Thursday, February 17, 2011

Top Chef All Star thoughts

Does working under extreme conditions truly measure a chef's talents? Is this the Amazing Race or Top Chef? While a fun and dynamic challenge, I couldn't help but to feel bad for these poor tired souls. Clearly, the requirement of running laps on no sleep got the better of ALL of them. The culmination, Carla puttering around the store still shopping with only under an hour to cook. All of the dishes lacked imagination and the choice of equipment baffles me. What I would have done is grab a rice cooker and an electric wok and rocked a stir fry over rice. No? Who hasn't gone to a greasy Chinese joint at 3AM after partying all night? Just sayin' Come on! But this is why I pose the extreme conditions question. Does the effort for better television destroy the potential for truly inspirational cooking? I for one am not a fan of the one-hand-tied-behind-the-back or no-utensils or no-sleep challenges.
Poor Angelo. This week I realize that he really was not getting weirder and weirder. I really did not see until now that this is a man at his Top Chef threshold. He was running on empty. The same chef who put out complex and beautiful food made salty potato soup. Sad but it was his time to go. I knew something was up when Mike was singing his praises followed by clips of uncharacteristic bro-love gestures from Angelo.
Dale won with grilled cheese and tomato soup. I'm sure it was a fine grilled cheese and tomato soup. But really? A grilled cheese and tomato soup won an elimination challenge of Top Chef All Stars with only 7 chefs left? Maybe Bravo should do a Top Top Chef Producers show.

thoughts:

Why did they even have the interior designer guy on? That was so random.

Okay, maybe having Ming Tsai judge was more random than the interior designer guy.

I wasn't a fan of the Muppet quickfire. But since Molly liked it I liked it too. Ok, I liked Elmo's "cow chips" comment.

Nice sweater Bourdain!

To Molly he's Dr. Tony!


3 comments:

lishapisa said...

Good Idea! Who doesn't like a good stir fry?! it's fun and tasty also quick and simple. Guess they were a bit fried at that time of night. Carla should have grab a coffee maker while grabbing the blender and perk the night up everyone with some coffee...oh no she only had an hour to cook....
i wonder if there were enough time to make fried chicken with shrimp n grits? that's good 3 am comfort food.
is that what Elmo was saying? " cow chips" i thought he was saying "couch" " couch"??? still confuse.
why did Angelo put a handful of bacon at the end??? you think Mikey was invisibly pulling Angelo's stings....

and yes! a bit concerned about Tony's sweater

love love your funny recaps!

veggietestkitchen said...

Yah, this challenge was all about promoting Target. That's it. They've sold out and could care less about integrity, i.e. grilled cheese and tomato soup winning in the final stages of All Stars. Angelo was one of the top competitors and I was fully expecting him to make it to the end. Tiffany should have gone home and she knows it. You could see the guilt all over her face. If I had to put money on it, I'd say Carla, Antonia, Dale and Blais are making it to the final four.

hungrysmurf said...

Lisha, Tony's sweater was the brunt of many jokes but it is a Loro Piana! Veggie, I agree about Tiffany. She's starting to really annoy me! I think you have the right final four. I have to say it is getting to the point where it is really sad to see any one go home :(