Chef's Table

[Meredith Quill]

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the show's run.

[Quickbeam]

I absolutely love this show and it is one of the reasons we get Netflix. My husband is an amateur chef but that isn't why I watch it. I just find the individual journeys riveting. On Season 2, ep 1, I wasn't grabbed by the Chicago/Alinea chef until

Spoiler

his amazing squamous cell cancer story

. After that he completely owned me. 

[syllegrrl]

 My hubs and I have adored Grant Atchaz for years, since he had been with The French Laundry. We have never eaten his food, but we have always closely followed his career.  I enjoyed the chef from the South, Sean something. 

[biakbiak]

Are you thinking of Sean Brock from The Mind of a Chef? 

[Maysie]

The show is beautifully done, I think. I have to say, the episodes this season didn't make me hungry like a few of last season's did. I respect the chefs, their stories and what they do, but I didn't see a lot that made me think "wow, I want to eat that!!" even though the food was gorgeous (though I think I would have happily eaten at Pujol). I thought Grant Atchaz had a very compelling story and of all the chefs I've seen profiled, he seems to be the most artistic in his vision - I mean food that floats?!? And he (or one of his chefs) pulled it off. To me, he's kind of a step beyond a chef and takes creative thinking to an unusual, interesting level, which would make for a curious, kind of fun dining experience (but not at $500 a pop). I also really enjoyed the Alex Atala and Gaggan episodes - they were both very interesting to me. Alex Atala seems like a great guy (I looked up his Twitter feed) and Gaggan was kind of from out of left field because I wouldn't have considered Indian cuisine to be the basis of one of the top five restaurants in the world. But there it is and I liked his story.

[biakbiak]

I love Slovenia and Ana's ep made me want to go back because I think it's stunningly beautiful country that benefited from infrastructure and natural resources so it survived communism and the civil war and now I want to try her food!

[Decider]

I have been to Alinea three times now and if you ever have the means to go, I highly recommend it -- worth the expense, worth the trip to Chicago.   When I last went a few years back,they offered a tasting menu for $150 that was about 12-15 dishes and a tour menu for $250 that was 24-26 courses, plus you could also get wine pairings for an additional fee.

All three visits were memorable and the food was superb.  Grant Achatz came to my table to set up the last course on one of the visits (the dessert that you see done on the tabletop in the beginning of the episode) and it was all I could do to restrain myself from fangirling all over the place.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Decider

[buttersister]

I finally binged season 2 and was mighty impressed with the production values and the storytelling. I knew nothing about these people except Grant (like most in Chicago) and Dominique. Each of these stories was very moving, showcased the redemptive and live-affirming (not just life-giving) quality of cooking and I wanted to eat everything. I was blown away by Ana's food and would eat all of it. Also, more than once, I freeze-framed so I could see WTH that gorgeous dish was! But the dish that stayed with me that I would so love to dip a home made tortilla into was that mole!

Edited August 28, 2016 by buttersister

[biakbiak]

Season 3 debuted yesterday. For some reason I never watch them in order just choose the food or country that looks interesting, so probably influenced by news I started with Vladimir Mukhin of White Rabbit in Moscow.  His food looked delicious but the dining room looked so fun and lovely. 

I was sort of surprised when they involved the Ukraine anx the sanctions but I made sense when it went to the actions of the government seizing food and the ways the shortages and skyrocketing prices would remind people of food shortages during the Cold War. Interesting that the locavore movement thrived and he was well placed to capitalize on  the interest.

[biakbiak]

I guess I am the only one watching but I finally got around to Jeong Kwan’s ep which is actually the 1st of season 3 but I always decide based on mode and the scenery of the temple was breathtaking and temple food was fascinating because it's not a cuisine that is discussed often and certainly not so beautifully presented.

[biakbiak]

Season 4 has started and it focuses on pastry chef. I enjoyed the first episode with Tosi even though I was familiar with her stoey, I still found it enjoyable.

[zobot81]

I was so excited to watch episode 2 of the newest season (4). My husband and I are going to Sicily in early October for our honeymoon, and there's nothing I look forward to more, than going to Noto and eating everything Corrado Assenza has in pastry shop, Caffè Sicilia.

[awaken]

Just discovered this show on Netflix!  It is gorgeously done, and most episodes are so gripping. I don’t think it’s playing in order, it seems to be skipping all over. My favorites so far have been Caffe Sicilia, the Buddhist monk, and Christina tosi.  So many memorable scenes, life stories, and pictures. 

