Top Chef: New Orleans

[huiray]

Grubstreet recap of Ep 13: http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/01/top-chef-season-11-episode-13-recap.html

LCK: Another close one. Stephanie fails to dislodge Louis but she can hold her head high.

[annabelle]

Haven't they done that in the past? Not sent someone home, I mean.

Nick would have been a fool to give up his immunity for some foolish notion of "honor".

And, Carlos is still a dick.

[lindag]

Agreed. I wouldn't want Carlos on any team of mine; he is a dick.

[Jaymes]

I agree that Nick should not have been asked to give up immunity. He didn't make the rules. You can't blame him for playing by them.

It's probably not a good idea to have immunity at all this late in the game, and most certainly not with a group challenge when you know there are only going to be three cheftestants on each team. What did they expect?

If you don't want people to actually USE the immunity, then why on earth even offer it? Being expected to give it up should you screw up totally defeats the purpose of having it, doesn't it? And, everybody had an equal chance to earn immunity, but Nick was the one that did.

I think that the person that should be the most embarrassed watching the playback is Chef Crenn. It just seemed to me that she was on some sort of French ego trip. I loved listening to Chef Serrano talk about how he wanted them to all do something that they knew how to do well.

[lindag]

I was appalled that the judges embarrassed Nick by suggesting in front of the other two contestants that he give up his immunity.

Then the two women were angry with Nick when he opted to stay. He should never have been put in that situation.

This was so wrong.

[annabelle]

I'm wondering if the judges would have made the same request of Nick if the other chefs had been men? Pretty sexist, to my mind.

[huiray]

...

It's probably not a good idea to have immunity at all this late in the game, and most certainly not with a group challenge when you know there are only going to be three cheftestants on each team. What did they expect?

...

I agree it was probably not a good idea for immunity to be granted with just 6 cheftestants left. However, they have had teams with an immune cheftestant in the mix before, with the "losing team" subject to having one person thrown off.

As an example, in Season 9 they had three teams of three chefs each in the BBQ pit wars with one immune chef (Ty-Lör) in the Red Team [Edward, Sarah, Ty-Lör] and Sarah had her heat/whatever issues and absconded to the hospital leaving Edward and Ty-Lör in the breach...I remember Edward tossing things around in his anxiety because if they turned up on the bottom he felt Sarah was unlikely to be sent home because of her "medical issues" while Ty-Lör had immunity leaving him as the sole sitting duck. (Fortunately for Edward *both* the Red and White teams, not just the Red team, were keel-hauled and Malibu Chris from the White team got sent off instead)

As another example, in Season 6 episode 7, if Kevin had opted for immunity instead of cash they would have had teams of TWO in the elimination challenge (in his case, himself + Jennifer) with the losing team subject to having one of the chefs dismissed. In that instance, he ended up winning anyway so all was well.

In the current season in this (just) past episode they really should have opted to not send anyone home instead.

Edited January 16, 2014 by huiray (log)

[gfweb]

I'm wondering if the judges would have made the same request of Nick if the other chefs had been men? Pretty sexist, to my mind.

OK. I'll take the bait.

I blame Pepin. Old school French guy has to be sexist. He's French, right?

[annabelle]

I wasn't trying to be provocative with the question, I just think that's probably the case. Jacques' old so I'd expect him to be old school about the ladies' getting their feelings hurt.

And he's French.

[gfweb]

So tonight... Judge Roy Choi is a complete jackass on quickfire. Gangsta nitwit. At least his hat wasn't on backwards. Foodtruck schmuck judging real chefs. They ALL sucked? I think not. Nice posturing Royboy. Keeping it real. Schmuck.

Reminded me of the White House chef nitpicking whether tomato is a vegetable or a fruit on some past season. Another schmuck.

I admire the restraint of the cheftestants. I'd have told them both to screw-off.

Edited January 16, 2014 by gfweb (log)

[annabelle]

I'll out myself as a hater of all things food truck. If Roy Choi thought they all sucked, then there were no losers in that QF.

