Top Chef Masters - S1E4 Postmortem

Two words:

Flaming coconut.

I'm a little tied up and will leave the commenting to you guys again for the moment, other than to say that Mark Peel cracks me up and I'm sad to see him go. But now that I've had a chance to catch episode three... what the hell were Lefebvre and Pawlcyn thinking doing Mexican with Bayless in the house?

(And, really, could Bayless possibly have drawn any better than he did?)

Comments

[Azdahf]

Good episode, even though I'm sure most of the chefs seemed to have underachieved. But what stands out is probably what will end up being the best quote of the season, courtesy of NPH: "Oh, it's peeing on you."

[Brent]

Too bad about Besh's disaster. Great chef, great guy, would loved to have seen him in the finals. You'd think he'd have been better prepared than the others, too, having gone through the "Next Iron Chef" series.

Maybe they'll bring Besh back for another chance in Season 2, assuming there is one, along with Wylie and Graham.

Which chefs NOT participating this time around would you most want to see next time around? Wolfgang Puck would have a blast with this and probably be a lot of fun to watch. Ming Tsai.

[anon man]

Episode seemed kind of meh. I liked the dude with the fish package, need to try his place next time I'm in L.A. But one theme continues: the chefs treat each other with respect. A friend who hadn't seen TCM, only TC, watched it with us and noted "Man, they're all so nice." I of course explained the cookie baking incident.

FYI, the cast of Top Chef 14 (or whatever we're on) is up. DC has two entrents, one from the wildly over-rated Zatinya and one one from the excellent but unfortuntalely located (in Frederick) Volt.

[Bart]

Another fun episode. This season really hit the ground running and hasn't let me down yet. I love, love, love the positive atmosphere and the camaraderie. I think Tom C. said it best when the usual Top Chef contestants tend to get caught up in these word challenges, the Masters just took it in stride.

Good to see Gail in this episode, too.

Brent - I'd like to see Lidia Bastianich and Eric Ripert participate. And also Gordon Ramsay. I think Ramsay would be the most fun.

Oh, the preview for the next week's episode... was that Bayless again? What is he doing there?

[Skillet Doux]

Anon Man... have you been to Volt? I didn't get there before we skipped town and I'm intrigued. Some friends went and loved it, but when they ran down the menu, it sounded HIGHLY derivative. I found myself thinking "that's a Keller dish, that's an Achatz dish, that's an Adria dish," etc. I didn't get full detail, so it may have only been surface similarities, and that doesn't mean it wasn't delicious, but it kind of raised my eyebrow.

[Independent George]

I think I finally figured out exactly what it is that really appeals to me about Top Chef, when I can't stand 99% of all the other reality shows.

At its core, being a chef is a blue collar job. You basically work your way up through an apprenticeship system; graduating from CIA gives you a leg up, for sure, but it's not the same kind of networking advantage that going to Harvard provides. You still have to pay your dues with the daily grind. And after you've completed your years in the trenches, and finally get your own restaurant... you wind up working even harder, usually for less money. You spend years constantly on the edge of bankruptcy. Indeed, that threat never really goes away (see Gordon Ramsey).

In Top Chef, the prize isn't cash; it's opportunity. The winner doesn't get a windfall; he just gets a slightly better chance to earn his keep. Fortune still depends on his own labors.

What I love about Masters is that all these chefs, at the top of their respective games, still approach their craft from that workman's perspective. There are very few airs being put on. They're still grinding.

[Lon]

Comment on the "failures." I think these chefs know their normal fare, excellent as it may be, isn't going to win a competition like this. As Besh commented, he really had to go out on a limb with his creation.

And I think as Master Chefs who really aren't competing in more than one episode and who have more experience, they understand that a failure one day doesn't damage them that much. They've probably had lots of failures they've overcome.

We also need to remember that some of these contestants probabably don't line cook that much anymore. If you have four restaurants in four diverse locations like Douglas Rodriquez does in Miami, Philadelphia, New York City and Scottsdale, he probably doesn't cook like someone who has their own ressturant and works the pass every day.

Besides the sense of respect each chef has for the others, I like the exposure for these chefs. I've recently started traveling more and now when I go to towns where these chefs have restaurants, I know which ones I'll check out.

[DF]

I've eaten the food of all four contestants (Rodriguez and Lo most often) and I think the best chef won. Loving TCM.

[kit]

anon man says: "DC has two entrents, one from the wildly over-rated Zatinya and one one from the excellent but unfortuntalely located (in Frederick) Volt."

I am so glad to hear someone else thinks Zaytinya is just ridiculous. I just had dinner there recently and thought it was boring and over-priced. Here's a sample, the menu says "Patates Tiganites Me Yaourti" and what comes out are fries with some yogurt. Lovely.

Lon says: "We also need to remember that some of these contestants probabably don't line cook that much anymore."

