Cooking Fever App: Live Event, Sydney

Feeling a tad bored with the whole Sydney foodie scene (well, that's impossible).

But if you are, a host of Aussie celebrity cooks will be serving Sydneysiders at a unique pop up arcade inspired restaurant very shortly.

In a world first, food lovers nationwide can grab a free gourmet meal and step inside an arcade app-inspired restaurant.

I know, stay with me here!

On Sunday January 31, four of Australia’s most loved celebrity cooks will battle it out at Manly beach to bring the Cooking Fever app, a popular time-management game, to life.

Popular celebrity cooks staffing the restaurant at the Cooking Fever Life Event on the

beachfront of Manly Corso include:

Australia’s first-ever MasterChef winner JULIE GOODWIN

2012 MasterChef All Stars winner CALLUM HANN

MasterChef 2014 winner BRENT OWENS

MasterChef favourite and Everyday Gourmet JUSTINE SCHOFIELD

The cooks will compete against each other in a real life version of COOKING FEVER, re-enacting the fast paced time-management game and ensuring they keep all their customers satisfied. 

And, the search is on to find four restaurant managers (no hospitality experience required) staffed by the celebrity cooks. Aussie COOKING FEVER fans can win the ultimate prize – they will be flown to Sydney to team up with a celebrity cook and 'control' them in the food making process at the unique pop up restaurant. Just like in the game, the food can’t be served unless someone is in control. And it could be you!

Simply visit www.facebook.com/CookingFeverAustralia to enter, by Sunday 24 January, 2016.

To dine at the outdoor pop-up COOKING FEVER restaurant, download the game (it’s free!), AND visit us at Manly to play the game in real life.

What: COOKING FEVER LIVE EVENT

When: Sunday 31 January, 2016

Time: 1pm – 2pm - Competition and free lunch to kick off at 1pm sharp.

Where: Beachfront at the end of Manly Corso.

“Over 1.6 million Australia’s have downloaded Cooking Fever already – that’s 5% of the country! ” says Victoria Trofimova (CEO of Nordcurrent Ltd) from Cooking Fever Head Office. “We are excited to celebrate the success with our Aussie fans with our world first COOKING FEVER LIVE EVENT. What better venue to set up our one day restaurant than at one of Australia’s most iconic beaches - we can’t wait to see the COOKING FEVER app come to life”.

The COOKING FEVER game has been in market for over 12 months and has delivered over 65 million downloads, across the globe.

The COOKING FEVER Game Trailer here:



Download COOKING FEVER for free on the App Store here:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/cooking-fever/id714796093?mt=8

Download COOKING FEVER for free on Google Play here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nordcurrent.canteenhd&hl=en

And now, we have a recipe from the fab Justine Schofield:

'My dream burger'

Says Justine: "I definitely classify myself as a burger connoisseur. If I could I would eat everyday! Well almost. Hahaha.

"For me a burger must include two types of sauces, the bun should be soft and ideally not brioche. The meat must be of the best quality and cheese is must."

Makes: six

Prep: 10 minutes Cook:  10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

1kg minced beef (the best quality you can afford that still has a little fat or ask your butcher to mince you some chuck steak)

6 baby cos lettuce leaves

6 slices of canned beetroot (optional)

1 large tomato sliced in to 6 rounds

6 slices good quality melting cheese

5 tbs. whole egg mayonnaise

5 tbs. tomato sauce

4 tbs. American mustard

2 large pickles sliced into thin rounds

6 very soft burger buns

Salt and pepper

1 tbs. olive oil

Method:

Place the cold mince straight from the fridge into a bowl and season with generously with salt and pepper. Divide into 6 even balls and flatten out between baking paper to make 6 even patties.

Pre heat the grill element in the oven. Split the burger buns in half and place on a tray ready to toast.

Heat a large pan (or barbeque) to medium high heat.  Add a little oil and grill the burgers on each side for 2 minutes or to your liking. In the last 30 seconds add the cheese to the meat so it starts to melt.

To assemble the burgers: toast the buns under the grill. Add a dollop of each sauce on the top and base of the bun. Add the burger patty then the pickles, lettuce, beetroot and tomato slices.

More about the Cooking Fever app:

Founded in September, 2014 COOKING FEVER is a FREE time management app where players cook delicious meals and desserts from all over the world! With a choice of 12 unique locations, from desserts and fast food to oyster bar and oriental restaurant, players practice their skills in a variety of settings and cooking techniques. Players can try all the possible kitchen appliances, from coffee makers and rice cookers to pizza ovens and popcorn makers. They can even decorate their restaurants to attract more clients!

