Top Chef: Season 3

[Carrot Top]

I have to admit, I wondered if indeed Those Who Inhabit This Thread (perhaps from here on in we can call ourselves TWITT though I am sure that thought will be challenged and under much debate if it indeed is even challenged at all but let me just say that the name is better than when I just hit the wrong key while trying to type the capital letters and ended up with the uncomplementary name of TWITS) were just harder to please than other folk.

After all, there have been comments that the judges and producers know better than anyone here so should be free of any critical commentary that does not reflect pleasingly on them. At one time, I even felt sorry for the chefs myself under so much critical commentary and one may say the occasional rude remark let loose by this group, myself not excluded.

So I decided to comparison-shop. First I went to the topic that seemed likely to have similar things to discuss - Iron Chef America.

And lo! and behold! The first post:

Normally, they use really bad judges, but last nights was beyond.. It reminded me of a bad episode of the View.. It was a bunch of yenta women sitting around discussing lots of different things, including food.. And please dont think I am being harsh. These women knew nothing about food.. The first thing that shocked me was not one judge broke the yolk of their Quail Egg.. When Flay served his green eggs and lamb, the judges just tried the egg white of the quail egg and left the yolk undisturbed.. Next disturbing thing was when the women was grossed out by the raw lamb dish.. Another absolutely ridiculous comment was made by the same women who was grossed out .. "Wow, I like lamb, I mean I guess I like lamb" As if she was just coming to the realization after trying lamb for the first time.. I think the woman in the middle called one of Burke's dishes "Sexy"..

So without doing too much further research (though that first post was so delightful that I might just have to read the entire topic now!) it looks as if regardless of whether a television production company has seen fit to choose the people they do as judges and pay them, said judges are not considered to be free of ardent commentary by those who decide to spend time watching their performance, whether the television company pays them for being Judges with a capital J or not.

The next thing that worried me was whether or not indeed, these challenges were just . . . well . . . stupid. Happily I saw another thread that might have answers for these Vitally Important Questions (maybe we can call these sorts of questions which seem to keep popping up VIQ's for short. They do have the lingering aftertaste in the mind of cough-drops of the Vicks variety so I think it fits). Here is that topic for anyone still following along with my lengthy discussion of not-too-much here this morning: Top Chef - What Would You Make?

That topic has a total of nine answers compared to the four hundred and seventy-six logged on to this topic, with kalypso as clear winner to my mind of the challenge and I seriously would have kalypso cook for me any day, any day at all, based on that elegant and lengthy list of ideas.

So I'm going to have to continue to think that the challenges are somewhat challenging in some way until the numbers of commentators so actively and pleasingly for the most part, to my mind, engaged in trouncing Top Chef in general with a few lovely, gentle thoughts here and there dotted around like capers in a glistening sauce . . . wait what was I saying? Oh yes. When the numbers come close to equaling themselves, then I'll think the challenges are easy, even at second-hand.

Entertainment it is indeed, but perhaps not in the way intended, is how I feel about Top Chef. And anyone that enters into the world of performing for television surely must know (even those who stretch out in bikinis while not sharpening their knife enough to cut an onion) that the world of dreams displayed on a flickering screen which we call television takes no prisoners.

Can't wait for Wednesday.

[nonblonde007]

Bravo, Karen.

[kalypso]

The next thing that worried me was whether or not indeed, these challenges were just . . . well . . . stupid. Happily I saw another thread that might have answers for these Vitally Important Questions (maybe we can call these sorts of questions which seem to keep popping up VIQ's for short. They do have the lingering aftertaste in the mind of cough-drops of the Vicks variety so I think it fits). Here is that topic for anyone still following along with my lengthy discussion of not-too-much here this morning: Top Chef - What Would You Make?

That topic has a total of nine answers compared to the four hundred and seventy-six logged on to this topic, with kalypso as clear winner to my mind of the challenge and I seriously would have kalypso cook for me any day, any day at all, based on that elegant and lengthy list of ideas.

