FIFTEEN chefs from around the country, and two from Europe, are the picks for this season’s “Top Chef” competition – which lives up to the phrase, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
The show is again hosted this season by actress/cookbook author, Padma Lakshmi, who also presides at the judges table with Tom Colicchio, chef/owner of the Craft Restaurants, Gail Simmons of “Food & Wine Magazine” and newcomer Toby Young, food critic and author of “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” (in the role of requisite cranky Englishman).
However, despite the fact that they make a big deal out of introducing Young, he’s nowhere to be found at the first competition
Instead, there is Jean-George Vongerichten, as this week’s celebrity judge – probably the most “starred” chef in this city of a million great cooks. The contestants include a man from Italy and a guy from Scandinavia, a couple of Long Island/Queens guys, a woman from Georgia and a handsome-in-a-Sam-Champion-kind-of-way chef from Miami.
There is also a wiry, tattooed guy from Hawaii, an American woman whose parents are from India and a smattering of the usual-suspect types, including the student chef from the Culinary Institute of America and another requisite-type – the overbearing gay guy who uses the word “gay” or “queen” or “rainbow” in every sentence. Totally unnecessary and very 1980. It’s a cooking competition, not a political event.
While “Top Chef” can’t top “Hell’s Kitchen” for fun and entertainment, this show is more about the food and less about the personality of the host.
Of course in, this case, they’d be hard pressed to hang a show on the lackluster Lakshmi, who is all looks and no sizzle. Her name should be Padma Latke for all the energy she exudes on the show. It always feels like she’s posing and not present.
Anyway, since the show takes place right here in New York City – where undoubtedly the largest number of culinary tastes in the world are available – tonight’s challenge has the chefs each pick a knife with a region of the city written across it. There’s Astoria (Greek), Brighton Beach (Russian), Long Island City (Middle Eastern), Queens (in general) for Jamaican, Ozone Park (Latin), Little Italy, Little India and Chinatown.
The chefs are taken to those particular areas, where they must shop for ingredients and then make an authentic-tasting dish out of what they’ve purchased. Since some of the chefs have not been exposed to the cuisine chosen for them, it’s remarkable to see what they come up with.
Great fun, good personalities and some fine food. All in all, the start to another good season(ing).
“Top Chef: New York”
Tonight at 10 on Bravo