Posted by Foodie Buddha
on January 12, 2012
The pain that is this season of Top Chef Texas continues, and with it comes another edition of What Was That Ingredient? While the show struggles to keep my attention, I still watch with some anticipation, hoping to see and hear something that will turn my creative juices. If things don’t change, WWTI will be shelved after this season wraps (if not sooner).
The only real commentary I have on this season’s version of Restaurant Wars is this: What happens to all the regular customers when the judges walk in? The both kitchens basically came to a screeching halt to attend to the needs of these very special guests … that can’t be good for the rest of the restaurant.
Though I’m quite familiar with the inner workings of media, reality TV, and all that jazz – I’m really curious to know what it’s actually like to go to one of these “Restaurant Wars” dinners. It’s obviously highly edited, so we’re left to wonder how concocted a diners experience is at the restaurant.
Alright y’all, here’s a recap of the handful of ingredients and dishes that might need some explaining!
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on January 05, 2012
After a few weeks off from the drivel that has become Top Chef Texas, the show returned last night desperate to find a new villain, but this isn’t a typical review series, so I’ll leave that to others to elaborate on.
Anyway, this 80-minute extended edition went through all the hoops of classic reality TV and ended just before the new day arrived. I didn’t get to it until the wee hours of the morning, but I was still bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to see what was what.
The episode’s two challenges were as opposing one could imagine. The quick fire was all about deconstructed food (which I’ve previously explained) and modern techniques. The second half was dedicated to barbecue and all of its classic glory.
As it happened, most all of the What Was That Ingredient? action took place in the earlier moments of the show. Read on to see what funktastic attempts the contestants made at impressing Nathan Myhrvold, who literally wrote the Modernist Cuisine cookbook. [A hefty investment for anyone looking to explore it]
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on December 22, 2011
Things we learned on the latest edition of Top Chef Texas: 1) Apparently grandfathers made absolutely zero impact on the lives of their offspring. 2) Bravo TV now relies upon the most uncreative group of twaddlers for their inspiration. 3) Patty LaBelle can still belt it out. Other than that … not much.
Still, the season dragged on and we all watched as our brain cells died as we all seemed to loose a little more of our life’s than the 60-minute commitment seemed to require. In any event, if you did power through, here are some of the odds and ends that qualified for a brief mention in this weeks What Was That Ingredient?
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on December 15, 2011
For this weeks edition of What Was That Ingredient?, Top Chef Texas did the whole game thing and once again attempted to assert its badassness. They first invoked NGT with what basically equated to a 20-minute commercial for Don Julio. Padma quickly asserted that it was an “ultra-premium” tequila. Don’t you just love fluffy, meaningless advertisements? I’m curious to know how much Don Julio put up for the bit.
Anyway, the rest of the show focused on that crazy group of meats we call “game” (you know – Bambi, Donald, The Goodfeathers, etc…). Basically, game can be defined as any type of animal that is either a) usually hunted for sport or b) turned into a cartoon character. During this segment, clips of Heather explaining how awesome she is were interrupted by the occasional cooking scene.
As for the rest of the more esoteric menu items from the show? Well read on to see what the contestants did in the kitchen!
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on December 08, 2011
No, I didn’t forget to do What Was That Ingredient last week. I just didn’t do it. There just wasn’t a single piece of content worth writing about. Thankfully, this week’s episode of Top Chef Texas had lots of good stuff for those interested in food.
First, there was a whole challenge dedicated to the stuff a saucier has to make; so, we might as well recap all of these so-called “mother sauces.” After that, there was a gigantic catering gig. While there weren’t a ton of funky ingredients presented (it is Texas after all – *wink*), a handful of chefs used ingredients that are not common. Alright, let’s get it on!
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on November 24, 2011
Hi, I’m Foodie Buddha and I’m a hot sauce addict. Now that that’s out of the way: Top Chef Texas’s latest episode was stuffed with chilis of all types. The topics du jour were the various kinds of chili peppers and the vast number of ways one can concoct chili con carne (the proper name for the stew most people call “chili”).
