Top Chef Season 3

[ironchef]

...or that after the aired remarks about his father, the sympathy factor would result in some hue and cry to bring him back?

I haven't had a chance to watch this video, but I'm afraid that at the end Clay is going to look an even bigger fool than he did on episode 1. Hung is not only talented, he's also a horse's a$$, as he admitted on camera.

Yeah Hung admitted and knows he's an *******. The thing is though, he's confident but I wouldn't consider him cocky (yet), just blunt. Joey on the other hand, is very cocky and very arrogant.

Also, from what I saw of Hung, he seemed ok to work with in the kitchen. He was interacting with Tre and letting Tre taste all of his dishes as he was preparing them. I think it was partly because Hung saw that Tre is also talented and that Tre knows what he's doing in the kitchen. Hung also mentioned something to that effect about watching and knowing if a person has that ability and aptittude in the kitchen. My impression is that if he sees that a person is capable, he gives them that respect in the kitchen.

 

[turtledove]

I saw that with Tre and Hung; about being able to see someone with true cooking talent too. I have to say that it did impress me somewhat (may have been a tactic, too) with Hung having Tre taste what he was making. So far, Hung has not proved to be the "annoying, arrogant, egotisical sob" that I saw in Marcel and even Stephen.

 

[skilletlicker]

I'm posting this shortly before episode two airs. This series actually has to do with fine dining cookery, a subject with which I am not qualified to debate the relative merits of the contestants with ironchef, one of our resident fine dining professionals. However, outside his professional expertise, IC insists that Hung is metaphorically the southern orifice of the digestive system. Having had considerable personal experience with that claim I believe that young Hung has not yet earned it, and in fact, may not possess the necessary failures of character required for the title.

Here's hoping Hung does not prove me wrong.

 

[ironchef]

I'm posting this shortly before episode two airs. This series actually has to do with fine dining cookery, a subject with which I am not qualified to debate the relative merits of the contestants with ironchef, one of our resident fine dining professionals. However, outside his professional expertise, IC insists that Hung is metaphorically the southern orifice of the digestive system. Having had considerable personal experience with that claim I believe that young Hung has not yet earned it, and in fact, may not possess the necessary failures of character required for the title.

Here's hoping Hung does not prove me wrong.

Hung calls himself an *******. It has nothing to do with my assumption.

 

[skilletlicker]

Hung calls himself an *******. It has nothing to do with my assumption.

Well you have twice now agreed with it. I'm still rooting for his now, only slightly hidden, integrity.

 

[ironchef]

Well you have twice now agreed with it. I'm still rooting for his now, only slightly hidden, integrity.

When people are willing to admit that they are one, they usually are.

 

[skilletlicker]

When people are willing to admit that they are one, they usually are.

I thought you were defending the young man. I'm back here giving odds that he isn't as bad as you seem to say.

 

[ironchef]

I thought you were defending the young man. I'm back here giving odds that he isn't as bad as you seem to say.

You've lost me. Re-read my posts again.

 

[ironchef]

Episode two was...interesting. I thought that there were some surprises, especially in the elimination challenge in regards to their final dishes. Sara N. was probably the most surprising, only because of the clips that Bravo showed of her leading up to the tasting and judging. However, I know someone who told me that she will surprise some people, even though she may fly under the radar. Well I hope so considering she's a Sous Chef at Jean-Georges in NYC. If not, she'll be the first contestant who works at a high-profile restaurant that gets knocked off before the final six.

Tre is really, really inconsistent. It's kind of mind blowing how in the first four competitions, he has two wins but then he's also been in the bottom 3/4 in the other two. I don't think they've ever had someone who was that hot and cold in such an extreme. And being from Texas and being in the bottom of a BBQ challenge...that would be like Thomas Keller entering a competition with French food being the theme ingredient and being in the bottom...or Wylie Dufresne being in the bottom of a Molecular Gastronomy challenge...

I'm trying really hard to like Howie, but the guy just cannot execute to save his life. He has good concepts, but his technical execution has so far been horrible. First not being able to just put one frog leg on the plate in episode 1, and then pre-cooking the meat (pork tenderloin of all things! ) and then pre-slicing it?! WTF? You know, you practice what you preach. I hope this isn't how they treat the proteins at his restaurant. At least he told Joey off. I'll give him props for that.

Speaking of Joey, what in the **** was that dish he made? It looked like crap, his concept was crap. I guess his dish just reflects his attitude and personality. Hopefully he'll be gone soon. One thing I hate is crybabies. Man up or shut up. I mean c'mon, $200 plus 4 hours total prep/cook time and he makes chicken drumsticks and a corn salad. This isn't bush league, you gotta bring your "A" game.

Didn't think Sandee was going to last until the final 6 or 7 but I was kinda surprised that she was out this soon. I was also surprised by her choice of dish for a BBQ theme. What was she thinking? Pre-poaching and then grilling? Lobster with dates? Dates are something you pair with a strong flavored protein like lamb, quail, etc. I think she was trying to be too overly creative and different and ended up cooking herself into a hole. Lobster would have been fine, but she should have just grilled it and served it sans dates. Plus she's from the South so she's in the same boat as Tre.

