Twitter has a lot of information for whatever you are into, and there are plenty of great cooking and food related people to follow so we figured we would make a nice list of some of the best chefs on Twitter. There are many more you can find if you just look, but these 20 stood out to us right off the bat, either because we are familiar with them or we recommend them because they provide some tasty nuggets of info.

Bobby Flay - Bobby Flay is one of the most famous chefs in the world right now, if you are reading this then I imagine that you know exactly who he is and now you can follow him on Twitter as well. He tweets about many food and cooking related topics, as well as various other little tidbits of foodie wisdom.

Cat Cora - Cat Cora is a world renowned chef who started on her culinary journey when she was only 15 years old. In 2005 she made TV history by becoming the worlds first female Iron Chef on the hit show Iron Chef America. She has also been on many other cooking shows and even co hosted a cooking show with a muppet.

Emeril Lagasse - Another world famous chef that needs no introduction, Emeril is known far and wide for his amazing culinary skills and his unique sense of humor.

Jamie Oliver - Jamie Oliver is a British chef who has become a phenom in the culinary world. Jamie has numerous television shows and his show The Naked Chef on the BBC network is one of the most popular cooking shows on the air. Jamie has been a huge inspiration to may people, follow him on Twitter and maybe he will inspire you too if he has not already done so.

Chris Cosentino - Chris is a unique chef because he focuses a lot on different delicacies that many people do not eat, in his Twitter feed you will see him discuss these types of dishes and delicacies as well as post photos of them and even offers recipes. Follow him and you will discover some truly unique foods.

Ludo Lefebvre - Chef Ludo as he is known is an interesting type of chef because he owns a touring restaurant. His restaurant has no permanent address or phone number and he moves locations often to bring his amazing food to different people. Hs dishes have won awards and he is a unique and top notch chef who offers some fun and interesting info via his twitter feed.

Tyler Florence - Tyler Florence is a well known chef based in the Bay area of California. He is also a chef with many other talents including making wine, running his own restaurant, designing his own culinary products, and he is also a dad. He makes some unique and exquisite dishes that will make your mouth water, and following him on Twitter you will see him Tweet about various dishes with pics.

Rocco Dispirito - Rocco is an Italian-American chef out of New York City. He is well known as a celebrity chef and also a cookbook author. One of his most known books is called Now Eat This and he has a few others out in addition to that. He has been on numerous television shows and owns a popular restaurant in New York City.

Giuseppe Tentori - Giuseppe is the executive chef at the popular Chicago restaurant Boka and soon he will also be holding the same position at a new restaurant called GT Fish and oyster. He has received many awards for some of his dishes and he is also a master seafood chef.

Todd English - Todd is a highly respected and decorated veteran chef who runs his own restaurant that he started in Massachusetts. He then started building upon the reputation his restaurant built and opened restaurants in many other locations. His restaurant, “Olives” has become a well known brand around the world and he keeps racking up more and more honors as a top notch culinary pro.

Foodimentary - Foodimentary was started by John-Bryan Hopkins where he humorously discusses food on Twitter. It started as a blog that has since been renamed as Foodimentary101. Foodimentary quickly moved over to Twitter, where it quickly grew in popularity. Today it is considered one of Twitter’s top contributors in the category of food-drink.

Rick Bayless - Rick is an award-winning chef-restaurateur, cookbook author, and also a television personality. He has done more than any other culinary star to introduce Americans to authentic Mexican cuisine and to change the image of Mexican food in America.

Kathy Casey - Kathy Casey is a celebrity chef, a mixologist and also pioneer in the bar-chef movement. She has played a huge role in bringing Northwest cuisine as well as women chefs to national prominence. She was also one of the first female executive chefs in the United States and was named one of Food & Wine's “hot new American chefs.”

The Klutzy Cook – The Klutzy Cook is another excellent Twitter feed to follow if you love to cook. She is not a professional chef but has a passion for cooking that is right up there with all of the pros. Her cooking philosophy is simple – “My philosophy on cooking and food is that it should be for fun and enjoyment.  The serious stuff I leave to the professionals and experts.  For me, if what I prepare tastes good and gets eaten it’s a success.

