As we collectively suffer through one of the worst seasons of Top Chef, I find myself about a week behind on “What Was That Ingredient?” While you might be expecting a recap of tonight’s show, I’m actually going to write that in a bit … so check back tomorrow.
Truth be told, my writing time over the past week and change has gone towards some cooking. So while I’ve been able to jump out to lots of restaurants, I haven’t had time to fill y’all in. But all that is really just filler for this post.
You see, I just don’t have that much to say. The contestants are kind of lame and the show is starting to go duller than one of my kitchen knives. Still, there were a few “ingredients” of note, so let’s not waste any more time. One potentially superfluous note: I kind of spaced during the episode, so I might have missed an ingredient or two.
“Restaurant Wars” is almost always the most popular episode during any given season of Top Chef. Though the bar has been set remarkably low throughout Top Chef DC, I’m pretty sure that last night’s episode scored the highest ratings to date. Honestly, it’s been a crapfest of a season … but I watch anyway. I guess no Top Chef is worse than crappy Top Chef.
So yeah, Restaurant Wars was last night. Former NYT food critic Frank Bruni added some teeth to the judges panel, but he didn’t bark as much as I had hoped. The creativity was in the pits and as such, my list for “What Was That Ingredient?” is particularly short and unimpressive. However, my mom taught me to persevere, so here I am!
Gummy Bears! You know them, you love them, and you still eat them. Their TV show rocked mad musical beats, and all you want to do is pop them like the pills. But why eat them straight out ‘the package when you can dunk them in a vat of frozen deliciousness?
Yes, at Orleagian Snowballs (or-lee-gin) at the corner of Moreland and Ponce De Leon, you too can grab one of these snowball treasure chests. Unlike this son of a bitch, marinating gummy bears in fruit flavored syrup is anything but wrong. It’s Orleagian’s call to arms and makes eating an already delicious snowball just that much better.
The Food Network has enlisted celebrity chef Tyler Florence to help bring food truck culture to reality TV. On Sunday August 15th, the Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race premiers at 10PM EST. Sadly, no members of Atlanta’s burgeoning community will be on the show. However, a number of notable street slinging foodies are featured. The complete list … after the jump!
Last night’s Top Chef: DC episode was filled up from the floor up with ingredients of mystery. Entitled “Foreign Affairs,” it started with Ethiopian food and resolved itself around several different types of cuisine. Though the guest judges included Marcus Samulsson and José Andrés, I’m not so sure the participants are worth the duo’s attention. I guess now is as good a time as any to remind you that we have a plethora of Ethiopian restaurants here in Atlanta. The leader of the pack? One Desta Ethiopian Kitchen … check it out!
Hopefully, this post will supplement the cursory explanation Samulsson gave of some Ethiopian dishes. Okay dookie, sit back and enjoy this spoiler free recap.
In case you missed it, I started a little series on here to try and cover all the strange and funky terms that seem to surface during Top Chef episodes. Last night’s episode of Top Chef: DC was pretty straightforward. Entitled “Power Lunch,” it focused on dishes one might find during a business lunch. It was hosted by the Palm Restaurant in DC … so yeah, whatever.
As very few of the people given face time had any clue whatsoever about food, terms like “good” and “salt” were in abundance. But yeah, we don’t want to get into the spoiler game … so let’s just leave it like that. Meanwhile, let’s chat about the ingredients … shall we?
Every week, I get the feeling that somewhere, someone is watching Top Chef and asking themselves: “What the hell is ___?” Heck, sometimes I even find myself right there with those people. No matter how much I’d like to think I know … there always seems to be something that makes me go “huh?” So I thought it’d be a good idea to do a little "glossary of terms.” In this case, it’ll focus on those mysterious food terms that pop into our lexicon after showing up in an episode of Top Chef. Like my Poppy always used to say: “You learn something new everyday.” So consider this my civic duty for the week!
Oh yeah, for those of you who have a habit of DVRing the episodes, I’ll do my best not to put in any significant spoilers. Feel free to read ahead!
José Andrés is one of those chefs I actually go gaga for. In fact, I’m so batshit crazy that I have a tentative plane flight scheduled for the not too distant future for one reason: To fly to Washington DC for a meal at minibar, one of JA’s kick ass restaurants. Yup people – the food dork in me is going to get on a plane, fly to another city (cuz that’s what you do on planes), get off said vessel … make a beeline for the Penn Quarter … get my grub on … then return to the plane for the long flight home. Yeah, I’m run-on sentence chalk full of bastardized punctuation excited. Okay, enough about me and my pseudo obsession with JA …
Last night, a video segment about Jose Andres aired on CBS’ TV Show 60-Minutes. The man, who lives just outside of DC, started his career working under the famed Ferran Adria at El Bulli. Since then, the sky hasn’t even been the limit for Andres. Awesomeness awaits … just click below:
Top Chef Masters, a spinoff of Bravo TV’s popular Top Chef, is scheduled to premier its second season on April 7, 2010. As these things come and go, networks try to make a big deal of announcing the cast for any upcoming season of a reality TV show.
After several months of rumors, the lid was popped on this can just a short while ago. For comedic relief, I’ve included a little screen shot of a search I did on the topic. Notice how the first four search results all said “Exclusive.” HA! Okay, useless eye candy shot and all that good stuff after the jump!
Later today, Atlanta’s best bar meets restaurant (a.k.a. Holeman + Finch) is set to be a location for an upcoming episode of the Food Network’s Chefs Vs City.
The premise of the show centers around a challenge from the show’s hosts (one part Aarón Sánchez and one part Chris Cosentino). They find two local foodies chefs and dare the challengers to eat some of the more adventurous dishes from the city they call home. While I’m not one of the challengers (good thing – cuz I’ll put most any dish in my tummy), it’s no surprise the H+F showed up on the schedule.
The gastro pub is best known for their burger, their hot dog [it is freakin awesome], and their cocktails. However, true fans know that the establishment serves up what most people would call “exotic” parts of the animal. Chances that the veal brains and/or the rabbit livers show up? I’d say strong to very strong. More later as the details leak out.
Top Chef Masters
