Episode 8: "Common Threads" Options

[SecondTry]

Well I bet they used some itmes from the TC pantry and I have heard people suspect that they may have been cut a discount or two. It's like the Block party challenge. Do people really think all the people in the neighborhood had stocked pantries and fridges by accident?

I nominate we change the name of the show to Top Chenanigans.

Let's not go overboard, WAJ. We already knew that the neighborhood had been told in advance that they'd be providing the food for that week's challenge. To say that Bravo rigged that one to favor one contestant over another would mean assuming:

1--That Bravo knew in advance the makeup of the two teams, and

2--That Bravo knew in advance which specific houses would be visited by a particular chef or pair of chefs.

In other words, it would mean assuming that Bravo and the elves are precognitive, and I don't think they are.

As for the discount, the only way that doesn't pass the smell test is if they haven't been getting that discount the whole season. Using the pantry is fine, IMABHO, because that's a resource the chefs have had for most of the season (with specific exceptions, like the 5-ingredient quickfire and the block party), and I, for one, very seldom have to buy EVERY ingredient for whatever I'm cooking; I usually have at least half of them on hand already.

For example, last night I made hamburgers with a bunch of things mixed into the meat. I only needed to buy the ground beef, the Parmesan cheese, and the onion; I already had the parsley, salt, pepper, and egg whites, and of those four, I only used up the egg whites. As for side dishes, I already had leftover rice and salad from a couple of days before.

Tonight, I'm going to boil up some rice, since I finished the last batch last night. All I need to buy there is a box of rice; I already have the butter and the salt, and obviously I already have the water.

This post has been edited by SecondTry: May 1, 2008 - 09:37 AM

[WhataJoke]

Parts, I have to strongly disagree with you. I mean, very strongly.

A basic precept of contemporary vegetarian and vegan cooking is that a meal MUST still include a complete protein. Meaning, it includes all the essential amino acids needed by humans. An individual dish or side doesn't need to offer a complete protein, but that total meal must.

That's surprisingly easy to achieve, it's as old as agriculture, long ago achieved in all hemispheres and on all continents. One includes in the meal both one or more good high-protein whole grains (wheat being the go-to grain) and a good high-protein legume. Consumed together, that famous grain/legume combo is a complete protein. Chickpeas and whole wheat pita can do it on their own.

Or, one uses any of the few plant sources of (more or less) complete proteins. Soy beans, tofu, quinoa, etc. Peanuts are not bad but still should be offered in a meal with a whole grain in order to truly be "healthy." Mark had *some* peanut in that dish somewhere... but that dish does not meet a standard for being a healthy vegan or vegetarian meal. Conceptually, Mark was wrong from the get-go.

And again we have Chef Tom pulling out the magic rulebook. Last week he made it dissappear when there was no polish sausage. This week it repeared to save someone based most likely on prior performance.

Like I said in the chat, I know Mark was done when he was going through his food like it was an episode of CSI.

In two weeks lets summarize:
Ignore one of the three main ingredinets in a challenge: Safe.
Leave out a protien on a challenge where the guideline seemed to be simply "healthy": Eliminated.

LMAO! And Vince McMahon thought he had a good thing going lol.

[SimonBao]

um.......... how does peanutbutter and tomato stay?!?!?!

Can someone tell her that peanut OIL goes good with tomato.... maybe even a spicy peanut sauce.... but NOT peanutBUTTER!

Silver, a peanut sauce is exactly what Stephie made, and those are commonly made with peanut butter.

And those can be fine sauces, but hers was just not well made at all. It appears to be nothing more than some chicken broth, peanut butter, some tomatoes, onion and garlic, and just a touch of oil.

That's a bad sauce. No way around it. No heat. No herbs. No spices. Too few flavorings and why tomatoes???

If you look at the camera plate Stephie prepared, the chicken also appears to be overcooked. And I'm not sure couscous was the right grain product to pair this with. With a better sauce, served over a bulgar wheat/wild rice/barley combo, probably be fine. Though not available for under $10.

Stephie, like Mark, misconceptualized this dish from the start...

But I'm still glad she is staying.

This post has been edited by SimonBao: May 1, 2008 - 09:41 AM

[SimonBao]

Top Chef is filmed what...4 or so weeks before it is shown? So we just dropped down to 8 and they are probably down to the final four in actuality...

Having said that, I feel Antonia is getting a good edit and I think she is probably the most likeable person in this competition...I am REALLY rooting for her

Not at all MLK.

Season 4 of Top Chef was filmed in October and November 2007 in Chicago.

[teleburst]

Quick hits:

Spike - if you're going to do Pasta Puttenesca with an 11 year old, please don't tell them that you're doing "Wh0re's Pasta". At least don't describe to them that the odor of the olives and olive oil is somewhat descriptive of the name of the dish.

