We’re big fans of “Top Chef”. The other night the new season of “Top Chef Las Vegas” began just as this past summer’s “Top Chef Masters” was ending. The “Masters” series focused on 24 of the best and most accomplished chefs in America, pitting them in challenges each week. The winner, announced on Wednesday night, was awarded $100,000 that went to the chef’s charity. This year’s Master, went to famed Chicago restaurateur and owner of  Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, Rick Bayless. Read the rest of this entry »

Rocco diSpirito is a tool. He was the guest judge on last week’s episode of “Top Chef: New York”. Somehow he doesn’t have the flair and respect that someone like Thomas Keller or Daniel Boulud have earned, or even a Mario Batali with his orange Crocs. No, Rocco is all about being Rocco, getting maximum face time and talking too much. Sure, he was once a hot young chef in Manhattan (Union Pacific), then he had the ruinous reality show on NBC, “The Restaurant”, that exposed him in rather unflattering ways. No, Rocco is someone who is around still to add a name or B-level kitchen cred to this show, and besides, it looks like Padma likes him. Even the wonderful Fabio, intensely full of natural (and not manufactured) charm himself, couldn’t resist digging at him in an aside —that Rocco is American, not Italian—but in some ways I suppose he understands the appeal. Read the rest of this entry »

Week 2 of “Top Chef New York” was all about teamwork as the chefs were put together a “New American” menu and they would be judged by some pretty cranky and knowledgeable people –that is, apart from Tom, Gail and Padma: a group of chefs who were not chosen to be on TCNY. Now that’s a bitchy bunch, and some of these people did not disappoint with their probably scripted hissy-fits or snap dismissals of some of the food they were eating. More about that later. However, as Tom said to the judges at the end, this wasn’t, collectively speaking, a wondrous event for the ages since the chefs’ creations probably “set American cuisine back about 20 years”. Ouch. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Goodman of the SF Chronicle wrote an insightful post this week about what makes a good reality show.  For all the “dreck” in current so-called reality shows like “The Hills” and “Real Housewives of Atlanta”, there is also a slew of decent reality shows that are in fact competition shows that, as Goodman states, are “acceptable” non-scripted programs. A show like “Project Runway” inspires awe because the contestants/designers literally have to produce each week, creating, fussing, crying, screaming, and then one of them is deemed “Out” by the Teutonically blunt Heidi Klum, who usually shows up wearing something pretty amazing. Read the rest of this entry »