Top Chef Season Four!

Because I enjoy recapping Project Runway, I thought I'd try my hand at doing the same for Bravo's Top Chef, which made its Season Four debut last night. Judging from the high quality of the dishes turned out in this episode, I think this will be a strong season. Not sure how high the drama quotient will be yet, although that's not as important a consideration to me when food is involved.

The show starts off with our cheftestants arriving in Chicago. They go to Pizzaria Uno for lunch and an attempt at getting to know each other. There are entirely too many of them at this point, so it will be a while before I get the names straight. Speaking of straight, it turns out that chefs Zoi (pronounced "zo-EE" not "zoy" btw) and Jennifer not only both hail from San Francisco, they're a couple. Awww! Was this Bravo's feeble way to add drama to the show? Are we going to see their relationship break down over the pressures of competing against each other? Tune in next week!

Lunch at Pizzaria Uno was a big hint as to the theme of the first Quickfire Challenge of the season. After heading to the Top Chef kitchen (courtesy of of the Glad family of products, the pantry supplied by Whole Foods, not to mention GE Monogram appliances) Padma reveals that their task is to create their own signature deep dish pizza in 90 minutes.

As the chefs scramble about, we get to know a few more of them. Mark is from New Zealand. He is in desperate need of defrizzing serum.

...and Andy has Tourette's Syndrome. He curses too #@*$&! much.

At the end of the 90 minutes, the chefs box up the pizzas and deliver them to a lovely mansion. Rocco DiSpirito opens the door and the cheftestants pretend to be excited.

Padma and Rocco taste the 16 different slices of pizza and divide up the group into the eight best and the eight worst. Richard's and Mark's versions are singled out as favorites.

I must be getting used to Rocco's face, because he looks less weird and freakish to me.

The contestants are told that the house they're in is where they will be staying for the duration of the competition. It's a pretty swank place, with a spacious kitchen and a pool table. And lots of bunk beds. I hope there's more than one bathroom.

The next day, the chefs head back to the Top Chef kitchen for the Elimination challenge.

The eight yummy pizza chefs from the night before draw knives to see in which order they get to choose an opponent from the yucky pizza group. The partner then selects a classic dish from the list on the chalkboard. Each of the paired chefs must cook their version of the chosen dish and try to best the other.

Food shopping happens very conspicuously at Whole Foods. Cooking is a whirlwind. I love Top Chef because I can show off (mostly to myself) how much food knowledge I have squeezed in my tiny brain. As Ryan wrestles with the simple dish of chicken piccata, I shout at the screen, "dip chicken cutlets in egg and flour! The sauce is lemony! No - no breadcrumbs!" and "Souffles are all about the egg whites."

It's unfortunate for the chefs that none of them can hear me.

Then a very ominous-looking panel of judges walks into the kitchen - Rocco, Padma, Tom Colicchio, and Anthony Bourdain.

The chefs present their dishes in pairs, and for the most part, it's pretty easy to pick a winner from each.

This was supposed to be a soufflé.

Ok, so none of that actually went down. Bourdain behaved himself, at least on camera, but you know he was just itching to cause some trouble with poor Rocco.

In the end, Stephanie's version of duck a l'orange wins. I think it looks pretty scrumptious and it might be a good way to use those duck breasts that are in my freezer...hmmm....

And Nimma, who was criticized in the pizza competition for having too little salt on her mushrooms, oversalts her scampi and completely blows her side dish. Padma shows her the door.

We didn't get to know Nimma, and that's probably ok. We won't miss her that way.

A Monkey Wrench

I had planned to make chicken mole tacos with pomegranate margaritas last night. I picked up some cilantro and flour tortillas at the store during the day, along with a pint of what looked to be freshly made salsa verde. When I got home, I washed a handful of cilantro and put it aside, and made some additional salsa with 2 scallions, two small blood oranges that were starting to shrivel, and a handful of strawberries. Late in the afternoon, I set the chicken (thighs) to simmering on the back burner.

Then the power went out - from 4:30 until 8:00 PM.

Not wanting to open the fridge because both it and the freezer were full and we had no idea how long the outage would last, we couldn't access the salsa, the tortillas, the jar of Trader Joe's Red Mole sauce, OR the pomegranate juice. All we had was the chicken and the bowl of cilantro. I remembered we had a can of Progresso cheese and chicken enchilada soup in the cupboard, so we dug that out and poured it over the chicken. Thank God we have a gas stove! Served with cilantro and Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues chips, it was a meal worthy of Rachael Ray or Sandra Lee.

Ugh.

Sad

From an article in the Baltimore Sun about the Food Network:
"According to Marc Summers, the executive producer of Dinner Impossible as well as host of the show Unwrapped, the transition from dump-and-stir to reality was inevitable. 'They have to grow,' he said. 'Look at VH1 - they have no videos anymore. It's the same with the Food Network. They have to move beyond cooking.'"

To what, exactly?

Dinner and Dancing

Mr Minx and I went to Cafe Spice in Towson to see our friend LaRaine perform belly dance. We had only been to the restaurant one time since it took over the space formerly occupied by our favorite Korean restaurant, Purim Oak, and were interested in sampling the food again. Especially buffet-style!

We were sorely disappointed. The buffet contained a large platter of chopped raw onions, another of chopped iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. There was a large bowl of raita, and two smaller ones of coriander and tamarind chutneys. There were fried ovals called "vegetable patties" that were mostly potato; basmati rice and naan provided more starch. There were three entrees: vegetarian korma consisting of either frozen or canned mixed veggies (the only way to explain the very un-Indian additions of lima beans and corn kernels) in a flavorless orange sauce; potatoes that tasted several days old in a saag sauce; chicken curry that was similar to chicken tikka masala, but very watered down and with few chicken pieces. And for dessert: kheer, which was probably the best thing on the buffet. It was so bad that Mr Minx, he of hearty appetite, refused to go up for seconds.

Granted, there were a lot of people present, but when you charge $20 to walk through the door, and you're going to offer a limited number of entrees, please make sure they are well-prepared and taste good, otherwise nobody will return. Oh, do I ever miss Purim Oak's weekend buffet! The unlimited panchan and those weird soups! All delicious.

As for the bellydancing.... First off, the invitation to this thing was one of the worst graphic design jobs I've ever seen. The event itself was sort of like an open mic event (except the dancers signed up in advance). There were all levels of performers and they started out with the weakest ones. Our friend and her mini troupe Tananeen came out after the interminably long intermission and performed a tribal dance with long silky fans - they were excellent. Other notable performers were Toria (who was not only a great dancer but also strikingly attractive, particularly in her bright turquoise costume) and Samira Sharuk. (Don't let the name fool you, she's probably Irish with her red hair and ghostly white skin. In fact, she resembles a cross between Nikol Kidman and Carrot Top. A shame about that last bit.)