Set to inspire a whole new love affair with iconic Le Creuset Cast Iron when it hits SA cinemas on November 13th, Julie & Julia boasts an impressive cast and a heady mix of food, relationships and writing.

Yuppiechef and Le Creuset have teamed up to give away a R5,000 set of Le Creuset pots. Here’s what you have to do:

1) Write about a great cooking or eating experience that you’ve had. Including a recipe would be great.

2) Post it on your blog, your Facebook profile, or the Yuppiechef Fan Page. Make sure you link to this page.

3) Tell us about your story by leaving a comment at the bottom of this page.

A selection of great stories will be posted on the Yuppiechef Blog, and a winner will be selected by the comments the story receives, and the judges’ opinion. The competition will close on 30 November 2009.

Good luck, folks!

More about the movie:

Le Creuset features throughout the movie that has already sent US and UK audiences rushing back to the kitchen to pore over cookbooks.  Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is writer Julie Powell in Nora Ephron’s comedy, Julie & Julia. Before Ina, before Rachael, before Emeril, there was Julia, the woman who forever changed the way America cooks.  But in 1948, Julia Child was just an American woman living in France.  Her husbands job has brought them to Paris, and with her indefatigable spirit, she yearned for something to do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fifty years later, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is stuck.  Pushing 30, living in Queens and working in a cubicle as her friends achieve stunning successes, she seizes on a seemingly insane plan to focus her energies.  Julie decides to spend exactly a year cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which Child co-wrote with Louise Bertholle and Simone Beck) – and write a blog about her experiences.  Director-writer-producer Nora Ephron seamlessly melds these two remarkable true stories into a comedy that proves that if you have the right combination of passion, obsession and butter, you can change your life and achieve your dreams.

Le Creuset’s timeless Cast Iron cookware in Flame orange appears in both the 1940s Julia Child scenes and scenes from Julie Powell’s more recent year-long attempt to recreate her recipes.  To celebrate its presence in Julie & Julia,

So be prepared to laugh, cry and fall in love with Le Creuset when Julie & Julia open at cinemas November 13th!

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So it seems simple, modern and efficient – just what we expected from the man. yet we know that something more lurks beneath the surface. Having established himself as the ‘king of the worm farm’ in the sunny southern suburbs we know he has some special tea in store for his plant. We interviewed him earlier and here are his thoughts:

1. Your strategy for winning this contest? Wouldn’t you like to know! I’m not sure my strategy passes local agricultural and health regulations, so it’s best not written down.
2. Who your biggest competitor is? Diamond-boy and Shane’s flower pot talk a big game, but I think the ever-so-laid-back Kaylee has more up her sleeve than she’s letting on.
3. What you are going to do with your prize? Stroll around the office in my board-shorts and towel, sipping a cocktail and laughing at the rest of the team, before heading off for a swim at Muizenberg, before returning to show off my tan.
4. Thoughts on the competition so far? It’s grueling stuff. With the public holiday last week and then Friday spent in meetings my little babies went a whole 4 days without water and are a bit worse for wear, but I reckon instilling some toughness in them will pay off for me in the long run.

Well folks, it seems we have a serious contender here, other contestants watch out. One does wonder though, if he can’t spell ‘chilli’ has he a hope…?

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Chilli Comp Panel: How are you this fine day Kaylee?

Kaylee: Good thanks.

Chilli Comp Panel: Your strategy for winning this contest?

Kaylee: Lots of research.

Chilli Comp Panel: Who is your biggest competitor?

Kaylee: Shane.

Chilli Comp Panel: Literally?

Kaylee: Um…

Chilli Comp Panel: What you are going to do with your prize?

Kaylee: Extend my Xmas holiday.

Chilli Comp Panel: Thoughts on the competition so far?

Kaylee: Something different and fun, a good way of bringing the team together and creating some competitiveness.

Wow, honesty yet without giving anything away. We have a serious contender here folks. Beware all.

