Bonecrusher's Back

[ajs228]

TV Guide says Bonecrusher is back as judge of ICA tonight in battle Flay vs. Rathbun brothers. Unfortunately Jeffrey Steingarten (sp?) won't be there, so we won't get to see him swollow some of his nastier criticisms.

[Withnail42]

Who and or what is this Bonecrusher?

[jme1beachbum]

A rapper, with interesting opinions on food. Adventurous eater, albiet a slightly limited prior taste experience. He's a southern man (atlanta, ga) that tells it like he sees it. Quite entertaining minus the bitter taste Jeffrey S. leaves. I was pleasantly surprised by what he added to the show.

[amethiste]

His critique of food is waaaaay more articulate than his rapping

[jeanki]

Don't see how that is possible given that rap is a form of poetry (albeit not always with poetic content), which is pretty articulate in my book.

[amethiste]

I agree that rap is a form of poetry. However, the one song of his that I have heard consisted of him screaming "I ain't never scared" over and over again.

[goodhealthgourmet]

his lyrics are extremely graphic, often violent, and not for the modest or faint of heart.

completely incongruous with his ICA judging demeanor.

[amethiste]

Exactly. When he was judging the first time i was prepared to be embarrassed. However I was so pleasantly surprised.

[jeanki]

i'm sorry, but this line of thought just sounds patronizing to me. how very surprising that a rapper would be a good food judge? or articulate? wow!.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i hope you weren't referring to my comment - that was certainly not what i intended to communicate. i'm a huge fan of rap music, and i have a very strong representation of the genre in my extensive music collection. i agree with your earlier statement that rap is a form of poetry. to clarify, i was simply telling amethiste about the nature of bone crusher's lyrics...and that it has nothing to do with how he conducts himself as a judge on the show.

[amethiste]

I did not mean it to be patronizing. I was surprised that this particular rapper was articulate. Had it been KRS1, Chuck D, Common or several other rappers I know to be intelligent and articulate, I would not have been surprised. I am not trying to condemn the rap genre as a whole. I am a fan of rap music. I grew up in the 80's during what some call the "Golden Era of Hip Hop". Admittedly I don't get a lot of the new stuff - I could just be getting old. Cheers!

[mojoeater]

He's also one of the Celebrity Fit Club winners.

[sommrluv]

Did anyone think Tres spoke more than any other sous chef in IC history? Did the producers show him speaking because they thought he would be popular, or was he trying for TV time?

BTW, I'm not criticizing, I LOVE him. They showed him, Hubby and I are faithfully settled down to watch, and I yell, hey, That' s Tres-Sexy!! Um, yeah...

[goodhealthgourmet]

i picked up on that too...tre definitely got more airtime than any challenging sous chef i've ever seen. but like you, i was grateful for my fix ;) and no, i don't think he was "trying" for it, i think the camera operators were responsible. he wasn't jumping in front of the lens, they kept panning over to him as alton reported on his activities.

[sommrluv]

I swear I watched so many repeats of Top Chef, it was like seeing an old friend up there. LOL. (that show was a big surprise, I thought I would hate it) I think I shall have to agree with you, they were chasing after him. I don't believe they ever mention him, though?

[goodhealthgourmet]

alton referred to him by name several times..but there's no way they were going to give "top chef" a plug when it's the #1 food show on cable, and therefore gets better ratings than ICA - or any other show on TVFN, for that matter!

[dream_of_giusti]

Thank you all for the reminder. I wanted to watch ICA on Sunday but I had to work. I am excited to see Bonecrusher because I missed the last episode he was on. And you know I love me some Tre Sexy too! Amethiste- I'm with you, I love the "Golden Era of Hip Hop" but this new 'stuff' is ridiculous. The fact that I don't get it makes me feel way older than my 24 yrs.

[goodhealthgourmet]

i'm a big bone crusher fan - he's my favorite guest judge. but as entertaining as he is to watch, he's so gentle and jovial that i sort of missed having jeffrey's acerbic attitude to balance him out tonight. it was funny, by the time he finished his criticism of bobby flay's first dish, it almost sounded like a compliment.

in fact, all three judges seemed to have nothing but nice things to say about the food tonight, or at least that's how it was edited to appear....yet the final scores didn't really reflect it. 46 & 50 are certainly not the highest numbers we've ever seen in a challenge.

[Miss Needle]

Yes, a show like this needs a Simon Cowell.

[goodhealthgourmet]

ok, it took me a second to register that one. am i the only person in the universe who's never seen american idol?

btw, am i the only one who had flashbacks to the top chef cobbler disaster when tre was slicing those peaches...?

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

Well, the difference for me is that I tend to agree with Simon Cowell, who may be bluntly honest, but he's also very often absolutely right. Steingarten, for all his bluster and condescending attitude, is often shockingly wrong-headed in his criticisms!

[Miss Needle]

It's a little more obvious with a show like American Idol where we can hear the contestants sing. However I'm curious as to how you can tell that Steingarten is wrong as we can't taste the food.

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

Number one, because I take it as a given that Steingarten is always wrong, because I think the guy's an idiot. Number two, because I have seen him make criticisms of a dish that basically boil down to "I would have liked this, had it been something entirely different that I do like." That doesn't count as criticism, because it ignores what the dish IS. Number three, I find his condescending attitude towards female judges, even ones who clearly are more knowledgeable than him, to be repugnant.

[trentyzan]

I agree. I think Steingarten is wrong AND can't taste the food. He misses the style of food from his youth and takes it out on others, especially young women. Just my opinion.

[goodhealthgourmet]

reminds me of the thanksgiving battle when he kept giving bobby flay a hard time for using cranberries because he doesn't like them. he was acting like a spoiled child who didn't want to eat his vegetables.

it's thanksgiving. get over it.

that's what i like about bone crusher. when the rathbun brothers were serving raw and rare preparations, he mentioned several times that he doesn't like raw meat, but he ate the dishes as they were presented...and each time, expressed surprise that he enjoyed eating the meat that way, and complimented the chefs on their efforts.

[Miss Needle]

No, you're not the only one. I've never sat through an episode of American Idol either. I've seen it in passing during channel surfing. However, I watch enough TV news to know what kind of rep that guy has.

I also was thinking of the peach episode as well. : )

One thing I found interesting was that the elk dishes prepared by the Rathbun brothers (and Tre) and Flay were that they looked so much better and much more interesting than the elk dishes on Top Chef 3. There really is a huge difference in the level of the chefs.

[Xericx]

it was a little oily!

[Jstern35]

You can't compare the dishes from Iron Chef to what was prepared on Top Chef. On Iron Chef they have time to work with and develop dishes whereas Top Chef they have a minimal amount of time to come up with a dish as well as a limited amount of resources

[amethiste]

Trey of Top Chef fame is the sous chef on the Rathbun side. That makes this a double treat.

also: is it just me or did they add a bunch of stupid sound effects this time? For example: The Chairman raising his eyebrow with a "woosh" sound, Bobby Flay cracking his back etc...

[BarmyFotheringayPhipps]

They've been doing those sound effects all this season. I actually like them -- they fit with the generally goofy tone of the show as a whole.