Top Chef

[Sea Hag]

From what I have seen so far -- my favorite is the guy from Hawaii. Bad of me but I can't remember his name.

I was impressed in week one when he was given food he wasn't familiar with - Indian - and he started asking to taste it in the store. It linked nicely with Tom's comment that you need to create from flavor.

 

I like this guy too - and I can't remember his name either. It was nice that he nailed the Indian food the way he did, with Padma commenting on it.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

It started last week. You were a bit occupied then.

:pI'm back on it now, I'm going to be watching a marathon later...:D

[wrp96]

Can't wait to hear your comments CJW. Does MCJW watch with you?

[Bran8778]

Glad to see a thread on Top Chef!! I have seen the last two episodes, but didn't know the season started. How many episodes have been on so far???

[wrp96]

I think 4 if I've counted correctly in my mind. But since my mind isn't always reliable...

[Bran8778]

So im not to far behind :)

[Curt Jerome Wild]

I am loving this season so far!

The challenges are really fun to me personally.

I promise I'm getting to my reviews of the past 4 shows, and it's too early on West Coast Time to see the challenge tonight, but I'm sure that it's going to be specially fun and interesting to me...

 

(Let's see if I did better in my real life)...;)

[cigal]

I am loving this season so far!

The challenges are really fun to me personally.

I promise I'm getting to my reviews of the past 4 shows, and it's too early on West Coast Time to see the challenge tonight, but I'm sure that it's going to be specially fun and interesting to me...

 

(Let's see if I did better in my real life)...;)

 

Hey!! Guess what I'm watching right now??:D

You didn't tell me you were over here doing more reviews.....:p

 

Yay!!

 

Now I'll have to go catch up on this thread while I still can.....

since my review is done;)

[wrp96]

So I have to make some comments about this week's episode, now that I've finally watched it.:p

 

How cool was it that all the chefs came together to help each other out when problems arose. I don't think you would've seen this type of cooperation among all the contestants in previous seasons.

 

I sort of had to laugh about the "You don't win by making deviled eggs comment." At first I thought I agreed with it. But considering I went to a fabulous wedding last month and we are still talking about the deviled eggs from it, I think you CAN win with deviled eggs if you do it right.

 

It really does seem like so many of them are just trying to do as little as it takes to keep them in until the next week which is disappointing.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

I sort of had to laugh about the "You don't win by making deviled eggs comment." At first I thought I agreed with it. But considering I went to a fabulous wedding last month and we are still talking about the deviled eggs from it, I think you CAN win with deviled eggs if you do it right.

Squeeee!

I'm still a week behind on this, but am catching up (then I have to catch up on my reviews...)

But in general, I am really loving this season's challenges!:cool:

 

Gee whiz!

Do some of these chefs need me to help them out!;)

[Sea Hag]

Are any of you House fans? The TV show that is, not a place to live. If so, does the blond guy on the current Top Chef look like Chase from House or what?

 

I don't know about "you don't win a competition with deviled eggs" but I do know that deviled eggs are a winner in my book!

[cigal]

I'm still a week behind on this, but am catching up (then I have to catch up on my reviews...)

 

Oh Curtie Boy..........:p

 

We're still waiting.........:D

 

:D:p:p:D

[wrp96]

Yep, we're still waiting!!:p

 

So I liked this week's challenges. But I was disappointed with the bottom 3 and definitely agreed they needed to be there.

 

Melissa went for safe and easy and then didn't even execute it properly. Correct choice to go.

 

Out of Eugene and Carla, I wish they had kept Eugene because at least he was willing to risk something. Carla was too focused on "what the judges" want to produce good food. She has said more than once that she cooks great vegetarian meals - but we haven't seen that. And when they give her the perfect opportunity to cook a great vegetarian meal she chickens out AND then doesn't even cook the non-vegetarian element properly. If a dish is cooked properly, a true foodie will recognize that, meat or not. And you don't have to have meat to have protein.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Oh Curtie Boy..........

We're still waiting.........

Yep, we're still waiting!!:p

Okay, okay, I'm finally having time to get on it!

 

 

[Curt Jerome Wild]

So in general, I am liking all of this season's challenges.

I'm really enjoying their use of the actual city of Manhattan/New York - as it seems to me they are using the actual city a bit more than other seasons.

 

So first Show, First challenge...

Quickfire...

Peel apples, people move on to safe...