About the Cooking Fever developer:

Nordcurrent is an international publisher and developer of free-to-play and casual games for smartphones, tablets and PC/Mac. Established in 2002, Nordcurrent is best known for its 101-in- 1 Games® series which was downloaded by more than 40 million users, Happy Chef® series that was downloaded by more than 15 million users, and a fresh hit COOKING FEVER® with more than 50 million downloads during first year. Nordcurrent employs more than 80 people, is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania and has two development studios in Vilnius, Lithuania and in Warsaw, Poland.

More about the Cooking Fever celebrity cooks:

JULIE GOODWIN

In 2009, a record-breaking 4 million Australians tuned in to watch Julie Goodwin become the first ever winner of MasterChef. Viewers loved her honesty, sense of humour and humble cooking style, and when her first cookbook, Our Family Table was published, Julie also became one of Australia's best-selling authors. In 2012, Julie dusted off her MasterChef apron for charity in MasterChef All Stars, raising an incredible $20,000 for Oxfam in the process. Julie writes a regular column in Australian Women's Weekly and has opened her cooking school on the Central Coast in NSW. She has just released her fourth cookbook 20/20 Meals, which shows how to feed a family of 4 for $20 with cooking in 20minutes.

CALLUM HANN
Callum was born in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Following his success as runner-up on the 2010 series of MasterChef, Callum worked with renowned chef George Calombaris at his various Melbourne restaurants, then travelled around Australia teaching university students valuable cooking skills and how to eat nutritiously on a budget. Callum then established Sprout – a hands on interactive cooking school- with dietician Themis Chryssidis. Callum has since published two cookbooks- The Starter Kitchen and “I’d Eat That!”, won the inaugural series of MasterChef All-Stars and has become ambassador for PIRSA, Market Fresh SA, Thankyou Food TM, Wesley’s Food for Families and the Cancer Council. He is also a regular presenter on the food and lifestyle program, SA Life.

BRENT OWENS
The 2014 MasterChef winner’s passion for food started when he was just 16. He loved to watch and follow the world’s iconic chefs but, the road to a culinary career wasn’t exactly conventional for Brent. Before entering and winning MasterChef, Brent’s trade was bobcat driver! However, this keen sportsman’s cooking flair, inventiveness and personality endeared him to the nation’s audiences and he was crowned the Series 6 MasterChef winner! Since his win, Brent has collaborated with a range of media and businesses and his food career has really taken off! He’s cooked meals in India, and presented at numerous local and international events including the South African Good Food and Wine Show in 2015. His recipe collection Dig In! has been published recently through Hardie Grant.
JUSTINE SCHOFIELD
Intelligent and sassy, Justine brings a youthful energy and touch of French flair to everything she does. A poster girl for today’s busy, motivated career woman, she is the host of popular daytime cooking show Everyday Gourmet on Network 10 in its fifth series, runs a high end catering company and writes a regular column for taste.com.au magazine. As one of the most popular contestants to come out of Series one ‘MasterChef’ in 2009, 6 years on, Justine has built a career out of everything she loves and has well and truly established herself as a familiar and well-respected face of the Australian food and media industry.

Beau Ryan: Woolworths Connect - INTERVIEW

We had the pleasure of speaking to Beau Ryan recently, on the back of the getting the word out on Woolworths Connect, the prepaid phone service.



He had lots to say about his family, how much he loves a good phone chat, and the how much genuine fun he's had working with Woolies.

Here is the ad:

Beau reveals that his family is his absolute bedrock, and you can hear how grateful he is for all the wonderful (and all fun) opportunities which have come his way. 

In fact, when Josie's Juice spoke to Beau, he was on a mini break with his family in Byron Bay, and completely relaxed in amongst his very busy schedule.

"This whole year has been crazy, I had have one day off in June, and two in July, and so when I had the opportunity to have a very short break, I took it," he tells Josie's Juice.

"I can't do any of what I do without the support of my wife and family. They're great. This last couple of months have been a blur but they've supported me and they've been there for every step of the way.

"Whether it was coming to the 'Aladdin' shows (which Beau starred in as the genie), or me getting home at midnight, or coming off flights from LA or New Zealand, they've made life so much easier, so it has been great. Without that support I wouldn't be able to do it.

