Lifestyle Archives - Page 34 of 45

Trisha Yearwood debuts “Trisha’s Southern Kitchen” Saturday morning on Food Network

April 13, 2012 Lori Acken

Trisha Yearwood had been a beloved country music superstar for nearly 20 years when she put her music career on hold to craft a pair of best-selling cookbooks (Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen and Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood) with her mom, Gwen, and sister, Beth. “Miss Gwen,” Trisha’s most ardent supporter, was battling breast cancer [the disease that would ultimately take her life in October 2011] and the project gave the woman the opportunity to spend time together, to preserve treasured family recipes — and to put a healthier spin on some of those tried-and-true favorites to reflect […]

Food Network doc “Hunger Hits Home” addresses childhood hunger in America

April 13, 2012 Lori Acken

Did you know that more than 16 million children right here in the United States regularly go hungry? This Saturday, Food Network and Share Our Strength‘s No Kid Hungry campaign team up for the new documentary, Hunger Hits Home, which premieres on the network at 8pm ET/7CT. Narrated by Oscar-winning actor and national Share Our Strength spokesman Jeff Bridges, the hourlong film takes a first-hand look at the crisis of childhood hunger in America via the stories of three hardworking American families struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table. The film also gives firsthand accounts of ongoing […]

TLC invites you to “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding”

April 12, 2012 Lori Acken

When TLC introduced American audiences to the eye-popping U.K. series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding last spring, more than 45 million viewers (me! me!) tuned in — making international celebrities of fearless dressmaker Thelma Madine, proud Irish Traveller daddy Paddy Doherty, and a bevy of young beauties trundling down the aisle in supersized, one-of-a-kind gowns. Now the network invites you into the homes and celebrations of some of the estimated 1 million Roma and Travellers who live right here in the U.S., with the eight-episode series My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. Filmed in West Virginia, Georgia and Maryland, and […]

“Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids” returns to TLC April 13

April 12, 2012 Lori Acken

TLC is bringing back the bridesmaids … and the battles involved in dressing ’em. All-new weekly episodes of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids begin tomorrow, April 13. Set at Bridal’s by Lori, home to Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, Bridesmaids is the highest-rated installment of the wildly popular Say Yes franchise and allows viewers tag along with the salon’s patient-to-a-fault consultants as they hunt down the perfect for dress for a host of theatrical — and sometimes comical — wedding parties. • Apply to be part of Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids In the season premiere, beautiful bride-to-be Meghan […]

Willie Degel gives struggling eateries the [better] business in Food Network’s “Restaurant Stakeout”

April 10, 2012 Lori Acken

William “Willie” Degel, owner of New York’s Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse chain and Jack’s Shack all-natural eatery — and star of the new Food Network series Restaurant Stakeout — developed his entrepreneurial spirit at an early age, working multiple odd jobs to help fund the parochial school education his parents demanded for their sons. “I was the baby of four boys and my parents wanted us to get a good education,” Degel says. “My father worked two jobs and my mother had to work for us to go to Catholic school and get a good education. We had to pay at least half […]

Anthony Bourdain is back for “No Reservations” Season 8

April 5, 2012 StayTuned Staff

If there’s one thing you can say about doing a travel series, it’s that it’s never very routine. After seven seasons of wandering the globe in search of new and glorious epicurean adventures, Anthony Bourdain still finds it an exhilarating learning experience everywhere he and his crew go while shooting Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations for Travel Channel. Season 8 begins Monday, April 9 at 9pm ET/PT, and for its ever-colorful host — who also hosts The Layover on Travel Channel — the ride just keeps getting more interesting. “A lot of surprises this time out. By that I mean, surprising to me,” […]

Ron Ben-Israel is Food Network’s sincerely “Sweet Genius”

March 30, 2012 Lori Acken

Fans of Food Network’s most fantastical dessert competition Sweet Genius couldn’t help but notice a few intriguing changes when the multi-sensory sensation debuted its second season debuted a few weeks back. Most notably, the show’s “Dr. Evil of Dessert,” celebrated Big Apple-based pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel — AKA the Sweet Genius — finally gets to be … well, sweet. In other words, himself. The Israel-born former professional modern dancer — who shot to fame when Martha Stewart noticed his amazing confections displayed in the window of Fifth Avenue’s Mikimoto store — laughs when I tell him that the show’s discussion […]

Miss Robbie Montgomery talks “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s”

March 27, 2012 Lori Acken

Robbie Montgomery spent two decades as a backup singer for Ike and Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones and other A-list acts — but it’s “Miss Robbie’s” second act as the life force behind a pair of popular St. Louis eateries and star of OWN’s breakout hit Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s that has made her more famous than she could imagine. With Sweetie Pies’ spring season set to debut Saturday and her new restaurant, The Upper Crust, soon to open its doors, Miss Robbie is equal parts dazzled and grateful. “Listen, my plate is full and I can’t eat it all!” […]

When hotels go wrong, “Hotel Impossible” puts things right

March 23, 2012 StayTuned Staff

Anthony Melchiorri doesn’t mess around when it comes to hotels. He’s been all over the world and worked in the hotel industry for more than 20 years, and after all of that time, he knows how to spot what’s wrong with a hotel from the second he walks in. He also knows how to put it right. And that’s what he does in his new series for Travel Channel. Hotel Impossible premieres Monday, April 9 at 10pm ET/PT, and has Melchiorri taking charge of situations in the independent boutique hotels and resorts that commission him. And he’s not always Mr. […]

“Dance Moms” recap part 2: A Big Baby Wrote Me A Letter

March 22, 2012 Lori Acken

Aaaaaand we’re back. At the halfway mark, we’re finally in Chicago at the Co. Dance competition and convention, and — if Abby is to be believed — unofficial gathering of the Abby Lee Miller fan club, which is everyone. Sadly, she has traded out my dearly beloved lip necklace for a set that looks like slices of a bright blue geode formed themselves a chain gang for committing a crime of fashion. • Missed part one? Read it here. Yep-per, this does appear to be one fancy-pants competition. The stage is beautifully appointed and lit, which will make a nice change […]