Brunoise apples, people move on to safe...

Make a dish, Lauren and Patrick - really young pals from cooking school are the bottom two.

Lauren loses - she's out.

 

This was a bit of a time waster for me.

 

Elimination Challenge!

I really liked this, they had to draw knives for teams of two...

Both had to cook (and shop) in a different neighborhood in New York and do that style of food.

Best one is safe, other is up for elimination.

 

What is interesting about this is that most of the chef winners give us a clue already to who is good.

Others not so much.

Jamie defeats Richard in Astoria/Greek

Hosea defeats Carla in Brighton Beach/Russian

Stefan defeats Ariane in Long Island City/Middle Eastern

Jeff defeats Fabio in Ozone Park/Latin

Jill defeats Radhika in Jamaica/Caribbean

Leah defeats Melissa in Little Italy/Italian

Daniel defeats Patrick in Chinatown/Chinese

Eugene defeats Alex in Little India/Indian

 

 

Note my bolds and colors for future reference...;)

Stefan (obvious), Eugene, and Leah are the top three from the winners group.

Stefan wins.

They make entirely TOO much of a point of the fact that every first Elimination Challenge Winner (expect for one season) has gone on to win the entire show.

I could be wrong, but it makes me think that Stefan will not win.

Otherwise they would not have called the attention to this fact.

Bottom Two.

Ariane and Patrick.

Patrick is eliminated, and according to what they said/edited - not a fair call.

It is my first personal "clue" that for some reason (previous dealing/research/auditions with her) she is important to them and the producers want/like her.

 

Wasn't sure at this point if it was my imagination (but usually I'm correct on these things), but as it goes on - I think I'm more and more correct in my initial instincts.

;)

 

 

 

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Episode Two

 

Quickfire Challenge is based on someone who is famous for their New York Hot Dog Carts...

So the challenge is to create their own signature version.

 

Rhadika is in the top for her Indian themed one.

Fabio is in the top for his Mediterranean themed one.

Hosea is in the top for his smoked bacon one.

 

Rhadika wins, so wins immunity.

 

Elimination Challenge.

Here's one of the few challenges that I didn't like.

They have to create a New American lunch menu, for one of Judge Tom Colicchio's New York restaurants.

Personally what I didn't like - they have the rejected Top Chef contestants as the guest diners.

They obviously weren't quite good enough. And they really seem to take it out in rudeness on the contestants.

 

Waste of time in my perspective.

The favorites are:

Jamie with her chilled sweet corn soup with chili oil and mint.

(this one sounded awesome to me)

 

Carla! with her (vegetarian) Rustic apple tart with ginger peach tea, apple cider reduction, and cheddar cheese.

(another one that seemed awesome to me)

 

Fabio wins with his Beef carpaccio with arugula salad, Parmesan and spherical olives, with some technique that makes them like eggs with a hard outside or a soft inside.

(maybe good, but not enough of an olive fan to even want to eat this)...

 

Bottom Three:

Hosea with his Chilled crab with citrus vanilla dressing, mango and avocado.

(I didn't eat it, but it sounded pretty good)

Jill with her Ostrich egg quiche with rice-pecan crust, asparagus and aged cheese.

(I didn't eat it, but again, seemed okay and not deserving of the negativity)

Ariane with her Lemon meringue martini with vanilla cookie crunch and cherry surprise (Padma spit it out in a napkin because it was too sweet).

So, one of the few times ever that a judge has actually deemed the food "inedible" and (my word) "spit-out-able".

Yet, she is not eliminated and lives to cook another day!

Jill had a much more original idea, but didn't quite execute it because of time.

Later on in the show, as we'll see - original ideas will be rewarded, "not ideal" execution will be banished - but (why?), they are needing/wanting to keep Ariane - so her second challenge in a row - bad cooking, bad execution is forgiven.

Jill is eliminated.

(This was the second time I started thinking "Hmmm", I sense producer manipulation"!)

:rolleyes:

[wrp96]

Producer manipulation. NO!!!;)

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Producer manipulation. NO!!!;)

Can you believe it!?!? Part of my enjoyment, trying to spot it...

 

So, Episode Three...

 

Okay, so Quickfire Challenge...

Their is a Top Chef Cookbook, the contestants "draw knives", and have to put their own spin on the recipe on the page they lucked into (or not).

At this point, I was like "Oh man! How lame and boring! Can they just promote their own products enough"!?!?