[Whimsy]

Super late to this.  I only started watching this because I just met Christina Tosi a couple of weeks ago at my daughter's graduation from the Culinary Institute of America.  She gave the graduation speech and they bestowed the honorary award of Ambassador on her.  I met her and spoke to her very briefly (I told her that her speech made me cry) when she had a book signing.  It was very inspirational and is essentially the goal of my daughter to be just like her!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Season 6 drops on Netflix on Friday, February 22!

This season's chefs:

Quote

Mashama Bailey is the chef of the Grey in Savannah, Georgia. Her cooking is a blend of Southern, African, and New American cuisines, with several other global influences thrown into the mix and an emphasis on seasonality.

Prior to opening the Grey, the chef worked on the line at Gabrielle Hamilton’s Manhattan restaurant Prune. Hamilton helped connect Bailey with John O. Morisano, a venture capitalist who was planning to open a restaurant in an old Greyhound bus station in Savannah. After moving to Georgia to work with Morisano, Bailey began embracing the history of her new home and its community of local farmers and purveyors. The chef also cites the work of late chef and cookbook author Edna Lewis as a big inspiration on her cuisine.

Last November, Eater critic Bill Addison named the Grey the restaurant of the year, writing, “we all look for inspiration in our lives; few of us channel it as effectively as Bailey has.”

Quote

Sean Brock is the James Beard Award-winning chef who opened Husk, McCrady’s Tavern, and Minero in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as satellite restaurants in other majors Southern cities.

The chef pioneered a style of cuisine that emphasized the quality of local ingredients, and the culinary history of the American South. Eater Charleston editor Erin Perkins recently wrote that “Brock helped bring ‘home’ recipes into high-end restaurants.” After battling a rare autoimmune disease and getting sober, the chef recently shocked the dining world by announcing his departure from the restaurant group that made him a star.

Brock is currently working on some new projects in Nashville including, according to Netflix, “an Appalachian restaurant.”

Quote

Asma Khan is the chef-owner of Darjeeling Express, an acclaimed Indian restaurant in London that grew out of a popular supper club.

Khan was born into a royal family in Aligarh, India. She only became interested in cooking as an adult, when she was working as a constitutional law scholar in Cambridge, England, and realized that her husband was a bad cook. After working through her family’s recipes and also studying 1930s Royal Nawabi/Mughal cuisine, she decided to ditch her legal career and launch a supper club. That operation eventually morphed into a permanent restaurant, staffed entirely by female chefs, that’s now the toast of the town.

Since Khan and many of her kitchen team members are second daughters — a status that comes with its own baggage in Indian culture — the chef decided to donate proceeds from her restaurant to a foundation in India that helps other second daughters. Earlier this year, the chef told the Independent, “Through the charity I want the birth of second girls to be celebrated in the village and for second girls to have the same rights as boys: an education, an opportunity and a reminder that they are not a burden on their family.”

Quote

Dario Cecchini is a world-renowned butcher who operates a meat shop and a string of restaurants, including a steakhouse and a burger shop, in Panzano, Italy.

Although Cecchini comes from a long lineage of butchers, as a young man he had no interest in the family business and actually studied to be a veterinarian. But when his parents died, Dario took up the cleaver at his family’s shop and spent a decade mastering the trade. Over the last four decades, he’s taught a number of talented chefs — including Salt Fat Acid Heat author Samin Nosrat — the art of butchery, while also earning a reputation as an artisan/philosopher/showman.

A fan of both Shakespeare and Dante, Cecchini coined the catchphrase for himself: “To beef or not to beef? That is the question!”

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I watched the Dario and Mashama episodes over the weekend. They’re totally different but both interesting. I’ve seen profiles of Dario on other shows but I liked that we got more of a complete picture of him (not just “guy who makes huge steaks”). 

Edited April 2, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[biakbiak]

Renewed for season 2.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The next season will focus on BBQ! Premieres September 2

Quote

Some of those chefs and pitmasters featured will be award-winning pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz of Austin's Snow’s BBQ, Australian chef Lennox Hastie who has a passion for cooking everything over fire, James Beard Award winner pitmaster Rodney Scott of Charleston, SC, and chef Rosalia Chay Chuc, who is an expert on traditional Mayan cooking, specifically the pork dish cochinita pibil.

Promo:

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by ElectricBoogaloo

[MerBearHou]

On 8/22/2020 at 3:38 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The next season will focus on BBQ! Premieres September 2

Promo:

 

Saw the Snow’s BBQ one tonight.  It’s outstanding in so many ways.  Loved it and will tell others.

Edited September 5, 2020 by MerBearHou