla Hickory-Smoked Manhattan, Bar Chef, Toronto. (Ontario).

The three cities I find myself in the most are Los Angeles (my home), Toronto (my home away from home), and Vancouver (my home away from my home away from home). Here’s the first installment of the list of restaurants I gravitate to in each of these cities—along with some of my favorite dishes.

From Bob’s book “Glutton for Pleasure” This is the recipe that got me started on savory cupcakes. It was inspired by the name “fish cake” which always made me laugh when I thought of a cake made with fish. My original salmon cupcakes were bite-size and I served them as appetizers, but they quickly grew [...]

What a long strange trip it was.

Much of my last year was consumed by shooting my new series World’s Weirdest Restaurants. Each of the 13 episodes features four weird, wacky and/or wondrous restaurants. If you do the math, that’s 52 weird restaurants (it was actually 55, but as in any war, there are always casualties). Along with a skeleton crew of four, I lived in Tokyo for three weeks, blew into Italy for a mere 18 hours and did an endless series of drive-by dinners in 8 other countries around the globe.

The USDA recommends 2 to 4 servings of fresh fruit a day. How you eat it is your business. 2 tablespoons dark rum 2 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 4 bananas 1 pint chocolate ice cream, or frozen yogurt Preheat grill to medium-high direct heat. In a bowl, blend rum, honey and cinnamon. Reserve. [...]