Off the top of my head it would be "CoJack's" for my munchkins. Jackie would be my sous chef. Colio would be my maitre'd

Aww and you could go all Kojack themed and give out lollipops and shave your head and say that thing he said to the customers as they enter.
Who loves ya baby???
(I think that was it???)

Better than

Would you like to try a rooty tooty fresh and fruity!?????
On Cojack's featured menu...The specialty of the house.....Dare I say it?????

.

Off the top of my head it would be "CoJack's" for my munchkins. Jackie would be my sous chef. Colio would be my maitre'd

I know where you're going. Don't go there. LOL
Jackie would insist on greek spaghetti and Colio on popcorn shrimp. After that menu would be open to suggestion.

Otto got hosed. They refused to let them address the lychee issue at the store. They told them that they had to go back and talk to a more senior production person. LOL. Completely manufactured drama by Bravo.

1. Keep in mind that the interviews are filmed AFTER the challenges, so Ilan had plenty of exposure to Marcel's personality before he said that he couldn't stand Marcel.

2. Marcel tried to sabotage Betty during the comfort food challenge, tried to take credit for Sam's leadership during the Hollywood challenge, moved Elia's food during the semifinals, repeatedly had to be dragged kicking and screaming into working with the others during group and team challenges.....what else do you want? About the only conflict I AM willing to give him a pass on is his confrontation with Frank during the Thanksgiving challenge--Marcel was working under a time constraint and shouldn't have had to waste time hunting Frank down so Frank could move his stuff out of the cooking area.

3. To say that Marcel isn't as pompous as Stephen is like saying that a broken arm isn't as bad as a broken neck. Doesn't make me want to go out and break my arm.

WAJ,
I have to agree with you on this one - Otto did get hosed. The lychees were on the bottom tray of Elia's shopping cart when Elia was at the cash register. Otto was at the rear of the line with an unidentified customer between him and Elia. In the next scene Otto is coming out of the market pushing Elia's cart and while loading the contents of the cart into the back of the SUV Otto makes the announcement that the lychees were not paid for. How does he know that since it was Elia who supposedly paid for what was on her shopping cart. If the cashier did not ring up the lychees on Elia's cart, it seems to me that Elia was responsible for the error, not Otto.

You know.

Oh LAWD here I go...I know you and Simon and the rest aren't followers ....But let let me tell you something sistah girl....I watched on this very board peeps hate Marcel and Hung before the show started...BEFORE!!!

Season 2 may have been the overall "Season of Bad Behavior," if you are looking at the large number of cheftestants who exhibited pathetically bad behavior at least once.

What else would they use the money for? In the opening, Padme says "And $100,000 to make their culinary dreams a reality".

They may have started early on the hate, but I wasn't reading that stuff... and don't know that Board-Hate is indicative of much.

Even so, I'd be surprised if attitudes toward Hung were really similar to those toward Marcel. Hung said annoying things. Things his mom would be upset to see and hear. He did a few odd things now and then, but not big issues. But throughout, he delivered the dishes. He quite often backed up his high opinion of himself. But nothing he did provoked others, annoyed others, distracted others, insulted others, or made anyone else feel creeped out. Or made others want to knock him into the middle of next week. Granted, Hung made no effort to have any kind of relationship with the other chefs but in the end they all seem to have accepted that, and still got on well with him.

None of that describes Marcel, how Marcel behaved, how Marcel was perceived.

And I say that as someone who rode Hung's ass all last season for the things he said.

Morning all!!!

Not sure if any of you read Kanni's Karma Kitchen Blog ..... if you don't you should.... but not sure if it was Kanni or her blogging partner decided too try and recreate the $10 for 4 challenge.

She shopped at Whole Foods ..oh she picked Nicky's dish the roasted chicken and veggies.... so at Whole Foods she could not afford a Whole Chicken and opted for Legs and Thighs... she bought Roma Tomatoes instead of the other Grape Tomatoes? anyway she got the veggies and the fresh herbs and it came to over $20... so much for $10...

Next she went to a cheaper store and tried the same challenge and it came too just shy of $13..... so much for $10 again...

I knew this challenge was bogus especially at Whole -Paychecks...

Morning all!!!

Not sure if any of you read Kanni's Karma Kitchen Blog ..... if you don't you should.... but not sure if it was Kanni or her blogging partner decided too try and recreate the $10 for 4 challenge.

She shopped at Whole Foods ..oh she picked Nicky's dish the roasted chicken and veggies.... so at Whole Foods she could not afford a Whole Chicken and opted for Legs and Thighs... she bought Roma Tomatoes instead of the other Grape Tomatoes? anyway she got the veggies and the fresh herbs and it came to over $20... so much for $10...

Next she went to a cheaper store and tried the same challenge and it came too just shy of $13..... so much for $10 again...

I knew this challenge was bogus especially at Whole -Paychecks...

Actor, I do believe this is another case where the program producers have their heads up their kitchen exhausts.

