In the PR world, there are gimmicks, and there are the actual bright ideas that, when done correctly, can become a company’s signature. Frito-Lay has, in this blogger’s humble opinion, potentially laid the groundwork for the latter with their new Lay’s Potato Chip Do Us a Flavor competition. When I first heard about the competition on a radio talk show promo, I knew I had to try these chips. The concept? Lay’s asked for suggestions for new flavors between July and October of 2012, and received 3.8 million submissions from which there were three finalists chosen.

When the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange rang on February 12, the three finalists for the contest were on hand along with actress/restauranteur Eva Longoria and celebrity chef and restauranteur Michael Symon to kick off the contest, which runs until May 4, to introduce their flavors to the world. Here are the options and my thoughts on each one….

Lay’s Cheesy Garlic Bread (submitted by Karen Weber-Mendham of Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin) has a big, bold hit of garlic immediately after biting into the chip, followed by a more subtle cheese taste. I’m not a huge garlic guy, and while the flavor was more of a roasted garlic note, it kind of overpowered the other flavors of the cheesy garlic bread. And I think what is a tad disappointing is that, since I live in Wisconsin like Karen does, I would have preferred the cheese to be more dominant.

Lay’s Sriracha (submitted by Tyler Raineri of Lake Zurich, Illinois) has a touch of sweetness at the start, followed by a big chili pepper kick–just like the sriracha sauce. And it keeps getting hotter and hotter the more you eat. I love spicy food and love sriracha, and I definitely dig this flavor, but it still was my second favorite of the three.

Lay’s Chicken & Waffles (submitted by Christina Abu-Judom of Phoenix, Arizona) was the flavor I wanted to try the most, and it wound up being the one I liked the most, and wanted to just keep eating. If you’ve never had chicken and waffles, let me tell you you are missing out on one of the culinary world’s greatest gifts to our palates. The combination of crispy, juicy fried chicken with a light and fluffy waffle, both drenched in maple syrup, has my mouth watering as I type. And these chips had those notes–maple sweetness, followed by a faint savory chicken flavor. It was like a Chicken in a Biskit cracker dipped in maple syrup. Okay, where are my chips? Now I’m hungry for more.

For more information, please visit the Do Us a Flavor website, which also gives options to vote for your favorite, such as on Facebook. As for where to find the flavors, I’ve seen them in various stores, so you should be able to locate the chips easily as well….or you can use their handy store locator. So what are you waiting for? Do the fine folks at Frito-Lay a flavor!

After living in New York from when I was born until I was around 27 or 28, I moved to Cleveland and kick-started my life and career in various ways that, while involving many twists and turns, were somewhat defining. I also went through various phases of food experimentation–and back in the late ’80’s, and ’90’s there was a lot of low-fat this and that, and less meat. Thankfully the pendulum for that stuff swung back toward high protein, low-carb, which is still not ideal (I want to eat everything, yo), but, well, I love bacon. Let’s leave it at that.

Anyway, as was the case when I moved away from New York, moving from Cleveland to Nashville left a void in some areas food-wise. And so here are a few items I miss and still do from the Buckeye state…..

Aladdin’s–okay so this isn’t a food item as much as it’s a restaurant, but it’s something I have to have when going back there. Aladdin’s is a local chain that serves delicious and inexpensive Middle Eastern food. They have great stuff like hummus, stuffed grape leaves and falafel. But it’s more than that–they have some delicious signature items like pita pizzas and one I miss in particular is the one with spicy chicken, peas, fried onions and a spicy tomato mixture. Also, they have these smoothies that you can get with combinations of fruits and vegetables. Seriously, they make veggies more palatable than you can imagine using a blender.

Pad thai–I’ve never had pad thai like the pad thai at Phnom Penh in Cleveland. It’s….wait for it…..Phnomenal. Sadly, I haven’t been back there since moving in 2003, but maybe next time. I mean, we have great Thai and Vietnemese and Laoatian food here in Madison, but….

Pizza–There really is great pizza in Cleveland. There is Mama Santa’s, Tasty, Geraci’s on the east side. There is Antonio’s and Santos on the west side. This is all coming from a New Yorker too.

West Side Market–There is nothing like the West Side Market in Cleveland. It’s an institution, and you can get all kinds of fresh produce, but also the indoor portion has vendors selling meat, bakery products, cheese, nuts, candies, and more. It was always fun to go there hungry, and we try to get to the market whenever we are in town. My mouth is watering thinking of the spicy jerky at this one place, and I think Michael Symon profiled it on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network once.

