Top Chef
Season 5 is turning out to be pretty good so far. I think more than ever Tom has shown why he's so damn valuable for the program-- he brings credibility to the contest, as well as exemplary knowledge and skill. On top of that, he's one of the few reality show contest judges who can be encouraging even when he's very obviously preparing to boot a contestant off. If nothing else he's an excellent culinary role model. Class act overall.
Part of the reason I watch the show is to pick up on cooking techniques. Not that I'm a good cook, but the ways in which food can be prepared fascinate me, and Fabio's spherical olives mark one of the most unique methods of cooking I've seen on the program. Very, very cool, in much the say way Richard's various gastronomy techniques last season were cool. The olives combined with Fabio stealing the show throughout the episode really put him up as one of my favorite contestants, but color me biased, he's Italian.
I didn't really get the hot dog challenge. Few chefs in the States make their own hot dogs anymore from my understanding (due primarily but not exclusively to how time-consuming the process is), so the judges should have guessed everyone would have just gone with straight up sausage. That's not really a problem since a hot dog is a kind of sausage-- it just made the name of the challenge feel like a misnomer.
Part of the reason I watch the show is to pick up on cooking techniques. Not that I'm a good cook, but the ways in which food can be prepared fascinate me, and Fabio's spherical olives mark one of the most unique methods of cooking I've seen on the program. Very, very cool, in much the say way Richard's various gastronomy techniques last season were cool. The olives combined with Fabio stealing the show throughout the episode really put him up as one of my favorite contestants, but color me biased, he's Italian.
I didn't really get the hot dog challenge. Few chefs in the States make their own hot dogs anymore from my understanding (due primarily but not exclusively to how time-consuming the process is), so the judges should have guessed everyone would have just gone with straight up sausage. That's not really a problem since a hot dog is a kind of sausage-- it just made the name of the challenge feel like a misnomer.