Top Chef Season 4

[gfweb]

Curry was a chef-ly but unwise choice. No parent who wanted to get a good reaction out of his kids would spring a new a new taste on them in a critical situation like this.

[RAHiggins1]

Curry was a chef-ly but unwise choice.  No parent who wanted to  get a good reaction out of his kids would spring a new a new taste on them in a critical situation like this.

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Unless one lives in thew UK where Curry is amongst the 3 or 4 dishes cooked on a weekly basis in most homes. I read a report on what's on the menu each week in brithish households. Curry is very, very, prominant in most other countries. I know for a fact it's standard fair in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, India, pakistan, etc.... Not tha Mark's wasn't complete shite, but I would expect him to be able to cook what he would consider a common family dinner dish.

Edited May 2, 2008 by RAHiggins1 (log)

[Dignan]

I liked Mark and was sad to see him go, I think he did come up with interesting dishes.  I was always curious regarding his ingredients etc.  And I thought the fit over curry was dumb, we are so ethnocentric sometimes, it is a common family meal many places.

Also, huge mistake to try the Top Chef drinking game for the first time last night, between Uncle Ben's and Glad, I had to take many, many drinks!

Also, $10 at Whole foods just would not happen.

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Ethnocentric my wide butt. What a blithe way to dismiss a considered assesment of a bad dish. The winner was a stir fry. The loser was"'nt appealing", a "sloppy" "lacking" curry that was judged, in part, by an Indian woman and Oprah's self-professed curry lover.

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Perhaps the poster was referring to the raised eyebrow "hmm....really?" look that Tom gave Mark when he found that Mark was making curry. That surprised me.

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Perhaps. If a raised eyebrow could be considered a "fit." He probably raised his eyebrows at the fennel-redolant paillard and the brussel sprouts and the beets. They'd all have the potential to challenge young palates.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Dignan (log)

[lucylou95816]

I too agree with the sentiment that $10 at whole foods for a family of four is crap! How many grocery stores will let you pull off pieces of bok choy at the register? Please! I liked the idea of that challenge, and the kids was cool. I was surprised to see that many kids actually like the foods they were eating, since when I was growing up, some of that would have been way to out of my culinary tastes.

[Zeemanb]

The one positive thing I have to say about the show is that the cheftestants all seemed to really get into having a child work with them in the kitchen. That scenario was definitely fodder for the editors to single one of them out crying about how unfair it was, blah-blah-blah. Even Lisa didn't flip out and drop about ten f-bombs, which was actually a little shocking. So I did appreciate that aspect of the show very much.

As far as the $10 at Whole Foods goes, and I will be happy to stand corrected if there is a believable explanation, the biggest problem I had with such an insane break from reality is how misleading it was for any actual family of four. I don't think that going to a regular mega-mart would have been out of line for this particular challenge, because then the $10 would be believable and the dishes could be more easily replicated at home. But I guess that the advertisement for Whole Foods wins out.....

[tim]

Hi,

Apparently, Whole Foods accepts the practice of peeling off sections of bok choy if you want to reduce the cost of your purchase. I can't wait to try this at Whole Foods.

I can't wait to see the reaction of my check out yuppie!

Tim

[Dignan]

Tom C. says this in his blog on Bravo (which I would link but all of a sudden I can't hyperlink - sorry): "A typical food stamp allotment in this country is $21 a person a week, which breaks down roughly to $1 per meal, or $4 per meal for a family of four. Suddenly that $10 doesn’t seem so bad, does it?"

I don't doubt that that is a statistic you could read somewhere, but it seems like it's more along the lines of a misleading statistical fallout of a study. And if that's all you have then for cliff's sake don't go to Whole Foods. It seems very unlikely that they could pull it off, even with the scenes spliced in showing the contestants actually pulling off parts of veg to make it weigh less. I think I'll try that this weekend at my local store - I'll dismantle a head of iceberg right there at the register until it's the weight and price I want.

