Simplicity

It's March 23. Last March we were still dealing with winter, grayness and snow. It was so bad that I was trying to cheer up my good Canadian buddy with a series of recipes celebrating Mapril. I was planning to do it again this year but winter was a no show here in KC. We've already had a week of weather in the low 80s. LOW 80s! Right now things are growing.

Things are blooming.

Things are....happening.

Them bunnies is FORNICATING under there, I SEES THEM!

As you can imagine, we are ecstatic about the weather but it leaves us confused as to seasonal cooking. It's too hot for stews and soups, way too soon for spring veggies. I pondered this as I was sitting on my couch and eating a banana. I love bananas. This particular banana, just beginning to turn ripe, triggered a flash of curiosity. This banana would taste good paired with rosemary. I didn't know how and it's not very often that I have these sort of insights regarding food. Real chefs do, they do all the time. They dream of food and wake up ready to make the recipes they dreamed the night before. I am not a real "chef". However I am a good googler. Not too much out there in planet google on "bananas with rosemary" except for one very lovely recipe. Yes ladies, it's the very pretty Eric Ripert in a short little video making grilled bananas with rosemary and maple.

I LOVE simple. AND it has maple. So I'm calling it, a MAPRIL 2012 recipe. Brush some softened butter on a cookie sheet or broiler pan lined with aluminum foil. Peel your slightly under-ripe bananas and cut them in length-wise. Brush the bananas with softened butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush with maple syrup. Top with rosemary leaves and broil roughly 4 - 5 minutes. When browned and removed from the broiler, lightly brush with bourbon.

Serve while still warm. Eric suggests this would be a good side dish for white meats such as chicken or pork and because your bananas are under-ripe and not yet overly sweet and you've roasted them, they are a starchy almost like a potato especially when you salt and pepper them. The rosemary is a perfect pairing with the flavor of the bananas and the maple syrup. I'm not totally sold that you need the bourbon but who am I to argue with Eric Ripert. No, I'll thank him instead for a stupid simple dish.

10 Hottest Men in the Food Industry

In fairness to the folks who enjoy the manly side of life, thought it was time to share Slashfood's Top 10 Hottest Men in the Food Industry. Number Two on the list:

Photo by Keith Farris

...the always popular Anthony Bourdain.

Curious to see who is Number One? Check out the list yourself at Slashfood.

Top Chef Masters?

I caught this little blurb in a press release from Top Chef's corporate brain trust, announcing yet another addition to the Bravo reality series empire, Top Chef: Masters. This obvious attempt to slice into the Food Network's "Iron Chef America" foodie fanatic base might just work. Iron Chef America has been running on the Food Network since 2005, but it's basic format has remained much the same. The stable of Iron Chefs rarely change and most of the challengers are generally unknown to the viewing public. (Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Iron Chef America; I much prefer the kitschy glory and speed of the original Japanese Iron Chef.)

Bravo touts its "Top Chef: Masters" as "featuring world-renowned chefs competing against each other in a series of weekly challenges." Who knows, maybe this is just the smackdown Iron Chef America needs to kick its stale, overly fog machined, superfluously knife blade noised, bloated silliness in the ass. Eric Ripert vs. Tony Bourdain? Hell yes - count me in. April Bloomfield vs. Michelle Bernstein? Bring it on. Team Challenges? I would be in heaven. But who gets to judge? Will Colicchio preside or compete? Will Bravo lure Steingarten and Ruhlman away from the I.C. judges table? The Magical Elves have been pretty successful in luring big name culinary luminaries to Top Chef. I can't wait to see who they catch in their nets. The question is, will they make them live together in some crappy loft with no air conditioning and sleep on Ikea bunk beds?