Chopping Block...

I posted this on the ****'s Kitchen thread in answer to another query---

I was going to start a thread on this, but will reply here--
I wasn't that impressed, seemed they went for quirky contestents, and lots of dumb a** drama and bleeped words. all the things many of us are tired of in the other shows?
I will watch it again but maybe not for long?

I was glad to see Marco Pierre White

what did you think?

I really like Chopped, no time for drama and other bs. have missed several, my goofy schedule, hope they have a marathon. I miss it on Saturday too.

is last Restaurant Standing from the UK?

Nan

gosh hope they weren't, that could just be dangerous.

That situation was scary to me. I try to never leave the dock with a galley that has been shut down for a while without getting everything up and running a day or do before--there are always surprises and few of them good. But that gives us time to get needed parts, techs, etc. Opening for service like that hopefully doesn't happen very often in a place that has been shut down very long?

I'm not sure how to put this, but on all the shows, when things go wrong, several of the contestents seem to come undone and emotional fairly often. And things that they are supposed to deal with--a dining room filling up? running out of a product, etc.? sets some of them to quivering.
I have had equipment fail (not fall), but you have to work through it.
still didn't say it right?

Nan

working with people you just met

coming up with a menu in 24 hours and then working it

do they know that only 50 guests would come in? or was it random?

some of them had cooked in other capacity than a restaurant kitchen, ie personal chef comes to mind.

I bet Khoa and Denise were used to their family's long standing Chinese restaurant that flows.....he seemed the most interesting cook, I really hated seeing them leave.

Can you imagine walking into a new place, setting up your mise, having equipment not function, nor having an exec that obviously is wet behind the ears, having front of the house be chatty cathys and not figure out that food doesn't walk to the table by itself and gets cold if it sits...duh...

8 people running a restaurant, how would you divy up labor?
What kind of menu would you write?
what working rules would you need to have in place to function?

So how are these teams going to work with 6 people running a restaurant?

If you notice Gordon's **** Kitchen menus don't change other than altering or adding....you're essentially making the risotto, scallops with quail eggs, lamb en croute, etc.....
*when CMac was on stage this past Jan, she made Gordon's squash/suasage risotto and a pear tartin with caramel sauce.....interesting recipes.
the pear was about as easy as you can get, the risotto was loaded up with mascarpone, butter, parm at the end.

thanks, you are right--guess I have reality cooking competition fatigue.
was thinking back to some of the other situations, other shows.
this was insane with the 24 hour deal.
our cable was out for ****'s Kitchen last night and I almost didn't mind.
take care,
Nan

I love how the Chef White works with these guys.

Its been pulled or CHOPPED...

I like it, which is usually a bad sign.

NBC 86-es Chopping Block

the last 5 segments will be supposedly slipped in somewhere, sometime......bummer!
Apparently the public that watches food tv didn't get into it, I found it more entertaining than ****'s kitchen......Top Chef is still a much better show to see talent.

I've watched it. It's hard to believe that the some of contestants are supposed to be professional chefs. It seems as if they were chosen more for their ignorance of the basics, than for any actual knowledge or skill in the kitchen.

I enjoy watching how passionate the good Chefs are about their trade. Its refreshing to me, I work in a power plant and nobody gives
a crap about anything. But these guys take pride in their work and expect the same from the people in their kitchen.

I haven't watched it yet, not enough commercials for it and I didn't know it was on. Hubby likes to watch American Idol so I wouldn't have seen it anyway. Bravo always airs new shows at 10 and then plays a lot of re-runs, that's why people get into Top Chef so much, because it's available to them. I'd like to see Chopped but NBC would rather go up against other prime time shows than make it available to watch.

I don't have Bravo yet, the cable company said they adding next month. Hope to watch top chef.

so, who won?

It goes along with all the reality shows...

Well, if they were "competent", would it be worth watching?

hulu carries the shows.....not all of top chef but some....all of chopping block, multi seasons of ****'s kitchen

Yes, it would be. I'm sick of watching shows where people of the lowest common denominator are featured. The only really great show we'll ever have is Jeopardy - not that I watch it that often but when I do I'm amazed at the contestant's knowledge!

I do agree that alot of the shows have gone to the absurd with the contestants they choose.

4th week is on Hulu, wonder if they will continue running the series.....

Thanks for the heads up.

How many other site run tv shows besides hulu?
Is there a you two or something like that?
Thanks for any info.

This may be OT, but I just have a question about Top Chef for some of you pros.

In season 3, I think it was -- the one Hung won -- there was a challenge very near the end, when all the idiots and incompetents had been weeded out. They were at the French Culinary Institute, and were told to do something with the absolute foundational core: chicken, onion, and I think potato.

Result: Everybody was all over the place, trying weird new things, making stuff up, whatever. The woman chef, who seemed very talented, made coq au vin, except of course she didn't use a rooster or an old hen, she didn't cook it a long time, and all in all she made red-wine-stewed chicken. The judges, all classical French chefs like Soltner and so on, called her on this. Her response was basically, "hey, coq au vin isn't this or that, it's a kind of dish, you know, and I do my own thing with it, blah blah." Every other contestant did much the same.

What's with these people? I'm not a professional, but if you sent me into a French kitchen run by people like Soltner and Pepin and so on, and they said "do chicken and onion," I wouldn't mess around. It was totally obvious to me: they wanted to see if anyone could actually make things like poulet a la creme with duchesse potatoes, i.e. the old classic standbys that are easy to make decently and very, very hard to make brilliantly, the stuff they had (literally) beaten into them when they were apprentices.

Is it normal for people at this level to be so totally lacking in any kind of culinary history, by which I mean any kind of knowledge that doesn't go through the senses but through the mind? This is the thing that always bewilders me about Top Chef: nobody seems to know anything, they just do everything by feel and rule of thumb and "oh I did this thing once and...." Some are very good at it, some stink. But there's nothing else there: they ride on talent and experience, and brains are a matter of quick wits and emotional balance. Is this usual?

It looks like week 5 is on hulu..

yep, interesting turn of events.....it'll be interesting to see who ends up winning. Initially I would have said the cousins who chose to leave the first week of competition. They just seemed to have a good combination of talent/familiarity with restaurants.

With one couple left on one side it's going to be really interesting to see how that works out.

You tube seems to break down shows into 10-15 segments, which is a drag....actually hulu sometimes has a commercial at the beginning of the show and then it's uninterupted throughout which is nice.

****'s kitchen is also on a bazzare path.....the 5 left seem to have nominal fine dining experience....I cannot fathom what it's like to have an open kitchen, a camera in my face, GR yelling obscenities and reeming not only me but the people I'm working with out throughout service.....