Bridget Davis - Bridget likes to teach people to cook and help people become better cooks. Cooking has been a passion of hers for years and she loves to share her knowledge with others. She says it best right here – “I take great pleasure in teaching and sharing my skills and experiences with others who love to cook or won’t cook! I live to inspire and help create exciting culinary moments through cooking and teaching.”

William Cooks – This is a great Twitter feed full of all kinds of excellent recipes as well as tips and tricks for cooking.

Amanda Formaro - Amanda is a cooking and baking fanatic as well as a food blogger. Follow her on twitter to discover all kinds of new recipes, blog posts about food, and more recipes and cooking tips.

Karol’s Kitchen - Karol’s goal is to share the recipes that her family loves to families around the world. She tweets about many different recipes and her website has a free recipe book that anyone can download.

Mark Tafoya – Mark Tafoya is the Executive Chef and Co-owner of the Culinary Media Network which is a new media company that celebrates the sensual pleasures of food from a multi-cultural perspective.

Think Tasty - Think Tasty is the home to delicious recipes, honest restaurant reviews, and interesting food news.

OK, I admit to being a Mac Fanboy. I've got a MacBook, an iPhone and I'll be first in line for a new iPad when it hits the shelves.

But I'm also a foodie with time on his hands. So what better way to show appreciation for my much-loved Apple products than to create a tasty sculpture in the form of Apple's venerable leader?

And with Apple's latest blockbuster product launch just around the corner, I figured that my iPad Launch Party would be the perfect place for the unveiling. You ARE going to an iPad launch party, aren't you?

Steve's piercing gaze and strong personality
make him a natural choice for bold food pairings.

I figured that cheese was a great medium for food carving, and would go well with many a tasty meal.

Mozzarella has the right consistency, is pliable when melted slightly, and its pasty-white color matches the skin tone of many a computer geek like Steve and myself.

See below for directions on how to create your own Cheese Head and for three tasty recipes that go perfectly with Steve Cheese.

If you're going to create your own tasty CEO goodness, make sure you've got some good pictures to reference while you carve. I used the one above, along with one or two profile shots so I could get the full 3D effect.

Start out with a few of those big blocks of mozzarella cheese. You can hold them together with toothpicks or chopsticks that have been neatly clipped.

Next up, carve out the basic human skull shape. Don't worry too much about the details yet — just go for the large feature areas. Map out where you're going to put the eyes, nose and chin. A paring knife — I'm a fan of this one — works great for this type of work and for the detail work to follow.

The nose and ears require detailed carving, so work on those separately. You can attach them with glue made of gobs of slightly melted cheese. In fact, as you progress, those melted cheese blobs should be applied liberally to give the head its smooth, human look.

Finally, apply the beard and hair using a flat spoon filled with ground pepper. Be careful with this step — it's a pain to remove specs of pepper once they've stuck to the cheese.

Now that your Steve is carved and ready to go, choose from one of the following three delicious recipes to complete your meal. Please follow the recipes carefully — you should resist the temptation to throw Steve onto your barbecue at all times.

Ingredients

• 1 Steve Jobs Cheese Head
• Assorted gourmet cheeses such as brie, camembert or stilton
• Crackers
• Fruit

The cheese plate allows your guests to get a good look at Steve's entire head. This recipe is a great one to choose if your sculpture has few imperfections. Simply mount the head on a base of partially-melted cheese and arrange various food items around the edges.

Guests will be reluctant to take a carving out of your masterpiece, so you might have to be the first to dive in. I recommend starting with a nose or an ear — that way your guests will know you mean business. The pepper adds some zing to the somewhat-bland mozzarella.

Ingredients

• 1 Steve Jobs Cheese Head
• Jalapenos
• Tomatoes
• Sour Cream
• Olives
• Tortilla chips

Steve has been known to be somewhat "spicy" to his underlings, especially around product launch time. What better way to celebrate this personality trait than with hot 'n spicy nachos?

