Top Chef

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

Ya’ll were chatty this week ESers! An eggstra long Feedback for ya…

– Yvo is catching the gansie fever: Gansie, you’re getting to me in a big way. I probably sound creepy. I can sometimes. But I fried an egg earlier this week to top some beef stew and had it for breakfast and it was fan-fucking-tastic. I thought “I need to take a picture of this” and I did (will be posting… soon). It was awesome. Creamy and just delicious. I justified it by saying that mixing eggs with beef & tomato sauce and some veggies – each individually isn’t that big of an innovation so why not with my beef stew!!! Thank you!

And Maidelitla is letting the world know (on BonApp’s site): Ummm…. This trend was pointed out by avant garde food blogger, Stefanie Gans way back in January of 2008 ! Way to call it Gansie!!!!

-We’re not sure if he’s referring to Sandra Lee’s boyfriend or her Kwanzaa cake, but Michael Birchenall is not happy: That is the most incredible god-awful thing I’ve ever seen … the nutritional listing would have to be a mile long and deadly at best … disgusting.

– TVFF agrees with the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council’s firm anti-ketchup stance: People who put ketchup on their hot dog are going straight to hell. I have absolutely no doubt about this. They are simply bad people.

But Nick suggests another option:

The Toby Young Insult Tracker

Editors’ Note: Some of you may already be familiar with Mike from TV Food Fan, where he’s been doing very important work tracking former Top Chef stars, getting behind-the-scenes tips from Marc Summers, and even following food-lebrities on the way to work. We’ve asked Mike to pop over to ES once in awhile to drop some food TV rants and raves on us. First up, his take on the ultimate WTF moment that was Toby Young’s first apperance on Top Chef.

When you sat yourself down in front of the television last week for the latest episode of Top Chef (with the Top Chef live blog running on your laptop, right?!), you probably weren’t suspecting anything out of the ordinary. You’re watching and thinking to yourself, “I wonder where that cute Gail Simmons is! I like her. She’s opinionated, yet cheery and supportive.” And then you realized you were S.O.L. when you saw the bald British guy.

That’s right, Toby Young is the new judge and he comes equipped with the requisite British Reality Show Judge Insults. It was invented by Simon Cowell, imitated by countless others and brought to the world of food by Gordon Ramsay. The perfect British Judge Insult manages to get the point across while being both condescending and creative. When not done well, it’s just plain awkward.

Toby didn’t disappoint in the first episode, trotting out four separate attempts to denigrate the work of the contestants with a clever put-down. Some were more successful than others. In order to give each of those insults its proper analysis, we present to you a comprehensive list, accompanied by a score and critique from our own expert panel of judges.

Without any further ado, let’s go to the scoreboard…