$40 to feed a family of four for one meal. C'mon guys. Not that big of a problem. Ramen is .35 a serving. Heck, you could do truffle ramen and have money left over for a dime bag for the single dad trying to pay his back child support.

Oprah's private chef? Hey dude, guess what? Lay off the butter. Oprah seems to be dressing mostly in black these days.

Antonia - why don't you just marry Manuel and have The Brady Bunch? After all, both of you abandoned your children for a few weeks and are now having guilt pangs the size of Wrigley Field. Or maybe you could season the food with your tears. Oooops, not original at all.

If Uncle Ben married Mrs. Butterworth, would their children go to Rev. Wright's church? Or would they suffer from Al Jolson's syndrome? Or would Oprah just buy them a new car?

Were those not the CUTEST kids ever? Is one of our CTs going to kill one of them before the day is over?

Spike is apparently easily impressed. Me? If the kid cuts his ring finger off and decides to use the finger as extra protein, then I'm impressed.

Spike's making soup. I hope it has ras el hanout in it.

I'd have my kid running to Starbucks for a Grande. That's just me though.

Oprah as a beard. I like it!

Spike, maybe you should do "Pasta-Mom-What -Are-These-Little-Hairs-Growing-Out-Of-My-Forbidden-Region" pasta. You might even be able to sell it to Dominoes.

My, Mr. I-Cook-For-Oprah, aren't we the catty little biach?

Look for Rice-A-Roni product placement when they go to San Francisco. It's the San Francisco treat, you know.

What, no Uncle Ben's rice pudding?

Mark is "concerned" that a 12 year old American kid from a challenged background has never had a curry before. Sorry - MacCurry hasn't been test-marketed in his neighborhood yet. I'm sure he's familiar with Mac-10 though.

Lisa thinks that making a curry for a family of four is a bad idea. Well, she obviously hasn't contacted customer service in a while and been told, "How may I provide you with excellent service". Oh yeah, how about substituting Mexican for Polish? <SNAP!>

I've finally got it. Lisa - prune.

Damn. Poor Nikki. Having to cook at 10 years old for herself. If true, I'm not being sarcastic when I say that...choke...that really blows. Really. And I'm not blaming the mother (or father, for that matter) since I'm getting ready to have to throw out a bunch of stuff in my fridge because I haven't really wanted to cook for a week - for myself. I can't imagine how hard it must be to cook for a young person to cook for themselves day after day, week after week, month after month. OK. Snark respite over.

Damn, Dale hurling himself into the turkey bratwurst maelstrom head-long. It shoud be interesting to see how he can do what the sausage sisers were afraid to do.

Kid with a microplaner. Warms the cockles of my heart. This kid will grow up to triumph on the 2035 show, Top Genetic Engineer Food Miner. When asked when he knew he would be a GEFM, he replies, "When I touched an archaic device called a microplaner and applied it on something that someone actually grew out of the ground based on the idea that random chance would induce it to flower and do it on an ancient form of mass communication called "television", an unusual auditory and visual medium that was actually projected on a glass or plastic screen visible to everyone in the room, I just knew that I'd be manipulating caloric stimuli in oirder to create a basic id response in susceptable human beings in order to transer their wealth to the the accounts of organizations that underwrite our current mass communication modules".

Andrew weighed 200 lbs? Guess he had a fullbodyectomy.

I only wish that Andrew had lost some weight in his eyes.

Mark - "Tom is a very well-seasoned chef...". What was edited out was the rest of his statment - "...he just needed a little acidity to balance the bitterness".

Peanut butter and tomato. Who are you cooking for - Elvis?

Tom will hoist a cool one with you after he gives you the axe. However, you're buying.

Apparently curry isn't going to go into school cafeterias everywhere.

This post has been edited by teleburst: May 1, 2008 - 09:55 AM

[SecondTry]

Quick hits:

Spike - if you're going to do Pasta Puttenesca with an 11 year old, please don't tell them that you're doing "[expletive deleted]'s Pasta". At least don't describe to them that the odor of the olives and olive oil is somewhat descriptive of the name of the dish.

That's something that bothered me, but I forgot to post it last night: doesn't a puttanesca involve anchovies, too?

[WhataJoke]

Let's not go overboard, WAJ. We already knew that the neighborhood had been told in advance that they'd be providing the food for that week's challenge. To say that Bravo rigged that one to favor one contestant over another would mean assuming:

1--That Bravo knew in advance the makeup of the two teams, and

2--That Bravo knew in advance which specific houses would be visited by a particular chef or pair of chefs.

In other words, it would mean assuming that Bravo and the elves are precognitive, and I don't think they are.

