Yep, it’s Top Chef’s adorable Carla, and YES, that’s her live-blogging on Endless Simmer! The unstoppable JoeHoya grabbed Carla at last week’s Top Chef viewing party at Good Stuff Eatery, and Carla graciously agreed to join her biggest fans on the Interwebs.
ES and Top Chef will be live-blogging the final six (!) chef’testants tonight at 10pm ET. Please join us, and please, if Carla stops by again, be nice this time! Hootie Hoo!
Have you seen this man?
His name is Toby Young. He is a well-known food critic and was, until recently, a judge on Top Chef.
We were all a little confused when he stepped in for Gail Simmons, but he quickly made a name for himself with the witty bons mots that we’ve been chronicling for the past few weeks.
Apparently Toby Young was fired from the show with very little fanfare. Sure, there was someone on this week’s episode who looked almost exactly like Young (except for those colored sunglasses…really?). But this impostor offered none of the usual fodder for our scoreboard.
Alas, it was the same Toby Young and, unfortunately for us, he stuck to the basics, providing straightforward feedback on each of the dishes and only a few very mild criticisms. Why bother showing up if you’re not even going to try?
But, because we are a slave to consistency, let’s go to the tote board:
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– We almost cried watching Obama’s first meal on Air Force One……when he said he liked his burger medium-well…who is this guy??? [Nat Geo]
– So, um, he’s a total liar. After making a bold bipartisan move to keep Bush’s White House Chef on staff, Barack and Michelle go ahead and bring their Chicago chef to DC to cook for them anyway. This apparently should please Alice Waters and all those demanding a foodie change in the White House. [Obama Foodorama]
– Speaking of Waters’ budding political activism, looks like our fav chef’lebrity, Anthony Bourdain, has settled on her as his newest enemy, telling her to leave the ‘bamas and the rest of us the fuck alone already: I’ll tell you. Alice Waters annoys the living shit out of me. We’re all in the middle of a recession, like we’re all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market. There’s something very Khmer Rouge about Alice Waters that has become unrealistic…. [DCist]
There’s a slight possibility this twitter account is fake, but if not, Tina Fey just took an early lead in the 2009 Eater of the Year race.
Don’t care what you say, we choose to believe it’s real.
Don’t forget to join Endless Simmer in the twitter-sphere.
Ahhh…”Restaurant Wars.” Two words that bring smiles to the faces of Top Chef fans almost as quickly as “Bourdain appearance.”
Of course, this time we get a ho-hum episode of Wars, which is only fitting since we’re in the middle of what is, frankly, a fairly lackluster season. After all, that’s why we’ve taken to filling our time with diversions like the Tracker.
Restaurant Wars usually provides a great opportunity for some world-class screw-ups from the teams. Yogurt soup, anyone? So it would stand to reason that Toby would come out with guns a-blazing.
Not so much.
Sadly, Toby’s contribution to the discussion this week was pretty meager. The conjecture heard around the Endless Simmer water cooler is that maybe the producers have decided to reel him in a bit during the editing process. I guess we’ll see if he’s relegated to second string judge from here on out. If nothing else, maybe he’ll have a higher batting average with his insults if they trim some of his more misguided attempts.
Now that I’ve sufficiently lowered your expectations, on to the scoreboard…
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I have serious issues with scallops.
Mrs. TVFF loves them. She orders them every time we got to some fancy-pants restaurant. This is because she says that scallops from a quality restaurant are “sooooo delicious,” and that it’s a sign of a good restaurant if they do them well. I love her, but she’s wrong about the second point (the correct litmus test is, of course, duck). However, I dutifully try them and they are, for the most part, a perfectly reasonable meal.
It’s clear that many people absolutely love the things. They will tell you that they brown nicely, they’re a healthy source of protein and they serve as a wonderful canvas upon which you can create your dish. That’s one way of looking at it.
Another way to look at it is that scallops are a highly overrated ingredient and are, quite often, a major disappointment. And possibly a serious threat to our reality television contestants and Hollywood personalities. So I take it upon myself to do what is necessary — to put scallops in their place.
I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. And, no, I’m not being irrational, either. So I present to you a six-point argument explaining why these bottom-dwelling bivalves need to be taken down a peg or two:
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Sorry, Sandra
– Forgiving ES readers are very ready to welcome Robert Irvine back to Dinner: Impossible. Digigirl: I think he deserves a chance. He’s been up front about how it happened and that yes, he did make some stuff up. And even though I do like Michael Symon, the show was more interesting when Irvine was on it. Besides, have you seen the guns on that guy? Where else can I find beefcake like that on food tv?
Tina G: It’s not like he was up for Secretary of the Treasury and didn’t pay his taxes. Resume padding aside, the guy had a good show. Who cares about his background unless he is an escaped convict? Welcome back, Chef Irvine.
– But Oxen Cox is on board the Toby Young hate train: He is starting to suck it as bad as Padma. (Ed Note: Whaaaaa?!?) The more he yammers on, the less I have to hear her.
– And Jess is glad Andrew Cuomo’s better half won’t be headed to DC anytime soon: Sandra Lee seems to have a drinking problem and her disgraceful show only adds to the health problems of this country…processed food full of sugar, salt, trans fat, chemicals, etc. That’s cooking? I don’t get it. It’s shameful and Andrew Cuomo is a fool. (Ed Note: and totally not a Senator)
– Speaking of the Cheating Queen, MaddBobbs is a little madd about our cheating rules: Hold on, I am supposed to be making cream of mushroom soup from scratch? How do you cream a mushroom?
Good question. Who knows? We’re open to instructions.