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Festival Wraps, Top Chef Heats Up |
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Wine & Food Festival a huge success
Thank you to some of the Top Chef alumni for coming out to San Diego and enjoying the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival with me last weekend. C.J, Casey, Richard Blais, a very incognito Ilan Hall, and even Ted Allen made it to the most beautiful city in the U.S. to enjoy our great food and drink. The whole week was a "Blais," with great entertainment from luncheons with Bernard Guillas and Gavin Kaysen, cooking class with Sam the Cooking Guy, quick fires on SD6, liquid nitrogen displays by Richard Blais, massive winetasting on the Hornblower and the grand finale tasting on the water on Saturday.
Again my Oceanaire team and I were very competive for the Chef of the Fest title that encourages the local chefs to put forth the best food possible for the estimated 4,000 guests who come to the event. Never to be outdone, we dressed up as samurai warriors with all the accompaniments: geisha girls, sake luge, swords, dragons, smoke and a deejay. Our dish was the Eye of the Martini, “the natural Viagra.” Follow this if you will: Kumamoto oyster, Catalina sea urchin, the yolk of a quail egg, fly fish roe and a yuzu-ponzu vinaigrette. All in all a great day, and we finished second again — huge congratulations to Crescent Heights and your out-of-this-world beet salad. One day I might learn that less is more, but for the “sake” of entertainment I hope I don’t.
Let's catch up with Top Chef this week.
Round 2: My Malarkey TC 5 NYC Power Ranking:
From Wieners to Craft, “Only in NYC”
Maybe Tom should start some carts called Wiener Craft to go along with his very successful Witchcraft Catering. You told me yourself, Tom, that that’s where the money is, and maybe we can get Spike, last season's “king of the D.C. burger scene” to do some consulting for you.
Now down to business with the ups and downs of the second episode of Top Chef NYC:
1. Fabio: “It doesn’t matter how many dragons you kill, it matters who brings home the princess.” It was obvious in the first episode he had the mad skills to excel in this competition and he really put it all together in this episode. The Mediterranean dog sets him up for success from the beginning. He shows he’s more of a team player then his European counterpart by helping Jill crack her ostrich egg — or maybe he just saw the tragedy in the making, but I doubt it. He shows respect for Tom and his highly acclaimed restaurant by declaring that he is “inspired” just being there. The Carpaccio and the awesome olives led him to victory. We also get a glimpse of his humor when he is confused at why he is at the judges' table. He also backs up my point that a “Top Chef” is more than just about the food. So all of you who got up in my grill last week about my thoughts about Hung, CHILL!
2. Stefan: No doubt in my mind he is going all the way to the end with Fabio. He is enjoying the competition with a constant beer in hand and hates to lose. I’m sure like the rest of you he is starting to grow on us all ... The euro is killing our dollar and now the European chefs are in control of our competition.
3. Hosea: Not a great week for him. He had the right combinations, just not the right seasonings. From one seafood chef to another, Dungeness has no substitute. I hope he doesn’t lose his focus flirting with Leah. From my own experience, nothing keeps you out of the bottom like seeing it firsthand, and you all know I saw my fair share.
4. Jeff: Gives us all a better look at who he is with his great leadership skills, getting all of the other contestants focused as they divide into teams. I thought it very interesting that so many wanted to be on desserts and yet they all explained later that they were all unsure of their dessert skills.
5. Eugene: Still looks to me like he’s lacking the confidence to take this one all the way home but he’s so hard not to like with the sushi dog and the aloha vibe.
6. Daniel: The big man gets delicate with his pound cake and NYC dog.
7. Jamie: She took the smartest approach with the simple corn soup that the judges love. Take it from the guy who threw the whole kitchen at the elk shank: simple keeps the sails full. The “bone dog” was a misfortune but I believe she and Leah are the girls to take on the boys this season.
8. Richard: Life in the middle is nice, it’s a great place and the “after-school snack” is a compliment in comfort, I think.
9. Leah: For all of you who are hoping for a Top Chef romance, everyone has to sign a little contract that says no contact on the set. Save that type of drama for The Real Housewives, and for the love of sanity Andy Cohen, save yourself from the Atlanta crew.
10. Melissa: The grilled avocados were not good enough for the top and not bad enough for the bottom.
11. Radhika: Great job with the Indian dog, but she did say early on that she didn’t want to be typecast as the Indian girl that only cooks Indian food. I don’t know a lot about Indian food but if sweet guacamole is a dessert then she might want to try something different — said the guy who only cooked seafood.
12. Carla: Great energy, almost motherly to the rest of the crew. When she said that she was nervous about having to cook in a new kitchen just after she got used to the Top Chef kitchen, I had to laugh. Has she not seen this show? She will be cooking in every type of setting if she stays in the competition, and next week looks like an outdoor nightmare.
13. Alex: So little face time this week and last week, and pulling pork as his big gun. I just don’t see it. The worst secret of Top Chef is that whoever gets the most face time in each episode is going to be either at the top or the bottom, so I don’t see him going anywhere for a while but I have seen nothing to sway me either way.
14. Jill: I agree with her that Ariane should have been the one to go, although her argument to stay broke the ostrich egg. If you can’t crack it, don’t try and cook it.
15. Ariane: The fact that she was going to let all of the other contestants hear all about it if she got kicked off was as bad as the comment about being able to experience food from her books. She even admitted that she makes this dish at her own restaurant all of the time after confessing she didn’t know if it was any good. Oh my! I hate to see anyone cry, so I hope we can get by this unnecessary drama and just work on cooking some great food.
A few extra thoughts:
Damon Weiss, the chef of Craft NYC: His boss is one of the most popular chefs on television and you could tell he wanted nothing to do with the invasion of his kitchen. Now that’s a real chef…. Rock ON!
The guest chefs who did not make the show: I thought some of them were great and open-minded but some of them were (as NYC chef and contestant on my season, “Joey Pickles,” would say, “Douche BAGS!”) One guy was so unoriginal that he said of Hosea’s crab dish, “I would have done that dish differently.” Not that he would have done something else but he was explaining how he would have fixed someone else’s dish. No DOUCHE BAG, what would you have done with the world and cameras surrounding you? Finally, another guest was so proud to say how he didn’t use any animal fat or butter in his cooking…. To him I yell from the top of my lungs, “ LIVE LIFE AND ENJOY!”
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Reader Comments:
Brian,
I'm stumped. Is Carpaccio really considered "New American"? Tom made such a big deal about how the contestants didn't do the new-American movement any favors, yet the winner of the challenge was a dish originating in Venice and found at Italian restaurants the world over.
On that note, what is up with Stefan making a halibut dish? Isn't halibut kinda the chicken of seafood cuisine?