Top Chef Canada - General Discussion

[LeighLeigh]

Why did all of our posts and topics get lumped into this one heading? Now everything, regardless of season or subject, is under “Top Chef Canada”? Please enlighten me if I misunderstood. 

[hula-la]

On 12/29/2018 at 8:59 PM, LeighLeigh said:

Why did all of our posts and topics get lumped into this one heading? Now everything, regardless of season or subject, is under “Top Chef Canada”? Please enlighten me if I misunderstood. 

I wonder if it's because of the reorganization. As there hasn't been a lot of people/posts on this, it's considered less popular, so got moved into this post (I know there's a fancy name for the different types of boards on this page, but can't remember what any of them are).

[hula-la]

New Season begins Monday, April 1. 

https://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/top-chef-canada/blog/top-chef-canada-season-7-reveals-new-twist/

[hula-la]

And a new season has begun! One of the cheftestants is from the city next to me, so I'll be interested to see how he does (and if I ever run into him on the street!).  Top Chef Canada hasn't really been known for drama, so I wonder how much Takeshi's statements when they were choosing the final chef to join the competition, and how much was for not great food (I suspect that it's more the former than the latter). I hope that this is a good season!

[staphdude]

Well it's nice to have this show back but I am sad to see Mijune still there.

Why have such a specific challenge if you want exotic flavours. There are people who have tastes that are perfectly normal that don't conform to what the judges feel are appropriate . To add insult to injury they then keep someone on who badly under cooks something then weeps her way to a pass. Ridiculous.

[Evenshorter]

So glad this is back!  So far I'm liking the guy from Mississauga who made the congee.  Agree about Mijune - love Eden but do not like Mijune at all.

[Bunnyette]

On 4/2/2019 at 12:39 PM, hula-la said:

And a new season has begun! One of the cheftestants is from the city next to me, so I'll be interested to see how he does (and if I ever run into him on the street!).  Top Chef Canada hasn't really been known for drama, so I wonder how much Takeshi's statements when they were choosing the final chef to join the competition, and how much was for not great food (I suspect that it's more the former than the latter). I hope that this is a good season!

I think that’s why he got booted, keep the chef who can’t cook lamb or fry fish but don’t keep the one who may call out the judges on their stupidity

[LeighLeigh]

Looks like the cheftestant from Tofino is doing really well. Predictions anyone?

Excited for Restaurant Wars next week. I feel for the plant-based chef stuck doing front of house and crying in her Talking Heads. Hope she doesn’t go home yet.

I wish Takeshi stayed longer. I would have loved to see what he could do. 

Still curious if Eden’s work trip to Paris had anything to do with Top Chef Canada. She gave no extra details. Finale, maybe?

[hula-la]

53 minutes ago, LeighLeigh said:

Looks like the cheftestant from Tofino is doing really well. Predictions anyone?

Excited for Restaurant Wars next week. I feel for the plant-based chef stuck doing front of house and crying in her Talking Heads. Hope she doesn’t go home yet.

I agree with you about the guy from Tofino, but I don’t have any other predictions. Though, I am hoping good things for the plant based chef, as I believe she adds some much needed variety to the dishes. I think that some chefs would honestly not know what todo if they couldn’t cook with meat. 

I believe this is the earliest that I’ve ever seen a Reataurant Wars in this or the American show. Looking forward to seeing it too! 

[staphdude]

The downfall of the multi-competition winning chef was somewhat surprising. They seemed to go out of their way to find redeeming features in the egg dish so either hers sweet peach fish bite really was terrible or she was next on the list.

Wish they would do away with restaurant wars. It is such a tedious exercise in manufactured drama and unrealistic expectations. The only good thing I can say about this iteration is they shouldn’t be screaming about how understaffed they are. 

[Token]

I've only watched the first episode so far and I'm already annoyed.  There seems to be a high level of arrogance, yet a fairly low level of ability.  And, really, in a country like Canada, out of 12 contestants: 10 are white, 9 are male.  And, of course, one of only two non-white people goes home first.  I'd really like to see an actual representation of the country here, not the white male blandness they're giving us here.

[Token]

Oh good, in episode two, we lost one of only three women in the season.

[hula-la]

18 hours ago, Token said:

Oh good, in episode two, we lost one of only three women in the season.

