S12.E09: Big Sausage

[cooksdelight]

I'm wondering if Katsuji chose Carrie because it was the only Stephen King movie he'd ever seen.

[Lillybee]

I think that you may be right about that. He grew up in Mexico and I doubt that he is really knowledgeable about American authors especially since English is his second language.

[cooksdelight]

If you happen to be in front of the TV right now, they are rerunning Katsuji's episode of Chopped on FN.

[susannot]

Both desserts were lovely but I wanted Katsuji's!  Cucumber/melon sherbet:  how creative.  And he proved that he can cook crepes to order.

[cooksdelight]

I wanted his entree. He has stuff like that in his restaurant, lots of good meat and even better sauces.

[Lura]

cooksdelight, does Katsuji's deli have places to sit down and eat?  For some reason, I thought it was the kind of deli with food in the cases, and you chose what you want and left.  Maybe I've watched Ina Garten shopping at an Italian deli for too long.

 

I have a feeling that Katsuji came from a good home -- not financially, but by parentage.  He seems to have very good manners (when he's inclined to!), and he sure cleans up well.  The camera people and the editors really tried hard to capture Katsuji when he was at his silliest.  I think they saw the potential humor in him and decided that the show needed it.  He wasn't all laughs like he was portrayed.  I loved the way he talked about his family and the obvious fondness he had for them.  He's also very intent on seeing his children go to college, and I think that's one reason why he works so hard.  I just felt all along that there was a lot more to Katsuji than we were seeing and that a serious man lived inside that skin.  I'll miss him a lot.

 

 

[cooksdelight]

Yes, there is seating inside and out on the sidewalk. I'd say probably enough for 24-30 diners. You walk up and order your food and it's brought to your table. Or they call you to come and get it, there was no one in there when I stopped by to chat with him.

[Lillybee]

If you happen to be in front of the TV right now, they are rerunning Katsuji's episode of Chopped on FN.

 

 

 

I had to laugh when Aaron Sanchez accused him of gringoing up his food. It was a funny moment.

[HappyDancex2]

I would have picked Stephen king and done "IT." Put a clown face on a plate and rammed a knife onto a wooden board? Nailed it!

Padma doesn't realize she's far past her prime for the ladies of Gronk. That was awkward. Comments are one thing but let's do away with the skits please.

[cooksdelight]

If Padma can attract an 80-yr old billionaire (her last, late, boyfriend) I guess she figures she can attract anyone.

[Chasing Whitebeams]

I understand that Padma isn't well-liked around here, but any talk about her being past her prime in any context is utter nonsense. The woman is drop-dead gorgeous not only for her age but for any age, and I can only imagine she's even more amazing in real life. 

 

PS. I actually like Padma as a host and as a judge. I often think her dumbest comments are fed to her by the producers-in-the-ear to highlight the challenge at hand. Like in this challenge, when she kept going on about interpreting the literary work. 

[HappyDancex2]

Padma being past her prime for the ladies of Gronk is not snark on Padma, it's snark on Gronk.

Padma is fine...she's a tall, supermodelesque Indian lady...it's only been on recent seasons where she has just seemed to be more haughty in her judgements. I think the perception is that she may not be well liked but I can only speak for myself that she is the constant. Each season there are comments on cheftestants physical appearances or quirks, voice, sweating, bugaboos...whatever. Plus Padma. x16 seasons. Or whatever. So it seems like it's a pile on for Padma...but it's not. She's just in every episode and top chef is getting a little stale so it just seems like there are a lot of comments about her. It's really the same comments, each season.

There isn't a lot of stuff going on in these final seasons of Top Chef so we are starting to pick on the minutiae of this series. Padma isn't any more off limits than snarking about greasy haired dude's greasy ass hair, Mei's resting bitchface, Melissa's hair, the blonde girl's legs....let's face it, Top chef isn't quite as compelling as it once was.

Every time I think it's the last season, I get sucked back in by some decent episodes! But Gail isn't really evolving where she's that snark worthy....and Tom is pretty steady too. The guy is barely aging and he's not even losing his hair. Ha. Padma wearing striped pants or skin tight overalls is all that goes on sometimes. Boring quick fire, Katsuji's babbles, greasy haired chefs, people stealing clams...I mean there isn't much to work with!! Thank goodness Padma gives us something to comment about other than the ridiculous product placement sponsor challenges of meh.

[LennieBriscoe]

But I would have liked to have seen somebody choose Bartleby the Scrivener. They could have served an empty plate because they preferred not to cook.

Jodithgrace, that is the best post ever in Posterville!

 

"I'd prefer not to." Bwahahahaha!

[JES004]

I thought Doug's dish looked beautiful.  I would love to try that carrot soup!  I am on the Poe bus, wondering why he was included.  I associate him with Richmond (where he grew up), and Baltimore (where he died.)  

 

If I'm getting Poe, I'm doing a Telltale Heart dish and hiding a ticking clock under the plate.

 

I thought of this one, too.  I thought something interesting might be done with "The Gold Bug", too.

 

There were very few dishes that really made me actually think about the writers work.  I don't really care for Katsuji (I call him Mr. Polyglot), but at least his dish made me think of an author who writes horror stories. Still glad he's gone, though.

[bunnywithanaxe]

Jodithgrace, that is the best post ever in Posterville!

 

"I'd prefer not to." Bwahahahaha!

 

Beyond awesome. :D

 

And regarding the upthread discussion, I infinitely prefer Openly Snarky Padma to that thing she used to do where she would act like this vision of grace and light and practically swallow her face when the urge to snark struck her. If she is gonna be bitchy, she's a lot more fun when she owns it.

 

For instance-- the fish thing was kind of a dick move, but it was also kind of heheheh...

Edited December 26, 2014 by bunnywithanaxe

[Bryce Lynch]

I thought the whole "make a dish that represents an author" concept was ridiculous and pretentious.  But, what really annoyed me was the judges saying that someone eating the meal should immediately know what literary work the dish portrayed be looking at it.  By that impossible standard they all failed miserably, and the only one who possibly could have fulfilled the requirement was George, if he had actually served up "Green Eggs and Ham".

 

I'd be willing to bet that even if the judges knew the list of authors, the would not have been able to guess any of them (except Stephen King) by looking at the dishes, and if they didn't know the list of authors, they couldn't have guessed them in 10 tries. 

 

Also, most sunsets I have seen are not pure orange like carrot soup, but a combination of oranges, peach, pink, red, etc. Doug gave them "The Sun in a Bowl" not "The Sunset in a Cup".  :)  I am not criticizing him, though, as I thought he did a good job of coming relatively close to meeting the requirements of a ridiculous challenge.