Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
TC News and Information 10.12.10
Wow, a bulging in-box this week. First up, the New York City Wine & Food Fest took place last weekend - lots of chefs with TC connections made appearances and offered commentary. A few morsels.
Top Chef Just Desserts judge Johnny Iuzzini dished to the NY Post that upcoming JD episodes will include drama (despite Seth's departure) and fashion (no surprise if you’ve seen previews for Wednesday’s show). Perhaps more interesting are his thoughts on what to serve at such an event, as Iuzzini handed out “caramelized Godiva chocolate mousse on a stick, with salted walnut nougatine, dried cranberry, a Godiva pearl and a gold leaf.” Hmm, we just know there are bound to be more catering challenges coming up on this season of Just Desserts, and it's always helpful to know where the judges are coming from.
In an interesting panel discussion about the meaning and importance of eating locally, TC head judge Tom Colicchio mentioned that one of the reasons he chose the location of his new NYC restaurant RiverPark is "we're looking to actually grow food in soil. Majority of it will go to schools and educating kids about nutrition."
Eater.com caught up with TCJD judge Eric Ripert’s pastry chef at Le Bernadin, Michael Laiskonis, who will appear as a guest judge in his own right during this season of Just Desserts and offered his observations about TCJD and pastry chefs’ time in the spotlight in this interview.
Speaking of The Ripper, he will prepare a five-course dinner featuring sustainable seasfood with his protoge, Jennifer Carroll - much-rooted-for Top Chef Season 6 contestant and member of the upcoming TC Season 8 All-Star cast - this Thursday in Philly.
And re: sustainable seafood, TC Season 7 contestant Tamesha Warren will prepare an entree Nov. 16 for Baltimore’s National Aquarium Fresh Thoughts series, while Season 1 finalist and returning All-Star Tiffani Faison recently appeared at Boston’s Museum of Science, where she demonstrated how to make “meatballs” from scallops and monkfish, two fish that “tend to be a bit sweeter” and appeal to kids, commenting that it can be hard to get kids to eat fish. Guess it depends on where they grow up and what they’re used to as a kid.
Traveling further along the science – and TV series – train, according to this item, Season 6 finalist and returning All-Star Richard Blais has just wrapped production on a couple of pilot episodes for a show on the Science Channel. And lest we forget Chef Blais’s heavy-duty background, here’s a photo Alinea’s Grant Achatz recently tweeted from years gone by of Blais, Achatz, and the renowned Thomas Keller.
TC Season 3 contestant Brian Malarkey seems to have landed himself a show on TLC called Kick Off, Cook Off, traveling around the country as “cheferee” to judge football tail-gate cooking.
In news about a TC chef who did not try to boost her recognizability by wearing hats, Season 5 chef and All-Star contestant Jamie Lauren has a new gig.
Top Chef Masters contestant Graham Elliot & TCM Season 2 winner Marcus Samuelsson are among the chefs to be included on A&E’s Ikea-sponsored “Fix This Kitchen” makeover show premiering October 16th, along with TC guest judge Charlie Trotter and a couple of other chefs you may have heard of, Ming Tsai & Lydia Bastianich.
Enough media, shilling, and hype, you say?
How about the great news that TC Season 1 winner Harold Dieterle is opening his second restaurant, named Kin Shop? Grub Street has early photos here, and Feast has a mini-interview with H here.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Recap Roundup - Top Chef Just Desserts Episode 4
Jordan Baker on breakfast with the pastrycheftestants: "Seth and his magnificent but psychopathic torso shave...in the kitchen. I am torn between the yummy of the shirtless and the ew of the kitchen shave. Zac asks for 'a bagel with cream cheese and stubble, please?'"
Culture Mob on Seth's final breakdown: "It seems that Seth is having a mental breakdown again; I’m honestly not sure what it’s about except that I know it has something to do with paper cups that he brought from home, that he threw out in response to some misinformation from the TC producers. He calls the producers liars. He says it’s not fair that he doesn’t have his paper cups. And then, as Zac states…'he disappeared.' For a moment I’m hopeful that we’ve actually gotten into the Harry Potter universe and Seth disapparated and splinched himself, but my hopes are dashed when suddenly everyone hears sirens. Seth has merely given himself an anxiety attack and is passed out off-set. Luckily, at this point, even the Bravo producers have to admit that they have a liability on their hands and send Seth packing; my guess is that a lawyer over there got a hold of some footage and hit the 'Eject Crazy' button."
My Monkey Could Do That on the Quickfire Challenge, once the dust settles: "Everyone pulls ice cream scoops to be assigned a flavor. Winner gets immunity and they have 30 minutes. Eric likes sundaes but not wacky sundaes. He wants to focus on 'traditional American baking.' Malika is in a good mood. Morgan is thinking 'Sunday' because that’s the day he spends with his son who has inspired him today. Danielle has always wanted a soda shoppe. Yigit hasn’t grown up with fancy ice cream like cookie dough, but he seems to be in good shape."
