Last night's episode of Top Chef really chopped my hyde.
The "chefs" were gifted a trip to the gorgeous (I've been, and trust me, it's amazing) Stone Barns, where they were literally tripping over lush vegetation and fantastic produce, and what did they do? They bitched about not being able to go to Whole Foods. I'm sorry, but did we just time-travel back to 1994? Are all of these "chefs" really so unfamiliar with the not-exactly-cutting-edge farm-to-table movement, aka a walk through a farmers market as inspiration for a meal, that this kind of thing throws them off their game? Is this for real? Or are all the chefs just way too young?
During the episode, they, collectively, removed all the fat from a pork loin (and didn't, you know, render it and use it), they took the tender, lovely meat of a baby lamb off the bone and pounded it out like it was a tough piece of crappy grocery store flank steak, and they made CUTLETS (Jesus, 1983 much?) out of the farm-raised whole chickens. Is this for real?
Now, since the oldest contestant got kicked off last night (Ariane), it might seem illogical for me to argue that the reason all of these chefs f'ed up so badly is that they're too young. But I can't figure out another reason for their cluelessness. As Tom Colicchio kept saying (last week with the whole-fried fish, this week with all the meats): respect the protein. Maybe it sounds precious, but seriously: Respect the life of the animal that died for your meal.
When I worked in kitchens, it was always the young chefs who over-worked and over-thought things. Their attemtps to impress were never the "let the ingredients speak for themselves" variety. They were the "let me show you my skilz" variety. Sadly, up til now, those "skilz" are what the Top Chef judges have been asking to see.
But last night the "chefs" were cooking on a farm for the farmers who grew the food they were preparing. They were cooking for people who already know how incredibly sweet that corn is, and (I'm just guessing) want to see that the chefs recognize it too. Can you imagine spending all summer working the soil, weeding, waiting for your tomatoes to ripen, and then having some dufus come in, pick all your ripe summer tomatoes and make a tomato frickin' jam out of them? Tomato jam is what you eat in WINTER because you preserved summer tomatoes. Come on now. Is this food 101 or what?
Anyhoo, Ariane went home for literally butchering that poor baby lamb. But it could've been any one of them. Stupid Jeff and his fat-free pork, stupid Leah and her not-doing-anything when she knew how to tie the lamb. Maybe next year they'll actually get some older, wiser, more experienced, less desperately unsure-of-themselves "chefs" for the show. But probably not.
[where: 98118]
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Friday, January 4, 2008
Food News: Boom Noodle open
...and packed! At least it was at lunch yesterday when I wandered in, without knowing it was opening day. The place was bustling. Looked like the owners (the Blue C sushi guys) invited lots of friends and family to come in; they were working the room and hugging everyone in sight.
I get the feeling the Pike/Pine corridor will be embracing this place.
UPDATE: *OR NOT! The "Capital Hill is the new Bellevue" bitching has already begun over at the Stranger. It's basically the same moaning and groaning that went on when the hideous Mexican place finally closed and reopened as Quinn's.
I find the above complaints semi-entertaining, and I can relate to the feeling of loss over the few great places that have been (or probably will be) shut down or forced to move.
But what I don't understand is this: Where have all of these whiners been for the last decade? And why is this all so surprising to them? Because there were plenty of warning signs that Capital Hill was jumping the shark, or at least growing up and becoming less of a sh*thole. Like, um, Julia's opening on Broadway six years ago. Yeah, you know, Julia's, the brunch spinoff from Wallingford! Not exactly punk rock.
Mourn Capital Hill, and maybe think about moving someplace less glossy (and less expensive!). But quit the shock routine. It's getting a bit silly.
Boom Noodle (warning: website semi-broken)
[where: 98122]
I get the feeling the Pike/Pine corridor will be embracing this place.
UPDATE: *OR NOT! The "Capital Hill is the new Bellevue" bitching has already begun over at the Stranger. It's basically the same moaning and groaning that went on when the hideous Mexican place finally closed and reopened as Quinn's.
I find the above complaints semi-entertaining, and I can relate to the feeling of loss over the few great places that have been (or probably will be) shut down or forced to move.
But what I don't understand is this: Where have all of these whiners been for the last decade? And why is this all so surprising to them? Because there were plenty of warning signs that Capital Hill was jumping the shark, or at least growing up and becoming less of a sh*thole. Like, um, Julia's opening on Broadway six years ago. Yeah, you know, Julia's, the brunch spinoff from Wallingford! Not exactly punk rock.
