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The Ten Most Recent Comments By hyperfocal

From A Hamburger Today

Another Former 'Top Chef' Contestant Has Burger Dreams

Wow... a *national* upscale burger joint.

From Required Eating

Don't Burn Gordon Ramsay

Call my cynical if you must, but I suspect that the "executive chef" position at Ramsey's new restaurant will be more of the "Executive Deputy Vice Chef in Charge of Plate Stacking" variety than the "Executive Chef" variety.

Oh yeah, and Ramsey's "serious burns" didn't seem to affect his enthusiastic hand clapping at the end of the episode. This show, while entertaining, is complete theater.

From Required Eating

'Top Chef': A New Kind of War

Is Gail Simmons pregnant? Looked to me like she's... how to say this... filling out a bit but my wife figures she got a bun in the oven.

From Required Eating

Casey Thompson: Life After 'Top Chef'

Well, I imagine in her mind it's something like this:

A "blog" would criticize what a chef does, while "people who have created food websites where they share experiences, like pictures from the latest restaurants they've been to" would gush about how great a chef's food is.

Rather telling...

From Talk

Childhood, Part II. What did you hate then that you love now?

Asparagus. I couldn't stand the stuff as a kid, but now I can't get enough.

Poach it, sauté it, grill it, whatever... Add a bit of olive oil and sea salt, consume. Repeat.

From Talk

Do you have weekly food traditions?

Wednesday is (Prince) Spaghetti Night for us. Last night, we were out of dried spaghetti so we broke out the pasta machine and cranked out fresh. Seriously good spaghetti...

Responses to Comments by hyperfocal

From A Hamburger Today

Another Former 'Top Chef' Contestant Has Burger Dreams

There was already an "upscale" burger place named FLIP here in San Antonio, TX. It was an epic FAIL.

From A Hamburger Today

Another Former 'Top Chef' Contestant Has Burger Dreams

Why won't he last at Home? I wanted to go there when I visit at Christmas.

From A Hamburger Today

Another Former 'Top Chef' Contestant Has Burger Dreams

He will need to open something his kitchen will be able to cook consistently....A burger place might work, but they will only be able to cook burgers medium well. He will not be lastiing long at Home so he will need a new place. What else is new with him?

From A Hamburger Today

Another Former 'Top Chef' Contestant Has Burger Dreams

I know. Whatevs, right?

From Required Eating

Don't Burn Gordon Ramsay

gordon is great! mabye he was so busy yellin @ them fucking idiots that he didnt even notice he was grabin for the fuckin pan! how dumb could she b to hand him a pan that waz that hot??? she must b a total dumbass!
i did think petroza would win...untill i saw the comercial for the one when he goes off on gordon! now im not so sure!
& about his "enthusiastic hand clapping at the end of the episode" he definatly could have been ignoreing it!...once i badly sprained mi ankle at a dance at school...i waz so busy havin fun wit mi friends i didnt even notice till the next day!
chef gordon ramsay is the best fucking chef in the whole fuckin world!

*from gordon ramsay's biggest fan eva!*

From Required Eating

'Top Chef': A New Kind of War

@ zekks: The reason Dale was doing everything was because there was no leadership, which Nikki should have assumed since she has the most experience with Italian cooking. She should have set a tone with a menu and split up the responsibilities accordingly. Fish rots at the head. And I loved how she had the audacity to say she wasn't leading the sinking ship. Nikki should have been kicked off weeks ago for the Italian sausage blunder during the tailgate.

From Required Eating

'Top Chef': A New Kind of War

@ shell0724: I have to disgree about Dale. I think that he didn't "only try to rescue a meal that was doomed." He just tried to put his hand in a little bit of everything and I think that instead it appeared that this was his reasoning behind getting into so many different things was that to use that excuse that he did so much so the judges would keep him around. Nothing he did was great. He did a lot of things mediocore. Like its been said before, I think its worse to do a bunch of things at a so-so level than a few at a great level. I think that's why Spike was saved (by the chilean sea bass). I can't disagree with the choice to eliminate Nikki at all but I think that Dale is real close to the chopping block and has become exactly what Spike called him....to put it politely.

From Required Eating

'Top Chef': A New Kind of War

I think Dale was far from the most annoying contestant. He was placed in an untenable group of slackers and back-stabbers, in my opinion, and only tried to rescue a meal that was doomed. His frustration level was high, but, understandable, especially after extreme sleep deprivation, extreme work, and extremely annoying people. Lisa made a cool cake, but, her hateful disposition and greasy hair annoys me. Antonnia is cool but she tends to be very patronizing and while she shined in last week's challenge, she's not really shown herself to be extraordinary. Dale is a very outspoken and honest person who doesn't suffer fools gladly. I felt he deserved some credit for having to suffer through unbelievably selfish people who were only interested in themselves and their individual dishes, not caring about team work, and not caring about producing a quality menu for someone's wedding! Dale had the work ethic, and he's proven himself through the past episodes. I love Richard, and thought his gesture of bestowing the win on Stephanie was awesome, but, I think Dale would have performed brilliantly if given the chance to work with the bride team, not the bottom of the barrel of this season's remaining chefs. I'm sure they're all top chefs in their own way, but, there is no comparison between Nikki, Lisa, and Spike's attitudes and ostensible mediocrity to Dale. They are so threatened by his excellence that they literally shunned him and refused to treat him like a team member. I was thrilled that Nikki left. She should hang her head in shame. It was she who came out looking like a mug, after shouting out how cooking Italian and leading this mess had nothing to do with her. If their team had won by some miracle, she would have leaped into the center stage. There was a big contrast between the type of people they were compared to Andrew, Antonia, Stephanie and the lovable Richard.
All in all though, I thought it was an interesting show and one that we'll talk about in future seasons.

From Required Eating

Casey Thompson: Life After 'Top Chef'

Yea, unfortunately bloggers have a seriously poor rep amongst chefs. They think we're all evil idiots who know nothing about food and are just out to criticize. I faced this exact situation when I replied to a thread on eater about Mario Batali remarking that he dislikes bloggers. It sparked a pretty heated debate both on eater and on my blog! http://www.strumerika.com/2007/06/13/mario-batali-hates-on-food-blogs/
http://eater.com/archives/2007/06/why_i_hate_food.php

From Talk

Do you have weekly food traditions?

We have Thai Thursday. I love it.