Heh. We have a family friend who was executive chef at a country club, and now owns a catering business. Last season, my son said “I think Robert ought to go on Top Chef. Only I don’t think he has enough piercings to win.”
I’m a bit taken aback watching both this and Hell’s Kitchen and seeing how many of these people smoke. (And I guess it just seems all the weirder since it’s gotten to the point that almost nobody smokes in scripted shows anymore.) I guess maybe, like firefighters, they’re around heat and smoke all the time, so they feel that it doesn’t bother them — but I really don’t see how they expect to be able to taste things when they smoke all the time.
Homely? I thought she was rather cute — although, like Preeti, I found her looks to be very androgynous. At first, I thought she looked very much like a teenage boy.
To everyone who’s surprised by the tattoos and the smoking and the cursing, I highly recommend the book Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Most kitchens don’t look like Eric Ripert’s.
To everyone who’s surprised by the tattoos and the smoking and the cursing (and the piercings, don’t forget the piercings) when was the last time you left Mayberry? Seriously, is this a big deal? I see similar stuff at the mall.
Leaving aside that you just compared a person with tattoos to animal droppings, why on earth would you think that having tattoos or piercings makes one a less capable chef?
I seriously question the taste of anybody so adorned as some of the chefs on this program this season. If they have no taste in one area, there is a good chance they won’t have good taste in another. Since my money and time are by definition finite, it behooves me to seek out chefs and restaurants that have better odds of pleasing my palate.
I find piercings exceedingly repelling. Especially facial ones. Three rings in the lip and a tat on the front of your throat? I won’t even talk to you, much less eat anything you cook. Maybe I miss out on some great people and some great food. I’d almost guarantee that I do. But my hide-bound prejudices are mine, and I’ll stick with people who believe that the idea is to leave this life with the same number of holes you started with!
Oh, good grief. I see similar things at the mall as well, and in particular among the staff at the local Whole Foods. However, among most groups of professionals I deal with, seeing that large a percentage of the group having significant tattoos or piercings or both is unusual.
As for smoking? I’m in North Carolina, one of the cheapest places to buy cigarettes in the country. Again, if I had a room of a dozen people, I would be surprised to see more than 3 or 4 of them be smokers. And, as I pointed out earlier, having a habit that hampered your sense of taste seems like a very off thing in people whose profession depends upon that sense.
How in the world does how someone look affect how they cook!? It’s not like they are line cooks in some roadside diner. They’re all professional chefs with successful businesses or have worked in prestigious restaurants. I personally would probably never have any of their food because those places tend to be very expensive. But your problems with them are simply idiotic.
Sounds like they’re the winners in this situation.
And yet it seems that some of the chefs with tattoos and piercings are actually really great cooks. And some of the tattooed and pierced folks on Project Runway are great designers. And this applies across a whole bunch of other professions, from computer programming to dentistry.
Anyway, i’ve seen pictures of you in some of the shirts you wear. When it comes to questions of taste, i think i’ll defer to the guys and gals with the tattoos.
And some hookers have a heart of gold. There might even be an honest televangelist out there for all I know. But I think piercings are exceptionally stupid and ugly. Does my feeling on this mean I’m going to miss out on some good food somewhere? Definitely. I’ll probably miss some good conversations with interesting people, too. But if I have a choice between a restaurant where the staff is inked and pierced, and one where they aren’t, I know where I’m eating dinner. They made their fashion choice and are being judged on it, as I made mine.
For the record, I don’t mind tattoos, I was just kind of stunned to see that many tattoos at the same time. Not just single tattoos either, but multiple tattoos and sleeves.
When it comes to mouth piercings, it just gives me associations of uncleanliness.
Smoking, I think, comes with the hectic life of being a line cook. The damage of taste is something they are willing to compromise in order to grind five thousand risottos.
Keep in mind, too. these are people who are paid to be creative, original, and different and who like thinking of themselves that way. You don’t try to get on Top Chef because you can make the best risotto using the standard recipe and techniques, but because you think you can take that risotto and do something no one else has done with it.
From what I’ve seen of people who want to be creative and different, tattoos and piercings are one way of showing the world that you’re not just one of the crowd and that you’re willing to step outside the lines.