 

And then!

Padma comes in, midway after they are cooking and says...

"Stop! Now you need to transform what you are working on, into soup"!

 

So, I don't love soup in general (from a can), but I absolutely lurv fresh gourmet soups from restaurants!

Now, I'm intrigued.

 

Jamie is again in the top for her transformation of Chickpea Soup.

Leah taking tuna tartare and white asparagus and transforming it.

Daniel making ham and egg soup.

Seemed to me that I would have liked Jamie's the best, but Leah wins!

Difficult ingredients to work with/transform, so seems like that was the most difficult to accomplish in that challenge.

 

Now another great Elimination Challenge this season!

They have to cook for the rock band The Foo Fighters, and make Thanksgiving Dinner for their entire band/crew (60-ish amount of people) - some being vegetarian (near and dear to my heart)...

 

They get divided into two teams, and have to make a full course dinner each.

Since Leah won the Quickfire, she gets to choose her teammates.

She chooses her friends, and/or the people she feels are the strongest chefs.

(Note in this and future shows, my insiders are telling me that Leah and Hosea are still currently dating!)

 

So her team is Leah, Hosea, Stefan, Jamie, Fabio, Rhadika, Melissa.

 

Other team is Jeff, Richard, Alex, Ariane, Carla, Daniel, and Eugene.

(note all of the "technical" losers on that team, including Ariane).

 

They do actually only have basically microwaves to make the food (that's what you can only get if you are on the road with a rock band)...

What is great here (and should have gotten more points in general) is that Eugene pseudo-rigs a makeshift grill with the chafing dishes.

 

Ariane gets MASSIVE points and compliments for managing to cook the turkey in the microwave/convention oven things.

 

The first team wins, really mostly based on Rhadika's vegan stuffing (yes, you know I wanted to try that in general) and the random deserts.

I don't know about you, but Thanksgiving to me is not important or defined by the desert. It's all about the main courses, and starches.

Whatever your particular family Thanksgiving, it's about those main meal dishes.

Not about desert. Am I wrong? Feel free to let me know on this.

Imagine this contest/choice - Thanksgiving, you only get one option - savory food or sweet food.

Savory is what defines Thanksgiving. Desert is a bonus, but not the definition in my personal book.

 

Second team loses a lot, even though they make a HUGE point to say how awesome Ariane's convection oven turkey is, considering the circumstances.;)

Bottom two end up being Daniel's really undercooked basic potatoes, and Richard for his "smores" that really didn't work at all.

 

Either one of these guys should have been out.

I'm not sure how you can't cook regular potatoes badly, even with a microwave/convection oven. For a buffet!

I do it all the time, have tons of family recipes that work great for this kind of criteria/challenge - for a Top Chef, shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Making smores though, is also basically "stupid" for a buffet, need to keep warm for a lot of people - style dinner.

That's a one at a time make it yourself over the fire.

 

One of the reasons that I switched from French Fries, to thicker fresh Kettle Chips for a certain event I was responsible regarding the catering.

French Fries would have been awesome, but don't neccesarily hold up for long term "buffet style" in a warming dish.

They're just better if you get them immediately as they are cooked.

 

Kettle Chips are a different version of the same flavor, but will hold up really well in buffet/warming dish style ALL NIGHT LONG!

 

So both were lame, and deserved to go in my perspective.

But seriously, Top Chefs, seriously!

:eek:

[cigal]

Nice job on the first three weeks Curt!!

 

I actually saw those episodes, but I missed last night.......I was putting the niece to bed. I'm still working out the new bedtime routine.....:eek:

 

But they play the episodes so often I'll probably get to see it before you report on it.....:p:D

[kjunea]

Kudos Curt! I was waiting on your take of things! Excellent summary!

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Episode Four

 

Quickfire Challenge = Create a Breakfast Amuse-Bouche

One thing I've learned from this show, but apparently even the professional chefs on it haven't yet - is that it is really important that an amuse-bouche be ONE BITE!

 

Bottom Two are

Daniel with a cornflake crusted stuffed zucchini flower.

Fabio with a brioche and espresso shot.

 

Top Three are

Stefan with a huevos rancheros inside en egg shell.

Jamie with a BLT breakfast sandwich (good but more than one bite).

Leah with a grilled bread, bacon, quail egg, and fried sage (one bite).

