Much to my surprise, the people cry out for Top Chef blogging. And lo, I shall deliver. In part, my commentary has dropped off because the show hasn't been that good. Richard Blaise is a tremendous talent, and appears a gracious, courtly guy, to boot. Stefanie is a helluva cook, and it's possible I have a slight crush on her. I'm not telling. But the actual challenges have, for weeks now, been insipid. I spent last weekend in Chicago. I went to Lula's Cafe, which is probably my favorite restaurant in the country. I went to Frontera Grill, which I thought a bit overrated. I went to Chinatown and had some of the best Korean food I've ever tasted. But as the Top Chef commentary blog Amuse Biotch says, you'd never know you were in this rich cooking atmosphere. In the city that's "home to Grant Achatz, Charlie Trotter, and Homaro Cantu, and instead we get block parties, kid’s meals, tailgate parties, police academy lunches, and cocktail parties at the zoo." There's been very little Top Chef this year. Rather, it's been a lot of "Top Caterer, Top Block-partyer, Top Tailgater, Top Home Cook, and Top Single Mother." Not to mention Top Box Luncher. Interesting challenges, to be sure, but they've mainly required the contenders to triumph over logistics. Can you pack a hot dish for a block party without letting it steam into soggyness? Can you cook for football players at a barbecue? Can you have an eight-year-old as a sous chef? These are, without doubt, real obstacles. But they're uninteresting ones. Compare that to the terrific improv challenge episode, where the chefs had to freestyle off a couple randomly chosen words (purple perplexed tofu!), or the movie episode, where they created a dish inspired by a favorite film. Those challenges weren't as logistically tricky, but they produced much more interesting food, and let the chefs actually be chefs. Last week, one of the contenders riffed off sushi and made a "rice" out of cut parsnip and pine nut puree. This did not go over well with the judges, as the contestant was making a box lunch for cops, and that's not what the blue collar palette is thought to want. That's a fair point. But it's a bit weird given what the show is actually thought to be testing, namely, forward-looking and innovative cooking skills.
