Showing posts with label Top Chef 09. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top Chef 09. Show all posts

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Project Runway-the Women Will Win; "Cougar Town"-Trying to Save Courteney Cox-It Won't Work; Top Chef-Cooking Relay Team

We begin with a review of "Cougar Town", a confused mess to rescue "Friends'" star Courteney Cox's waning career. Why it won't work.

On to Project Runway and the Hollywood and Greek outfit could be purchased at Walmart. The women are running away with this thing.

Top Chef Vegas has a cooking relay challenge and this was a hoot. On to a restaurant challenge and the one sent packing didn't even work the kitchen!

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.


Pic of the Day




Cougar Town-A Bigger Zero Than Obama

ABC Web Site for This Series.
CHARACTER BIO
After being out of the dating game for so long, Jules Cobb is finally putting herself back on the market. But starting over isn’t easy when your running your own real estate business, your two best friends are each other’s best frenemies, your son is embarrassed by everything you say and do and your ex-husband still drinks his morning coffee in your kitchen. Yes, Jules is a mother to the world, but now she’s finally putting herself first. Well, at least she’s trying. And with a little help from her friends she’s discovering it’s never too late to live like a twenty-something, even if you’re forty-something. Welcome to the world of crazy parties, hot boyfriends, and free limo rides. But be careful, side effects include: embarrassing photos, late night food comas, and all day hangovers.




Courteney Cox. I can imagine the scenario now.

The ABC exec gives a skeptical look to Courteney Cox’s agent.

“I don’t know, Bob. Courteney was great on “Friends” but what’s she done since? “

“That’s just the point, Sam. She’s done not much of anything since. Which is why this show will pull all the old “Friends” fans in, just to see her again.”

Bob hoped his plea would work. If he doesn’t push through this project for Courteney she will likely fade from sight. He’s got to get her this series.

“Yeah, but she’s like…middle-aged, right? You don’t think this will backfire?”

“She’s a beautiful middle-age in the series, Bob. A lot of the former “Friends” fans are right about Courteney’s age now. They’ll tune in for the memory and they’ll stay for the modern, upbeat story line.”

Bob continued to scratch his head, reading the story line. Sam felt a cold sweat wash over him.

“Cougars, Sam. It’s perfect. Middle-age women going after younger men…it’s part of that modern day …,” Bob looked to the ceiling for the proper words. “…that modern women’s lib thing. Why can’t women have younger guys? Older men go after younger women all the time. This is a perfect role for Courteney. And we have a cool storyline including the guys as well.”

“I don’t know, Bob. Her ex-husband hangs around? The husbands of her friends are all involved in Courteney’s character’s life? You think this will attract male viewers?”

Bob jumped from his chair, now very exasperated. “It’s got everything, Sam. It’s got women bonding, it’s got men bonding, it’s got a modern-day mother-son relationship, adolescent angst. It’s got a pretty middle-aged divorcee struggling to build a new life for herself. She gets into a relationship with a handsome young dude, she becomes a mentor for her young assistant, she provides a good female role model for her teenage son, she cares enough for the man she was married to for so many years to help him move on with his life. She’s pretty and still sexy enough to be easy on the eyes. We even have a love interest built in with her recently divorced male neighbor that we’ll be able to build up to a huge finale as they eventually fall in love. Courteney’s a known commodity from her many years on “Friends”. I’m telling you, Sam, this series is a winner.”

And so we have ABC’s “Cougar Town” and it’s everything to everyone and ends up being a confused mess, not funny, hokey, silly, not believable, stereotypical, dumb and won’t last much past six weeks, if that long.

It’s exactly as I described in my little fictional scene above. For Courteney Cox needs- quick- some exposure before she’s forgotten in the Hollywood scene. Courteney’s former sidekick, Jennifer Aniston, does get an acting role once in a while, as she also seems to constantly get caught topless and there’s also that Brad Pitt thing.

Courteney has not much of nothing going on.

And so we have Cougar Town. As if this mangled attempt to create a comedy series by waving a finger in the air will bring Courteney Cox back from an actresses’ living dead.

It won’t work.

