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Review: Top Chef - Meat Natalie

top_chef_Padma_tom_colicchio
(S06E10)
After last week's restaurant wars, which I found really disappointing, I was hoping for a really tough challenge tonight. As Hemal guessed, having Natalie Portman as a guest judge did turn this main competition into a vegetarian duel. Oooh, yum. Vegetables. More about the kale and mushrooms after the jump.

Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Meat Natalie

Top Chef: Pigs and Pinot

top_chef_tom_colicchio_season_six
(S06E08)
Well, things have certainly heated up on Top Chef, haven't they? Oh, I'm not talking about in the kitchen; I'm talking about in the house. These chefs are getting testy, or some are. Eli mentioned in the open that there was a lot of "emotional stress." Well, he should know because he's behind some of it. Then there's motor mouth Robin. Could she really be as yappy as she appears to be on camera?

Continue reading Top Chef: Pigs and Pinot

Hell's Kitchen: Season Finale - open thread

Hell's Kitchen
I haven't watched this season of Hell's Kitchen since the second episode. But I have them all recorded just in case I wanted to get back into it and maybe I'll take one of these weekend days and do a marathon. Of course, since I'm writing this post I already know who won, but it won't ruin the season for me. It's all about the journey (and a chef yelling at people).

So were you surprised by who won?

[Watch episodes and clips of Hell's Kitchen and other shows at SlashControl.]

Bravo bringing back Top Chef for seventh season

padma_lakshmi_top_chefAmid the real housewives and matchmakers, millionaire real estate brokers and house flippers, there is one unscripted series that has been top shelf on Bravo. With Project Runway not on Lifetime, the best of Bravo's reality is Top Chef. In the five seasons past and the current season playing out, Top Chef has been a winner for the cable net, so it's not a big surprise that today Bravo renewed Top Chef for a seventh season.

If I were a drinker, I'd drink to that. Top Chef is in the midst of season six, which is shaping up to be one of the best yet. The location, Las Vegas, has opened up a lot of options for challenges, including a French food episode that might have been one of the most intense ever on the series.

Continue reading Bravo bringing back Top Chef for seventh season

Just watch this: Sam the cooking guy is great!

sam_zein_FitTVRecently, I was channel surfing and I stopped on a show called Just Cook This! With Sam the Cooking Guy. The fact that it was on FitTV nearly made me move on (to me a healthy cooking show is oxymoronic!), but this guy Sam, the cooking guy, kept me tuned in. Well, I can now say without equivocation, Just Cook This! is my new favorite food show and I'm in love with Sam.

Sam is actually not a formally trained chef or a caterer turned cook or a restaurateur or any of the other types that have made their way to TV. I looked him up and Sam Zein was a regular Joe, working for a pharmaceutical company, who dumped it all to make a TV show about travel, which turned into a food program instead. FitTV, which is part of Discovery, probably bought the show because they liked Sam. And that's the beauty of the show.

Continue reading Just watch this: Sam the cooking guy is great!

Mad Men: Salt on ice cream?!?

Mad Men
This isn't a blog where we talk about food and drink (that's what Slashfood is for), but something happened on the most recent episode of Mad Men that I wanted to talk about. It was a shocking moment, something that a lot of people were talking about the next day.

Gene put salt on his ice cream!

Continue reading Mad Men: Salt on ice cream?!?

Top Chef: Vivre Las Vegas

Top_Chef_Las_Vegas_group
(S06E04)
If the names Joël Robuchon, Daniel Boulud, Hubert Keller, Laurent Tourondel and Jean Joho don't strike fear in your heart, you are probably not a Top Chef contestant. Even Tom Colicchio seemed über-impressed by these French chefs. This season the producers have really turned up the heat on Top Chef, pushing the chefs to truly earn the title of Top Chef as never before. This challenge -- cooking for the aforementioned master chefs -- was the most difficult in the series yet.

Continue reading Top Chef: Vivre Las Vegas

Top Chef: Las Vegas (season premiere)

top_chef_las_vegas
(S06E01) The producers of Top Chef must have listened to the criticism from the last edition of the show, the one set in New York with the contestants housed in Brooklyn. Despite being in perhaps the most exciting culinary city in the world, TC-NY was pedestrian. Well, Top Chef season six, is in Las Vegas and judging by the premiere, the stakes -- as they said a few times -- have been set very high. The round-up of players was filled with James Beard awardees, Michelin star cooks, people who have restaurants already... and a couple of others who have something to prove.

