Tag Archives: Top Chef

2011/02/10 · 11:57 pm

Gratuitous Search Term Bait of the Day: What a Croc

One of our favorite pastimes on this blog is noting the preponderance of Crocs on Top Chef, so it wasn’t surprising to see today’s search term, “top chef crocs.”  But this All-Stars season has been disappointingly devoid of the rubber footwear (as well as tattoos, which had become a recent Top Chef signature look).  But luckily Season 9 court jester Angelo has provided us a worthy substitute.

As we touched on yesterday, in last week’s food meets fashion Quickfire challenge Angelo did his best to make pineapple skin look like a crocodile skin purse.  Unfortunately, Angelo ran into two problems, 1) it looked disgusting, and b) he doesn’t know how to spell “crocodile.”  Sorry, Angelo; the first rule of Top Chef is you don’t talk about Top Chef; the second rule is that you know how to spell crocodile.  The third rule of Top Chef is that you don’t tell Issac Mizrahi that Roberto Cavalli is your favorite designer.

Sorry, Angelo!  No better luck next time!

Oh, and just for kicks:

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2011/02/09 · 9:59 pm

Last Week on ‘Top Chef:’ Take the Primi, Leave the Antipast

Continuing our tradition of quickly recapping the last Top Chef just before the new episode airs, here are a few quick thoughts on last week’s Italian-themed entry:

– Angelo has a crush on guest judge Issac Mizrahi and literally says “Two of my most passionate things are definitely food, first and foremost, and then fashion.”

– Everyone definitely thinks Angelo is a joke (including Issac Mizrahi)

You're a joke

– Carla finally gets to mention how she used to be a model and got to go to France.  Good for you, Carla!

– We get it, Dale.  You have a girlfriend.

– Professor Ricky Blaise wins the quick fire!  For making black ice cream!  Looks good enough to eat!

– The elimination challenge is to cook one of the three main courses at the legendary NYC Italian restaurant Rao’s.

– Mike Isabella, who’s an Italian from New Jersey is like, “I got this.”

– Antonia, who’s an Italian from Los Angeles is like, “No, I got this.”

– Fabio, who’s an Italian from Italy is like, “Um, guys, I’m from Italy.  Is this even fair?  It is?  Really?  Okay, well I’ll just make this chicken dish that’s my grandmother’s recipe and is on the menu on my restaurant and I probably make it a dozen times a night.”

– Lorraine Bracco is a guest judge, because of course she is.

– Then the food is served.  The antipasti is loved by all.  But the pasta course is a disaster:

The rest: Mike Isabella needs an easier mac. And the loser!

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2011/02/02 · 11:07 pm

Last Time on ‘Top Chef’: Restaurant Chores

Bravo viciously slipped in a repeat of Top Chef last week, perhaps taking a snow day, but it returns tonight (we assume).  With the new episode just hours away, let’s take a quick look back at what happened last time:

– They went to Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin and watched this dude Justo butcher a bunch of fish like CRAZY:

More: Mike’s a moron, Marcel seeks council with Mr. Miyagi, and Fabio and The Blaise grow even closer…

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2011/01/13 · 6:19 pm

‘Top Chef All-Stars:’ Whatever

Well, at least if Jamie was going to go down, she was going to go down fighting, with all the unbridled passion she showed all season.

Oh, no, not really.  More of the same blasé, dead inside, zombie-like enthusiasm.  Although, to be fair, it was the most energy she’s shown in some time, actually presenting a dish two weeks in a row!

But first, Marcel drops some knowledge on Dale:

After the jump: Fishing trip! Summer flings! And Jamie kills the mood.

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2011/01/06 · 5:22 pm

‘Top Chef All-Stars’: It’s Chinatown (It’s Gross)

Before we talk out last night’s Top Chef: All-Stars, we need to talk about our feelings regarding Chinatown.

Chinatown is our least favorite part of Manhattan.  That is, of course, if you even choose to consider the neighborhood part of Manhattan, which we have trouble doing.  We recently had the misfortune of reporting to an office in the heart of Chinatown everyday, and it was a miserable experience (going to Chinatown, not the job).  The Grand St. B-D station is our least favorite stop along the New York City subway’s 656 miles of track.1 We’ve long detested the experience of exiting that station, being hit with the foul stench of imported fish, most pungent in the mornings when the seafood is “fresh.”  The neighborhood is a visual and olfactory nightmare of rotting fish, fruit with horns, garbage and garbage juice.

We’ll finish our discussion on Chinatown and get to the recap once Padma’s done fashionably searching for buried treasure…

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2010/12/31 · 9:44 pm

On the Last Day of the Year: The Best Show of 2010 and Nine Other Good Ones

Unbelievably, we’re about to enter our third calendar year in existence.  It seems like just yesterday we were scrambling to put together our best of the decade lists (which makes sense, because we didn’t actually post one of those until this week).  In 2011 we hope to be even more timely, on-point and just plain better.  Until then, let’s try to end 2010 on a high note with our not-at-all anticipated Best Shows of the Year:

1. Community: This was an absolute no-brainer.  Far and away Community was the most original, ambitious, rewarding, warm, funny, creative, fearless show of 2010.  It was just a little over a year ago when the show delivered its holiday episode, “Comparative Religion” (featuring mustachio’d Anthony Michael Hall), and we began to feel then that the show was truly building towards something special.  When Community returned in January of this year it began what should be considered one of the greatest runs of any comedy series in television history, playing “can you top that?” with itself from week to week.  Solid episodes like “Investigative Journalism” with Jack Black,  “Physical Education” with a nearly naked Joel McHale, and the truly superb Goodfellas tribute “Contemporary American Poultry” culminated in the single best episode of 2010 across the board, the paintball-splattered, action movie homage masterpiece “Modern Warfare” (we know that we’ve already proclaimed the greatness of this episode, but it’s worth doing over and over again).