Interesting what Tom said in the previews about seeing who's going to try and play it safe and stay in the middle of the pack until more people are eliminated because I was thinking the same thing while they were cooking during the second elimination challenge. I wondering what I would do? I probably would play it semi-safe. I mean I would still try and put out cutting edge dishes that would fit the theme, but I wouldn't overextend myself and try a combination of flavors that I never did before. I would probably stick to what I know would work but present it so that it would look more high-end. That's something which was missing from the BBQ challenge with a lot of the chefs. If they had just changed up their presentation, or bought another ingredient or two, it would hav elevated their dish that much more.

 

[turtledove]

IC, I think you should be a guest judge on the show!! Really......I agree with all you said above and was thinking along the same lines (albeit in much simpler terms as I know I am not a chef-just a darn good cook). I was thinking it would be Howie or Joey last night before Sandee; but do agree with the reason she was chosen.

 

[ironchef]

The challenge was really simple -- create an elegant, upscale BBQ. That obviously means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time on the watermelon theme, except that I totally believe Hung when he says that he thought of doing something with watermelon because you’d find watermelon at a BBQ. I don’t believe that he ripped it off of Joey.

I’m sure that watermelon juice, which has been a very popular ingredient in the past couple of years, is not something that he invented, and I think it’s really foolish for him to even to suggest that someone stole his recipe. It’s dumb. It’s immature. There’s no reason for it. Based on watching the episode, I think he needs to spend a little more time on what he’s cooking rather than what everyone else is doing.

I think Hung is just way too self-confident to be stealing recipes. And I actually liked the way he dealt with it – he completely blew Joey off.

The thing between Howie and Joey doesn't go away. What’s interesting is that this is some heartfelt stuff. I don’t think they’re mugging for the cameras here. This is the way these guys are. I guarantee that Howie is like that in his kitchen. It’s worth mentioning that Joey was wrong about the whole Howie-coming-to-New-York-and-not-being-able-to-hack-it-thing. He also said that Howie would get special treatment because he was from Florida. I think Norman knew where Howie was from, but the fact of the matter is -- he was still brought up to the losers’ table . It didn't save him that much. Joey is just blaming and accusing. Just shut up and cook.

What I think you’re seeing is people who are really passionate and wear their personalities on their sleeves. They’re not going to sit there and sit on their hands. Obviously, Joey's going to say what he did about Howie's meal. Don’t you think it’s bizarre that Joey has an opinion on who should go without tasting the food? Who does that remind you of?

This piece was taken from Tom Colicchio's blog on the Bravo site. LOL!!

 

[ironchef]

NM, it's actually Lia who is the Sous Chef at Jean-George's. I got her and Sara N's restaurants mixed up.

 

[carolelaine]

What did you think about last nights episode? I thought they made a good choice on who should go. Based on the reaction of the crowd to her dish, it must have been really bad. I'm still unclear on who I believe is the most talented of the group.

 

[ironchef]

I think they made the right decision. If someone doesn't have their heart into the competition, they shouldn't be there. It's a little disappointing that Micah had that attitude as they could've had another competitor instead of her, but there's no way to forsee what would've happened. She was way too inconsistent but watching her, she usually put out good food when she was excited about the theme ingredient. However, you can't do that in a competition. Whether or not you like the theme, you still need to put out the best product possible.

I'm glad Howie finally came though because I've liked the guy since the first episode. The theme for the third episode was both easy and hard. It was easy in the sense that it should've been not very difficult to do an updated version of the dishes, but it was also difficult in that same sense. I mean seriously, how do you improve on fried chicken with mac and cheese with the restraints of the challenge? Lowering the cholestrol and calories in a dish is hard because you're immediately removing things that make it taste good: oil, butter, cheese, etc. Most of the dishes use those components for flavor. It also seemed like many of the chefs were not in it to win this challenge, they just wanted to put out something that would be good and not one of the worst dishes. I think Joey and Hung fell into this category. Joey takes lasagna and does a vegetable lasagna. No imagination whatsoever. Hung does a roast chicken with a crispy chicken skin and basically pasta primavera with parmesan grated on top. A little more imagination that Joey but not by much. But then again, I can't really knock them too hard because there were only a few dishes that I could think of that I would've immediately known what to do with it. Tacos and the Porkchops/applesauce were I think the two easiest. I think what made it harder was that if you didn't grow up eating those dishes, you wouldn't know where to start. If I had gotten chicken and dumplings I wouldn't know what the classic version tasted like. I could do my own version (for the dumplings I would probably make homemade gnocchi) but that would be it. I've also never had chicken a la king or a tuna casserole so I would be lost there as well.

The last two competitions were pretty dull in the creative aspect, which is a shame because there could've been a lot of creativity involved, especially in episode two. We'll see which chefs raise their game next week.

 

[ChefJune]

IC, I agree with you about Howie. I was really glad to see him vindicated.

