Top Chef Masters Champs 1st Round [spoilers]
Anita Lo's dishes looked awesome. Art Smith mentioned Obama loving his dish, again! Too bad Art got to stick around. I don't like his style, he's all talk and no substance. I missed eating at Rick's in Chicago on my last trip, that will definitely be rectified on the next trip.
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Oseland's outfit last night helped me finally figure out who he reminds me of... Mr. Mackey from South Park! Four and a half stars, mmkay
Not trying to be mean tho, I do like him on the show and think Cradle of Flavor is a great cookbook:)
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re: Hurner
Hey - CNR wasn't center square - that was Paul Lynde! ;-) CNR was upper left, IIRC, whenever he was on the show. But he was usually on Match Game and Password.
But the analogy is perfect for Oseland! LOL (And yes - I watched too many game shows growing up - but I loved the snarky humor from Lynde, Reilly, and even the hosts of the shows!)
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re: AMFM
agreed. and I do like the way they all seem to respect one another. If they don't care for Art, they don't appear to. I feel for him if all he can draw from is his Oprah gig and cooking for Obama. And the only reason he cooked for Obama is because of their friendship. Has he cooked for Dr. Phil?
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Anita FTW! BAM! ARt with his predictable name dropping SIGH......................
NEXT episde:
Art:"The judges will love this dish, I got the recipe from Al Pacino while pratying on Brangelina's yacht, I made it for the Beckham's wedding and spoon fed it to David.
Oh by the way, Britney Spears, Madonna, Tony Blair, Luke Skywalker, Cleopatra."›20 Replies-
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re: LindaWhit
Yes, but what I mean is -have all of you seen him before this, and have thought of him as a name dropper before?
Because yes, he did mention the President and such, but I didn't think he was over the top obnoxious about it......
But I've never seen him before, so I might not know that he does that all the time...-
re: NellyNel
I read a lot, so I was aware of him (I do *not*, however, watch Oprah!) As to his constant name-dropping....no, was unaware of that. But again, having gained fame as Oprah's personal chef, I'm not surprised that he's a name dropper. She has a dinner party for her famous friends - he can now say he's cooked for X, Y, and Z.
And after only 2 shows, I'm beyond sick of it.
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re: NellyNel
you've seen the rachael ray drinking game? http://www.slobak.com/rachaelray.html
"it's got it 'goin' on'" (2 sips).
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re: alkapal
That's hilarious! I'd never be able to hang with this game.
But what really makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up is, Ina and her "How easy is that?" and then that laugh. It's like she has a megaphone and while her guests laugh in a normal tone hers is sooooo omg, awful.
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re: alkapal
I *hate* when she does that! I think her favorite phrases are:
"How easy is that?"
"How bad can that be?"
"How good is that?"And she follows with her chortle.....I'm sure she's a nice person but those things bother me.
Bayless is exceptionally talented. I've been watching his shows for years now and have eaten at Frontera Grill. I swear by his cookbooks and have never made anything bad from them. However, I think he went to the William Shatner School for Television Presentation.
He has a "pause...two...three" manner of speaking that "pause, reach for the high note" screams Shatner.
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re: LindaWhit
LOL!
I hope he goes easy - it's a school night ya know!
I've been reading about the guy - I kinda like him - I mean you gotta love a guy who has a doggie section in his restaurant - complete with a special pooch menu!! http://www.artandsouldc.com/images/Pu...
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i just thought of a constructive way to deal with Art Smith's name-dropping: down a shot every time he mentions Oprah or Obama...by the time he starts gushing about "cooking with love" you'll be sufficiently intoxicated not to find it so irritating ;)
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re: pastryqueen
i don't have the tolerance for it either - i get tanked on one glass of wine. ok, so i'm modifying the rules for us lightweights who can no longer handle our liquor the way we did in our younger days...take a sip of your wine or cocktail (or a hearty swig of beer) each time he name-drops. i'd probably have a nice buzz by the end of the QF!
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Art Smith has GOT TO GO. He makes me crazy with his name dropping and fake humility. .. UGH!!!
Anita Lo really has the chops. .. what a pro and I really enjoy her ethic and etiquette in the kitchen. Annisa was damaged in a fire on July 4th but I can only assume it will come back, better and more popular than ever.
