Curtis Stone - Already Sick Of Him?

[weinoo]

Yeah, yeah, I know. All things Australian are cool.

But seriously. Top Chef Masters? America's Next Great Restaurant? Take Home Chef? And one of the sexiest men alive?!

Enough already. Has anyone had any of this guy's food?

[Genkinaonna]

He seems like an Australian Tyler Florence to me. I have the impression he was engineered in a factory to appeal to a certain demographic. I have not had any of his food, but I can't say anything he's made really makes me want it...

[weinoo]

Has he really made something?

[gfweb]

He does a good rod Stewart impression.

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[Pierogi]

I actually quite like him, but maybe I'm just a sucker for tall, blond guys with an accent.

[heidih]

Once you get past the accent which can seem almost like a marketing tool, I think he is real. My sis brought me one of the big food magazines from Australia and his column was right there with food you want to eat (magazine has been passed on so can not be specific). The show he has in the US where he found ladies at the market and helped them was beyond stupid- but that was the network and he is a working man.

[rarerollingobject]

Loathe.

But he is 'real'. He's a well-known chef here; was on a few cooking shows in Aus before he 'made it big' in the US and I never really liked the look of his food or his pretty-boy schtick, though I suspect he's actually quite technically proficient as a cook.

He's also a spokesman for one of the very big supermarket chains here (Coles), a chain whose practices I have some ethical/irritation issues with, so that diminished him further in my view. (Really, Curtis? Your recipe cards NEED to specify that one must use "Coles-brand cage eggs"? Especially since at the same time you're spruiking cookbooks espousing ethical, locavore and organic food choices?)

Edited March 24, 2011 by rarerollingobject (log)

[Hayley Casarotto]

Exactly right about the cage eggs, rarerollingobject. I am gobsmacked that he endorses animal cruelty for a monopolistic chain with dubious practices in almost every area in order to land a paycheck.

Also, Curtis' "feed your family for less than $10" series of recipes that he did for Coles apparently require you to have a good lot of stuff in your pantry in order to keep it under $10. Which you might not necessarily have.

I've never been a fan of the food he promotes, and seeing as how his accent is the same as mine, I am not swayed by it. There are plenty of much, much more talented Australian cooks and chefs out there, and the only reason he's the one who's made it big in America is his surfer image. Pass.

[weinoo]

Beyond the "food column," I'd still like to know what his restaurant food tasted like. If there ever was any.

Sounds like, from the people who are really in the know (see rarerollingobject and Hayley Casarotto above), he's a bit of a, as we Americans like to say, dbag.

[natasha1270]

Only caught an episode or two of Take Home Chef and he seems harmless enough. Judging from his bio on Bravo.com, he would seem to have a bit more in the credential department than his Top Chef counterpart, Padma. Will wait and see how that translates on Top Chef Masters.

editted to correct link.

Edited March 24, 2011 by natasha1270 (log)

[weinoo]

Only caught an episode or two of Take Home Chef and he seems harmless enough. Judging from his bio on Bravo.com, he would seem to have a bit more in the credential department than his Top Chef counterpart, Padma. Will wait and see how that translates on Top Chef Masters.

editted to correct link.

Padma's just another pretty face. Oh wait...

[gfweb]

Loathe.

But he is 'real'. He's a well-known chef here; was on a few cooking shows in Aus before he 'made it big' in the US and I never really liked the look of his food or his pretty-boy schtick, though I suspect he's actually quite technically proficient as a cook.

He's also a spokesman for one of the very big supermarket chains here (Coles), a chain whose practices I have some ethical/irritation issues with, so that diminished him further in my view. (Really, Curtis? Your recipe cards NEED to specify that one must use "Coles-brand cage eggs"? Especially since at the same time you're spruiking cookbooks espousing ethical, locavore and organic food choices?)

What's a cage egg?

[Hayley Casarotto]

What's a cage egg?

An egg from a battery hen, as opposed to free range (or the other option we have here, barn-laid, which is sort of middle ground.)

[nickrey]

He's one of Marco Pierre White's proteges. Tough school to be brought up in: Marco is notoriously known as the only chef to make Gordon Ramsay cry. Stone was head chef in one of MPW's restaurants. Must be able to cook.