"I get to pick and choose what I want to do - with Channel 9's blessing - and I've done some very exciting things, but as I said, I can't do any of it without the support of my wife and my family, so... they're great."

Beau's wife Kara and his two year old daughter Remy are the centre of Beau's universe, and he freely expresses that several times during our chat.

I ask Beau what his daughter thinks of what daddy does.

"She loves it. She's at the age now that she watches me on 'The Footy Show', and loves it. She says 'That's my daddy', and she comes along to... when I was in the Aladdin pantomime as the genie, and she was at nearly every single show, which was great, and she's at the stage now that she works out that I've got to go to work quite a bit, at random times, and at random hours, but she's now at the age where she can enjoy a lot of the stuff I do, and can see the rewards, but having said that, I'd rather be at home with her a lot of the time, because  I do miss her, but hopefully I'll get a good break at the end of the year, so... we spend a lot of time together but there are times when it gets hard, but like I said, my wife is supportive and yeah, without that, it's impossible to do."


"I do miss her when I am not home with her. But my wife is so supportive of my work," Beau adds again, who says she is 2: 'She's three at the end of the year."

He adds of his beloved daughter: "She's funny, she's very funny. She's very inquisitive, and asks a lot about what's happening."

"I try, we try to talk to her like an adult but it gets very confusing, and sometimes she keeps asking about everything, but sometimes I just let her go, just let it go," says Beau.

I mention that I have seven year old twins, a boy and a girl, and Beau is genuinely keen to know more. "Ohhh, really! Wow, you've done the hard yards!"

I add that it does get easier, and Beau says: "They reckon girls, when they get to ten or eleven, or even thirteen are fun, so i can't wait for that!"

I ask Beau what he thinks about his new wave of work that has come his way, all of it fun, and how natural he finds doing it all, how easy he finds the ad lib and the video content.

"Yeah, I do [find it easy]. Once the... stuff like this that I did with Woolies... he majority of the stuff I do, I wouldn't classify it as work, it's just me being me. and enjoying myself, and meeting lots of different people.

"When Woolworths gave me the challenge to basically go and make as many friends as I could in one day, I thought it was a joke because that's what I do normally anyway!

"You know, I really enjoyed it, and we met a lot of different people, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess it's natural, which makes it easier. My mindset is, you know, I've worked before, before I played rugby league, I had a 9-5 job, and I worked really hard to play for Australia, I've worked really hard to open as much doors as I can, and now that I get to do this for a living, I can't really put into words how blessed I am. I'm really grateful.

"That's why I try and do as much as I can while I'm enjoying it and at the same time try to make people happy, because that's the main thing, and a lot of people seem to get a lot of happiness out of it, and have a lot of fun, and get a thrill out of what I do. The look on their faces, especially when we were in the city, speaking to different people, that was a lot of fun, and you can't put a price on that, it makes me really happy," says Beau of his Woolies shoot.

"And when I am happy doing what I am doing, I think I find I do my best stuff.

"We just go in there to have fun," says Beau of the press junkets for movies he regularly attends, to cover for 'The Footy Show.' I really enjoy the junkets. Whether it's Channing Tatum, or Arnold Schwarzenegger or Megan Fox. We go in I ask the questions I want to know, and stuff for our show.

"Our show ('The Footy Show') is a family friendly show and I ask them stuff outside the square, and I really enjoy it. I love seeing their faces when they realise I'm not there as a journalist to probe. We don't have any agendas in there, we're not in there to mock them, we're just there to have a good time, and have a bit of a laugh with them, and try to have them escape. You know, it's a long day. They've got four million interviews over three or four cities, so we go and have fun with them, but I meet a lot of other people interviewing them, that I admire as well...

"For example, I remember when I interviewed Channing Tatum, and I had to go in there before I took my suit off, and it was a custom made suit which I had to rip off. So we went in there and we saw Sonia Kruger, and I was telling her what we were going to do and she was really excited. She was shadowing me as I was getting the suit velcro'ed at the back.

"After I did it (the stunt in front of Channing, and Joe Manganiello), I couldn't put the suit back on, and I just remember walking out past all the other journos, and we weren't embarrassed. I had just stripped in front of Channing Tatum and Joe, I'm not gonna be embarrassed at all. It's just that, okay: I had to walk 400 metres through the hotel and the carpark and the hotel, with my Speedos with a little shark on the front of it, but I didn't care. It was very funny. It was probably the most uncomfortable thing. People know we are going to do something out of left field, and we have a good time.