If they'd been willing to do ONE episode that wasn't about shopping at Whole Foods, they could have unleashed the Chefs into Sav-a-Lot, Aldi's, or whatever chain of discount supermarkets is found in Chicago.

If you want to produce a meal for $10, produce it the real way. The way real Americans do. By purchasing your stuff at a discount supermarket chain. That would have made the episode a good deal more interesting to watch, as that's not where professional chefs shop for their stuff...

Yup Simon your right...... I have shopped at Whole Foods but even their cheeses are sometimes not under $10..... On one Board not sure wich one of the posters said the register said $52 and some cents when Antonia was trying to get the bachow down under budget.... so either they were given a ceiling say at $40 and that being $10 a person and then given a discount maybe that would make more sense to me.

But if only $10 then no way in hell could any of the contestans come up with a dish.

JMHO

Let's not forget a couple of things. First of all, Nikki's recipe is for 8 people and, in fact, that's what they shopped for (4 for the kids and 4 for the judges). So, your costs are spread out a little more than if you try to buy stuff for only four people (as a single guy, I feel this phenomenon even more strongly). So, if she was trying to shop for ingredients for only 4 people, I can see how it might be impossible.

The other thing we need to keep in mind is that food prices have gone up fairly steeply in the past 6 months (especially for such a short time frame). Tomatoes especially have gotten quite expensive and apples seem to have even gone up.

So, it's not necessarily bogus. Plus, I have to think that even Whole Foods marks stuff like close to expiration date chicken parts down and perhaps that helped as well. Obviously I don't know this for sure, but I know that when I shop at Kroger, which isn't Whole Foods of course, I can almost always buy a pack of drum and thighs for 8 discounted to around $7 - $8 simply because its time was near. I don't ever buy them since I buy whole chickens for the freezer (a whole chicken at Kroger runs around $4 - $5 - once again, not Whole Foods).

Just more quick food for thought before I have to dash to work.

I'm pretty darned sure he used white rice since that's what it looked like and I've never really heard of brown rice being used for coconut rice (I'm sure somewhere in the universe has done it, but it's not a likely combination). If he did it, then bully for him for keeping some of the vitamins and minerals, but it wasn't all that necessary, what with the sweet potato and all. And I don't know how much brown rice you've eaten, or how much coconut milk you've cooked with, but the two don't really go together all that well, so, on the very off chance that he did do it, it probably tasted like something you'd feed to your dogs before the Ititerod.

Yes, a little protein was added Just so you know, a cup of coconut milk, which has 550 calories, has 5.5 grams of protein. A cup, which will make a large amount of Thai soup, unfortunately also has 55 grams of fat. To make four servings of rice, you need far less than a cup of coconut milk, so, you really don't get that much protein per serving (fortunately, you get less fat as well). And even then, you have to look at percentages as well. It's all fine and good to get some protein (5.5 g of protein, especially when divided by a number larger than 4, isn't all that much, especially when the fat content is 10 times the amount of protein.

Sweet potato is cherished for its vitamins, minterals and carbs, but not for its protein. Yes, it has a little protein. But it would take 4 whole raw sweet potatoes to equal the protein in 100 grams of a 450 calorie Snickers bar. One whole raw sweet potato has about as much protein as two miniature Reese's peanut butter cups. You know, the kind that look like tiny thimbles.

Maybe we've hit on a kid friendly curry dish. Curried peanut butter cups with a glass of milk. We can do that for under $10 for a family of four.

Ya know, Actor... when BRAVO did "Top Design," a very close clone of "Top Chef," they had one of the production crew blogging every week, and providing all kinds of detail that viewers might have wanted to know about.

Lee Anne *could* do that, but really almost never does. But perhaps they could someone else in the production crew to do that. Add detail about the challenge and the context and who's told what and what info people are given and what really goes on that there's no time to show us...

About Mark using rice, and asserting that the use of rice therefore makes his dish a complete protein...

All I know about the first part is that the show didn't let us see Mark making rice, serving rice, or anyone eating any rice. And Mark is the one who plated his dish, and the Camera Photo of his dish doesn't have any rice.

But let's leave that aside for a moment...

Adding rice to the dish doesn't do what Mark asserts it does. And a chef asserting something wildly wrong still makes me want to make him PYKAG.

Rice, or any cereal grain, is Protein Magic only when it is served along with either 1) a protein that is already complete on its own, such as an egg or piece of fish or meat or dairy, or 2) a protein-rich legume.

Add all the rice you want to a dish, make it whole grain rice if you want, you still do not have a healthy, nutritious, meal. Combine the rice with a whole wheat bread of some kind, you haven't gotten any closer to your goal. You've just increased the total quantity of missing essential amino acids.

Whether there was rice or not, Gail and other judges are still correct and Mark's "meal" didn't offer any complete protein. If he'd offered some kind of hummus or fuul or other beany, leguminous substance to go with his Naan bread, he'd be good. Put some edamame into the curry, he'd be good. The dish wouldn't taste better but it wouldn't taste any worse either.

