chiaros

Here's a video of preparing "Wensi Tofu", which is a refined form of chiffonade-cum-julienne – of silken tofu. Done using a CLEAVER.

I DID NOT say it was unheard of in any of the cuisines I listed. I pointed out that it is not "...the base for nearly all dishes at a restaurant or at home..." which is what you stated, without any further caveats. OF COURSE a small dice is known in every cuisine around the world, but that is not what is at issue here. Tanya's restaurant may use the Holy Trinity, which ought to be rendered into a small dice, and I suspect you use this Holy Trinity too in almost all dishes you cook – but you made no mention of this stringent caveat in your post. The point also remains that such a thing is not used in many cuisines, and is not required "at home" for "almost all dishes".

Really? Hmm, a small dice is infrequently required for my dishes at home, nor in restaurants - with many regional Chinese, SE Asian etc dishes and cuisines, for example. Chopped/smashed garlic might be the closest one comes to it, but I would call that a MINCE of garlic instead. Diced vegetables in most Chinese dishes? Uh, no. Oh, diced onions for South Asian curries would be another common example, but even there I can't say I bother to make a perfect dice - as the onions get cooked down to an integrating mass before the spices go in . But for "nearly all dishes at home" - not universally, I think. As for a chiffonade, it depends on how fine a chiffonade one is doing. I often do chiffonades of (the requisite rolled-up) collard greens, as an example, for a 2-to-3-minute cook in broth, using my usual chef's knife with care to get the 1-2 mm thick slices I want - so one has to watch what you are doing, and your knife ought to be sharp, and if not you need to know how to sharpen it.

I was just looking yesterday. It's been filmed but no premier date has been announced. Last year it started in April so we should be hearing something soon. Th current "best intelligence" is after the end of the Winter Olympics but before April. See these threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/7o05j0/when_is_season_3_slated_to_air/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/7rcrkk/we_may_not_have_a_date_for_season_3_but_weve_got/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/7p8dc7/any_idea_regarding_the_air_date_of_season_3/ And...

Francis Lam. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/how-francis-lam-son-of-immigrants-became-the-voice-of-americas-food-culture/2018/01/25/165466b6-01e7-11e8-9d31-d72cf78dbeee_story.html

Regarding that claudette person... https://www.reddit.com/r/TopChef/comments/7t1psz/s15e08_restaurant_wars_discussion_thread/dt97oen/

I had no memory of this guy at all, who as it turns out was a first episode boot, but Google brought me to the PTV recap of his episode (love how the recapper kept referring to him as Cartoon Cat!) which instantly brought back the whole thing for me: http://previously.tv/top-chef/padma-spits-blais-swallows/ In fact, Patlazhan didn't even compete in LCK that season, and also was not in the panel of eliminated cheftestants available as sous in the Pre-Finale Part I that season. Even Aaron Grissom was there, but Patlazhan disappeared completely from Season 12 after that exit interview of his. See here for a previous comment of mine.

There was another exit that has stuck in my mind as a bitter self-serving swipe at the judges (notwithstanding whatever one may think of the tastes of the judges) – the exit interview by Michael Patlazhan in TC12 ep 1. I don't readily see a link, now, to a video of his scathing comments as broadcast then...and Bravo puts out only a "sanitized" version now where he "admits" that he wasn't cut out for this sort of competition on TC...but I clearly remember his scathing view of Collichio and friends on his way out (in a similar way to Claudette's comments about "vanilla TC") where he declared with curled lip that Tom C and Co. was stuck in their severely deficient old ways.

Yes, indeed. It was also "amusing", so to speak, watching Claudette and Bruce being right next to each other side-by-side and observing each other and making those comments they did. :-) :-D

In past seasons they *have* run RW on separate days in *some* seasons, yes, but mostly they have been on the same day; sometimes at different "hosting" restaurants (where each team took over the premises). The downside of doing it on staggered days has been pointed out to be that the team serving "second" has a chance to assess what went wrong (or not) with the 1st team, at the designated place with whatever constraints present, and also note what complaints the judges had, and so on and so forth. This season's RW was run on the same day in the same place with a physical partition between the two restaurants. Here is a screen shot of a relevant moment in the episode.

JF & C probably did so somewhere else in the episode, quite possible. But that blurry clip I posted ALSO showed that Bruce was exchanging looks with Joe F too as he and Carrie were rolling their eyes during Claudette's bus deployment. Heh. HEH.

Was it at Judges' Table, or from another part of the episode? If it was at JT, I don't see what you refer to, from rewatching the episode a couple of times regarding the JT sequence as aired. Here's another screen grab of the nisode at JT, a few seconds after the one I posted above, showing that Joe F was next to Carrie, who was next to Bruce...demonstrating that Adrienne was at the FAR end – and it is hard to see how Joe F would have exchanged an eye-roll with Adrienne if one is referring to what went down at JT.

