Claudia Greco

I REALLY thought he was going go Full Metal Jacket. So whiny. Such a hot mess. And so delusional about his abilities - or lack thereof. I suspect he was the kid other little boys just kicked in the head until he bled from the ears. Just a guess.

Given some of the other countries NR has visited, I doubt this is the first time NR crew has been hit for a bribe or some meedling officials got in the way. If this were in some third world country where its not as PC to make fun of, I wonder if NR would have been as willing to make that the focus of the show or label the national cuisine to be 'primitive'. ← It wasn't just bribery - it was a lot of obsfucation, too. And while it's true that only Romania's cusine was called primitive, my only point was that, to ME, the show didn't make the Romanian people en masse or their food look bad - I'd certainly go. Their forests (and non-faux castles) look stunning. The only thing that looked bad, to me, were the guards at the Vlad statue. 2 Romanians out of a whole country.

Alas, alas, the Siberia Bar is closed, and AB has had to unearth other watering holes. This, after CBGB closed. How much can one man bear?Yes, we definitely need to see more Zamir - he and Tony have been playing dirty tricks on each other all across eastern Europe, and I think Zamir is ready for his close-up (!) I think we saw as much good Uzbekh food as there was to be seen - remember the fly-blown meat at the beginning of the ep? I'm not saying all Uzbekh food is a serious health risk, or that Uzbekh food isn't good - we have it here in NYC, and I'm a fan. I'm just saying that maybe Tony found as much good food as he was going to, in that particular instance, and that's what we saw. I loved the wedding prep segment, the cradle shopping - and the Uzbekh massage segment, of course. And it was more Bourdain being RIDDEN by another man rather than Bourdain wearing him (!!) (Sorry, Tony - I KNOW the masseur was wearing a Speedo and he never touched your glutes!)

Nobody's picking on fat people, or people with bad teeth, or weird legs, or jagged arm scars. But people on TV make choices about how they will appear on TV. When those appearances catch your eye, commenting is fair I think. The Spike/Tom/Malarky hat tragedies have elicited plenty of comments. I won't go back into the thread, but I'm sure that one guy who always wore ties in whatever season that was got comments based on it. I thought Tony looked odd in the Top Chef jacket. One of the reasons Padma is on the show in the first place is that she generally looks fabulous in anything she wears. And Gail has a unique style that I can't figure out. TV is a visual medium. What people see matters. It's plain old vanilla human nature. ← Steve Aspinio (?) (Asprinio?) was the dude who always wore a tie - and didn't he get mercilessly ragged for it. One or two eps with, say, a bad hair or clothing day, OK - but if someone is unremittingly greasy, dorky, tacky or otherwise, shall we say, "not on" - well, yes, they're going to hear about it. I think they handed Tony the official TC "head judge blue", for his head judging gig. His own chef jacket is more fitted and customized for HIM. The TC blue jacket is bigger, boxier, and more appropriately roomy for the beefier Colicchio. (I'm not saying I think he wore Tom's own jacket - I'm saying I think they have a certain look to the jacket, and when Tony stepped in for Tom, they issued him a TC jacket in Tony's size. But not his style. Definitely not.) Since no other chef has guest HEAD judged before, no one has ever had to wear the blue TC head judge jacket before. All the other guest judges (chefs or otherwise) wore either street clothes or their own whites. (If Tony was asked to cook, like Rocco was, I bet he would have worn his own whites). That's my theory of day, anyway.

Ohhh, I don't know - Tom caught in in spades for his "homey" look (beret turned backwards), Marcel's hair was a running joke all season 2 (and beyond), and plenty of other men have caught grief for either their sartorial or physiological failings. It's just that Lisa is ALWAYS sour-faced, and she's been pretty greasy for the last few episodes. I can excuse the greasiness - they might have interviewed her for her sound bite right after she got off the line. Having said that, though, Steph and Antonia have always looked good for their close-ups. Even Nikki managed to pull herself together.

Yep, some of the challenge of NR is trying to make the food look good or interesting - not every cuisine is fabulous, a point well made (and taken) with the Namibian wart hog rectum (!) PS: Tony's also exploring his genealogy in the Uraguay episode. Apparently, a great-grandparent of his was Uruguayan, making Tony 1/16 Uruguayan, 1/2 (8/16) French so, like the Russia episode, it will be interesting to see where he and his brother go with it.

That's because he had the TC-issued Head Judge blue jacket, not the form-fitting Bourdain "Cook Free or Die" classic white one (!)

← Oh, SNNNNNNAP! I can't believe a weasel like Spike wouldn't have thought that a greater weasel - like the producer - wouldn't have larded the larder, so to speak, with bad ingredient choices (!) At least Spike finally got bitten in the butt for all his McStrategizing.