As for Mica, all the places she said she'd lived, I can't imagine she hasn't run into meat loaf before even if that wasn't what it was called. shoot, what's pate, anyway? I would have made the best darn turkey meatloaf, full of flavor, and mashed potatoes with chicken stock instead of butter and cream (I do that all the time, anyway).

I have eaten lots of tuna noodle casseroles in my lifetime, but they were never even the least bit green What was with that? Both that and Chicken ala King are kind of gloppy dishes with creamy sauces. getting rid of the cream would've lightened both of them considerably...

I don't even remember what Tre made, but Hung really turns me off. He has no humor to him at all. Both Stephen and Marcel before him were annoying, but their antics were rather humorous (even if that was unintentional). Hung impresses me as being mean-spirited.

 

[carolelaine]

IC hard to imagine not ever having chicken ala king, tuna casserole or chicken and dumplings. Wow. I do not care for Hung either, he comes across as way to thrilled with himself and just plain mean.

 

[ironchef]

Well. After a couple of so-so episodes, this last one was really interesting and intense. First off, I thought that the guest judge was a *****. She was especially critical for someone who is not a chef. Yeah she owns a restaurant blah, blah, blah. Just because you own a restaurant doesn't mean you know **** about food. Often times, it means you know less.

Very surprised that Lia was gone this early. I thought that Dale and both Saras would be among the next to leave. You don't get to be the Executive Sous Chef at Jean-Georges for nothing. But the caliber of chefs on this show compared to the last two seasons is so much higher so it's only natural that some really talented people will be knocked off sooner than expected. The first two seasons had about 50% dead weight. Once half the cast was elminated, then the competition got serious because they were all real chefs.

This challenge was difficult because of the theme. Yeah, Latin foods shouldn't be that hard but not when the people you're serving it to is all Latin. If you didn't grow up cooking a lot of Latin flavors it would be hard. You know how something tastes, but to actually cook it to get to that point would be challenging. The key is the background of the people tasting the food. If it's a bunch of chefs or people in the industry, go for the fusion stuff, foams, gelees, whatever. If it's a bunch of people who are not in the industry, keep it simple because their palettes are also simple. That's been the rule of thumb even for the first two seasons as well. The tasters who were not chefs always liked the more simplier preperations. It was the chefs who wanted to be blown away.

Despite his two wins in the last three elimination challenges, I don't see Howie making it to the final three. Once the challenges start to focus more on upscale and less on simple, he'll be in trouble, as will Joey. Their food is just not complex enough. Although they haven't been stars lately, my prediction for the final three is Tre, Casey, and Hung. That is, if they don't get ousted by a stupid challenge like cooking eggs at the beach using only a campfire.

 

[skilletlicker]

I was a little disappointed that Sara didn't make her tortillas. I don't know how long the ceviche/guacamole took but the tortillas wouldn't take very long assuming she bought fresh masa. If she intended to make her own masa, well I wouldn't have a clue how to do that in three hours.

It was good to see Howie out of the doghouse for a change and it was surprising how deeply he and Joey seemed to have buried the hatchet. Kumbaya ought to have been playing in the background. What with their new found brotherly love no one is competing for the guy we love to hate. Hung seemed to be claiming the honor. He is kind of arrogant but I don't think he has it in him to be as obnoxious as foam guy from last season or wine guy from the one before.

How could Colicchio possibly win the "Who's the sexiest judge" viewer poll? Even taking into account that Padma and Gail had to split their constituency, I still can't believe it.

 

[ChefJune]

I was a little disappointed that Sara didn't make her tortillas. I don't know how long the ceviche/guacamole took but the tortillas wouldn't take very long assuming she bought fresh masa. If she intended to make her own masa, well I wouldn't have a clue how to do that in three hours.

you must have missed the part where their cooking time was shortened to 1 1/2 hours. That's why everyone was running around the kitchen like banshees!

It was good to see Howie out of the doghouse for a change and it was surprising how deeply he and Joey seemed to have buried the hatchet. Kumbaya ought to have been playing in the background. What with their new found brotherly love no one is competing for the guy we love to hate. Hung seemed to be claiming the honor. He is kind of arrogant but I don't think he has it in him to be as obnoxious as foam guy from last season or wine guy from the one before.

I found it interesting that Lia WON the challenge last week, and this one they sent her home! D'you suppose they are trying to whittle down the large number of women in the group?

How could Colicchio possibly win the "Who's the sexiest judge" viewer poll? Even taking into account that Padma and Gail had to split their constituency, I still can't believe it.

I can believe it. Tom definitely has "it!" and probably more women than men voted.

 

[Robo410]

I enjoy the show, but am amazed by some of the lack of thought...
If you don't know a dish or a region, there are ways today to get the info quickly! Called computers. So many online sources of info. Joey had the right idea last night...call the experts at his restaurant and get the recipe!
But no Knowledge of Latino cuisine, or of American diner standards, or healthy cuisine techniques???

As they keep asking, "what were you thinking?"