chiaros
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Posts posted by chiaros
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I liked John Tesar contradicting Tom Colicchio. The latter deserved it.
Of course, I suspect that predisposed Tom C to strike down John T.
13 hours ago, avecsans said:When John said at the end that other chefs his age just "kiss babies" but he cooks, was that a shot at Tom Colicchio? I thought it was.
I thought so too. And Tom C somewhat deserved it too, if that was John T's unstated intention, even if Tom C can still cook - in the Western European manner, of course.
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Bye John Tesar. Sorry to see you go. Sorry you got saddled with Katsuji Tanabe and spent time and energy trying to talk through stuff with that guy and try to get along with him. Because Brooke Williamson was playing games, even though that was strategy in this Reality TeeVee Show. I wonder what you would have made/produced if you were paired with one of the others instead. Hmm. But you did good over this season.
Not thrilled with Brooke W returning. Adds to the "fix is in" storyline.
I thought Shirley Chung was a good possibility for being kicked off, based on what was shown on this episode. Both her food and her cocktail had issues, IIRC. Oh, that "Margarita" of hers? IMO that wasn't a cocktail, that was a Slushie.
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I thought it has been noted that Tesar was separated form his wife, Tracy. The D-Magazine article is old news. It has also been noted that he is no longer the same person reported in that article. It might be an idea to move on.
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23 hours ago, JeanneH said:
I thought she'd made that pretty clear - she lost, and wasn't happy about that; she lost to someone from LCK, and wasn't happy about that; and she lost in an Iron Chef final disguised as Top Chef, and she wasn't happy about that either. Brooke wants to prove she's the best, and won't be happy until she does so (IMO that's why she's been so driven this season). I wonder if she'll only be happy if she could beat Kristen in a one-on-one cook-off.
20 hours ago, Bastet said:Nor was I. I liked Kristen and Brooke so much, I was very excited about a finale where I'd be thrilled with either winner -- only to have that joy marred by such a ridiculous format. If Brooke winds up in this finale via LCK, I'll be happy if she wins, but equally happy if Shirley or Sheldon wins (not so much - or at all - with John). But if Brooke did win, it would be a little something extra, erasing that bad memory.
I said from the time the contestants for this season were announced that Brooke had the most to lose by coming back, so I really like that she put herself out there for it; she could have rested on a "she kinda got screwed" sentiment, but instead opted to try again, risking being eliminated mid-way through and changing the general perception to "Gee, I guess it was a fluke she got as far as she did the first time."
Yes, I agree she wasn't happy about losing under all those circumstances both of you describe, and she has said she wanted to come back to prove she can do better (i.e. WIN). But that would be limited to how she does in the context of THIS season and the current crop of cheftestants in how she cooks and how she plays the game against the CURRENT crop of cheftestants. If she wants to prove that she is "The Best" - that is hard to do --- how would one compare her against any of the other cheftestants on other seasons, let alone the winners of each season of Top Chef, without a lot of arm-waving? For that matter she CAN'T prove she is better than Kristen Kish on Top Chef the reality TV game show - if not anything else because Kristen Kish is not a cheftestant this year. (Even the reported meet-up of her and Kristen and some other chefs at a food happening soon is NOT in the same context) It wasn't entirely baseless when I queried "to what end" she was returning to Top Chef to try again.
(For that matter her trying to be "The Best" can't be feasible in the overall culinary world, of course, in the sense we are talking about, IMO. It can only apply within the context of Top Chef in a particular season, as I mentioned above.)
ETA: If she wins this season, I would think of her as the one who played the game and cooked well enough THIS season, and good for her. But I still would not think of her as BETTER than Kristen Kish, because she will not have demonstrated that. And for that matter, if she fails THIS season, I would not think that she was a bad cook - but might perhaps think even more that she should look further to advancing her currently successful culinary endeavors rather than trying to rewrite the past.
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Regarding Brooke Williamson and her chef-husband-co-owner Nick Roberts:
http://www.bravotv.com/people/brooke-williamson
I also remember from the Seattle season how Brooke W was portrayed as competing on Top Chef while her chef-husband-co-owner held down the fort at their (then only) restaurant.