Krispy Kreme Donuts–I don’t think there is a single donut shop in Madison. In fact, you have to go to grocery stores and gas stations to find donuts at all. Yikes. But the ones in Krispy Kreme are freaking heavenly. The glazed ones in particular are their signature item, and it’s quite easy to down five or six at a sitting (no, I really haven’t ever actually tried that. No, really!).

Homemade granola/fruit bars–The Arabica coffee shop at University Circle has these pastries they sell at the counter, and they are like granola bars with a layer of cherry or berry preserves. And I go way out of my way to get some no matter how long we are in town for. In fact, last time I think I brought home a dozen.

Tommy’s fries–Tommy’s in Cleveland Heights has amazing french fries, but also makes some mean sandwiches and veggie creations. Oh, and milk shakes!

I know there is more. But we’ll have to just re-visit this column from time to time!

If you watched last year’s “Chopped All Stars” on Food Network, you know that it was riveting and must-see TV. I, for one, was thrilled to see some of the judges, who were generally very difficult to please and very hard on the contestants, have to compete and see what it was like on the other side. But even better, in addition to the “judges” round, there were three other rounds with themes–former contestants on “Food Network Star,” for instance, and then one final round featuring the four winners. Former “Next Iron Chef” contestant Nate Appleman won last year’s inaugural crown.

So of course, Food Network had to make Season 2 of “Chopped All Stars” (premiering Sunday, April 8th) bigger and better. Seriously, if you are a Food Network junkie, you’re going to freak when you see this list. Here, I’ll just lift it right from the network’s press release:

Part 1, “Iron Chefs Do Battle” Premieres Sunday, April 8th at 9pm ET/PT
Competitors: Iron Chefs Cat Cora, Marc Forgione, Jose Garces and Michael Symon
Judges: Scott Conant, Aarón Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 2, “Prime Time vs. Day Time” Premieres Sunday, April 15th at 9pm ET/PT
Competitors: Show hosts Keegan Gerhard (Food Network Challenge), Jeffrey Saad (United Tastes of America, Cooking Channel), Aarti Sequeira (Aarti Party) and Marcela Valladolid (Mexican Made Easy)
Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aarón Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 3, “Food Network Star Contestants” Premieres Sunday, April 22nd at 9pm ET/PT
Competitors: Food Network Star Season Seven Finalists Justin Balmes, Penny Davidi, Vic “Vegas” Moea and Chris Nirschel
Judges: Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Aarón Sanchez

Part 4, “Judge Remix” Premieres Sunday, April 29th at 9pm ET/PT
Competitors: Chopped judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Marc Murphy, Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Santos
Judges: Amanda Freitag, Aarón Sanchez, Geoffrey Zakarian

Part 5, “Grand Finale” Premieres Sunday, May 6th at 9pm ET/PT
Competitors: Prior episode winners
Judges: Anne Burrell, Amanda Freitag, Aarón Sanchez

I mean, seriously? The “Judge Remix” round is going to be awesome, but really, all of them are compelling themes. If you saw “Food Network Star” last year, you know that Penny Davidi is a great cook but also a drama queen who is sure to add to the ratings.

And if you’re not familiar with “Chopped,” the show is hosted by Ted Allen, and the four contestants have 20 minutes to cook an appetizer using four items in a mystery basket, after which one contestant is “chopped,” or eliminated. Then the remaining three cook an entree in 30 minutes, and the two finalists have 20 minutes to make a dessert. The producers of the show, of course, find all kinds of weird ingredients and put items together that should never go together (for example–jelly beans, fish, purple carrots and potato chips). But that adds to the fun.

So there you have it–another great season of “Chopped All Stars” awaits next month. Will you be watching?

The first is “Top Chef: Texas” on Bravo. I haven’t watched this week’s episode yet but caught the season premiere last week. The production company Magical Elves consistently hits home runs with their shows, especially this one. This year it’s big, just like the state of Texas, and in addition to regular judges Padma Lakshmi (host), Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, they have added Emeril Lagasse and Hugh Acheson. And they began with something like 30 contestants, but only half or so of which will actually wear the Top Chef chef coats and have a real chance to compete for the title of Top Chef. This show airs on Wednesday nights on Bravo, and if you haven’t seen it, you have to check it out. This is one show that knows how to keep us interested and just delivers quality shows every week. I can’t wait to see how this season progresses.

