The Takedown

November 20th 2PM at The Bell House!!!

My Most Special Takedown… Brooklyn Chili Takedown- chili is a foul seductress, people.  This is a no rulez competition that says rules… are for Texans.

COMPETITOR LIST IS CLOSED but EMAIL ME to get on the Wait List, or to get on my mailing list so you never miss another chance to enter!!!

$15 to come try all the yummy!! Tickets HERE!!!

(and um can I just say that this poster is by my friend Devin Clark the creator of Ugly Americans!??? Stoopazoidical shout out to him for the amazing poster!!!)

Prizos by:

Prizes sponsored by:

Portion of procedes benefit Women’s Education Project!

Spots filling up!  2 spots still open!  EMAIL ME to enter!

Just announced: $1000 Grand Prize!!!

Nov 6 2PM at Casselman’s in NoDo!!!!  The 2nd stop on a national tour!!!!

It is no doy that you love avocados. They are totally amazing of course. The question we’re all asking is: what can you do with this much-lauded funtastical fruit!? Blow our minds, Denver!  Show Los Angeles that they messed up at their Avocado Takedown!!! I’ll give any local cook in Denver a FREE CRATE of AVOCADOS to whip up a non-guacamole recipe that takes advantage of the eye-bugging awesomeness of the avocado.  Sweet or savory- just bring us your finest game. There’s tons of ridiculous prizes from Le Creuset, Anolon, Wusthof and Microplane!!! EMAIL ME to ENTER!!!

And for those of you who’d like to come on down and enjoy this feast of avocados, tickets are only $15 for all you can eat!!! WHUUTTT????  I KNOW!!!!!

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE!!!!

Sponsored by:

Portion of procedes benefit Women’s Education Project!

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Thetakedowns.com will neither confirm nor deny that we totally monstered 250 Brooklynites on Sunday (even though we totally did!!!!) at the Bell House.  3rd Bacon TD ever, only this time even more better!!! The stank of a Bacon Takedown makes all other Stuff That Is Fun seem just plain DUMB. Hey, you guys? Guess what Jenn De la Vega did when she WON this thing? She totally cried!!!! What a baby!!!!  But then she explained to me that she was crying because she was HAPPY! Weird, right!???

Thanks be to Hormel Black Label Bacon!  They sponsored this, the last leg of this year’s bacon takedown tour!!! 6 cities DONE!!!  Thanks also be to the New York Food Film Festival! Making it possible for me to do BACK TO BACK Takedowns- Tacos Saturday, bacon Sunday…!!!! Also big league shout out to Baconery.com for hanging out their rad bacon baked goods all day long!!!

Guest Judges who bestowed their local food wisdom included:

• George Motz; Author, New York Food Film Festival, Hamburger America, Made in America (Travel Channel
• Rachel Wharton; Deputy Editor Edible Brooklyn, Edible Manhattan, Host of The Matt and Rachel Show (Hertiage Radio Network)
• Jen Wanous, Last year’s winner!!

(Awesome story about Jen Wanous: apparently she was so inspired by her win at last year’s takedown that she quit her job, went to culinary school, and is now a working chef!!!! Because of the Takedown!!! I swear to GOD!!!!)

NOW, AFTER THE JUMP- ALL THE RECIPES, AND WHAT WON WHAT! Continue reading →

Emily Hanhan won the Chile Chocolate Takedown at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Here is the true story of how!!

The legend of Emily Hanhan: One day, 6 wandering paladins betook upon themselves an incredible journey with one terrible goal: to defeat the mighty 3-headed Ventimazualicon, a venomous upper-worldly cousin of the dreaded Cerberus, guard of the netherworld!!! In hard core combat!!! There was Greg Erskine, a kilted warrior and enemy of all foes!  There was Melissa Sands, a sorceress of great power who could summon earth, wind and ocean as weapons to massacre whole villages of their lives in the blink of an eye of a whirlwind!!!  There was Adrian Ashby, a time traveler!!! and uncompromising killer of men and beast and whatever else.  And there was Jenn de la Vega, who, though of slight stature, had the strength of 50- her favorite weapon is always the spine of the first person she slays, with which she wields in bloody battle to defeat the rest of the enemies.  The Brooklynauts– a pack of filthy, hyper-violent werewolves, stripped of their humanity but possessing only a lust for pungeant (sp?) battle of the souls of the doomed apocalypse!!! And then there was Emily Hanhan– a princess. What was she doing here amongst warriors most strong???! Swift and silent… no one among this motley crew of champions could yet deduce her skills, or even her motives behind this dangerous, wondrous voyage… Together, they travelled!!!!  READ ON… Continue reading →

BACON TAKEDOWN SOLD OUT!!!!

