Unfiltered

Chef Marcus Samuelsson gets into music, the winemaking reality show gets underway and Jay-Z finds a new Champagne

Posted: October 25, 2006

• Move over, Bono, Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Chef Marcus Samuelsson has something to say about Africa. "The covers of the magazines show only war, AIDS and famine, which is not the Africa that I know," said the chef of New York restaurants Aquavit and Riingo, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden by adoptive parents. Samuelsson recently collaborated with DJ Donna D'Cruz, an Aquavit regular, to put together an album entitled Afrikya Volume 1: A Musical Journey Through Africa (available at Amazon.com), featuring artists from a handful of African nations as well as Sweden, Switzerland and New York. "Africa doesn't have enough tools to show its beautiful side, its culture, its food, its music, the way France or America or Italy has, so I want to give people in the West real tools to get to know Africa," said Samuelsson. He's also recently written an African cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine, featuring a foreword by no less than Archbishop Desmond Tutu. When asked why he thinks Africa has become the center of so much recent celebrity attention, Samuelsson said, "I have no idea. I've been African all my life, and I'm still gonna be African when it's not hip anymore."

• Julia Roberts on reality TV? Well, sort of. Julia Roberts of Denver, Colo., a 48-year-old "master gardener"--not the Academy Award-winning actress you're thinking of--is one of the contestants on PBS' upcoming reality series The Wine Makers. Set to air in fall 2007, the show will capture 12 Average Joes competing for the opportunity to make and launch their own brand of wine. Think of it as The Apprentice for wine geeks, with challenges dreamt up by winemakers, enology instructors, investment bankers and marketing executives. The first episode takes place in San Jose and Paso Robles, Calif., but producers won't reveal much else. Based on the show's eclectic cast of characters, Unfiltered is counting on some delicious catfights. Those who caught our eye: Taylor Senatore, a New Yorker reportedly billing himself as "the antihero who doesn't want to get his hands dirty;" Lauren Tomasino, a wine store manager/belly-dancer; and the tattooed and pierced Eryn Supple, a buyer for a natural foods store. Since he doesn't want to get his hands dirty, our bet is Taylor's the first to get the gum boot.

In nearly 30 years Chirac couldn't drink 5,000 bottles? And he calls himself French ....

• The weekend spelled the end of Paris' ownership of a roughly 5,000-bottle wine collection amassed by French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac during his 1977-2005 tenure as the city's mayor. The cellar was put up for auction at a two-day event that raised just more than $1.2 million for City Hall, with one bidder claiming to have taken the lion's share. "In some cases the bidding was tough, and I missed out on a few lots, mainly to a small group from China," said Stephen Williams, managing director of London-based wine merchant Antique Wine Company. "But I did secure both bottles of 1986 Romanée-Conti, which was the most valuable wine in the sale"--it went for about $6,280 per bottle, although Chirac's government reportedly paid $400 for the entire case, back in the day--"and all the Château Pétrus, Lafite Rothschild, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Mouton-Rothschild I wanted." Current mayor Bertrand Delanoë ordered the auction as a sort of preemptive disaster relief, after finding the wines were at risk of ruin should the Seine flood. Delanoë should be pleased with the auction, as the wines had been expected to fetch about $500,000 less according to the catalog estimate. He's not the only one who's happy. "I'm very satisfied," said Williams of his haul. "I know that we will find second homes for them." Umm, Unfiltered has a spare bedroom ....

New song, new Champagne. End of story? Doubt it.

• Move over Cristal. Rapper Jay-Z has a new Champagne crush--the Armand de Brignac. In the music video for his new single "Show Me What You Got," Beyonce's main squeeze chooses the bubbly with the pewter Ace of Spades label over Cristal to impress a bevy of beautiful women. (Opus One also scores a favorable mention.) Clearly Jay-Z hasn't gotten over his spat with Louis Roederer president Frédéric Rouzaud--a fiery feud that peaked with the rapper boycotting Cristal and urging others in the hip-hop community to follow suit. Armand CEO Brett Berish, who is probably more than thrilled to get any extra business that might result, gushed over Jay-Z's appreciation of the sparkler, which is produced by AJC Champagne of Reims and sells for roughly $300. "It's wonderful," Berish told Unfiltered. "The Champagne is meant for people who care about luxury-type products. Jay-Z embodies that." We haven't tried it yet, but we sure do like the Ace of Spades label.

• Subtract amnesia, family feuds and adultery, then add top-notch chefs, local newscasters and a dash of fine wine, and you get a recipe for the soap star-studded 13th Annual Feast with Famous Faces fund-raiser, held on Oct. 23 at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers. One Life to Live's Kassie DePaiva shed her onscreen bad-girl image to chair the Monday-evening event, which benefited the League for the Hard of Hearing. She brought along TV friends Beth Chamberlin (Guiding Light) and Jeff Branson (All My Children) to mingle as guests sipped offerings from Bodegas Terrazas de los Andes and Domaine Chandon. New York news anchors teamed up with chefs to hand out intricate bites like risotto with oxtail ragu from Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner Jovia. Robin Strasser, who plays the formidable Dorian Lord on One Life to Live, took advantage of the opportunity to pick up cooking tips from chefs. She was especially enamored of the West Village restaurant STK's pot roast with root vegetable puree, speculating that chef Kersten Eggers' secret technique might involve a base of browned butter. Special guest Anthony Bourdain, on hand to greet attendees during the VIP preview of the silent-auction prizes, also appreciated all the chefs' hard work and described his favorite part of the event: "I don't have to do the cooking."