My favorite part of the show was when Anita said, "sorry, sweetheart" before she prepared her lobster. . talk about respecting ingredients! :)
Honorable mention must be made for Hubert Keller. .. he is so talented but rarely displays too much ego. . I love how he said that Anita's dish was a "revelation'. .. few chefs will usually admit that.
I am sure next week will be hard as I believe that Zooey Deschanel is vegan - not an easy challenge for any chef!
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re: pastryqueen
There's a preview clip on the bravo website. That Zooey Deschanel is not only a vegan, but also doesn't eat gluten and soy! I think the chefs have quite a challenge ahead of them!
btw, Art Smith reminds me a lot of Dave Martin from Season 1 (in addition to similar mannerisms, they both started cooking relatively late and are both name-droppers!).
http://www.chefdavemartin.com/index.p...
And Rick Moonen sort of reminds me of a toned down version of Andrew d'Ambrosi from Season 4.
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re: araknd
That was my fear as well. I think Art may have the edge in this challenge. Even though he's known for cooking Southern food (lots of meat and gluten), he is probably used to working with these type of dietary restrictions more than some of the other chefs.
I think Bayless would do OK as well. Lo? Well, a lot of Asian sauce ingredients are soy-based or have gluten in them (soy sauce, hoisin sauce, ground bean sauce, kochujang -- not sure even if she uses the stuff). She also seemed really stumped in the previews.
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re: goodhealthgourmet
goodhealthgourmet -
I'm also in the gluten-free boat, but as you probably know, there are pretty decent products out there now. It will be interesting to see if they do some savvy shopping at Whole Foods, seeing whereas WF typically has not only lots of GF/SF products, but also a directory brochure listing them and their locations in the store.
Will any of them get hip to that, or will the producers provide the information, considering that, if Zooey has a serious allergy/intolerance, they could otherwise end up making her ill...
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re: Miss Needle
I've had the pleasure of eating some very creative and interesting vegetable and bean dishes done by Rick Bayless. I'm guessing that Anita Lo and Hubert Keller might also be able to cope.
Vegan, gluten-free and soy-free will be a challenge for any chef. Wow, what a combination.
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re: goodhealthgourmet
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see Rick work with beans, chiles, mushrooms, greens, fruit, nuts and amaranth. So few people really realize how well Mexican cuisine can be adapted for the vegetarian and vegan diets.
You know, few people give Michael Chiarello much chance in this challenge, but Italian is much like both Mexican and Chinese cuisines in that it is an earth (as in dirt) based cuisine. If he focuses on this aspects of his cooking, he could be the sleeper in this round.
Like everyone else, I've been wowed by Anita Lo and will be very curious to see how she approaches this challange and what she turns out.
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The critics really screwed up. Art Smith should never have gotten past this round. His performance was the worst in the QF round and Scotch Egg as an interpretation of Suzanne's dish? Really? And stop with the name dropping already! He didn't have a signature dish to compete with the others, so he pulls the President's name out of his rear. He should name it "Obama's Chicken".
Please, eliminate him soon and put us out of our misery so that we can enjoy seeing some truly talented chefs ply their art.
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That mise quickfire was SO MUCH FUN. God, that is always my favorite, and the chefs got so into it, it was fantastic. Anita Lo was amazing with the chickens, but I adored seeing Bayless whisking the egg whites.
After watching this, I now really want to eat at Anita Lo's restaurant.
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re: JasmineG
Kelly Choi observed that all the chefs were silent during the mise en place QF, like they were very intent on the work at hand, we didn't notice ti because they edited the music in. I read that and thought: Thats the way it should be with professionals. I guess that is just another sign of how intense these people are, which put them where they are.
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re: JasmineG
In the sports vernacular, its called being in "The Zone". I swear, Anita was totally in the zone when she took that chicken apart, the ease of movement, the familiarity with the movements, the concentration, the serious demeanor. All of them had it going, but her work was the most intense, I thought. No words needed, it was artistry in the moment.
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Its like they telegraph who is going to win, it was so apparent that Anita Lo would win. Her dish was beautiful and well thought out.
I have been in love with Michael Chiarello for years so I cannot be at all objective in this competition.