[lancastermike]

I've seen the guy on TV. it seems is is a highly effective TV personality. The concept that TV food shows are more about TV than food seems hard for some to grasp. He was compared to Tyler Florence, who is another very effective TV personality. So these guys don't meet out high EG standards. But the people running the TV shows seem to like them. it is about TV not about food

[Holly Moore]

Full title please. As Bravo kept saying last night, "Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone."

[llc45]

Full title please. As Bravo kept saying last night, "Celebrity Chef Curtis Stone."

[Nasi_Campur]

I don't own a TV...

given what I've heard here about the "Celebrity Chef" I remain overjoyed about my condition.

[ruthcooks]

Can't get past his awful, messy hair. Is it not combed? Or does he (or someone else) spend hours getting it to look like that?

Watched him cook just once, and something he did turned me "right off".

[scubadoo97]

Can't get past his awful, messy hair. Is it not combed? Or does he (or someone else) spend hours getting it to look like that?

Watched him cook just once, and something he did turned me "right off".

I think that's the style these days. Have you seen Richard Blais's hair?

[weinoo]

Eater gets right on the story...today.

Which begs the question: Who the hell is Curtis Stone?

[IndyRob]

Eater gets right on the story...today.

Which begs the question: Who the hell is Curtis Stone?

Good find. Props to him for surviving three restaurants with Marco Pierre White, but otherwise, there's not much there there.

This thread title popped into my head at the beginning of Top Chef: Masters, and I thought "Yeah, I think so."

[Pierogi]

OK. See. The thing is this....

While you folks with the XY chromosomes like having Padma and Kelly around as the eye-candy hostesses, us folks with the XX chromosomes would like someone to drool over (well in addition to the food).

Curtis works for me on that level. He may not have the best cred, he may not have a lot of chops in the kitchen, but...but...

He's tall

He's got a good body

He's blond

He's got a killer accent

He's cute

Works for me.

No complaints from this quarter. Heck, I even used to watch "Take Home Chef", as awful as that was, just for the vicarious thrill.......

[ChrisTaylor]

I must admit that maybe I've got my head in the sand on such matters--I don't really watch television on a regular or even semi-regular basis, I tend to, er, 'acquire' the stuff I want from ad-free sources, I don't have cable--but I'd never really seen the guy doing anything at all aside from the supermarket ads a bit ago. Maybe he popped up once or twice on Masterchef, even. He publishes the odd recipe in delicious magazine, too. He--and his success story--don't really strike me as that different to the stories of many celebrity 'chefs', most of whom aren't chefs at all. I don't know ... but on Masterchef and some other shows, where they sometimes trundle out chefs who still earn 95% of their income from actually cooking steaks and cakes, a lot of them don't have the 'personality' to be some happy bouncing excitable television show presenter (and our presenters over here are a bit more subdued than what I've seen of, say, Extreme Foods or Top Chef).

To host a cooking show--or sell frypans or put recipes into magazines pitched at supermarket shoppers--you don't need to be a 'real' chef. It's not what television show producers and magazine publishers are looking for. Some industry cred is nice, maybe, but it's not as nice as the ability to relate to an audience of everyday folk and flash a pretty smile. Nigella Lawson's boobs and seductive voice and accessibility--she draws attention to the corners she cuts, makes it clear you can do all this at home with stuff you buy on the way home from work--than how good, truly, her roast pork is or how she'd fare, one-on-one on some Iron Chef special, against Elena Arzak.

I don't hold the success Stone (and Lawson and Oliver and whoever else) has had against him. I mean damn, if I could work a few years in a kitchen and then become really rich promoting Coles supermarkets and looking pretty for housewives while I told middle Australia how to grill the perfect steak, I'd go for it.

[PopsicleToze]

OK. See. The thing is this....

While you folks with the XY chromosomes like having Padma and Kelly around as the eye-candy hostesses, us folks with the XX chromosomes would like someone to drool over (well in addition to the food).

Curtis works for me on that level. He may not have the best cred, he may not have a lot of chops in the kitchen, but...but...

He's tall

He's got a good body

He's blond

He's got a killer accent

He's cute

Works for me.

No complaints from this quarter. Heck, I even used to watch "Take Home Chef", as awful as that was, just for the vicarious thrill.......

Nice synopsis!