Review: 'Top Chef' - 'An Offer They Can't Refuse': Dining with Dr. Melfi
A pair of 'Goodfellas'/'Sopranos' alums help judge an Italian challenge
The "Top Chef" contestants consult with restaurateur/actor Frank Pellegrino
A quick review of last night's "Top Chef" coming up just as soon as I get some soup in Wisconsin...
After being annoyed that Bravo went with a rerun last week (who does that in the middle of a reality season?), it was a relief to have an original "Top Chef" on last night, and a fairly solid outing at that. It wasn't as crazy as this season's Restaurant Wars, but the episode after that almost always feels like a comedown.
At first I was bothered by the Quickfire challenge, which seemed like a more shameless plug than usual for another NBCUniversal property. But I think my initial reaction was like what Richard said about the other chefs: I just had trouble wrapping my head around the idea that presentation - which is an important part of this level of cooking, even if it should always take a backseat to taste - was the only thing that was supposed to matter. Sometimes these extremely specific challenges yield memorably weird results (I think back to Hung's candy-colored plate o' sugar back in season 3), and while there wasn't anything incredibly inspired, some of the dishes looked cool, and Angelo's bit hot mess was funny enough to justify the whole segment.
Then we got one of my favorite types of challenges: "make us a dish in the style of Restaurant X," this time involving New York's legendary Rao's and its owner Frank Pellegrino, whom I remember well from his days as the head of the north Jersey FBI field office on "The Sopranos," along with guest judge (and fellow "Goodfellas" alum) Lorraine Bracco. Quickfires should be for gimmicks and weird restrictions, while I prefer the elimination challenges that just give the chefs an opportunity to cook at the highest level, and a bunch of them (basically, everyone but the three pasta guys) did very well with this.
Tony Bourdain was on fire with his quips this week ("some poor bastard in Witness Protection is eating this now"), and while I'm bummed to see Tre leave, this felt like a much more fair ending than what happened to him on his original season. Also interesting to see how incredulous everyone was that Antonia won the challenge. For someone who made it to the final episode in her season, she seems to get very little respect from both the other chefs and from many "Top Chef" fans that I know. Be interesting to see if there's any blowback from that reaction.
What did everybody else think? And since it's been a while since I wrote up an episode, how are you finding this All-Star season?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupbrowngalaga
February 3, 2011 at 10:53AM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...
browngalaga
February 3, 2011 at 10:56AM EST Reply to CommentI think the general disbelief of Antonia's win was that she did something so simple. But as Anthony Bourdain wrote on his Top Chef blog, the spirit of a lot of Italian cooking is taking simple ingredients and getting the best out of them with solid techniques.
Pennywise
February 3, 2011 at 11:10AM EST Reply to CommentI generally like Antonia a lot, but I had to agree w/ Fabio et al that she made a simple dish that wasn't strictly Italian. It seemed a bit off to me even if she did follow the spirit of Italian cooking by letting the ingredients speak for themselves.
Also, Carla is the most amazing human being to walk the earth. I loved when she casually mentioned her time modeling in Paris.
Rodney
February 3, 2011 at 11:12AM EST Reply to CommentHated the quickfire, thought it made a mockery of what being a chef is about. Enjoyed the elimination challenge but my inner Italian snob cringed every time they pronounced Rao's as Ray-o's. Thought Mike I probably should have gone home (less overall quality this season), but Tre was equally deserving.
conrad
February 3, 2011 at 11:17AM EST Reply to Commentalso sorry to see tre go. would have been happier with a mike elimination. to preform so poorly in an area you're supposed to be an expert is inexcusable.
i think some of the hate for antonia's dish is heightened by the fact that she's a woman. anyone who knows anything about chef culture admits to the fact that it's male dominant and chauvinistic.
odd how everyone reminisces about matriarchal families, food, and memories, yet the [professional] kitchen is a place where you still need to whip it out to see whose ceramic chef's knife is the longest.
conrad must mention that it sucks that tsal will be going up against the new season of justified next week...what will i do?!?
February 3, 2011 at 11:21AM ESTjayme With Mike, I think part of the reason that he stuck around was because he *knew* that his dish was bad and that the problem wasn't so much poor cooking, but rather a lack of time.
February 3, 2011 at 3:41PM ESTBen
February 3, 2011 at 11:27AM EST Reply to CommentRegarding Antonia: eh, she got a sweetheart edit on her TC season because everyone wanted Lisa to go home and Richard was friends with her, not because she was one of the best at cooking. Now that she doesn't have someone else around to be the whipping girl, they're going to be more honest about her weaknesses. It happens on most reality shows when the designated scapegoat is gone (I can't wait to see the RHONJ turn on each other now that Danielle's gone) and that's the case here.
rhys1882 You're smoking serious reefer my friend. Antonia won more quickfire challenges then anyone else - including Richard and Stephanie. She was also frequently selected as one of the top entries in the elimination challenge.
February 3, 2011 at 9:05PM ESTSarah
February 3, 2011 at 11:53AM EST Reply to CommentI've been loving this season. I still think the whole all-stars idea is great, though I realized the other day that I wish Kevin and the brother who didn't win from season 6 were on. But this season has given me a whole new respect for both Carla and Fabio, whose season I mostly hated despite their good qualities.
I never particularly cared for Antonia. Although she made it to the finale, she never seemed like she had much of a chance against Richard or Stephanie; it was more like she was there because they had to have a third person and she performed just well enough to get there.