Take a look at her prized possession and understand the gravity of the situation.

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We had a few words with him and found his answers intriguing if not somewhat bizarre.

Chilli Comp Panel:Your strategy for winning this contest.

Shane: Biochemical engineering. That’s all I am allowed to say at this stage of the competition.

Chilli Comp Panel: What does that actually mean, ‘biochemical’?

Shane: I haven’t the foggiest. I was pretending to be intelligent.

Chilli Comp Panel: (cough Julius Malema cough cough) Who would you say your biggest competitor is?

Shane: Definitely Dale – she has been known to pull some serious moves and she has a wicked sense of humour. My mom taught me to be careful of people like that.

Chilli Comp Panel: What you are going to do with your prize?

Shane: Seeing as the prize is an entire day off work – I will probably come to work anyway just to show everyone that I am really committed to Yuppiechef. That will score me some long term brownie points which should ultimately work in my favour.

Chilli Comp Panel: Thoughts on the competition so far?

Shane: I am very surprised at the standard of this competition, it’s clear that everyone has done their research and are (sic) well prepared. I feel that gender testing should have been introduced earlier on in the competition, I am a little concerned by how masculine some of the female competitors and their sprouts are looking.

Wow! Perhaps after watching District 9 Shane has lost the ability to be non-prejudiced. Perhaps his mother gave him some stick in his upbringing…  who knows? Either way folks, we have a serious contender here in Shane. His Chilli bush is leading the way with almost 7 full sprouts now. Check this picture taken yesterday:

Ok, so some of them look a bit like weeds, but give him some credit ‘a little weed is better than nothing’.

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It’s all here: raw, unedited and straight from the mouth of a racing horse.

So from left to right we have: Shane, Mike, Kaylee, Dale and Andrew. Different strategies, different techniques but all confined to the same size pot and a common goal: the most chilli’s grown in 3 months. Who will win? Time will tell. But let’s begin by interviewing Mike – the overwhelming favourite judging by viewer votes, agricultural knowledge and general likelihood.

Chilli Comp Panel: So Mike, you’re more than likely to win, how do you feel about that?

Mike: Well, pretty confident actually. When something is a certainty there really is no room for doubt.

Chilli Comp Panel: Any strategies you’re willing to share?

Mike: Well I like a challenge so here are some. One: believe you’re going to win. Two: I love plant. Three: sabotage.

Chilli Comp Panel: Wow! You mean you’re actually contemplating sabotage?

Mike: Oh, I was just joking, no need to do this in such a simple contest. This is nowhere as challenging as the Ridonculous Raddish Race of ‘89. I mean there we had sleet and snow, huge research budgets and of course… the Russians.

Chilli Comp Panel: Sheesh, sounds crazy. Well, we have to go interview the other competitors and see what they are doing to secure second place. I guess we don’t have to say good luck but, enjoy the contest anyhow, thanks for your time.

Mike: A pleasure as always.

Take a look at Mike’s beautiful entry here: ‘Chillisaurus Rex‘

It seems some precious metals could be the key to his success, or are they…

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So we would love to see you there, if you can come and pay us a visit if you’ll be in the area, we would love to meet you! The show runs from Thursday the 29th of October to that Sunday, the 1st of November.  We’ll be giving away a free ticket or two, so make sure you email us to get in the ticket freebie mix. Email tickets@yuppiechef.com with your name, number and email address.

See you there!

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Here are the official rules for the chilli growing competition that is going down at Yuppiechef HQ – read about it here.

