Chef Academy on Bravo

Anyone watch this new show on Bravo last night?

It's a bit of a strange concept. Here's the description from the show's website:

Meet Jean Christophe Novelli, world renowned Michelin and 5AA Rosette award-winning chef with restaurants in London, France and South Africa, and voted "World's Sexiest Chef" by The New York Times. Bravo's Chef Academy chronicles Novelli's move to Los Angeles as he opens a test program for a top-notch culinary institute and trains and transforms those who aspire to cook like professionals.

It's part instruction and part competition. Novelli provides cooking instruction and advice, but at the same time the "students" can get kicked out of the "Academy" if they fail three challenges. The contestants are a bit of an odd mix of home cooks, semi-pros, and professionals (including a cook from a submarine which I think is really cool).

As with most Bravo shows, the actual production of the show is enjoyable enough but I'm not sure if the concept itself makes a whole lot of sense. In other words, I'm not sure this will end with a clear winner, just a handful of people "graduating" who didn't fail three times. I don't find any of the contestants too annoying, and many actually look like they know what they're doing (this is no Hell's Kitchen).

I'll probably watch a couple more episodes, but this hasn't earned Season Pass status yet.

I've actually watched both episodes and it's quite entertaining. It's a crazy mix of people that were chosen. Now, the heat will be turned up as it was revealed that Emanuel, the French hunk, is actually a porn star named "Jean Val Jean". Apparently, his name was the hottest thing on Google yesterday.

Digging this show, its quirky, offbeat tone and, as The Lovely Donna mentioned, the odd variety of contestants, who seem to mesh well together. I've only seen Ep #1 but have the second one recorded and am looking forward to watching it.

=R=

I caught the first episode and thought it has the potential to be good, cheesy fluff. I sensed it'll be more about the characters than the cooking. I thought this review on Salon summed it up pretty well:

The Honey-Baked Hams of Chef Academy

I watched some of episode 2 last night. Given that I jumped into the show without any other context, I must say I'm rather disappointed. The chef's recipes all look rather dated in presentation, and then he goes kind of crazy on this one catering girl for putting sea salt on her chocolate. Perhaps she oversalted it, but it seemed like he thought the very idea of salt and chocolate together was appalling. I don't know if I'll be watching any more of this. I might even take another season of Next Iron Chef over this show

I like the kooky characters they chose, as no one seems mean-spirited.

But I thought Novelli's (failed) attempts to humiliate the failed chefs was insulting and, as one contestant said, rude. He looked like a right prick -- and in front of all those glamorous idiots at the party! That was embarrassing to watch.

I am completely done with this show. Bottom of the barrel reality tv that makes The Next Iron Chef look like award worthy material by comparison. They took a somewhat interesting concept and produced utter trash.

They lost me at star anise and vanilla in the tomato sauce.

Me, too. Neither Evil Ronnie (who's been a chef 30 years) or I had ever heard of these ingredients....maybe his grandmother added an Asian twist to tomato sauce.

I'm waiting for Suzanne to lose a nail in one of her dishes and Novelli spitting it out and sending her home in her custom tailored jacket.....puhleeze. (I think she was supposed to be on the Housewives of New Jersey but she was an extra and they put her on this show)

There is nothing creative or cooking-centric about this show-he wants them to be robots to feed his ego.

We may have watched our last.

The Lovely Donna wrote:There is nothing creative or cooking-centric about this show-he wants them to be robots to feed his ego.

What I find fascinating is that the 'students' are supposed to be re-creating the dishes Novelli demos for them and for the most part they can't or won't do it. It's explicitly laid out for them that this is their only goal, yet they continue to put their own spin on dishes, change them around and 'get creative,' then wonder why they haven't passed. It's hysterical how clueless and self-absorbed most of these contestants are -- far more than Novelli, IMO. They feel like they're being treated unfairly when they're essentially being called out for not following clear, easy-to-follow instructions.

As for Suzanne, I agree with you completely that she seems like a surplus character from some other Bravo series. She's so dumb, she doesn't know how dumb she is. If she walked out into the street and got hit by a bus, I'd feel sorry for the bus.

I'm staying with this but I'm decidedly in the 'anti' camp now.

=R=

food porn sinks to a new low

bean wrote:food porn sinks to a new low

Or a new high, I mean Emmanuel is on the show.

SSDD