She and her chef-husband have multiple restaurants/enterprises now and can only be considered as successful in the culinary world both in terms of reputation and financially. http://www.hudsonhousebar.com/about/ . http://www.playaprovisions.com/about/ . http://www.thetripel.com/ . http://www.triplikit.com/ .
Yet, as some here have wondered about, she chose to come back onto Top Chef – to try to prove something, perhaps. But to what end?
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37 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:
Good article. Thanks for posting it. (I note it covered lots more ground than that he and Tracy are separated)
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10 hours ago, dleighg said:
Direct from the source it looks like it's under $10 for 2 lb. Didn't go far enough to see about shipping charges.
http://www.carolinaplantationrice.com/store/products/Carolina-Plantation-Gold-Rice.html
Bineshii wild rice (or other true Minnesota wild rice, not the black-colored cultivated stuff) is not that much more expensive.
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moved to small talk.
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4 hours ago, weixiaobao said:
I ask. So you said you are chinese, do you every year, light up incenses for your deceased elders? Like I do, like my mom do, like my grandma do?
So why do you pretend to be superior to Shirley Chung. Each people experience life differently. Your is authentic just as her, but just as different. Like mine is.
I don't light incense etc for my ancestors each year. As you yourself said, your experiences and mine are different.
I have not pretended to be superior to Shirley Chung. That's your interpretation. Don't put words in my mouth. Instead, I have described WHY I dislike her, personally. The post of mine you quote is part of my response to posts which suggested that "family" and "parental-disapproval/approval" were central to "Chinese" as a monolithic group. Oh, BTW, it's also your interpretation when you stated further on in your post I was pretending that my experience, standards and tastes were what everyone else should strive for. Again, don't put words in my mouth.
In fact, your post proves my point - that there is no universal way in which people of Chinese heritage (NOTE the term) are expected to behave.
4 hours ago, weixiaobao said:Having been watching top chef since season 3, and since then watching every season except the latter half of season 13, I feel like some comments on some contestants are just really weird. Like the huge controversy when Travis Masar get eliminate when he had a tomato based sauce in a vietnamese dish. Guess what, I had ate a Vietnamese tomato based sauce dish, multiple of time.
Yes, this has been talked about before, and the existence of shrimp in tomato sauce as a Vietnamese dish has been mentioned.
...
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4 minutes ago, meep.meep said:
I think the big loser this season was Charleston. I can't think of one single place that this show has made me want to visit or a single food that it has made me want to eat.
^^^ This.
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5 minutes ago, dleighg said:
I was multi-tasking so presumably missed it but what exactly is the significance of "cooking at the Beard house"?
The James Beard awards is the equivalent, nowadays. of winning the Nobel Prize or the Oscar Awards - but in the field of the culinary arts in the USA. The "James Beard House", in the West Village in NYC, is the site of the organization which awards these distinctions. Cooking there is thought to be a high honor for those in the culinary worlds, and is usually thought of as a great compliment to the chef so invited to do so.
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2 minutes ago, spiderpig said:
Yes! And people were cultivating and eating rice at least 5000 years ago - before the Zojirushi cooker was ever invented. You know - pot, water, rice, heat.
Heh. I've cooked rice on the stovetop for 30-40 years. No "rice cooker", no "Zojirushi" thang. As you say: pot, water, rice, heat.
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23 hours ago, JeanneH said:
(within the last 2-3 weeks one of the other cheftestants said that (paraphrasing again) it's really hard when the direction is specifically to "be creative", implying you can't just turn that on and off.
That was John Tesar. He's right.
23 hours ago, essexjan said:Asian chefs
Define "Asian", please, if you could.
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7 hours ago, Rammchick said:
This past week, an Asian chef on Chopped said something similar to Shirley with respect to her heritage, that her family was very against her cooking career. I've heard others say this as well. Asian parents seem to have this view more than other groups, perhaps because they emigrated here to the US and took jobs in Chinese restaurants. So it's not surprising that they want more for their children and don't get the difference between being a world class chef and slinging Chow mein. Given that, is it any wonder that Shirley feels the way she does? We all want to make our parents proud, and not getting their approval must be awful.
