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by Bliz

Top Chef Masters: Episode 4

Left to Right: Mark Peel, Anita Lo, Douglas Rodriguez, John Besh

After a brief hiatus for the holiday, Top Chef Masters has returned, and I’d love to say I’m excited about that fact. I’d love to say that, I really, really would, but Ludo taught me something last episode: I like the d-bags. And by “like,” I mean love to hate, curse their name and feel better about myself as a human being in general because of their existence on a reality show. I wanted to love the civil, the calm, the professional, but that just isn’t the case. Top Chef Masters is no Top Chef.. but I’m still going to tune in every week.

I never really bought into the claims that without Padma and Coliccho the show wouldn’t be as good either, but Tom’s appearance on last night’s episode proved me wrong. Only walking on set for a meager 30 seconds, Tom brought an insight and context to what was going in the challenge that I had yet to see on the Masters spinoff so far this season.

“I can tell right off the bat, [The Masters] understand something the normal Top Chef contestants never do,” he quipped. “These guys know you don’t get bogged down in the challenge… because through cooking you can pretty much tell any story.” And there the chefs were, walking around cool as cucumbers. Fuck you Tom, I love you. Padma, I’d take you over a dozen Chois any day.

in Eggs / TV 3 comments

by Bliz

I Just Need 20 Seconds of Your Time

…Ok, maybe a little bit more than that. I want to take a break from the Top Chef Masters interviews and random ingredients for a minute. First of all, let me say that it is, and will always be, the process of cooking; the smelling, touching, tasting, listening euphoria of being in a kitchen that manages to force me to sit on laptop after an entire day sitting behind my office computer and type endlessly about food adventures and exploits. All soap box aside, there are just some things that you can do in a kitchen that are too fucking cool not to tell the world about.

For anyone that is unfamiliar with the 20 second omelet, this is a cool technique that not only delivers a great final product, but shows you know a thing or two about one of the most difficult ingredients to cook well. That’s right gans, I’m going there, against my better judgment and in anticipation of your wrath, I wanna talk eggs.

by Bliz

Artsy Photo of the Day

Ok, fine, it may not be artsy, but who wants artsy on a lazy summer afternoon anyway?

And, hey kids, Happy 4th (and BS’ bday!) We’re taking the day off tomorrow. You should too. But if you want some drinking inspiration, check here first.

in Fowl / Holiday / Photos 3 comments

by Bliz

Top Chef Masters Interview: Episode 3

Left to Right: Wilo Benet, Cindy Pawlcyn, Ludo Lefebvre, Rick Bayless

Another week has come and gone on Top Chef Masters and last week’s LOST Supper episode was a fairly entertaining event. TCM managed to incorporate one of my all-time favorite shows with the LOST theme, we saw the return of the long lost Vending Machine quickfire, Wiley D proved he has quite the potty mouth, and we saw a very unassuming Suzanne Tracht kick some serious culinary ass without so much as raising her eyebrow.

This week we’re looking forward to the likes of Rick Bayless, Cindy Pawlcyn, Wilo Benet and Ludo Lefebvre battling it out for their respective charities. Once again, ES got to sit down with the foursome to talk reality tv and gastronomic inspiration. And once again our panel of well adjusted, professional chefs had nothing but praises, laughter and respect for each other.

Guys.. seriously, I hate dramatically engineered reality shows as much as the next guy, but give us something!

I didn’t want to have to tap into my DC political wonkiness, but you’ve left me no choice. You want to be civil? Fine, maybe a few Sarah Palin quotes will inspire some more trash talking banter next interview. Rednecks clinging to their guns after the jump..

in Politics / TV 3 comments

by Bliz

Top Chef Masters Interview: Episode 2

Left to right: Wylie Dufresne, Suzanne Tracht, Graham Elliot Bowles, Elizabeth Falkner

Well Top Chef fans, the moment has finally arrived and the long awaited Masters edition is upon us. It may be lacking in on-air hook-ups, phallic cooking references and involuntary head shavings, but goddammit, the food porn is back! And quite frankly, I’m not ruling out the headlock/head shave just yet.

ES sat down with this week’s masters as they discussed getting a taste of their own medicine.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the show yet, the format has changed: instead of a bunch of aspiring chefs in a house for six long weeks arguing and crying (while the audience takes bets on who’s getting the boot), Masters features a four-person competition of seemingly well adjusted, professional chefs battling it out for their respective charities.

For someone like myself, this is a wonderful shift from the predicable sound cues and “suspenseful” final product. For others, this show losses the edgy addiction of watching who’s going to win, have a mental breakdown or make Padma spit out her food. But come on, if you want over-hyped reality television, I’m pretty sure Bravo has something to meet that need.

Maybe in the weeks to come, we’ll see these top caliber chefs succumb to their baser, reality show instincts, but tonight’s episode seems like a bunch of friends coming back from a camp retreat still high from group hugs and ‘smores. So we decided to provide our own interpretation by reading in between the lines of the interview.. Ali G like liberties were taken.

Our full interview as well as some smack talk commentary after the jump.

in TV 3 comments

by Bliz

Friday Fuck Ups: How Not to Fillet a Fish

I’m not really sure why I prefer to cut my own fillets. Gutting and cutting up a fish is messy, smelly and if continually done wrong too many times, can take away from the final dish. But then again… it’s a chance to play with knives and gross out my friends.

To me, the positives outweigh the negatives. Money is also a factor, but then again, you pay less for a whole fish then you would buying pre-cut fillets at Whole Foods.

If you’ve ever watched a Julia Child show or bothered to look up the process on filleting a whole round fish on YouTube, it looks incredibly easy. It can be, though, if you can push past any queasiness of the fish looking up at you while you grotesquely hack up several whole fish figuring out the process.

And even after you think you’ve figured it out, there are days like last Friday where you have basically forgotten how to ride the bike and swerve uncontrollably into a trash can.

So what say you ESers? Am I just wasting my time and perfectly good fish by messing around with my own fillets? Should I leave it to the fish mongers? Produce another Friday Fuck Up? Keep trying it myself?