The preparation is simple — line a cast-iron pot with tortilla chips and rest Steve comfortably on top. Garnish with tomatoes, jalapenos and olives.

Be sure to show off Steve to your guests at this point, since he'll be unrecognizable soon enough.

You'll want Steve to melt quickly without burning the chips, so bake covered at 375 degrees until the cheese is bubbly.

Remove glasses and serve with a side of sour cream and/or salsa.

Ingredients

• 1 Steve Jobs Cheese Head
• 1 Large serving Pad Thai. Recipes found here

Tired of waiting for your new iPad? This tasty iPad Thai will tide you over, and it costs a lot less too.

Simply prepare Pad Thai the way you usually do — any variation will be fine. Arrange the noodles on an attractive platter, while leaving room for Steve in the middle. Mount Steve in a well of noodles and provide a knife for those guests who'd like a little cheese with their fusion cuisine.

I'll be serving iPad Thai at our iPad launch party — how about you? Let me know if you create your own Steve food creation. If anyone has the gumption to put Steve into a pressure cooker, please get in touch. Oh, and let me know if you've got any ideas for what to do with two pounds of melted, pepper-infused mozarella cheese.

Why has this happened? What accounts for this increase? Are other countries experiencing the same thing?

Below are some interactive visual aids to help answer these questions. Check them out to get the inside scoop on Calories in the USA.

Calories By Food Group

In the US, the average daily dietary intake has increased by 600 calories — from 2,172 to 2,775 — over the last thirty-seven years. That may not surprise you, but the details just might.

In this chart, we see that Americans are actually eating roughly the same number of calories in five of seven food groups — fruit, vegetables, dairy, sugar and protein. However...

Grains and fats account for nearly all of the increase
in daily calorie consumption since 1970.

We'll focus on those two food groups in subsequent charts to see exactly what's going on.

Daily Calorie Consumption, by Food Group

100200300400500600700

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1970

Use the scrollbar to see how consumption has changed over time

The Cost of Calories

One of the reasons Americans are eating more calories today than in 1970 is that price of food, when adjusted for inflation, has dropped.

What is disturbing, though, is that the price of added sugars has dropped significantly more than the price of healthful foods has. This can be attributed to the proliferation of low-cost High-Fructose Corn Syrup over the last thirty years.

The inflation-adjusted cost of added sugars
has dropped by half since 1970.

The purchase price of each food group has changed as follows:

• Fruit sources: 30% increase
• Vegetable sources: Unchanged
• Grain sources: 29% decrease
• Dairy sources: 38% decrease
• Fat sources: 38% decrease
• Protein sources: 50% decrease
• Sugar sources: 50% decrease

Inflation-Adjusted Cost of One Ton of Various Food Groups

6001,2001,8002,4003,0003,6004,2004,800

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1970

Prices are in $USD. Use the scrollbar to see how consumption has changed over time

Final Thoughts, Acknowledgments and Sources

Calorie statistics for the US come from the USDA's Economic Research Service. The worldwide statistics, as well as cost estimates, come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The technology behind the world map was provided by DIY Map.

Want to see more food databases like this one made into interactive graphics? Let me know which ones and I might just take a crack at it. Worldwide ice cream consumption, anybody? Or maybe something to do with coffee?

At TheCooksDen, we decided to apply the scientific method to that important question. We brought in an unbiased test subject — one who has superior taste buds, is unaffected by marketing hype, and is unafraid to express her opinions publicly.

Meet Hammy the Hamster. Hammy was kind enough to participate in hours of rigorous testing in order to get to the bottom of this critical issue. Read on for the results — they just may surprise you.

Highlights

First off, a bit about our technique is in order. Hammy was asked to repeatedly choose between an organic food item and a conventional item of the same type. Click on this video to see documentation of several test trials.

Outtakes

Of course, Hammy was not always so cooperative. Like a well-trained athlete, sometimes she just wasn't up to her best. Below see video documentation of several trials where Hammy was not quite so interested in our scientific quest.