The episode wasn’t full of a ton of odd ingredients or cooking techniques, but it was full of “what did they just say?” moments. Sure, authentic reared it’s ugly head again, but so too did a request not to touch someone’s breast milk that was in the fridge. I think it’s safe to assume that that light cream did not end up in anyone’s chili.
But beyond the passé edits of one liners from contestants who want to do naughty things to Padma, there were a few ingredients and techniques worthy of mention in this edition of What Was That Ingredient? Not to mention, it’s imperative that we clear up some of the widespread misinformation that appeared in the episode in regards to chilis. Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on November 18, 2011
It’s a safe bet that next time you sit down to a sushi dinner, tuna consumption will be imminent. Soon you will have to navigate words and phrases like toro, chu-toro, o-toro, maguro, akami, and more. On top of that, if you happen to find yourself in an upscale sushi restaurant, words like shiromaguro, honmaguro, kuromaguro, and more might find their way into your discussion.
Truth be told, despite tuna’s prevalence in the world of sushi, it seems “toro” is one of the most perplexing and nuanced items to ever hit the geta. [The geta is in fact the small wooden tray that sushi is served on top of.] Though there are other fish that this happens with, tuna is one of the rare sushi items where your order is determined not only by the type of tuna you are consuming, but where on the fish that piece of meat actually comes from. Beyond that, there are serious discussions going on regarding the sustainability of various tuna species, so let’s break it all down and make things nice and simple for you.
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on November 17, 2011
A quinceañera, the title for this weeks episode of Top Chef Texas, is a Latin America party celebrated in countries up and down Central and South America. The impetus behind the celebration is a girl’s15th birthday and the quinceañera serves as a symbol of her passage into womanhood.
So it’s against that backdrop that we found Top Chef contestants running around, purportedly plotting against less conniving participants and putting out dishes that a young girl might enjoy should she be young and of Mexican descent.
The episode was rife with fodder for this week’s edition of What Was That Ingredient?, but also chock-full of that frustratingly misused word “authentic.” So in between self-inflicted slaps to my forehead, followed by utterances of Homer quintessential catchphrase, I took time to write down some of the ingredients and dishes you may not have known from last night!
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on November 10, 2011
courtesy toughkidcst on flickr
People expect the chefs and cooks who appear on Top Chef to do things most home cooks can’t do. This season of Top Chef Texas has started off notably restrained in that respect. It’s not to say that cooking good simple food isn’t equally as important on the TV show, it’s just that viewers often end up seeing and hearing about techniques and ingredients that they aren’t familiar with.
Episode 2, aka The Heat Is On, was probably most notable for the season debut of Atlanta’s Hugh Acheson and for the fact that the chefs repeatedly choose cooking methods and/or dishes that really weren’t appropriate for the time limit allotted. Then again, a few showed incredible incompetence with dishes that they should have whipped out two-times over in the time they had.
So while no fancy techniques were mentioned, here you go with the latest rendition of “What Was That Ingredient?”
Continue reading…
Posted by Foodie Buddha
on November 03, 2011
Last night, as the premier episode of Top Chef Texas came to a close, there was a collective grunt in the world of the food literati. Not always known for their technical prowess, writers everywhere grumbled over the need to familiarize themselves with ways to insert an umlaut/diaeresis into online posts. With no traditional elimination as of yet, you can expect some writer’s annoyance for the next couple of weeks every time Ty-Lör Boring’s name comes up. Those two little dots above the ‘O’ will surely bring digital scribblers to our knees.
As I mentioned on Monday, the return of Top Chef means the return of my “What Was That Ingredient?” For those unfamiliar, here’s what WWTI is all about.
WWTI isn’t a detailed recap of an episode. It isn’t really meant to be any sort of recap. Rather, it’s just an attempt to wrangle up some of the more esoteric ingredients and cooking techniques that were used in the previous night’s episode. Put simply: it’s just a list of those words and phrases, each with a little xyz. Short, sweet, and hopefully helpful!
Continue reading…