With or without rice, Mark got it all quite wrong....

Morning all!!!

Not sure if any of you read Kanni's Karma Kitchen Blog ..... if you don't you should.... but not sure if it was Kanni or her blogging partner decided too try and recreate the $10 for 4 challenge.

She shopped at Whole Foods ..oh she picked Nicky's dish the roasted chicken and veggies.... so at Whole Foods she could not afford a Whole Chicken and opted for Legs and Thighs... she bought Roma Tomatoes instead of the other Grape Tomatoes? anyway she got the veggies and the fresh herbs and it came to over $20... so much for $10...

Next she went to a cheaper store and tried the same challenge and it came too just shy of $13..... so much for $10 again...

I knew this challenge was bogus especially at Whole -Paychecks...

Let's not forget a couple of things. First of all, Nikki's recipe is for 8 people and, in fact, that's what they shopped for (4 for the kids and 4 for the judges). So, your costs are spread out a little more than if you try to buy stuff for only four people (as a single guy, I feel this phenomenon even more strongly). So, if she was trying to shop for ingredients for only 4 people, I can see how it might be impossible.

The other thing we need to keep in mind is that food prices have gone up fairly steeply in the past 6 months (especially for such a short time frame). Tomatoes especially have gotten quite expensive and apples seem to have even gone up.

So, it's not necessarily bogus. Plus, I have to think that even Whole Foods marks stuff like close to expiration date chicken parts down and perhaps that helped as well. Obviously I don't know this for sure, but I know that when I shop at Kroger, which isn't Whole Foods of course, I can almost always buy a pack of drum and thighs for 8 discounted to around $7 - $8 simply because its time was near. I don't ever buy them since I buy whole chickens for the freezer (a whole chicken at Kroger runs around $4 - $5 - once again, not Whole Foods).

Just more quick food for thought before I have to dash to work.

Here's a thought for a challenge...

People posting here seem to like it when kids (or younger people) are involved in some way.

Well, have Top Chef host a "Bring Your Date To Dinner" event.

Find some high schoolers, let them invite their sweetie to dinner. But the HSer doing the inviting has to sit and meet with the Chef, explain what their dream meal is, or at least what their likes and dislikes are.

Then, on a very limited budget, each chef has to prepare a meal to meet the needs and dreams of his or her HSer. Including a DESSERT.

Some boys will invite girls, some girls will invite boys, being Top Chef there will be at least one same-sex couple, but there will also have to be some interaction between HSers and Chefs. Could be fun to watch.

And then yea... the diners comment cards really would have to enter into who wins and who goes.

Somehow that seems more fun to watch than The Chaines de Rotisseurs.

Marks blog certainly shows how this was done. They used a ton of stuff from the pantry and made no mention of it on the show.
Couple that in with the fact that you'll get thrown out for stripping produce down at the counter and it sure seems like a fairy tale challenge.

Marks blog certainly shows how this was done. They used a ton of stuff from the pantry and made no mention of it on the show.
Couple that in with the fact that you'll get thrown out for stripping produce down at the counter and it sure seems like a fairy tale challenge.

Thanks WAJ for clueing me in on his Blog .... At first I could not find it untill I went to his web site and there it was!
Certainly dose open ones eyes to how that challenge was done now dose it not....

So NOW I see how they could pull it off by only buying a few items at Whole Foods and then using the ingredients in the pantry at NO Default to the $10 budget.... OOOOO THOSE CHEEKY MONKEYS...

Now it really was a false pretense challenge.... once again those evil elves pulled the wool over our eyes.... tisk tisk...lol

Thanks WAJ for clueing me in on his Blog .... At first I could not find it untill I went to his web site and there it was!
Certainly dose open ones eyes to how that challenge was done now dose it not....

So NOW I see how they could pull it off by only buying a few items at Whole Foods and then using the ingredients in the pantry at NO Default to the $10 budget.... OOOOO THOSE CHEEKY MONKEYS...

Now it really was a false pretense challenge.... once again those evil elves pulled the wool over our eyes.... tisk tisk...lol

Do they call themselves "elves"? They seem more like "smurfs" (maybe puce colored instead of blue?) to me, but thats JMO...

Did they really think they were going to get away with the $10 Whole Foods thing? Must really think we are Stoopid!

While Andrew called them "Dirty Monkeys" I would think Mark's interpreteation might very well be "Cheeky Monkeys" so... post on!

Actor, the thing is.........

If they had such access to a good Top Chef Pantry... that makes many of the meals even more disappointing. Frankly, even more confounding.

Do they call themselves "elves"? They seem more like "smurfs" (maybe puce colored instead of blue?) to me, but thats JMO...

Did they really think they were going to get away with the $10 Whole Foods thing? Must really think we are Stoopid!

While Andrew called them "Dirty Monkeys" I would think Mark's interpreteation might very well be "Cheeky Monkeys" so... post on!