1 hour ago, Blonde Gator said:Absolutely. Silva's had the same issues, with his father not wanting his son to be a "cook", and I recall other cheftestants from the Caribbean who had the same family cultural issues. I think Shirley brings her family up all the time because family is THE thing about being Chinese. I have a friend, a naturalized American, but Jamaican by birth, whose father escaped the Japanese during WWII for Japan. He has a "history" book that one of his great uncles had had written, it goes back almost 2,000 years! An amazing piece of family history. I find Shirley to be both annoying (because she's loud and chattering) and charming and sweet, too. I think she enjoys life, and who doesn't like hanging with that kind of person?
What you say is true. However, there is a difference between having those feelings and harping upon them every chance you get. I'm Chinese myself by heritage. I don't go around publicly and weepily talking about my heritage all. the. time. and how my family is behind everything I do (and in fact they rarely figure in why I do something)
Mei Lin (remember her?), another 100% Chinese-heritage chef, had the same issues with her parents not wanting her to be a chef. She talked about it, on numerous occasions. But the overall arc was that she did not harp on her heritage, her family, etc etc with every dish she made. She just went about creating good dishes, and talked about other influences for good measure. She also certainly did not simper shamelessly to the judges.
Ditto Melissa King, born and bred by traditional Chinese parents too. She didn't do the Shirley-routine either. Nor the simpering.
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16 minutes ago, Lord Donia said:
I'm not exactly fussed when contestants continually cook from their heritage; they all pretty much recreate or modify dishes they make at their restaurants anyway, but I do really appreciate it when they try something creative they've never done before or widen their scope in another way. Sheldon, for example, has said he thinks straying from his roots got him eliminated before, but as a viewer I'd like to see him turn out a classic French dish, or Mexican, just for the variety.
Of course. However, Shirley, on this show at least, keeps harping on it and basically always drags her family into the picture on why she made a dish. It's almost like she were incapable of making a dish without her family or grandparents being involved, and her making sure that the judges KNEW this while smiling (simpering) and nodding and crying and whatever else in front of them.
In contrast, Sheldon draws upon his Filipino/Hawaiian heritage constantly in this show, too, but does not make a huge song and dance about it. He simply states it when he needs to, and leaves it at that.
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...and yes, Shirley was being LOUD and obnoxious during the QF with all her yelling.
And she did not recognize her own husband, as others have pointed out. Possibly because she was yelling too much for her to hear and register the voice from the other side. Sheldon, OTOH, heard the voice from the other side.
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Here's a screen capture of the moment before the "pony-tailed" person turns away as Sheldon is serving Blais.
Nope, that is not Brooke.
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Well, if you watch the moments before this person with the ponytail turns away from the camera (in this clip) it certainly looks like Emily Hahn, not Brooke.
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Well, all the newbies are gone. Jamie (the last one) got sent packing. So it is now between Casey and Brooke, and we will find out who it is when they air the next episode. And this time, TPTB took care not to hint at who it is in their previews, it seems to me, unlike when they gave clues to who it was in TC Season 11 (from the characteristic posture of the chef rejoining them in the snippet of the preview)
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Has Shirley ever cooked anything on this reality TV show without dragging her family and her grandparents through the kitchen and the pantry and the garden and the fridge and whatever she wants the judges to think is her "heart"? While simpering through all of it? Maybe she has, but if so please remind me of it.
I'd like to see her cook more stuff just as a dish, without invoking some version of "Her Heritage" and/or "Her Family/Grandparents". That would be nice. And please, stop simpering at Tom C and the judges.
Yes, Brooke's dish was the least good one, even from where I sat on my couch. Bye. We will see if you make it out of LCK.
Shirley's dish - too weepy. Sheldon's dish - great recovery. John's dish - pretty good. Brooke's dish - not quite there.