Top Chef Vegas-the Restaurant Wars

There were some weird challenges on the Top Chef Vegas episode aired 10/21/09. The quickfire challenge had something called tag team cooking.

Two teams were formed of four contenders per team. Each team would have a member spend ten minutes in the process of preparing a dish. The first member would get the ingredients, the second would prep the food, the third would continue the cooking and the fourth would finish the dish and plate the dish.

The blue team included Jennifer, the unbeatable Kevin, Lauren and Mike. The red team included the Volt brothers, Robin and Eli. The blue team won ten thousand dollars for winning the quickfire challenge and they let the money ride in hopes of doubling it for the elimination challenge.

The elimination challenge consisted of having the same teams each plan a menu and run a restaurant, serve a dinner service, provide décor and get it all done with $1,500 for food and restaurant supplies.

There was some drama what with the senior Chef of the contenders, Robin, on the team with Eli and the Chef brothers and the usual fussiness the chefs seems to have with Robin.

The red team won the elimination challenge. The blue team winner of the quickfire lost their ten thousand dollars. The red team’s Michael won the prize for the best meal and it was time for somebody to be eliminated.





It must be said now that Robin is not long for this series. She does, for now, provide some interesting and very scripted drama in her “role” as the oldest chef-contender who gets on the last nerve of the younger Top Chef contenders.

But it was Laurean who got sent home this week and it was mostly because Laurean did a lousy job in her charge of running the front of the restaurant of the red team.

Robin does make a few great dishes and these mostly dessert entrees have carried her through.

Look for Robin to go home soon and look, again and as predicted before, for Kevin to win this thing.

”Project Runway” 2009 Winner Will Likely Be Female

The female designers left include Gordana, Irina, Carol Hannah and Althea. The male designers left include Logan and Christopher.

Logan and Christopher constantly seem to end up in the bottom three and Gordana flirts with elimination as well. But maybe it’s the woman’s totally unkempt hair that makes her seem like a loser to me.

The fashion challenge this week had each designer assigned a locale somewhere on this planet. They then were to design and create an outfit that would best represent a female living, visiting or hanging around this assigned locale.

Rest assured that Georgetown, Delaware was not one of the locales assigned. The happening, hip locales included Santa Fe, Aspen, Palm Beach, New York, Saint Tropez, Hollywood and Greece.

Christopher designed the ugliest look for a hip Santa Fe female I’ve ever seen and Nicholas came up with something supposed to represent Greece but looked like a frock I could buy at a Target drug store.

Logan came up with a Hollywood design that looked a little more upscale, maybe a J.C. Penny’s outfit. All of the remaining fellows came in the bottom three with Nicholas finally getting the boot off the show he so deserved.

Carol Hannah, Gordana and Irinia came in the top three while Althea scored enough to be held over to the next competition.

With further verbiage, pics below with more snarky commentary on each pic.












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Sunday, October 18, 2009

TV Revs-"Top Chef Vegas";"Hank";"Project Runway"; "Hell's Kitchen"

It’s a new comedy yet it’s an old one. For Frazier will make the new comedy “Hank” a success or not. A review.

Has “Hell’s Kitchen” jumped the shark? The series had its finale and a winner was announced. But everything has changed from when this cooking competition was in its glory.

Speaking of cooking competition, “Top Chef Vegas” continues on and only a fool hasn’t yet figured out who will win this thing.

And “Project Runway” continues on and it doesn’t look like any of the male designer contenders is going to win this thing. A look into the making of this popular Lifetime series, complete with pics you’ll see nowhere else on the Internet.


Pic of the Day




Has “Hell’s Kitchen” Jumped the Shark?

We have a winner, let us begin this essay with the ending of this cooking reality series. Contender Dave is the new Chef to be blessed by Gordon Ramsey and is now the Head Chef position at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Established in 1981, Araxi continues to raise the culinary bar in Whistler. The winning contestant will have the added privilege of joining executive chef James Walt in welcoming the world during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.


As my ageing memory recalls, the reward for the winner of this show USED to be a genuine restaurant of his or her own, NOT a Head Chef position.

Although I must imagine a Head Chef position is quite an honor, it’s not the same as winning a restaurant of one’s own.