←

Wow, thank you so much. I'm flatter. I didn't think anyone read that list of ideas

[David Ross]

Hmm. I think I'm safer just sticking to my comments about the food and cooking on Top Chef and not venturing into the netherworlds of commenting on the drama that is Top Chef. I think I know food and cooking and I think I'm qualified to pass judgement and personal opinions on that aspect of the show-but as far as all this other stuff, I think I'll leave that hot potato in the oven so to speak.

[mojoman]

If the critics think it's so bad, why keep watching?

[mojoman]

I have to admit, I wondered if indeed Those Who Inhabit This Thread (perhaps from here on in we can call ourselves TWITT though I am sure that thought will be challenged and under much debate if it indeed is even challenged at all but let me just say that the name is better than when I just hit the wrong key while trying to type the capital letters and ended up with the uncomplementary name of TWITS) were just harder to please than other folk.

After all, there have been comments that the judges and producers know better than anyone here so should be free of any critical commentary that does not reflect pleasingly on them. At one time, I even felt sorry for the chefs myself under so much critical commentary and one may say the occasional rude remark let loose by this group, myself not excluded.

So I decided to comparison-shop. First I went to the topic that seemed likely to have similar things to discuss - Iron Chef America.

And lo! and behold! The first post:

Normally, they use really bad judges, but last nights was beyond.. It reminded me of a bad episode of the View.. It was a bunch of yenta women sitting around discussing lots of different things, including food.. And please dont think I am being harsh. These women knew nothing about food.. The first thing that shocked me was not one judge broke the yolk of their Quail Egg.. When Flay served his green eggs and lamb, the judges just tried the egg white of the quail egg and left the yolk undisturbed.. Next disturbing thing was when the women was grossed out by the raw lamb dish.. Another absolutely ridiculous comment was made by the same women who was grossed out .. "Wow, I like lamb, I mean I guess I like lamb" As if she was just coming to the realization after trying lamb for the first time.. I think the woman in the middle called one of Burke's dishes "Sexy"..

So without doing too much further research (though that first post was so delightful that I might just have to read the entire topic now!) it looks as if regardless of whether a television production company has seen fit to choose the people they do as judges and pay them, said judges are not considered to be free of ardent commentary by those who decide to spend time watching their performance, whether the television company pays them for being Judges with a capital J or not.

The next thing that worried me was whether or not indeed, these challenges were just . . . well . . . stupid. Happily I saw another thread that might have answers for these Vitally Important Questions (maybe we can call these sorts of questions which seem to keep popping up VIQ's for short. They do have the lingering aftertaste in the mind of cough-drops of the Vicks variety so I think it fits). Here is that topic for anyone still following along with my lengthy discussion of not-too-much here this morning: Top Chef - What Would You Make?

That topic has a total of nine answers compared to the four hundred and seventy-six logged on to this topic, with kalypso as clear winner to my mind of the challenge and I seriously would have kalypso cook for me any day, any day at all, based on that elegant and lengthy list of ideas.

So I'm going to have to continue to think that the challenges are somewhat challenging in some way until the numbers of commentators so actively and pleasingly for the most part, to my mind, engaged in trouncing Top Chef in general with a few lovely, gentle thoughts here and there dotted around like capers in a glistening sauce . . . wait what was I saying? Oh yes. When the numbers come close to equaling themselves, then I'll think the challenges are easy, even at second-hand.

Entertainment it is indeed, but perhaps not in the way intended, is how I feel about Top Chef. And anyone that enters into the world of performing for television surely must know (even those who stretch out in bikinis while not sharpening their knife enough to cut an onion) that the world of dreams displayed on a flickering screen which we call television takes no prisoners.

Can't wait for Wednesday.

←

I don't watch ICA because I don't find it entertaining and I don't find it to be worth my time. Ergo, I don't read the ICA thread here because I don't watch the show.

Why do you watch Top Chef?

The amusement of reading several biting, critical posts per week is worth an hour of your time watching a bad show?

I guess I value my time more than that.

Edited September 10, 2007 by mojoman (log)

[Carrot Top]

mojoman, there is more to this thread and the biting comments than meets the eye than when the thread is looked at in a simplistic fashion.

Previously you mentioned that the philosophy here was not only moot but also bad.

I disagree. I think the philosophy that is held within the corners of talk here is very interesting.

