Posts with tag cooking
Posted Jul 4th 2008 8:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Industry

Bravo's top-rated and highly acclaimed reality food show,
Top Chef, has big plans for the fifth season. Like real estate, it's all about location, location, location and
Top Chef has chosen a most unique place, somewhere you might not guess in a game of 20 questions. I'm not going to reveal the place until after the jump, because there may be some of you out there that want to be surprised.
Just to recap,
Top Chef has already spent seasons in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago. They've also had special episodes and finales in Napa Valley, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Aspen and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Traveling to interesting and even exotic locales is part of the fun, giving the contestants a chance to incorporate the regional foods and the style of that part of the world.
Okay, if the suspense is getting to you -- I know it is -- go to the jump and see where season five of
Top Chef is going to be...
Continue reading Top Chef's exciting new location
Posted Jul 1st 2008 11:34PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E14) "My goal tonight is to make Chef Ramsay second guess the fact that he got rid of me." - Jen
Oh Jen, just when we had started to forget you, you come back with the nasty attitude and the chip on your shoulder. Like Mary Tyler Moore, you can turn the world on with your smile.
This is part one of the finale, where final contestants Petrozza and Christina design their restaurants and have to complete a service with some of the eliminated contestants. The returning players are Jen, Louross, Bobby, Corey, Matt, and Ben. Not sure why these contestants are the ones who return, other than they're the most controversial. They're not all the most recent rejects, because Roseann would be in the mix if that was the case and not Ben.
I have mixed feelings about these contestants coming back, which I'll explain after the jump.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 14
Posted Jun 25th 2008 12:29PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen
(S04E13) "Who would have thought this was going to be the top three?" - Corey
I have to agree with Corey. While I actually thought that Corey might make it to the top three (she was strong many weeks and seemed to have the attitude of someone who makes the final three on reality shows), I wasn't sure about Christina. Sure, she seems to have the cooking skills of any of the other contestants and has won several challenges, I just thought that when it came down to the nitty-gritty, she would screw up one too many times. But she's actually the secret talent of everyone who appeared this season.
And Petrozza? I like him and kinda want him to win, but I thought he would have been gone long ago because while he's competent in the kitchen, he's too nice and unassuming, and the nice people rarely win these shows. And he's a mess too, which Chef Ramsay has pointed out many times. But here we are at Day 13, with Corey, Petrozza, and Christina vying for the title.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 13
Posted Jun 18th 2008 12:05AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E12) "If it was men I could have worked that to my advantage, but it was bitchy, pregnant women." - Corey
Tonight I came up with a million dollar idea for a new reality show. It's a combination of Hell's Kitchen and The Mole. Maybe Hell's Mole. Or Mole in the Kitchen. You have 12 contestants trying to get the gig as Gordon Ramsay's new chef at one of his restaurants, but one of them has been paid by FOX/Ramsay to actually screw up the service. Burn the food, put some hot sauce in something that another player is cooking when they're not looking, blow a challenge on purpose. It could be exciting, though Mole would probably have to be change to Mole'.
I thought of this tonight after the sneaky thing that Jen did in the elimination voting...
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 12
Posted Jun 10th 2008 11:38PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E11) "I've never cooked spaghetti in my life, but I've heard about it." - sexy cooking school student
I'm not sure if Gordon Ramsay and FOX planned it this way, but I think they invented a new reality show tonight: The Real Housewives of Hell's Kitchen. One of the challenges has a bunch of scantily-clad women teamed up with one of the contestants to make a meal within 45 minutes. The kitchen was all about boobs and boiling lobsters.
And I think that last sentence will give you a clue as to who went home tonight.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 11 - VIDEO
Posted Jun 5th 2008 2:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Hell's Kitchen

