'Top Chef Masters,' Ep. 5: Junk Food, a Big Dinner, a New Way of Looking at Panna Cotta
Guess who said it: "A good panna cotta, if it's set right, is meant to wobble like a woman's breasts."
The Contestants (above, from left)
Michael Chiarello: Bottega; playing for Clinic Ole
Rick Moonen: RM Seafood; Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association
Nils Norén: French Culinary Institute; Friends of FCI
Lachlan Patterson: Frasca Food & Wine; The Children's Hospital
Quickfire Challenge: Remake Junk Food
Ah, very Fancy Fast Food. How accidentally of the moment. As a Bravo tie-in, the cast and crew of Flipping Out—who often eat junk food on the show—will be judging. (You know, this doesn't really make me want to watch Flipping Out. Also: Really? We go from Doogie Howser to these clowns?)
Oh, wait. They're not using actual junk food to make something? They're just doing haute junk food? Eh. Not as challenging or as interesting. The whole high-brow low-end thing is nothing new.
Chiarello chooses to remake fish sticks; Moonen, corn dogs; Norén, fried shrimp; and Patterson, hot dogs.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
And Chiarello wins with his fish sticks. Moonen fails to finish his dish.
Elimination Challenge: Three-Course Meal for 100
The chefs each have to cook a three-course meal for 100 of "Top Chef's biggest fans. Oh, wow, Sweet P from Season 4 of Project Runway and Jerell Scott from PR Season 5 are in attendance. Weird that Bravo is giving that show a nod now that it's moved to Lifetime. It also makes me wonder if they couldn't round up 100 people for this party without resorting to the Bravo network's Rolodex.
A couple of women mention how they talk about Top Chef first thing Thursday mornings. Didn't the Lost producers say the same thing? Are they giving these people talking points?
The judges really like Patterson's salad. What a reaction. I actually want to try it now. Guess you can make friends with salad.
Judge Gael Greene, funny: "I don't like lawn cuttings in my dessert." In reference to Chiarello's balsamic-marinated strawberries with basil gelato.
Jay Rayner, panna cotta man.
Judge Jay Rayner, slightly inappropriate? "A good panna cotta, if it's set right, is meant to wobble like a woman's breasts. I share this with you in the interest of general knowledge."
"Is that true?" Kelly Choi asks.
Judge James Oseland confirms.
Gael Greene simply gives a knowing look.
With his heavy brow, Van Dyke beard, and unruly curly hair, Rayner has always reminded me of a faun or a satyr, so I'm not at all suprised to hear this come out of his mouth. An amusing observation, to be sure, but one that Rayner has used before—and not necessarily of his own invention.
We Have a Winner
You know, I think this every time I watch the show, but at 40 minutes into the thing, they're judging. Does it really take 20 minutes to discuss and render a verdict? Despite the knowledgeable and personable judges, I'm finding the process and chatting a little boring in this ep—you? Though I do agree with @lundregan when she says, "I would LOVE, LOVE it if Jay Rayner was a judge on #topchef instead of Toby Young. Come on #bravo, Jay is soo much better than Toby IMHO."
Let's fast-forward, shall we? The winner is Michael Chiarello. He joins Hubert Keller, Suzanne Tracht, Rick Bayless, Anita Lo, and next week's winner for the final four episodes of the Champions' Round.
There's been some speculation that the love affair with TCM has gone south among TV-watching food-lovers. What do you think? Are you still watching? If so, what did you think of Episode 5? And would you like to see Rayner replace Toby Young on the original Top Chef?
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
16 Comments:
A good show. If only Moonen hadn't totally tanked on the first challenge. I still say a much better show would be to put all four chefs in a really well stocked kitchen and say, "Okay chefs, the challenge tonight is Sunday Dinner." I hate the idea of taking world class chefs and handcuffing their creativity. I certainly prefer TCM to the regular Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen because those shows do not use top flight chefs but rather wannabes (Top Chef) or neverbes (Hell's Kitchen).
WannabeTVchef at 1:09AM on 07/16/09
imagine an episode of iron chef where mario batali is forced to wear pants or shoelaces, doesnt work, neither do the weird challenges on TCM, let them cook like the real chefs they are, leave the corn dog challenges to the TC contestants.
fottocini at 1:29AM on 07/16/09
BRAVO......uh.......or rather.... hooray for the last two comments! You have some real world class talent who have earned their bones in the kitchen and TCM is making them do such sophomoric stunts. I don't mind if they want to give the chefs a theme to cook around, or perhaps limit ingredients, but stop with the "they did this on Top Chef season...whatever" I want to see these chefs using their talents to create some serious food porn!