The finale this year was also very lackluster. Fox has hung onto this reality series but there’s signs of wear and tear. The show’s format is a bit boring for its repetetiveness. Ramsey opens Hell’s Kitchen for the night. The wannabe Chefs cook the appetizers and main courses. A few of the contenders, on an almost rigid, rotating basis, mess up, generally under cooking the scallops or over cooking the lamb chops. Ramsey cusses and rants, humiliates the offenders, throws the nasty food in the trash and in general makes himself the center of the show.

The humiliated Chef describes the scene in a video-taped vignette that has them either defending their actions or expressing remorse and fear for the rubbery scallops.

I’m very skeptical that a cook could get to a point worthy of contender for Hell’s Kitchen who can’t cook scallops without turning them into rubber.

On the episode aired on 10/6/09, Tenille wins the mini-challenge usually given early in the show. Tenille is a black female chef who’s been featured prominently in many of this season’s dramas. Tenille has a bit of ghetto-tough in her although never mind her corn-rows, she has an impressive culinary background. Her bio indicates that she has a culinary degree and ten years executive chef experience. In that same episode, Tenille was eliminated. It’s almost scripted, it is.

Tenille’s prize for preparing an eggplant vegetarian voted on by a passel of kids as the best of the lot for a food element kids generally do not like was a complete make-over. Yes indeed, a new “do”, new duds. As an aside, noted on Tenille’s bio is the fact that Tenille lost 100 pounds as a result of a gastric bypass operation.

It seems almost fitting that Tenille should win this prize before her elimination that same night, doesn’t it? She had made it to the top four after all. Any viewer could have predicted that Tenille wasn’t going to win this thing.

Dave, the fellow who finally won this thing, re-hurt his already injured hand to a scene of great drama.





On the Hell’s Kitchen episode aired 10/13/09, the three remaining contenders, Ariel, Dave and Kevin, were assigned a mini-task that would have them preparing a dish from three different international cuisines. The catch was that their creations would be judged by chefs with an expertise in each cuisine. Kevin prepared a Mexican dish but he forgot his Mole sauce. I’ve seen this concept on Top Chef as well and I know that the notion of putting chocolate in some form in dishes that would seem very unlikely for this ingredient is something done in Mexican cooking. By me, chocolate is a treat and should be served as such. So hey, I’m glad Kevin forgot the Mole sauce.

Dave prepared an Indian dish and while he said he had no idea how to cook Indian food, the judge for Indian food was quite happy with Dave’s concotion. Ariel prepared a Chinese dish and the Chinese Chef declared it watery and a bit tasteless.

Ariel didn’t survive this show and on the same night, in the hour following this, Hell’s Kitchen had its finale.

This is another reason I think Hell’s Kitchen jumped the shark. A finale is a big deal, something that is hyped for the week prior to draw in viewers. To air the grand finale when the winner is announced on the same night when the top two are announced and immediately following, is odd .

Further, as I recall on earlier finales, the two finalists were assigned a restaurant of their own, even if just half of Hell’s Kitchen itself. The Chefs were even charged with decorating their restaurants!

This year’s grand finale was the same ole, same old.

Whatever the status of Hell’s Kitchen, Dave with the lame arm won the competition.

I thought for sure Kevin would walk away the winner.



On To the REAL Cooking Competition-Top Chef

Not that BravoTV’s Top Chef doesn’t have its quirks. Indeed.

In this season’s competition, located in Las Vegas, there seems little doubt that red-headed Kevin’s going to win this thing. Goodness the fellow has won or was partner in the winning entrees for several shows now. And he did win the elimination round on the episode aired on 10/7/09 as well as the episode aired on 10/14/09. On the former episode, Kevin shared the win with his partner, contender Jennifer. On the latter episode, Kevin won the elimination challenge all by himself.





On the 10/7/09 episode the contenders were given a bag of supplies from famous chefs. Out of this they had to prepare an entrée to please the judges. That show’s Quickfire challenge had some silly challenge that plugged the web site cookster.com, involving three assigned words requiring the contenders to quickly prepare dishes to match their words. Goodness, Kevin even won this Quickfire challenge.