The other show is “The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs” on Food Network. The “Next Iron Chef” reality show brought us the likes of Jose Garces and Michael Symon, but this season is like no other. This time, they have all celebrity chefs, many of which we have already seen on Food Network such as Beau McMillan, Anne Burrell, Robert Irvine, Geoffrey Zakarian, Alex Guarnaschelli, Michael Chiarello and Marcus Samuelsson. Sign me up! So far two episodes have aired, and it’s clear that the level of competition is maybe like no other show that Food Network has ever seen, mainly because of how incredibly talented each chef is. Whoever came up with the idea of going this route as opposed to finding ten great restaurant chefs we have never heard of? Genius. This one airs Sunday nights on Food Network.

That’s it for now. There are more great shows going on and many more holiday themed shows we can talk about, but I think you should check these two out before the seasons get too old.

I lived in Cleveland for 11 years, but I never went to Symon’s famed Lola Bistro in the Tremont section of town. Symon, of course, had his career blow up when he became a Food Network Iron Chef, and regular contributor to the network on shows such as “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.” And I had the opportunity to chat with him for Bullz-Eye last year.

Anyway my buddy Jason is a vegetarian, but he told me to order the Symon Says burger, which one of his co-workers said was awesome. And it was…..a burger with a thick slab of fried bologna, some cole slaw, American cheese and whip sauce (a nifty blend of…wait for it…mayo and mustard). Everything about this burger was delicious….everything separately and everything together in harmondy. And the fries were thin and crispy with just a touch of salt and rosemary (and my wife will attest that I don’t like rosemary!). Washed down with a pilsner at lunch time, you can’t get any better than an Iron Chef-recipe burger and fries and beer. And next time we get to Cleveland, I plan on trying more of the burgers (they also specialize in bratwurst, bologna sandwiches, bar snacks, big salads and “badass” shakes–hence all the B’s)!

Last year I had the privelege of interviewing celebrity chef Michael Symon from Food Network and Cleveland, Ohio’s Lola Bistro as well as several other endeavors on Bullz-Eye.com. Here is a re-post of that interview….enjoy!

Iron Chef Michael Symon rose to prominence in the culinary world in the ‘90’s, and even hosted a show on the Food Network called The Melting Pot. Fast forward thirteen years, and Symon has several successful restaurants in his native Cleveland, Ohio (Lola Bistro being the most notable). And he was the winner of the inaugural “Next Iron Chef” season back in 2007, joining the ranks of Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Cat Cora and Masaharu Morimoto as Iron Chefs on the network. Symon also has published a book, Michael Symon: Live to Cook. We had the chance to talk to Symon recently about being a successful restaurateur, as well as being a Food Network star and a huge Cleveland sports fan.
Michael Symon: Hello?

Bullz-Eye: Michael?

MS: Yes.

BE: Hey, it’s Mike Farley with Bullz-Eye.com. Before we get to the interview, I wanted to tell you I lived in Cleveland for ten years.

MS: Oh nice.

BE: So you’ve really risen to national prominence in the last few years after winning “The Next Iron Chef.” How did it feel to essentially become a famous Food Network personality over night like you did?

MS: It’s interesting. In the culinary world I was always pretty well known nationally. And the restaurant and myself have been fortunate enough to win a lot to national awards and get exposure in that way. Obviously we’ve always had some good success here in Cleveland. It changes a lot. I had a show on the Food Network from ’97 to ’99, so I got a little bit of a taste of it then, and walked away from it and continued to focus on restaurants again. I think having that early, (well, Food Network wasn’t nearly as big then as it is now), but getting some of that early exposure helped me understand and deal with what’s happened since “Iron Chef.”

BE: OK. What show was that?

MS: It was called “The Melting Pot.”

BE: I remember that!

MS: It was big in like prisons and nursing homes. (laughs)

BE: (laughs) Right on.

MS: The fourteen people that watched it were adamant fans. (laughs)

BE: (laughs) Awesome. So how do you spilt your time these days between your restaurants in Cleveland and taping for “Iron Chef” and other Food Network responsibilities?

MS: Well I’m still in Cleveland 90% of the time. We film “Iron Chef” usually in one three-week block. That’s usually in July or whereabouts. So that’s usually a month. But other than that, for the most part I’m in the restaurants.

BE: And when do they tape for “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” and stuff like that? Is that around the same time?

MS: It’s just random. It’s throughout the year. The nice thing about that show is a lot of times they’ll come to Cleveland and do those, or I’ll sit in the studio and I’ll be able to do eight episodes in four hours. The nice thing about the Food Network, since there are chef / restaurateurs on there, like Bobby (Flay) and Mario (Batali), they’re very understanding that at the end of the day our life revolves around our restaurants and being chefs. They’re very respectful of that.