Rules and regulations:

• Each person is to be given one container and an equal amount of seeds to start with. No other seeds may be brought in to the competition at any stage – even to encourage their cousin seeds during difficult times of the contest.
• You may use any substance, material, known particle of our universe in the effort to win the competition. My advice is in moderation.
• You may not tamper with a fellow competitors chilli growing project physically. Though words, thoughts, prayers and transcendental imagineering or chilli-psychosis is permissible in all forms.
• The starting date is 11am today. The ‘finish line’ is 11am, the 14^th of December 2009, GMT+2. This is under the premise that time is a linear concept and cannot be interfered with – should you be able to manipulate it to your advantage you will be given the competition and hence a day off, provided you give us many holidays in return with your powers.
• You may not levitate.
• The points scoring system works as such: 5 for every red chilli, 3 for every green. A chilli is determined as red if more than 66.6% of it is deemed red by the panel (more on that later). A chilli is deemed a ‘chilli’ if it is at least 2cm in length and satisfies the panel’s criterion (yes, more coming) of what constitutes a chilli.
• No puns involving the country ‘Chile’ or the temperature referring ‘chilly’ may be used throughout the duration of this contest. Should you fail in this regard you will be docked 2 points per instance and be in line for the ‘Let’s chuck atcha in his eye’ award. This is a curious award originating from the foothills of the Nepalese mountains. The story has probably changed over the generations but simply put: the other contestants in the competition are permitted to find any form of atcha in the vicinity (<5km) and together rub it in the offender’s eye. Note: Only one eye can be used for this purpose and it should be established in a democratic and logical fashion which one that will be – as a true Nepalese village would do. Should the offender remain calm and voice no complaint throughout the rigorous (but quite effective) torture he/she will be awarded one point in their title race. If anyone in the ‘actcha rubbing’ group should laugh, think or smile during the process though, that point will be taken away.
• Each contestant is to submit (via the panel) a blog-worthy post of their progress, thoughts and cunning strategies for the wider Yuppiechef audience. Failure to amuse or entertain the audience will result in embarrassment. Due to this we the panel thought no points will be deducted – no use chucking salt in the wounds of a wounded woundee. (Note: a woundee is someone who has wounded our Yuppiechef audience with a poorly written blog post, something that has never happened in the history of Yuppiechef and hopefully never will).
• Good luck to all, may it be as entertaining as watching that squirrel water ski on YouTube.
• May the best man win. And may the youngest man win.
• Out of interest, the panel is me. I now you’re thinking ‘hey, a panel surely consists of a group of nice people’ but I say ‘hey’ back – I couldn’t find anyone else who fitted that description. So you’re stuck with me.

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Some rules were developed, not sure by who again, and an hour later we had ourselves a competition. Check the 5 entrants of the people in the office that day below. Unfortunately for those staff members who were holidaying overseas or elsewhere (like at home in bed) they were to miss out.

So our best wishes to all competitors, as the rules stipulate “May the best man win. And may the youngest man win”.For those poor people at home who feel left out, why not send in some tips, encouragments or even photos to help spur us on.  We may know some things about kitchen tools, but in the world of chilli growing we’re amateurs (generally). You never know, maybe we’ll send you some lovely, organic chilli’s with your next order!

Contest rules and in depth interviews to follow…

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Much scouring of the world of kitchen tools has eventually led us to this sharpener – and what a find it is. Not only does it do a great job on your professional knives but it is perfect for that black-handled, often-used, incredibly-blunt knife every body owns (currently sitting either in the top drawer or among the recently washed up items in your kitchen). The real beauty of this 3 stage knife sharpener is just that: three wonderful, glorious, essential and nation-changing stages.

If your knife is so blunt it makes a barn door seem like a razor – this is the tool you need. Not only will it bring back that knife from the grave but it will (with the help of stages 2 and 3) give it an edge – and a good as new one too! But wait there’s more… ok, that was actually mostly it, except of course that it has a trusty handle, which ensures that both the knife and the sharpener won’t slip out of your grasp as you hastily bring your knives back to their former glory.

Take a look below and give your eyes a treat: A magnificent specimen and prime candidate for ‘product of the month’ – Wow!

No time to waste…

See if it’s real.

Find it in haste,

This is a deal.

The Scanpan 3 Stage Knife Sharpener

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