TV cooking contest shows

[katyseagull]

I watched Top Chef last night. I found the episode to be rather stressful. First of all they all seemed sort of stressed out at the Fresh Market. Second, they were stuck in those mobile kitchens and it looked very uncomfortable.

Howie sweats too much, it's gross. Shouldn't that man wear a bandanna or something? I mean come on. And what was with the uninspired bar food? I was expecting stuff that was creative, not the typical onion ring, chicken wings and burgers fare.

I don't blame Sara and Casey for being bummed out about the surprise. They looked like they were so up for a night out on the town. Casey sprayed her hair and everything. Boy did she look pissed off. But lol at them for pouting so much. (So funny what the judge said about Sara being demoralized [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] )

Sara was rather pathetic. Even I could have done a better job. How can a chef not salt the burgers? Everyone knows that hamburger needs salt. And ice in milkshakes?! As a milkshake maven I can tell you that this should never be done. Was she thinking smoothies or something? She needed to be fired. I like how Howie brought her to tears. He definitely has entertainment value. Interesting how the judges did not like his cuban pork sandwich.

Oh, and CJ did not come off well last night. He was not a good leader.


Ice cream challenge

I thought Dale's peach cobbler ice cream sounded really scrumptious. I would have liked to have heard how Howie prepared his dish. Scorched berries or something like that. Sounded interesting. And Hung's, omg. What was it again, cauliflower ice cream?

[steamraise]

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I watched Top Chef last night.

Howie sweats too much, it's gross. Shouldn't that man wear a bandanna or something? I mean come on.

Sara ... And ice in milkshakes?!

Interesting how the judges did not like Howie's cuban pork sandwich.

And Hung's, omg. What was it again, cauliflower ice cream?

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Someone on OOT said Howie seasons his dishes with sweat.

What's with the ice in a milkshake? I've never heard of such a thing.

It wasn't that they didn't like Howies sandwich. They said it wasn't really a Cuban.

Hung thinks he's so above everyone else.
He says " they just don't understand" and "a monkey could do that" (refering to the simple cooking styles of others).

[Thanir]

Last night I watched Ramsay's KM, which was a repeat of an older one. The chef was some highly regarded french chef who put together his own top notch team and opened a place in a small town in Scotland. The place was losing a lot of money and they couldn't understand why.

Basically it came down to a menu that the 'simple' people of this quaint town couldn't understand, and he just did too much to the food. He felt adding more, and more made the dishes better, when instead they just ended up being a jumbled up combination of flavors. He had a hard time grasping that 'less is more', until Ramsay basically hit him on top of the head with it. This chef had a huge ego, and couldn't bring himself to make basic/simple food that the locals would enjoy...he was a french chef, and wanted to make his complicated, high class french food.

I think Hung has this same problem. He thinks by making complicated food he shows himself off as a Top Chef, but instead he comes off as an egotistical fool. There's no doubt he has talent, and may be one of the best chefs there, but his ego really hurts his final product. Should we really be surprised though? He is good friends with Marciel (last season) and I guess they cook together all the time.

[Blarg]

I howled with laughter when Howie chose as his protein ... pork. Unbelievable.

Dale's dinner with the guest judge looked weird. The guest judge was bowing his head and expressionless anytime he was anywhere near Dale. I got the idea the dinner was not fun.

Ice cream was a pretty dull challenge, but Hung's cauliflower foam ice cream was idiotic. Howie's caramelizing the berries was a smart touch.

Sara deserved to go just for falling apart so easily and so thoroughly. Sure, Howie was a total dick - this was unexpected? You have to learn to cope with adversity, not completely break down in the face of it. People who are only good when the situation presents no difficulties are pretty worthless as employees. (Make pretty lousy friends and relationships, too.)

The episode was hilarious because everybody's dread of Howie was so total and heartfelt. Bourdian in his blog last week wrote about Hung failing in his quick-freeze dish because none of the other contestants were willing to work with him anymore even to achieve mutual goals, and Howie makes Hung look like a walk in the park bracketed by blowj*bs. People are recoiling from the very idea of him now.

Despite Howie's obvious talent with, you guessed it, pork, I think it's time for him to go. It seems very clear to me that he could only run a kitchen if he was the boss working with mindreaders who just so happened to exactly fit his psychosis. Working with him must be miserable.

