Ultimate Foodie

I guess this thread should be subtitled “Padma-mania Begins” as I can’t deny that the gorgeous and foodie-licious Padma is one of the big reasons I got hooked on the show initially.

I think that the results of the first episode were predictable with the two least experienced competitors Lauren got  bounced in the opening quickfire after she thought that she could take the easy way out and open with an apple salad with bacon when challenged to “make a dish using apples and the ingredients on hand”  and her fellow cellar dwellar from the  quickfire challenge Patrick was ejected from the competition following a really cliched main challenge dish.   NYC has an awesome Chinatown that is the home of some absolutely incredible food and the best he could come up with is a weak Mirin-glazed Salmon on Black Rice Noodles and some Bok Choi.

Dude… you are a freakin chef…. go out and experience some real food!

Granted, Patrick was a CIA student and has way less experience that anyone else in the competition, but I could have kicked the guys ass in that challenge… or at least lost with some more creativity than that.

Another weak performance came from Ariane - who ended up in the bottom 2 with Patrick and was admonished by Tom for mentioning that her dish wasn’t her style… and that if she needed to cook that style for some reason, she’d get a recipe from a book.

She runs a 4 star restaurant in Jersey… Tom reminded her that Chefs learn from eating and experiencing, not from books and that she didn’t love far away from NYC and the opportunity to experience pretty much any cuisine at any time.

The first episode was great and I am looking forward to this season as there were some awesome dishes cooked that had me drooling… or was that Padma in the judging panel?

Anyway… until next week

Woohoo!

I was watching the Project Runway finale  with my wife and I was stoked to see that the next season of Top Chef (New York) starts on November 12rh.  I think it will be awesome to see some of the top up and coming chefs in the US in the top food city in the US.

(Besides, I’m about due for my Padma fix)

I am a degenerate foodie and Top Chef fan … I admit it. I have finally found the ultimate “must have” foodie t-shirt, with thanks to the fine folks at Bravo TV and of course Chef Andrew from Season 4 of Top Chef for coining the phrase in the first place. The guy was definitely freaky and a seriously “different” guy, but he has cooking chops for sure.

I was glad to see Stephanie win the thing… I think that even if Richard had been on his game it would have been a great close finish. These two definitely had skills and great palates, Richard literally just choked when the heat was on and blew it. Stephanie was a favorite of mine because she can clearly cook and she manages to do it with a personality that is pretty mellow and ingratiating (read not insane)

If anyone out there loves me and wants to see me in this t shirt on a culinary excursion at Affiliate Summit East in Boston or BlogWorld Expo in Vegas - my birthday is on August 25th and I wear a size XXL

And speaking of “Culinary Boners” stay tuned for my next entry… a Burger King in the UK has recently added a $200 burger to their menu.