December Line-Up

On December 5th the Celebrity Chefs Tours will be taking over Anthology in Little Italy for a holiday special. The afternoon long event comprises of tasty dish samples, and easy recipes to recreate at home for your family or for a festive dinner party.

Over the course of three monthly events that kicked off in October our amazing line up of culinary talents will be sharing their knowledge about tips and trends in the kitchen.

For our second monthly event we are proud to announce that Ryan Grant of El Bizcocho and Iron Chef fame will be presenting the main course. He will be accompanied by Anthology’s Executive Chef Todd Allison who will be demonstrating appetizers followed by chocolatier Will Gustwiller of Eclipse Chocolat famous for his artisan chocolates and truffles perfect for the holiday season! As for drinks we have another expert in the wings ready to shake things up, literally! Mixologist Nathan Stanton from Noble Experiment who is known as co-owner and creator of El Dorado, Noble Experiment, and Craft and Commerce’s creative cocktail menus. 

In addition there will be several fun demo’s from vendors like Venissimo Cheeses, as well as a beer and wine demo. Of course food demos are no fun unless there are samples so everything you see, you will be able to try!

There will only be 200 tickets sold for this intimate event so as to ensure all audience members the best experience possible. After all the idea is to learn from the greats! This experience is for the novice and seasoned cook alike. Measuring implements are banned, tasting is encouraged, and your inner chef is invited to play. The best part? No clean up required…

To purchase tickets go to

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR FABULOUS CHEFS WILL BE DISPLAYED HERE DURING THE NEXT DAYS!!!

Your experience and impressions

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Our Chefs this coming Sunday

Mike Yen: This molecular mixologist at Nine-Ten in La Jolla is a true chemist with alcohol. Self-taught and inspired by the different forms alcohol can take, he knows exactly how to please the eye, forming a drink into unimagined shapes: a fried egg, jelly coke bottles, and fully alcoholic “smores” to name a few. He currently caters private events in addition to his work at Nine-Ten, creating exciting drinks to steal the party spotlight.

Giuseppe Ciuffa: Born in Ferrara, Italy and raised on home cooked family meals and garden-fresh ingredients, Ciuffa always knew he wanted to share his born passion with the world. After working at a pizzeria, studying at the Culinary Institute in Rome, and managing a restaurant in Italy, Ciuffa's dream began to take form with his move to America after devoting himself to learning the English language. He successfully co-owned several restaurants until finally starting his empire, Giuseppe Restaurants and Fine Catering in 2001, and his own crafty restaurant, the Museum Cafe at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla.

JR Cifrese: Born in a typical Italian family, Cifrese cooked, ate, cooked, and ate some more with his family and friends since a young age. With an early start in an Italian catering deli, an education at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, and multiple managerial chef positions, Cifrese has served it all. He has worked in Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Canada, and has most recently been with Coast 2 Coast Cuisine.

Ed Gallagher: Born into a German-Irish family, and having worked at an Italian restaurant in high school, Gallagher grew up with a unique taste of foods. He attended Johnson and Wales Culinary School and fell in love with the science of cooking—all its details, and all of its tastes. He next learned the restaurant business in Colorado, and with a move to Long Island, instantly caught onto the east coast style of cooking. He now works with Coast 2 Coast Cuisine.

Ro Zinniger: Owner of Ro Zs (pronounced Rosies) Sweet Art Studio, Ro has been a professional Cake Stylist for almost 10 years. Growing up in an Italian household and was exposed to baking at an early age, eventually inspiring her to study Cake Decorating with the industry’s greats. Ro’s forte and love is fondant, specifically Fondarific fondant (mainly because it tastes so great). Her passion led her to begin her own school and retail shop in San Marcos, CA in August 2008. Now she inspires other to follow their dreams of creating!

LET THEM INSPIRE YOU FOR A THANKSGIVING THAT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL NEVER FORGET!

World Market

Where can you go to get good-looking furniture at gentle prices, wine, coffee and cookware as well as candles, rugs, soap, bath products and some gourmet food items?
And towels. And incense. And cool jewelry. And oh yeah, a great beer and wine department, too?

