Chef Roble Ali

About the Cast

Chef Roble Ali grew up in Houston, TX and learned cooking at a young age from the best in the business, his grandfather, Jesse Harris. Upon moving back to the place of his birth in Poughkeepsie, NY, at the age of 15, he continued to develop his craft and eventually enrolled at the Culinary of Institute in America in Hyde Park, NY. He moved to New York City and worked his way up to become the youngest sous chef ever at Abigail Kirsch. He is currently the executive chef at NYC gastro-lounge, Avenue.

Jasmine Ali is Chef Roble’s older sister. She moved to Manhattan and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and majored in advertising and communications. Over the years, she built up her career, starting out in entertainment magazine publishing, then moving on to talent management. She then moved to Atlanta and founded Co-Conspirator, which helps start-up companies. She moved back to New York to help Chef Roble with the creative and business side of the company — and keep everyone in check.

Chef Roble and Jasmine are joined by the rest of the cast including Adam, the sous chef and “token white guy”, Artie, the event manager, Kikuyo, their pastry and dessert expert, Shawn, his loudest cater-waiter, and D’Andre and Che Gravy, the kitchen chefs.

Catch Chef Roble and Co when it premieres on December 4, Sunday, at 10/9c on Bravo.

Showtime

Inside Comedy, a new comedy documentary series, will premiere on Showtime on January 26, 2012 at 10 pm. Created by David Steinberg (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Steve Carrell (The Office), Inside Comedy discusses comedy and the funnies with some of the nation’s top comedians. Every half hour episode focuses on interviews including Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld and Mel Brooks.

ABC Family

A new drama will premiere this January on ABC Family. Jane By Design, premiering January 3, 2012, stars Erica Dasher as a high school student turned designer. Jane, with her eccentric fashion sense, lands a job at a top fashion house, where they actually mistake her for a  young adult out of high school. She doesn’t set them straight and now she has to juggle the demands of the fashion industry and the growing pains of high school.

Discovery Channel

Watch out for Discovery’s newest show to premiere on December 6 at 10 pm.Moonshiners explores the process of brewing illegal moonshine, which is passed down from generation to generation. Moonshiners will premiere on December 6 and will continue to air new episodes weekly starting on December 7 at 10 pm.

Bravo

A new style docu-series will premiere on Bravo on January 2 at 10 pm. It’s A Brad, Brad World follows the adventures of Brad Goreski, who previously worked with Rachel Zoe and has now moved forward with his own business and own show.

Midseason Schedules

CBS and NBC have both just announced their midseason schedules.

• On CBS, Rob! (starring Rob Schneider) will premiere on January 12 at 8:30pm, while Undercover Boss’ third season will premiere on January 15 at 8:00pm. CBS’ The Amazing Race will also premiere during the midseason but has no exact premiere date yet.
• On NBC, the new season of The Voice will premiere on February 5, following the Super Bowl, and will continue to air new episodes every Monday, starting on February 6 at 8:00 pm. It will be followed by the premiere of Smash (starring Katherine McPhee) at 10 pm. New comedy, Are You There, Chelsea?, will premiere on January 11 at 8:30 pm and Chuck will air its series finale on January 27 at 8 pm.

Work of Art: The Next Great Artist

About the Judges

China Chow came from a family of artists, her father being Michael Chow, a restaurant architect and art connoisseur, and Tina Chow, a style icon and jewelry designer. Because of her parents’ careers and circles, she became connected to renowned figures in the art world, including Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat. As an artist herself, China is an accomplished model and actress, as well as a passionate advocate for Inner City Arts and the Art of Elysium.

Bill Powers is the co-owner of Half Gallery in New York City, with Andy Spade and James Frey. He also co-founded ExhibitionA.com, where they commission editioned prints. He is also an avid art collector (Alec Soth, Richard Prince and Elizabeth Payton, among others) and an art philanthropist through his position as board member for Rxart, a non-profit organization using contemporary art in hospitals and other environments to inspire healing.

Jerry Saltz is the current Senior Art Critic for New York Magazine and has been championing the art world for over two decades. He also served as Senior Art Critic for Village Voice from 1998 to 2007, where his columns spawned two books compiling his articles. He is also a lecturer and has delivered lectures at Harvard, Yale, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is also the founder of N.A.M.E. Gallery in his hometown of Chicago, IL.

