Wednesdays are rough days for me. I have a lot of time consuming meetings, and I have to edit an article that comes in and has to back out in less than three hours, plus I have to write my own very timely article that cannot be done ahead of time for something else, and coordinate and approve a bunch of other copy. Don’t feel too sorry for me though –I dump the whole mess on someone on my team who pulls it together and gets it out the door. Of course I still have to get a lot of other stuff done on top of my special Wednesday projects, so the day is just a wee bit challenging.
It’s not unusual for me to drag home late, tired and nursing a headache on Wednesday nights. Typically I collapse onto the couch and stare at Law & Order episodes for a couple of hours. But tonight, well tonight I had Top Chef to look forward to. I know it is silly how much pleasure I take in this show. But it is people competing by cooking food! I love food! And cooking. And debating ingredients, and criticizing (or applauding) the choices the cheftestants make. Oh, and the judges. I adore the guest judges, and judge’s table.
So, first impressions: Is it me, or are the chefs swearing more than in past seasons? It’s not that I object to the swearing, but the beeping out of the swearing gets kind of old. Of course, there were amusing moments. It didn’t have anything to do with food, but “Padma was like, ‘Yo, casa motherfuckers.’” has to be my favorite quote of the evening. I was pleased that Stephanie (I think it was Stephanie – it always takes me a couple of episodes to learn their names) won. Curly hair, nice smile, seems sweet, what’s not too like? I also like the guy from New Zealand. John and I have dubbed him “the hobbit.” Interesting elimination challenge too, having them go head to head cooking classics against each other. I could not believe that the two people who got chicken piccata apparently did not know what chicken piccata really is, and I think it was a little unfair to put soufflés on there. Soufflés are really hard if you don’t have a recipe to check proportions! I also totally called the person who ended up going home. See, I’m being vague so as to not be a spoiler, but it was pretty darn clear who messed up their dishes in both the quick-fire and the elimination challenge with fairly basic, un-chefly mistakes.
I’m not sure what I think about the whole “we’re a couple” thing with the one pair of chefs. I mean, they may both be fabulous cooks, but it feels a little like stunt casting. We’ll see. And no, my problem with it has nothing to do with them being a lesbian couple. If you think that about me, you haven’t been paying attention. I will close by saying this: Bravo, the show works the way it is. You don’t need stunts or chefs swearing all the time. Just interesting judges, good challenges, and of course, talented chefs. Thanks for giving me a reason to look forward to Wednesdays again for a while.
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