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.
April 30, 2008
Last week, Jennifer Biesty was sent home from Top Chef 4 and her fellow chefs were rattled by the surprising elimination. Back at their house, the empty beds serve to underscore how tight the competition is getting.
The competition is tight, but as the chefs learn their new challenge from Padma Lakshmi and guest judge Art Smith, a James Beard award winner for his cookbooks and humanitarian efforts, we recall that no matter how fierce the competition might be, there is always time for one thing.
That's right! Painful product placement.
April 29, 2008
Last week saw the somewhat surprising departure of Jennifer Biesty from Top Chef 4. The elimination reminded the chefs that anything is possible in judging and you are, quite literally, only as good as your last dish.
So, of course, it's always possible that one of the chefs who has yet to really stand out in this competition (cough cough Nikki Cascone) could pull out a genius dish and wow the judges. And, of course, chefs like Dale Talde and Richard Blais, who have seemed to dominate the competition recently could falter and be sent home as abruptly as Jennifer. But since all we at home have to look at is past performance, here are some thoughts on what could happen in this week's episode of Top Chef 4.
April 26, 2008
Have you heard? We're at a point in Top Chef 4 where THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ERROR. Just wanted to make sure you caught that in case you might have narcolepsy and happened to repeatedly doze off every three to four minutes when yet another chef said it. Again. Oh, Top Chef 4, I kid because I love.
So there is no room for error, but apparently there is a comfortably wide passage for sliding on through because Nikki Cascone survived once again, and veins throbbed in the foreheads of annoyed Top Chef viewers across this great land. But sorry, folks, I'm afraid this column will just add insult to your injury. Or injury to your insult, or freshly ground nutmeg to your mild affront or something. Why?
April 26, 2008
The chefs of both Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef were thrown some curveballs this week. On Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay tried, actually, to toss his chefs a softball by giving them an easier menu designed to be family friendly. The Top Chef cheftestants, on the other hand, wound up facing multiple change-ups as new twists were added to challenge in order to require even more improvisational skills.
Despite the fact that Ramsay was trying to give his chefs more of a chance at a successful service by easing up on the complication of the dishes, by this stage of the competition, the chefs seem so rattled that I think some of them might mess up pouring a bowl of cereal and milk if Ramsay were standing over them. However, some chefs were able to rise to the occasion on Hell's Kitchen – and Top Chef – and in both cases showed that each show has a tendency to reward certain personality traits over others.