D and I are total Top Chef Junkies. We've been watching it since the beginning, and each season, we wind up saying some of the same things. Over and Over. This year, I decided to blog about it (fascinating, I know).
Because I'm busy, you can expect me to be a good week or so behind, which will be good for those of you who are also busy, as you don't have to worry about a "spoiler" here on Thursday morning as an RSS feed hits your in box.
I've only seen the first episode, but here are some of the things that we complained about:
Why is it that out of all of the contestants this year, we have three from San Fran and another from LA? We started with only one African American (Nimma, who was voted off in week one--sorry, I wouldn't want anything called Cauliflower Scramble. Heck, I wouldn't even want Cauliflower Flan, which is what the "scramble" was supposed to be. I love cauliflower, but I'm not ready for pureed veg, thanks). We also have a Fillipino chef, Dale, and Manuel is our other non-white competitor. [If you read Bourdain, you know that many of the best line cooks are from Mexico. If you've worked in a restaurant, you probably know that a lot of line cooks are not really white frat boy material, nor are they the kind of cute gals who could double as the hostess at the front of the house. Oh, well. I guess they are trying to make people feel better about Hung winning last year. Besides, I'm sure a lot of really dedicated folks on the line are too busy and tired to send in those audition tapes.]
[About Hung: I hated Hung last year when he started. He was friends with Wolverine from season two (Marcel), which automatically set me against him. By the end, though, D and I were both cheering and crying when Hung won. His feature in Food and Wine was also great. But back to the current season . . .]
PUT DOWN THE HAIR GEL. I'm tired of cooks who spend more time doing faux hawks and Kewpie doll hair than they do in the kitchen. If you can't bake a cake or a souffle, and you've got no notion of how yeast bread works, perhaps it has to do with the fact that you spend your free time with a jar of dippity-do in front of the bathroom mirror.
PUT DOWN THE LIQUID NITROGEN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE FOAM CO2 CANISTERS! See above. Learn the basics before venturing into molecular gastronomy, please. Every season, I'm amazed that folks don't start baking like fiends when they make the decision to apply to be on the show. [Note: apparently, if you're Richard, you have time to do your hair, play with molecular gastronomy, AND make killer crab cakes. So, I'm not saying you can't play, just do your homework first.]
In the first episode of this season, I had moments that rivaled the night I watched Casey take an hour to dice an onion last season. Mashed potatoes in a souffle? Chicken Piccata breaded and with no lemon juice, no wine, no butter, no capers, no fresh parsley? What about the black bean schmear on the plate that D described as poop on a plate (actually, I think the word of choice was "dookie")?
Padma, Tom, and Tony were great as always (and even Rocco is growing on me. Did he have work done since his reality show years ago? Or does he just work out a lot?]. I don't have a favorite yet, and I'm fickle so when I have one, I'm likely to change my mind. On to episode 2 sometime this weekend. I have grading to finish before I can have any fun.
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