"Even if you take the questionable stance that he should cook "ethnic" food somehow and that should define his "flavor", it sure looked to me like he incorporated elements of his culinary ethnicity into his dishes."-Stagger

That's my point: Colicchio at an earlier juncture(perhaps via that bugbear, editing) seemed to criticize Hung that he wasn't cooking his ethnicity-post-Hung's teeth-gritting Vietnamese legacy sob story. And, Hung head-slappingly agreed. At this juncture aren't we beyond objectifying reductively-"essential" markers?




of course not

aschie30 wrote:

Stagger wrote:From Gail's blog: "And then there’s Hung. Headstrong, resolute, defiant, provocative. Call him what you will but you cannot deny his talent in the kitchen. More than anyone on the show, Hung has been consistent and the most sophisticated in his cooking from the first day on set. Our finale meal at the top of Aspen Mountain proved this more than ever. We ate so well that night and were thrilled with the performances from all our finalists, but while Dale and Casey served us a roller coaster of flavors and ideas (some delicious, some questionable), Hung took us for a smooth, yet exhilarating ride."

Seriously, though, you have to take these blogs with a huge chunk of salt. They are more often than not, after-the-fact attempts to justify the judge's decision and deflect criticism of them or the show. For all we know, Gail was vigorously arguing in favor of Dale until Tom pulled rank or something.

Doesn't matter to me what the inspiration behind her words are... they are correct.

Stagger wrote:

aschie30 wrote:

Stagger wrote:From Gail's blog: "And then there’s Hung. Headstrong, resolute, defiant, provocative. Call him what you will but you cannot deny his talent in the kitchen. More than anyone on the show, Hung has been consistent and the most sophisticated in his cooking from the first day on set. Our finale meal at the top of Aspen Mountain proved this more than ever. We ate so well that night and were thrilled with the performances from all our finalists, but while Dale and Casey served us a roller coaster of flavors and ideas (some delicious, some questionable), Hung took us for a smooth, yet exhilarating ride."

Seriously, though, you have to take these blogs with a huge chunk of salt. They are more often than not, after-the-fact attempts to justify the judge's decision and deflect criticism of them or the show. For all we know, Gail was vigorously arguing in favor of Dale until Tom pulled rank or something.

Doesn't matter to me what the inspiration behind her words are... they are correct.

How do you know? You didn't eat any of his food.

whiskeybent wrote:Here's what I'm thinking, and I can't believe I didn't come up with this earlier. I'll put a shiny nickel on that it was at the NBC building. NBC and Bravo are both part of the same macro-media conglomerate. Padma, Gail and Ted were on that horrendous iVillage Live show at 11am yesterday, and Dale was there doing a cooking presentation, which tapes at that building too.

It wouldn't cost them near as much as renting out another production studio, it's central and easy to get to, and near all the hotels that the judges are probably being put up in for the course of the taping.

Also, I noticed the filters too - I was convinced it was to hide the presence of well-known and familiar faces in the crowd teasing me with their attendance and torturing me being stuck at home, knowing they're just a few El stops away. Then I figured I was just being paranoid and had another beer.

The NBC Studios dom't have those brick walls as the studio had last night. Again, I can say with a good degree of certainty that it was at RDS.

JLenart wrote:

whiskeybent wrote:Here's what I'm thinking, and I can't believe I didn't come up with this earlier. I'll put a shiny nickel on that it was at the NBC building. NBC and Bravo are both part of the same macro-media conglomerate. Padma, Gail and Ted were on that horrendous iVillage Live show at 11am yesterday, and Dale was there doing a cooking presentation, which tapes at that building too.

It wouldn't cost them near as much as renting out another production studio, it's central and easy to get to, and near all the hotels that the judges are probably being put up in for the course of the taping.

Also, I noticed the filters too - I was convinced it was to hide the presence of well-known and familiar faces in the crowd teasing me with their attendance and torturing me being stuck at home, knowing they're just a few El stops away. Then I figured I was just being paranoid and had another beer.

The NBC Studios dom't have those brick walls as the studio had last night. Again, I can say with a good degree of certainty that it was at RDS.

Again, see my post above from 3:23 this afternoon. Joe Gray (Tribune) confirms JLenart's original guess on this.

=R=

aschie30 wrote:
How do you know? You didn't eat any of his food.

