I was introduced to this article about Susur on the TWoP. Susur has had quite a life, hasn’t he? The preview comment was about his first wife’s plane getting shot down during the cold war by the soviets.
The chefs seemed a lot more friendly with each other in this episode. I wonder if they changed, or if the editing changed? I’d bet on the latter. I figured Jonathan would go home when he said he hated the thought of having to cook for another day, and desperately needed the offday. Of course they weren’t really going to get an offday, and it was obvious there was a twist coming. The busy schedule seems to have hit his spirit quite heavily.
Yeah, he didn’t seem very happy and appeared, in some ways, to be going through the motion. I think the right 3 made the finals, but still haven’t decided who to root for.
This weeks episode was fun. I liked the QF where they cooked from each others cookbooks. It was similar to last season when the Masters ate each others food and recreated the dish. I wish they hadn’t required the soup twist. I wanted to see the dish completed like it was intended.
The EC was handled much better by the Masters than Seasons 4 cast. I remember Jen unsuccessfully attempting a phallic dish. Susur did much better with his chocolate mousse and vagina combo.
Jonathan surprised me. I figured his background in music improvisation would help him improv a cooking dish. But, he went very safe and conservative. Not surprising that the judges were unimpressed.
I’d like to see Rick win. But, I’ll be happy with any of the three winning.
Rick mentioned he’s ADD, so that may be why he seems a bit more tightly wound than the others. I knew there would be a twist with making a dish from the cookbooks, it was too straightforward, especially being given 90 minutes.
I wasn’t surprised to see Jonathan go home, his heart didn’t really seem to be in it.
Rick has skated by cooking fish way too much, I’d like to see him really challenge himself and not cook fish. We already know he’s a master with fish, so by his always picking fish, he’s playing it safe and conservative. Yeah, Rick isn’t my favorite. I was sad to see Susan go, but as said, her dish just was too ‘safe’ at the late stage of the competition.
While Susur maybe “whiney,” he has made consistently good dishes.
I’ve been undewhelmed by this season, and I really liked the first version. It seemed that there were a large number of chefs who didn’t really care about the competition. The three who are left are the only ones who have been acting like they’re in a competition.
The best part of the show for me are the ads for the regular show, showing off Padma’s post-pregnancy boobs.
I’m looking forward to Padma’s return. She’s not my favorite food personality, but she has a natural smile and looks like she actually enjoys eating, neither of which can be said for Kelly Choi.
Not much buzz for this season, but I liked it. Watching this, then Hell’s Kitchen, reminds me of why I prefer TC so much. No trash-talking, a lot of respect for the other competitors, original dishes. No Gordon Ramsey screaming.
As for last night’s ep, I was surprised they gave it to Marcus, since his final dish really wasn’t that big a hit. They liked the concept more than the execution. Marcus ended up with 17 1/2 stars, while Rick and Susar had 17. I haven’t liked Susar all season, but this last ep really made him seem more human. Marcus is incredibly handsome - that sculptured face. Rick seems like a regular guy. I liked his story about how the neighbor putting mushrooms in with her bacon and eggs was a revalation.
Based on the judges comments through the episode, I thought for sure that Rick had it in the bag until the end. Tricky editing I guess.
Marcus has a restaurant here in Chicago at the Affinia Hotel that I’ll have to check out. He also has a gourmet burger stand at Macy’s on State St called Marc Burger that I hear is very good.
I just read Jay Raynor’s blog - him going ballistic over Rick serving venison shipped in from New Zealand. It really pissed him off, and they edited it out. Rick had been “Mr. Sustainability” all through the competition, and then claimed he was “not a tree hugger” at the end. That might have cost him some points from Jay, at least.
I wanted Susur to win, based on last night’s feast. His stories were very heart-warming.
Marcus is a sweet guy, too. And all the chefs are extremely talented.
That was a really entertaining last episode, although it certainly wasn’t obvious why Marcus ended up winning. Not that I minded him winning, but it certainly seemed like it could have gone any way (and the very close star ratings made that fairly clear).
I haven’t read his blog, but I think I’d agree with Rick philosophy in general. I certainly didn’t like Rick’s comments which were basically “when it’s on the line I’ll throw out all my ideals” but I can completely understand his comments about how he’s not a treehugger, he’s just a chef and a chef who wants to make good food.