What season was it where the women were eliminated one by one until one woman and all the men remained? I think part of the issue is the smaller population of Canada. We have fewer people to apply, and I wonder if the majority of people who apply for the show are white males. How to encourage chefs of colour and female chefs to apply for these shows, so that we can get better representation of our country? It would make for a better show, as we’d get to see a wider variety of dishes (provided that the judges understand how to judge dishes they might not be familiar with). 

[Token]

11 hours ago, hula-la said:

What season was it where the women were eliminated one by one until one woman and all the men remained? I think part of the issue is the smaller population of Canada. We have fewer people to apply, and I wonder if the majority of people who apply for the show are white males. How to encourage chefs of colour and female chefs to apply for these shows, so that we can get better representation of our country? It would make for a better show, as we’d get to see a wider variety of dishes (provided that the judges understand how to judge dishes they might not be familiar with). 

I feel like in the All Star season, a bunch of women got eliminated quickly and only Nicole was left.

[hula-la]

I knew Benet’s team was going to win the minute he was picked as lead (and it was cool to watch him rock the prep challenge). There is a wildly successful Japanese/Italian restaurant in Vancouver, so I wonder if that’s where someone got inspiration http://www.kissatanto.com/

[LakeGal]

It was kind of nice to watch Paul get knocked off his arrogant perch.  He dictated to his team while the other team all got to have a say in what to do.  

[Pepper the Cat]

I want that Spagehetti/ Duck/ whatever dish so bad. It looked so yummy and awesome. I actually wanted all the dishes from Lake. 

I don’t know how the judges can eat 2 big meals like that. 

The best team certainly did win!

[Token]

I'm not a huge fan of Bennett's, but I'm glad he beat Paul.  Paul's choices for his teammates confused me, as he started by picking people I wouldn't consider particularly strong.  He deserved to lose.

I would love to do that Edgewalk!!!

Mijune Park still annoys the crap out of me and shouldn't be there.  Ditto Nuttall-Smith.

Tania should have just gone back immediately, apologised, given them free drinks, and taken their orders again.  She made it infinitely worse with how she acted.

[Rockfish]

I could relate (screwing up and getting so freaked out by the screwup, which kept her from dealing with it efficiently) to Tania and her blunder that I got so. very. stressed. out. watching that part. 

Edited April 18, 2019 by Rockfish

[LeighLeigh]

I watched the first episode again recently. There is a spoiler as to who the Top 5 will be. There is a two seconds clip of them walking in what appears to be Canada’s Wonderland.

Let me know if I should share, or see for yourself on foodnetwork.ca

[LeighLeigh]

I found the podcast “More than Maple Syrup” on eatnorth.com 

They discuss the latest episode of Top Chef Canada, as well as other Canadian food news.

[staphdude]

Man, this challenged turned into a version of Noma-lite. 

Panna-cotta??? She really should have used the juniper in some pickled herring. Perfect as an appetizer and would have made much more sense. 

Bye bye vegetable based cooking. Don’t know why you were worried about vegan desserts as in my experience they are often wonderful. I think it is your execution that is the cause for concern.

Edited April 23, 2019 by staphdude

[hula-la]

I kind of feel that there were two challenges rolled into one. I'm not sure why they went foraging for this challenge.  Could they have been inspired by the hyper-local, foraging style food found in Noma and other like restaurants, and created something with what they foraged (as I would have loved to learn more about the ingredients that they found). Or, simply focus on the ingredients discussed in the challenge, and created Scanadanavian-style dishes. I felt like the foraging was a bit of a throw-away, but would have been a great challenge on its own.

[Token]

Wow, Tania is not a good advertisement for vegan food.  None of her food ever looked good, which is sad, because vegan food can be amazing.  And she just completely messed up in the QF challenge.  A good choice to say goodbye to this week.

[Bunnyette]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:51 PM, Token said:

Wow, Tania is not a good advertisement for vegan food.  None of her food ever looked good, which is sad, because vegan food can be amazing.  And she just completely messed up in the QF challenge.  A good choice to say goodbye to this week.

Crappy pana cotta should have left...but there are lots of delicious vegan desserts out there...a nice mousse or vegan ice cream...

[Mellowyellow]

On 4/22/2019 at 9:22 PM, LeighLeigh said:

I watched the first episode again recently. There is a spoiler as to who the Top 5 will be. There is a two seconds clip of them walking in what appears to be Canada’s Wonderland.

