On the Top Chef Finale

I was Team Kevin, but as I've said over at All Top Chef, everybody in this finale was talented and professional enough to win. What a good season.

But still...Team Kevin. Especially after reading the interviews Cail's just sent me. This quote, from his interview with Creative Loafing, summarizes what I so respect in him, philosophically:

This is the crux of our situation in Atlanta. It troubles me that people think that Southern food is simply food of uneducated people who have no taste. They forget this storied, elegant history of refinement that we have. We have a longer standing food history in the South than any other region in this country, something we should be proud of.

I’ve taken it on as my mission – I’m not trying to make “New Southern” cuisine, I’m trying to make food that has a sense of place – both where I’m from and where I cook right now. I want people to be proud of that. I want people to feel like we can create our own cuisine style here that continues that history, that continues to make the South a place that you should be proud of and has amazing food.

Food History Lessons on Top Chef

On last night's Top Chef, each chef was tasked with creating a dish inspired by a particular casino. Early favorite, Jen C., drew Excalibur. After watching some sort of Medeival Times-type performance, she was still stuck for inspiration, so she ended up serving a "stone"-like hunk of meat topped with red wine sauce. Kind of boring.

In his Bravo blog, Tom Colicchio talks a little about her dish and what she could've done to make it more medieval-y. Namely, add spices, which would've covered the flavor of decaying meat. Interestingly, even though comments on TV blogs are usually semi-illiterate, the comments on this one are kind of amazing.

Several food historians and medieval experts stop by to slap Colicchio down, explaining that a) there was plenty of non-rancid meat available to the nobility during medieval times and b) spices, back then, were damn expensive. A few commenters offer counter suggestions and they're really pretty good. Rarely do you find so much actual information in a comments section. And on food history of all things!

[As a side note, for Cooper's 29th birthday and Discovery Doug's 50th or something like that, we went to Medieval Times with a bunch of people. It was fun, but what a mess. Bill had to head to the lobby, after discovering that he is completely allergic to horses. Every single thing we did cost a million dollars. And everybody else celebrating a birthday was under ten. Plus, I don't like eating with my hands. But we do have about 15 plastic Medieval Times mugs now. And a commemorative keychain. So worth it, I guess.]

The Role of Marketing

Interesting comment from Toby Young's Top Chef blog on Bravotv.com:

But in the real world, a food critic will never base a review on food and service alone. They’re worth, at most, 50 percent of the final rating. And even that overestates their significance when it comes to assessing the overall experience. Whether you have a good time at a restaurant is dependent on many other factors, some of which are difficult to quantify. What’s the ambience like? What stage is the restaurant at in its life cycle? Has it captured the Zeitgeist? How many celebrities hang out there? These considerations may sound superficial, but make no mistake, they’ll dictate whether the restaurant succeeds, not the food or the service. To a large extent, launching a new restaurant is all about marketing (and there may be a case for having marketing experts write the reviews rather than food critics).

It's that last little bit that really gets me. So...you're saying that MBA I got is worth something, huh Toby?

Trendy Monday: Basque Flavors

We might have said goodbye to Monsieur Mattin last week on Top Chef, but that doesn't mean we've seen the end of Basque-love. Actually, even with Mattin's presence on the show, the region got some lip service, but we didn't hear much detail about the cuisine. If Tom Colicchio's blog is to be believed (and I'd guess it is, since he was actually there for the judging), part of Mattin's downfall was that he didn't really employ Basque flavors in his cooking on the show.

But I have a feeling we're about to see and hear a lot more about Basque flavors in the months to come, especially as it gets colder.

For example, this morning's Chowhound recipe newsletter showcased chicken Basquaise, a one-pot dish that looks pretty good (and easy), and that gets its Basquiness from spice-of-the-moment, piment d'Espelette. It's a very straightforward recipe and looks great in the pot - great enough that I think I might even make it for dinner here tonight.

In the meantime, though, au revoir "Frenchie." We'll miss the neckerchief.

Cream of Whatever Soup in the Hot, Hot Summer

On last night's Top Chef, hometown girl Jessie, along with Bob Marley-boy Ron, served New England clam chowder to 300 airmen and their families stationed in the desert just outside Las Vegas.

Ron and Jessie obviously did a decent job with the soup - the airmen liked it, plus they managed to avoid the Judge's Table - but during the course of the episode, a couple of people commented on the wisdom of serving a hot, creamy soup in 100 degree heat. Tom started the discussion, which Gail picked up on, saying that she doesn't mind the hot, but does mind the cream. Preeti, while scrambling at Judge's Table, tried that old "throw somebody else under the bus" routine, mentioning that she didn't think clam chowder was a wise choice, considering the location.