I can get behind the “eat local” argument, but to take that to an extreme means that you’d deprive yourself of King Crab unless you lived in Alaska or Kangaroo unless you lived in Australia or about a billion varieties of fruits and vegetables (or coffee!). I think there’s a difference between trucking in mass produced frozen crap because it can be created in a vat 1000 miles away at a 50 cents a pound discount and being able to eat and cook things that simply are not available in your area.
Now, would the argument have been better if it had been about something other than a piece of meat that’s available just about anywhere in the world and didn’t need to be brought in from NZ? Absolutely. But the argument’s still legitimate.
Enderw24, Delores Reborn - The chefs had to shop at Whole Foods. Presumably, the only available venison there was the Aussie deer. I was more suprised to see Susur buying garlic that appeared to be in a tub. Did he buy prepared minced garlic?
I think if your winning venison dish comes from Australia, but allows you to feed 300,000 people, it should be okay. That being said, Marcus’ charity to provide clean drinking water is admirable. Susur’s charity was the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, which I know nothing about.
Someone needs to slap Mr. Raynor and tell him that “sustainable” is entirely different than “local” or “no carbon footprint” or whatever. Rick did clearly say the venison was farmed. This implies that someone has a herd of animals that they own and take care of responsibly. The sustainability of this is in that they need to care for the animals and “harvest” them judiciously so they have an ongoing supply of replacement deer being born through the years, rather than rounding them all up, slaughtering them and then being out of the venison business because they have no more deer. (This is a bit simplistic, but it’s the general idea.)
I’d bet real money that if Rick had not been promoting sustainable food all along, Jay Raynor would have no problems at all to scarf down a meal of veal, foie gras and shark fin soup, none of which are particularly sustainable or humane.
(Side note on veal… I was amused with the Next Food Network Star episode this week where someone tried to find veal at a California grocery store, not realizing that veal is so “politically incorrect” that it’s nearly impossible to find in grocery stores.)
On Rick’s venison dish - it was not just the idea that the food came from NZ, it was the idea that the last dish was to express what defined them as a chef. On that point Rick totally failed to deliver. In no way did venison define him as a chef and it truly did not back up his adamant claims of sustainability he boasted about all season. How did that dish define him as a chef? It did not at all. He stated that he only made venison to show he was not only a “fish guy”, but isn’t seafood what defines him as a chef, what he loves? I think that in reading Raynor’s blog he made it quite clear that this was the sticking point with him. And I have to say I agree.
Marcus, on the other hand, showed his complete culinary history thru this one three course meal. To end with an African dish that he knew would be so foreign to the critics and possibly their ignorance of the cuisine causing them to vote poorly for the dish, truly spoke to his passion for his African heritage and his desire to see this cuisine make an impact on western culture. In fact, throughout the competition he kept making subtle introductions to African dishes. His descriptions made me really want to track down some restaurants in my area where I can check it out.
I really developed a great respect for him as a person and a chef and am glad he won against the odds.
OK, so was I in the bathroom for the “I am talking here!” reveal? did it happen 3-4 weeks ago during the episode I missed? (First dates, I think?)
Anyhoo, if anyone saw it I’d dearly love to hear what the actual discussion was, and whether it came across as obnoxious in context as it did in the micro-clip we’ve been tortured with all season.
And a big “F-you” to the producers if they never did show it and put the comment into context. Moonen can clearly be a jerk, but his treatment of his sous completely turned me around. If he can show that kind of fondness for an employee then he’s not all bad. . . So therefore he deserves for the comment to be shown in it’s full [Good Lord I wish I could think of another word than context here, but I can’t so I’ll say it again.] Context. CONTEXT! I want context! ! ! There, I said it.
They showed it. It was in the preliminary rounds. Moonen wasn’t really all that upset, it was somewhat of a mock anger though I can’t quite recall the context.
I was baffled at Raynor’s attitude too. It’s like he didn’t hear Rick say farmed venison.
I recall last season on Top Chef that Rick passed out the wallet cards listing fish that are in good supply. He encouraged the chefs not to use fish that had dwindling populations.
Rick has never said that he only uses local grown food. His restaurant is in a desert. There isn’t much local farming there. He has to truck in food. There’s nothing wrong with that. The majority of the world’s food supply relies on the transportation industry.
I think it’s great that Rick only uses sustainable fish in his restaurants.
I was hoping he’d win. But, clearly his skills weren’t as strong. Marcus and Suser are more rounded chefs.
