American Idol, Top Chef, HP Movies

[mlleelizabeth]

Between the time change and coughing (and I think somewhat from being hungry) I am completely exhausted. My computer person is coming by this weekend and I also have to do a little cleaning, but other than that my plan for this weekend is to sleep

Comments

[oshunanat]

The second Nimma said that she wasn't going to hang out with the others, I knew she was a goner. I won't say that she had a defeatist attitude, but it wasn't as enthusiastic/self-confident as the other chefs. I just got the general feeling that wasn't on the same level as the other chefs and that immediately showed.

As for the classics, the consensus is: the one guy should have known what a piccata was, but all the judges thought souffle was unkind. They also recognized that most of these dishes, because they are so basic, and so classic, don't appear on restaurant menus, so it's not likely to be a part of most working chef's vocabulary.

I'll agree that Ryan is definitely in the judges radar. The souffle guy came out okay because he admitted that he fucked up big time and had a sense of humor about it. It showed the judges the right attitude.

[mlleelizabeth]

She did get the loser edit, didn't she? Sometimes these shows keep the "I'm not here to make friends" person around for drama, but not with those minimal cooking skills.

I sort of agree with the consensus, but sort of not. Most of the restaurants I know still include some version of those classic dishes on their menus. They may be updated and more modern, but updating and modernizing were allowed. And most of the contestants had no problem with them. I honestly think it was more that those four people really don't have the basic cooking skills necessary to make it far in this competition, with the possible exception of souffle guy because, yeah, those are fairly rare and usually handled by the pastry chef, anyway. Plus yes, also, his sense of humor and admission of fucking up helped a lot. Rocco even mentioned it in his blog.

[oshunanat]

I don't know. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially since the first challenge can often be a "HOLY SHIT THIS IS REAL AND IT ISN'T NEARLY AS EASY AS IT LOOKS ON TV' kind of moment.