Padma Lakshmi -

by BS

Top Chef Recap: Episode 12 – Cursed is the Cheesemaker

I hope all you haters are happy with this fully-clothed Padma picture. For those of you who are fans of the previous photo gallery, here’s a very NSFW link.

Moving on, Tony Bourdain says this was the best Top Chef episode of the year, and I’m inclined to agree, because if I didn’t, I think he would yell at me. Seriously though, there were some awesome dishes from every cheftestant, except of course for that Jamaican cheesemaker, who set a Top Chef record by serving raw fish and raw chicken in the same episode.

The episode started at Le Cirque, where Sirlio Maccione stepped in to guest judge the cheftestants’ attempts to replicate a classic Le Cirque dish, halibut wrapped in thin strands of potato (I’m sure there is a much fancier description). They all did surprisingly well, except of course, for the aforementioned Sara, who forgot to cook hers. Maccione turned out to be the most honest judge yet, admitting that he wanted to award the quickfire to Casey just because he’d like to bone her, but instead Hung took the prize.

in Fish / Fowl / TV 7 comments

by BS

Top Chef Recap: Episode 11 – Padma Lushmi

This episode of Top Chef was down to a mere six cheftestants, and you know what that means: less stupid cooking, more Padma Lakshmi.

The chefs were rudely awakened by a cheerful Padma for their 6am quickfire challenge – a perfect fantasy morning making breakfast for Padma. Without any pesky guest judges around, pleasant Padma was free to like everything. The best part was the not-so-surprising revelation that Padma is a total boozer, and all the chefs found it hilarious that Hung took the easy road to victory by spiking Padma’s breakfast smoothie with Grand Marnier. Brilliant idea – I’m drinking one right now as I type this – hey, I’m a blogger.

in Drinks / Trends / TV 9 comments

by BS

Top Chef Recap: Episode 10 – Puff Pastry D’oh!

It has taken me two full days to digest the craziness of this week’s Top Chef, which was chock full of spam, fruit loops, and IMHO one of the worst sins a reality show contestant can commit.

The Cheftestants started out with a supermarket sweep style quickfire challenge, where they only got ten dollars to spend in one aisle, so they were limited in their ingredients to a comical degree.

Michael Schwartz served as perhaps the snottiest guest judge they have had yet, most critically showing absolutely no respect for what in my mind was the dish of the competition so far: Hung’s fruit loop-potato-leek-smurf-village whatever it was. Bravo has for some unknown reason not included this genius recipe on their site. What gives Bravo? As far as I am concerned, this should be on the menu at every haute cuisine restaurant in America.

Instead Brian won for his spam-filled dish, which did look pretty fancy, but come on, it had spam in it.

in TV 0 comments

by BS

Top Chef Recap: Episode 9 – The Ides of April

Many apologies for the late post on this one, as I was off inventing oreo-vodka concoctions on the beach. TC is taking another week off tomorrow, so there is room today for an update on last week’s shocker of an episode.

After the previous restaurant wars challenge was called a draw, Team April (the dream team) went up for a rematch against Team Garage, now re-branded with the much fancier ‘Team Qatre’ but still clearly the scrub squad. As you might predict, the first guys got as cocky as Team USA going up against Argentina.

The scrubs, as was noted in the last recap, have suddenly developed quite the team chemistry, with Ms. Sara asserting her dominance over Howie and whipping him into submission.

in Desserts / TV 2 comments

by BS

Padma Lakshmi Wants to Nibble on Your Satay

Don’t forget to vote in the Endless Simmer Tastiest Chef Contest! The voting closes next week, at which point we will unveil our highly anticipated male version.

The Internets are really buzzing about the vote. Here’s a sampling of what we’re hearing:

“Where’s Sandra Lee?” (wherever she is, she’s probably cheating)

“I voted for rayray – I hope she wins!”

“Since this poll is for hottest chef and not hottest greasy skank who makes inedible crap, Rayturd is disqualified.”

At this point, I have to say I’m a little surprised at the results, with Giada De Laurentiis staying just ahead of Padma Lakshmi. Anything can still happen!

[poll=3]

Photos: FHM via MediaBistro, Esquire, FHM, Men.Style.Com

in Contests / Trends / TV 2 comments

by BS

Top Chef Recap: Episode 8 – When Bloggers Attack

This week’s Top Chef started out with a refreshingly nice Daniel Boulard judging the quickfire, in which the chefs had to put a gourmet spin on the good ol’ burger. Most of the chefs oddly chose to make fishburgers, with Brian even admitting he was just turning his previous winner, the fish sausage into a fish burger. I was dying waiting for Tom Collichio to say “You do not take a fish sausage, pound it into a patty and call it a fish burger,” but no such luck. Boulard picked CJ’s seared scallop and shrimp burger as the winner.

in Fish / Red Meat / TV 1 comments

by BS

Food Porn

Feminism has made many advances over the past century, but perhaps none more so than in the field of cooking. Once confined to the bland Julia Child stereotype, today’s most popular chefs are breaking out of the mold.

Now you’re not considered a real chef unless you’ve graced the pages of Maxim covered in a substance that may or may not be chocolate. So the question clearly arises, who is America’s Tastiest Chef?

Is it raunchy Rachel Ray or good girl Giada, who makes a great tomato sauce (haha). Or is it stone-faced Iron Chef judge (and intredip supermarket shopper) Cat Cora, or maybe it’s that other judge, Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi (yeah, we know, Padma doesn’t actually cook anything per se, but as the official pin-up girl of this site, she gets a free pass to the finals).

Equal Opportunity: Look for next week’s poll, in which we feature Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse covered in gumbo.

UPDATE: Don’t miss our second, manlier version of the poll: here.

[poll id=”3″]

Photos: Maxim via Cooking Light, Esquire, FHM, Men.Style.Com

in Contests / Desserts / Trends / TV 23 comments

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