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re: chicgail
Good luck on your quest :-)
I've done several cooking experiences with him in Mexico and he is genuinely a nice person. If you think his passion comes through on television it's even more evident in the classes he teaches. One of the best teachers I've experienced, cooking or otherwise.
AMFM, from all the yoga he's done, he's also really buff ;-)
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re: chicgail
speaking of downward facing dog, this will crack you up around 1:29 onward in the clip: http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Do-t...
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re: chicgail
He's done several posts on one of his web sites about yoga and the specific type of yoga he does. It used to be on the Frontera Kitchens web site, I don't know if it's there any more. All I recall now is that it is a specific type of yoga with a charismatic leader. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.
He also does ballroom dancing. IIRC, the dance studio he frequents is either across the street from the restauratns or his home. Good luck :-D I'm out of clues...
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re: chowser
deb and i were flying to chicago out of lga a few years back. flight was delayed a bit but no big deal. no seats at the gate were available so i dropped my bag on the floor maybe 20 feet from the front counter. damn near hit a guy sitting on the floor. he was working on his laptop. his wife and kid were sitting, picnic-like, by him. it was bayless and family, of course. pretty down-to-earth dude in my opinion.
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re: steve h.
If you tweet, bayless is one of my fave people to follow, lots of great pictures, one of the things that got me hooked on twitter was following his updates during his family vacation to india this summer. Now that I know about his anthro background, it makes sense why he was such a good "tour guide"
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I thought Anita Lo totally rocked that challenge -- she was the only one who nailed both the concept of the challenge (to take the dish and reinterpret it through your own eyes) and the execution. Keller just sort of tweaked Lo's dish (and it sounds like it wasn't as good as the original), and I don't think Bayless and Tracht were particularly inventive, either. Chiarello made a better attempt (an Italian take on a Mexican dish) at the concept, but didn't quite execute. And who knows what Smith was thinking? On top of all that, Lo's dish was the most sophisticated and most technically complicated dish of the bunch. No wonder the judges were dazzled! That woman simply cooked rings around the other "masters."
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The mise en place QF is my favorite.
The funniest comment of the night was about Art Smith having the advantage whipping egg whites since he had limp wrists.Don't remember how made that comment, Chiarello? Surprised the editors let that through.
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re: NellyNel
I missed that too, but I'm glad to hear that Chiarello has finally come to terms with the truth!
For my money, I had the greatest laugh when Anita Lo remembered the TC quickfire mise en place "with some poor woman chopping onions and taking far too long" while the editors cut to a shot of Casey Thompson's embarrassing performance.
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re: Hurner
LOL! Yes, that was priceless! And she's still out there - working with Blais and Malarkey! most recently in NOLA.
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Anita Lo is the best. I've eaten her signature scallop dish at her restaurant, Annisa, and was glad to see that she included it in the EC. Again, I'm not surprised that she placed first.
Rick Bayless continues to impress by confirming that he's more well rounded than we would assume, considering his background and taste.
Hubert Keller is solid, inventive and unpredictable. Someday I'd like to eat in one of his restaurants.
Michael Chiarello has yet to win me over.
I was sorry to see Suzanne Tracht crash and burn due to a technicality that could have been easily avoided.
Art Smith, by his own admission, is aware that he's in the company of highly qualified chefs, and perhaps this may be the reason for the constant name-dropping. Like it or not, his "star" connections form the bulk of his résumé (and he knows it). And although he can be annoying to us as viewers, his chef colleagues and the judges seem to truly like him.
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OK, I'll jump on the band wagon. Art Smith drives me nuts. And I think Bravo knows that because of the short blurb they put in there of Smith cutting up and all the other chefs saying how much they love him. But I also think that the one little bit he said really explained why he is the way he is, inre: name dropping. He said that he didn't get into the restaurant business until a few years ago and there was a bit of inferiority complex showing through when he said he was intimidated by that fact.
Anita Lo IS a rock star. I am so ready to go check out her restaurant. She was less animated than Bayless or Keller but she showed her passion through her thinking through the dish and reinventing it in a very"intellectual way" as Gael Green puts it.
I never really liked Chiarello much, but when he agreed with Raynor that he cared more about what Bayless thought of his dish than the judges, he won me over. Afterall, the critics don't matter, your diners and your fellow professionals do.