Some of our readers have pointed out in the comments section of the Hell's Kitchen episode reviews that Chef Gordon Ramsay shouldn't pick any of the contestants to be the winner, because they aren't talented enough. I think some of them clearly aren't executive chef level yet, though I think some of them could be away from the weird pressures of reality TV. The winner of the show gets $250,000 and the executive chef job at the new London West Hollywood. Unlike other seasons, this winner will actually work as the head of one of Ramsay's own restaurants, so there is a lot riding on this.
But what if he didn't pick a winner?
Continue reading What if Gordon Ramsay didn't pick a winner?
Posted Jun 4th 2008 12:30AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E10) "I have a migraine...I have a migraine...I have a migraine." - Matt, who had a migraine
I worked with a couple of people like Matt in my restaurant days. Fine when things were perfect, but deep down inside there was something wrong with them, and it came out in scary, whiny, immature ways. Tonight we saw the side of Matt that was only hinted at in previous weeks. But will his cooking skills save him in the end?
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 10 - VIDEO
Posted May 27th 2008 11:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E09) "I come in peace, but if you break my sanctuary, you're gonna feel it." - Bobby, about Jen
This episode was like the Lost of reality cooking show episodes. It not only had one twist ending, it actually had two or three. I'm not sure if what Chef Ramsay did at the end of the show was to really shake things up and see if the teams can get better than they are now or just to shake things up in that reality show sort of way. But I'm sure things are going to get interesting.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 9 - VIDEO
Posted May 20th 2008 11:33PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E08) "Shut up...and I mean that from the bottom of my heart." - Chef Ramsay, to Christina
This episode brought back a lot of memories for me, flashbacks to the day 20 years ago when I cut my finger while slicing linguica on a slicer. Matt does the same thing tonight (via knife) while slicing pancetta. Funny how both the pancetta and linguica are both sorta flesh-colored. I didn't cut the tip of my finger off (though I did go to the emergency room). Matt did cut the tip of his off yet didn't go to the emergency room. If I remember correctly from the episode, he also didn't find the tip of his finger. What exactly did they do with that pancetta?
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 8 - VIDEO
Posted May 20th 2008 12:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Industry, Programming, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Late last year we told you how Emeril Lagasse was going to leave Food Network. Now we know where he's going.
The chef is going to move his Emeril Live show to the Fine Living Network. The show will air in the same time slot (7pm) that it currently runs in, seven nights a week. The new shows start on July 7th. Emeril is part of the Martha Stewart empire now (except for his many restaurants, which he has held on to), and repeats of Martha's daily syndicated show run on Fine Living every night as well. Both shows will air next to each other on the schedule.
Continue reading Emeril Lagasse moves to Fine Living Network
Posted May 14th 2008 12:43AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E07) "He must be on his period." - Jen, about Chef Ramsay
That's not Chef Ramsay singing "Stop, In The Name of Lunch" above, he's screaming an order to the teams in tonight's episode. He screams a lot in this episode (and that's saying a lot when you're talking about Gordon Ramsay). The thing that's different about tonight was, I'm not quite sure what he's yelling at half the time. So the teams screw up and send out undercooked food and are slow getting things done in the kitchen, OK, we get that every week. But this week it seems like something is different. That Ramsay is pissy as well as irritated by the lameness of the teams, and for the first time I don't think he quite gives them a chance. He's yelling at them while they should be cooking and working and fixing things.
Wow, maybe Jen's right.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 7 - VIDEO
Posted May 7th 2008 12:52AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E06) "I don't want to mess with someone crazier than I am." - Matt
Welcome to week 6 of Hell's Kitchen, also known as Everybody Hates Matt. This was one episode where I didn't buy Chef Ramsay's decision at all. He had to choose between three people at the end, and the one who should have gone - clearly - didn't. The one who should have gone second? That person didn't go either. I really think this week was all about "how can we guarantee more reality show tension in the weeks to come?" and not a professional decision. And that's really disappointing to me.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 6 - VIDEO
Posted Apr 16th 2008 1:21AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Hell's Kitchen

(S04E03) "I'm not going to put my head down like some bitch."
That's just one of the many classy quotes from Jason, Hell's Kitchen contestant and future President of NOW. I guess he would call Chef Ramsay a bitch too if he saw the picture above. Let's take a look at what happened on the show tonight, including more gems from Jason.
Continue reading Hell's Kitchen: Day 3 - VIDEO
Posted Nov 26th 2007 8:26AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Watercooler Talk

I didn't know much about chef Gordon Ramsay and his TV work until I had the chance to watch the latest season of
Hell's Kitchen over the summer. Even if I'm not the greatest cook around, I did enjoy the series and its colorful chef. Having been entertained by Ramsay's
tantrums unique style of mentoring and coaching chefs to be, I was looking forward to this fall's
Kitchen Nightmares. A few weeks after the premiere, I must admit that I'm hooked to Ramsay's latest reality serving.
Continue reading Kitchen Nightmares: The season so far
Posted Nov 7th 2007 3:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Celebrities
No, she didn't steal money or electronics or even heads of lettuce. She stole a person! Rachael Ray's Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine has named a new publisher, and it just so happens to be the old publisher of Everyday Food, one of the magazines in Martha Stewart's vast empire.
This is not going to warm the coldness that both cooking stars have toward each other. They have completely different outlooks on how to go about cooking, and when Rachael Ray's show started, Martha (or someone from her show) actually sent people into the audience to see what Ray's show was about. And then Ray put Barry Manilow on her show before he went on Martha's show, and that didn't go over too well either.
In short, Martha doesn't think that Ray is a good thing, and Ray doesn't think Martha is delish.
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