Notable in the cooking challenge was something called, get this, “egg yolk ravioli”. Folks I’m just a humble cook but the notion of eating egg yolk ravioli makes me a bit nauseous. This dish, prepared by Eli, was not received well by the judges either. Eli, Michael and Ashley ended up in the bottom three. Ashley and her undercooked “neoki” were deemed worthy of a trip out the door. Take your knives, Ashley.

Kevin and Jennifer both prepared the winning dish for this challenge, with Jennifer winning the top prize even though she wasn’t feeling well during that show.

On the episode aired 10/14/09, it was Pig and Pinot night.

The episode began by blatantly promoting Alexia snacks. The quickfire challenge had the contenders preparing a quick dish that would properly accompany a seasoned bag of these new sorts of snacks, which are, I will attest, quite good.

The elimination challenge had the contenders preparing a dish that would match their assigned Pinot wine and right there I’m out in left field.



I’m not a wine person but I must suppose that someone aspiring to a Top Chef status should not only know a bit about wine but also about properly pairing wines with appropriate food. The food item was pork of most any kind and it was all to promote something called the “Pig and Pinot” festival.

So we had pork belly, ribs, pork leg, pork chops…yeah, pork.

One of the more interesting dishes was prepared by Laureen and was called “pork riette”.

Wikipedia defines a rillette as:
Rillettes is a preparation of meat similar to pâté. Originally made with pork, the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded, and then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast and served at room temperature.

One of the judges called Laureen’s rillette as “cat food”. And you know, it did look a bit like cat food and, in fact, Laureen landed in the bottom three because of her unappetizing entrée, both in terms of look and appearance.

It was contender Ash’s time to go home. He’s been in the bottom three for several times now.

And guess what! KEVIN WON!

Now there’s a surprise.

Robin is the oldest of the contenders this Las Vegas based competition. Look for her to be sent packing real soon. There was some drama in this most recent episode involving Robin and the other much younger contenders. Robin was, also, in the bottom three with Brian and Jennifer completing the top three along with winner Kevin.

Finally, hey, we hear Padma, who is really full of herself, is preginated. Just a rumor.

”Hank”-Frazier Redux

There’s always room for a situation comedy in a proper TV lineup. “Hank” is just such a show featured on ABC, Wednesday, during the benign children’s hour of 8 pm in the evening.

ABC’s HANK web site here.

There’s only one problem with this HANK show and it’s not that big of a problem.

The show is about Frazier only this time Frazier’s name is Hank.

Not that there’s anything wrong with this.



Hank once owned his own business. He was a big important CEO and suddenly he got fired. Now Hank and his family, a wife, a daughter and a son, have to re-locate and start all over again.

Well maybe not all over again because Hank does have some money what with having saved for a rainy day.

The plotlines are typical situation comedy plotlines. Hank’s wife gets a job and Hank must deal with being a house husband. In the most recent episode aired on 10/14/09 Hank got a job in an ice cream parlor along with his rather spoiled daughter. Hank had to sing silly songs and, in general, work like we assumed he hasn’t done for many a year.

Hank’s character is Frazier, pure and simple. But hey, Frazier was a good character, both on Cheers and on the series of this namesake.

Kelsey Grammer is a good actor with excellent comedic timing. If this new endeavor called “Hank” is to succeed, it will succeed, it will be due to the talent of Kelsey Grammer.

Project Runway-Getting Down To a Few

It’s unbelievable what one can do with an old wedding dress.

Indeed on Lifetime’s “Project Runway” episode aired on 10/8/09 the designers were charged with taking the old wedding dress of their assigned divorcee/model and with a budget of $25.00 and a maximum of two additional yards of purchased fabric, create a whole new outfit.

Epperson, who was eliminated for his creation on this episode, created what the judges alternately described as a dress appropriate for Octoberfest or perfect for a pirate’s wench. Epperson was a weird dude at any rate, prone to strange designs often involving strips of fabric affixed to an outfit in strange manners that often brought him praise from the fashion judges oddly enough.

Sharin created a charming dress using some very creative stitching to add a new and intriguing dimension to a tired design. Irena came up with a dress covered with a pretty lace covering.