Interestingly enought, Raynor and Oselander's blogs were up right after the first showing of the episode. Apparently Raynor just whaled on the scotch egg concept. He did admit is had to do with the fact that he grew up with the idea in the UK, but apparently they cut out all of his screaming and criticism as he had described it in the blog.
By the way, I really don't care that Gael Green slept with Elvis.
I was impressed when Bayless was talking about when he got into cooking Mexican foods. His demeanor and gravitas reminded me of a college professor, a very personable college professor, but one just the same. His tendency towards analysis and methodically thinking through what he does now makes sense. A PhD in anthropology, wow, pretty deep.
So the part I didn'tget. Art Smith failed in the conception and the execution of the dish. Sauanne's dish wasn't really critiqued for its conception, but for its execution. Doesn't two bads beat a 1 bad? or did she really screw up? Not sure about that.
this was one of my more favored episode, the mise en place QF has always a been a favorite and it definitely showed who hasn't been doing it in a while and who is the consummate professional.
In both blogs, they talked about having tasted the original dish and then the reinvented dish. THAT, would have been a dream come true.
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i was sorry to see Suzanne drop the ball. i like her, and i really wanted Art to get the ax instead.
i said last week that if Art launched back into his "cooking with love" shtick i was gonna vomit. fortunately he didn't quite cause me to lose my dinner, but when he somehow managed to start with the name-dropping YET AGAIN within his first 60 seconds of screen time, i did throw a coaster at the TV. (well, i threw it *near* the TV. i'm not about to kill my plasma over this guy.) i was also annoyed that he was so insistent about not wanting to do the chickens for the QF - i thought that was his signature protein? if you can't even butcher the one meat you're most comfortable cooking, what the heck are you doing on TC Masters? needless to say, i was irritated that he beat Keller at the onion dice, but when he bungled the egg whites, order was restored in the universe :)
Anita Lo is a *rock star* and what makes it even better is her humility.
Loved Bayless' energy in this one. Fritter is right, he and Keller really do ooze passion for their craft. i actually think Michael Chiarello does too, and i loved how he defended his approach to Rayner at Critics' Table.
all in all, an enjoyable, if somewhat tame, battle to watch. i don't know if it's the editing, or the maturity of the master chefs, but there's something much less frantic about the energy in the kitchen this season, even though they're competing in the same challenges as regular TC contestants do.
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re: goodhealthgourmet
again with Art name dropping Obama. As if that would be enough to get him to win. It totally turned me off to him. Anita's dishes looked stellar and it was a shame Suzanne's grouper was plated too early because that looked good as well. It didn't look like Suzanne cared either way, however.
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re: HabaneroJane
" It didn't look like Suzanne cared either way"
I have to agree. For me her style of cooking is very similar to what I prefer. While it's easy to kick back and criticize my take of her on camera was that she is a bit of a dead fish. She just seems so expression-less on TV but then I don't know her so it could just be nerves.
I also agree with GHG that it was great fun watching Chiarello give the judges a sort of "stick that in your pipe and smoke it" answer.
Good for him for thinking more of his peers and friends than a food critic!
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re: goodhealthgourmet
Agree on the Art Smith name-dropping - was REALLY hoping for his ouster. The editors focused WAY too much on Art's confessionals - how many of them were there - 5 or 7? Ugh. Editors - STOP that. Perhaps they were attempting to lead viewers to believe it was going to be him told to pack his knives? Wish it was. I also wondered about his not wanting to butcher chickens for the mise-en-place QF as well. Seems strange when chicken is his forté.
Other comments - LOVED the QuickFire. Knowing that none of these chefs have probably done mise prep in quite some time, I can only imagine how it started up the butterflies knowing it was a timed battle. And how funny was it seeing Chef Colicchio come in to time them? You could see Colicchio was almost embarrassed to be there. Maybe not embarrassed, but what a cute sheepish look on his face! But the TCMasters looked pleased to have him there!
ETFix: Bayless (not Keller as I had previously said) KILLED on the egg white separation and whipping..very glad he beat Smith. The planets were realigned. :-) Interesting that Bayless said that both methods of chopping onions were ones he hadn't seen before.