After Elton on the Elimination Challenge: "First, the chefs are going to visit something called the “Lucent Dossier.” Gail describes it as some sort of performance art collective involving circus acts, fire, and whimsy. Even after she’s done describing it, I have no idea what it actually is; as best I can tell, they’re planning on pumping the chefs full of Ecstasy and shipping them off to Burning Man. But wait, there’s more! Inspired by the performance, they’ll work in teams. Each team will pick a theme AND create an architectural showpiece AND each create a related dessert AND also a flaming dessert. Whew! That’s a lot."
What'ere Jane Eyre on the return of the Unhappy Heather C.: "What's the point of leaping back into the fray if all you're going to do is complain about how much you hate it, and by the way, drag all your teammates down with you? Heatherh feels pretty much the same way, but while I'd just seethe silently, she out-and-out takes Heatherc to task for wasting her second chance so frivolously. She tells Heatherc that she's letting her teammates down, and that she's being a spoiled brat, closing by telling Heatherc's retreating figure that she needs to suck it up."
TWOP on Heather H's reaction to Morgan's win: "Back in the stew room, Heather H. pissily tells Morgan 'You're welcome.' She thinks he didn't deserve to win since his time wasn't divided like hers. A dynamic she aggressively set up, it's worth noting. She refuses to "carry anybody ever again," a.k.a. be a team player. Sour grapes much?"
and last but not least...Creative Loafing's Top Chef Podcast covers both episodes 3 and 4.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
All Top Chef Interview with Malika Ameen
Chef Malika Ameen talks about her experience on Top Chef Just Desserts and about her decision to leave.
Malika's new venture is called ByMDesserts.
Click here for the podcast.
Thank you Chef Malika.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
ATC Love to Chef Seth Caro
Chef Caro, we wish nothing but the best for you and your family. And we hope to see more of your culinary creations in the future.
This post is only for positive comments about Chef Caro. If you have anything negative to say about him or his competition, please do so here.
ATC Love to Chef Malika Ameen
Chef Ameen, we hope nothing but the best for you in the future. May you enjoy your sons and rediscover your love of cooking outside the competitive environment of Top Chef.
This post is only for positive comments about Chef Ameen. If you have anything negative to say about her or her competition, please do so here.
Congratulations, Chef Morgan Wilson!
For the Quickfire, you won over the judges with your personal story, inspired by Sundays with your son, as well as your dish - a mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich with mint syrup accompanied by foamy hot chocolate that Gail Simmons wanted to slurp.
And for the Elimination Challenge, your individual plated dessert, Mango Panna Cotta, Açaí Fluid Gel & Passion Fruit Sorbet, was the judges’ favorite from the winning team as well.
Congratulations, Chef! May you continue to have success in this competition!
This post is only for positive comments about Chef Wilson. If you have anything negative to say about him or his competition, please do so here.
Reactions to Top Chef Just Desserts Episode 4
Whew, what an episode. Several fall short, but no one is told their dessert just doesn't measure up.
Perhaps the most expected aspect of this week's show was that it asked the dessert cheftestants to work with ice cream. As Heather H. interviewed, "we knew this was coming up." The chefs have 30 minutes to create ice cream sundaes. Host Gail Simmons wants to be "amused and over-indulged" and isn't interested in just bananas and nuts. Alas for Seth, since Breyer's is this week's sponsor, he will not be permitted to make his own ice cream, which he claims he can do in 15 minutes. After much foreshadowing, we see a variety of Seth's mutterings and outbursts, plus a rare glimpse of producers interacting with the contestants (over some sort of rule change), which pushes Seth into a rant about losing paper cups he had brought as part of his "equipment." Other contestants interview that Seth then stormed out, saying, according to Zac, "I want my passport, I want my wallet, I want my phone - get me out of here!"
The contestants discuss the unsettling effect Seth has had on them, raising hands (and feet) to vote that they are glad he's departed the Stew, when the sound of sirens intrudes. Afterward, an infinitely more pulled-together-looking Seth interviews that he had an anxiety attack and fainted, is not "at this point" cleared to compete further "at producers' discretion," regrets not that this opportunity was taken away from him but that he took it away from himself.
After Seth is taken away in an ambulance, judge Johnny Iuzzini joins the chefs in the Stew to try to help them get their heads back in the game, and after reactions ranging from "Seth was the one to beat" to "I feel like 900 pounds of pressure have been lifted off my chest," the Quickfire resumes with the drawing of ice cream scoops that assign Breyers ice cream flavors to each of the remaining competitors. Hmmm, did they have to re-draw scoops after Seth's departure? The photos on Bravo's website show the cheftestants revealing ice cream flavors other than the ones they used in their QF sundaes . . .
