top chef xmas and some deep thoughts
thursday night we got to see tiffani's true colors (again) and watch tre get totally screwed. there was so much commentary throughout the show about women and women chefs...you had to suspect they were going to give it to a lady, and since leanne works for the show - it was all going to go to tif. the little bit in the intro about josie being a recent victim of a "bias crime," was bizarre, since i'm not sure exactly what a "bias crime" is. i'm guessing she meant a hate crime. i hate her hair...and i'm biased against her because of it. does that count? also, the cast was weird. josie and sandee were booted almost immediately from their seasons, betty was always dead wood...stephen isn't even cooking anymore, marcel could not be more overexposed...aside from cj, tre and tiffani - there was no one interesting to watch.
cj won the quick-fire after a surreal moment where eric ripert appeared in a santa suit to issue the challenge. why eric, why? he took off the beard and hat and just looked so...flushed and creepy. i think he looks like anthony bourdain's ruddy, older, gay brother...hung wasn't there to gaze longingly at him, but i think i caught stephen blowing him a kiss. the elimination challenge was cool - $350 for 3 courses to serve 9 people...and the judges eliminated 2 chefs after each course - or really - before the start of the next course, which is pretty brutal since they had to make the food anyway, but wouldn't get a chance to show it. i think cj got gypped because he was supposed to have immunity from *one* elimination, and though it didn't seem like his starter was in the top 3, i also doubt it was in the bottom 2, but right away tom said, "well cj has immunity." it just didn't seem like they wanted to deal with it, so they got it right out of the way. stephen and sandee were nixed after starters, then betty and josie fell, cj & marcel after the last course. then came the "surprise" twist - tiffani and tre were challenged to come up with a final course in 30 minutes to determine the winner.
sometimes people can just make one comment...and you can see their careful masquerade peel away. fakers can only hide their true colors for so long before getting caught holding their makeup bag. tiffani couldn't *believe* she had to make another dish. $20,000 is 30 minutes and a canape away and she's full of complaints. then she hoarded everything in the kitchen she could get her hands on and marshaled all the resources in her vicinity. in her behind-the-scenes clip she's smiling and pretending that she'd just been caught off guard, but it's pretty obvious that she's just a whiny cow. maybe her food rocks, but she seems so petty and aggressive and mean-spirited, i wouldn't want to support her. but, as we were frequently reminded; she's a woman, and there have been so many talented women off top chef and yet the winner is always male. so you had to know tre was going to get the shaft. he was gracious, but you could tell he was bummed. and then for some reason Bravo decided to twist the knife. after padma announced whorani the winner of the 20Gs, she said, "Tre...we can't let you leave empty-handed..." Tre smiled a little and you could almost see him thinking, "hey, $5K would be cool..." and then padma hands him... a stack of books! really? the jeopardy home edition and a tee-shirt? it just seemed a little mean.
and now, for deep thoughts...
so i'm not working, but moonlighting at the moment. this week i'm bartending for a couple of events at my old job. i was there last night, and it was really depressing. i don't want to slam the person who replaced me, i don't know him, and he came into a difficult job at the peak of the season. i just didn't observe any urgency or passion or drive in him at all. it was almost eerie. for me though, it was really disappointing to be a part of this event. everything went fine...i think the client would never have thought things were rough - but they were. there were so many things that were harder than they should have been, so much simple planning that wasn't done, and it all felt poorly executed to me. the depressing part of it, is that it was ok for them. as far as my ex-company is concerned - that level of service and execution is just fine. who but me would notice that those brownies were garnished with fucking parsley? people complimented the (perfectly cooked) flank steak, so clearly the flat-tasting and insanely oily chimichurri sauce was of issue only to me. who needs salt in their rice pilaf or for their roasted root vegetables to be tender instead of starchy, dry and crunchy? and why should anyone expect serving utensils? "oh," they'll say in their heads..."it's a good cause," as they wait patiently at the buffet line for 5 minutes for the halibut to be replenished. major bummer not only to feel like they've taken a step backwards, but that they don't notice it or don't care.
cj won the quick-fire after a surreal moment where eric ripert appeared in a santa suit to issue the challenge. why eric, why? he took off the beard and hat and just looked so...flushed and creepy. i think he looks like anthony bourdain's ruddy, older, gay brother...hung wasn't there to gaze longingly at him, but i think i caught stephen blowing him a kiss. the elimination challenge was cool - $350 for 3 courses to serve 9 people...and the judges eliminated 2 chefs after each course - or really - before the start of the next course, which is pretty brutal since they had to make the food anyway, but wouldn't get a chance to show it. i think cj got gypped because he was supposed to have immunity from *one* elimination, and though it didn't seem like his starter was in the top 3, i also doubt it was in the bottom 2, but right away tom said, "well cj has immunity." it just didn't seem like they wanted to deal with it, so they got it right out of the way. stephen and sandee were nixed after starters, then betty and josie fell, cj & marcel after the last course. then came the "surprise" twist - tiffani and tre were challenged to come up with a final course in 30 minutes to determine the winner.
sometimes people can just make one comment...and you can see their careful masquerade peel away. fakers can only hide their true colors for so long before getting caught holding their makeup bag. tiffani couldn't *believe* she had to make another dish. $20,000 is 30 minutes and a canape away and she's full of complaints. then she hoarded everything in the kitchen she could get her hands on and marshaled all the resources in her vicinity. in her behind-the-scenes clip she's smiling and pretending that she'd just been caught off guard, but it's pretty obvious that she's just a whiny cow. maybe her food rocks, but she seems so petty and aggressive and mean-spirited, i wouldn't want to support her. but, as we were frequently reminded; she's a woman, and there have been so many talented women off top chef and yet the winner is always male. so you had to know tre was going to get the shaft. he was gracious, but you could tell he was bummed. and then for some reason Bravo decided to twist the knife. after padma announced whorani the winner of the 20Gs, she said, "Tre...we can't let you leave empty-handed..." Tre smiled a little and you could almost see him thinking, "hey, $5K would be cool..." and then padma hands him... a stack of books! really? the jeopardy home edition and a tee-shirt? it just seemed a little mean.
and now, for deep thoughts...
so i'm not working, but moonlighting at the moment. this week i'm bartending for a couple of events at my old job. i was there last night, and it was really depressing. i don't want to slam the person who replaced me, i don't know him, and he came into a difficult job at the peak of the season. i just didn't observe any urgency or passion or drive in him at all. it was almost eerie. for me though, it was really disappointing to be a part of this event. everything went fine...i think the client would never have thought things were rough - but they were. there were so many things that were harder than they should have been, so much simple planning that wasn't done, and it all felt poorly executed to me. the depressing part of it, is that it was ok for them. as far as my ex-company is concerned - that level of service and execution is just fine. who but me would notice that those brownies were garnished with fucking parsley? people complimented the (perfectly cooked) flank steak, so clearly the flat-tasting and insanely oily chimichurri sauce was of issue only to me. who needs salt in their rice pilaf or for their roasted root vegetables to be tender instead of starchy, dry and crunchy? and why should anyone expect serving utensils? "oh," they'll say in their heads..."it's a good cause," as they wait patiently at the buffet line for 5 minutes for the halibut to be replenished. major bummer not only to feel like they've taken a step backwards, but that they don't notice it or don't care.
posted by the pieces @ 4:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home