I think I would have been slightly disappointed had any of the bottom 3 gone home, but I do wish Tre had stayed. I expected Mike I. to go with all the attention the editors gave him this episode. I think they've finally started to make the results less obvious with their edits.
The quickfire was disappointing. I didn't find the premise to be the problem so much as everyone's interpretation. How is soil or a tree appetizing? To me the point was to make something look visually appealing and delicious, not just to use food as an art medium.
d Actually Antonia made it to the final 4 in her season. The three chefs in the finale were: Lisa, Stephanie and Richard.
February 3, 2011 at 10:34PM ESTSarah Right, I thought I was remembering that wrong. Lisa... I completely forgot about her, lol. I do like Antonia better than her.
February 4, 2011 at 4:59AM ESTChampSkins
February 3, 2011 at 12:41PM EST Reply to CommentTop Chef is on FIRE this season. A lot of times "All Star" gimmicks seem like a ratings ploy more than anything, but not for Top Chef. Normally around the top 9/10 there are only a few chefs that are actually good. But every week a good chef is going to leave now.
Blais seems like he is the one every other chef looks to as the best, and as an audience member I definitely agree. He is just phenomenal.
Andrew
February 3, 2011 at 1:14PM EST Reply to CommentIIRC, Antonia didn't make it to the final episode of her original season. Stephanie, Richard and Lisa were the final three.
Jamie
February 3, 2011 at 2:25PM EST Reply to CommentAm I the only one who can figure out who can be kicked off 10 min into the show? It's always the chef who they do a short feature of and do a flash back from an old show. They need to change up the editing
February 3, 2011 at 4:05PM EST Reply to CommentI am loving the All Stars edition of Top Chef!
I was shocked at the other chefs' reactions to Antonia winning. So what if her dish was simple? It tasted great according to the judges (and I think we all know there are hundred's of ways to screw up mussels). Fabio probably put more effort (and ingredients) into his dish since he made cacciatore AND polenta, and should just be happy with his top group finish.
Big bunch of cooking babies...I LOVE it!
polentona
February 3, 2011 at 7:42PM EST Reply to CommentOkay I pretty much never comment, but seriously, I was shocked by how many things the judges got wrong in terms of Italian cooking and traditions.
I would never call myself an expert on Italian cooking, but I lived in southern Italy for five years, and have been living in northern Italy for almost three. I cook a lot, eat out at least twice a month, and my mother-in-law is stereotypical enough that we have to eat dinner at her house at least once if not twice a week. So I've eaten a lot of Italian food, enough to have gotten really irritated by the following:
1st Fabio complaining that Antonia's dish wasn't Italian. I can't speak to Tuscany, because I've only ever been a tourist there, but in both Puglia (southern) and in Veneto (northern), two regions which are pretty much as different as you can get in terms of Italian cooking there is a pretty common dish called "pepata di cozze" which is ingredient for ingredient what Antonia made. The only thing she added was fennel, which while perhaps less traditional, is an ingredient commonly used throughout Italy.
The second thing was the statement that thick risotto isn't Italian. I personally agree that creamier risotto is better, but my mother-in-law (Italian-Italian, not Italian-American) makes her risotto extremely thick. On purpose, not because she can't cook. When I make creamy risotto my husband complains. In this area it's about 50:50 between those who make it creamy and those who make it thick. So, send Tre home because thick risotto isn't good, or because he made too much garnish, but not because his risotto wasn't Italian.
The last thing was Collicchio in general. First, dude wants to be all "I'm an expert on Italian cooking" and he's NEVER BEEN SOUTH OF ROME. Northern Italians generally disdain southern Italy but even they admit you eat better in the south. And at a certain point he said that polenta was "typical southern Italian food." Ok, first, if you've never been to the south, maybe you shouldn't talk about it. And second, polenta is the opposite of traditional southern food. It's not impossible to find, but it's associated with the north. Seriously, ask anyone who lives below about Siena if polenta is a "traditional" food from their area and they will laugh at you. Collicchio's comment is the equivalent of me saying that clam chowder is a traditional Tex-Mex dish.
In the end I'm happy about their choice, though, because one of the most memorable meals I've ever had in my life was one of the dozen or so times I've eaten those steamed mussels. They're always good, but that time they were something else.
Jessamyn Palentona, thank you for that inside view of Italian cuisine. Very interesting! It's not the first time people have made the mistake of "I'm extremely familiar with X in my own life, so I'll make a sweeping statement that 'real' X is exactly as it is in my experience." In other words, that one's own anecdotal experience can be exchanged for wide-ranging experience.
February 3, 2011 at 9:59PM ESTIn a funny way, this reminds me of the commenters on Mad Men episodes - there's always somebody saying, "I was there in 1964, and we never would have done X, so it's wrong that they're doing X on the show!" and refusing to hear anyone else who says that they were there, too, and their experience was different.
February 4, 2011 at 7:57AM ESTAnd I was also shocked to hear Tom has never been south of Rome.
jo
February 4, 2011 at 10:57AM EST Reply to CommentThe only thing that bugged me about this episode was Lorraine Bracco's incessant name dropping. You're famous. We get it. You were in a big TV show and some huge movies and you've gotten to break bread with "Marty" Scorsese's wife. Could you please STFU so we can hear comments about the actual food, or Rao's, or Italian cuisine?
Chaesonian
February 8, 2011 at 1:00AM EST Reply to CommentStill feel like Dale is destined to be the last one standing.
Kujo
February 8, 2011 at 5:11PM EST Reply to CommentI thought Mike deserved to go more so than Tre.
In all, this season has been solid so far.