Tuesday, August 12, 2008
TV Dinner The Thrilla in Vanilla: Las Paletas Throws Down With Bobby Flay Tomorrow Night
Posted by Jim Ridley on Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 7:32 AM
To recap: Last November, Irma Paz Bernstein and her sister Norma from Las Paletas showed up one afternoon at Fido, thinking they had been invited by the Food Network to participate in something called "Brain Freeze Stunt Week." To their shock, they were ambushed by superstar chef Bobby Flay. On the spot, the red-headed rouxmeister challenged them to a paleta-making showdown in a taping of his popular series Throwdown with Bobby Flay—whereupon Irma burst into tears.
“I wasn’t even pregnant and I was all hormonal!” the very pregnant Irma recalls. “Hey, he’s an Iron Chef, hello?” Fear not: she insists her tears were of joy—and when the dust settled, we suspect Flay was the one with reason to cry.
But the outcome has been kept secret until now. The long-awaited episode airs locally 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13, on Comcast Channel 65, and Las Paletas is setting up a giant screen in its parking lot so its many friends can watch the fateful face-off. Since the 12South popsicle palace famously has no sign, just look for the crowd at 12th and Kirkwood catty-corner from Sevier Park.
Said to be swearing off television for the night: Carrington Fox, our bashful Bitesmistress, who judged the contest with Slow Food Nashville’s Robin Riddell. With babes that hot on TV, you'll need something cold to suck on.
Comments (8)
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C, I can't believe you're not going to watch this. I'm expecting a bigger upset than Lezak sending Bernard and the French relay team down to Davy Jones' locker. You need to live-blog it, even if that's getting into Land o' Lakes Butter-label realms of self-perpetuation.
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That was so much fun! I pulled up outside Las Paletas and found the parking lot full, the side street jammed, the crowd cheering--and the half-hour show over. I couldn't have found a parking place anyway--there must have been 200 people milling around or in lawn chairs--so I caught the rerun at 11 p.m. I confess to being one of those pathetic geeks who thrills at seeing his hometown and friends on TV, and I found it all pretty delightful. Irma and Norma were TV naturals (duh), Carrington and Robin were adorable, and everyone seemed to be having a ball (and not in some fake APPLAUSE-sign way). Congratulations to all. And if somebody ever decides to remake THELMA AND LOUISE, I nominate Carrington and Robin.
OK, now I want the dish. Carrington, were you threatened with a Paula Deen casserole if you didn't vote a certain way? Did anybody not recognize Bobby Flay? Also, how do you salt a popsicle--excuse me, "ice pop" (which warranted a drinking game)?