I understood what John T was doing with leaving the pepper skins on. Bitter? I have never found them to be so.
Sou-vide pork tenderloin? Mushy.
Poached grouper? Nothing new or exceptional. Grouper is also pretty forgiving about cooking times.
Making hor fun with rice that does NOT have the usual characteristics of the usual varieties in a limited time? Good finagling.
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3 hours ago, John M said:
There was a story about Jeff Bezos a while back after buying a company that is based in Dallas, where John is based:
"Rutledge flew in from Dallas Sunday night to go out to breakfast with Bezos Monday morning. He had signed a contract to stay with Amazon for the next three years and thought the meeting was going to be an important way for Bezos to bring him into his inner ranks. Instead, the meeting ended up being awkward; Bezos didn't seem to have any real agenda, even though Rutledge had traveled so far to meet with him.
Bezos had ordered an exotic meal: Mediterranean octopus prepared with potatoes, bacon, green garlic yogurt, and a poached egg. When Rutledge asked Bezos why he had decided to buy Woot, Bezos paused for "several painful seconds" before answering.
"You’re the octopus that I’m having for breakfast," Bezos said. "When I look at the menu, you’re the thing I don’t understand, the thing I’ve never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.""
I'm sure breakfast octopus is a think at high level dining establishments and John was familiar with the idea but I couldn't help but wonder if he had heard the Bezos story.
Are you the same John M as on Chowhound?
As for octopus & eggs – your speculation is interesting; but I didn't get the sense that John Tesar had this particular incident in mind. Perhaps we will find out one day, though.
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15 hours ago, cooksdelight said:
That's why this may be my last season watching
:-)
Some people have thought so for a few years.
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On 2/6/2017 at 11:10 PM, Court said:
It has been said in the past by Tom or another judge that the producers do play a part in the elimination.
In Season 2 (yes, that far back) after Marcel got wrestled to the floor and he was in danger of being shaved clean on his head --- Tom C was reported to have wanted to throw everyone off the show (which was everyone, including the FAVORITE of some here, Sam Talbot) and award the title of Top Chef to Marcel by default (because there would be no one left) but he was overruled by the producers.
ETA: A clarification, in case it was not obvious: Tom C wanted to throw everyone else off BESIDES Marcel Vigneron, the object of the pile-on by all the OTHER remaining cheftestants.
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18 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:
Even Sheldon's chicken is not that unique, google "waffle battered chicken".
Yes. In the same post from which you quoted me (regarding Shirley bullshitting the judges) I also wrote this:
On 2/3/2017 at 8:02 PM, chiaros said:Even Sheldon's dish has similarities (as others have also said) with existing concoctions - including Chicken Waffle Tenders.
The two answer sets overlap.
ETA: Yes, Sheldon bullshits too, as do basically all of them to a greater or lesser extent. But IMO Shirley simpers shamelessly when she does it to the judges, and that moves her into egregious territory. She did the same sort of thing in her original season, when she sucked up to Tom C at every chance she got.
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S14.E12: Cooking Away In Margaritaville
in Top Chef
· Edited by chiaros
http://www.grubstreet.com/2017/02/top-chef-charleston-episode-12-recap.html
Yes, John did not perform so as to please Tom C, the head judge. Not what to do on Top Chef. But I credit him for trying to please The People and the product itself. Ditto the "working people's chicken soup", no fancy garnishes needed for the folks who made the tequila there and whom he was feeding. But of course that does not fit into the requirement that you cook to please the judges, fuck everyone else.**
As for whether he was a prick in his personal manners or character, that is subject to individual interpretations.
** Many cheftestants (again, Ed Cotton springs to mind) over the years fell into the trap of not producing food to specifically please the tastes of Tom C and Friends, but instead making stuff that they felt was either true to their own thoughts or understanding (usually true) of a cuisine or to the general clientele/eaters at a challenge. The multitudes out there eating their food does not matter. Only what Tom C and his buddies like matters, and that has always been the biggest negative of this show that pretends to be a cooking show.