TV cooking contest shows

[Blarg]

That's how I sometimes feel seeing elaborate takes on food in Top Chef and other shows. I'm always kind of happy to see someone make something simple but good, and get away with it. Both the chefs and judges often exhibit indifference or contempt toward simple food done well.

Seriously, if I never eat cauliflower foam ice cream in my life, I don't think I'll have missed much.

[katyseagull]

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Just speaking from my limited perspective in mid-level hotels, you really need fish dishes for the occasional Catholic on Fridays and Asian and rare healthy American. Otherwise, it doesn't move much compared to other stuff. People like shrimp though, but it seems more as bar food or an appetizer. Pork was almost never chosen.

Pasta is very popular with the ladies. It got a rep back in the 80s/early 90s as low calorie and a diet food, even though it's not even close, and that seems to have stuck. I've seen the simple, familiar pastas doing best - sphaghetti and meatballs, linguini and clams, linguini alfredo. Pizza really moves.

You're also serving to people who order room service, too, and so you do well with food like pizza that people like to eat while curling up in front of a movie and zoning out.

People are mostly fairly fed up with being stiff and formal by the end of the day, and just want to relax. The exception is the businessman entertaining a client. Sometimes he wants something informal too, but you're usually expected to provide something at least semi-nice to a client, like a good steak.

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Nice post, Blarg. Thanks! I've seen a lot of linguini/fettuccine alfredo stuff offered at inexpensive restaurants. This stuff looks sinfully good to me and usually they give you twice as much as as you could ever need. I don't tend to order it because it just looks so huge.

I hadn't even thought about pizza. Good call there. I think more restaurants should have gourmet pizza as an option on their menu, with small sizes available. That would be awesome.

Fish seems to be extremely popular now across all socio/economic brackets. Hotels/restaurants would be smart to offer up more great fish options besides salmon and shrimp.

[Blarg]

You'd think so, but I think any push toward fish is probably ethnic, not health-based, so that limits its appeal to places where those ethnicities are in very healthy numbers. (Non-whites will eat white food, but whites very often will have nothing to do with non-white food.) Fish is extremely slow moving in mid-level, business-oriented hotels. After a while, you wind up throwing a lot of it away, which is very expensive. That's rough to do in hotel restaurants especially, because they are almost always money-losers unless you're in a higher-end, destination hotel.

[katyseagull]

So did we all like the finale to Hell's Kitchen? I know I did. I thought it was a pretty good episode. Wookie was right, they set me up to think that Rock would lose! He seemed a lot more commanding and professional in last night's episode.

Lol at Julia for being a gigantic baby. Women can be so childish sometimes!

[MrWookie]

Katy,

Actually, my comment in the other thread was how they were setting it up to look like the guy would win and that the girl was a flake. That was early in the show. Then they switched it in the middle to make her look better while he was floundering. It was a clever trick to build the tension, because they pretty easily could have made the whole thing look like it was a foregone conclusion that the guy would win. Still, if you recognized what was happening, it was pretty obvious that the guy would walk away with it. They set it up just like a Hollywood movie with Rock as the hero. He starts out looking good, but then things get tough and the villain looks close to victory. However, the hero heroically turns the tables and emerges victorious.

[Blarg]

Right when this season started, a rumor came out that the winner was Rock and someone close to the show had spilled the beans. I still played along gamely though.

I wonder if Rock would have been as supportive if Bonnie won as Bonnie was when Rock won.

And that Julia -- jeez, I lost so much respect for her in the last two shows. I was definitely part of her fan club, but her attitude was ridiculous and petulant. And, as Bonnie said, bitter. I thought she was very unprofessional and really dragged the team down with her negativity as well as insubordination. She would have had her ass canned quick in a real kitchen. Out of control ego. Sometimes she recognizes she was just a talented short-order cook; sometimes she doesn't. But when she doesn't, ooh how it sticks and how she makes everybody pay with sulking and sabotage.

[Blarg]

Also, I liked the preview of Ramsay's new show on giving hell to restauranteurs(sp?). Sounds like the same thing running on the BBC that we're hearing about and that sounds so fun. I love one guy wanting to pick a fight with him and others sounding worshipful he saved their arses from financial oblivion. I wonder if it is the same show just in America, or if there will be any episodes actually taken from the BBC series.

Also, I was surprised to hear it claimed that Ramsay was the most successful restauranteur in the world.

[Thanir]

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Also, I liked the preview of Ramsay's new show on giving hell to restauranteurs(sp?). Sounds like the same thing running on the BBC that we're hearing about and that sounds so fun. I love one guy wanting to pick a fight with him and others sounding worshipful he saved their arses from financial oblivion. I wonder if it is the same show just in America, or if there will be any episodes actually taken from the BBC series.

Also, I was surprised to hear it claimed that Ramsay was the most successful restauranteur in the world.

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It's supposed to be the American version of the BBC show, and I can't wait to see it, as his BBC show is one of my favorites...hopefully they don't mess it up here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Nightmares

[trying2learn]

he's not as obnoxious on the BBC show as he is on HK...the american version looks like he plays it up...don't know if I'll dig that as much. he really does know how to make a place amazing though.

[revots33]

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It's supposed to be the American version of the BBC show, and I can't wait to see it, as his BBC show is one of my favorites...hopefully they don't mess it up here.

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It's on FOX, what are the chances they don't mess it up? My guess:

BBC show: awesome candid look at the hardships running a restaurant and the quirky chefs who run them

FOX show: isn't Ramsey screaming hilarious?