Singapore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_(season_7)

ETA: And here's another screen grab from this clip: http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-15/episode-9/videos/is-claudette-only-out-for-herself

Nick Elmi and Laurel continues to play a big part in Philly's dining scene. https://philly.eater.com/maps/38-best-philadelphia-restaurants (Scroll to entry#31)

Nick Elmi had a "Black Truffle Fête" at the James Beard House this past Monday, Jan 23. https://www.jamesbeard.org/events/black-truffle-fete-2

Casting for Season 16 of TC in Philly is going to happen at Nick Elmi's "Royal Boucherie". http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/television/top-chef-casting-call-philadelphia-nick-elmi-royal-boucherie-20180125.html ETA: Corrected hyperlink.

They have had 2-3 dishes for each course before, but not 3 for every course. A not-exactly-the-same comparison, but still semi-valid, I think, is RW in Season 13 when they had a two-part RW where the two teams had to serve lunch followed by dinner - so they had to prep, cook and serve lunch; then without pause immediately commence on prep, cooking and serving dinner. (It really showed when one of the teams could not finish off the lunch service - while the other team did so and had started already on prep for dinner - and that "late" team got squeezed badly in their ability to prep properly) Counting both lunch & dinner dishes, team "District LA" put out 12 dishes, plus a ridiculous apéritif; team "Palate" put out 11 dishes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_(season_13)#Episodes (episodes 9 & 10).

The RW episode where nobody was eliminated was in Season 3, when both teams did badly enough (not "so well") that the judges decreed a do-over. Then in "RW the Repeat" - Tre was sent home, Sara M was the winner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_(season_3)#Episodes (episodes 10 & 11) "Bodega" (TC Season 8, All Stars) - the one with Fabio as FOH - was indeed uniformly loved by the judges, but other RWs have also garnered great praise albeit with a few flaws in some dishes. (Before "Bodega", in Season 6, "REvolt" (the Voltaggio brothers, Eli, Robin) was declared to be The Best RW Ever by Tom C; while RW in Seasons 11 and 12 also spring to mind) As for FOH performances, Adam (season 12) and Travis (Season 11) were very good and very well regarded by the judges. Nick Elmi gave possibly the best EC/expediting performance (also Season 11) I can recall – smooth, efficient, drama-free; while the opposing team (with Justin Devillier as EC) was a hot mess with utter breakdown in the ticketing system/expediting/EC-ing.

The editors a.k.a. Magic Elves certainly do their editing tricks --- but they CAN'T play editing games with what they DON'T have. This has been talked about regarding previous seasons both here and elsewhere. Meaning, if cheftestants didn't say the things they did or did not act the way they did the editors would not have the material to play with in the first place. Even in Talking Heads, even if the interviewer asked "leading questions" or pushed them to say something, if the cheftestant refused to take the bait or did not answer the Magical Elves would not have the material to manipulate. So – Brother Luck did say those things, and showed the body language and behavior he showed.... This is the 15th season - all these cheftestants must have seen at least some past seasons and known that they have to assume that anything they say or do whether in the "house" or in the kitchen WILL be recorded if any camera or mike is within a thousand miles of them.

Joe Flamm was charming and executed FOH very well. Props to him. I thought Fabio was both smarmy and like a used car salesman. And you should have read his "recaps"/"commentaries" on his blog, at the time, on the episodes of his season, ESPECIALLY after he got kicked off for his "Booorrger". Those recaps were nasty and utterly cringe-inducing, and he took pleasure in attacking and sliming people left, right, and center; and especially Angelo Sosa, whom he mocked for all sorts of things, questioning Angelo's "masculinity" in the process, and dwelling on his "camel toes" (yes, he wrote that repeatedly) and his "tight pants".

Claudette is finally gone, gone, gone!!! Good. (Brother Luck won last night's episode)

Yay! That claudette person is gone!!! Furthermore, her THs were unpleasant and delusional. Throwing Chris under the bus? Par for the course for her. Another cheftestant, another throwing. Well, she...

Many comments have been made as to whether race is involved in the remarks made by Tanya insofar as Carrie and Da Bears and Claudette and so on and so forth are concerned. Commentary that includes her perspective on being a Minority Black Woman making her way in a White World. Here's an Op-Ed from a person of color/colour, relating specifically to the situation in the UK, but which I imagine overlaps with the USA. There is no statement on my part of whether she is right or wrong, but this person's perspective bears thinking about. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/24/white-people-tv-racism-afua-hirsch

Yes. But the point remains - the official FDA standard is 145ºF for lamb. It's right there in their published ServeSafe specifications. So at the least one could acknowledge that all this lamb being served at 125ºF is technically in violation of the US Government's specifications and, theoretically, subjects a food establishment serving the public to fines or closure by the Health Department when lamb (and the other meats cited in the FDA publication) is served at a temperature less than 145ºF. (What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business) :-) If you and all the chefs out there have an issue with this y'all should be working to change that official definition of the minimum temperature for lamb and the various other meats.