World Market offers  a huge variety and has a sense for decor!
On Sunday there will be a demonstration on how to decorate your home for Thanksgiving!

Great News!

Great News! is a Cooking School located in San Diego, California. They are a privately owned retail business that has been striving for complete customer satisfaction since 1977.
The cooking school is a state of the art classroom with 7 large screen televisions and the capability of seating 52 students. Instructors and chefs wear a microphone so that you’ll never miss an important tip or trick.
You'll find more information here!

This year they will be part of the Celebrity Chefs Tour event @ Anthology San Diego as sponsor and demonstrator!
They will talk about Thanksgiving essentials and you will be able to take part in a raffle.

Wine pairing with turkey

South Coast Winery&Resort is an idyllic getaway not far from San Diego.


Peaceful walks through the vines, winery tours and tastings, gourmet food paired with award-winning wines, vineyard views from a villa terrace with the highest standards of service are some of the things you can expect to see and experience there. Celebrity Chefs Tour brings you closer!

South Coast Winery will demonstrate wine pairing with turkey @ our event on November, the 14th.

What gives this Southern California resort its unique finish?

From grapes produced by the rich Southern California soil and ample Temecula Valley sun, the talented winemakers craft blends and varietal selections with intense flavors and soft, supple structure - that makes it unique.

Interested in more information?

Click here.

Venissimo...all the best cheese from all over the world!

For all the cheese lovers ♥


Celebrity Chef Tour Event Number 2 has a special demo on November, 14th!

Venissimo Cheese will be part of our next event - they will share their mission of showing the goodness & glory of cheese with you!
Since opening their first shop more than six years ago, Venissimo Cheese has shared more than 1200 fabulous cheeses with fellow cheese lovers, with many more yet to come.

Check their website here for more information about Venissimo Cheese.

Another participant

One Hope Wines will be another participant of the second Celebrity Chefs Tour Event.

They will be demonstrating their most popular and tasty wines which fit perfectly to your Thanksgiving!

One Hope Wine is all about making the world better, and giving people an easy way to make a difference. One Hope Wine gives 50% of their profits to charity. Each bottle of wine gives it to a different charity, the charity ribbon on the bottle of wine marks each.
There are 5 wines for 5 causes; Breast Cancer, Autism, our Troops, the Planet, and Aids.

We are glad to have them "on board" of our Celebrity Chefs Tour Thanksgiving Event! 

Line-Up for November,14th

On November 14th Celebrity Chefs Tour will be back!



We will keep you up-to-date and let you know who the chefs for this event are and what other specials await you.
Our "A Thanksgiving to Remember" event will start with a demo by Pacifica Culinaria and you will have the chance to win a great raffle prize!

Pacifica Culinaria is a premier gourmet food manufacturer specializing in avocado oils for cooking.
Avocado oil is supposed to be healthier than the often used olive oil.
They offer ten varieties of flavor infused avocado oils including award-winning Blood Orange as well as Key Lime, Coastal Lemon and savory infusions such as Toasted Onion and Roasted Garlic. Their balsamic and champagne vinegars are legendary and have unique flavors such as Pear Pomegranate and Dark Sweet Cherry.

For more information about Pacifica Culinaria and their products click here.

But what's already for sure: This is gonna be a perfect start into another fabulous event!

How did it go? Part 2.

Last week we covered mixologist Garth Flood and his Old Fashion Bourbon, and Todd Allison’s appetizing risotto.  This week, we finish reviewing meal’s main course and desserts. 

The main course of the day was a stuffed pork belly dish by Richard Sweeney.  Rich started his demonstration with cooking the stuffing for his pork belly.  He shows the audiences the different ingredients, including his favorite, oil from cooking bacon.  He then tucks the stuffing in the middle of a piece of pork belly, which Rich was more than happy to educate us on how to get your best piece of meat.  After tying down the meat, chilling, cooking under low heat, then roasting it afterwards, you should get this golden brown stuffed piece of meat.  Watching him cook was one thing, but tasting it was another.  The meat and stuffing was great together.  The gravy that complements the dish soften the stuffing and melts in with the pork belly.  Collard Greens on the side lessen the heavy dish and calms the palate; a perfect dish for the holiday seasons. 