This is self defeating... read the rest of my original post. I do have 8 years of professional cooking experience under my belt so I do have an idea of what flavors are produced with what techniques. You have the result of the judges deliberation (unless you are saying that they simply had reason to lie). You have the fact that no one accused him of having a clunker. I suppose it can all be a big conspiracy but I left my tinfoil hat at work .

ronnie_suburban wrote:

JLenart wrote:

whiskeybent wrote:Here's what I'm thinking, and I can't believe I didn't come up with this earlier. I'll put a shiny nickel on that it was at the NBC building. NBC and Bravo are both part of the same macro-media conglomerate. Padma, Gail and Ted were on that horrendous iVillage Live show at 11am yesterday, and Dale was there doing a cooking presentation, which tapes at that building too.

It wouldn't cost them near as much as renting out another production studio, it's central and easy to get to, and near all the hotels that the judges are probably being put up in for the course of the taping.

Also, I noticed the filters too - I was convinced it was to hide the presence of well-known and familiar faces in the crowd teasing me with their attendance and torturing me being stuck at home, knowing they're just a few El stops away. Then I figured I was just being paranoid and had another beer.

The NBC Studios dom't have those brick walls as the studio had last night. Again, I can say with a good degree of certainty that it was at RDS.

Again, see my post above from 3:23 this afternoon. Joe Gray (Tribune) confirms JLenart's original guess on this.

=R=

Oops sorry didn't get that far down the thread before my response.

Stagger wrote:

aschie30 wrote:
How do you know? You didn't eat any of his food.

This is self defeating... read the rest of my original post. I do have 8 years of professional cooking experience under my belt so I do have an idea of what flavors are produced with what techniques.

You have to concede that this is true, to an extent. No, you're never going to know exactly how it tastes or how precisely it's balanced, or get every little subtlety, etc. But much like some clasically trained musicians can look at a score and generally know how the piece sounds without having to assemble the orchestra, so too can some trained chefs and food nerds look at a recipe and have a pretty good idea of how it's going to taste without actually having to cook it. Admittedly, I think it's tougher with food than with music, but I hope the point stands.

Dmnkly wrote:

Stagger wrote:

aschie30 wrote:
How do you know? You didn't eat any of his food.

This is self defeating... read the rest of my original post. I do have 8 years of professional cooking experience under my belt so I do have an idea of what flavors are produced with what techniques.

You have to concede that this is true, to an extent. No, you're never going to know exactly how it tastes or how precisely it's balanced, or get every little subtlety, etc. But much like some clasically trained musicians can look at a score and generally know how the piece sounds without having to assemble the orchestra, so too can some trained chefs and food nerds look at a recipe and have a pretty good idea of how it's going to taste without actually having to cook it. Admittedly, I think it's tougher with food than with music, but I hope the point stands.

This is a flawed analogy but I'll go with it for a second. Just because you know in theory how a score will sound, it doesn't mean it will be executed well. Anyone who's ever played an instrument knows that two people with a violin can execute a piece differently in the subtleties alone. So if I listened to a concert, and attempted to describe to you how two violinists differed in their execution of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, you'd have to be there to understand it, or take my word for it, even if you're looking at the score and have some idea how it should sound.

Getting back to the original point, however, regarding Gail's words:

Gail wrote:More than anyone on the show, Hung has been consistent and the most sophisticated in his cooking from the first day on set. Our finale meal at the top of Aspen Mountain proved this more than ever. We ate so well that night and were thrilled with the performances from all our finalists, but while Dale and Casey served us a roller coaster of flavors and ideas (some delicious, some questionable), Hung took us for a smooth, yet exhilarating ride."

Nobody can proclaim Gail as being "correct" unless they joined in the experience. Sitting here in the armchair, the only choice any of us have is to either just take her word for it or take it with a grain of salt.

I take it with a huge grain of salt because every post-episode blog by Tom and Gail constitutes a very carefully-worded, business-like effort to justify their decision, deflect criticism and keep the masses faithful in the show's judging process. In Gail's case, her carefully-worded hyperbole speaks volumes: "the most sophisticated from the first day on the set;" Hung's finale meal "proved this more than ever." Why do I think, in particular, Gail's words ring hollow? Well, she proclaimed Hung as being "consistent" and the "most sophisticated" from the "first day on the set." Consistent how? There were weeks when he simply floundered and couldn't decide whether to make some odd white chocolate-cauliflower foam (which didn't work) or do something "classic" like arroz con pollo, the '50s dish which introduced every housewife to "Spanish" food (something he also did not do well). If Hung was anything, he was inconsistent. And the salmon mousse on a cucumber- sophisticated? Please.