As for the discount, the only way that doesn't pass the smell test is if they haven't been getting that discount the whole season. Using the pantry is fine, IMABHO, because that's a resource the chefs have had for most of the season (with specific exceptions, like the 5-ingredient quickfire and the block party), and I, for one, very seldom have to buy EVERY ingredient for whatever I'm cooking; I usually have at least half of them on hand already.

For example, last night I made hamburgers with a bunch of things mixed into the meat. I only needed to buy the ground beef, the Parmesan cheese, and the onion; I already had the parsley, salt, pepper, and egg whites, and of those four, I only used up the egg whites. As for side dishes, I already had leftover rice and salad from a couple of days before.

Tonight, I'm going to boil up some rice, since I finished the last batch last night. All I need to buy there is a box of rice; I already have the butter and the salt, and obviously I already have the water.

Oh I'm not saying they rigged the pantries to help a particular contestant. I'm just saying that they absolutely made sure that those people had Tons of food available. Whether they were told to buy it, given gift certificates or had it sent to them is anyones guess.

But I do think the elves and Tom are precognitive. I think that the MO for this season from the start has been to keep the Amuse D-Bags around for wedding wars. Just look at the previews and you can see its a completely fabricated meatgrinder. Why have peeps that play nice with each other when A-Holes make for much better TV?

[SecondTry]

Andrew weighed 200 lbs? Guess he had a fullbodyectomy.

You'd be surprised. My roommate was over 300 in high school, and he's about 180 now.

[SimonBao]

I thought Stephanie's dish was a real clunker too. However, read guest judge Art Smith's blog on the Bravo Top Chef website. He says the Steph's dish may have sounded gross but the flavors were good.

Gail says, at this time anyway, that Mark's dish was the worst.

I can't and won't taste them, but I'm thinking of what would be the worst experience for me, coming home hungry on a Thursday night?

Mark's not very nutritious sweet veggie curry? Or Stephie's not-right chicken and couscous. I'd eat Stephie's dish, I'm afraid. I like chicken and I like couscous and can make myself get past the sauce.

[SecondTry]

Oh I'm not saying they rigged the pantries to help a particular contestant. I'm just saying that they absolutely made sure that those people had Tons of food available.

Of course they did--but people normally would stock up for a block party. My guess is that Bravo gave them carte blanche, within reason, and reimbursed them.

But I do think the elves and Tom are precognitive. I think that the MO for this season from the start has been to keep the Amuse D-Bags around for wedding wars. Just look at the previews and you can see its a completely fabricated meatgrinder. Why have peeps that play nice with each other when A-Holes make for much better TV?

That's not precognition, that's simply being able to read people. Reading Jen the first time, you know that she's going to defend Zoi under any circumstances, but you'd have to be precognitive to know that her specific action when Zoi finally gets aced is to kick a chair (as opposed to throwing it, kicking a locker, sitting and smoldering in silence, etc.).

[SimonBao]

As I recall, an Irish guy was ostracized by his peers for making a rude comment to the guest judge, and in today's episode, a contestant actually states how he believes a judge just doesn't like him!!! WOW!!! What nerve!!!!! But the peers didnt seem to have any problem with him saying that!

Actually, we have no way of knowing that. Or of knowing what any of Mark's peers say or think about his comments to Colicchio.

We only know something when Magical Elves edit it into the program, for their purposes. For all we know, feedback to Mark on the wisdom of his comments may have consumed 2 hours in the Stew Room. But we see only what we're shown.

I thought Colicchio was shown responding with grace.

[WhataJoke]

Gail says, at this time anyway, that Mark's dish was the worst.

I can't and won't taste them, but I'm thinking of what would be the worst experience for me, coming home hungry on a Thursday night?

Mark's not very nutritious sweet veggie curry? Or Stephie's not-right chicken and couscous. I'd eat Stephie's dish, I'm afraid. I like chicken and I like couscous and can make myself get past the sauce.

LMAO your not serious are you?

[SimonBao]

How were the chefs able to purchase all of those items for under ten dollars? I shop at whole foods all of the time, and it is hard for me to believe they were able to purchase the meat, and chicken alone for under $10. I think that it is not possible to shop at whole foods for a meal for 4 for under 10 dollars. I have purchased a whole chicken before that was at least 12 dollars alone, and there is no way these chefs purchased a whole chicken plus vegetables for $10. I wish they were honest and admit they spend more than $10 on this challenge. Maybe the prices are different in california, but i shop at whole foods and do not believe this challenge is possible. I think the show was not honest about the number of items bought by the chefs. I believe the chicken alone cost these chefs $10 and was possibly not added to their bill. I challenge the show to actually post the receipts to prove they purchased all the items used in the dishes for $10. I love the show, but believe they are trying to fool the audience. As a person who shops at whole foods i personally do not believe this challenge is possible.