The Best don’t rest! Oct 16 2PM at the Bell House! This is the 3rd year the good idea in bacon of a takedown is happening! It is a proud thing to eat 20 local bacon recipes, and to shrewdly deduce who is champs!  And it’s an especially proud thing to hang with these cooks- the funnest good people ever. And your jaw will go SLACK at the bacon OPTIONS!!!

A mere $15 to come and enjoy yourself to the point of excess! (TIX HERE!) And for those of you that would like to enter- I have a cool 15 lbs of Hormel Black Label Bacon that my sponsor can donate you, to use as you see fit! So hit me up here to compete!

ATTAK!!!!

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In association with:

Prizes sponsored by:

Portion of procedes benefit Women’s Education Project!

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Oct 15 at the NYFFF! Buy tix and all info here!!!

Yo dudes- Seth and George of the Food Film Festival have always had serious hugs for the Takedown (holy shamoley what about that Gritz Takedown last year, true?), and proposed a brillo idea… why not get local restaurants to Takedown tacos with them at the NYFF?  I said yes please yes please.

So this is a PRO takedown- previously unheard of! NYC’s most coolest restaurants (Rockaway Taco? Tortilleria Nixtamal?  Check out the LIST of PROFESSIONAL TACOERS!)  Just as Zeus would  descend from Olympus in the form of a mighty bull, so will the Takedown present itself in this new and DOPE form! See and learn and love!

Here’s how to get in on tickets!  Visit http://thefoodfilmfestival.com/ and get your tickets!!!  Then eat all them pro tacos – and vote on the screamingest!!!!!

Then, the next day, come to the Bacon Takedown at the Bell House!!!!

Come join us you guys! All day, Oct 1!!!! For the 4th straight year, Brooklyn Botanic Gardens’ Chile Pepper Fiesta has deployed an elite crew of Champion Takedownerz to create and dish out recipes that feature the magical combination of Chile Peppers and Chocolate…  The Brooklynauts, Jenn De La Vega, Melissa Sands, Greg Erskine, Emily Hanhan, and Adrian Ashby – all Takedown Darlings, will punish your sense of self worth when they show how real cooks do…

This all-day festival features local hot sauces, chocolate, music, demos and amazing weather…  You better be there you guys!  this is always a very big deal!!!

Oh boy oh boy Chicago thank you for existing.  I love how last year you said okay we love bacon obviously so lets go have fun- and this year’s motto was let us destroy the faces off all who attend because this time it is for serious.  This year’s array of meat finery was decidedly more varsity- and the TD was collecting smiles all night long, burrowing them away like a squirrel in a tree. Because winter is coming…

REMEMBER, CHICAGO, get on my MAILING LIST if you want to not miss this ever! Check out pics and add your own at TheTakedowns FB site!!!

Thanks to Lincoln Hall, an elegant and wonderful place to get blasted. Thanks for Hormel Black Label Bacon– my velvety sponsor- for this, the 5th leg of the 2011 Bacon TD Tour!!!

And thanks to the Gods of Olympus i mean local chicago bacon cooks- because you are the shizzzzzossss and you Make It Happen.

Here, after the jump, are all the recipes that won, and all the recipes you saw if you were smart enough to attend…

Continue reading →

1 SPOT STILL OPEN!

Sept 18 at 2PM  – Lincoln Hall

Chicago is the baconest capital on earth as it is in heaven- as proven at last year’s first ever Chicago Bacon Takedown. This is not hyperbole, because A: I mean it and B: it is true. It’ll feel good to return to the smartest city to see what they rustle up this one more ‘gain!!!

Anyone who Feels It is invited to roll up their sleevies and cook a bacon invention of their own devising! Consider: Taffy? Tacos? Popsicles? What the heck is you seriously!??!!? I can give you 15lbs of sponsor Hormel Black Label Bacon to use in your profoundly ingenious recipe! EMAIL ME TO ENTER!  (The prizes are daffy!!!!)

Those of you who’d like to come down and sample the meatfun, pay only $15 and enjoy EATING EVERYTHING!!! (and vote on the Most Important. They are fighting for mondo prizes, Jack – from Wusthof, Le Creuset, Edgeware, Anolon and Microplane… so choose wisely!)

Sept 18 at 2PM  – Lincoln Hall

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Portion of procedes benefit Women’s Education Project!

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Portion of procedes benefit Women’s Education Project!