Continue reading Top Chef: Las Vegas (season premiere)

Top Chef Masters: Masters of Disaster - open thread

Top Chef Masters

Last night's episode of Top Chef Masters upped the "reality show" factor on the show, as former Top Chef contestants came back and controversy was injected. This was most evident in the confrontation Dale had with Michael Chiarello (KEY-a-rello). More controversy isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to a cooking show (it's been good to see civility), but it certainly spiced things up.

I thought this was the finale, but it's not. The finale is actually going to be aired next Wednesday at 10:15 PM, after the premiere of Top Chef: Las Vegas. That's confusing.

I'm a glutton for Man v. Food

Adam Richman Man v FoodThe idea of a guy traveling around America and making a glutton of himself in a different city every week doesn't sound, at first blush, very appealing to me. No one needs another over-eating American stereotype gorging themselves for our amusement every week. Did we learn nothing from Morgan Spurlock?

That said, I love Man v. Food, which begins its second season tonight at 10PM on the Travel Channel. I love the show mainly because I like the host, Adam Richman. Richman is amiable and a bit shlubby, and I identify with that. And as unpleasant as that stereotype of the gluttonous American might be, I love comfort food, and that's what Man v. Food is all about.

Continue reading I'm a glutton for Man v. Food

Sneak Peek: Adam Richman eats hot stuff on a new Man vs. Food

The new season of Man vs. Food starts tomorrow on Travel Channel. If you've never seen it, host Adam Richman goes around to various eating establishments across the country and eats stuff. Not just anything on a menu, we're talking about giant hamburgers, a 13-pound pizza, 12 egg omelets, stuff like that. In tomorrow's episode he eats a burger so hot he has to wear gloves.

Introducing The Lard Channel

I thought we already had a Lard Channel, only it's called Food Network.

This clip is from Jimmy Kimmel Live. It's the Lard Channel, where all of the programming is based around fat people, who seem to be all the rage these days. Before he is crucified for dumping on people who are overweight, please note that ending of the clip.

Five reasons why Jeffrey will win The Next Food Network Star

Jeffrey_Saad_Food_Network_StarJacob at FoodNetworkAddict.com has come up with five good reasons why he thinks Melissa Darabian will win The Next Food Network Star when the competition wraps next Sunday. His points are well thought out, especially the one that suggests that Melissa's journey on the show has been dramatically edited to make her seem like an underdog who has now emerged as a dynamic player. However, I'm banking on Jeffrey Saad to win. Here's my five reasons:

1. The likability factor
Since the opening episode, there hasn't been a more attractive and likable competitor on The Next Food Network Star. Jeffrey makes viewers feel comfortable, like a Tom Selleck or James Garner, and when you're talking about TV personalities, that's the most important asset. Jeffrey would be welcomed on TVs in living rooms -- and kitchens -- around the country.

Continue reading Five reasons why Jeffrey will win The Next Food Network Star

Hell's Kitchen season six -- An early look

Hell's Kitchen 6
Every single season - hell, every single episode - the dramatic announcer of Hell's Kitchen tells us that "this will be the most explosive episode of Hell's Kitchen ever!" or "for the first time on Hell's Kitchen..." But this season, all of those proclamations might actually be true.

Of course, that's not necessarily a good thing, because it could easily turn into The Real World or Big Brother and be more about the confrontations and the personality conflicts than the actual cooking and choosing of a chef. I mean, in the first two episodes alone there are more confrontations and yelling and accusations and fisticuffs - yes, fisticuffs - than in whole seasons of other cooking reality shows.

Continue reading Hell's Kitchen season six -- An early look

The Next Food Network Star: Rachael Ray - open thread

Bob TuschmanNo, the next Food Network star isn't going to be Rachael Ray. She already has several shows on the network. "Rachael Ray" was the title of last night's episode, as the remaining contestants had to go on her show and do a team cooking presentation.

Does someone know if this episode is going to air or will it air when new episodes of the show start up again? It would be weird for the episode to air after the winner of NFNS is crowned.

Continue reading The Next Food Network Star: Rachael Ray - open thread

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