Tsulli1

These are all fairly new. Ad Hoc Ubuntu Go Fish Can't say if they are recommended. Ubuntu has gotten alot of hype recently. French Laundry was the meal of a lifetime for me last month. Zuzu in Napa is always a treat.

I'm sure many of you know the story, but I was truly impressed with this article.

No, he just let her draw first -- it was 50/50 no matter how you slice it. ← I don't dispute the statistics at all. It was certainly a 50/50 chance. However, I would personally feel better if I was controlling my own destiny going into the final challenge. If he did pull knife #1 and he selected Ripert rather than Barber, he wouldn't have had the pork belly, he would have had other ingredients... although I suppose they didn't have much time to analyze which ingredients the sous chefs offered. I'm thinking maybe I would have tried to do something with Barber's venison although pork belly is usually always a winner.

Right. After all of the posturing about the rules and TC's blogs about how they absolutely can't take past performance into account; they certainly threw all that to the wind when deciding who should draw knives and pick sous chefs. And then Richard immediately gave the first choice to Stephanie, wonder if he ever regretted that act of chivalry?

I've only watched the last two seasons but I was thinking about the personalities of Hung vs Stephanie/Richard. Complete opposites. Blatant arrogance from Hung throughout last season vs complete diffidence from Steph and Richard. I guess it just indicates that the food speaks for itself.

Looks like Stephanie plans to open a new place in Chicago.

I was wondering who the guest chef might be next week. Doesn't Eric Ripert travel down to Puerto Rico fairly regularly? I thought I read that somewhere.

A Travesty of justice. Did Antonia deserve a grade of "D" for this episode? Yes. Did Lisa deserve to stay? No. The message I've gotten from Tom, Padma and Gail is this: Its better to be consistently mediocre with a C- average than to get all "A's" and have a bad day... ever. Next season, they need to change up the rules and keep a running score, make the performance history mean something. Has Lisa won anything? Ever? If Lisa had a restaurant, it would have run out of customers a long time ago. Antonia would still be open for business.

In Top Chef Season 3 Alumni news... Town & Country, 525 W. Monroe St., Chicago, IL; no phone yet. "Top Chef" made Dale Levitski more of a star than did his turn at the now-closed Trio Atelier. Now he plans a dual-dining-room concept (one formal, one very casual) with Jason Chan (former Butter owner), featuring European comfort food. This will open "September-ish," according to Levitski. Ref: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainmen...0,3109215.story

Search for the other thread. Basically, Bravo had his blog sponsored by Michelob without his knowledge and he told them to blow. ← Its here

'Top Chef' journeys to Puerto Rico http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the...hef-journe.html

Scored reservations for July 12th yesterday. 3.5 hours of busy signals, I think my re-dial button will need to be replaced, and by 1:30PM I was sure I was going to be wait-listed but there were still two 2-top reservationss left when I called and some 4-tops for lunch. Can't wait!!

Chicago Gourmet web site ← Let's do it. I'm in.

Agree totally! I hear this guy does some pretty interesting things with hotdogs. Which are at least as pedestrian as Polish sausage.

Another TC4 drinking game.

So if this reporter called Andrew at Le Cirque, does that mean he was booted and is now back at work?

It always drives me crazy when I hear: EX-presso. Its ES-presso, isn't it?

I seem to remember hearing about another aerospace engineer turned charcutier (or whatever the italian word is for it). I believe he had a relatively famous son. Batali was his name, I think...

I believe that commercially made fresh pasta is made with dried / powdered eggs rather than fresh eggs. Probably also some other preservatives.

Thanks dockhl. Here is Blais' post on the subject two years ago.

There is a lengthy discussion of the topic over here. ← Interesting Chris! And look who commented on it. Here with post #6. Sorry I don't know how to link directly to his post.

Boy, I thought the same thing. I may have been reading too much into it but it looked to me that Richard registered some shock when that was announced. (Thinking about it, I must have made that up; they would have HAD to know that in advance, wouldn't they? ) ← Are there any topics on this board about recipe intellectual property or "borrowing" recipes? I thought this was fairly standard practice in the industry. I mean I know Eric didn't invent the lobster corn dog thing...

Less swearing, although Andrew has regained the "annoying" title. ← I really hope that when/if he goes down he is removed by security gaurds... ... as he requested.

Certainly many famous chefs (Keller included) have a history of violence and profanity in the kitchen. But over the last decade or two we have seen chefs elevated from "misfits hiding in the kitchen" to being very visible public figures. This appears from the outside (where I am) to be influencing the culture inside the kitchen, but I have no personal experiences to back that up. Hence this topic, where I am hoping to hear from chefs/line cooks/dishwashers who have been in the business for a while. It sounds like there is probably no correlation between cursing in the kitchen and the number of Michelin stars. Nevertheless, I wonder if there has been an across-the-board decrease over the last decade as the public image of the chef changes, and places like the CIA put more emphasis on (their idea of) "professionalism," including a reduction in profanity. ← I am currently attending a culinary school (not the CIA) that also discourages profanity in the kitchen, however it is not strictly enforced. I find that the students who currently work in the industry are more prone to "let the f-bombs drop", justified or not (its true that we don't really get "in the weeds" in the classroom, although there is some level of pressure.) It also seems to be infectious; as it spreads from one student to another. I assume this is because the newbies tend to look to the experienced students as leaders or examples of "how to act."

I just purchased the Aroma Deep Fryer model ADF212 from Target for $70. It was just reviewed in Food & Wine as the top performer among several, beating out some at more than twice the price. It performed very well for me in its first time out. The exterior does get fairly hot, but the digital display/ thermostat is great. I must say I usually go all out when I'm spending on kitchen equipment, but I went with this one due to the fact that I don't deep fry that much, and it sounded like a good deal for the price. I'm sure it will last me a fairly long time.