Choi's POV is the most bizarre fusion of disparate cuisines I think I've ever heard of: Mexican/Korean? No.

[huiray]

I'm not sure what to make of TC NOLA episode 14.

The Po-Boy QF challenge - that was perplexing. If the bread is supposed to be a main defining characteristic of what makes a po-boy a po-boy then all the cheftestants had that bread. Squeezing what they thought was a profile of who they were into the rubric of a po-boy then simply depended on what they themselves expressed of themselves. What WAS Roy Choi looking for? Maybe his idea of a sandwich (which the po-boy is, after all) with some sort of POW! BAM! KABLOOIE! feature according to his conceptions of what POW! BAM! KABLOOIE! meant to him as personal expressions? Maybe some harking back to his gangster past, which none of the cheftestants would have had? (Just wildly speculating) I note that both Gail Simmons and Hugh Acheson in their blogs on bravo.com on this episode sort of skated over the question. Judge them on what they put out of themselves into that sandwich. Not on what you thought they should be in your fevered imagination.

Mind you, all the judges (especially Emeril, for that matter) keep talking about "soul" and expressing passion etc in your food - but this is a subjective issue dependent upon what and how a particular person's personality unfolds. The Myers-Briggs personality tests for one definitely understand that concept [whether or not one agrees with THAT test ;-) ]. Looking for "soul" in a chef's food (especially where the chef may be someone whose personality is completely at odds with yours) is a subjective thing.

Well, immunity was again granted in the QF challenge, with just FIVE cheftestants left. [Jaymes, if you are reading this, are you having conniptions about it? :-) ] The EC again involved "expressing yourself" in a form - and in all honesty I don't see how what the cheftestants produced differed that markedly from what they put out in the QF in terms of "tenor" and "basis", if you will, apart from their composition and execution - so their producing shit po-boys all around according to Roy Choi is odd. Glad Shirley Chung did not need her immunity in the end and I would agree she tried to do the best she could. (However, in the context of last week's episode vs this week's episode I would opine that the two are not directly comparable in terms of what the "immune person" did or did not do) I would appreciate it, though, if she stopped saying "I'm Chinese/Asian" (or dragging her family and everything familial into everything) every chance she got. We can see that, and I'M Chinese/Asian. Just cook your stuff.

Nick Elmi had a very lucky escape. Was he sabotaged, with regards to the burnt quinoa as the bravo tape-feed during the episode asked? Heh, that is a loaded question. :-) Bye, Brian. Your were classy in your exit.

I *do* find it eyebrow-raising, though, the STRONG bias the judges have against (skinless boneless) chicken breasts, almost just because they are chicken breasts, it seems - and what comes over to me is that they might not even care that much how such breasts were cooked or handled, the very fact that skinless boneless chicken breasts were used was a sufficiently damning thing in and of itself. I found it smirk-provoking that the Magical Elves purposely included a clip of one of the diners declaring that that chicken breast dish of Brian's was the best dish he had had so far that meal. :-)

LCK: Another tight one - involving, what else, chicken broth and chicken. Lovely-looking dishes. Brian Huskey cooked "the best dish he had all season" according to Colicchio (The Decider) but Louis Maldonado cooked the "best dish (Colicchio) had tasted all season". Louis pulls it off again.

Edited January 17, 2014 by huiray (log)

[gfweb]

Contestants would do well to read Colicchio's The Mind of a Chef before every contest. In it he spells out his preferences and philosophy pretty clearly.

RE chicken breast. One could look at making a delicious breast as the test of a chef. Even make it an elimination challenge.

[Jaymes]

"Conniptions"? Uh, no. Not even one conniption. Nor do I think my previously-expressed opinion that it's a little late in the game for immunity rose quite to the conniption level, either.

Although that immunity thing sure works out better when the cheftestant doesn't need it, doesn't it? And when the challenge doesn't involve very small teams.

