Nick, I guess it was the underdog in me that enjoyed seeing chefs who weren’t yet famous get a springboard to launch their carriers.
Hell’s Kitchen is not for me. If I want to see someone get browbeaten, I’ll leave the seat up on the toilet.
I understand the sentiment and admire you egalitarianism. But IMHO, there are enough shoemakers in the industry so I rather give the slot to someone who has a real chance to make an impact. Remember, it’s not just the winners who benefit, many others have relaunched or just plain old launched careers from the exposure.
Fuuny, even I, the chef extraordinaire that I am know a damn recipe by heart, one I have made about 10 times, not 100 times. It’s for a whole wheat, banana bread and I ain’t no Top Chef. Weak ass response she gave.
The Dr Mrs and I are locked in for this season and looking forward to it.
Just caught the episode today on DVR and was crushed that my “hometown” guy was the first to go. The Lark, where John cooks, is a fabulous place … but he was certainly the right choice to go. Even great chefs have bad nights I guess.
I watch Hell’s Kitchen religiously, even though it is a very different show. Although half of the contestants seem to come straight from a David Lee Roth video, the other half tend to be marginally competent.
While in the first couple of seasons of HK, there were only a couple of ringers that were destined to be the finalists, they seem to have improved the depth of contenders in more recent seasons.
Unfortunately, admittedly based upon only one episode, this year’s Top Chef-testants look to closer to a Hell’s Kitchen roster than usual.
John reminded me too much of the woman from two years ago (Carla?). Same hair and scary eyes.
I posted this thought before I read your post. Great minds and all that.
I’m still looking up “egalitarianism”.
Personally, I can’t tell yet how good the top 3-4 people might be. Angelo certainly seems to be both creative and skilled. I don’t mind seeing a spectrum of people from the experienced & skilled pros from established restaurants down to the younger sous chefs and even including the catering people. In the end the highest skill players usually win out. But it’s nice to see the lesser skilled people over-perform and put a challenge to the under-performing pros. Especially when the latter are usually cocky and tend to assume they will win despite the fact that they don’t always get food on their plates that matches their pedigree.
In related news it looks like Mike Voltaggio, last season’s winner, will be opening his own place soon. He appears to not be returning to the Pasadena Langham when they re-open in mid-July after closing for a couple of weeks. I don’t think he has a spot yet, but is supposedly concentrating on west of downtown LA.
+1 and that hair was frightening. I wonder how many strands have made their way into folks’ food? Right now it’s too early to say who’ll be good, but I’m not too impressed yet with anyone. Which is normal, of course, this is only the beginning.
And the weak get weeded out. Say goodbye to Jacqueline and her four nipples. As if not remembering a recipe you’ve made “hundreds” of times wasn’t bad enough, adding at least two pounds of sugar to a banana dessert that was supposed to be healthy for kids just wasn’t smart, though, to be honest, I thought she got a little shafted with no real budget for her dessert and Amanda’s decision to use sherry in a dish for kids was dumber, imo. Still, she seemed like a pretty weak contestant.
Loved the judge’s table this week! Meow! Everyone was throwing everyone else under the bus! I hear next week they’re going to hand out chains and baseball bats for judge’s table.
Angelo clearly seems to be in the lead talent wise, but I bet his dicketry will be his undoing in the end.
Ummmm, you want bigger dicks than Ilan & Hung?!?!?!? Angelo at least can cook better than Ilan and didn’t steal Jean Georges’ recipe book to be able to cook.
I never thought that Kate Hudson could look more manly, and now she is gone.
Once again, a dessert does a chef in, though they should have dumped the Sherry and given her more money to play with. When will they learn? Keep it simple, stupid. And yeah, Judges’ Table ROCKED. I was laughing out loud when they all started going after one another’s throats.
I think that there are a handful of pretty good chefs here, but I’m not sure how the rest of them made it through the screening process.
Nice line from the Quickfire: “My Grandmother isn’t a pastry chef either, but she can make a pie.”
Less than a handful, imho. Another episode down, another obvious choice gone and I’m thinking most of my friends can cook better than this group of cheftestants.
Agreed. And none of them had any skills on a grill. How sad is that.
Quote of the night from Alex in regards to his pork butt dish:
“I’d eat the ass out of this pig…all day.”
Hilarious.
I believe that Tracey actually said, while staring at a Weber kettle full of hot coals, “How do you turn the heat down on this thing?”
O.M.G.
So…still very unimpressed with this group. I just think back to the BBQ challenge last season when the Cheftestants had to camp out in the desert for a night. For the most part, those guys took the idea of BBQ and pumped up the volume ten fold. It’s like they said at the critics table about the guy who did Puerto Rican food (I am paraphrasing):
You are a chef, and this is your chance to take those staple dishes and turn them into something unique, interesting, and gourmet.
Where is the creativity in any of the dishes so far? I just don’t see it.
I know we are still separating the curds from the whey, but even the “front runners” are, IMO, above average at best. This does not a Top Chef make.