After hearing all these comments, I was left wondering why it never occurred to me that clam chowder was a bad choice. Then I remembered: oh, right, I live in Maryland. Where summertime is crab season and, therefore, summertime is also cream of crab soup season.

In early August, Elizabeth Large did a top 10 cream of crab soups on her blog. She timed the post to coincide with Restaurant Week, when several area restaurants participated in a crab soup cookoff in the Inner Harbor. I found this in the comments:

Cream of crab soup in August? Can we expect Top Ten ice creams in January?
This used to be the only time you could make it, when crabs were in season. So Baltimoreans think of this as the right time to eat it. EL

The summer after I graduated from college, my friend Alison and I made it our job to discover the best cream of crab soup in Annapolis. While I'll always be partial to Annapolis Seafood's carryout, my favorite in-restaurant version comes from Carroll's Creek Cafe (which made it on Elizabeth Large's list). And the best way to eat it is sitting out on the CCC deck, watching the boats in Spa Creek. I must've done that ten times that summer, and the heat never bothered me once.

So I'm going to have to give this one to Jessie. She's a Maryland girl through and through, so why wouldn't she go the chowdah route? Cream in the summer? That's just how we roll.

Reminder: if you're looking for more Top Chef coverage, we are all over it at All Top Chef. ALL over it.

Artsy Wednesday: Top Chef Las Vegas!

Can reality TV be considered art?

I'll leave you with that question, along with a reminder that not only does Top Chef Masters wrap it up tonight, this evening also brings us the premiere of Top Chef Las Vegas, complete with more Marylanders than the show's ever seen.

And if you're into Top Chef, you should really be reading All Top Chef. I'm not just saying that because I'm one of the bloggers, either. I would read it anyway, even if my name wasn't on the sidebar. For real.

Baltimore: Kind of Awesome Right Now

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear on this blog, little makes me happier than seeing Baltimore's food scene recognized on the national stage for what it is (not what it isn't, Bourdain) - vibrant, eclectic, improving, and most of all, just plain good.

The past few weeks have been good ones for Charm City, with the opening of B&O American Brasserie, plus a bunch of other stuff:

• Roy Yamaguchi's in town, visiting his eponymous restaurant in Harbor East, and hosting a local Top Chef-like competition pitting culinary students against local chefs, including Jesse Sandlin, of Abacrombie Fine Foods (and soon to be of real Top Chef fame). The event takes place tonight and costs $85 per person (for a five-course meal, sans wine).
• Speaking of Top Chef, the new season debuts this week with three Marylanders as contestants. The aforementioned Sandlin, plus Bryan Voltaggio of Volt in Frederick and his brother (!), Michael Voltaggio, who works at The Dining Room at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa.
• In restaurant wine news, the Prime Rib just received an "Award of Excellence" from Wine Spectator magazine and...
• Possibly most exciting, Woodberry Kitchen is featured in Bon Appetit as one of their top ten best new restaurants. The September issue does a good job of singing Spike Gjerde's praises, pointing out that he was sourcing "farm-to-table" ingredients long before the word "locavore" was more than a drop of ink on some horrific word creator's pen. The magazine also includes a recipe for one of WK's flatbreads. It's a keeper, even if I don't like making my own dough.

Good job, Baltimore!

All Top Chef

It's that time again - Top Chef season.

On Wednesday, the premiere of Top Chef Masters airs. With experienced, often famous, chefs as contestants, the show is set up a little differently than the regular seasons. Each episode features four chefs, competing against one another in a traditional Quickfire and regular challenge. The winners of each episode then compete against one another, and so on, until there's only one left. The Top Chef Master, I guess.

The show's format isn't the only thing new about this season. There's also a fabulous new blog. I might be a little biased, as I am one of the bloggers involved, but probably not. All Top Chef is the brainchild of theminx, known for both her highly comical TV commentary and for almost being my neighbor.

So if you're into Top Chef at all, make ATC a regular read. You won't regret it. I promise.

Top Chef 5 Thoughts

I haven't done a whole lot of Top Chef blogging this season, mostly because I'm not all that into the players. I think that we were all spoiled last season, when Richard and Stephanie were so amazing and also so gracious, plus we had Lisa as, like, the perfect reality TV villian.