Edit to add: Tim made the veggie point 1st! And so did LucyLou, before Tim! Geez!

Edited May 2, 2008 by Dignan (log)

[Claudia Greco]

Tom C. says this in his blog on Bravo (which I would link but all of a sudden I can't hyperlink - sorry): "A typical food stamp allotment in this country is $21 a person a week, which breaks down roughly to $1 per meal, or $4 per meal for a family of four. Suddenly that $10 doesn’t seem so bad, does it?"

I don't doubt that that is a statistic you could read somewhere, but it seems like it's more along the lines of a misleading statistical fallout of a study.  And if that's all you have then for cliff's sake don't go to Whole Foods.  It seems very unlikely that they could pull it off, even with the scenes spliced in showing the contestants actually pulling off parts of veg to make it weigh less.  I think I'll try that this weekend at my local store - I'll dismantle a head of iceberg right there at the register until it's the weight and price I want.

Edit to add: Tim made the veggie point 1st!  And so did LucyLou, before Tim!  Geez!

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It's $28 per week in New York, and numerous City Councilmen have tried to demonstrate how meager that is by living on it for a week - what Colicchio (a New Yorker) nicely glossed over is that person was trying to life on ramen, etc., and could not include any kind of veg, meat, etc. The Councilmen who tried it (Gifford Miller a few years ago, another young guy just this past week) all ran out of food by Day 5 and had to go scrounge from local food pantries - whose supplies are significantly lower than last year. That crack he made about $10 "not seeming so bad" is both glib, flippant and insensitive and he should know better.

[cathrynapple]

Actually, there was a point in my life when I received food stamps. I got 98 dollars a month. And I was earning minimum wage and working 38 hours a week. Others I've spoken to have had similar amounts per person.

[Chris Amirault]

I rescind my peanut butter/tomato comment as I remember making an excellent West African Peanut Soup that was tomato based.

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That would be mafé, and the combination works like a charm. In some parts of the world, saying tomato and peanut don't go together is a bit like saying bacon and eggs don't go together....

[Siouxsie]

I've also had African Peanut Chicken soup and it's good stuff! I thought of that also when Stephanie's combo came up. Maybe it just didn't come together in a tasty way like Richard's odd pizza in the first episode.

I'll miss Mark. I liked how he described that he'd make "his lady" a vegetable curry to eat when he was light on cash. He just seemed like a good egg, if a bit of a shaggy mess who'd reached his level. If the challenge hadn't been so tailored to others' sensibilities, he might have skated by, but the end was coming soon either way.

One thing the winners of all these shows seem to have is the ability to shine in challenges suited to their skills, but also to wrench an unfamiliar challenge into their wheelhouse.

[caroled]

I was just in Whole Foods this past Mon. and I can tell you, they did not get a lot for their $10. I had what was a reasonably small amount a stuff, and none of it was higher end items,(maybe $12-$18 lb cheese, but I only had little 3-4ounce portions of each) and my bill was over $60 when I left.

BTW, did anyone notice that as Dale was buying his chicken brats,the camera panned down to the sale tag that said Italian -chicken sausages-$4.99lb. Not a bad price mind you, especially if they are fresh made . But, he could not have possibly gotten the 10 of them that were being placed on the scale as anything less than2-1/2 to 3 lbs worth. We sell a similar product at the store where I work and they usually weigh out to about 3 per lb. roughly 5oz. portions .

I'm just sayin'.

[lucylou95816]

slightly off topic, but I got to meet Mike last night from season 2. He's doing a "guest" chef thing at a little bistro right around the corner. We may try to go in tonight. He's a pretty neat guy. He said that he met up with Ryan the other day and said something like, dude poached pear? I can't drink with you. He's just as real in person as you saw on the show.

[CKatCook]

Ok, I finally got to watch the last episode.

I think that was 10 bucks a person. There is no way I could go into a store and for 10 bucks get what they got. No way. And I don't shop in a whole foods.