Keep reading: More on why Community is the best show of 2010. And 9 other good ones…

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2010/12/15 · 6:39 pm

In Memoriam (Sorta): Jen Carroll

Oh, Jen, you broke our heart.  Not because you were eliminated from Top Chef: All-Stars on just the second episode, but because of the way you went out: bitter, rude, disrespectful.  Now, Jen, don’t get us wrong, we love your feistiness, your spunk, your proclivity for profanity.  There’s very little we enjoy more than a tough broad.  And we were delighted that you returned for All-Stars with a renewed determination and confidence, after showing some mental weakness during your first go ’round in Vegas.  But Padma Lakshmi is in a Carl’s Jr. commercial, so when you’re in front of the judge’s table you better show her some respect.  Be a bitch, just be a classy bitch.  Like Jackie O.  Or Bea Arthur.

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Jen, please pack your Crocs and go.

Looks like the path is even clearer for Professor Ricky Blaise.

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2010/12/01 · 5:18 pm

Polish Your Crocs and Retouch Your Tattoos

Because Top Chef: All-Stars starts tonight! (did we mention how excited we are for this?  Oh, we did.  Well, we’re going to say it again: We’re really excited for this).

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Our money is on Richard Blaise.  And not because he was the clear favorite in Season 4 and, by his own admission, choked in the final.  And not because we’ll squeeze an excessive amount of joy out of calling him “The Blaise.”  But because The Blaise is rocking the orange Crocs.  Dude is angling for a role in Wes Anderson’s next stop-motion film (watch your back, Batali).

The Blaise Means Business

We also like Las Vegas‘ Jennifer Carroll.  Girl looks good.  Good and ready.

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2010/11/19 · 3:24 pm

Top Chef Contestants are Just Like Us!

Not, not because we also wear Crocs!  GROSS!

But because we have the same taste in bagels as Top Chef: Chicago cheftestant Nikki Cascone.

Cascone kept a week-long diary of her meals for Grub Street’s Diet of the Week, and had this to say about her Saturday morning:

Second breakfast. I HAD to have one of my favorites: two eggs over-medium, Swiss cheese, and turkey bacon on a whole-wheat bagel from La Bagel Delight in Brooklyn. Take it from a born-and-raised New York girl: They are the best bagels in New York.

(it should be noted that Cascone is extremely pregnant and that is why she has been eating multiple breakfasts, NOT because she is a hobbit)

We could not agree more with Cascone’s assesment of Bagel Delight, which has long been our favorite bagel shop in the borough, nay, the whole world (just ask our brother in LA, whom we overnighted bagels for his birthday a couple years back.  La Bagel Delicious).  And we also respect Cascone’s sandwich order, although when we splurge we go for real bacon.  Can’t do better than the genuine article.  And, at that point, why get a whole wheat bagel?  Just go for the gusto, Brooklyn!

We also have to commend Cascone for having the courage to open a restaurant that specializes in Jew food, Octavia’s Porch, which is set to open at the end of the month.  Take it from a born and a raised Long Island Jew, we’d rather eat pizza.  But if she’s set on trying to make gefilte fish more palatable, well, god bless her.

And if any of you stop in at La Bagel Delight, ask for Frank or Amanda and tell ’em Seth sent you.

(can we also add how excited we are for Top Chef: All-Stars, premiering December 1?  We can?  Great!  We’re super excited for Top Chef:All-Stars, premiering December 1.  Can’t wait to see what kind of Crocs Marcel is going to wear)

Via Grub Street

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2010/09/01 · 10:11 am

Not Very Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Random, Belated, Emmy Thoughts

The Emmy’s were handed out three nights ago, and in the internet world that’s about the equivalent of a fortnight, and everyone who can say it better than me has already said it better than me.  But, just to put it on the permanent record, and to get us ready for the impending fall TV season, we thought we’d follow-up with a few humble thoughts of our own, in concise bullet-point form:

  • Loved the opening bit, even if it was somewhat of a rehash of 6-Bee‘s glee club rendition of “We’re Not Going to Take It,” a performance that we still giddily cue up on our screen on a regular basis (as well as an audio version on our iPod).  But with Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, Joel McHale, Jorge Garcia AND Tim Gunn it was like the Ocean’s 11 all-star version of the original Late Night piece, and it truly demanded some freak out control.  Our worlds colliding, but in an amazing way.
  • Speaking of Jon Hamm, now that his comedic genius has finally been exposed to a wide audience (30 Rock is still critically adored but commercially ignored, his appearances in viral videos only legitimately reach a small segment of the online viewing public, and even two turns hosting SNL don’t necessarily make you a household name these days), can we start having him be funny full-time?  He’s so gifted, and so natural, it honestly feels like a waste forcing him to be so stoic and dour and cold on Mad Men (and we know we sound like a broken record on this, but we’re going to keep bring it up until it happens.  Or until Mad Men becomes a farcical satire.  Maybe in season 5).  Sure, he’s magnetic, sexy and mysterious on the AMC drama, but it’s when he’s allowed to do comedy that he truly lights up.  But after being seen dancing like an idiot on HDTVs all across the country maybe someone will give him a chance to headline a comedy.  Perhaps something in the Apatowian genre.  I think that’s a hit.

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