So take the broad personalities and cattiness of Project Runway and combine it with Top Chef. Too early to get too much of a sense of most of them, but I like the two Bay Area contestants (Tim & Yigit) and Zac will probably be providing some entertaining color commentary throughout the season. These two challenges were pretty basic, but I’m looking forward to what subsequent episodes will provide.
Anyone else catch it?
Yeah, I saw it. I’ll keep watching, but so far I’m not impressed. It seems inferior to Top Chef: Real Foods in every way that counts: host, judges, contestants, food possibilities.
I did catch it. I think it is a little tougher to make food drama here than in the regular one — if someone screws up a dessert, it’ll be obvious (as it was this week). So they may need to go for more of the character drama. Someone at the AV Club called it a “gay minstrel show” which wasn’t too far off the mark. Hopefully it doesn’t go that way the whole time (Zac does look technically skilled enough to stick around for a whie).
I actually kind of liked Seth despite his previewed jerkishness. Heather (the good (also Asian) one) looks to be the sort who’s made for the finals - she seems to be at the higher end of ability and likely not to get bothered by the competitors.
I’m watching it because I went to cooking school and for the regular Top Chef, you can make-up stuff on the fly and a variance here or there which won’t make or break a dish. With desserts, that is a totally different animal since those recipes is far more scientifically-driven. The fact that these guys had to cram those recipes (and chemical formulas!) in their head for the duration of the show is going to be impressive to watch.
The regular chefs are going to know the basic things, but in a show of this magnitude, the pastry chefs are going to need to know more than basic things; the measurements for flan, creme caramel, creme brulee, and zabaglione (for example) are all very similar with just slight changes. And those slight changes is what could make or break a contestant (as was seen in whats-her-name’s mousse that was grainy).
With savory, mistakes are easier things to fix just before service (you can strain a grainy sauce, for example), but you can’t fix a genoise that was short one egg when they are 20 minutes away from service and it is down to garnish and plating.
I also like the “Queen” factor! Nothing like the drama of a flaming queen!
I watched about the first 15 minutes of the premier. I had to turn off the TV. Not that there was anything wrong with the show, but I can’t eat that sort of food anymore and it was torturing me to watch it. It didn’t help that I was hungry. Plus, it didn’t start until 10:00 EDT and I needed the sleep.
The desserts in the first quickfire all looked incredibly edible to me. When they wheeled out the Cart O’Chocolate for the elimination challenge, I reached for the remote. I just couldn’t take it anymore.
The big disappointment to me is that shortly after identifying my new imaginary boyfriend he revealed himself to be kind of an arrogant jackass.
Still photos of Morgan for me, please.
I’ll keep watching, but there’s definitely a torture factor.
Yes, didn’t Morgan turn out to be an ass? And the previews make him out to be even worse in the coming weeks.
I was disappointed that they felt the need to have a “twist” even in their very first quickfire. Come on, let them express their own abilities just once. It’s bad enough that they’re already faced with time constraints.
I just don’t get the deal where people are messing with the temperatures on one another’s ovens or turning on the convection fans. I saw some of this on this season’s Top Chef as well. I don’t see why they don’t clearly label whose oven is whose, and tampering with someone else’s oven would be an eviction-worthy offense. I realize that from time to time, they may need to share ovens — but if you’re going to do that, you should have to have the permission of the original oven holder, and you may not adjust the temperature without their permission. Baked goods are going to be a lot more temperamental than savory meals — case in point the meringues that should have had a long, slow oven that apparently got turned up to a hot oven.
I can’t believe nobody is watching this yet.
I have to say I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this but so far I am finding it worthwhile. I was disappointed Tim got the boot last night. I liked his personality and his sense of humor.
I find it amusing that so far the biggest drama queen is one of the two straight men. Seth was a trainwreck last night. I don’t recall ever seeing a contestant on any of the various Top Chef incarnations so totally lose their shit.
And does anyone else think Yigit is totally adorable?
It seems like a fun show, although I have a sneaking suspicion that they’ve picked their contestants based on the drama aspect rather than the pastry skills…
Ack! I didn’t know it had started!
How much have I missed?
Last night was the second episode. I imagine they will rerun them as usual.
I saw the first episode and think I’ll hang in there for the season. We had weather last night and our recording is a mess. It reairs tonight at 7:00pm so here’s hoping for a clean copy.
I’ll be damned if I ever get to see more than 5 minutes of this. What is up with the really whiny bitchy crying guy?
There was already a thread started last week…
Well I didn’t see the other thread and it had dropped off the first page so I started this one. If Dex or another mod wants to combine them and let it run for the season I don’t have a problem with that.
I have merged the two – CKDH
Seth killed me last night. I’m really glad they kept him around. Can’t wait to see what sort of havoc he’s going to wreak.
Personally, I love it. I am quite a FagHag and love the DramaQueen acts and the complete melt-down of Seth. It is frigg’n hilarious.
When Seth was calling his mom they showed a close up of his phone and he was dialing 555-___ .Why? We all know those are fake numbers. Why show the phone?
I’ll put this in a box on case someone reading the thread hasn’t watched the latest episode.
I’d like to make “The red hots were for my mommy” my ringtone.
I am watching, although I am not as into desserts - the drama factor promises to be entertaining. I was really surprised they kept Seth, it seems that he’s demonstrated that he may be a real liability, I could easily see him harming himself or others. I also thought Zach, who was overly snarkly last week when the girl said she was going to go vomit now (the one that went home, and I thought she meant because his dessert was so good it made her nervous), handled Seth’s complete destruction of the chocolate? squares he was reserving for the judges with surprising grace. I don’t know if I could have held it together, especially when Seth was under his feet cleaning the mess up while he was plating.
I was disappointed in the decision. My litmus test is: do I want to see what this person might do next? Seth is nutty, but has technical skills and has the potential to evolve. Tim has this amazing palate and could also evolve. The woman (I can’t recall her name) just seemed boring and had no where to grow.