Yeah, that nails it for me. Did you catch his reaction when Colicchio asked him if he knew why he was in the bottom four?
Hung: Too classic?
Yeah right, moron, they put you in the bottom group because your dish was too classic. Give me a fucking break, dude! It was the same in last week’s quickfire, when he just couldn’t believe that his mix of sweet and creamy didn’t wow the judge.
He’s clearly an extremely talented chef, and i picked him in the first week to be one of the final three, but he just cannot take criticism, and cannot accept that his food might ever be anything less than perfect.
I thought that the time switch that they did in this episode sucked. It was so clearly contrived (yes, i know, the whole show is contrived). Sure, the idea is to see how the chefs cope with a last minute change of plans, but there are times when i’d just like to see them given free rein and plenty of time to produce the best food that they possibly can.
When the judges and the cast and crew of the telenovela were eating lunch, and Colicchio explained that lunch had been brought forward by an hour and a half, i half expected the cast and crew to say, “What do you mean? This is the time we always have lunch.”
I’m just slightly weirded out. Howie stole my braise and original recipe. Behold, Caribbean Curry!. Great combo and definitely not a new idea.
Howie loves his pork, definitely not kosher.
Plus, prior to this I came up with a mojo recipe for a recipe contest. Crazy case of the deja vus. (You can vote for my mojo recipe starting Aug. 1, if I make the cut!)
Howie reminds me of the scarred German Tank commander in Hogan’s Heroes. The guy with the pursed lips.
He also reminds me of the chunky, bald, shifty, and lazy eyed character actor who usually plays the “lovable crazy guy” … I don’t mean whacky crazy…you know, insane.
That’s Kelly’s Heroes with Eastwood and Savalas NOT Hogan’s heroes.
The lazy eyed dude I’ve seen in a lot of films. His lazy and/or constantly shifting eyes are his signature move as an actor. I believe it is something that he actually affects for the camera but doesn’t actually have a lazy eye in real life. Either he has been in films with Michael Jeter or he is in that niche as a character actor. Anybody know who I’m talking about?
This is just a WAG but I think the character actor that Howie reminds everybody of (but who they can’t quite place) might be John Polito. He’s a regular in Coen Brothers movies (he’s the guy who gives the memorable speech about “ethics” at the beginning of Miller’s Crossing, for example), and he’s exactly the kind of actor you’ve seen in a million things but have no idea what his name is.
No, sorry. It’s neither of those. I found a site with an exhaustive list of actors and photos. Unfortunately, I have to plow through them one at a time (unless I recognize the name). I’m done with the As now. It may take a while. He’s probably a fucking W or something.
Hung’s decision to make arroz con pollo to impress a group of spanish speaking people is a dumb as making hamburger helper or a ham and cheese sandwich to impress a group of American soap opera people. Yeah, sure everyone is familiar with it, it is popular, but Spanish speaking people have it all the time (I usually make it when I haven’t gone grocery shopping and I don’t have anything else to make). There is not much you can do with it. Rainbow trout and a polenta cake thing? Lia deserved to lose during the planning phase.
Yea, that’s a stupid move when you are supposed to make a latin themed dish. How easy would it have been for her to make tamales, instead? That’s the latin correlate to her dish. A nice smoked trout tamalein banana leaves might have been just interesting and upscale enough to have won, it would have met the latin requirement, plus tamales keep great in a steam table. And you’ll also notice that the two favorites and winner (Howie’s braise and Joey’s stew)were “wet” dishes that can hold up to a chaffing dish service and storage in a hot box. Of course, the success of the trout tamales would also depend on a nice sauce or flavorings for the trout filling, and it might have been a bit labor intensive for the amount of time they ended up with.
Two or three feet in a fast-moving kitchen is nothing. The other people are not stationary objects to be dodged in an obstacle course: Casey could easily have turned around quickly at the wrong moment and gotten that blade in her hand or across her wrist before Hung would have been able to stop himself. I liked Hung fine at the beginning of the season but I’ve reversed myself entirely now; I would not want to cook in the same kitchen as that man lest I be forced to lay him out with a defensive cast-iron strike to the forehead. Colicchio is absolutely correct to suggest that Hung is a self-centered, unprofessional menace.
Going back to the issue of the pastry cooks, I think that the thing which is driving me the most crazy about this season (although it kinda started in season 2) – and don’t get me wrong, I love me some Top Chef – is how much the judges discourage risk-taking. I mean, it’s always possible that they factor it in in a more positive way than it looks, but I just feel lke they should encourage it more, especially when Tom is always asking contestants, “Did you think you were going to win with that? Or were you just trying to play it safe?” Frankly, playing it safe and staying in the middle until the end seems like a pretty solid strategy, since there are no “bonus points” for trying something new, going out on a limb, etc.