Because her words seem to smack more of the party line than anything else, I take them with a huge grain of salt. Look - I understand there are bigger issues here - she's got a job to preserve and a TV show to support. If she wants to get behind the winner and proclaim him as "consistent" and the "most sophisticated" from Day 1 because it's good for her and good for her magazine and good for the show, I understand that. But just like the words of any politician, there's an agenda there and to say Gail is "correct" without knowing anything more than what we saw on TV, is premature in my book.

To clarify, I wasn't trying to address Gail's comments at all... I was just trying to support the assertion that it's possible to get a sense of the chefs without being present and tasting, even if it's a very limited sense.

I do agree, however, that you don't really have any way of knowing whether a judge's blog is an honest representation of his/her feelings or simply justification after the fact without being there... both because of tasting AND editing. Either you believe them or you don't. Simple as that.

earthlydesire wrote:I think she was really, really affected by the altitude. This is not to excuse her performance in the finale but not being able to catch your breath and watching physical science fail on you -- that can be a very difficult thing to overcome along with your nervousness and fear. I think she just wasn't herself and so didn't cook like herself.

I agree. I've actually experienced mild altitude sickness while vacationing in the Colorado mountains and it was pretty miserable. I would be interested to see how much time the contestants had to acclimate to their environment, because being that high up in the mountains can be a difficult adjustment to make. Oh, and the cooking thing is a bitch, too. From what I recall, it took forever to boil stuff like pasta or beans. And that was just for simple stuff that only needed to appeal to my immediate family.

I was kind of surprised that Hung won, mostly because I agree with other posters that I still don't really have a real picture of what his true coking style is. After watching this season, I feel like I got a much better feel for Casey and Dale's cooking than Hung's. More importantly, I think that I would actually enjoy their cooking better than Hung's.

I write this now, before seeing the end credits, so if I know the soundman on the recap program aired tonight it's nothing personal.

Whoever did sound on this show should be ashamed of themselves. I'm pretty sure it was one mic bumping constantly, but man, come on! Either mute it out when the person isn't talking or fix the darn mic position.

It's really annoying and distracting.

I didn't even watch tonight, sounds like I didn't miss anything good! I would LOVE to hear more about the goings-on around town though, for all you urbanites.

sujormik wrote:I didn't even watch tonight, sounds like I didn't miss anything good! I would LOVE to hear more about the goings-on around town though, for all you urbanites.

Sujormik, the Tribune's food blog, The Stew has been tracking the activity as much as they can of the taping of Season 4. Here's what's been written, to date:

WARNING: Spoilers!

October 13, 2007
Top Chef heats up Meals on Wheels dinner
Posted by Bill Daley at 9:55 p.m. CDT

The 19th annual Meals on Wheels Chicago Celebrity Chef Ball was the setting Friday for an upcoming Season 4 episode of Bravo's Top Chef.

In one sense it was all so hush-hush; with the chef-testants sequestered away in their own kitchen area working up four different first courses for this dinner, courses the guests were asked to vote on. Ratings ranged from 1 for terrible to 3 for good to 5 for superb. But in another way it was truly TV-over-the-top, with cameras and boom microphones descending on tables -- one guy held his camera like Desi Arnaz held a drum and lifted it vigorously up and down over the head of one hapless diner. Bravo to the table who refused to sign releases to let themselves be filmed.

The theme of the dinner was "Crave the Elements," and each table in Macy's Walnut Room was assigned an element. They were easy to spot: "Fire" tables had five lit pillar candles inside of a tall glass cylinder; "Earth" had an edible still-life of carrots, beets, turnips and radishes for their centerpiece; "water" had an icy sculpture; and "wind" had large silvery balloons over their tables.
--------------
October 08, 2007
Bravo! 'Top Chef' sure knows how to party
Posted by Trine Tsouderos at 5:22 p.m. CDT

Those Bravo "Top Chef" crew members and chef-testants are at it again. This time they were spotted filming a challenge in the Ravenswood Manor neighborhood Saturday and Sunday, according to a neighborhood resident and colleague.

On Saturday, the crew invaded four homes, filmed in four home kitchens, for the challenge, which took part of that day and part of Sunday, when they put on a faux "block party," including a bounce house and dunk tank. Neighborhood folks -- and kids -- showed up for that "block party."
----------
September 30, 2007
Bravo! More 'Top Chef' shopping spots in Lakeview
Posted by Joe Gray at 11:45 a.m. CDT

Stew reader T. Bauer’s comment yesterday that he'd spotted “Top Chef” crews filming at the new Whole Foods Market on Halsted Street in Lakeview was confirmed by another Stew watcher this morning.