[David Ross]

I’d say this week’s “Common Threads” episode lacked flavor and “seasoning.” In other words, we were presented with two disappointing, bland challenges that really didn’t do much to promote the concept of a “Top Chef.”

In my perfect little world, a world that is often at odds with the “reality” of Top Chef, a little farm North of Chicago raising free-range ducks would be the sponsor of a “Duck” challenge. Now that’s my idea of providing the Chefs with a quality product that will give them the best opportunity to show us their culinary skills.

Yet, it’s doubtful that a small, family-owned duck farm in Illinois would be able to afford the cost of a 30-second spot on “Top Chef.” Even if they had the cash to spend on advertising on National television, they probably couldn’t sell enough ducks to keep up with the demand that would be generated by airing a commercial on Top Chef.

It’s probably wishful thinking on my part to expect that the advertising sales staff at Bravo would even court an artisanal food purveyor. The makers of Glad Wrap and Uncle Ben’s rice are far more valuable to Bravo due to their mass demographic appeal than a few organic ducks.

In order to satisfy their commitments to crass commercialism, Bravo gave us the “Rice in 15 Minutes” Quickfire Challenge. A rice challenge per se, is totally appropriate to Top Chef-as long as the limitations of the challenge still give the Chefs the greatest opportunity to shine. I don’t discredit Uncle Ben’s rice for what it is, but I don’t consider it to be in the same class of rice that I’d expect to see in a fine dining kitchen.

Restricting the Chefs to using pre-cooked rice wrapped in foil packets to make a dish in 15 minutes just didn’t seem fair. Even so, some Chefs did an admirable job of putting together a decent rice dish.

I think Stephanie and Mark both fell under the spell of attempting to create a complicated dish that just didn’t fit within the confines of a 15-minute rice challenge. They both admitted to committing a cardinal sin of cooking-they sent out dishes that they hadn’t properly tasted.

Stephanie said that she had never made a seafood pancake before and that “she had no idea what it (seafood pancakes), tasted like.” With only 15 minutes of cooking time, she should have realized that a tested, simple recipe would have been the best course of action. She took a stupid risk that resulted in a soppy dish of “Brown Rice Pancakes with Scallops and Vinaigrette.”

I really can’t imagine what Mark was thinking when he decided to pair turkey with miso and grapes. (Maybe he just likes to cut little grapes in half?).

Last week, Mark used grapes more appropriately in his “Concord Grape Sauce” paired with “Purple, Depressed, Bacon” (pork loin with sweet potatoes). But this week, I felt that he slapped too many competing flavors together in his dish of “Miso-Glazed Turkey on Rice Salad with Sugar Snap Peas, Grapes and Tomatoes.” You probably aren’t a Top Chef if Padma says that your turkey tastes like “chicken.”

I still don’t personally like Antonia after the disrespect she showed the judges during last week’s “Polish Sausage” incident, but she did a fine job this week in winning the Quickfire Challenge with her “Rice Salad with Skirt Steak, Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes.” I like the simple, clean flavors in Antonia’s dish and it’s something that I’d definately make for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.

By the way, I thought I’d do a taste test. I’m having “microwaveable” Uncle Ben’s rice for lunch right now. It’s bland-even with salt, pepper and butter.

[Ndy]

I’d say this week’s “Common Threads” episode lacked flavor and “seasoning.”  In other words, we were presented with two disappointing, bland challenges that really didn’t do much to promote the concept of a “Top Chef.”

In my perfect little world, a world that is often at odds with the “reality” of Top Chef, a little farm North of Chicago raising free-range ducks would be the sponsor of a “Duck” challenge.  Now that’s my idea of providing the Chefs with a quality product that will give them the best opportunity to show us their culinary skills. 

Yet, it’s doubtful that a small, family-owned duck farm in Illinois would be able to afford the cost of a 30-second spot on “Top Chef.”  Even if they had the cash to spend on advertising on National television, they probably couldn’t sell enough ducks to keep up with the demand that would be generated by airing a commercial on Top Chef.

