Top Chef

[schild]

Fuck yea!

Thank fucking god it wasn't the letdown of last season. Goddamn am I happy with the results. Dale and Casey were a fucking mess.

[Sairon]

Seems to be somewhat like Hells Kitchen right? I love Hells Kitchen. Maybe this is something I should pick up and give a shot.

BTW, the 9s are starting to line up for schild 

[schild]

BTW, the 9s are starting to line up for schild 

My god, it's full of stars.

[schild]

Also, this is nothing like Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen is a bunch of shitty no-talent ass clowns put in a kitchen to cook for the guy that is the star of the asshole. Some eurotrash motherfucker who thinks he's king of the world and curses more than me. He is a dick. Everyone on the show is an unskilled fuckwit and the show suffers from not giving you any reason to give a fuck.

Top Chef on the other hand is mostly skilled, experience chefs and their food is the star of the show. It's about the food. It's a good show. Also, the only reality show I've ever liked even a tiny bit.

[Nebu]

I was mixed about the finale.  I thought Dale had more heart and Hung had more precision.  You could base one hell of a cullinary career around either.  Hung kind of struck me as a "Marcel but less of an asshole".  Good technical chef with modern ideas, but so robotic as to miss some flair. 

FWIW, this is about the only show on television I'll go out of my way to watch.  I'm still trying to decide if it's because the challenges are entertaining or because I like the food.

[schild]

I'm still trying to decide if it's because the challenges are entertaining or because I like the food.

Both.

I was mixed about the finale.  I thought Dale had more heart and Hung had more precision.  You could base one hell of a cullinary career around either.  Hung kind of struck me as a "Marcel but less of an asshole".  Good technical chef with modern ideas, but so robotic as to miss some flair.

How about this, Dale shouldn't have made it to the finals. :)

[Nebu]

How about this, Dale shouldn't have made it to the finals. :)

I think the finals should have been Tre and Hung, but Tre had a bad outing in a group task.  Of the 4 finalists, I think Dale and Hung were the best.  Dale had the training and was interesting in his flavor combinations.  I think Casey was too fundamental in her approach and showed a severe lack of sophistication and culinary knowledge.  She always tried to make things that were never going to fly given the timeline set before her.  Overall, I think they chose the best person as the winner.  I wasn't disappointed.

[Johny Cee]

How about this, Dale shouldn't have made it to the finals. :)

I think the finals should have been Tre and Hung, but Tre had a bad outing in a group task.  Of the 4 finalists, I think Dale and Hung were the best.  Dale had the training and was interesting in his flavor combinations.  I think Casey was too fundamental in her approach and showed a severe lack of sophistication and culinary knowledge.  She always tried to make things that were never going to fly given the timeline set before her.  Overall, I think they chose the best person as the winner.  I wasn't disappointed.

I liked Tre.  I think he tried to carry too much by himself and got caught in the Restaurant Wars episode.  Hung, for that matter,  came pretty close to an elimination when he got paired up with Joey because that idiot wouldn't listen to him.

Casey was alright,  but you knew she was going to the finals as long as she wasn't terrible.  Attractive, personable, fairly positive/sweet, girl-next-door-type?  I'm just glad she seems to have a decent amount of talent,  which didn't show through until the last few episodes of the show.

[Azaroth]

I heart Top Chef.

I was a bigger fan of last season though.

[Signe]

I like the show and I also liked last season better.  I liked Tre, too.  And I like Gordon Ramsey. I'm all like-y today.   

[Sauced]

I thought the "live" gimmick was a failure.  First of all, how long was the time between the taped finale and the staged bit in Chicago?  It obviously took a bit of tension out of it for the 3 finalists, poor Casey was just there to take a bullet, and at least 2/3 of the audience was SAD because they went all the way to Chicago to witness a LOSS.  Well played.

Also, having it live, they found a way to make Marcel even more of an insufferable prick.  Bravo.

[schild]

I thought it was hilarious.

Cry me a river hilarious.

[Evildrider]

I think the final 3 all had some right to be there.  Casey choked hard on the last show, she's shown that she has probably the best palette among all the contestants this year, but she's not up to snuff technically.  Dale skated by most of the season but came on stronger during the last few weeks, the praise he got from the chefs was pretty good, and it seemed like if he hadn't of messed up that lobster curry dish he would have won.  Hung still never wow'd me with his food, he was technically superb.. but he didn't seem to really get into his food as much as some of the other competitors. 

I was waiting for one of the judges to say something about Hung's coconut foam though, especially since he's a friend of Marcell's. lol

[schild]

Hung made like 2 foams the whole show. I think he made 1 reduction.

Marcel is a big egoheaded jerk who just thinks food is neat. They both happen to work at a fantastic restaurant.

[Morfiend]

I cant watch this show. I am on a diet and it makes me so fucking hungry for expensive food.

[schild]

I cant watch this show. I am on a diet and it makes me so fucking hungry for expensive food.

What diet?

[MrHat]

Apparently the one where you can't even fucking look at carbs.

[schild]

I have interest because I'm about to start a radical diet. After zee surgery.

[Evildrider]

Hung made like 2 foams the whole show. I think he made 1 reduction.

Marcel is a big egoheaded jerk who just thinks food is neat. They both happen to work at a fantastic restaurant.

Reductions are common place, hell even I make reductions at home.  It's those damn jelly's and foams that Marcell over used.

I know Hung didn't make alot of foams.. he really didn't use alot of the newer cooking techniques, he's heavy classical.  I was just used to the judges making comments on all the foams last season. 

[Nebu]

I have interest because I'm about to start a radical diet. After zee surgery.

