Dark Restaurants: The New in Eating without Light

Unlike some world travelers, we at TasteTV had never heard of these dark restaurants before, but it sounded like a great idea for a TasteTV dining and tasting event. If anyone else thinks this is a good idea, just post a comment. (do it with the light on, of course)

“The first dark restaurant in Asia is officially opened on the 23 December 2006. This restaurant, located in Beijing, China, has its interior painted completely in black. Customers are greeted by a brightly lit entrance hall and will be escorted by waiters wearing night vision goggles into the pitch dark dining room to help them find their seats. Flashlights, mobile phones and even luminous watches are prohibited while in this area.

The meal will be taken in this environment with the complete loss of vision. By starving one’s sense, your other senses are stimulated to full alert – all so the theory goes – and your food will taste like it’s never tasted before. In case you are wondering about the washrooms, they are all brightly lit.

The dark restaurants are initially a project of the Blind-Liecht (Swiss German for blind-light) foundation. The foundation works to create employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired people. Their first venture, the blindekuh in Zurich, opened in 1999 and is claimed to be the world’s first dark restaurant. Since then, the restaurant concept has been subsequently replicated elsewhere, including Paris, Berlin, London and multiple cities in Canada, United States, Russia and Australia. The one located in Beijing, China is the latest addition.”Via Spluch

Not quite…San Francisco is the latest addition, with TasteTV’s SF DARK – Dark Dining (www.SFDark.com)

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TasteTV Announces Dark Dining in San Francisco

DARK Dining in San Francisco by TasteTV and Million Dollar Dinner takes you into another realm of dining, one where all of your senses are expanded and focus on the food, the taste, the sound, the company and more…because you are dining completely in the dark.

Dark dining is not low light dining, it is no light dining! TasteTV‘s food, wine and lifestyle editors have tracked this growing culinary experience across the globe and are now bringing it to Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the evening, for two entire hours, guests will eat, drink, talk, and enjoy entertainment in complete and total darkness. The flavors and textures of thir food will take on an entirely new dimension, as will the quality of their conversation (or perhaps of their dates).

The launch chef for these events is Chef Lisa Hines, owner of the Bella Cucina Cafe, and associated with Bravo’s Top Chef program.

A TasteTV Dark Dining Dinner experience includes:

  • A delicious Three-course meal
  • Wine carefully paired to go with your meal
  • Some of the best dinner companions you can imagine
  • TasteTV TasteMaker status for you and your food, wine & restaurant loving friends
  • Entertainment in the form of music, spoken word, and more

DARK Dining SF will take place in September on Friday evenings at 8pm, in San Francisco. Location information, and reservations, menu, and the chef’s bio, can be found at the Dark Dining SF site, http://www.SFDark.com. For information about TasteTV’s San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, go to http://www.SFChocolateSalon.com.

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Jason Priestley and 90210 Wine Tasting?

Amy Rosen of the National Post in Canada reported:

Jason Priestley and Terry David Mulligan do some swishing and swilling at various wine regions as co-hosts of Hollywood and Vines, a new show on StarTV. The Barenaked Ladies’ Steven Page is a Canadian oenophile who owns a piece of Canada’s Vines magazine. A handful of Canadian celebs are dipping into the wine business. It all raises the question: Is this a recipe for deliciousness or are they corking disaster? Amy Rosen investigates

Jason Priestley’s involvment in such a wine show is confirmed by Celeb Talk, Wine Expression, and TV Guides. The website for the program, which airs apparently now on the Travel Channel or Star-TV – maybe – is here www.hollywoodandvinestv.com

By the way, Wine Expressions has their own version of this type of show, which you can see here.

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TasteTV at TasteTV.com

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TasteTV SF Chocolate Salon 2007 Awards Announced

image courtesy of the Daily Feed

TasteTV Salon welcomed over 2,000 Chocolate Aficionados

For Immediate Release

San Francisco — July 18, 2007 — The San Francisco International CHOCOLATE SALON today announces the 2007 Award Winners of its Chocolate Tasting Panel. The Salon, sponsored by TasteTV and TasteTV.com, welcomed over 2,000 chocolate aficionados, fanatics, buyers and journalists who enjoyed 27 of the finest artisan and premium chocolatiers, in addition to wine, beverages, and Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur.

Because of the success of the first San Francisco International CHOCOLATE SALON, TasteTV also announces that it will be sponsoring the Salon again next year in July 2008, as well as in Los Angeles in October 2007. In addition, it will be launching an annual series of publications known as The Chocolate Guides, showcasing the chocolate makers, chocolatiers, bakeries and matching wines of four North American regions. The first Chocolate Guide, the Western Edition, is scheduled for publication in Fall 2007.

The Chocolate Tasting Panel presented awards in categories such as Best Dark Chocolate, Top Artisan Chocolatier, Most Artistic Chocolate Designs, Most Luxurious Chocolate Experience, Best Organic Products, and Best Comfort Chocolates. Winners include Amano Artisan Chocolate, Charles Chocolates, L’Artisan du Chocolat, XOX Truffles, Poco Dolce and The Xocolate Bar. To see the full list of awards, go to http://www.SFChocolateSalon.com

Organic and Fair trade chocolates were well represented at the Salon, and speakers included chocolate perfumer Yosh Han, blogger Emily Stone of Chocolate in Context, Global Exchange’s Adrienne Fitch-Frankel and conceptual chocolate artist April Banks, Seneca Klassen of the Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe, food writer GraceAnn Walden, and New York’s Reverend R. M. Peluso, who demonstrated how to use chocolate in spiritual meditation.

For more information about the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, go to http://www.SFChocolateSalon.com.

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USA TODAY mention of TasteTV and TiVO


Today there is a brief but useful mention of TasteTV in the USAToday daily newspaper, in relation to its analysis of the TiVO service. It’s very cool to be in a national newspaper:

You can stream music and photos and upload home movies to your TV, too. TiVo also has Web video content from CNet, iVillage, TasteTV and others that can be recorded and viewed on your TV (free with subscriptions). “This is the first of the set-top boxes to allow Internet content to show up on your TV like that,” McQuivey says.


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TasteTV Toasts Chef Melissa of 2 for 10


TasteTV is on a bit of a roll

We just want to take a moment to congratulate Chef Melissa of “2 for 10” on her recent success.

Chef Mel decided to promote her TasteTV affiliation by issuing a press release about her program being part of the TasteTV TiVO Launch, and then her fortune took off.

  1. First, she was featured on YouTube’s front page,
  2. Next, she was the featured topic of a newspaper article
  3. Then, she became a favorite ‘celebrity chef’ on mySpace!
  4. And below, as she is featured on the tv news in Philadelphia doing her thing

All within a three week period. How’s that for New Media?

We hope to see more great news from her, and of course are happy to have her be a part of TasteTV when it goes national this summer with a weekly 30 minutes television program to local stations nationwide in over 70 cities.

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