It’s probably wishful thinking on my part to expect that the advertising sales staff at Bravo would even court an artisanal food purveyor.  The makers of Glad Wrap and Uncle Ben’s rice are far more valuable to Bravo due to their mass demographic appeal than a few organic ducks. 

In order to satisfy their commitments to crass commercialism, Bravo gave us the “Rice in 15 Minutes” Quickfire Challenge.  A rice challenge per se, is totally appropriate to Top Chef-as long as the limitations of the challenge still give the Chefs the greatest opportunity to shine.  I don’t discredit Uncle Ben’s rice for what it is, but I don’t consider it to be in the same class of rice that I’d expect to see in a fine dining kitchen. 

Restricting the Chefs to using pre-cooked rice wrapped in foil packets to make a dish in 15 minutes just didn’t seem fair.  Even so, some Chefs did an admirable job of putting together a decent rice dish. 

I think Stephanie and Mark both fell under the spell of attempting to create a complicated dish that just didn’t fit within the confines of a 15-minute rice challenge.  They both admitted to committing a cardinal sin of cooking-they sent out dishes that they hadn’t properly tasted. 

Stephanie said that she had never made a seafood pancake before and that “she had no idea what it (seafood pancakes), tasted like.”  With only 15 minutes of cooking time, she should have realized that a tested, simple recipe would have been the best course of action.  She took a stupid risk that resulted in a soppy dish of “Brown Rice Pancakes with Scallops and Vinaigrette.” 

I really can’t imagine what Mark was thinking when he decided to pair turkey with miso and grapes.  (Maybe he just likes to cut little grapes in half?).

Last week, Mark used grapes more appropriately in his “Concord Grape Sauce” paired with “Purple, Depressed, Bacon” (pork loin with sweet potatoes).  But this week, I felt that he slapped too many competing flavors together in his dish of “Miso-Glazed Turkey on Rice Salad with Sugar Snap Peas, Grapes and Tomatoes.”  You probably aren’t a Top Chef if Padma says that your turkey tastes like “chicken.”

I still don’t personally like Antonia after the disrespect she showed the judges during last week’s “Polish Sausage” incident, but she did a fine job this week in winning the Quickfire Challenge with her “Rice Salad with Skirt Steak, Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes.”  I like the simple, clean flavors in Antonia’s dish and it’s something that I’d definately make for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. 

By the way, I thought I’d do a taste test.  I’m having “microwaveable” Uncle Ben’s rice for lunch right now.  It’s bland-even with salt, pepper and butter.

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nice analysis as usual, I enjoy hearing your opinion on each episode.

[David Ross]

I’d say this week’s “Common Threads” episode lacked flavor and “seasoning.”  In other words, we were presented with two disappointing, bland challenges that really didn’t do much to promote the concept of a “Top Chef.”

In my perfect little world, a world that is often at odds with the “reality” of Top Chef, a little farm North of Chicago raising free-range ducks would be the sponsor of a “Duck” challenge.  Now that’s my idea of providing the Chefs with a quality product that will give them the best opportunity to show us their culinary skills. 

Yet, it’s doubtful that a small, family-owned duck farm in Illinois would be able to afford the cost of a 30-second spot on “Top Chef.”  Even if they had the cash to spend on advertising on National television, they probably couldn’t sell enough ducks to keep up with the demand that would be generated by airing a commercial on Top Chef.

It’s probably wishful thinking on my part to expect that the advertising sales staff at Bravo would even court an artisanal food purveyor.  The makers of Glad Wrap and Uncle Ben’s rice are far more valuable to Bravo due to their mass demographic appeal than a few organic ducks. 

In order to satisfy their commitments to crass commercialism, Bravo gave us the “Rice in 15 Minutes” Quickfire Challenge.  A rice challenge per se, is totally appropriate to Top Chef-as long as the limitations of the challenge still give the Chefs the greatest opportunity to shine.  I don’t discredit Uncle Ben’s rice for what it is, but I don’t consider it to be in the same class of rice that I’d expect to see in a fine dining kitchen. 

