Allez Cuisine!
From Jack Abramoff’s Signatures to his own restaurant, Farrah Olivia, Morou Ouattara plans to step into a new venue. His eye is on Kitchen Stadium as he competes for the title of the Next Iron Chef. The first episode airs Sunday, 9 p.m. on the Food Network.

Eight chefs with the help of Lufthansa Airlines (yay product placement!) will be traveling through Europe and competing against each other to join Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay and Masuharu Morimoto as an Iron Chef. Despite Alton Brown’s denials, this sounds like the Food Network’s response to Bravo’s Top Chef, only with tonier sponsors.

I’m a little nervous about our hometown boy’s chances. He went up against Bobby Flay in the battle of the frozen peas and lost. (They’re re-airing the episode a few times this weekend.) But he does have one huge advantage; he would bring a unique type of cuisine to the show with his repertoire of African/Middle Eastern/French fusion. Everyone else will be doing the same old French and Modern American cuisines of the other chefs. I hope they let him bring some of his own arsenal, which includes unique spices like dried escargot, alligator pepper, and bacon powder (Mmm… bacon… ).

Wisdom for SE
Wisdom, a new bar hoping to open by next summer in Hill East, is already off to a great start with its neighbors. Owner Eric Holzherr, an Air Force officer, is working on getting a liquor license with the local ANC. Tentative plans are for an upscale martini lounge serving tapas and appetizers. He hopes to add outdoor seating, and eventually serve as a tea house during the day with brunch on the weekends. Wisdom is definitely a cool new addition to the neighborhood.

Photo courtesy of Melissa McCart