Epperson, Logan and Christopher landed in the bottom three while Gordana, Sharin and Irena had the top-rated old wedding dress redux designs.

Gordana won this contest and it’s about time. Gordana is not exactly a young woman and she’s hardly anybody’s idea of a top fashion designer. I think Gordana is headed home soon.



On the Project Runway episode aired this past week, 10/15/09, Bob Mackie, famous Cher designer, was the guest judge.

The fashion challenge was for the contenders to create an on-stage outfit for Christina Aguilara, who also showed up to help judge the results.

The inclusion of Bob Mackie was no accident. The designers were told to create sparkly show-off outfits befitting Aguilara that would shine on stage but would allow her the movement required of her craft.

I watched the show from the frantic search for fabric at the infamous MOOD store through to the cutting room tables, back to the sewing machines. I listened to the various video vignettes of the contenders as they lamented, cheered or cried about their designs and the complaints and catty comments about the other contenders.

Project Runway is a show, like all reality competitions of this type, which by its nature has lots of air time to fill until the final reveal of the fashion runway.

It’s done well and the trick is to give glimpses to the designs in progress while saving the entire outfit reveal until the walk on the fashion runway.

Anyway Gordana had immunity from her win from the week prior. It’s a good thing, or said the judges, as Gordana’s design was not all that great.

Sharin got sent home for her design, described as a Halloween costume suitable for a witch. Christopher’s design was also a dud.

Carol Hannah, who consistently comes out on top in this competition, won the top prize for her black on black creation that so impressed the judges.

I don’t see any of the remaining fellows winning this thing. In fact, I put my bet on Carol Hannah.

Finally, how about those contenders maybe wash their hair, maybe get a decent haircut?

I’m just sayin’.




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Sunday, October 4, 2009

TV-Fashion & Food Review, Project Runway, Hell's Kit,Top Chef, Next Food Network Star

We’ve got fashion and cooking in this TV review post. Project Runway is a hit fashion design reality contest now running full speed on Lifetime TV. There’s pics of winning, losing and mediocre fashions plus some critiques, comments on the contenders.

Running now we’ve got Hell’s Kitchen as well as BravoTV’s Top Chef Vegas. We’ve got reviews on the shows, the food and the contenders.

Finally, we follow up on Melissa D’Arabian, winner of this past year’s Next Food Network Star. Her food is cheap to make but read what the real cost is.

All with pics and video you’ll find nowhere else on the Internet.


Pic of the Day




Lifetime’s “Project Runway” A Fashion Hit

I have quite enjoyed “Project Runway” now featured on Lifetime. As I understand it, this series of a reality show for fashion designers was featured on another cable network and just changed over to Lifetime this week. I daresay this is an indicator that the show has been very successful as Lifetime is a network for women and women are probably the base audience for this series. Alongside our fine homosexual brethren I add with a smile.

So far I’ve been busy compiling pic montages of the series and have little verbiage to add. I think this is a great series but it is definitely for fashion afficiandos let’s not kid ourselves.

Site for the series HERE

I have a few comments on the remaining nine contenders as it’s a bit dizzying to keep up with all the fashion designs, who did what, as well as observe personality quirks of the contenders.

Epperson, now here’s an odd fellow. He has about thirty pounds of hair on his head and once he had to wrap all the dreadlocks up in a scarf and he looked like one of those fellows who ride around on flying carpets. Epperson does do rather unusual designs and one thing to note about this show, the ordinary is not where you want to go. The show doesn’t cotton to out-of-this-world fashion designs either, be cautioned. But it is a show designed to capture the designer with a fashion flair that would still be acceptable to your ordinary female.

A couple of very young females are very much in contention this season, to include Shirin, Althea and Carol Hannah. I’m talking young women in their early to mid-20’s here. Quite impressive to be in the top ten on this American Idol of fashion design.

Finally, somebody tell Gordana to please find some shampoo and wash her damn hair. Gordana is NOT, ahem, one of the younger females in this contest. She’s not such a bangup fashion designer either.

On to the pic montages and join in for additional opinions, caveats, brickbats and unrequested opinions.

