Why do people watch football games? That's part of what interests me in terms of this show, for the same sort of thing is happening. And that, is human. It is not human in any way that really hurts anyone, it is not human in any truly ugly way, it is human in a way that people need and want. It also shows in an indirect way what people will accept in terms of personality and performance from others.

The story as it is played out in terms of characters and plot also interests me. I love to see how people view this, each in their own individual and basically wonderful ways. This show is particularly confusing in terms of choosing any clear-cut winner till the end, just because of how it is set up and filmed. That means that different criteria than actual formal measurement of skills comes into choosing who one is going to pull for.

If you do not see the very real humor in these posts, that is your right. If I do, that is my right. If I do not see the entertainment value you see in the show, that is my right.

I really am not all that interested in food just plain by itself, whether it is of the most finessed and expensive sort or of the most basic. I understand those who are and think it's a fabulous thing to be interested in, obviously. But I am interested in how people relate to it - what it means to them. I understand food well enough - but do not choose to focus on it "as food" in terms of my own interest. Well, unless someone pays me to do so and pays me well.

Edited September 11, 2007 by Carrot Top (log)

[David Ross]

Let me try to put my reviews of Top Chef in a little clearer perspective. I want to thank my fellow eGullet friends for bringing the question forward as part of our discussion of Top Chef.

I was on the second season of the PBS series MasterChef USA. MasterChef still appears on the BBC.

The format of our show was to take 27 of the top amateur cooks in the country and through a 13-week series of eliminations, name the top amateur chef in the country. I was fortunate to make it to the final three on the final show.

MasterChef USA was really the first reality show that used cooking as the format, many years before Top Chef was probably on the drawing board. I continue to do live cooking segments on my local ABC affiliate.

So trust me, I think I have a pretty broad grasp of the marketing and production of cooking programs on television. More than I sometimes want to admit to myself, I am well-schooled in the importance of ratings, shares and the power of advertisers. So I get it when we talk about the commercial aspects of Top Chef.

When I started to critque Top Chef, I was coming at it from the angle of someone who had been through a reality program with a cooking format. My goal has been to couple that background with my personal world of food, cooking and food writing, to give everyone what I think is a pretty unique perspective of Top Chef.

So having said that, I actually appreciate the dialog and difference in opinions between Mojoman and Carrot Top.

And I certainly think the question from Mojoman as to why I watch Top Chef if my critiques portray the show as awful, is a valid point that challenges me to give everyone a little more information on where I am coming from. So again, I want to say thanks for bringing the point forward.

I admit that sometimes I take an impish sort of brat boy attitude in my biting comments about Top Chef. I don't have a defense other than to say I find Top Chef entertaining and tragic all at the same time and that's what I'm trying to convey in my comments. I've pretty much kept my comments to the food and cooking, with some biting humor thrown in, to give you my perspective on the show.

Let me point out that I agree with Carrot Top's point that part of what makes Top Chef so interesting, or any reality show for that matter, is that you can break down its parts into so many different elements, and each would probably catch the interest of people who would join a forum to discuss just that one part of the show. Personally, part of the intrigue for me in discussing Top Chef is that I meet so many different people during our talks and in turn I learn so much about what other people get out of watching Top Chef. And yes, that in turn is a part of how I learn more each day about the way we cook and the way we eat-through shows like Top Chef and through discussions like this one. It may not always be apparent in my critiques of Top Chef, but watching the show and writing an often biting critique is a part of my crazy food world. It is not unlike the words of a restaurant critic whose musings on a dinner may be totally opposite of our own tastes.

So again, thanks for bringing the issues forward and I am surely to have confused my position even further with that long, long, too long, treatise posted above.

What will I do once the season of Top Chef ends.

[nonblonde007]

Once again, Bravo and Bravo!

Thank you both for voiceing so perfectly many of our thoughts.

[KristiB50]

A season 2 contestant in the news:

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked

SEA CLIFF, N.Y. - A former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" was beaten by attackers yelling anti-gay slurs, her lawyer said.

Josie Smith-Malave, who was featured on the second season of the reality show, was among a small group of women who were asked to leave a Sea Cliff bar over Labor Day weekend, lawyer Yetta Kurland said Tuesday.