I'll be happy to share my current "cut" diet with you.  I go on this diet for about 3 months of the year to keep my body fat in check after a muscle mass gain food-fest.  The good part is that I've lost about 20lbs in the last 6 weeks while maintaining most of my lean muscle mass.  The bad part is that I'm fucking hungry all the time.

[schild]

The point of starting a diet after my surgery is that I'll be on enough drugs that not eating will be a non-issue. I think.

[stray]

My friend was on Hell's Kitchen. I assure you, he's not an unskilled fuckwit. His only flaw as a cook is that he screws his employees. Literally.

[schild]

My friend was on Hell's Kitchen. I assure you, he's not an unskilled fuckwit. His only flaw as a cook is that he screws his employees. Literally.

Compared to Top Chef contestants, he's an unskilled fuckwit.

I didn't mean compared to people on f13.

[Yoshimaru]

I was really satisfied with the outcome... Top Chef and Iron Chef (Japan version only, American version is just blasphemy) are the only 2 cooking shows I can stand to watch, any other cooking shows just annoy the hell out of me.

[stray]

Japan Iron Chef sucks balls. If given the choice between a pizza cook from Naples, a cook from Provence, a cook from Boston, or a native, then they will always choose the man from Kyoto with the squid and eels. It's bullshit.

[Lt.Dan]

Just count yourselves lucky you don't have to put up with that dickhead Jamie Oliver..."luverly jubberly" and "pucka" have no place....anywhere.

[Sauced]

Bourdain's blog on the show is pretty much great.

"What to do with a chicken, an onion, and a potato?" is about as perfect and straightforward a challenge as could be imagined. Particularly in the venue of the French Culinary Institute -- and particularly in front of these judges, for whom those ingredients are seen as a Holy Trinity of Fundamental Elements. Along with the classic " Make Me An Omelet " test (which would have ended the show a little too quickly), the Trial of The Chicken is traditionally seen as a near religious passage, a station of the cross, an early task on the One True Path to chefdom. Just as it is widely believed that "you can tell everything you need to know about a cook by how he makes an omelet", the cooking of a simple chicken makes an open book of whoever prepared it. There’s no wiggle room, no lying, no weaseling, and no misrepresenting when you’re facing the Test of The Chicken (or the Omelet, for that matter). No amount of garnish or frippery will help evade the truth. As they say in the courtroom: “Res Ipsa Loquitor” (The thing speaks for itself.)

You might have noticed that Hung won both challenges. Sirio Maccione picked him for the Quickfire winner. Chef Andre Soltner picked him for the Elimination winner...and that's enough for me.

[Righ]

I prefer Hells Kitchen. The contestants may not be of the caliber of Top Chef across the board, but they can all cook, and its more interesting to see them handle the actual chef functions rather than just having a cooking pageant. Top Chef is like some sort of gastronomic fashion show, with an over indulgence of postmodern cooking styles including Californian nouvelle and molecular gastronomy. Hung did good though. Without tasting the chow, its pretty hard to disagree with the judges, right?

[schild]

Californian nouvelle and molecular gastronomy.

You just described a grand total of 3 of the way too many contestants from the last 3 seasons.

And not to be mean-spirited, but the moment you get a fast food line chef on your show, it's not about cooking anymore. I don't care how much more British that bastard on Hell's Kitchen is, it's just bad tv.

[Righ]

Actually HK certainly better TV - because its more entertaining. You never think that Ramsey decided to kick somebody off simply over his personal taste - the decisions on the food are made by the restaurant attendees. Ramsey judges people on things that you the viewer get to see, which makes you feel more involved. Top Chef is very pretty - you get to see the food, but you have to accept the judges decisions in every case - because its really just a cookery show, and the proof is in the eating. Which makes it something of an uninvolving fashion show. With provocative comestibles instead of boobies.

[Evildrider]

Hell's Kitchen is all about Gordon Ramsey, the chefs are the sideshow.  If most of those people on there would have been real chefs... sous/executive, like the ones on Top Chef.  The waffle house cook wouldn't have beaten better then half the field of contestants.

[Signe]

I love Gordon Ramsey.  It's not because he has had ten Michelin stars all together or because he's cute, it's because he was ALMOST signed up to the Rangers.  I like Jamie Oliver because he's cute.  My first boyfriend's name was Mike Colicchio.  We used to sniff glue under the railway station.  He was a bad boy and last I heard he and his cousin were in prison.  That's the reason I like Top Chef.

[schild]

Gotta tell ya, I'll take one episode with Anthony Bourdaine or Rocco Dispirito or any number of the guest judges on Top Chef than 23 Episodes of Gordon Ramsey. That guy is unlikable. His new show is dick also. Not because he's juding amateurs, but simply because he talks like a wanker.

[Evildrider]

Hmm.. am I the only one that watches Bourdain's show No Reservations?  It's not as good as his old half hour one, as he fills it with fluff instead of just doing the food.  Which I guess comes with being on the Travel Channel.

[voodoolily]

Top Chef is food pr0n, it's true. And since I know what the people are doing, it's quality entertainment for me. iirc, schild and I nailed Hung as the winner last summer on Episode 1 or 2 (I think we both assumed Tre would be a contender also, but alas). Top Chef humbles me and makes me feel like a master of my craft at the same time. I love all things food, and this show delivers.

Hell's Kitchen is about Gordon Ramsey, which is why I also love that show. When people fuck up basic things like boiling pasta they should get yelled at. Even if they are so totally out of their league that shouldn't be there in the first place, seeing some retard fuck up pasta makes me angry and it's wonderful to see them get called a fat fucking moron to their face.

The thing about Ramsey is, he's not just a retired football star cum world-renowned chef. He is a one-man movement toward getting people into the fucking kitchen already. He is a one-man pundit for the Less is More movement. And he's a Scotsman with a sailor mouth who makes his kids raise their own Christmas turkeys.