This week's guest judge, Gale Gand, executive pastry chef of Chicago's Tru, announces the QF bottom three. Of traditionalist Eric's vanilla ice cream with peaches sauteed with brandy and brown sugar and topped with a crumble, Gale says that after eating it, she's not sure she'd want to meet the chef (I find Gand to be a very amiable judge, but what kind of critique is that?). The judges failed to find the "reference to Neapolitan" in Danielle's dish made with Rocky Road. And Erika's Chocolate Banana S'mores Frangelico Sundae is dinged for being too heavy on those bananas and nuts Gail Simmons warned against.
For the top three QF dishes, Zac wins kudos for panko-crusting the fried cherry vanilla ice cream in his "Black Forest Is Burning" sundae, as does Yigit for the ganache and sauce in his peanut butter s'more sundae made with cookie dough ice cream. The winner is teary-eyed divorcee Morgan, who spells out his ode to Sunday visitations with his son, offering a mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich made with his own cookies and mint syrup and coupled with hot chocolate.
On to the Elimination Challenge, which Gail Simmons announces will team them into three groups of three. Except, you know, with Seth's departure, the numbers are uneven. So they bring back the proverbial "last eliminated contestant," who is Heather C. In a pretty convoluted multi-part challenge, the teams are expected to present a 2-foot tall "showpiece", 25 portions of a flaming dessert, and 50 portions of individually plated desserts where each team member is to put their own stamp on a dessert that "echoes" the concept and theme of the rest of the team offerings. And somehow this whole extravaganza is to be inspired by the performance troupe Lucent Dossier Experience, a costume-wearing, sword-swallowing, fire-wielding band of folks Heather H. describes as a cross between Mad Max and Cirque du Soleil. The chefs will have two hours to set up at the Lucent Dossier space (while the L.D.E. performance is taking place) and will serve a party of Lucent Dossier "devotees" in addition to the judges. Got that all straight? Rules this complicated would leave me running in search of my passport too.
The top three QF chefs are annointed team captains and, without any of that all-too-familiar footage that reminds us of being picked last for some team sport in our youth, the lineup is:
Morgan, Heather H., and Eric
Zac, Malika, and Heather C.
Yigit, Danielle, and Erika
Heather H. is shown throwing herself into her team's showpiece (she seems to prefer the word "centerpiece"). Additional planning, confidence, and lack thereof among the teams are on display.
Back at the TC Just Desserts house the night before the gig, tensions are running high as recently reinstated Heather C. seems frazzled, feeling like an outsider and questioning whether she wants to stay. An aggravated Heather H. exhorts Heather C. to think of her teammates and "suck it up."
Next day, all the cheftestants seem to be scrambling to set up at the L.D.E. space. Judge (and sometime d.j.) Hubert Keller looks like he's definitely enjoying the show, and the L.D.E. cast and "devotees" seem to be enjoying the food.
When it comes to the judging, the showpieces of all three teams seem to garner similar acceptance/praise from the judges as being thoughtful reflections of the vibe of the show. It seemed like the only thing that would have set one of these intricate 2-foot-tall architectural dessert constructions apart would have been if it had imploded or shattered.
Of the flaming portion of the challenge, Team Yigit failed to wow the judges because they had flambeed their dessert in advance of the judges' arrival. Zero spectacle points achieved there. So everything seemed to come down to each team's individually plated desserts.
Team Morgan is the first called to Judges Table, where all three contestants are praised, and Morgan, despite having immunity via the QF, manages to win his second challenge of the episode with Mango Panna Cotta, Açaí Fluid Gel & Passion Fruit Sorbet.
When Team Morgan is told to return to the Stew, they are not asked to call the losing chefs to Judges Table. Instead, Gail Simmons herself returns, saying there were both hits and misses from the two remaining teams and that the judges have "more questions." Whatever may be left on the cutting room floor, the only question to Team Yigit aired this episode was about why they had failed to flambe in front of the judges.
Then Team Zac is called to JT, where Zac's banana bread with red curry earns much appreciation. As Gale Gand moves on to praise Malika's Saffron Panna Cotta with Feuilletine Crunch & Candied Ginger, we go to commercial as Malika asked to remove her own self from the competition. And when we come back from commercial, she's still bent on going home to her kids and her own kitchen.
So we end up with one double QF/EC winner and two departed contestants, neither of whom was booted for making a bad dish. Or even a "just not quite as good" dish.
Were you hot or cold toward to this "get me outta here" episode of Top Chef Desserts? Let us know in the comments.
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