For dessert, there were not one, but three unique cupcake creations by Stefanie Gaxiola.  With Halloween on the horizon, all her cupcakes were infused with the holiday’s theme.  Stefanie shared her culinary history and got the audience a hands-on experience with making the cupcakes.  Needless to say, the audience took up her challenge.  All three cupcake recipes and all the other chef’s recipes are available at celebritychefstour.com. 

That’s not all though.  Besides the four celebrity chefs that showed up, a guest chef from Venissimo Cheese introduced us to various cheeses, their unique characteristics, and the different ways they are served.  This knowledge was perfect, seeing how everyone there loves to host their own house parties.  World Market even show up to teach some holiday decoration tips, and best of all, gave out a very generous gift bag full of World Market goodies.

If you missed out last time on all this food, tips and goodies, we’re having it again on Nov. 14.  Four new chefs will come and share a little of their culinary expertise and how you can apply it to your holiday parties.  Tickets are available here

Review

Chido Eats - a Blog in search of the best food-experience in San Diego has published a review on the first Celebrity Chefs Tour Event.  The event turned out very well for our chefs, and a promising show for our upcoming chefs on Nov. 14. as they tackle the Thanksgiving theme.

...read the review here!

How did it go? Part 1.

When you get a chef who starts talking about patenting the phrase “concentrated yum yums,” and the audiences all start cracking up, you know it’s an entertaining event. “Concentrated yum yums” of course, was how Chef Richard Sweeney referred to the oil produced from bacon fat, as he adds the ingredient into his Bacon-Sage Cornbread Stuffing mixture. It was delicious.

Richard Sweeney is only one of the four celebrity chefs who did a demonstration of their culinary skills and provide vast knowledge in what they were cooking. Mixologist Garth Flood educated us on the nature of Bourbons and the history of Margaritas. He showed how to make an Old Fashion Bourbon, an after party Tequilla, and an unique Hot Whiskey drink. Definitely not something you see everyday.

Todd Allison talked a little bit about all his past experience that led him to where he is today. A lot of Chef Allison’s great dishes were a result of the Farmer’s Market’s fresh ingredients. Everyone attended had a taste of his Butternut Squash and Rock Shrimp Risotto, which are some dishes that he doesn’t even serve on the regular Anthology menu. The Butternut Squash has a little crunch, but was tender enough to melt in your mouth. Topped with some cheese on top and some savory greens on the side, the dish has a great presentation as well as taste. The risotto was cooked perfectly with the unsalted butter for twenty minutes, to get that nice texture a good risotto should have. The risotto was mixed with some diced onions and rock shrimps, and undoubtedly the best risotto I have ever had.

That’s not all of course. In Part 2, I will tell you about our two other celebrity chefs’s dishes, as well as some surprise guests who showed up. Stay tuned!

And for Desserts...

Ending the list of the celebrity chefs coming to the Celebrity Chef Tour it’s Stefanie Gaxiola for desserts. Stefanie Gaxiola, or better known as “Red Velvet Stefanie”, is most widely recognized for her Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake. Her specialties wow’d even the judges of the Food Network cupcake competition “Cupcake Wars,” and ended up being the Finalist..

Her love for Red Velvets doesn’t just end there

Stefanie even entered the Cheesecake Factory’s contest for the next cheesecake flavor. There were more than 10,000 entries all trying to add their flavor into the already glamorous roaster. Stefanie’s Red Velvet flavor won out and now has a cheesecake named after her. Now that’s true dedication to Red Velvet cakes.

You can see Stefanie cooking with Richard Sweeney here on CW6. Better yet, you can just see her in person this Sunday at Anthology. 2 for 1 tickets available for the Celebrity Chefs Tour going on this Sunday.
Only 25 available- Book Now.

Richard Sweeney - Entree

If you have ever watched the show "Top Chef" on Bravo, you might remember Richard Sweeney from season 5. From Bravo.com:

"Richard Sweeney grew up in food service. Richard Sweeney's father has served as a restaurant manager for years and his mother and stepfather have owned several bagel businesses in Long Island where Richard spent many summers during his youth. Richard Sweeney has been trained by world traveled chefs in classic French techniques and their modern applications. Richard Sweeney's motto in the kitchen is, "Keep it simple (stupid)" – and he likes to do just that by keeping his plates simple and infused with natural harmony versus chaotic noise. At Confidential, Richard Sweeney likes to "play" with his food through the small plates style of dining, which allows him to create many new dishes for his guests to combine."