Quite prescient, whichever critic mentioned during the opening of the episode that Lo would have an advantage since she still works the line.

SD says: "what the hell were Lefebvre and Pawlcyn thinking doing Mexican with Bayless in the house?"

Perhaps someone from the west coast can answer this, but is there a street food scene there and if so is it predominantly Latino in influence, which could perhaps explain why both Lefebvre and Pawlcyn went that direction? I think one of the critics mentioned that some form of Asian is another direction the chefs could have taken, but my sense it's hard to have that association between Asian food and street food unless you've been to somewhere in Asia where that's true (please correct me if I'm wrong, because I would love me some stateside Asian street food!). Which reminds me, I thought it was de rigueur these days for chefs to visit Southeast Asia and cite the trip as some new influence on their food. I'm not trying to make fun here, I'm just jealous, because I'd love to take that sort of trip, argh!

[Bart]

kit - there are a lot of places in NYC that serve up Asian (and Middle Eastern) food. The rickshaw dumpling cart is one of the the best in the city.

[kit]

Thanks Bart, I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I go :)

[Skillet Doux]

"Perhaps someone from the west coast can answer this, but is there a street food scene there and if so is it predominantly Latino in influence, which could perhaps explain why both Lefebvre and Pawlcyn went that direction?"

Absolutely, and it explains why that might be their first thought, but not why they wouldn't immediately disregard it. Unless Mexican is really, really your thing, it's kind of like challenging Nobu or Morimoto in a neo-Japanese cookoff. You just aren't going to win that one.

[Gilmore]

Also, Wilo cooking Puerto Rican food adds to the mess. I thought hot dogs, sausages, pot stickers (or some sort of dumpling) or egg roll would have worked and hid the offal.

Liked Episode 4. Wish Besh had done better with the eggs.

What's up with the GE Monogram ovens that they cant cook an egg?

[SorchaRei]

The very first street food I ever ate (in Berkeley in the early 70s) was char siu bao from a cart that sold all kinds of dim sum things. That's where I would have gone with the street food challenge unless I pulled the pig's ear (buckwheat crepe with pickled onions, smear of goat cheese, and pig's ear).

I loved how all the chefs tried something new -- it's refreshing to watch people eing creative, knowing that creative doesn't always pan out, and doing it anyway.

I like this show for different reasons than the ones that make me like Top Chef, but I sure do like it.

[Hillary]

Agreed on your Episode 3 comments. It did seem a little easy for Bayless but he's such a good chef that I wanted him to win anyway.

As for Episode 4, I'll miss Mark Peel too but damn, Anita's dishes were SUPER impressive. I'm blogging about the episode at Chew on That.

[Bob]

Not being a foodie, I don't have a good grasp on the food being presented. However, I am warming up to this show. I love TC because, as said above, there is something really at stake for the contestants and it's great to see someone win and have it change their life.

What I really enjoy in TCM is the use of Quick Fire challenges from previous seasons. what a great idea. It links the two shows together and gives us a chance to see real pros provide different, and possibly, not better results.

I hope the finals are not a single elimination. I also vote for Gordon Ramsey and that guy who hosts The Chopping Block on NBC. Put both of them in the same episode!

[anon man]

Dom,

Volt was really good, but I didn't think it terribly copy-cat like. The fish did seem reminiscient of other profiles I've seen before, but the meat offered some more unusual or bolder combinations. Nothing I ate had me screaming "I've eaten this before." Note: I have not eaten at Alinea, but I have eaten at Keller's FL about half a dozen times, so if he cribbing Alinea, I might not know.

All that said, it isn't destination worthy. My friends no longer live in Frederick, so I have no reason to go back. I didn't like it any better than my two favorite restaruants in DC: Restaurant Eve and Corduroy. What it does have in common with these two is the right mix of simple and innovative, at least for my taste. In DC there are plenty of places (as Kit alludes to with Zatinya) that are completely full of themselves for no reason and offer nothing horribly interesting.

[Skippy]

I think what I'm enjoying about this show is the lack of drama. These guys don't really seem to have anything to prove. Most of them just let the ego go and cook. And they're having fun.

Everyone gets something for their charity and has a great time getting to hang out with other chefs.

[Josh]

Actually, I see a THIRD cheftestant from the greater DC area. She's from Abacrombie in Baltimore...I moved away from DC 10 years ago so I've never heard of it, Dom, any insight for us?

I'm pleased that most of the people seem to be of executive chef level with not as many "I just graduated from school" chefs. My money's on the girl from Ripert's kitchen, which probably means she'll go home on the first episode.

Also, Toby's back. Ugh. Hopefully he's been watching Masters and has been taking notes from Jay Rayner about how to constructively critique.

[kit]

In case anyone's interested, apparently Padma might star in a sitcom:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006175.html?categoryId=14&cs=1