Here’s his report: When he arrived about 10 a.m. for his weekly grocery shopping, he found a store “bustling” with chefs (dressed in “pukey-colored” tan chef jackets) and plenty of crew wielding cameras, big boom mikes and so forth. A Whole Foods employee confirmed they were from “Top Chef,” the Bravo channel's reality cooking show that's filming Season 4 in Chicago, and that they would be filming the entire season’s shopping at that store.

Although the chefs -- he counted 12 to 15 -- were “moving purposely” in their quests, all were “extremely courteous,” he observed. Crew members were unobtrusive, well, as much as they could be.
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September 29, 2007
'Top Chef' filming spotted in Chicago
Posted by Joe Gray at 12:55 p.m. CDT

Padma Lakshmi and company have started filming Season 4!

Since learning that Bravo's "Top Chef" would film Season 4 in Chicago, we've been dying to learn when filming would begin, where the chefs would be staying, etc., and hoping for sightings of judges, like Lakshmi, host of the show, or chef Tom Colicchio.

Finally this morning while doing our weekly shopping at Chicago's Green City Market, we spotted a suspicious truck (no farmers, no produce) unloading equipment about 8:30 or so. About an hour later we spotted Lakshmi, more slender and even prettier live than she appears on TV, buying some flowers.

By then a crew of about two dozen had set up five or six cameras, large reflective panels and a lot of other equipment about 100 yards or so north of the farmers' stands. But we saw no chef contestants, and definitely no Colicchio. Settling in to watch with 20 or so other early morning market-goers (but keeping a respectful distance, of course), we realized that filming the show sure is different than the final product. For example, we heard Lakshmi (speaking for the camera) explain rules for what turns out to be a Quickfire Challenge though no chefs are yet there.

(edited to indicate spoilers)

Anybody else think we should split the TC Season 4 discussion into "spoiler" and "non-spoiler" threads?

Thanks for the link, you guys are great!

aschie30 wrote:
How do you know? You didn't eat any of his food.

If you'd like to eat Hung's food, Restaurant Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace, where he is executive sous chef, will be offering the menu that wowed judges and earned him the title of Top Chef. $130 for all four courses, $120 without dessert.

Small Tom Colicchio sighting: At Fox and Obel yesterday, I thought I spotted Alice Waters. I asked the women at the checkout if she was in. They weren't sure but mentioned that Colicchio had been there recently (and was impressed with the store).

I know that Waters had a schedule of appearances around Chicago recently, but this rather random confluence made me wonder if she might also be appearing on TC while she's here.

Dmnkly wrote:Anybody else think we should split the TC Season 4 discussion into "spoiler" and "non-spoiler" threads?

I'm fine with all the sighting reports but I'd rather not know that the
"tall guy" or the "woman in dreds" have not been seen since the
green market shoot.
Love the idea of hearing of the shoots and sighting but leave out the
"cheftestant" info....

mhill95149 wrote: Love the idea of hearing of the shoots and sighting but leave out the
"cheftestant" info....

Out of curiosity, how can you resist not knowing who's competing? Especially Chicago nods?

I'll refrain from posting about the Chicago cheftestants until then, here's a bit more....

SPOILERS!!





from: http://www.thirdcoasttoast.blogspot.com/

"The Top Chef 4 crew was out and about Chicago this weekend, making their regular run to the Halsted Whole Foods and cooking up some tailgating fare for Bears fans at the game on Sunday.


Meghan has got what may be the first pictures of the season four cheftestants, which she's posted on her blog. Before a Bravo minion called her off, she snapped a few shots as the chefs shopped at the Halsted Whole Foods on Saturday. There are still a whole bunch of chefs left, judging for the pictures. Thanks Meghan for the good detective work!

And as it turns out, the chefs were likely shopping for an elimination challenge that would take place the very next day, at none other than the Bears game! Weber (the grill company) seems to have sponsored this one, as it was a tailgate food battle at the Weber Tailgate Party, pre-Bears game on Sunday. GREAT Chicago-centric challenge. And as I recall, there was also a Weber grilling challenge in season 3. Yum. The news of the Weber tailgate challenge comes from a commenter on The Stew, who reports that her son, an aspiring 13-year-old chef, attended the tailgate and was starstruck upon seeing Padma, Tom, and the like. Makes me think of the little kid in Ugly Betty! Awww. Too bad the Bears didn't win though. ALMOST!"

aaaand...

Actual picturesof the cheftestants doing their thing at the Whole Foods on Halstead.