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Struggling Chef on Last Night's 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'

Posted by Adam Kuban, June 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM

Last night's episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent ("Salome in Manhattan") featured a plot revolving around a young, once-hot chef struggling to make a comeback while biding his time as host of a morning cooking spot on a local TV station. His girlfriend (and socialite daughter of a possible investor) is murdered, and detectives Wheeler and Nichols* catch the case.

While there wasn't as much cheffage as I would have liked (look to "Death Roe" [Season 4, Episode 15] for a more chef-heavy—and dark—episode), the show did feature enough NYC restaurant-world verisimilitude to entertain. There's the young chef whose first restaurant was critically acclaimed but financially doomed, thanks to a bumbling business partner. There's a hip-hop star turned fledgling restaurateur (played by Naughty By Nature's Treach), calling to mind any number of celebrities who have tried their hand at backing an eatery (Britney, Justin).

Gourmand magazine, with such laughable cover lines as "The Glory That Is Pepper," "Finding Your Inner Saucier," and "The Secret Life of a Sommelier." (Click to enlarge.)

There's a reference to Gourmand magazine—L&O's obvious stand-in for Gourmet: "Your genius, my charm, Peter Wellsley's checkbook. You'll be back on the cover of Gourmand magazine in no time." [Crocs, fake food blogs, and more, after the jump.]

And the trade magazine Toque: The Magazine for Chefs is pretty rich. Its cover lines are "Kitchens from Hell (True Stories from Real Chefs!)" and "Generation Next: Sous Chefs to Watch Out For."

And that's just the beginning. It really is pretty amazing how detail-oriented the set design (above) and the costume and props departments are in the Law & Order franchise. Let's take a spin through some of the other food-world-related things going on last night.

Referencing Mario Batali's signature orange Crocs, the chef in question in this episode wears a blue pair, seen briefly toward the beginning of the show.

Checking the Food Webs

Jeff Goldblum's character, Detective Zach Nichols, consults a restaurant blog called PotLuck to research the history of the chef's failed restaurant, Endymion. PotLuck's real world analog might be restaurant gossip/news sites like Eater, Grub Street, or The-Feedbag. (You know, PotLuck is actually a pretty good name for a food blog; too bad it's already taken.)

But it doesn't stop there. The show's art directors created a second site for Goldblum to check. With "NYL" in the upper right hand corner of the page, it appears to be the website of the New York Ledger, the L&O universe's tabloid stand-in for the New York Post.

L&O's Fake Tabloid Plagiarizes the New York Times

Goldblum also consults the print version of the Ledger. And freeze-framing the shot reveals that the props department has even created newspapers with stories that are more than just dummy text. But while the article is indeed food-related, the folks at L&O haven't gone so far as to write a fake article. Let's zoom in, shall we?

Running a sentence from it through Google, we find that the story here was actually lifted from the New York Times. Gee, I hope the producers cleared that with the Gray Lady.

The episode first aired last night, but if you missed it, you can catch it again July 4 at 11 p.m. on the USA network. (Just set your DVR and go watch fireworks, though, OK?)

* Can I just say that I love Jeff Goldblum as Wheeler's new partner? I thought Chris Noth as Mike Logan couldn't be replaced easily, but Goldblum is doing a fine job—even if he is a bit of a Goren reheat. And I've been a fan of Julianne Nicholson's Megan Wheeler since she replaced Annabella Sciorra.

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Tags: crime, fictional chefs, Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, TV