Mourn Capital Hill, and maybe think about moving someplace less glossy (and less expensive!). But quit the shock routine. It's getting a bit silly.
Boom Noodle (warning: website semi-broken)
[where: 98122]
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Rebekah Denn leaves critic job at Seattle P-I, Seattle yawns
Where's the outrage? OK, maybe outrage is too much to ask for in Seattle, but where's the sorta-loud-buzz within the foodie community? Yesterday Rebekah Denn, the first Seattle writer in who-knows-how-long to win a James Beard journalism award (for her restaurant criticism at the P-I) decides to quit writing restaurant reviews less than a year after she's awarded that prize. And it's like a big ol' tree falling in a big ol' forest.
Hello?
Anyone out there?
Buhler?
Denn has decided to step into the food-writing chair left vacant by her former colleague, Hsiao-Ching Chou, who resigned earlier this summer. And in her "coming out" piece yesterday Denn talks about some of her inclinations and her points of view, but what struck a chord for me was what she says at the very end of the article about the collective inferiority complex that Seattle diners and chefs have about their city's food and restaurant scene.
Having lived there and having reviewed restaurants there for three years, I feel very qualified to say that this is absolutely true. But what I find more interesting is that the very indifference, the underdoggish attitude Denn so rightly points about our city is clearly illuminated by the reaction to Denn's resignation.
When the best critic in town quits and nobody seems to care, one might find they've revealed the answer to the question: Why wouldn't she quit?
[where: 98101]
Hello?
Anyone out there?
Buhler?
Denn has decided to step into the food-writing chair left vacant by her former colleague, Hsiao-Ching Chou, who resigned earlier this summer. And in her "coming out" piece yesterday Denn talks about some of her inclinations and her points of view, but what struck a chord for me was what she says at the very end of the article about the collective inferiority complex that Seattle diners and chefs have about their city's food and restaurant scene.
On a visit to New York in May to attend the 2007 James Beard Awards, I found many of the nation's foodnoscenti talking about our fair city with enthusiasm and pleasure, expressing none of the apologetic we're-not-New-York-and-we're- not-even-Vancouver inferiority complex we affect. Yes, we do have a disturbingly large supply here of the phenomenon known as the Mediocre $22 Entrée -- but the same is true in other large cities, New York included. And, lucky us, we have a rich selection of high-quality restaurants if we want to avoid that mediocrity. The food served at the Beard Awards was fabulous and exciting and creatively enlightening, but it was not, with a few exceptions (read: the remarkable Marcus Samuelsson), from a different universe. Our top chefs could have held their own at the dinner tables.
Having lived there and having reviewed restaurants there for three years, I feel very qualified to say that this is absolutely true. But what I find more interesting is that the very indifference, the underdoggish attitude Denn so rightly points about our city is clearly illuminated by the reaction to Denn's resignation.
When the best critic in town quits and nobody seems to care, one might find they've revealed the answer to the question: Why wouldn't she quit?
[where: 98101]
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The Rainier Valley Bite bit
Our weekend was wide open and the getting-towards-the-end-of-summer events were piling up: Should we hit the KEXP barbecue or stay closer to home and head to Columbia City for the Ranier Valley Bite? We decided to be good locals and went to the Bite.
It started at noon and was supposed to run until 2:30, so when we got there at 1pm we were not expecting this:
Empty booths. Booths that had run out of food.
This is the first year of the bite, so maybe whoever organized this thing thought nobody'd show up. But empty stalls at 1pm? There were only 10 food stalls to begin with, so you can't really afford to lose any of them. Unfortunately, it wasn't just one. Roy's BBQ? Completely out of food. Kallaloo? Out of jerk chicken, but you can have red beans and rice (blah). And while we're at it, where's the La Medusa tent? Or Geraldine's? Or Jones BBQ?
Salima was serving chicken satay which had an unpleasantly stringy lemongrass marinade on it.
Tagla cafe served a sampler of their vegetarian Ethiopian fare.
Neither dish made me excited to visit these restaurants, but hell, they get credit for HAVING FOOD! Seeing empty stalls was a bummer. What I can't figure out is why Columbia City Bakery couldn't just whip up a bunch of their yummy gougeres and sell those.
The best part of the event was the great live jazz.
And the people watching.
We attempted to salvage the trip to Columbia City with an afternoon drink outside at Tutta Bella.
Here's hoping next year's Bite is better, but I won't be holding my breath.
[where: 98118]
It started at noon and was supposed to run until 2:30, so when we got there at 1pm we were not expecting this:
Empty booths. Booths that had run out of food.