About 10 young people followed the women and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on them and then beating them, Kurland said.

Smith-Malave, who is in her early 30s, is openly gay, Kurland said.

Nassau County police said they were investigating, but declined to provide details of the incident.

Smith-Malave, a Miami native, is a former sous-chef for Marlow and Sons restaurant in Brooklyn. She has played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League.

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked - Yahoo! News

[TAPrice]

A season 2 contestant in the news:

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked

SEA CLIFF, N.Y. - A former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" was beaten by attackers yelling anti-gay slurs, her lawyer said.

Josie Smith-Malave, who was featured on the second season of the reality show, was among a small group of women who were asked to leave a Sea Cliff bar over Labor Day weekend, lawyer Yetta Kurland said Tuesday.

About 10 young people followed the women and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on them and then beating them, Kurland said.

Smith-Malave, who is in her early 30s, is openly gay, Kurland said.

Nassau County police said they were investigating, but declined to provide details of the incident.

Smith-Malave, a Miami native, is a former sous-chef for Marlow and Sons restaurant in Brooklyn. She has played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League. 

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked - Yahoo! News

←

Fame really is fleeting. For the life of me, I can't remember which one was Josie.

[KristiB50]

A season 2 contestant in the news:

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked

SEA CLIFF, N.Y. - A former contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef" was beaten by attackers yelling anti-gay slurs, her lawyer said.

Josie Smith-Malave, who was featured on the second season of the reality show, was among a small group of women who were asked to leave a Sea Cliff bar over Labor Day weekend, lawyer Yetta Kurland said Tuesday.

About 10 young people followed the women and began screaming anti-gay epithets, spitting on them and then beating them, Kurland said.

Smith-Malave, who is in her early 30s, is openly gay, Kurland said.

Nassau County police said they were investigating, but declined to provide details of the incident.

Smith-Malave, a Miami native, is a former sous-chef for Marlow and Sons restaurant in Brooklyn. She has played for the New York Sharks of the Independent Women's Football League. 

Ex-`Top Chef' contestant is attacked - Yahoo! News

←

Fame really is fleeting. For the life of me, I can't remember which one was Josie.

←

picture HERE

I didn't remember her until I saw her.

Edited September 12, 2007 by KristiB50 (log)

[rconnelly]

There is an ad in Today's NYT from Continental Airlines re: "Business First" - the company's upscale business flights- regarding the challenge on tonight's show.

[David Ross]

This may be good-a challenge to prepare new meals in Business First on Continental. Given my 20 years in the airline business and my penchant for writing reviews of Top Chef, I'm starting to salivate just waiting for what they are going to serve me this week. This could be a really fun episode to critique.

[nonblonde007]

*tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,................* That is the sound of my foot, of it's own accord, against the hardwood floor impatiently waiting for some input here! I have opinions, but these are based, I find, upon personal dislikes of certain participants.................therefore, I am uncertain that my thoughts on this episode are alltogether well formed. I am not sorry that ************** has left us. ***** lost my loyalty long ago when (said person) left loyalty (said persons self). I noticed that Padma is trying for a more aproachable persona. I actually found myself being drawn into her "cuteness"! Go figure, she truly had inspired daggers in my thoughts to this point. I am left shaking my head trying to sort the various fragments of thought regarding this episode. Mostly, I am dissapointed, I guess I expected anything that the revered AB appeared in to floor me and leave me speachless with delight. All I feel is "ho-hum" about this week. Please, post your oppinions and enlighten me!

(edited because I am a complete Bonehead and posted Spoilers!!) Please forgive, all that read before?..

Edited September 13, 2007 by nonblonde007 (log)

[kalypso]

*tap, tap, tap, tap, tap,................* That is the sound of my foot, of it's own accord, against the hardwood floor impatiently waiting for some input here!  Mostly, I am dissapointed, I guess I expected anything that the revered AB apeared in to floor me and leave me speachless with delght.  All I feel is "ho-hum" about this week.  Please, post your oppinions and enlighten me!

←

Hey, give us some time. It hasn't even aired here on the West Coast yet

Unfortunately, Top Chef has become rather tedious, perhaps to the point where the revered AB can't even work some magic? So, if CJ was eliminated that would leave Brian, Casey, Hung and Sara?