People want to see real people having fun, and that's why I think it works.

"If they're going to fly me around the world to interview these wonderful film stars, I'm going to do it."

For Beau, it's a dream life he's having, but it was "the injuries brought it on prematurely."

"I always wanted to do this stuff fulltime, and I guess I would have, but when I hurt my neck in 2013 and it didn't come good last year, everything got fast tracked.

"When Woolies approached me to work with them on Woolworths Connect, it allowed me the chance to stay in touch with everyone, with their new prepaid package, where you get a heap of calls for $30, so it's great, but I now have no excuse to not ring my mum anymore! Everything else is a positive, but I do have to make sure I ring my mum every night," he says with a laugh.

"The people who I worked with on this project with Woolies have all been so much fun. We went out there and approached people and while it was a long day, it literally felt like a an hour because we had so much fun.

"I got quite a few numbers, of men and women I met that day! I don't know if they're going to let me call then, but I do consider them to be friends, I guess!"



Says the blurb on Woolworths Connect:

Woolworths Connect is all about connecting you with the people you care about, in this amazing country we call home. We’re here to make it simple and easy, without compromising on value. 

For starters, we’re using a network you can trust. And we’re making it great value. Of course we’ve thrown plenty of data, call value and even unlimited standard national SMS into the deal. And as a Woolworths Connect customer, you can enjoy as many free calls as you like to friends and family also on the Woolworths Connect network. Plus, when you buy a recharge voucher in store or online and enter your Everyday Rewards Number you get 10% off* your recharge...every time!

Getting connected couldn’t be simpler. You’ll notice our bright $2 sim packs at your local Woolworths, Big W and Woolworths Caltex petrol sites. It’s that easy.

*To be able to receive 10% off recharge voucher purchases, you must be an Everyday Rewards member and either present your registered card in a participating store when purchasing a Woolworths Connect recharge voucher or online at woolworthsconnect.com.au.

To find out more about Woolworths Connect, click here.

http://how-old.net - Microsoft thinks it can guess your age using facial recognition

Those weird profile photos you've seen on Facebook with yellow post-it note looking things above a person's head?

Let me explain.

Or let Microsoft corporate vice president Joseph Sirosh explain. He said onstage at Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco today:

“It’s a really fun API [application programming interface] that allows you to submit pictures, detect faces in that, and tells you an estimate of their age and gender,” 

Sirosh told everyone at the conference — in the crowd and online — to check out the app, at how-old.net, which uses Microsoft’s Face API.

Many have given it a try. But instead of generating 'Oh wow, this is accurate remarks on Twitter, the demo started a whole heap of memes, and some jibes about it on the ever-forgiving internet.

The site is powered by Microsoft Azure's Face APIs that not only recognise features and predict both gender and age. They can also group faces and determine if someone in multiple pictures is the same person. Windows 10 will use facial recognition as a log-in option and the tools that this Azure API offers would certainly come in handy for organizing that personal photo album -- expanding features already available in OneDrive.

Try it for yourself here: http://how-old.net

Did I try it? Yes. What did I get? A very generous 32 - I am 43. But I used a bloody good pic.

How about you…?

RIP Nokia: Memes

After the massive cuts in jobs last month, it was apparent that Microsoft was planning to drop the Nokia brand (sniff).

The end was nigh for Nokia the day it got sold, and today... the Nokia Lumia brand has officially been laid to rest.

However, it's just the ‘Nokia Lumia’ brand that is going away, while the Nokia company will still exist and will continue to produce mobile phones as a separate entity, though under control of Microsoft Mobiles.

In memory of the ol' Nokia (who didn't own one?!) and it's indestructibility and sheer no-frill-ness, here are some of the best memes to honour the Nokia. RIP, 'brick.'

If Siri Was a Waitress: Jimmy Kimmel - VIDEO

This is brilliant.

The Jimmy Kimmel YouTube  clip says:

"A recent study found that out of all the voice-activated systems they tested Siri is the worst one. We would not put up with Siri’s behavior in any other situation. Imagine what it would be like if Siri was a waitress."

Watch:



Can't decide if the whole video is my fave part… or Jimmy's comment at the very END of the video… "And while you're here, don't forget to get in a stupid fight in the comments section, okay?"

Hahaha. Brilliant. I have NO idea why people fight with strangers in the comments section on YouTube or Facebook or anywhere. Really? Would you bother…

SUBSCRIBE to get the latest #KIMMEL bits here.