Chef Marc Forgione

ATLANTIC CITY — This spring, chef Marc Forgione (winner of Season Three of the Food Network series Iron Chef) will join Revel — the forthcoming 6.3-million-square-foot beachfront resort set to debut in May — with the opening of the restaurant American Cut. The announcement was recently made by Revel in partnership with LDV Hospitality, a leading hospitality group headquartered in New York City, and marks chef Forgione’s first restaurant outside of his eponymously named establishment in New York City.

American Cut will pair chef Forgione’s award-winning, modern and signature take on fine dining with the comforts of the new American steakhouse. “American Cut gives me the opportunity to redefine and reset the bar for the American steakhouse experience,” says Forgione in a media release.

The name American Cut is a nod to Marc’s father, chef Larry Forgione, whose iconic New York City restaurant was called An American Place.

The Revel restaurant will feature approximately 300 seats in 11,000 square feet, an energetic lounge, a grand meat bar and seafood raw bar, two private dining areas and a lively main dining room with stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean, and a custom-made wine display showcasing an extensive bottle selection and running the entire length of the dining room. American Cut will also feature a private dining room fit for up to 60 people.

When completed, Revel will be a complete entertainment destination encompassing more than a dozen other restaurants, three nightclubs, a private beach club, more than 1,800 guest rooms, retail shops, a 31,000 square-foot spa, two theaters that seat 5,500 and 500 guests respectively and a 150,000-square-foot casino.  It will bring together offerings designed by top performers in daylife, nightlife, theatrical, spa, and experiential programming. Go here for more.

ATLANTIC CITY — Last year, at the 2010 Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival, Food Network star Guy Fieri held the inaugural Cheesesteak battle, in which Atlantic City’s Tony Boloney’s won for their Cheesesteak Olé.

This year, there is a new champ of the Philly-style sandwich at the 2011 festival, held July 28-31.

No, not White House Sub Shop, the legendary Atlantic City shop where you will likely run into one of the members of the J. Geils Band, when they come to town for a show at the Borgata next weekend. In fact, White House didn’t even participate.

This year’s participants included PYT Philly, Wit or Witout Cheesesteaks, Sack O’ Subs, Bradley’s Steaks & Hoagies and Tony Boloney’s.

However, the winner, crowned in Atlantic City by Fieri himself (see DrewToonz cartoon below), was an out-of-town  cheesesteak shop, Wit or Witout Cheesesteaks, with locations in Brookhaven and Philadelphia.

Nicole DiZio, of the shop, and the new cheesesteak champ, was crowned at Bally’s Atlantic City.

See video here.

This week's DrewToonz comic. "Fat Guy"

See more DrewToonz comics here and each week on page 8 inside Atlantic City Weekly.

Anne Burrell, Guy Fieri at last year's festival. (Photo by Tom Briglia)

Last year’s Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival was good enough to earn a reputation as one of the top such events on the east coast.

The dates and some of the scheduled events have been announced for this year’s AC Food & Wine Fest, and Food Network superstar Guy Fieri will again play a major role in the festivities.

Chef Deborah Pellegrino, Harrah’s Executive Pastry Chef (and a 1991 graduate of Atlantic Cape Community College’s Academy of Culinary Arts), can be seen in a high-stakes competition on the TV series Food Network Challenge this Sunday, Jan. 23, at 8pm ET. Chef Pellegrino was one of four cake designers battling the clock to create cakes that tell a joke.

Chef Deborah Pellegrino.

As if the race to beat the clock and create a unique, standout idea wasn’t stressful enough, all the cakes are delivered to a live show at a comedy club, where the competitors take the stage to see if their cake is funny enough to take home $10,000.

Though this is Chef Pellegrino’s first time competing in a challenge of this nature she says she brought her top game to the table. Tune in on Sunday on the Food Network to watch if she was able to “stand-up” to the test.

Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli.

If you’re like me and love cooking, watch the Food Network religiously, but have never had any formal culinary training, Harrah’s Resorts has a great program for you. Harrah’s is offering the Viking Cooking School this summer, a place where home chefs of all skill levels can learn from the pros in a varied program of cooking classes. Harrah’s introduced the school to the media Wednesday night, and if the quality of the food served is something these chef-instructors can teach me, I’m in.

Matter of fact, I’m signing up for a class and I’ll check back with a complete report in an upcoming issue of Atlantic City Weekly about the experience. Go here for David Spatz’s story on the school and here for a video slide show of the ribbon-cutting party featuring celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli, a regular judge on the Food Network’s Chopped and the star of Alex’s Day Off.

For a complete list of classes and fees, go here.

'Triple D' star Guy Fieri hosts three events.

Great news for foodies. Harrah’s Entertainment is bringing back the Atlantic City Food & Wine Festival July 29 to Aug. 1 at various locations at their AC properties. There are 40 events planned, featuring dozens of Food Network stars. Go here for the story.

Sunny Anderson (left) is one of the newest additions to the Food Network’s popular “In the Kitchen” series with her show Cooking for Real. This weekend she will be featured in a special segment on the Food Network called “Sunny’s Summer Eats” that was filmed on the Wildwoods Boardwalk last September.
The show will run Saturday, July 11, at 9pm; Sunday, July 12, at midnight; and next Friday, July 17, at 10pm.
In the special, Sunny spends the summer eating and laughing her way through many of America’s greatest amusement parks, festivals, fairs and boardwalks — among them the Wildwoods. Sunny and her crew shot footage during the Wildwoods Irish Fall Festival, the Boardwalk Classic Car Show and Auction, several of the Wildwoods’ food establishments like Sam’s Pizza, Laura’s Fudge, Mac’s Pizza, Jumbo’s, Maui’s Dog House, and Curly’s. Her series promotes “real food for real life.”