[nonblonde007]

I am soooooooooooooooo sorry!!! I wasn't thinking about the time change, please forgive me?????? I will go now and edit my post to NOT reveal who is gone. *backing out bowing in shame*

[KristiB50]

There's no way the cheftestants were woken up "by surprise" for the Quickfire Challenge. There's no way they got all that food and equipment into the apartment without waking them up, and there's NO WAY those boys just hopped right out of bed not sporting what boys usually sport in the morning.

And Padma likes alchohol!!

She got the chance to pimp her new cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet, the title of which sounds a lot like my favorite cookbook Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford.

Hung is still dangerous in the kitchen. Idiot needs to slow down and clean up after himself. Or slow down and not break bottles and drop food on the floor.

I thought it was an interesting challenge. I was also suprised so many chose fish.

I was also suprised Casey chose veal because it's usually pretty lean.

I have a hard time believing the broccolini was the absolute worst dish of all the seasons.

Tom sure is a Mr. Cranky pants this season!

[TAPrice]

Poor Hung. He wins a challenge and gets a cookbook by Padma. Worst. Prize. Ever.

[KristiB50]

Did anyone else notice the picture on page 8 of Tony's blog?

Padma must have had a long day...

[Fpoint]

Poor Hung. He wins a challenge and gets a cookbook by Padma. Worst. Prize. Ever.

←

No the worst prize was Sara's when for winning her challenge they gave her a lame round of applause form the judges. Then to rub it it Cassey gets a laptop and then two first class tickets anywhere in the world.

[scubadoo97]

Poor Hung. He wins a challenge and gets a cookbook by Padma. Worst. Prize. Ever.

←

No the worst prize was Sara's when for winning her challenge they gave her a lame round of applause form the judges. Then to rub it it Cassey gets a laptop and then two first class tickets anywhere in the world.

←

No doubt Sara is a good sport. Did you hear Sara ask "what did you win this time".

[handmc]

Casey is gone. Not all that much of a surprise. He was consistently in the bottom at judges table and appeared to be arguing for his life almost as often as Brian.

Why is Brian there? Because they need a throw away for next week or someone that could make fill a spot if they get sick of Hung and want to send him home?

With the dishes Casey, even Sara (occasional klunker aside) are pulling out lately I am feeling a bit hustled and have to wonder if others have been holding back as well.

I never got the impression Pamda was a meanie, I think that it is just bad acting, but her tearing up when CJ left WTH?

It would have been amusing to see Tony at the breakfast challenge. The he would have probably just been rolling in from the evening.

Tony's crack about finding the Broccli Rabe in Bob Marley's closet was seriously funny, so was the lobster being the consistency of a Doll's head.

With Chef Tom being Chief stick up his butt, I think it kills Tony's creative spirit, they could have gone off on a real frenzy instead that constipated look washes over Tom's face and he bites his soul patch. I would love to burn the soul patch off with a Brulee torch, I am so sick of looking at it. And please, what is with the Beatnick look? Gaah!

edited because it needed it!

Edited September 13, 2007 by handmc (log)

[Slamdunkpro]

The whole episode was kind of "meh" to me.

They totally wasted Bourdain, but it was interesting that he was a panel judge.

It's pretty obvious that Colicchio didn't want to be there, talk about phoning it in.

Worst dish ever? I dunno, you'd have to go pretty far to top Sam's cheesy watermelon surprise from season 2 .

Once again the rules are the rules, but not always. Dale failed to complete, he should have been gone. Not only wasn't he gone, he was in the top tier.

More and more it's 10 little 9 little 8 little white guys, A PC final is possible with Hung, Sara, and Casey.

Lastly, after reading the blogs, one conclusion is inescapable - Rocco DiSpirito is a horrible writer.

[Kevin72]

I thought CJ was the funniest of the group this year, so his humor will be missed. Took it in stride and I liked his offer to Bourdain at the end.

Again, though, I found myself irritated with the nature of the challenge. Colicchio commented that it was too risky for so many of them to do fish. But I guarantee that if they all went the safe meat route he'd have complained about the lack of novelty and risk taking.