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Hugh Jackman and Jean-Georges Vongerichten Go Toe to Toe
Plus, another vineyard is hit by harvesting thieves, and a shampoo loses its battle with Champagne
Posted: October 14, 2010
• Unfiltered would love to have leading man Hugh Jackman and chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten cook dinner for us. Unfortunately, we weren’t on the guest list at the recent charity dinner the two hosted at ABC Kitchen in New York. However, you can catch all of the Wolverine star’s hits and misses in the kitchen on an upcoming episode of Iconoclasts, Sundance Channel’s series that pairs two people from different fields to discuss their lives and passions, and spend a day doing what the other normally would. "Two things I love doing in my life: hanging out with my friends and eating,” says Jackman in the episode. “So when one of your friends is Jean-Georges, one of the best chefs in the world, pretty sure it's going to be a good day." (The two actually live in the same building.) The former “Sexiest Man Alive” joined Vongerichten for some shopping at Union Square’s farmers’ market, then took over in the kitchen, where he made an impressive-looking truffle-topped pizza. The pair also spent some time at the gym together, going toe to toe in the boxing ring as Jackman trains for his next role. The Iconoclasts episode airs this Saturday, Oct. 16. (Don’t expect either of the icons to quit their day job.)
• Is two a trend? Unfiltered hopes not, at least when it comes to the grape thefts that have plagued winegrowers this harvest season. Two weeks ago we told you about the Washington winery whose Mourvèdre grapes were stolen under cover of night, and it gives us no pleasure to report that another vineyard has fallen victim to fruit-picking thieves, this time in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. Grapegrower Roland Cavaillé, whose vineyard is in Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, told Le Parisien that thieves worked by the light of a full moon to abscond with 30 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes growing on two isolated hectares of land on Sunday Sept. 25. “They used a harvesting machine to gather grapes. This means there was no need to have lots of people, two people would have been enough,” said Cavaillé, who speculated that the use of a harvesting machine meant the theft, representing the loss of a year’s work and income, was the work of professionals. Police are investigating the incident but have no clues beyond the tracks left by the harvester and a truck.
• Unfiltered loves a good trademark story, and all the better if it involves Champagne. Comité Interprofessionel du Vin Champagne (CIVC), the regulatory body of the Champagne industry which last year successfully prevented an Australian gift basket business from calling itself “Champagne Messenger,” has scored another victory in the fight to make sure no one pours a gob of Dutch shampoo into a crystal flute and calls it Champagne. Last Friday, the presiding judge of the district court of the Hague ruled in summary proceedings against manufacturing giant Unilever, the Dutch division of which produces a shampoo called Andrélon. Unilever recently celebrated the shampoo brand’s 70th birthday with a special edition of the product labeled “Champagne shampoo” and an ad campaign whose slogans included, “Champagne Shampoo voor een feestelijke glans” (“Champagne shampoo for a special occasion”), and “Elke dag Champagne” (“Each day Champagne”) in which the shampoo bottle was depicted in an ice bucket, a clear stand-in for the geographically protected sparkling wine created in the Champagne region of France. Unilever had already changed its Andrélon advertising in the wake of an initial cease and desist request, and now must recall all of the “Champagne shampoo” bottles available at retailers. On the bright side, those recalled bottles of “Champagne shampoo” might now become as collectible as real vintage Champagne. Or not.