2009 Contenders for Project Runway
Christopher
Johnny-sent home
Louise-sent home
Irina
Ari-sent home
Nicolas
Mitchell-sent home
Shirin
Gordana
Carol Hannah
Ramon-Lawrence-sent home
Logan
Malvin-sent home
Qristyl-sent home
Epperson
Althea

Hell’s Kitchen Fall 09 Down to Four



Fox’s Web Site for the Series HERE.

I tune in to this series but it holds little allure for me. It is almost a icon in the field of cooking show contests but folks an hour of bleeped out cussing gets old real fast.

Which is not to say I’m not intrigued by the series and now that it’s down to the final four I am keenly interested. I even, by now, have a favorite I think will walk away with the top prize.

I cover all shows from 9/8/09 through 9/29 with this post, including the pics.

One of the major laughs that stands out recently is the week two of the contenders could not tell lamb from venison. Now folks these are both food items I never cook but I’m sure I’d be able to tell them apart.

We also had a couple of shows in a row that had two contenders, both now eliminated, that couldn’t seem to cook a halibut thoroughly.

Kevin, I think, is going to win this thing.

Below some pics from the shows being reviewed.





suzanne, tenille, dave, ariel, kevin-left on hell's kitchen
suzanne sent home, kevin, ariel won…prettiest dish, cleaned streets





Top 4 left in Hell’s Kitchen as of 10/4/09:
Tenille
Kevin
David
Ariel

Top Chef Vegas-The Cadillac of Cooking Shows


The Next Food Network Star is the cooking show contest for us home cooks. But for the really talented cooks out there, Top Chef is the way to go.

I’ve been watching this cooking series regularly and have compiled some pics from the September shows on thru the most recent NEW show on 9/23/09.

On one recent show the contenders cooked snails. On another they cooked proteins with appropriate French sauces.

In the most recent NEW show, aired on 9/23/09, guest judges were Penn and Teller of magic fame. Which was really a smile in that Teller doesn’t talk. And just how is he going to give a critique on the food without uttering a word?

Well he made gestures and all and somehow it worked.

Contender Robin won the Quickfire challenge which was to create two dishes that reflected the “yin and yang” of something, like good and evil or angel’s and devil’s in our lives. Robin is a contender that looked headed for elimination but this win should put her back in contention.

The elimination challenge on that night was to “deconstruct” a meal. Folks this is a food fad only a chef would dream up.

The idea is for the chef to create a dish on the plate that, after presentation to the client would require a client to eat the various parts as prepared on the plate to achieve the totality of the dish deconstructed.

An example would be the losing meal of this elimination challenge, a popular dish known as Seafood Paella. This dish usually has various types of seafood combined with a rice and some sort of flavorful sauce. Deconstructing this dish would have the Chef presenting the sauce over here, the rice over here, the different seafoods here and here and here. The client could then pick and choose just how to eat the meal instead of having the whole thing put in front of him or her with no choice.

Well hey, like I said, it’s a Chef’s dream.

Contender Ron was sent home for failing to properly cook his seafood while managing to OVERCOOK his rice. Well damn, a chef what can’t cook rice deserves to be sent packing.

A redheaded southern type chef, Kevin, seems to be running away with this thing. Keep an eye out on him.

Below some pic montages from recent episodes.









Following Up on Melissa D’Arabian’s New Food Network Show

Melissa D’Arabian was proclaimed the next food network star this year and it took me a while but on 9/6/09 I managed to find her show, featured on a boring Sunday afternoon entitled “$10 Dinners with Melissa D’Arabian”. I thought it would be cool to see how Melissa did with her new show and I watched it with thoughtful eyes.

First, Melissa looks pregnant to me. Just throwing that out there.

On the show I watched as she prepared something called “braised pork” along with Cuban black beans and drop biscuits containing green onions.

The meal cost only ten bucks as advertised and would feed four people. But I thought the meal was very complicated to prepare, requiring all sorts of pans. The meat needed braising in a fry pan than roasting in an oven…many hours so.

Of course I suppose there must be some trade-off of money and time but I’m just not that poor to be dirtying a house full of pans and spending hours on my feet for one meal.

Melissa did a very good job but will she be the next Rachel Ray?



Below a short clip from Melissa’s show as described above.


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