Results

When all was said and done, Hammy chose organic. In over sixty percent of the trials that resulted in a clear selection, Hammy opted for the organic item. Below is the summary of results, broken down by individual food item. Hammy was 'indifferent' frequently, choosing to groom herself, rest or run away entirely. Those trials are noted below as well.

For five out of the six food types, Hammy preferred organic. She did, however, seem to have a preference for conventional walnuts over organic. This fascinating inconsistency deserves further investigation and will no doubt be the subject of follow-up research.

More Info and Music Credits

Of course, no hamsters were harmed during the filming of these movies. In fact, Hammy got a pretty good feast out of the deal.

Music for the videos was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. If you're looking for music for your movie, I highly recommend his site.

Got some ideas on what Hammy should try out next? Maybe a convection oven or a high-end saute pan?

Drop us a line and let us know.

Using one is simple -- just put the knife in the slot and pull. Make sure it's straight up-and-down and you don't have to worry about the edge's angle -- it's built in to the sharpener's internal stones.

Those stones vary by model. The Carbide and Ceramic model pictured above features a coarse carbide stone for reworking a knife that needs some extra work, and a fine ceramic stone for putting a sharp edge on a knife that's already in pretty good shape. The purely-ceramic model has a fine stone and an extra-fine stone. If you don't have any knives that need serious rework, you'll probably be okay with the latter.

I've used a handful of these types of sharpeners in the past and I must say that Smith's has thought about nearly everything when making this one. The handle has a comfortable, rubberized non-slip grip. The bottom of the device features that same rubberized surface so that you can hold it on a counter top without fear of it moving around.

Smith's has addressed the other complaint that I have with these types of sharpeners -- that they wear down too quickly. The stones on pull-through sharpeners are pretty small, so you could find yourself throwing the whole thing away after a while. But Smith's has made the stones removable and reversible. If your stones are worn down, just take 'em out, turn 'em over and you're good to go. Nice touches all around.

If you're looking for more versatility in a sharpener, this is not the way to go. As mentioned above, you've got to choose Coarse and Fine stones or Fine and Extra-Fine stones. Want all three? You're stuck buying both sharpeners. Also, if you've got knives that need steeper angles than these sharpeners provide (think high-end Japanese knives), you're out of luck. See our knife sharpener reviews section for other sharpening options in that case.

But for the simplest method of effectively sharpening many common kitchen knives, these pull-through models make an excellent choice.

Here's a good sharpener we recommend for Asian cutlery.

Find the Pull-Through Knife Sharpener:

• Click here to find the coarse/fine version at Amazon.com
• Click here to find the fine/extra-fine version at Amazon.com

This combo diamond sharpening stone is a good example. It's got oval indentations to collect metal shavings that are produced during sharpening. This means that your sharpening session will be spent honing your knives and not cleaning the stone. It also helps reduce the mess.

This is a combination stone, meaning that it's two-sided. The yellow side is coarse (350 grit) and is intended for reworking knives that are well-worn. The orange side is fine (750 grit) and is intended for putting a very-sharp edge on a knife that's already in pretty good shape. If you're new to stone-sharpening, a combination stone can be a great way to save money since you'll no doubt want both coarse and fine surfaces. True knife buffs will tell you that you can get the ultimate edge with an even finer stone, but you can always supplement this combination stone with a super-fine stone later on.

It also features a "micro tool" area that has no indentations, good for sharpening smaller tools and blades. Not so important in the kitchen perhaps, but a bonus if you've also got a few pocket knives that need work.

Diamond is a great choice for refining your kitchen knife edges, though some prefer Japanese waterstones. Personally, I think you could go either way. I was very happy with the edge I got on my santoku using this stone from Smith's.

Smith's also offers single-sided stones in longer and shorter lengths. For me, the eight-inch combination stone hits a sweet spot of versatility and usability, but I'll link to the others below as well.

Find this Smith's Sharpening Stone:

• Click here to find this product at Amazon.com
• View all Smith's diamond sharpening stones at Amazon.com

Done? Great, let's talk about this ceramic sharpening rod from Smith's. It features a lot of what we like in a sharpening rod -- the surface is smooth, long and made of an abrasive material that can do a bit of fine sharpening at the same time that it's realigning your edges.

