Top Chef: New Orleans

[gfweb]

I think that Tom et al like salty food. I think it's literally a matter of taste.

The Philadelphia inquirer reviewed Nicks restaurant today. Three stars out of four, which for this reviewer is a rave. They were there prior to the TC win though it was written after.

[lindag]

I'm happy to hear that Nick won; he was my favorite. I think of all the cheftestants, he was the most genuine. Though Nina was a close second. Shirley, I thought, was trying to get an edge by being a suck-up.

[Toliver]

Here's one interesting article about the need to salt food to promote the taste of the food, yes, but also contains this at the end:

“I thought, ‘Smoking dulls the palate. How many chefs do I know who smoke?’ ”

That's funny. My dad was a heavy smoker and had no sense of taste towards the end of his life. However, he bypassed the salt shaker and grabbed the pepper mill instead. His food would end up quite...black...before he could eat it. He used the spiciness of the black pepper to open up his sinuses so he could taste something...anything. He was a big fan of Tabasco sauce for the same reason.

Three of his four kids (myself included) are chile-heads to this day after watching him spice up his food all of our lives. None of us smoke, though.

I've posted elsewhere on eGullet about the huge amount of salt some TV food show hosts/chefs use. Anne Burrell on the Food Network literally throws fistfuls of salt in her dishes.

That's the thing about the judges on Top Chef. They'll make a comment about something being too salty or under-seasoned and then you'll hear a throwaway comment from a guest judge say something like "Mine was perfectly seasoned" and then you're not sure who is correct. It's too subjective and becomes meaningless in the end as a judging parameter.

[Brown Hornet]

I think enough judges and guest judges found Nick's dishes underseasoned throughout the season that we should not assume it was just Tom's particular preferences at play.

Beyond the fact that seasoning levels are very subjective, I think for many dishes there is a fine line between perfectly seasoned and salty. Mashed potatoes are a classic example -- there just seems to be a narrow sweet spot between bland and overly salty. It gets even trickier when you're dealing with a cold dish (like a crudo) that generally requires more seasoning than a hot dish.

In any event, I would love to try Nick's restaurant. It sounds fantastic and when he was on his game (as in the finale) his dishes looked amazing.

[huiray]

That's the thing about the judges on Top Chef. They'll make a comment about something being too salty or under-seasoned and then you'll hear a throwaway comment from a guest judge say something like "Mine was perfectly seasoned" and then you're not sure who is correct. It's too subjective and becomes meaningless in the end as a judging parameter.

Which is why, as I think has been discussed at other times too, cheftestants on TC should cook for the judges - meaning Tom C. (in particular), Gail S., Padma L., Hugh A., and whoever is on that season. In the past I've talked about how the cheftestants should also cater for their general dining clientele in their dining audience, as one would think they should do - but as others had pointed out the opinions of the other diners count for very little in the "judging" and the paramount thing still remains catering to the specific, idiosyncratic tastes of the TC judges. In fact, I seem to recall that one of the TC finalists (was it Richard Blais?) said specifically that in the context of TC he needed to disregard everyone else ("screw them") and simply cook to please the judges. In Real Life the cheftestants in their restaurants or in their catering endeavors need to cater to their dining audience, drawn from the general public and NOT the TC judges - but insofar as the TC show is concerned NONE OF THAT MATTERS. I thought in the past that that was a travesty - but after I accepted that TC is a Reality Entertainment Game Show then it was clear that yes indeed the Game Show Contestants simply needed to satisfy the specific people who were going to judge them. No matter whatever blah-blah they threw out there about whatever they wanted the viewing public to believe about the Superior Intentions of said Game Show.

p.s. Tom Colicchio HAS admitted that TC is a Game Show.

p.p.s. It's still entertaining (Top Chef, that is) but it IS a Game Show dependent on the whims of the specific people who are judging it.

[huiray]

I think enough judges and guest judges found Nick's dishes underseasoned throughout the season that we should not assume it was just Tom's particular preferences at play.

Beyond the fact that seasoning levels are very subjective, I think for many dishes there is a fine line between perfectly seasoned and salty. Mashed potatoes are a classic example -- there just seems to be a narrow sweet spot between bland and overly salty. It gets even trickier when you're dealing with a cold dish (like a crudo) that generally requires more seasoning than a hot dish.

In any event, I would love to try Nick's restaurant. It sounds fantastic and when he was on his game (as in the finale) his dishes looked amazing.

But that's the thing - as I alluded to before, perhaps there IS a bias towards heavy salting in restaurant food and amongst professional chefs that the general dining public may not share. See my post above. Some chefs do not seem to have a heavy hand with salt (perhaps those who said their food - from Nick - was "perfectly seasoned", as Toliver suggested? Or as I exemplified with Kelly Liken? I don't know. I *can* aver that "salting" is variable from person to person and region to region.

[annabelle]

Most professional chefs use too much salt for my tastes, yet time and again, we hear the judges grousing that dishes need more "seasoning". Do they specifically mean more salt? Many of the chefs cook with an Asian* palate of ginger, garlic, soy, &c. Soy sauces, fish sauces, bean sauces, &c are pretty damned salty already so if they want more seasoning, what are they asking for? The chefs can't ask or they get accused of being snot-nosed kids and we are left guessing.

Maybe the best course is to crack some salt and pepper over the thing before it goes to table.

Has anyone gotten called out for using too much seasoning? I recall a few times a chef has been chastised for making a dessert that is too sweet.

*let's not revisit that "what's Asian?" battle again, okay?

