Just a minute or two. Promise.
I don’t know how to properly attribute this picture because it is ALL OVER the web, but it’s not mine… so…
I just wanted to put that out there.
Okay, so let me start off by saying that I have never watched Top Chef before this season. Maybe I caught a glimpse or two of it here and there, but I never watched watched it. I’d always been vaguely interested in it, sure – I mean it’s about food and cooking and stuff, right? I like all that stuff, so yeah, sure, I’d probably be into it. I don’t really watch much TV in general but I’m certainly open to it whenever something comes along that fits my interests. Even if I might be seven seasons late to the party.
But I figured, well shit, they’re in DC this season. Maybe I should check it out.
So I did. I watched the whole season long. And the finale earlier this week. And all I can really say is…
…eh.
There were moments. There were a few moments, okay. And I guess I can’t really comment on the entirety of the show itself, cause I’ve heard/read from more than a couple sources that it was a particularly lackluster season in general. But really… there just didn’t seem to be much there. Not for me, anyway.
Angelo’s a cocky bastard who nobody likes. But his food is good.
Ed is a really nice guy but is going to have a heart attack within the next three years. And is often seen to season his dishes with sweat.
Kevin is… wait, who is Kevin? Who, oh that guy? The guy that won? Oh, okay. Yeah I mean I guess he must have been good, or something.
Then again, I guess I don’t really know what I was asking for out of the show either. It did have some interesting and memorable moments, as I said – Ayreshire Farms and Patrick O’Connell’s amazing wardrobe choices, the school lunch challenge, the mystery box with black garlic and ramps, the pea purée fiasco, and of course some great guest judges.
But even those things tended to fall a bit flat. They spent more time talking about the Palm Restaurant (yawn) than what Ayreshire Farms was and why it’s important to the DC area. The school lunch challenge gave them a budget that was more limited than they were used to, but it would have been a fabulous opportunity to focus some real attention on the dilemma of getting good food to our kids instead of just using the theme. The mystery box ingredients, most were largely forgotten in the final dishes of the challenge – there wasn’t a single dish that took advantage of the ramps.
Instead of sending the chefs to Whole Foods every week, why not showcase the myriad wonderful local farmer’s markets in the DC area? Such a missed opportunity here. Why not send the chefs to Eastern Market – a legacy in DC, only just recently re-opened in full after the massive fire a few years back? Or how about the Maine Street Fish Market? ANYTHING – really – just make it DC. Not the inside of a grocery store, again and again and again. And again. Polyface Farms is right in our backyard!
Speaking of “making it DC,” I’m just as fascinated with SE Asia as the next guy – especially the cuisine – but… what? Singapore? Huh? I don’t get it. At all. They could have done something supremely awesome for the finale right here in DC, why fly across the world for it?
For me, the guest judges sort of carried the show. Even though they barely got a few moments of screen time. Eric Ripert, Tony Bourdain, Wylie Dufresne, David Chang – these guys made it interesting. Lots of great moments there – loved watching Tony and Eric back and forth in the space episode. But it made me kind of realize.. this show is not really about food. It’s not really about cooking. It’s about personalities and it’s about drama. You tend to decide who you want to win from day one, based on a loose mixture of intuition and familiarity. Nobody that I ever talked to about the show ever made comments about the food – it was, “Man, Angelo is such a dick!” or “Wow that guy John is really freaky.” And, I mean, that’s okay. It is reality television, after all.
But how much of “food TV” in general is really about food at all, anyway? I mean, do people watch Rachel Ray because she’s an incredibly skilled and brilliant cook? No – they watch her because she’s a huge personality and because she makes people feel comfortable (or uncomfortable, as the case may be) and familiar. Do people watch Paula Deen because they’re having a hard time attaining that high blood pressure and cholesterol all by themselves? No, same story. Is that the way it’s always been, or always will be? Food is all about smell and taste, two senses the television puts quite a barrier on. So how much can a food show even really be about food?
I don’t know. But I know there are countless shows out there now using food as theme in some variety, multiple channels airing the programming, and as someone who utterly loves all things food – cooking it, growing it, reading it, buying it, fighting for it, learning it, and of course eating it – I just have a tendency to find them all sort of boring and flat.
Or maybe it’s just me. What do you think?