This season's warming up for me a little, but just now - and we're already down to five. It seems clear to me (and the rest of the country) that Stefan will win. He's just better than everybody else. Hosea is outclassed on so many levels. Fabio is adorably Italian, but just not as good. Carla is actually surprising me with her skill, and I like her - I think she's funny - but she's a little too cuckoo, I think, to actually win.

And Leah, well, don't get me started. Actually, I think Leah's problem is that she's so young. She's immature. Unfortunately, that translates into her acting like a dumb little girl on national TV, which further translates into me hissing things like, "She's doing a disservice to women everywhere!" to Cooper.

Which brings me to Wednesday night. I know it was the edit, but I was sure Leah was going home over Jamie. It seems like a bigger sin to me to not get the dish, than to admit that you knew exactly where you went wrong, and say that you just didn't have time to fix it. Also, while we're on the subject of Jamie, I'm sorry now that I was so complainy about her a few weeks ago. She obviously knows what she's doing in the kitchen and, as she demonstrated during Restaurant Wars, she's got decent leadership potential, as well.

And while I still don't see any ScarJo resemblance, I did get a touch of Natalie Portman. Maybe better?

Anyway, I was sorry to see her go. And really sorry to see Leah stay.

Thursday Links

Ugh - it's only week #2 and already I'm forgetting to write the links post? In my defense, I've been very busy today and am just now (at 11:15) finishing my work. So since I'm not going to be able to fall asleep soon anyway, here are some Top Chef recap links:

• Max Weiss, the Baltimore Magazine reporter, on her personal blog
• Kathy the minx, minxy as usual
• David Dust, dusty as usual
• Best Week Ever, besty as usual?

Top Chef Jamie=ScarJo?

Erin Zimmer from Serious Eats poses a very interesting question:

does Jamie remind anyone else of Scarlett Johansson?

I say interesting because, well, no. No, she does not remind me of Scarlett Johansson. At all. I mean that. At all.

Also, this week confirmed for me that I really don't like whiny Jamie. In case you couldn't tell. Note to Top Chef casting agents: When you're choosing next season's Team Rainbow, please try to go more Jen and less Lisa. OK?

Top Chef Premier Viewing Party

Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town for the premier of Top Chef next week. Otherwise, I would be all over this viewing party, held at Red Maple, home of Jill Snyder, Bmore's very first TC contestant.

The party is sponsored by BaltFoodies (who host a lot of cool-sounding dinners) and you can buy tickets here.

If you're in need of a Top Chef fix (less than one week until go time!) go visit the Minx - she's got video of the first Quickfire.

Trendy Monday: Blaising

This morning, Cail sent me a link to Richard Blais' blog, which I hadn't seen before (which makes me think I don't read the minx carefully enough - she was already a reader). It's got a little bit of an e.e. cummings thing going on (Blais' capitalization is, um, sporadic) but the voice that Top Chef fans know and love shines clearly through.

Also, for anybody in DC, he'll be there on Wednesday!

He's busy these days, but still thinking creatively. I love posts like this one, a "whiteboard" post in which he brainstorms food ideas. And, really, why hasn't anyone created sweet potato tots? We'd eat them every day.

Top Chef Season 5 Cast!!!

Revealed.

And with Baltimore presence confirmed.

Two graduates of Baltimore International College? Unprecedented!

No, really. I'm shocked, but also very happy to see it.

Dictionary Friday: Miso

miso
Also called bean paste, this Japanese culinary mainstay has the consistency of peanut butter and comes in a wide variety of flavors and colors. This fermented soybean paste has three basic categories — barley miso, rice miso and soybean miso — all of which are developed by injecting cooked soybeans with a mold (koji ) cultivated in either a barley, rice or soybean base.

Additionally, the miso's color, flavor and texture are affected by the amounts of soybeans, koji and salt used. It's further influenced by the length of time it is aged, which can range from 6 months to 3 years.

Miso is a basic flavoring in much of Japanese cooking. The lighter-colored versions are used in more delicate soups and sauces, and the darker colored in heavier dishes. There are also low-salt varieties available. Shinshu miso is a golden yellow, all-purpose variety with a mellow flavor and rather high salt content.

There are regional favorites such as sendai miso, a fragrant, reddish-brown variety found in northern Japan, and the dark brown hatcho miso, popular in central Japan. Miso is used in sauces, soups, marinades, dips, main dishes, salad dressings and as a table condiment. It's easily digested and extremely nutritious, having rich amounts of B vitamins and protein. Miso can be found in Japanese markets and health-food stores. It should be refrigerated in an airtight container.

© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

The new Food & Wine arrived a couple of days ago, and I got a chance to flip through it last night. This issue includes TC4 superstar Stephanie Izard's profile and a couple of recipes she developed to pair with Gewurtztraminer (a wine I pretty much never drink because I worry that I'll accidentally buy one that's off-dry).

I loved Stephanie during the season. Partly because she's good natured, professional and she consistently delivered. But also partly because she's really creative, but never gimmicky. (Sorry, Blais. I loved you, too, but sometimes your creative thinking did cross the line into gimmick. Ah...banana scallops.)

The F&W recipe that most intrigues me is for a seared duck breast topped with miso-almond butter. It sounds delicious and it's a complete departure from our usual weeknight dinners, but it also doesn't sound terribly difficult.

It did get me thinking, though. So many young chefs exhibit at least a bit of Asian influence. While I love Asian food, something about it intimidates me - I think I'm just unfamiliar with the base flavors, so I'm not able to confidently combine them.

So I'm going to make a pointof experimenting more with Asian flavors, and I'm going to start with miso. It seems like a good thing to have around anyway.

Of course, all of this is after this weekend. We're throwing an engagement party for Missy and Seth tomorrow night, and today I will be finishing as much prep work as possible. I'll have a whole day in the kitchen, and I'm looking forward to it.

Just hoping for no rain!

This Weekend - UPDATED!

We're going to Fenwick today and I won't be blogging on Monday, it being Labor Day and all, and like most of the country, I'll be away from the internet for most of the weekend. So hopefully Marcel won't get another DUI and Rachael Ray won't melt into a pool of pre-chopped onions and EVOO, or anything like that.

But I will leave you with this: Erin's friend Lis met TC4 Mark out at a restaurant (Public) last night. Once again, thanks to only a few degrees of separation, I believe I am famous. This time, in the food-related reality TV world.

Famous, famous, famous.

UPDATE: While on my way to the beach, my sister called me and told me that not only did Lis meet Mark, she had him leave a message on Erin's phone! Saying, "I don't think Padma liiiikes me!"

Isn't Lis a good friend?

Marcel's DUI Situation

Erin and I were having a little post-lunch chat yesterday - talking about clothes and furniture design and art history, like we do - when we got an email from Libby, telling us that Top Chef villian extraordinaire, Marcel, had been arrested for drinking and driving.

We were all anxiously awaiting the sure-to-be hilarious Best Week Ever post on the subject, fully assuming that Alex Blagg would write it and he would absolutely reference Wolverine in the title.

Instead, this is what we got, as a part of the Sara Schaefer "...Of the Day" post:

HE WAS JUST TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM THAT BULLY CLIFF: Top Chef pipsqueak and foam connoisseur, Marcel Vigneron, was arrested for speeding and “erratic” driving in Laguna Beach. Can’t a little guy drive with reckless abandon, letting the wind blow through his Wolverine-like hair, in defiance of any who might dare wrestle him to the ground and shave said hair???

Frankly, I'm disappointed. If you're not able to make pithier jokes than this when a reality TV celebrity gets arrested IN LAGUNA BEACH, BWE, then what can you do???

(And for the record, I totally like Sara Schaefer's posts. I just think she's unnecessarily wordy here, and that the Cliff reference feels forced.)

(Also, lunch was at Sweet Lela's. It was good and WOW is that place cute. So Euro, right in the heart of Towson!)

Baltimore Represents on Top Chef?

I just got an email from Baltimore Foodies pointing members in the direction of this Eater map of suspected Top Chef 5 contestants...including Jill Snyder of Red Maple! It's unconfirmed as of yet, but exciting nonetheless.

Also, definitely in keeping with the recent flourish of Baltimore in the food press. And you know that makes me happy.

Colicchio's Own Personal Hell (Top Chef on The Today Show)

Cail sent me a link to this recap of Tom Colicchio's Top Chef-touting and judging appearance on The Today Show this morning. As she pointed out, yes, "Amuse-Biatch" is an awesome blog name. Also, how miserable of an experience does the show visit seem? Pretty miserable.

Maybe it's just me, but one of the things I like about Top Chef is that they don't (always) force the chefs to dumb down their cooking for the masses. The judges know what they're talking about, food-wise - they have refined, professional palates.

Please, Top Chef, don't make Kathy Lee Gifford's opinion matter even close to as much as Gail Simmons. Please.