Unfortunately, Richard's days on the reality culinary competition was short and bittersweet. His Banana S'more did not impress the Top Chef judges or the guest judges, The Foo Fighters. Nevertheless, Banana S'more is not something your average chef can make up on the spot.

Once worked as the Executive Sous Chef at Confidential Restaurant & Loft in the Gaslamp District of downtown San Diego, Richard now opened his own restaurant in Hillcrest, R-Gang Eatery. One of his favorite things to cook is a simple pasta dish of grilled/sautéed chicken breast, garlic, shallots, olive oil, fresh basil, and some crushed red pepper. Sounds simple, but maybe that is just his expert culinary skills talking. Check out Richard Sweeney and your other guest chefs during the Celebrity Chef Tour at Anthology this Sunday.

Chef Todd Allison

The next in the line up of celebrity chefs in the tour is Chef Todd Allison. Chef Todd Allison is the Executive Chef from the home venue of the Celebrity Chef Tour, Anthology. His French and Mediterranean style cuisine is sure to bring an unique taste to the appetizers this weekend.

But for him, it was a long way before he made it to the kitchens of Anthology. Todd started as a dishwasher at Café 1134 and Chez Loma and worked his way up to be lead cook in three short years. He then worked with Chef James Boyce at Mary Elaine’s at the Phoenician Resort. Mary Elaine soon evolved into the Five Star restaurant it is today. Todd Allison also worked in varies other kitchen, such as the Montage Resort and Bollinger’s in Laguna Beach, and the Checkers Resaurant in Los Angeles Hilton, all leading up to where he is now.

You can be sure he will be showcasing this favorite dishes inspired by his vast culinary experience. See Todd and all the other chefs on Sunday, October 17th, at Anthology from noon til 4 pm. Tickets are limited to 150.

Mixologist Garth Flood

Celebrity Chief Tour is just around the corner, we feel that you should get to know your celebrity chefs before indulging in their fine culinary delicacies. Our front liner Mixologist is Garth Flood.

Located in the East Village part of San Diego, you can find Garth bartending at the Cowboy Star cocktail bar. His ease, effortless attitude is just you need to relax from the strenuous week. His attitude is not just for show either. Garth was the winner in the Preiss Imports Cocktail Contest. Read all about it here

Intrigued yet? Come see Garth Flood mixing up his favorite cocktail drinks at the Celebrity Chefs Tour Sunday, October 17^th, Noon – 4 pm. Tickets are limited and are available here

Celebrity Chefs Tour on FOX 5

Check out Chef Todd Allison and Chef Richard Sweeney showcase their tantalizing dishes on FOX 5 news. You can watch the whole coverage here.

October 17th 2010

Celebrity Chefs Tours San Diego will be launching on October 17th at Anthology. This is an event you dont want to miss. 3 local chefs, along with a mixologist will tantalize your tastebuds with great food that you will be able to go personally cook.

Four chefs from around San Diego, including our own Todd Allison, will take part in this live cooking experience. Highlights of the afternoon include:

 Live Cooking Demonstrations
 Samples of all the chef dishes
 Special shopping opportunities
 A great bag of swag

PARTICIPATING CHEFS:

 Cocktail – Mixologist GARTH FLOOD from Cowboy Star
 Appetizer – Chef TODD ALLISON from Anthology
 Entrée – Chef RICHARD SWEENEY from R-Gang Eatery
 Dessert – Chef STEFANIE GAXIOLA from Red Velvet Stefanie

TICKET PRICES (not including service charge):

 Single tickets – $75 (can be purchased through our website)
 Double deal – $140 (can ONLY be purchased through the Box Office)
 Limited space available (First Floor Only)

Fall in Love...with cooking - with seasonal inspired recipes

Sunday, October 17th from Noon - 4 PM @ Anthology San Diego

an afternoon of Fall Food, Fun and Friends!