The other thing to like about this steel is its price. Though significantly better than those steels you'll find packaged with inexpensive knife sets, the price is only about fifteen bucks. Not a bad deal at all.

It also features a hanging ring -- a nice feature if you've got one of those utensil rods in your kitchen. Storing it there will remind you that you should be using it frequently too.

I'm not wild about the plastic handle. It's comfortable enough, but a bit slippery for my tastes. The over-sized finger guard will protect your hands, though, so that's a pretty minor complaint. If you're looking for a longer steel with a more secure grip, I'd certainly recommend Smith's Diamond Rod. But if you're looking for something less expensive that will surely do the job, this rod is a good choice.

Find this Smith's Ceramic Sharpening Rod:

• Click here to find this product at Amazon.com

Properly maintaining your edges can keep them in good shape, dramatically reducing the time between sharpenings. For that reason alone, it makes sense to get a decent steeling rod to go with your decent set of knives.

So what makes a decent steeling rod? For one thing, it should be smooth and not grooved like the rods that come with many inexpensive knife sets. For another, it should be long enough to handle your longest knife. And finally, it should provide a secure grip with a decent guard so that you don't nick your fingers.

And that's where the Smith's diamond rod comes in. It meets all of those requirements and then some. It's long -- at ten inches it's long enough to take on an oversized Chef's knife. It's smooth -- you won't find any grooves here that could potentially chip your edges. And it's got a rubberized grip that feels very comfortable in your hand.

But this rod goes further than that -- it's surface is oval-shaped and is coated with diamond. The oval shape means that you'll have more of the rod in contact with your edges when steeling -- definitely a time-saver. The diamond surface means that this rod will also do some sharpening while it does its job. It's not enough to rework a worn edge, so you shouldn't consider this a replacement for true sharpening. But if you use this rod regularly, you'll find that you need to sharpen much less frequently.

Some purists might complain that a steeling rod's job should simply be to realign and not to sharpen. It's a fair complaint, but probably nothing to worry about. Certainly not enough to keep me from giving this rod the thumbs-up.

Find this Smith's Diamond Sharpening Rod:

• Click here to find this product at Amazon.com

Coinciding with this year's Academy Awards, TheCooksDen is proud to announce the winners of its All-Time Culinary Cinema Awards. These awards honor great movies that include food as a central component in their theme, plot or cinematography. Awards are given in nine major categories. See below for the complete list of nominees in each category, and click through to see the winners as well as a more thorough discussion of each film.

Now sit back, whip up some chic dessert in a fancy shmancy fry pan, enjoy the movies and, as always, feel free to add your own comments and suggestions.

Best On-Screen Feast

The most ambitious of food movies create for us a feast, slowly and carefully, visually and gastronomically, much as one is created in real life.

The following movies have taken the on-screen feast to new heights, leaving the audience in awe and grabbing for their cookbooks.


Nominees:

• Big Night
• Babette's Feast
• The Chinese Feast
• Pieces of April
• What's Cooking?
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Sexiest Food Movie

On-screen sex and food are a natural match that have been paired together throughout the history of film.

These movies have managed to satisfy two of our most basic desires as well as to provide great entertainment.


Nominees:

• Woman on Top
• Vatel
• Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
• Like Water For Chocolate
• Tampopo

Honorable Mention:

• Tom Jones
• 9 1/2 Weeks

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Food Documentary

Most food documentaries seem to fall into one of two categories: those that tell us the grand overarching story of our food chain, and those that focus on the glory of a single simple flavor.

While this list is no exception to that rule, these films have risen to the top in those two categories.


Nominees:

• All in This Tea
• King Corn
• Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
• Our Daily Bread
• Super Size Me
• The Future of Food

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Restaurant Industry Movie

Capturing the essence of the commercial kitchen is tricky -- how does one show the chaos, the mundane details and the range of emotion while at the same time providing a compelling story?

No easy feat, but these nominees have done it best.