ER, we'll know a bit more if and when Lee Anne posts a blog. My own suspicion is that, for this Elimination, Lee Anne provided them with a very limited pantry to draw from. With most of their ingredients needing to be purchased. It's clear from Lee Anne's blog that when the Top Chef pantry is available to the chefs, it's a different pantry each and every time. She adds and removes ingredients to match the nature of the challenge.

[partsgirl]

What, you want them to cater a Bris?

Well, then we would have an occasion for pigs in blankets or franks and beans.

[SimonBao]

I do not think that the show tonight really focused on the problems of the American family eating for $10 for two adults and two children... But to have the winning dish using PASTA is a crime as a big problem with low income families is having to stretch their food with high calorie pastas leaving us with a lot of fat children.

Maureen, I have to disagree with you. It was not a crime for Antonia to assemble her Stir Fried Noodle Meal. Probably should not call that PASTA as it's not even similar to what most people think of as a pasta meal. It was both clever and healthy and she demonstrated more health know-how than Mark the VegMan.

Antonia used whole wheat pasta, which from a nutritional standpoint is entirely different from ordinary dry pasta. Whole wheat noodles are complex carbohydrates; ordinary pasta is basically simple starch. Each of her servings came with only 4 ounces of chicken breast, which makes it low-fat and low-cholesterol. She turned the whole wheat in the pasta into a powerful complete protein by adding edamame to the stir-fry.

So if you look at that dish, it's low fat, low cholesterol, has the preferred carbohydrates, and is packing serious protein, well beyond what chicken alone can offer.

You may not like her, or may not like the dish, but she did exactly as she was challenged to do.

[partsgirl]

Silver, a peanut sauce is exactly what Stephie made, and those are commonly made with peanut butter.

And those can be fine sauces, but hers was just not well made at all. It appears to be nothing more than some chicken broth, peanut butter, some tomatoes, onion and garlic, and just a touch of oil.

That's a bad sauce. No way around it. No heat. No herbs. No spices. Too few flavorings and why tomatoes???

If you look at the camera plate Stephie prepared, the chicken also appears to be overcooked. And I'm not sure couscous was the right grain product to pair this with. With a better sauce, served over a bulgar wheat/wild rice/barley combo, probably be fine. Though not available for under $10.

Stephie, like Mark, misconceptualized this dish from the start...

But I'm still glad she is staying.

It looks like something the cat gacked.

[WhataJoke]

ER, we'll know a bit more if and when Lee Anne posts a blog. My own suspicion is that, for this Elimination, Lee Anne provided them with a very limited pantry to draw from. With most of their ingredients needing to be purchased. It's clear from Lee Anne's blog that when the Top Chef pantry is available to the chefs, it's a different pantry each and every time. She adds and removes ingredients to match the nature of the challenge.

After Ted's blog how can we consider anything that is written in them as factual from this point out?
Unless he wrote that blog from a Mr. Fusion powered Delorian there was no way there was any Polish Sausage in Antonia and Lisa's Dish.

[SimonBao]

Quick hits:

If Uncle Ben married Mrs. Butterworth, would their children go to Rev. Wright's church? Or would they suffer from Al Jolson's syndrome? Or would Oprah just buy them a new car?

Tele, not all Snark is Good Snark. Some Snark is best left in the pot rather than on the plate.

[SimonBao]

LMAO your not serious are you?

I am quite serious.

I watched the same as you did, I've read the same blogs you did, I've looked at the camera plates and read the recipes.

When I want dinner, I need a meal that has protein in it. I need a meal that comes with complex carbohydrates. Both Stephie's dish and Mark's dish are offputting and unappealing. But Stephie's dish packs protein and complex carbs. Mark's dish has neither protein and very little complex carbs. Sweet potatoes have some but they're also mostly simple starch.

Hence, one of those unappealing meals will at least leave my body feeling satisfied and fed. And one won't.

[SivartAlappes]

Silver, a peanut sauce is exactly what Stephie made, and those are commonly made with peanut butter.

And those can be fine sauces, but hers was just not well made at all. It appears to be nothing more than some chicken broth, peanut butter, some tomatoes, onion and garlic, and just a touch of oil.

That's a bad sauce. No way around it. No heat. No herbs. No spices. Too few flavorings and why tomatoes???

If you look at the camera plate Stephie prepared, the chicken also appears to be overcooked. And I'm not sure couscous was the right grain product to pair this with. With a better sauce, served over a bulgar wheat/wild rice/barley combo, probably be fine. Though not available for under $10.

Stephie, like Mark, misconceptualized this dish from the start...

But I'm still glad she is staying.

That picture does not look appatizing at all. And while I understand that many peanut suaces are made with peanut butter... they're typically much thinner. Her dish looks like she glopped peanutbutter in a pot with a little bit ot veg. oil. It's so freakin' thick! This looks like very poorly done Tai food.