BE: Sure. So back to “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.” The one with the milkshakes. Did you really drink three of those milkshakes?

MS: I really did. (laughs)

BE: (laughs) And you do every time you go there?

MS: Uh, two or three, yeah.

BE: That’s awesome.

MS: Yeah, and then I go into a sugar coma and walk around in a daze for several hours afterwards. Man, they’re just so damn good.

BE: Yeah, well now I want to try it when I go to New York next. So in your first real “Iron Chef” battle, who did you go up against and what was the whole experience like?

MS: Um, oh my God, it was three years ago. I gotta think back. I remember the ingredient was turkey. Oh God, who was the chef? I can’t remember who I went up against. I remember he was from Washington. (ed. Note: it was Ricky Moore) I remember we thumped him. (laughs)

BE: Oh good!

MS: I mean, it was great. I mean, it was nerve wracking. We felt a lot of pressure. We wanted to come out of the gate strong. I had known Bobby and Mario and Morimoto and all those guys for a long time. But you know, you become part of a team, and you don’t want to embarrass everybody on the team. So you want to bring it.

BE: Sure. Absolutely. And how much of the menu planning is done on the spot, or is it done in advance?

MS: A lot of it is done on the spot. What we kind of do is we go into each battle, and there are two or three guys that come with me. My pastry chef, Cory Barrett; my chef at Lola, Derek Clayton; and my chef at Bar Symon, Matt Harlan. And all those guys have been with me for a long time now. So, we go into each battle with kind of like a basic fish menu, a basic meat menu, a basic vegetable menu. And depending on the ingredient, we kind of adjust from there. So we have a basic thought process in our head, and then we weave it around the ingredient.

BE: Very cool. How much have you learned from the other Iron Chefs and what are they like to work with?

MS: Actually competing on “Iron Chef” you rely on, for me, 25 years of cooking experience. So I don’t know if you learn a lot from them in that manner. Where they’ve been tremendously helpful, especially Bobby, and a little bit Mario, after I won “Next Iron Chef,” they’re like, “Look, things in your life are going to change. Be ready for it. Have your team organized.” And we were lucky in the sense that we had opened our first restaurant — myself, (wife) Liz and my partner Doug Petkovic opened our first restaurant twelve or thirteen years prior to that. We had a lot of things in place already. We had at that time 175 employees. We had office managers, you know what I mean? I had an assistant. We were already very established restaurateurs, so it wasn’t like, “Holy shit, what do we do now?” So we were kind of set up. Because of the success that the restaurants had had for all those years, we were already kind of set up to move forward. But Bobby, particularly Bobby, and a little bit of Mario, kind of just helped with some other stuff, like just what to expect and how to handle certain things. You know, I call those guys all the time, like “I’m thinking of doing this new project, what do you think?” Because they’ve been through a lot of it. But yeah, having the restaurants for so long prior to that I think really helped. I already had an agent. I had an agent for ten years, even before from when I was on Food Network the first time. So I guess we had some of that foundation, but those guys have been tremendous mentors to me. Not really from a food standpoint, but more from a business decision standpoint, protecting me from maybe making some of the mistakes they could have made.

BE: Very cool. Like I said, I lived in Cleveland for a while. I know the city battled a bad reputation nationwide for a long time. I think you and Lola were part of the city’s resurgence. So how did it feel knowing that?

MS: It was great. I moved back from New York in 1990. Liz and Doug and I opened our first restaurant in Tremont in 1995. At that time, that was a really rough neighborhood. Liz and I had lived down there since ’90, so we had a lot of confidence in the neighborhood. But to be part of gentrifying an entire neighborhood and to be of one of the first people who took a risk to do business down there, and then to do the same when we did our project on E. 4th St., at the time we were the only restaurant on the street. There were some other things. But now it’s filled with restaurants and bars. Those are always fun things. I think we take more pride in that than anything else that we’ve accomplished. And I think to some extent, all these great, young chefs are moving back to Cleveland now. It’s really becoming a great dining town. And I think some of the success we were able to have made them comfortable to move home. A lot of chefs move to New York if they’re from Cleveland. They’ll move to New York or San Francisco or L.A. or wherever, and work for great chefs, and then it’s like, “Oh shit, we can move back home and be successful.”

BE: Yeah. I saw that Aron Sanchez has a restaurant in Cleveland now?

MS: He does some consulting for one. Yeah, right across the street from Lola. He’s an old friend. He was actually on “Melting Pot” with me.

BE: Oh cool!

MS: We were both younger, thinner. He still has all his hair. I was shaving by choice then, not by necessity. (laughs)

BE: So are there any plans for opening a new restaurant any time soon?