However, I do get that the producers of the show have to come up with quickfire prizes worth winning. Otherwise, since nobody goes home, many of the cheftestants might be seriously tempted to just phone it in and save their best efforts for when it really counts.

And from a cost perspective, immunity is definitely the most affordable prize they could come up with.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Jaymes (log)

[Shelby]

I finally had the time to get to my DVR and get caught up. I was 3 episodes behind.

I was sorry to see Stephanie go. Personality-wise, she was my favorite. Many times her jokes cracked me up.

GLAD to see whiny-ass Nicholas off. I wanted to step through the TV into the kitchen and move his damn pots around some more.

So, the next episode is moved to Hawaii? And, the winner from Last Chance Kitchen will join them there? I haven't kept up with who is winning that.

I see it as coming down to Nina and Shirley with Nina pulling out the win.

[gfweb]

I think Nick is still in it. Brian left last IIRC.

[annabelle]

I think Nick is getting a "villain" edit from the Magic Elves.

He's not my favorite, but he's not evil. He just seems high-strung. Not exactly unusual with professional chefs.

[Shelby]

I think Nick is still in it. Brian left last IIRC.

Crap. You're right. I must have been projecting my wishes onto the computer screen lol.

Well, yuck. I don't want to see Nick again. But, I guess I will.

[huiray]

I think Nick is still in it. Brian left last IIRC.

Crap. You're right. I must have been projecting my wishes onto the computer screen lol.

Well, yuck. I don't want to see Nick again. But, I guess I will.

...

Nick Elmi had a very lucky escape. Was he sabotaged, with regards to the burnt quinoa as the bravo tape-feed during the episode asked? Heh, that is a loaded question. :-) Bye, Brian. Your were classy in your exit.

...

;-) :-)

I think Nick is getting a "villain" edit from the Magic Elves.

He's not my favorite, but he's not evil. He just seems high-strung. Not exactly unusual with professional chefs.

I tend to agree. He's not evil. High-strung, definitely. He does have a sense of superiority, yes, but his past experience** does also give him some basis for that although he would be better advised to tone it down. What's that they say about youth and brashness, though.

** For example, EC of Le Bec Fin (before Fanucci bought it, and it closed down not so long after that) and protege of Georges Perrier, who has also championed him.

[gfweb]

I think Nick is getting a "villain" edit from the Magic Elves.

He's not my favorite, but he's not evil. He just seems high-strung. Not exactly unusual with professional chefs.

Nick worked for Georges Perrier, THE high strung chef. Famous for explosions and violence followed by a charming tour through the diners. You'd hear crashes and Gallic swearing...and then he's all smiles a moment later.

[annabelle]

That makes sense. He's a perfectionist, just like his boss. In this day of hacktastic chefs, it's no wonder the others might hate him for that.

I respect him more now for refusing to give up his immunity.

[gfweb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/dining/for-3-nights-le-bec-fin-lives-again.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&

Nice piece about Perrier. I loved that place.

The old LBF location has had a number of fine restaurants..LBF then Chanterelle then Vetri. The opposite of a cursed location, even though it really is a backstreet.

Edited January 21, 2014 by gfweb (log)

[huiray]

I think it might clarify matters for other readers (and in terms of what I and gfweb has posted) if it was explained here that Georges Perrier was the proprieter/chef of Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia, held to be the premier French cuisine place there and one of the best in the country, and where Nick Elmi worked as EC in the late 2000's to 2012 before the sale by Perrier to Fanucci (a former GM of LBF, who left LBF in 2003? and decamped to Florida then The French Laundry; who then brought a FL sous-chef (Abrams, who got sacked after 7? months) to LBF when he took it over) (So Fanucci and Elmi did not overlap in the LBF time-line)

Edited January 21, 2014 by huiray (log)

[annabelle]

Yes, that was clear from your previous post, huiray.

[annabelle]

That is a nice piece about Perrier.

Too bad I recognized Bruni's prose right out of the gate. I despise Frank.