Entries Tagged 'Top Chef' ↓

This past weekend, "Saturday Night Live" and guest Christopher Walken made fun of "Top Chef." Tonight, I’ll be doing the same thing in blog format. Only I won’t have Christopher Walken or someone who’s supposed to look like a deeply stoned Padma Lakshmi. It’s just me and my ego against the vast wasteland.

And I’m going to be funnier.

s n l - t o p c h e f from seriouseats on Vimeo.
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Tonight on "Top Chef:" Rick Bayless is the guest judge,
which means we’re talking high-end Mexican. The quickfire begins immediately: Make a taco. A fancy taco.  Winner: Richard uses thinly sliced jicama instead of a tortilla for the shell. Winner! Immunity and his dish gets onto the menu at Bayless’ Topolobampo restaurant.
Runners-up: Duck taco by angry d-bag Andrew: Good! During judgement he’s quivering like a tweaker but Bayless loves it. Spike (right, in the silly hat) refuses to upscale it, and makes something delicious that loses only because he just hasn’t followed the damn directions. I don’t care how clever you are, you have to follow directions if you want to win. I learned that in first grade. When will these people learn it?
Next, the big challenge: Divide into two teams, hop into your product-placement-mobiles, and … well, let’s find out.

They get dropped off somewhere in suburban […]

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From the brilliant mind that brought us “Jennifer’s Runway” now comes” Top Chef with Jennifer”. One of the funniest ladies I have ever met, Jennifer Eolin, is recapping this season of TOP CHEF over at her MySpace blog (although I think we should just all beg her to start recapping for GMMR, no?). […]
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Last night’s quickfire challenge was to go to the farmer’s market, pick five (and only five) ingredients, and make a meal out of them. This actually sounds like my everyday cooking experience, only my budget is a little lower than $25.00. And I only get one ingredient. And the ingredient is a can of beans. And I don’t get to have Wylie Dufresne as a guest, looking carefully at everything I prepare. Mostly I’m just hunched over a laptop trying to keep my meal from clogging my keyboard.

The chefs are allowed to use a couple things that don’t count as ingredients, though: salt, pepper, sugar, and oil. Butter doesn’t count as oil, and neither does vinegar. Andrew can’t remember that vinegar is not oil, and winds up using six ingredients. Oops. Back to kindergarten for you! Mark wins the challenge and gains immunity in the main challenge.

The main challenge is […]

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Now that "Project Runway" has finished its catwalk, Bravo moves into "Top Chef" season. And what a season it is! I got the episode one screener yesterday, and it’s filled with the biggest stars of the culinary firmament.
Evian, Glad, Food & Wine Magazine, and the GE Monogram line of kitchen appliances return as sponsors this year. Whole Foods acquired grocery sponsor Wild Oats last year, but has continued the relationship under the Whole Foods brand. And as in past seasons, all ground transportation is provided by Toyota.
The big change this time is that the GE Monogram kitchen is in the back of a Pizzeria Uno. Excuse me, Uno’s Chicago Bar & Grill, as they’ve been known since about 2000. Naturally, the first quickfire challenge involves making a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. This makes perfect sense, because as we all know, Uno’s 216 franchise outlets are famous for the sort of […]

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Earlier, we learned that "Project Runway" loser Jack Mackenroth and "Top Chef" loser Dale Levitski were dating. We knew that Jack was HIV-positive because he said so on the show, and because at some point this season (I think this week) he gets a terrible staph infection.
Today we learned on Jack’s blog that Dale is HIV-negative, but that they practice very safe sex, and that Jack has a very low viral load anyway, making HIV transmission less likely.
OK then. Nice to know. I never expected to be writing about TV stars and their HIV status or viral loads, but I suppose that’s the nature of the beast that is semi-celebrity. I’ll be sure to let you know if and when they put up photos of Jack helping Dale wax his shoulder hair, or, as Defamer says, "Dale asking Jack to taste his lamb jus as Jack measures Dale’s inseam
for […]

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"Top Chef" judge Padma Lakshmi reveals in an interview with the Amazon book blog Omnivoracious that she was raised vegetarian and began eating meat as a child to fit in at school.
Eventually, though, she began loving meat.  "In
a way that somebody else converts to Judaism or becomes a Hare Krishna,
I belong to the church of fried chicken," she says. Her new cookbook, "Tangy, Tart, Hot And Sweet," contains not only a killer fried chicken recipe but also something the interviewers describe as a "mouthwatering three-page tribute to bacon." Mmmmm, bacon.
Bacon and fried chicken are kind of strange foods for someone who got her start a model and actress, and whose first cookbook focused on low-fat recipes. But then, they are delicious, and that seems to be a driving force for Lakshmi.
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The "Top Chef" finale is tonight on Bravo, and the "Next Iron Chef" begins Sunday on the Food Channel, and the New York Times is shocked, shocked, that celebrity chefs who appear as judges don’t actually do much cooking these days. Padma Lakshmi, the "Top Chef" host over on the right, doesn’t look like she’s cooked in ages, does she? Whatever happened to Julia Child?
Hate to point it out to you guys, but she died back in ‘04. Her shows were great, but her heyday was still more than twenty years ago. People who really want to learn to cook might still watch instructional videos, but mostly cooking shows have followed the mandate of entertainment, not instruction. And that’s fine. It’s neither alarming nor surprising.
If you follow the logic of the Times piece, you are surprised that Emeril is not present in each of his ten restaurants at each […]

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Tell me you love the Phil Spector joke in the title. Clever and topical, am I right? Too soon? I know. Sorry.
Anyway, The Hater sounds off today on who they think ought to win "Top Chef." They like Hung because he’s actually treating this like a competition. I have to admit, I agree.

I like him because he’s clearly the chef with the best foundation in
classical cooking: he’ll do best in a real production kitchen. Doubt
me? Remember the way he butchered that chicken in about thirty seconds?
Dale’s "I’ve slept with a few cowboys" schtick was pretty great, but a
few one-liners don’t make you Top Chef.

Yes, I’d much rather hang out with Casey or Dale. I’m sure they’re better people. But that’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking "Who do you want on the line?" And the answer there is clearly Hung.
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Glad is holding an online poll to determine the hottest chef (that is, the best-looking of their pre-selected list of chefs who willing to do a promotional deal for Glad Microwaveable Steaming Bags). The answer is obvious: Sam Talbot, of last year’s "Top Chef" fame.
He’s already way in the lead, but go ahead and vote for him anyway. There’s some kind of sweepstakes involved too, but whatever. 
Sam might be having a few troubles getting his own restaurant open, but he certainly hasn’t lost the attention or affection of … well, anyone.
Has he considered a role on "Grey’s Anatomy" as competition for Dr. McSteamy?
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