Restricting the Chefs to using pre-cooked rice wrapped in foil packets to make a dish in 15 minutes just didn’t seem fair.  Even so, some Chefs did an admirable job of putting together a decent rice dish. 

I think Stephanie and Mark both fell under the spell of attempting to create a complicated dish that just didn’t fit within the confines of a 15-minute rice challenge.  They both admitted to committing a cardinal sin of cooking-they sent out dishes that they hadn’t properly tasted. 

Stephanie said that she had never made a seafood pancake before and that “she had no idea what it (seafood pancakes), tasted like.”  With only 15 minutes of cooking time, she should have realized that a tested, simple recipe would have been the best course of action.  She took a stupid risk that resulted in a soppy dish of “Brown Rice Pancakes with Scallops and Vinaigrette.” 

I really can’t imagine what Mark was thinking when he decided to pair turkey with miso and grapes.  (Maybe he just likes to cut little grapes in half?).

Last week, Mark used grapes more appropriately in his “Concord Grape Sauce” paired with “Purple, Depressed, Bacon” (pork loin with sweet potatoes).  But this week, I felt that he slapped too many competing flavors together in his dish of “Miso-Glazed Turkey on Rice Salad with Sugar Snap Peas, Grapes and Tomatoes.”  You probably aren’t a Top Chef if Padma says that your turkey tastes like “chicken.”

I still don’t personally like Antonia after the disrespect she showed the judges during last week’s “Polish Sausage” incident, but she did a fine job this week in winning the Quickfire Challenge with her “Rice Salad with Skirt Steak, Arugula and Cherry Tomatoes.”  I like the simple, clean flavors in Antonia’s dish and it’s something that I’d definately make for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. 

By the way, I thought I’d do a taste test.  I’m having “microwaveable” Uncle Ben’s rice for lunch right now.  It’s bland-even with salt, pepper and butter.

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nice analysis as usual, I enjoy hearing your opinion on each episode.

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Thank you, much appreciated and I certainly enjoy reading everyone else's perspectives on each episode.

I'm going to re-watch last week's episode again tonight so I can take another look at the Elimination Challenge. I'll post those comments tommmorrow.

I can't leave well enough alone, so I have to give a last, parting shot at Antonia and Lisa and the Polish Sausage foibles of last week.

I admit that after reviewing the recipe on the Top Chef site and reading Ted's blog that Antonia and Lisa did in fact use Polish Sausage in their dish-albeit a paltry 2 oz. of the stuff.

Mixing a measely 2oz. of Polish Sausage with Chorizo into their "Purple Mashed Potatoes" was their way of skirting under the radar and faking an excuse for the judges that they were "improvising."

Technicalities aside, I still don't think they met the intent of the challenge last week, which should have been to showcase Polish Sausage as a main ingredient in the dish.

Not to worry though, Lisa is quickly running out of breath as the pack heads into the far turn and into the homestretch.

I'm not in the Antonia sympathy camp this week. Tricky editing to play on viewer's emotions for Antonia's family situation doesn't mean she deserves to be a Top Chef. So while I don't buy into the feel-good story, I do give Antonia high marks for her cooking abilities this week and for winning both the Quickfire and and Elimination Challenges. Nice Job Antonia-now just keep cooking.

[hshiau]

So after all the"This is Top Chef, not top cook", we go for home cooking? So far this season, I've seen nothing in any of the elimination challenges that proves or disproves whether someone could be a top chef.

[Dr. Teeth]

Tom C. says this in his blog on Bravo (which I would link but all of a sudden I can't hyperlink - sorry): "A typical food stamp allotment in this country is $21 a person a week, which breaks down roughly to $1 per meal, or $4 per meal for a family of four. Suddenly that $10 doesn’t seem so bad, does it?"