 

So, Leah wins the Quickfire over Jamie, mostly based on the following through with the entire amuse-bouche concept of one bite.

 

 

Elimination Challenge

Create a meal for a Live TV Demonstration that is exactly Two and a Half Minutes (no more!).

If you think about it, the key to this is really making something interesting, but simple enough to demonstrate/cook in Two and a Half minutes.

 

Jamie makes a duck egg salad, but the two minutes doesn't give her enough time to actually finish cooking the egg (so even though the recipe looks good in concept - she ends up having to put a raw-ish egg on in).

Ewwww!

Alex tries to make creme brulee. Uhmm, two and a half minutes people!

Duh!

Melissa makes shrimp that is so overly spicy, that we get the second spit out of the season from Tom Caliccio!

 

Jeff does a good demonstration, and makes a Middle Eastern cabbage roll.

Fabio says he's thinking about what his mom could make while watching at home, so he keeps it simple and makes tuna, roasted carrots, and asparagus salad.

Ariane also keeps it simple and makes a watermelon, tomato, basil oil salad/meal thing.

 

They are the top three judges choice.

The next morning (3 AM!) Tom Caliccio surprise wakes them up, and half asleep they have to run down to the Today Show and prepared their dishes.

The hosts of the Today Show are going to judges their dishes live on air.

Jeff already knows he is losing, because no one is really going to want to eat Middle Eastern Cabbage Rolls first thing in the morning (it's a dinner dish).

He is correct, as wonderful, classy lady that she is - Kathy Lee Gifford makes a cartoony face to the camera, gags, and spits it out on camera. (Third spit out of the season!)

Kathy Lee's antics are best represented by Kristin Wiig's impression of her from Saturday Night Live here:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/today-show/926221/

 

Back to Top Chef, Ariane wins! It is a simple recipe, easy to make, and probably tasted really good in the morning.

So, considering this context, I think she deserved it.

BASIL OIL

1. Blanche basil in boiling water.

2. Shock in ice bath.

3. Put into blender.

4. Add 1 cup olive oil and salt, and puree 1 minute.

5. Pass through fine chinois.

To plate tomato salad:

1. 3 each 1/2 inch thick slices of New Jersey tomato.

2. Top with three pieces of watermelon and 2 pieces of feta.

3. Drizzle with olive oil, basil oil, aged balsamic.

4. In a small (baby sized) spoon, fill with fleur de sel, place on side of plate.

Garnish with sprig of basil.

 

 

I am now starting to think there is a trend (as we'll see more of in further episodes)...

I think that the judges/producers had really wanted Ariane on the show, and knew what she could do.

So event though, she was in the bottom, and probably deserved to be cut several times before - they kept her around.

I did call unfair on a lot of those judgements.

 

Now that she finally realizes to just do what she does best, simple with a twist - we begin to see why they kept giving her a "pass" on not being eliminated.;)

 

So again the bottom three are

Jamie, Melissa, and Alex.

Jamie is safe because even though she didn't quite have enough time to finish her egg, the recipe itself was good and interesting.

Melissa is safe, essentially only because she talks a good game and "fights' for it.

Alex is eliminated, because he is getting married soon, so just kind of rolls over and lets himself be eliminated.

 

Oh, adding this picture, just because it loks good and like something I would make and eat!

[cigal]

4. In a small (baby sized) spoon, fill with fleur de sel, place on side of plate.

 

Would that be the 1/64th cup or the 1/128th cup?

 

:p:D:p:D:p:D

[ancldaca]

Personally, I've really enjoyed what Stefan has cooked so far. My guess is that after having the first woman win last season, they'll push the first 'European' one this time. I figure that is why both Stefan and Fabio seem light years ahead of the other chefs. The only other one that sort of comes close is Jeff (who's been hurt by being on losing teams lately).

 

Can ANYBODY explain to me why Carla hasn't been booted yet?

[wrp96]

Can ANYBODY explain to me why Carla hasn't been booted yet?

 

 

Nope!!

 

Definitely thought Stefan deserved the win this week. I wanted those little lollipops at the end!! I think though the other team would've won if they hadn't forgotten that a restaurant is not just the food, but also how the front of the house is handled. I think that Fabio's front of the house skills were what really got his team the win.

[kjunea]

 

Can ANYBODY explain to me why Carla hasn't been booted yet?

 

I think it's because she "cooks" great sound bites for the promos....

 

I just can't see her staying much longer.