Simon de Pury is the Chairman and Chief Auctioneer of the Phillips de Pury & Company. As part of this prestigious organization, he has sold, as auctioneer, the portrait of Elizabeth Taylor and “Men In Her Life”, Andy Warhol’s masterpieces.

Next week, a feature on the contestants.

Catch the premiere of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist on Wednesday, Oct 12, 9/8c on Bravo.

The first episode held a lot of promise in this upcoming season. Already, it has started out with a bang and some very big personalities. The talent has seen major upgrades — although  there are some  who obviously won’t make it to the end.

It also contains some very big competitive rivalries that promise to bring out the drama and the warfare in competitors. One of the promised rivalries is between two star competitors who have actually competed in another contest against each other.

But it is the desserts themselves, from the winners of the first episode, that have certainly garnered the most attention. In what promises to be a very creative season, it is hoped that they become more fantastic in design. But we only have the judge’s word about the taste.

It is hoped that the rest of the season can deliver and build upon the creations of the first episode. It still remains to be determined on how exciting this season is actually going to be. Hopefully, it won’t quite be the disappointment that The Next Food Network Star was toward the end.

The first episode was all about the fantasy of the fairy-tale world. The contestants worked in teams, some quite disorganized, to create a showpiece of a dessert. The winners featured desserts that looked quite modern while the losers showed a serious lack of finesse. In the end, the showpiece that lost completely missed the theme.

However, there a few things on the Just Desserts wish list that will get left out. Every good dessert show should feature at least one massive cake fight. What’s more entertaining than having an all out war with cake?

There also should be a featured short of smashing the show pieces. Those show pieces aren’t going to last more than a week. Let the viewer get some entertainment out of people smashing sugar. But sadly, those things are probably against some rules.

Top Chef: Just Desserts is showing on Bravo TV on Wednesdays at 10 pm/9 pm central. You can catch the next new episodes at this time. Hopefully, this season will be even better than the last one.

Discovery Channel

• Filthy Cities premiered last April 16, hosted by Don Wildman. Filthy Cities explores the past of major cities. Using CGI technology, the show recreates what major cities would have looked like in the past.

Bravo

• Platinum Hit premieres on May 30. The newest music competition series, with host Jewel and host judge, Kara DioGuardi, follows 12 aspiring musicians through songwriting challenges in the hopes of winning a $100,000 prize, a publishing deal with Sony and a recording agreement with RCA/Jive.

Create TV

• Premiering May 23, Music Voyager travels the world in search for the best in world music with host, cultural musician, ethnomusicologist and music critic, Jacob Edgar.

The Style Network

• Clean House comes to New York and a new host and clean-up crew will clean up the messiest house in New York. New episodes will premiere in October.
• Big Rich Texas premieres this July about the elite Dallas social scene, the ultra-competitive mothers and their ultra-spoiled daughters.
• Glam Fairy is a spin-off of the Jerseylicious series and follows energetic make-up artist, Alexa Prisco, as she handles her own business, The Glam Factory.
• How Do I Look? with host Jeannie Mai, hunts the entire country for the worst fashion disasters and the winner wins a trip to Hollywood for the ultimate makeover. Series premieres in September.

Travel Channel

• Triple Rush debuted last April 14 on the Travel Channel about how bike messengers operate in New York City. Follow the bike messengers of a large corporation, a family-run business and private four-man company.

Food Network

• Eat St. premiered last April 12 and has host James Cunningham exploring the world of street food.
• Unique Sweets premieres April 24 and visits unique US eateries for the most delectable dessert.
• The Originals With Emeril pays tribute to historical eateries, with Chef Emeril Lagasse traveling to different cities and visiting three historic and original restaurants. The show premieres on May 5.
• Hook, Line and Dinner has foodie and expert fisherman Ben Sargent on the road to visit the best clam shacks, lobster pounds, chowder pots and delectable seafoods along the coast. The show premieres June 7.

As stated in my last post, the 1st part of the reunion centered on the break-up of best friends Jill Zarin and Bethenny Frannkel. In the 2nd part, the show’s host, Andy Cohen, had the women discuss the 2 episodes that will be remembered as “Scary Island.” New York Housewife Ramona Singer began the third season with a goal to “renew” herself. She began a skincare line called TruRenewal, started her own jewelry line, and even cut her hair to give herself a new look and feeling. (She somehow thought cutting her hair made her look like an older version of actress Cameron Diaz. Not the case AT ALL!) Anywho, along with all this renewal, she added her marriage to the list of things to renew and decided that before she and her husband renewed their vows, she and the other housewives should have a “bachelorette vacation.”

