TC Season 4 Official Blogs review

So one of the fun parts of Top Chef is reading the official blogs for more information and further opinions. For this first episode, I wanted to give my impressions of them, complete with letter grades. I probably won't do this for later episodes, though I imagine from time to time I'll have something to say in response to one of them.

Tom Colicchio (C)

Tom, Tom, Tom. Those 'wet beef' sandwiches, those are called "Italian beef". Yes, yes, the proper way to eat them is 'hot and wet' (bread dipped in the jus with hot giardiniera) or 'sweet and wet' (with sweet peppers or mild giardiniera), but... some people do eat them dry, after all. Those heathens.

Anyhow. I'm glad to see Tom appreciates Chicago on a culinary level, though I do wince a bit at his mentioning Lettuce Entertain You. Don't get me wrong, LEY has opened some good restaurants... but they've also opened some not so good ones, by which I mean "ick", and amongst my friends, at least, we're always wary of a new enterprise by them.

And yes, Chicago's music scene is terrific.

I do wish he'd chosen to talk about the first episode, but maybe that's coming later?

Padma Lakshmi (No Grade)

Padma apparently decided video blogs are in. I decided I'd watched too much video lately so nothing on hers this time.

Gail Simmons (B+)

Gail knows what an Italian beef is! Yay, Gail!

I was theorizing (though it didn't make it into the episode writeup) that maybe this season would take the theme of "getting the basics right" and run with it, and a couple things Gail says makes me wonder even more. Of course, she could just be making the same sort of point Tom was in the episode about needing to know the basics as a foundation for the variants, but one could hope.

Gail drops an interesting tidbit: Richard bought mayonnaise, but still took time to teach Andrew how to make it, and offered to share his store-bought. I think I'm still liking Richard, how about y'all?

Ted Allen (A+)

Ted, I'm so with you. The fauxhawk is over, and marmite on pizza is foul.

Ted's rundown of the various approaches to the pizza-making is so good, I want to quote it in its entirity:

It was interesting how differently the chefs approached this deep-dish challenge. I had to suppress a gag reflex when The Dude From That 70s Show, aka. Mark, announced he was making a pizza with Marmite (!?!), an inexplicable favorite in New Zealand. (Marmite, if you’ve never had the pleasure, is about as appetizing as the heartworm medicine a dog licks off your finger.) Then, you had the straightforward approach, via Erik’s mushrooms and sausage, and Nimma’s wild-mushroom mélange. You had the bold and the brave: Dale’s pickled kohlrabi, Stephanie’s melon-tomato sauce, and Richard’s peaches. And, then, you had Nikki, opening the door to the New York-style versus Chicago-style debate that no doubt will continue here, making a crust that was three inches deep. Heh. Heh. That’s good food television (if not good pizza-craft).

As I said, I won't engage in a religious war about pizza types, but since deep dish is such its own variant, I'd like to think even New Yorkers could appreciate it (my ex did).

Ted confirms something for me, too. When they first said they were having the chefs move in to the house they delivered to, I thought: where downtown* did they find something with 4 (or more) bedrooms? Then I took at look at the roof patio and said "Ahh, they went north". I wasn't positive it was Lincoln Park, but it seemed likely, and Ted says that's indeed where they are. It's a nice area, they should enjoy it.

Huh, Ted also has a different take on the mayonnaise thing, noting that Richard refused at first to share his mayo and not mentioning (maybe not knowing about?) the tutoring... hrm... well, I guess I can subtract .5 Cool Points from Richard if that's true.

Ted, your blog remains one of my favorite. I'm looking forward to an episode with you as a judge!

[*Pizzeria Uno has several locations, but I was pretty sure they were at the one downtown, though it occurs to me I don't know where the actual cooking location is. But I had thought they were still at least near-downtown. Not that Lincoln Park isn't. Near. Downtown. Anyhow.]

Rocco DiSpirito (B-)

Rocco's got an interesting little story about the history of pizza in his blog this week.

I'm going to not comment on his commentary on Chicago pizza, because I already said I wouldn't get into religious wars here, but a quick note: That crust he's dissing is, in my opinion, the perfect balance between the thin of NY style pizza and the thick of Sicilian, and I don't understand why he thinks it's heavy unless he's conflating it with the deep dish... and for the rest, see my Episode 1 QF notes.