I don't doubt that that is a statistic you could read somewhere, but it seems like it's more along the lines of a misleading statistical fallout of a study.  And if that's all you have then for cliff's sake don't go to Whole Foods.  It seems very unlikely that they could pull it off, even with the scenes spliced in showing the contestants actually pulling off parts of veg to make it weigh less.  I think I'll try that this weekend at my local store - I'll dismantle a head of iceberg right there at the register until it's the weight and price I want.

Edit to add: Tim made the veggie point 1st!  And so did LucyLou, before Tim!  Geez!

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It's $28 per week in New York, and numerous City Councilmen have tried to demonstrate how meager that is by living on it for a week - what Colicchio (a New Yorker) nicely glossed over is that person was trying to life on ramen, etc., and could not include any kind of veg, meat, etc. The Councilmen who tried it (Gifford Miller a few years ago, another young guy just this past week) all ran out of food by Day 5 and had to go scrounge from local food pantries - whose supplies are significantly lower than last year. That crack he made about $10 "not seeming so bad" is both glib, flippant and insensitive and he should know better.

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I'm not sure that Coliccio meant it to be flippant, it's hard to judge tone and intent on an internet post.

I suspect the challenge was close to legit, but I suspect there were two qualifiers that were not stressed when presenting the challenge. 1) They were allowed to modify the food at the register in a way an average customer was not and 2) I think they were allowed to use some staples (cooking oil and such) from the pantry.

But what to do want, it's a TV show. It isn't meant to be an instructional video on how to cook on a budget.

That said, I for one would be fascinated by - and would gladly participate in- an egullet thread or blog with folks trying to cook on the food stamp budget for a week.

[Claudia Greco]

a

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I'm not in the Antonia sympathy camp this week. Tricky editing to play on viewer's emotions for Antonia's family situation doesn't mean she deserves to be a Top Chef. So while I don't buy into the feel-good story, I do give Antonia high marks for her cooking abilities this week and for winning both the Quickfire and and Elimination Challenges. Nice Job Antonia-now just keep cooking.

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I'm thinking the next two out will be Lisa, then Antonia.

[Daniel]

Has this been spoken about? I am not an avid watcher but, two episodes ago The Second City Show, they flashed a disclaimer.. Producers and judges pick the person to go home.. And that it might not depend on the contest.. That really turned me off to the competitive side of the show..

Edited May 5, 2008 by Daniel (log)

[rconnelly]

Has this been spoken about?  I am not an avid watcher but, two episodes ago The Second City Show, they flashed a disclaimer.. Producers and judges pick the person to go home.. And that it might not depend on the contest.. That really turned me off to the competitive side of the show..

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I bet that had something to do with the Marcel hair event.

Or if someone is caought cheating like on Project Runway when whats-his-name had style books that weren't allowed.

[Ndy]

Has this been spoken about?  I am not an avid watcher but, two episodes ago The Second City Show, they flashed a disclaimer.. Producers and judges pick the person to go home.. And that it might not depend on the contest.. That really turned me off to the competitive side of the show..

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They've had that disclaimer since the beginning, though I don't think the producers play a large role in the elimination decisions. I doubt Tom would stay around if every decision was undermined by a corporate exec.

[jesteinf]

Producers and judges pick the person to go home.. And that it might not depend on the contest.. That really turned me off to the competitive side of the show..

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That's a pretty standard disclaimer on just about every reality show where a panel of judges picks who gets eliminated (Top Chef, Project Runway, The Apprentice, America's Next Top Model, etc).

[Dignan]

Has this been spoken about?  I am not an avid watcher but, two episodes ago The Second City Show, they flashed a disclaimer.. Producers and judges pick the person to go home.. And that it might not depend on the contest.. That really turned me off to the competitive side of the show..

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They've had that disclaimer since the beginning, though I don't think the producers play a large role in the elimination decisions. I doubt Tom would stay around if every decision was undermined by a corporate exec.

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In this description of the Marcel head shaving scandal, Tom wanted to send all the shearing contestants home, which would have given Marcel the title by default. The Producers intervened.