And has anybody else noticed all the kitchen appliance malfunctions? Broken mixer, broken Ice Cream maker, Ovens that don't work properly... Is Bravo doing this on purpose?
Pavlov at 5:41AM on 07/16/09
Personally, I like getting these talented chefs out of their comfort zone. For the most part they AMAZE me with the incredible dishes they conjure up from the lame challenges.
I have really been enjoying TCM, out here in the mid-west we don't have the opportunity to enjoy these restaurants and I had no idea what I was missing!
TeriN at 9:11AM on 07/16/09
I hate the gimmicky contests on TC Original Recipe, but the TC Masters Extra Crispy seem to handle them better. Still, I'd prefer they have at least plenty of TIME to cook great dishes. I'd rather the quickfire get an hour or so, because I want to see a top drawer dish, not a compromised, sloppy piece of crap (or none at all from RM last night) that they banged out at the last second.
I agree that Jay is better than Toby.
Gael Green is about 1,000 years old. The old broad claims in her book to have hooked up with, among others, Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood, and Elvis. She need to work in some name dropping references. "This is the best sausage I've nibbled since ...." LOL!
Remander at 9:22AM on 07/16/09
Great show.
bessfour at 10:05AM on 07/16/09
I love this show - and I agree that Jay Rayner is a much more interesting, funny, charismatic judge than Toby Young. Keep Jay on Top Chef!
Ltizzle at 10:07AM on 07/16/09
Chef Nils Noren is a high caliber chef. He is associated with the FCI... the culinary school I attended. I'm surprised Chiarello won. I'll have to see the re-runs since I have never seen a single episode of this show.
ChefR0bert at 11:55AM on 07/16/09
The point of the show wasn't to get amazing chefs and have them cook amazingly.....they do that in real life. The point was that when those amazing chefs were guest judges, they sometimes didn't appreciate how difficult the stupid challenges were. Some of them thought "hey, we could do better." Voila! Bravo has a show.
amanda0730 at 12:49PM on 07/16/09
I agree with Amanda, I think it would be pretty dull to simply have the chefs turn out one amazing dish after another. Cooking perfect food is obviously not difficult for these guys, it's all about the challenge!!!
Siopao at 2:09PM on 07/16/09
While the concept of the show sounded great, the execution and realisation just is not there. The show winds up feeling like a high end version of the knock off show Chopped. I think this is maibnly due to the fact that, with any reality show, we do not have a chance to connect with any contestants over the course of a series. It is a shame too, because of the talent on hand each week. As far as Rayner replacing Young, I am definitely for it. It is not that I think Toby is a poor judge, it is just that his scalding one line criticisms feel so forced, almost as if he had been planning the whole day about what witty line he was going to snap as a sound bite, but most of the time they fall flat anyway. I just want the Top Chef we love to come back.
FrankP at 2:36PM on 07/16/09
TeriN - Frasca is near Denver (is that close to you in the MidWest?). I had a fabulous meal there which beat everything I ate at Chiarello's old Napa restaurants.
These TCM competitions are a lot more about the chefs' personalities than about their food, which can vary from day to day and aren't particularly accessible on TV anyway.
claudette at 5:22PM on 07/16/09
I couldn't help thinking, if you're panna cotta has the jiggle of Kelly Choi's breasts you've got some pretty solid panna cotta.
Dish at 9:47PM on 07/18/09
top chef masters is way better than regular top chef, but i agree that the 20 minutes of judging is totally tedious. i dvr the episodes now and fast forward from the end of the meal to the final verdict.
i also agree with the commenter above that the show would be better if the producers primarily just let these chefs "do their thing," maybe have some simple restrictions or a theme - not have them doing ridiculous stunts. this was less stunty though than say, the dorm room episode.
kristin314 at 1:03PM on 07/20/09
also i heart nils.
kristin314 at 1:03PM on 07/20/09
Top Chef and Food TV's Next FN Star let you "get to know the competitors," and for the most part I end up sad that I did. These are not people I want to know well. I think Bravo's on the right track-- focus on the food, not the people, and give them strange challenges because it's always interesting to see how "masters" act outside their normal routine. Also, it's fun to watch them go down in flames occasionally.
Re: guests-- Bravo is owned by NBC Universal, which is apparently in negotiations to buy Lifetime channel, or something like that (it gets complicated on that level). They're probably cross-promoting in case the deal works out.
sidebernie at 2:54PM on 07/20/09