I think NR is doing "split seasons" - i.e., instead of 12 shows starting in January and running through March, they are doing a "season" beginning in January and one in August, like they did last year. Papua New Guinea will be interesting - they eat pig, taro, sweet potato, etc., and I saw an hysterically funny Croc Hunter a few years back in which Steve Irwin went out with the #1 hunter from the tribe to find some lemur ( cuscus -"cooz-cooz"). Apparently, that tribe (no, I don't remember whether they were Mek, Kombai or whatever) eat lemur, and have a bazillion nifty different kinds of arrows for shooting them and other game. Naturally, the hunter was extremely proud of his skill and arrows, and was very anxious to not only prove his mettle, but to bag some protein for dinner. And, naturally, Steve wouldn't let him shoot a single lemur all ep. The funny part, however, was that every time Steve tried to get all friendly with the little darlings, the lemurs would daintily accept his offering of mini-bananas, eat them thoughtfully, and then either chomp on Steve, pull his hair out, or s___t on him, while the poor marginalized hunter tried ever so politely not to crack up laughing. The point is - I couled definitely see Tony trying to stomp around the Papuan Highlands, either trying to harvest some sweet potato, wrangling a squealing piglet, or trying to fend off irate cuscus who don't intend to be dinner. Or pets. Tony better watch out for those highly fashionable Male Enhancement Penile Sheathes the Papuan tribesmen favor, though. If he thought his picture in My Last Supper with the cow bone gave him grief, he and the Travel Channel will NEVER hear the end of this (!!)

Harold had some pretty harsh words about Bourdain's subbing for Tom last week on his TC Season 4 Blog. Harold's Blog ← Ouch, pretty harsh Harold. Let me know when you have put in the years on the line, written books, had a sitcom and several TV shows. Jerk. ← Amen to THAT. Bourdain may not be Mich 3, but he knows his stuff. And he certainly could spot weasels, poseurs, tools and scammers. I like Harold, but he needs to put in as many years on the line as Bourdain, who was in chef's whites before Harold was born, before he snarks. Harold ain't exactly Bocuse, either, BTW.

Hey, Conspiracy Theory #29 - maybe the frozen scallops were PLANTED in Tramonto's freezer, just to see if any chef had the bad judgment to use them? Nifty theory, eh? Eh?!

Oh, I don't know about that. Rock was about as good as you could get (as was Heather), and I rooted for those two all the way. It's just that some of the mistakes the cheftestants make are SO incredible that you just don't expect it from a professional cook. I can understand a line cook screwing up desserts, but one screwing up meat? Or pasta? REPEATEDLY? I like to see top notch chefs compete at perfection or near-perfection - but maybe I'm in the minority!

I was so sure Matt was going home this week, but as things began to heat up in the blue kitchen, I was pretty sure the boys would manipulate it so Jen went home. Louross? Siiiigghhh. I guess he really didn't have the chops I thought he possessed. Still, I thought he'd make it further than Matt. I see a Full Metal Jacket ep coming up, where the DI has tormented Vincent D/Onofrio so badly he goes mental and picks up his gun and . . . oh, well. I wonder if next week's ep will actually involve suicide or homicide? I think they'll be taking Matty out in a triple X straight jacket . . .

← That's what I was thinking - nothing inherently wrong with the butterscotch (or caramelized) miso scallop concept, but maybe it was in the execution. Bourdain also said something about the dish being too gloppy, so maybe the sugar was either not cooked through, as you said, or there was too much of it, and not enough miso to balance it?

God, now I hasve to check out youtube - I can't remember if I ever saw season 1 (!)

It's not greasy. More lank and "flippy", when all of his hair products have worn off. Nice highlighting there, too, for Frostylocks!

thats a little nitpicky, isn't it? Getting someone on the correct pronunciation of foreign words doesn't really define how one is as a chef does it? You'd really think he has the time/inclination to say "Orderingone rrrreeee-SO-toe twolambmediumonebeefmediumwelltwo Pahs-ta.." It seems to me he is speaking the words in a british accent how a british person would say the words if they weren't italian. Which is what most of the world does when pronouncing foreign words in their native tongue. In fact, I think I would find it quite jarring to hear him do what you suggest. Now, if he were in italy trying to speak italian, it would be a different story. But he's speaking british english and I don't see the problem. ← No, I didn't say it makes him less of a chef when he mispronounces foreign words - I did say it's a very Brit (but not exclusive Brit) thing to do so (I went to British schools my entire life) and it drives me crazy. And, yes, AS a chef, he should know better and correct himself. In Italy, France OR England. And it takes no more effort to say "ree-SO-toe" than "rih-ZOTT- toe." Same amount of syllables.

I agree with you - Dale has been robbed and, despite winning several challenges, has always been shortchanged on the goodies.BTW, Steph won the trip to Spain for two - did anyone hear her offer to take Richard? (!!) (Just a joke.)

