A WARM SANDWICH IS NOT A BURGER: Is that really something you have to tell a Top Chef? It would appear so, based on this week's Quickfire challenge, in which a French Chef presided over the preparation of that American classic with the German name. Maybe you learn so many amazing things in culinary school that some of the basics inevitably get pushed out of the way to make room? It's not hard to respect taking a stand on principle here, but on an unspecialized scale from one to lunch, I have to say that Tre and Dale's non-burger burgers looked pretty yummy to me.
(On a related note: 1. There is no such thing as a "wrap". Make a burrito, or don't make a burrito. It's your choice. 2. Whoever is responsible for the unending deluge of awful dry non-burritos and chewy "pressata" sandwiches currently overflowing from every mediocre lunch counter in midtown should be strung up. Or incarcerated and reformed, at least. Did you think we wouldn't notice that you're just putting the tomato husks into the sandwiches?? What are you doing with the tomato middles? And sweet lord, how old is that flank steak?? I demand an investigation.)
But more importantly, on to the Restaurant Wars Elimination Challenge. This week saw two teams of four contestants face off, completely creating restaurants from the blank canvas of ... two adjacent two-car garages attached to the Top Chef Kitchen. The long shot of the side-by-side spaces felt like the dumpsters had been wheeled away only moments ago. Delicious. -- One other, likely trivial production note: there was a glaring overdub in Padma's list of contestant roles for the challenge. Just a sound quality issue, or did she say something else the first time instead of "Design"?
Any thoughts on the Quickfire winner's selection of teammates? Personally I thought he chose well, though in his shoes I would have taken Dale over Brian (with disastrous stinky-candle-related results -- what were they thinking?). His selections neatly divided the remaining eight along a functional/disfunctional axis, and, more or less, likely segregated the drowned from the saved. Wrong? Tell my why I'm wrong.
Pressed on Brian v. Dale, I'd have to admit that I just don't like Brian and that this is not Brian's fault. He seems competent, even creative. He has a go-get-em attitude and shows a good capacity for working and playing with others even when he gets out of his depth, and turned around, and flustered, and panicked to the edge of helplessness at a moment crucial for the success of his team. It's not him though. It's me. I think he sucks.
Dale's shortcomings, by contrast, might be summed up with his comment about front-of-the-house work coming down to being "half prostitute, half performer." Why on earth would you employ the former sensibility while decorating? Good grief.
A lot of the food looked really good, though the judges had a raft of complaints including a blanket "seasonality" objection to one team's menu. In the end though, the bigger question is whether the difficulties of a "soft opening" should excuse making a hard decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment