Top Chef Season 3 Premiere

[Blarg]

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Dids - that's pretty amusing, also she actually did seem pretty pro-Sam last season...

Sure, I've only seen 1 episode and read brief bios of the contestants... but I get the feeling Ilan would get smoked if he were in Season 3.

-Al

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I think he repeatedly barely skated by in Season 2. Much like Marcel always doing foams, Elan was always doing Spanish food. He even brought canned eels to use instead of fresh food so he could keep doing Spanish food on the road. WTF

[Aloysius]

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I already hate the big New York dude with the popped collar.

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Really? I like this guy and am rooting for him to stick around for a while. The fact that he's the executive chef at Cafe des Artistes is kind of a classic, great contrast.

Blarg - good explanation, that seems fair. And I mean Padma gets alot of flyers cause she's hot.

-Al

[Dids]

Elan's overuse of Spanish food doens't really compare to Marcel and foams. Marcel just thought he was being funny/coy/playful, but it didn't come off that way because he has no idea how to relate to other human beings. Marcel actually was a pretty skilled chef who I think tried to get too cute without having any understanding of what cute might be.

[StevieG]

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They didn't say frying was a sin, or that it didn't taste good. Just that it made the least out of the opportunity. That's good criticism.

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Bourdain did the same thing, calling Clay out for par-boiling the chops when he had plenty of time to do it a la minute.

As for insulting, I don't think the "big toe" comment was any worse than Bourdain's "Air Cambodia" quip.

Padma is a good judge, I have no problem with her (and I thought Katie Joel was smoking).

[Aloysius]

Katie Joel is very hot. I've only seen Season 1 in bits and pieces... but she struck me as having no personality (did they replace her or did she leave of her own volition?).

And yeah, Padma's a fine judge, but is pretty clearly a food noob compared to Colicchio, Gail and Ted Allen (all of whom I like alot).

I'm just glad they picked some reasonably good looking women this time. Last year was pretty sad. I think the hottest chick S3 might be the Brooklyn chick who owns Paloma.

-Al

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm just glad they picked some reasonably good looking women this time. Last year was pretty sad. I think the hottest chick S3 might be the Brooklyn chick who owns Paloma.


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Camille

I'm going with Casey even though I have the feeling she's working hard on looking good.

Sara and Micah may be the better cooks, though.

[Dids]

Al,

They replaced her.

Casey is the best looking imo, Camille is 2nd, but Sara N. is my fav 'cause of yellowishness.

[Aloysius]

Stevie - haha I purposely didn't link to that pic of Camille - not too flattering. Thought she looked very cute during the episode the brief time we saw her though. Maybe I'm just being contrarian - Casey is the safe choice (seems she's being heavily promoted), but could also actually be the hottest.

-Al

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Elan's overuse of Spanish food doens't really compare to Marcel and foams. Marcel just thought he was being funny/coy/playful, but it didn't come off that way because he has no idea how to relate to other human beings. Marcel actually was a pretty skilled chef who I think tried to get too cute without having any understanding of what cute might be.

[/ QUOTE ]

Their attitudes is a separate subject from their overuse of their favorite cooking themes. Elan was very rigid in trying to Spanish-ify everything he cooked whether it called for it or not. Marcel's foam-love had a little more inherent absurdity because it's so frou-frou and unlike anything a regular cook would do in the family kitchen, but they were a good match for rigidity.

I'm pretty convinced all of Elan's "accidental" bad behavior toward Marcel wasn't accidental, and that makes me think he's a real slime. Marcel looks like he needs work in the humility department, but at least he doesn't seem as underhanded as Elan, so I wound up liking him better just because Elan seems like a scumbag.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
Marcel's foam-love had a little more inherent absurdity because it's so frou-frou and unlike anything a regular cook would do in the family kitchen, but they were a good match for rigidity.

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Not doing it in a home kitchen does not make it absurd. There are plenty of things that you would not do in the family kitchen that I expect a high quality restaurant to do (for instance, making and using their own chicken stock, veal stock, fish stock, etc., making their own puff pastry) that are not frou-frou or absurd.

If anything foam is a lot easier and quicker for a home cook to do than making your own stock or puff pastry. If you have an immersion blender (a hand blender) and soy lecithin (mail order, you can get it in days), you, too, can make foams. In seconds.

In the plus side, the foam adds visual appeal, a different texture, novelty, and whimsy.

The foam is gimmicky, however, and the more often you do it the quicker it loses that novelty.

That's the problem with his foams - he does it too damn often.