I have no problem with the three chefs who are grounded in Asian food opening a restaurant with an Asian concept, Bourdain or no Bourdain. But, as the exec chef, Dale had to make sure he knew each dish and how it should taste before it left the kitchen - or, if not, he should've made Lisa fix it under Spike's guidance, since they both agreed the laksa was very smoky, had no heat, etc. He could've personally saved his own butt by staying true to authentically Asian dishes and just omitting the butterscotch in the scallop dish - scallops caramelize beautifully on their own if cooked properly. Going "Asian" didn't kill that team - bad execution and bad judgment did. As pointed out by a previous poster, Dale also could've saved his own butt by forcing Lisa to be exec chef, therefore making her wholly responsible for not only the two failed dishes but also for letting them go out. As Bourdain told Dale, as an exec chef, if any of his cooks were putting out bad food OR giving him lip about it, he'd jump all over them right then, right on the line - not after dinner service. Good thing for Richard he wisely decided not to smoke anything this episode, well before Bourdain prowled in (!)

I was sorry to see Dale go, since I think he has real ability - but Bourdain was right. Not only did he let Lisa make laksa when he, Dale, doesn't know ugatz about it, but even when he and Spike realized it was too smoky, he should have made Lisa do it over again (maybe under Spike's direction, since he supposedly DOES know how to make laksa). Yeah, sure, Lisa probably bitched back at him, but as exec chef, he needed to bark back at her and get the laksa, of all things, straightened out. (There was time.) Too bad that Dale didn't know that Bourdain hates sweet, cloying things - the butterscotch on the scallops was ripe for disaster. He'd have fared better just miso-glazing the scallops. More traditionally Asian. Better flavor balance. And would have dodged the bullet of Bourdain's own palate. Still, I can't believe that Lisa screwed up TWO dishes, both of which she's cooked before, and still survived! Rice and blame, rice and blame! How many times can a professional cook screw up rice in a single week?!! Did you notice that Bourdain's original bon mot "[the mango sticky rice] looks like baby vomit with wood chips on top" was modified to "looks like baby food with pot pourri on it"? Either that, or the customer who reportedly wrote that has very a similar palate to Bourdain's and the colorful wit. Both lines had me laughing. It was fun watching Bourdain fill in for Colicchio with a certain gravitas - less snark, but deadly serious. I thought he looked like a black-tipped reef shark patrolling the coral when he went into the kitchen. "Be afraid - be VERY afraid!" Next best line of the night (over Dale and Lisa's squabbling): "Okay, okay - I'm not your parole officer!" and (squinting suspiciously at Spike): "I'm not sure if it's guile or you're really lucky, but -" Bourdain obviously has Spike's number. What a hoot!

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Absolutely, I couldn't agree more. I asked a foodie friend (last name Olanescu and very proud of his Romanian heritage) who saw the episode and was thrilled to see the officials exposed as the bafoons they are. ← I thought Tony should have just made the show as it was, showing all the bribes, corruption and derailing - not to make Romania look bad, but just as reality, ie., this was how it WAS for Tony and NR. But, from a TV standpoint, that wouldn't necessarily have been interesting or good TV. Maybe. We all got a lot of mileage out of how wrong everything went for him, anyway. The only thing he might have avoided was the tsunami of criticism from irate Romanians and Romanian-Americans who felt he dissed their country and culture. But if they had known ahead of time that his Romanian fixers, as well as government and tourism officials, were sabotaging NR at every turn, then they'd have understood why he had to resort to using just Zamir, a Russian, as his fixer. My Romanian Jewish husband didn't think Romania, the culture and food, came off looking bad at all - he actually got a hankering going for some "mamaliga" (polenta) and other foods his grandmother would cook, cure or preserve. He thought the only thing that looked bad were - surprise! - the greedy little bureaucrats and hustlers. C'mon - who DIDN'T love the Romanian farm family and the guy with the funky cemetery? (!!)

I used to think Louross had some real ability - which he might, indeed - but he has very little judgment. I can't see him leading a kitchen now - he's fallen apart a few times, he gets truculent, and he doesn't heed common sense or good advice when it's handed to him on a platter. I'm still rooting for Jen - how many times and how right can one woman be, in the course of a single dinner service?! Petrozza is an inherently decent guy and probably not a bad cook - but, man, he's got to keep a grip on how he handles meat. I can't see him leading a brigade, either. Go, Jen!

I would've booted Rosann at least two dinner services ago! And Corey's strategizing to get Jen off the red team seems to have backfired. Never mind that the boys lost the 20-ingredient challenge - they triumphed during dinner service, costing the red team to lose a cook. I wonder how Ramsay is now going to even up the 3-"girl"/4-"boy" teams for next week? People can't keep going back and forth more times than Elizabeth Taylor's husbands!