This is the first year of the bite, so maybe whoever organized this thing thought nobody'd show up. But empty stalls at 1pm? There were only 10 food stalls to begin with, so you can't really afford to lose any of them. Unfortunately, it wasn't just one. Roy's BBQ? Completely out of food. Kallaloo? Out of jerk chicken, but you can have red beans and rice (blah). And while we're at it, where's the La Medusa tent? Or Geraldine's? Or Jones BBQ?
Salima was serving chicken satay which had an unpleasantly stringy lemongrass marinade on it.
Tagla cafe served a sampler of their vegetarian Ethiopian fare.
Neither dish made me excited to visit these restaurants, but hell, they get credit for HAVING FOOD! Seeing empty stalls was a bummer. What I can't figure out is why Columbia City Bakery couldn't just whip up a bunch of their yummy gougeres and sell those.
The best part of the event was the great live jazz.
And the people watching.
We attempted to salvage the trip to Columbia City with an afternoon drink outside at Tutta Bella.
Here's hoping next year's Bite is better, but I won't be holding my breath.
[where: 98118]
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Cupcakes in Seattle make me angry
Can someone make the cutesy retro cupcake places stop opening please! Jesus.
It pains me. Maybe it's because I lived about four blocks away from Magnolia in NYC, and watched the lame-o tourists stand in line for a half hour at 10pm for a really-kind-of-dry-and-only-decent-at-best cupcake. Maybe it's because I suffered through the same "old fashion-ish cupcake bakery" explosion four or five years ago in NYC. Or maybe I'm just a bitter old lady. Whatever, this "trend" in Seattle is just killing me.
It reminds me of when I heard Jeffrey Chodorow (read his blog...please. it's so worth it) was opening a "Pacific Northwest Seafood Restaurant" called Wild Salmon in the doomed used-to-be 'Tuscan', used-to-be 'English is Italian' space on a strip in no-man's 3rd Ave. He even went so far as to hire Charlie Ramseyer, who cooked so-so seafood at Ray's Boathouse for a million years. Of course, Chodorow was just going for what (to New Yorkers) would look like the authentic deal: Hire a chef from the PNW, he'll knows his salmon, right? Sure. Then send out press releases on what a salmon expert he is. "Did you know they cook on alder planks out there! So Native!" Yep, folks, even New Yorkers fall for this marketing-driven crap from time-to-time.
Anyways, back to the cupcakes. Long before the first Cupcake Royale opened in Madrona, NY was neck-deep in the "old fashioned bakery" trend. And I guess the reason all of these places opening here in Seattle bothers me--besides the deja vu--is that I just didn't think we Seattlites would be such suckers for what, to me, is such an already-been-there/done-that trend.
Anyways, if you go to the new one in West Seattle, let me know if they have banana pudding. That's another Magnolia fave that I'm sure someone's lining up to "borrow" as the next "it" treat.
Blogroll Me!
It pains me. Maybe it's because I lived about four blocks away from Magnolia in NYC, and watched the lame-o tourists stand in line for a half hour at 10pm for a really-kind-of-dry-and-only-decent-at-best cupcake. Maybe it's because I suffered through the same "old fashion-ish cupcake bakery" explosion four or five years ago in NYC. Or maybe I'm just a bitter old lady. Whatever, this "trend" in Seattle is just killing me.
It reminds me of when I heard Jeffrey Chodorow (read his blog...please. it's so worth it) was opening a "Pacific Northwest Seafood Restaurant" called Wild Salmon in the doomed used-to-be 'Tuscan', used-to-be 'English is Italian' space on a strip in no-man's 3rd Ave. He even went so far as to hire Charlie Ramseyer, who cooked so-so seafood at Ray's Boathouse for a million years. Of course, Chodorow was just going for what (to New Yorkers) would look like the authentic deal: Hire a chef from the PNW, he'll knows his salmon, right? Sure. Then send out press releases on what a salmon expert he is. "Did you know they cook on alder planks out there! So Native!" Yep, folks, even New Yorkers fall for this marketing-driven crap from time-to-time.
Anyways, back to the cupcakes. Long before the first Cupcake Royale opened in Madrona, NY was neck-deep in the "old fashioned bakery" trend. And I guess the reason all of these places opening here in Seattle bothers me--besides the deja vu--is that I just didn't think we Seattlites would be such suckers for what, to me, is such an already-been-there/done-that trend.
Anyways, if you go to the new one in West Seattle, let me know if they have banana pudding. That's another Magnolia fave that I'm sure someone's lining up to "borrow" as the next "it" treat.
Blogroll Me!
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