The tweet came last night, from Alec Baldwin, right here in our fair city, where he's shooting a movie with Tom Cruise and Russell Brand. No, he's not still mad at South Park for making fun of him. More >>

OK, his story starts out simple enough -- Jeremy Hanlon was a finance major in college, then landed a Wall Street job after graduating. However, less than a year into his job, Hanlon knew cubicle life wasn't for him. He ditched it to cook. He went from watching the Food Network to appearing on it. He worked his way up through the hierarchical French kitchen at the acclaimed Restaurant Daniel in New York City, then was sent off to Europe to learn from some of Europe's best chefs. Instead of staying on the restaurant kitchen line forever, Hanlon later branched out on his own, running his own personal chef service in West Palm Beach as well as a more affordable line of healthy ready-made food options, MyFreshChef.

Montana Pritchard

Chef Jeremy Hanlon

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Hanlon also went from eating like you and I do to eating with an eye for what's possible. Instead of ordering what he knows he'll like, he orders the most adventurous items on a menu. Constantly experimenting and tasting fuels his own creations and has led him to such accolades as winning the National Restaurant Association's Hot Chef Challenge, where chefs compete to create a dish that exemplifies where restaurant trends are headed.

We picked Hanlon's brain to find out more about the mind of a chef/entrepreneur...

Tell us about three of your favorite ingredients and why you like them.
Sherry vinegar -- livens up anything you add it to. Fresh herbs -- prefer the texture and taste over dried. Tomatoes -- raw, cooked, dried, fried, savory or sweet -- they are always good!

Do you have any absolute favorite food combinations -- what are they?
Rare steak and really good mashed potatoes -- simple but so good! Manchego cheese and summer peaches. Fried egg and prosciutto on a warm croissant. Chocolate and salted sourdough pretzels.

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​Eighty-two-year-old film director and marketing guru Herschell Gordon Lewis lives well. He's made millions from his books (like Sales Letters That Sizzle) and enjoys unending notoriety from his movies (such as Wizards of Gore). He lives in a magnificent condo on Fort Lauderdale beach overlooking the Atlantic. A Beethoven lover and former board member of the late Florida Philharmonic, the man displays impeccable taste. More >>

​Kicking off a rather flabby and blabby column, fashion expert and style columnist Simon Doonan announced in Slate this week that he spied some famous folks enjoying a holiday dinner at Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach. "A shocking and riveting tableau" he called it. More >>

My ideal T-Day spread.

​Bored of turkey? Terrified of stuffing? Sick of canned cranberries?

Me too. I'm not interested in turkey or stuffing or cranberries this Thanksgiving. So I decided that when my fiancee and I host our families next Thursday, we're going to be serving an Italian-centric feast of antipasto, quiche, veal and beef lasagna, pan-roasted Brussels sprouts, and dark chocolate tort for dessert.

I figure, since Thanksgiving is one holiday where you basically spend an inordinate amount of time cooking, then you may as well make what you enjoy.

For a family that's used to tradition, bucking the turkey trend can get some complaints. I'm already anticipating hearing a family member moan and groan about the lack of turkey. So, yeah, we may break down and cook one of those too.

But if you're dead set on skipping the plain Jane bird, here are a few ideas to make it work:
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solarnavigator.net

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What if Dracula moved to South Florida? Could you really blame our favorite blood-sucking villain if he abandoned the harsh climate of central Romania in exchange for lovely tropical seasons? If he comes, he has a welcoming place to eat.

With Halloween just around the corner, we decided to check out a place we had often walked by but never dared enter -- the curious-looking Restaurant Transylvania in downtown Hollywood.  More >>

​Last year it was a craft beer guru, Slow Food USA's voice, and a pastry chef. This year it's a wine punk, a Brooklyn butcher, and a made-up Twitter persona that's one part Ruth Reichl and one part Tony Bourdain.

Twat LaRouge

​Throwing a party can be, for some people, a real drag. They create for themselves a whirl of faux stress, brought on by popping open a can of Pringles and procuring a five-pound bag of ice from 7-Eleven. Whew, exhausting!

But it is the guests who suffer most.

We've all been invited to some friend's sad excuse of a shindig; where the fluorescents in every room shone as brightly as a day at the beach, the television blared an episode of Celebrity Rehab, and the only drink mixers were Coke and tap water.

But before you do as I would and unfriend them from Facebook, pass on these tips on how to do it right -- which I picked up from some of Fort Lauderdale's most fabulous drag queens: More >>

flickr: Xavi Pedret

Rockers: They're not all fueled by ramen.

​We here at Clean Plate Charlie are usually too busy judging the judges on the Food Network, puréeing foie gras for our little baby Emeril, or just generally stuffing our ding-dangled faces to get out to any concerts these days, but we were excited to live vicariously through our sister blog, County Grind, which reported on five favorite foods of some dudes on the Warped Tour.

Which fast-food joints does We the Kings hit up? Where does Breathe Carolina get the tastiest burrito? What does the guitarist from Pennywise love to cook? And who gets ready to rock on a steady diet of Sonny's BBQ and Publix subs?

We guess you'll just have to click to find out, won'tcha?

​South Florida's own Michelle Bernstein made an appearance as guest judge on Top Chef last night in what turned out to be an interesting episode. The program may have also revealed a little bit of a chef rivalry between Miami-based chef-testant Andrea Curto Randazzo and Bernstein herself.

It all started with a quickfire challenge that saw the chefs cooking with unusual proteins like yak, emu eggs, lama, and duck testicles. Curto Randazzo, who feared she might end up in Bernstein's sights, ended up among the bottom three with her chewy wild boar. Was it predisposition, or was the boar really that bad? Only the chefs know for sure.

Regardless, it's kind of appropriate that our interview with Chef Bernstein coincided with her appearance on the show (we didn't plan it, we swear). Read part one here and part two here.
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