May 8, 2008
Last night saw the departure of Nikki Cascone from Top Chef 4. The third time was not the charm for her fresh pasta as her tortellini with brown butter and sage was not strong enough to save the day for her in the competition. So while the judges had problems with other dishes served from the groom's side on Wedding Wars, they took greatest issue with what they perceived to be Nikki's lack of leadership in an Italian-focused challenge and sent her home.
Nikki took some time to speak with us at BuddyTV about her time on Top Chef 4. Read on for the highlights and the full mp3 of the interview.
May 7, 2008
Last week on Top Chef 4, we lost the adorable Kiwi Mark Simmons, and this week as we rejoin the cheftestants, his buddies Andrew D'Ambrosi and Spike Mendelsohn mourn together.
Antonia Lofaso notes that there are four women left in the top eight, something that has never happened before on Top Chef. Every week the little pre-Quickfire Top Chef house debrief has some clues about who could possibly go home this week. Has Antonia just made a foreshadowing observation?
The chefs head to the Top Chef kitchen for the Quickfire. There is no guest judge with Padma Lakshmi this week. Instead, she is joined by fellow judge Tom Colicchio. They tell the cheftestants that for one thing, there is no longer any immunity for winning the Quickfire. For another, the chefs will be participating in not one but two oldie-but-goodie challenges this week.
May 6, 2008
This week on Top Chef 4, we have Wedding Wars! Previews also tell us that in order to meet their deadline, the chefs work for about 40 hours straight. Needless to say, the Bravo online preview also opens with a montage of yawning.
Like a cranky toddler who's missed his nap, the sleep-deprived cheftestants appear to be seriously grumpified by this challenge. Dale Talde is going to explosively lose his temper, and the preview notes there is a lot of “finger-pointing” going on in judging. Who could make it onto the chopping block this week?
May 3, 2008
Watching this week's episode of Top Chef 4 made me feel like a kid again. No, not the childlike wonder at learning new things, nor the youthful excitement at an interesting challenge. Instead, it was more like, “Brussels sprouts and beets? Yuck!”
But good for the chefs for trying to introduce the kids to new vegetables in such a way that maybe the kids won't grow up to have the same kind of vegetable aversion that I have. Involving kids in the cooking process is a great way to get them into food in a healthy and long-lasting way.
May 3, 2008
This week on Hell's Kitchen, the chefs finally had the chance again to do a Top Chef-style challenge. After several weeks of technique-related challenges, like pasta-making, fish-filleting and chicken butchering, the Hell's Kitchen chefs were allowed to let their creativity loose on their own gourmet pizza.
I have to admit that I do really like these challenges better than the technique ones. While those might be interesting in the way that watching a footrace might be, I feel like we get enough information on their skills at technique in the service portion. Part of being an executive chef is also menu-development and tweaking current dishes to make them as good as possible.
May 1, 2008
Last night on Top Chef 4, New Zealander cheftestant Mark Simmons was eliminated for his vegetarian curry. And the didgeridoo became a didgerdon't. (Sorry, I am physically incapable of not typing that stupid joke, it's like my fingers were possessed.)
Normally on Thursdays we present the audio interviews from the eliminated Top Chefs, but unfortunately due to some technical difficulties, while we spoke with Mark today, we aren't going to be able to provide the audio file. This is a shame because a) who doesn't love listening to a New Zealand accent and b) he's pretty much as adorably humorous over the phone as he was on Top Chef.
Here are the highlights, though, of our conversation with Mark, including a very exciting recent personal development for the chef, as well as a little insight into that exchange with Tom Colicchio.