Ramona invited all the housewives to the vacation, but only Bethenny, Alex, the newest housewife Sonja, and despite warnings from Jill and LuAnne, Kelly tagged along the trip as well. The women flew out to St. John’s and then took a 2 day yacht ride to a private island and estate where they spent their 5 day trip. Since Kelly became the new housewife during season 2, she and Bethenny never really got along. I personally think it was mainly due to a clash of personalities along with Kelly’s extremely laid back attitude which really came off as “I don’t care about anyone.”

Bethenny, who was pregnant at the time, really tried to keep herself low-key, but Kelly kept instigating numerous fights throughout the trip that ended up leading to her being escorted off the trip by a Bravo producer.

If the drama couldn’t get any worse, the day after Kelly left, Jill randomly decided to show up and “surprise” Ramona after stating that she wasn’t going to come on the trip. Ramona ended up “politely” asking Jill to leave.

The women all agree that it was a trip to be remembered, but hopefully soon forgotten. With all the drama, the addition of Sonja, LuAnn’s single “Money Can’t Buy You Class” (available on iTunes), Season 3 of the Real Housewives of New York will be one to be talked about for a long time.

Tune into Bravo Monday nights at 10pm for the 2nd season of the Real Housewives of New Jersey and keep a look out for the Real Housewives of Washington D.C. which is slated to premier the first week of August.

Make It Or Break It is the story of four teenagers trying to survive the competitive world of gymnastics and balancing a normal personal life. There’s nothing new about it, but I love the fact that the characters have very extreme personalities. Emily is a gymnast scholar at the Rock and will do anything to ensure her family lives a good life. Payson Keeler, the top gymnast, works hard and sacrifices her teenage life to make it to the top. Kaylie Cruz breaks the rules when she secretly dates another gymnast from the club. And super competitive Lauren Tanner will do anything to make sure she’s on top including selling out her friends.

Mondays, 9/8c, ABC Family

2. NYC Prep

NYC Prep is a reality show about the lives of prep school kids in NYC. The show follows the lives of Jessie, PC, Kellie, Camille, Sebastian and Taylor as they try to live each day to get closer to their dreams. The show is a bit shallow, considering the central idea. If you want to know what kids do to pass time in NYC, you can try and watch this show. Otherwise, avoid the show. It’s intended for kids of the same age anyway.

Tuesday, 9/8c, Bravo

3. 10 Things I Hate About You

Based on the movie of the same title, 10 Things I Hate About You is the story of Kat and Bianca Stratford, two teenagers who’ve just entered the world of Padua High. Kat is a feminist who wants to save the world and get out of high school as fast as she can. Bianca is a social butterfly, determined to get into the good graces of the most popular girl in school. It’s very cute and while it resembles the movie’s storyline, they’ve managed to change some things around and offer a fresh spin on the show.

Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC Family

4. The Fashion Show

The Fashion Show is Bravo’s replacement for Project Runway, which has moved to the Lifetime Network. The show stars Isaac Mizrahi and Kelly Rowland and features 16 designers competing for the grand prize of $125,000 and a chance to sell their designs in the retail market. It’s a great show, and the designers have turned out amazing pieces, but I do miss the drama of Project Runway.

Thursday, 10/9c, Bravo

Have you been watching these shows? Tell us what you think about it. Watching shows not featured here? Drop us a comment and let us know!

And I was right. Sadly, I now know if I end up watching an episode, it’s all over — I’m addicted. My downfall: my mother, Bravo TV, Project Runway, and Top Chef. She blind-sided me when she turned Project Runway on one evening while I was at her house visiting. Before I knew it, I was spellbound.

My addiction started harmless enough with the scanning of the television waves for repeats of the episodes I’d missed while I’d sit on pins and needles waiting for the next week’s episode to air — desperate to see if the contestants I liked were going to make it to the next level or be eliminated. Before I knew it, I was deep in the thralls of reality TV and sat for hours talking about Project Runway and Top Chef with my mom — fighting over who were our favorites and who we wanted to get the ax — on which we could never agree.

As I watched the last episode of Project Runway’s last season, I vowed this was it — no more reality TV for me. But I was thwarted by the evil genius that is Bravo TV’s advertising. How dare they show trailers of the upcoming season’s Top Chef!