Elimination Challenge - Anita Lo - damn, the woman can cook! Loved her take on Keller's Lobster Bisque - the whole presentation and look of the dish was beautiful!
Michael Chiarello's comment when holding up a caul netting for (I think) his rack of lamb EC dish: "A Sicilian grandmother's stockings" made me LOL!
Jay Rayner's blog re: the EC - it turns out the judges got to eat the original chefs' signature dishes to have a benchmark against which to judge the re-engineered versions presented to them later on. And his comments about Smith's Scotch egg is hysterical!
"Here’s what you need to know about the true Scotch egg: it is a British traditional food, which has no noble antecedents. Or to put it another way, it may once have been a glorious thing, but nobody of my generation in Britain is aware of such a thing. It is a nightmarish food item, the stuff of cheap family weddings, where the irascible scary uncle gets drunk and tries to score with the bridesmaids."
LOL! There's LOTS more as well - very funny stuff! I guess he got QUITE vocal re: Smith's dish (most of which didn't make it on camera). Please, Magical Elves - can we PLEASE have Jay Rayner instead of Toby Young for the regular TC? Please, please, please, PLEASE?
I cannot figure out what Smith was thinking - that entire dish looked SO unappetizing! But when Tracht had plated so early, I figured she'd be out the door.
Very glad for Anita - she was very concerned about going up against the other finalists, and she has more than proved herself with her imagination. Her dish absolutely looked the best.
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re: LindaWhit
Wow -
Loved this episode!Random thoughts:
I'm surprised at all the hate here against chef Art...I have to watch the last 2 episodes again - I didn't notice the bragging...and I thought his froed chicken dish looked so good! I also thought he was happy-go-lucky and fun..I'll have to watch again.
Suzanne looked to me like she was on quantities of valium.
Arts lamb scotch egg sounds disgusting - but I really wanted to try it!
Linda - ditto on the whole Tom Colicchio moment! It was all very cute
Still love Keller - I want to marry him and visit his family in France
Finally - Anita Lo is my new hero!
She is amazing!
I had looked at Anisa's menu ages ago - and nothing caught my fancy, but after seeing her in the challenges, it is my mission to get there. (It is still closed due to a recent fire though - which is quite sad)
Her food is so creative yet looks really tasty, and I really like her personality - she's smart and confident, yet humble.
She rocks!! And I am rooting for her to take the big prize!Oh - and I guess I'm the only one who thought "Holy sh*t! Gael Greene slept with Elvis?!?!?"
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re: Reignking
Loved to see both Suzanne and Anita rock the QF.
How did they decide the order of the courses? It seems to me that it is near impossible to cook and plate a dish of grouper 20 minutes before it is going to be served. There's not much Suzanne could've done other than choose a different fish. Disappointing to see her lose to that Scotch egg and ironic after Art's poor showing in the QF.
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re: wanderlust21
grouper can be done with a light seafood broth and maybe tomatoes and onions and it will not be dry and overcooked, even if it has to sit for a bit. like a vera cruz, or caribbean style. but i guess the style of preparation of the fish has to be "close" to the other chef's "signature" dish?
grouper is not a hard fish to cook.
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re: alkapal
Anita Lo did not style the dish she prepared anything like Keller did his.
Imho, Suzanne was probably nervous, and hurried through her prep, finishing early. Fish does not hold well, no matter what. and Cold fish, unless it's sushi, ceviche or in aspic, never goes over very well.
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I sure would have liked to eat at that chef's table. I was not an Amito Lo fan before but I think I've been converted. Really enjoyed the bit about Hubert Keller's family history. For me both Bayless and Keller just ooze passion for being a Chef and in my best Cuba Gooding Jr impression ala Jerry Maguire;
I dig that about both of them! -
You should watch this video.
http://www.bravotv.com/node/42516
It's Art Smith's winning Chicken 2 Ways recipe from the preliminaries. It's not exactly 3 star michelin-elaborate, but it sure looks tasty and I think you're selling him a bit short.On the other hand I agree with you - Anita Lo is putting on a freaking clinic right now. I didn't even know who she was before the show, but she is looking very, very impressive. Her daikon-scallop dish from the preliminaries made my jaw drop.



















