New Home

Greetings, all!

So, a funny thing happened this morning. Well, not funny so much, but interesting. Well, interesting to me. Okay, not that interesting. Long story short, I've decided to go all Qwikster on you and divorce the Top Chef Power Rankings from Skillet Doux. Sort of. As you can see, it's easy enough to flip back and forth between the two. But with the switch between Top Chef season and not Top Chef season, Skillet Doux was starting to feel kind of bipolar. So for my own sanity, I've opted to keep them separate. From here on out, I'll do all of the Top Chef stuff here, while keeping Skillet Doux focused on the food.

This was kind of a last-moment (read: eight hours ago) decision, so things are still a little messy. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll still be tidying things up, possibly migrating all of the old Top Chef content over here (if I can maintain the legacy links... need to figure that one out), working up a new archive, etc. etc. And in the interim, if anybody catches any funny bugs, a quick comment on this post would be greatly appreciated.

I think this is the best way to do it. There have been many times I hesitated to do things with the Power Rankings because I felt like I was making a mess of Skillet Doux. No more! At least that's the theory. We'll see how it works out in practice. In the meantime, we have a premiere to check out... see you all for the postmortem!

Comments

[LaLaura]

good idea!! i'm so ready for the new season!

[Skillet Doux]

Thanks, LaLaura!

I don't really have anything else to say. Just thought I'd seize this opportunity to make sure that commenting doesn't make the new blog blow up.

...

taptaptap

...

Looks okay.

[Anne]

Looks good, Don! Your loyal minions will flock wherever you go.

[Mike Gebert]

Hey, so who knows if she'll survive past tonight, but here's one cheftestant to check out-- I just did a video for the Chicago Reader featuring Beverly Kim:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/beverly-kim-of-aria-cooks-with-black-cardamom/Content?oid=4888107

[HF]

Hey, I wanted to make a suggestion to gray up the white background a few shades. On my old CRT monitor it's pretty eye-bleed inducing. Thanks for the postings and here's hoping for a good season of Top Chef!

[nm]

I appreciate the toggle feature.

[Wgarton]

Great to have you back Dom. Don't mind the move either way, I'll still peruse both. Let's hope for another great season.

[1000yregg]

Huzzah- looking forward to seeing your take on the new season at this new space. I hope the prospective 29 gets whittled down to a more reasonable number quickly.

[Narshkite]

Loyal minion reporting for duty! Looks good Dom.

[Lou]

Thank you for all the hard work that you put into these blogs.

This season started differently with Tom giving the first PPYKAG for butchering. I'm liking it more already.

[Allison]

Having a separate blog makes complete sense. I miss some of the green (what can I say? I like the color), but I get the color scheme. Nice work, as always.

[Token Omnivore]

The split site is good. What's another RSS feed among TC fans?

The huge crowd confused me before reading a comment from Tom about needing to filter out good chefs (or good competitors) from the resumes.

I was sorry to see folks go for plating mistakes, before they could get in a TC groove. And I was cheering for the self taught guy. But I'll admit I was happy to see Little Big Ego go out first. Dude may have a resume. But a little humility would help.

[matthew]

I like the separate blog. Thought I initially found SD because I was looking for a good place to discuss Top Chef, I stayed because of your great content.

One cosmetic note/request. Can you make the font just a touch darker? I don't know about others, but the existing light gray font is hard to read for more than a paragraph.

All the best, and I look forward to another season with you and the rest of the gang!

[Sprugman]

great idea. subscribing to the feed isn't working for me:

No feed available for "http://www.skilletdoux.com/topchef/atom.xml"

[Sprugman]

maybe post announcements about new TC posts in the main feed till that's working.....?

[KinderJ]

I want to second Matthew on the text color- grey on grey is a bit hard on the eyes. Black is good... Otherwise I think the new site has good bones. I look forward to using it.

[Skillet Doux]

Switched the main text from dark grey to black... better?

[Skillet Doux]

Also, I think the feed's fixed... would appreciate it if somebody could confirm.

[HF]

"Switched the main text from dark grey to black... better?"

No. #F1F1F1 is too bright.

[lauralite]

Sprugman: I was able to get an RSS feed last night with "http://www.skilletdoux.com/topchef" using google reader. Maybe taking the "atom.xml" off will help?

[Duffy]

Dom -- great idea, separating out the TC stuff! But OUCH, new format/colors really hard on my tired old eyes. Too bright; text still too grey, etc.

[Skillet Doux]

Okay, guys... I need a little guidance here. I was under the impression that to make a page easier on the eyes, it was less about bright/dark and more about a level of contrast that is neither too high nor too low (note: my level of actual knowledge on this subject is near zero). Duffy... the text is black as black can be. But if I darken up the background too much, won't the lower contrast make it harder to read?

Educate me!

[Duffy]

Dunno, Dom -- I need my stepson who is our household IT guy. However -- my regular screen desktop is Microsoft's boring old grassy meadow with clouds. If I adjust the screen to get the TC page to a decent level of brightness and contrast, my desktop meadow turns all dark and gloomy. If I set the screen up for a sunny desktop meadow, the the new TC page hurts my eyes....compromise I have now is a somewhat dark desktop meadow, but a softer TC blog page.

Actually, it all works decently and this is more nit picky than anything.

[Sprugman]

the feed link works now, thanks!