Let me know if I should share, or see for yourself on foodnetwork.ca

Ooh please share with me!!!! I love spoilers! They never bother me!

[hula-la]

Those kids were super cute, and I loved how Hayden crouched to their level when he was presenting to them.

[LeighLeigh]

I hate double-eliminations. I love Sebastien.  I love his fight, his drive, his hunger and how he is proud of his French Canadian roots. I’ve been a fan of his since he was on Chopped Canada (twice). I would have loved to see him in the finale. 

[Token]

These shows are so ridiculous with their double eliminations.  I hate them.  Someone good always gets taken down by someone crappy.  Renee is lucky to still be there, after making a crappy chowder.  As much as I hate to see a bunch of men left, with no women, Renee just doesn't deserve to be there.

[oldCJ]

Disappointing elimination. Renée should have gone home several times by now. 

I found it strange during the quickfire that Blais picked the winner of each pair, even though the whole point was to appeal to kids. 

[Christina]

Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, but there have been several times this season that it has come across that the others are as sick of Mijune as some of us. Eden has argued with her at judges table for changing her opinion from the tasting to the table based on the other's comments , Zuccarini has looked at her like she's stupid when she talks, just like I do, and when I saw this photo on McEwen's Instagram, I decided he was staring at Mijune wondering why she was there:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw3OzxeBXeC/

This double elimination was the first time this season that I really disagreed with the decision; Renee should have gone and will go next week for sure. The other times I thought it could go any way and I could see why, but this week, it was just wrong. We can't taste the food but we can hear the comments about it and Renee was the loser. 

Tania's desire to show vegetable based food in a positive light when compared with animal based products was probably the selling point that tipped the scales to her during chef selection and it's unfortunate that she couldn't rise to the challenge. It never came across to me that the judges disliked vegan food as much as she just dropped the ball during conception of the dishes. 

[Bunnyette]

On 5/1/2019 at 1:47 PM, oldCJ said:

Disappointing elimination. Renée should have gone home several times by now. 

I found it strange during the quickfire that Blais picked the winner of each pair, even though the whole point was to appeal to kids. 

As I said earlier she can cook cat food from now on as overly PC Food network Canada will ensure she is in the final.

[Token]

2 hours ago, Bunnyette said:

As I said earlier she can cook cat food from now on as overly PC Food network Canada will ensure she is in the final.

Overly PC?  They had 12 contestants at the start, most of whom were white men.  That's not exactly PC.

[hula-la]

I call producer shenanigans. Of course they knew that Wallace put extra activated charcoal in his dish--cause he said it on camera--and you bet they let the judges know (not that I think that was cheating). I understand why Bennett would be upset, but I don't necessarily think that calling out Wallace like that was the best move and I'm certain that was the impetus for him getting the PYKAG. I do like that, just like the last few seasons of the American version, these seem to be chefs that aren't there for drama or to cause problems.

[Token]

Wow, I never liked Bennet and he just turned into a little bitch in this episode!  There was always something off about him, something I didn't really like or trust.  What a douche canoe.  I'm guessing England kicked him out and didn't want him there!  You're right, Bennet, this is Top Chef Canada and we don't like little bitches here, so... bye!

[zibnchy]

I got why Bennet did it. He knew he was probably going home and he really really wants that cash prize so he tossed out a hail mary. It came off as petty when he did it but I have a feeling Bennet doesn't much care what people think of him.

At first I thought what Wallace was doing was sketchy but it really isn't any different from giving the judges the most perfectly cooked and plated food while maybe pawning less perfect plates off on the masses. I don't much like Wallace. Well, I don't much like any of them.

The challenge itself was stupid.

[staphdude]

So Bennet whines and moaned about Wallace but in my mind if he wanted to spotlight issues with following the rules he should have focused on either Phil or Renee. IMO neither addressed the challenge properly. Phil did use both ingredients but the were in no way integrated so he was able to to make a straightforward caviar dish and then people could have some “unique” cotton candy. His explanation of the colour palette of the caviar dish evoking cotton candy was BS.

Then there’s Renee. You got hotdog. You didn’t use hotdog. No, wadded meat on a stick is not hotdog. It looked good but I am sure plenty of people would like to just say this reminds me of that so I will choose to do what I want and not overcome the roadblock put before me.