Anyhow.

The rest of the blog goes over highlights of food, as one would hope the blogs do, and there's a couple more things of note:

First, Rocco is right... Nimma needs to understand her food is being judged on its merits, only. "Nice" isn't really the point. I know that isn't quite what he said, but close enough.

Second... Rocco mentions hollandaise is tricky. So true, it's why I don't think I could do an eggs benedict. But it's also one of the classic sauces (which he also mentions), so yes, a chef should know how to make it.

Third... Rocco shares my opinion that Ryan was way too defensive.

So, all in all I think I can forgive him on the pizza thing, because the comments he makes about the actual food seem pretty good.

(But, seriously, Rocco: the crust is too heavy? Go order some pizza from Aiello's on Elston, okay? Not deep dish. Thin crust. If I think of a good, still open deep dish place I'll let you know.)

Lee Anne Wong (A+)

Hrm. Lee Anne makes an interesting point about Zoi and Jennifer both being cast though they're dating: it's hard to narrow down your possible contestants to a group where no one knows each other. On the other hand, there's a far cry between "knowing each other" (Elia and Marcel) and, well, knowing each other... but anyhow, enough on that topic.

Another New Yorker who likes her NY pizza, at least she doesn't harp on it. (Though I have to say I have a hard time believing she learned to make 'fantastic' deep dish pizza from Pizzeria Uno, but I've already mentioned I think they're substandard, so I'll shut up about it now.)

Lee Anne, like Ted Allen, is always one of my favorites because her commentary tends to be spot on. This time is no different. Plus it's funny seeing her mention the Top Chef Drinking Game.

I love that all the chefs concede soufflé is really the tough dish to draw of the eight, but I love even more Lee Anne's response: "I wanted to give them both a hug for getting stuck with the soufflé."

And she, too, makes the point that Nimma needs a thicker skin.

Harold Dieterle (A-)

Harold also talks about pizza, and shares what he'd like to put on one.

Then he goes on to note something I actually almost missed: the chefs this year were allowed to bring their own ingredients (Mark's marmite), but his season wasn't. He says he'd have brought some "sexy" olive oil (Harold, don't make me take Cool Points for Buzzword Bingo) and specialty Thai ingredients (oh, that's much better).

And Harold is in the "soufflé is tricky" crowd, and notes something else which I didn't think of at the time, too: having to serve it last when it was all cooked at the same time is horrible timing to deal with. (Even a perfect soufflé deflates over time.)

And he covers the up and downsides of Jennifer and Zoi's attachment.

You know, for someone who tends to put out a shorter blog, Harold's really pretty good at hitting the major points of interest.

Casey Thompson (B)

One of our two Season 3 chef bloggers (Season 2 is conspicuously absent this year, hrm).

Casey gives us a bit of an insider's look at that first day, and notes that the chefs really need to pay attention to their first meetup location because it'll probably inform the Quickfire.

Though she doesn't name names, she notes she saw someone who reminded her of Hung, heh. Good rundown of the pizza part of the day (and another mention for that "ingredients from home" allowance).

Dale Levitski (B-)

Our other Season 3 blogger, and the hometown boy. He opens with quick highlights of his memories from Season 3.

His notes on the pizza: they got it easy, especially with the pre-made dough, and it's shameful the Chicagoans in the group were in the bottom. (I didn't even think of that!)

He goes on to opine the classic dishes were easy (except the soufflé, which was "mean") but liked the structure of the challenge.

Oh, hey, turns out Dale worked with Stephanie for a while. Small world. He says "she kinda rocks" and that her nervousness was out of character.

Overall he thinks the chefs look good and thinks the women are the ones to watch.

And Dale, hon, please... some better punctuation next time? Kthx, love ya.

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And that wraps it up for what's available. Interestingly, there's a "Zoi & Jennifer" blog (empty), which... well, I'm still not sure how I feel about a dating pair being in the same competition, but trust Bravo to make the most of it. Also empty, the Team Top Chef blog, which I presume will be production staff of some sort.

Overall the quality of the official blogs is as high as ever (except Tom's, which seemed a bit of a phone in this week... a shame as usually I enjoy, even if I don't agree with, his remarks). So if you aren't already reading them, take a look.