Nominees:

• Eat This New York
• In the Weeds
• Spanglish
• Dinner Rush
• I Like Killing Flies
• Ratatouille

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Funniest Food Movie

From the pie-in-the-face to the banana-peel, food comedies have often relied on slapstick humor to entertain.

But a few select films manage to feature great writing, top-notch acting and, in some cases, best-of-class sight gags.


Nominees:

• Eating Raoul
• The Last Supper
• Gai Tung Aap Gong
• God of Cookery
• The Green Butchers
• Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

Honorable Mention:

• The Dinner Game

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Most Disturbing Food Movie

Only for the strong-of-stomach, this sub-genre contrasts our most basic need with gut-wrenching images and themes. But, if you like that sort of thing, this list is loads of fun as well.


Nominees:

• 301/302
• Soylent Green
• La Grand Bouffe
• Delicatessen
• Fast Food Nation
• The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Honorable Mention:

• Old Boy

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Leading Actor in a Food Movie

From chef to restaurateur to lowly busboy, the performances delivered by leading men in food movies are both varied and rich.

While most of these movies are entertaining in their own right, the leading male role is what elevates them to the award-worthy.


Nominees:

• Pierre Richard in A Chef in Love
• Bernard Giraudeau in A Matter of Taste
• Bob Hoskins in Felicia's Journey
• Raimu in La Femme du Boulanger
• Daniel Auteuil in Aprés Vous
• Andre Gregory in My Dinner With Andre

Honorable Mention:

• Hector Elizondo in Tortilla Soup

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Leading Actress in a Food Movie

The best food-movie leading actresses are tasked with being all things to all viewers. Smart and sexy is a given, but these women must portray culinary geniuses as well.

A handful have managed to pull it off, and do so in style.


Nominees:

• Keri Russell in Waitress
• Juliette Binoche in Chocolat
• Martina Gedeck in Mostly Martha
• Vivica Fox in Soul Food
• Toni Collette in Hotel Splendide
• Stéphane Audran in Au petit Marguery, Babette's Feast and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Honorable Mention:

• Several Actresses in Decline of the American Empire

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Food Movie

The best food movies make us crave. Whether that craving is to eat, to cook, to love or all of the above is open to interpretation.

A handful of movies manage to accomplish that goal and to entertain foodie and non-foodie audience alike. No small task, for sure, but these few would be right at home in a conventional movie awards ceremony as well as in ours.


Nominees:

• Big Night
• Chocolat
• Eat Drink Man Woman
• La Graine et Le Mulet
• Tampopo
• Babette's Feast
• Ratatouille
• The Scent of Green Papaya

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Runners-Up

301/302 - What sort of warped mind pits a gourmet chef's skills against an anorexic and then turns the whole thing into a bizarre sex/murder thriller? If you like that sort of thing, and the sight of great food going to waste doesn't bring you to tears, this one's just for you.

Soylent Green - 1984 meets King Corn meets Planet of the Apes. Wait, did I give away too much? Just see this Charlton Heston Sci-Fi thriller and don't let anyone spoil the ending for you.

La Grand Bouffe - Perhaps hoping to prove that you really can have too much of a good thing, a group of guys overdose on sex and food. Sounds great, right? The result is gross but riveting.

Fast Food Nation - This probably would've been even better as a documentary. The subject material is suitably grizzly -- watch this one and you'll never look at a hamburger the same way again. But it works alright as is, and Greg Kinnear does a fine job with an awkward role.

Delicatessen - Sharing the same quirky vision he'd later apply to Amelie and City of Lost Children, Jean-Pierre Jeunet shows us flashes of his brilliance in this post-apocalyptic cannibalist comedy. Though a bit over the top at the end, it's still a must-see.

Honorable Mention:

Old Boy - Forget food movies -- this is quite simply one of the most disturbing movies ever made. And yet the shot of the protagonist ordering and wolfing down "something alive" is priceless and stomach-turning.

And the Winner Is...

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover - Quite the scandal when first released, is this one of those flicks that seems tame by today's standards? I guess if you don't mind excrement, cannibalism and rotten meat with your sex and gourmet meals.

<< Back to Main PageSkip to the Summary of Winners >>