[Bunnyette]

7 hours ago, staphdude said:

So Bennet whines and moaned about Wallace but in my mind if he wanted to spotlight issues with following the rules he should have focused on either Phil or Renee. IMO neither addressed the challenge properly. Phil did use both ingredients but the were in no way integrated so he was able to to make a straightforward caviar dish and then people could have some “unique” cotton candy. His explanation of the colour palette of the caviar dish evoking cotton candy was BS.

Then there’s Renee. You got hotdog. You didn’t use hotdog. No, wadded meat on a stick is not hotdog. It looked good but I am sure plenty of people would like to just say this reminds me of that so I will choose to do what I want and not overcome the roadblock put before me.

Well said, however after realizing the lack of diversity, TPTB are keeping Renee no matter what!

[hula-la]

Well, didn't see Renee going home.  To be honest, that curry didn't look too good. The texture seemed wrong, and it seemed like there was too much food and too little spices. 

[Bunnyette]

So no surprise there...Paul winning although I was hoping for Phil...

[Pepper the Cat]

I was cheering for Paul so I am happy

[LeighLeigh]

Agreed, no surprise. Actually, the surprise would have been if Paul lost. He was given the winner’s edit all season. Phil was given the runner-up edit.

Even though I have seen her instagram, i was still surprised to see how passionate and affectionate Paul was with his girlfriend. She humanizes him. I am happy for them. By the way, the got engaged in Paris in January. 

Good for Top Chef Canada in getting Paul this season. He may be the cheftestant with the best accolades. His bio is indeed impressive.

Although Paul has the awards and honours, Dale MacKay has the ego. It was wise of Paul to pick Ross to be his sous-chef. 

Didn’t Dale sous for another losing chef in the past? Was it Trevor Bird?

[LeighLeigh]

I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit of the chefs in their house. Not necessarily  braless breakfast challenges (poor Sarah), but I wouldn’t mind hearing about families and seeing them interact outside the kitchen. 

Does anyone know if they stay in a hotel?

Also, the season is too short, there aren’t enough contestants, and I hate double eliminations. 

[LeighLeigh]

Also, Mijune can go. Chris and Janet should be in every episode. More guest judges like Gail Simmons (a Canadian) would be lovely. She and Eden are friends. 

[LeighLeigh]

Final thought, like mentioned by others before, I would love a finale in a different city, or the entire season in a different city for that matter. More women chefs. More chefs of colour. No more Mijune. More of Eden’s silly side.

[hula-la]

20 hours ago, LeighLeigh said:

Final thought, like mentioned by others before, I would love a finale in a different city, or the entire season in a different city for that matter. More women chefs. More chefs of colour. No more Mijune. More of Eden’s silly side.

I'm tempted to unlike you rpost, so I can like it again, and again!  

While I'm happy that Paul won, I was really hoping for Phil to come out on top. Paul kind of lost it for me when he kept talking about "Asian flavours". Asia is a continent, with a wide variety of flavour profiles.  Food from Thailand is vastly different from food from India (not even to mention the regional differences within a country). It really irks me when chefs use that phrase. We don't say "North American flavours". Maybe we should start.

It was a quick season, but a good season. Little to no drama, chefs who are highly appreciative of each other, and food that made me really hungry. I've been to Phil's restaurant, Nightingale, before. Can't wait to go again!

[LakeGal]

I always expected Paul to win.  But I would have liked Phil as a winner too.  He really pushed Paul in the final.  I didn't think the other 2 had a chance of making the final 2.  

I would also like a different location for the next season.  I want some variety.

[hula-la]

They've released the names and bios of the Season 8 contestants.  New season begins April 13. https://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/top-chef-canada/chef-bios/

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by hula-la
Added season starting date.

[Bunnyette]

Too soon to judge but to be sure the over confident ones will soon to be put in their place.  Too bad Mijune is back as a judge.  Ditch her & replace with Gail please.

[hula-la]

And it’s back! I want to know where that cheftestant got Blue Mountain coffee, as I can’t find any in Vancouver, and I’ve been searching for years! I just made pasta dough today, and want to try the laminated pasta. 

Like the American version of the show, it’s bittersweet watching, as I wonder how many of these chefs will have restaurants that survive the pandemic.