I had a few jobs that required uniforms.  One place provided all employees with one shirt with logo that needed to be worn during every shift.  They offered more shirts for sale for $5 each that we purchased direct from the vendor and not from the employer. Another job I had required a specific shirt, that the establishment provided and cleaned so we would grab a new one for each shift. However, we were required to purchase pants, these could be from any vendor as long as they were black. Employees were not reimbursed for this cost. Some of my cousins worked for a clothing company.  They were not required to wear a specific uniform, however they had to wear a full outfit purchased at their place of work.

Nurse Kendra was one of twenty people in the USA to meet with Fabio from Top Chef Season 5 this past week. Kendra works as an RN for a Spokane Cystic Fibrosis (CF) clinic. She was flown to Minneapolis to participate in a conference on the disease. While in Minneapolis, Kendra was invited to watch Fabio demonstrate and provide tips for feeding children with Cystic Fibrosis.

You can help Kendra and others raise money to support fighting CF by watching out for the Spokane Great Strides walk that will take place at Gonzaga University, Jundt lawn at Jundt Art Museum on May 29, 2010 at 10:00 AM.

It’s nice to see Gillespie doing well in the show. After having dined at Luna during his tenure, it also comes as somewhat of a surprise, as I don’t have particularly fond memories of my meal there. Sufficient to say, his contributions to Top Chef looks to exceed my expectations. (Looks. Obviously I can’t taste it.)

With that said, here are my two favorite “cheftestants” thus far:

Kevin Gillespie! Hey, I will support a “local” boy, no matter how much he tries hide the fact he was a chef here. His contributions look inspired, too.

Jennifer Carroll! Other than the fact that she seems to be a very good cook, she has something most chefs on this show seems to be lacking: leadership skills. During the airforce episode, she definitely held the rest of the contestants together really well through guidance and thinking on her feet.

Top Chef is on Bravo, Wednesdays at 10pm.

And here is Kevin, from his Spokane days!

For those not familiar with Three Sheets, it’s basically a travel show with emphasis on local drinking cultures. Hosted by comedian Zane Lamprey, the show is (subject matter taken into consideration) surprisingly PG and always funny.

Season four, now on FLN after MojoHD closed down, kicked off in New Zealand, and (thankfully) very little has changed from the previous seasons. The show is, all humor aside, informative — who knew there was so much to Kiwi whisky? — and there are plenty of interesting people and local drinking game to check out. And obviously Pleepleus is back.

Sixteen more episodes are coming up, Mondays at 10pm, so make sure you set your DVR. I believe it’s on Comcast channel 204.

Best drinking show ever. Ever!

1. Stefan

There is no doubt Stefan is the one to beat. He has the creativity, he has the technique, and he is willing to step out of his comfort zone. In fact, the only thing that seems to stand in his way is his ego. It’s all well and nice he thinks he’s god’s gift to cooking and all, but when that lax attitude results in some elementary mistakes… Not good. Still, I fully expect Stefan to bring his A-game and take the it all home. Feel the power of The Stefaning!

2. Carla

Ouch… Well, I got this one wrong, predicting she’d be The Big Loser of the competition. And in my defense, she started out rather poorly. Then all of a sudden she woke up. Carla might be missing some of Stefan’s finesse (Stefan helped her shucking the oysters in the semis, which strangely enough wasn’t shown in the final cut) but has come up with some creative and technical dishes in the past few episodes. I have my doubts she’ll best Stefan, but, I have been wrong before.

3. Hosea

“Behind the scenes drama” aside… I just don’t find Hosea’s cooking overly inspiring. After some initial nerves, and initial in this case lasted more than 3/4 of the season, he seems to finally have gotten his technique down, but the dishes he serve up? Words like “dull” and “sea side resort” comes to mind. But hey, one could have said the same about season two’s Ilan, and we all know how that went.

The full release about the calorie posing is as follows:

The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously to require all city chain restaurants to post calorie data on their menus. Chain restaurants already must make the calorie counts of their menu items publicly available, but beginning March 31 they will have to put the numbers on menu boards and menus. The change will affect restaurants with 15 or more outlets — roughly 10 percent of all city restaurants, according to a news release from the city’s health department.

More information right here.

Jack LaLanne, what a man.  His juicer is great, and it’s the perfect solution to slimy vegetables, a problem many face.

My New Year’s Day involved a lot of juicing.  Apples, oranges, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, pears, and cactus.  I do not recommend juicing cactus.  It gets quite slimy and gooey, but it does make a great prickly pear juice — if you like those.

The down side of the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Deluxe is, of course, the size and weight of the machine.  Yet those are also the qualities that make it so great.  You really can put whole pears, apples, and oranges in the machine.  I woke up to a text message this morning notifying me Rosauers is having a big sale on oranges and all other produce today. (There are also rumors that Rosauers will set aside produce for people to juice and sell it extremely discounted.)

I guess that means fresh orange juice for breakfast and screwdrivers for dinner.

Spokane Food Blog are juicers…