[Blarg]

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Last night I watched Ramsay's KM, which was a repeat of an older one. The chef was some highly regarded french chef who put together his own top notch team and opened a place in a small town in Scotland. The place was losing a lot of money and they couldn't understand why.

Basically it came down to a menu that the 'simple' people of this quaint town couldn't understand, and he just did too much to the food. He felt adding more, and more made the dishes better, when instead they just ended up being a jumbled up combination of flavors. He had a hard time grasping that 'less is more', until Ramsay basically hit him on top of the head with it. This chef had a huge ego, and couldn't bring himself to make basic/simple food that the locals would enjoy...he was a french chef, and wanted to make his complicated, high class french food.

I think Hung has this same problem. He thinks by making complicated food he shows himself off as a Top Chef, but instead he comes off as an egotistical fool. There's no doubt he has talent, and may be one of the best chefs there, but his ego really hurts his final product. Should we really be surprised though? He is good friends with Marciel (last season) and I guess they cook together all the time.

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I've worked at mid-level hotels, catering mostly to business travel, that have this same problem. It's hard to get good chefs for them, and when you do, you can't really take full advantage of it because business travelers most of all want comfort food. Something they can understand and eat at the end of a tired day, not be challenged by or feel they are forced to pretend to like it. Steak and potatoes? Awesome. Fried chicken? Great. Something French or Vietnamese, no matter how good and easy to decipher? Pass.

[katyseagull]

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I howled with laughter when Howie chose as his protein ... pork. Unbelievable.



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Well the man likes his pork.

Howie is pretty funny to watch. You can tell he's irritated by his teammates. He tries to stuff it all down and not talk with them but as soon as someone says one tiny little thing against him, BAM! He lets loose. Someone needs to tell him that it might work better if he would let off some steam a little at a time instead of saving it up for one gigantic blistering attack. Too funny watching him make Sara cry and then everyone glaring at him like he was a real creep.

Also, agree with you that the dinner with Dale and the guest judge looked a tad awkward. I wonder what was going on.

[katyseagull]

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I've worked at mid-level hotels, catering mostly to business travel, that have this same problem. It's hard to get good chefs for them, and when you do, you can't really take full advantage of it because business travelers most of all want comfort food. Something they can understand and eat at the end of a tired day, not be challenged by or feel they are forced to pretend to like it. Steak and potatoes? Awesome. Fried chicken? Great. Something French or Vietnamese, no matter how good and easy to decipher? Pass.

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This is an interesting topic to me. I'm curious what the most popular dishes are to the traveling business man/woman. Steak for sure, like you said. But what else? I can't remember the last time I ordered a pork dish at a restaurant. Does anyone order pork? I wonder if pasta dishes are very popular. I tend to think of them as sort of fattening and therefore would not guess they would be as popular. I'm thinking fish dishes would be pretty popular as they sound so healthy.

[Blarg]

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.

[Ron Burgundy]

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Also, agree with you that the dinner with Dale and the guest judge looked a tad awkward. I wonder what was going on.

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Sexual tension obv.

[Ron Burgundy]

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Basically it came down to a menu that the 'simple' people of this quaint town couldn't understand, and he just did too much to the food. He felt adding more, and more made the dishes better, when instead they just ended up being a jumbled up combination of flavors. He had a hard time grasping that 'less is more', until Ramsay basically hit him on top of the head with it. This chef had a huge ego, and couldn't bring himself to make basic/simple food that the locals would enjoy...he was a french chef, and wanted to make his complicated, high class french food.

[/ QUOTE ]

This seems to be the most common problem with almost every chef on that show, and chefs on TV cooking contest shows. They keep thinking they have to do something completely original and different in order to be successful. They're always like "the menu needs more WOW factor. I don't want to be boring, no one will notice me if it's boring." They think they're God's gift to food, and revolutionizing the restaurant industry with their amazing innovations. In reality, the menu is just a confused clusterfuck of random ingredients that don't work well with eachother. The dishes are presented with stupid gimmicks that don't add anything to the diner's enjoyment of the meal.

The funniest part is their attitude. They believe the only thing holding them back from superstarchefdom is the fact that none of the customers' palates are sophisticated enough to comprehend the sheer brilliance of their food.

What they don't realize is that there's nothing boring about a perfectly cooked steak or chicken breast, even if it's not original at all, and doesn't have an outrageous presentation. All they need to start doing to be successful is just start making good honest food and cut out the BS.