[Shalmanese]

Back when Pepsi did the "Pepsi challenge", people preferred the sweeter Pepsi when drinking a single mouthful but preferred Coke when drinking an entire can. I think the same principle applies on TC, TC judges are served such an overwhelming amount of food that they have no choice but to eat a tiny bit of every dish.

I know when I've made dishes, there's plenty of things that seem delicious on the first bite that become overly seasoned and fatiguing on the palate when I'm halfway through the dish. Eventually, you learn to dial back the seasoning commensurate with the expected serving size. What I think trips up a lot of chefs is that they're used to seasoning amuse bouche portions with amuse bouche levels of seasoning and entrees with entree levels of seasoning but they need to break that habit and season entrees as if they were amuse bouches.

Also, I think chefs that are known for their "big, bold" flavors like Carlos seem to go much farther in the competition than those known for subtle, refined flavors for the exact same reason.

[huiray]

Most professional chefs use too much salt for my tastes, yet time and again, we hear the judges grousing that dishes need more "seasoning". Do they specifically mean more salt?

(snip)

Has anyone gotten called out for using too much seasoning? I recall a few times a chef has been chastised for making a dessert that is too sweet.

Yes there have been instances. Certainly for dishes that were "too salty". In many cases they were the result of trying to satisfy the judges' liking for higher salt levels, I seem to remember, other times not. If one includes "spiciness" within the definition of "seasoning", then yes again. Even in this just-concluded season Nina Compton was repeatedly dinged for making things that were too spicy.

[huiray]

TC judges are served such an overwhelming amount of food that they have no choice but to eat a tiny bit of every dish.

Not always. They have been shown on numerous occasions to finish off the entire serving (entrées) from one cheftestant or another, especially with Tom Colicchio and Emeril Lagasse (when he is a judge on whatever season), and have declared they wanted another portion of whatever it was they just polished off. Gail Simmons has also done this; I'm not sure about Padma Lakshmi.

[annabelle]

Well, at least they specified to Nina what the problem was. It makes me crazy when they just use "seasoning" as a catch-all.

[gfweb]

Report of a guest at the final dinner. A chef from past a TC. She agrees that Nick won.

https://twitter.com/MPLSChefSara/status/431923627991134208

[huiray]

Podcast of Emeril Lagasse discussing the TC Season 11 finale (and more) with Andy Greenwald.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=10415579

[huiray]

(snip)

Also, I think chefs that are known for their "big, bold" flavors like Carlos seem to go much farther in the competition than those known for subtle, refined flavors for the exact same reason.

I've thought about this for a while over the seasons. Tom Colicchio (and even people like José Andrés) seem to have this notion of "ethnic cuisine" as having BOLD, POPPING, ASSERTIVE flavors. To this day it still rankles when I think of that cuisine-around-the-world challenge in TC Season 7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_%28season_7%29#Episode_8:_Foreign_Affairs) where both Tom C and José A dissed Ed Cotton's tea-smoked duck. Even though the Chinese diplomat in that episode declared it very good, very authentic. (including the rubbery skin that it would have had) JA asserted that it was not representative of "Chinese Food", whatever he thought "Chinese Food" was; while TC asserted that he expected "Chinese Food" to be BURSTING with flavors, In-Your-Face, etc etc. What hogwash. They also faulted that duck for still having a layer of fat - but, but - that layer of fat is EXPECTED in such a duck dish in Chinese cuisine!! I really think that if these two folks had been presented with classic Cantonese dishes like steamed prime fish they would have slammed it as "lacking in flavor". Much of Cantonese cuisine, for that matter, would FAIL their test for BOLD, BURSTING, ETC ETC flavors. Perhaps they think of Chinese cuisine as solely Sichuanese/Szechuanese cuisine, where extreme spiciness and palate-numbing dishes are more common than otherwise? For that matter I have read far too many comments from Western/USA food bloggers/food blog posters who say that they have little use for Cantonese cuisine but adore Szechuanese or Hunanese cuisine - precisely because of those spice/heat bombs in those cuisines.

[annabelle]

Yes, it's not popular to prefer Cantonese cuisine these days. I'm not sure why, other than that it is more commonly available in America.

[lindag]

Seems to me that Nick got some karmic payback for the humiliation he took when asked to give up his immunity early on.

He also deserved the win.

[huiray]

Nick Elmi and Laurel (his restaurant) are doing well.

http://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2014/09/17/twelve-philadelphia-restaurants-make-opentable-best-restaurants-list/#more-2843454

http://www.opentable.com/laurel

 

Laurel was also a JBF semi-finalist earlier this year; perhaps a higher honor awaits next year.

 

[huiray]

Nick Elmi & Laurel update: Still doing well.

http://www.gq.com/gallery/25-best-restaurants-of-2015#9

http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/2015-restaurant-and-chef-award-semifinalists

[huiray]

Nina Compton has opened her own restaurant: Compère Lapin, in New Orleans.

http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/nina-compton-launches-new-restaurant-in-new-orleans

http://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2015/05/compere_lapin_opening_nina_com.html

http://old77hotel.com/nina/

http://comperelapin.com/

[huiray]

A several-months-old article, but – In the context of folks saying Nick Elmi underseasoned his dishes, was undeserving, etc...Well, for the 2nd year running Philly diners didn't think so.

 

http://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/50-best-restaurants/ 

 

 

[huiray]

Justin Devillier won the 2016 James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: South.

http://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/2016-james-beard-award-winners