MS: We just opened up our seventh. We have five concepts and seven restaurants. We just opened up the seventh about five months ago. It’s a real casual burger joint called The B Spot — burgers, beer, bratwurst, bologna and bourbon.

BE: That’s awesome.

MS: That’s going really well. We plan on growing that concept a little bit. We really don’t have a desire to do another Lola or Lolita or some of our fine dining things. But the casual thing is fun, and we feel like we can grow it and grow it the right way.

BE: Cool. And what is your favorite place to eat? I guess I’m talking anywhere, and what do you order when you go there?

MS: Gosh. Probably my favorite restaurant is Vetri in Philadelphia. The chef is Marc Vetri. It’s a little place, like 28 seats. I just let Marc cook. He usually does this big pasta based thing and a couple of other things. He’s one of the truly great chefs in America and one of the greatest Italian chefs in the world.

BE: Very cool. And what is your favorite thing to cook, and why?

MS: Pork. It’s so versatile. You can do ribs, you can do pork butt, chops….you can do pork belly, you can do bacon, a ham. You name it, it’s endless in its versatility.

BE: And what is a secret about Food Network that you can tell us that we probably don’t know?

MS: I guess a lot of people don’t know that most of us on the network are pretty good friends with each other. (laughs) And you know, it’s a pretty tight-knit group and a very laid back group. There’s not a lot of arrogance. Everybody is pretty chill and everybody gets along very well. And because we do some fundraising together and some events together, like South Beach Food and Wine Festival, and things of that nature, it’s a pretty tight-knit group of people.

BE: Which is really saying something considering how the network has grown the last few years.

MS: Yeah. I mean, back in the day when I had “Melting Pot” there were only ten or twelve people. And now the list is endless. We do a lot of things to help each other. Like Guy (Fieri) was doing his culinary tour this year. He needed someone to help him out, kind of open and get the crowd going in Detroit. I drove there to do that. We do a lot of fundraising dinners here in Cleveland for Sheriff’s Training. Bobby (Flay)’s come and helped with those. And so had Mario (Batali). It’s a pretty tight-knit community or tight-knit group and we always look out for each other. I put out my first cookbook this year, and Paula Deen had me on her show to tell people about my book. Everyone looks out for each other.

BE: Very cool. Final question. Can the (Cleveland) Cavs finally win a title and either way, what will LeBron do after the season?

MS: I think this could be their year. They actually play Orlando tonight. So I can’t wait to watch Shaq rough up Dwight Howard and them (ed. Note, the Cavs won). And I think LeBron stays. There’s a lure to this city, and people that leave it most of the time come back. And this is where LeBron’s from. Not only where he’s played his professional career, but he’s from Akron, 30 minutes outside of Cleveland. I think that from what I know about LeBron, at the end of the day I think he knows he is going to be judged by how many championships he wins. And I think the Cavs will give him more opportunities to win championships than anybody else. If he goes to New York, it’s part of a rebuilding process. If he goes to New Jersey, it’s part of a rebuilding process. Unless they bring him Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all together, there’s going to be a process there, where the Cavs have had an opportunity to win it all the past four years. And I think he knows they’re knocking at the door. Especially if they win it this year, it really cements him staying.

BE: I think so too.

MS: At the end of the day, when they say “greatest player ever,” he wants to be a part of that sentence. He wants to be thought of like (Michael) Jordan, like Magic (Johnson), like (Larry) Bird, like now even Kobe (Bryant). He’s got to stack up some rings.

BE: Absolutely. I hope they really do it. The city could really use that.

MS: Oh God. I can’t even fathom what it would be like.

BE: Yeah. I lived there in the ‘90s when the Indians lost the two World Series.

MS: (under his breath) F–k. Yeah, Mark Shapiro is one of my best friends. (laughs)

BE: Oh is he really?

MS: Yeah. When I was kind of coming up as a chef, he was the head of scouting for the Indians. So I was chef of this restaurant called Caxton Café, which was right behind the Jake (Jacobs Field), and he would come sit at the bar and we’d bullshit. And my career kind of started to grow, and he became Vice President. So it’s hilarious. We kind of grew up together.

BE: Very cool. Well, that’s about all I’ve got.

MS: Feel free to plug my book on there too. (laughs)

BE: Oh sure! What’s the name of the book?

MS: It’s called “Michael Symon: Live to Cook.”

BE: We’ll put a link up to that.

MS: Thank you very much. A guy’s gotta make a living. (laughs)

BE: Thanks man.

MS: Thank you. Have a great day.