Posted Feb 10th 2010 12:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Casting, Top Chef
If you were to make a second season of a cooking competition show, would you bring back several contestants from the first season of the show? That's what Bravo is doing when they launch the second season of
'Top Chef Masters' on April 7.
Entertainment Weekly has the list of chefs that will compete on the show and it features several familiar names.
First the newbies: the new chefs include Marcus Samuelsson, Jody Adams, Govind Armstrong, Jimmy Bradley, David Burke, Susan Feniger, Debbie Gold, Carmen Gonzalez, Maria Hines, Susur Lee, Tony Mantuano, Monica Pope, Thierry Rautureau, Ana Sortun, Rick Tramonto, and Jerry Traunfeld. The returning chefs are Wylie Dufresne, Graham Elliot Bowles, Mark Peel, Jonathan Waxman, Ludo Lefebvre, and Rick Moonen.
Continue reading 'Top Chef Masters' Second Season Contestants Announced
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 11:02AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Top Chef
This item flew a bit under the radar last week, but it's a good way to illustrate what happens with contestants of reality competitions after the cameras turn off.
Fans of
'Top Chef' remember the episode where official fan favorite
Kevin Gillespie (aka "The One With The Funky Beard") won a spot in the finals to determine the US team in the prestigious and demanding
Bocuse D'Or competition. Well, it seems that
Gillespie has decided to drop out of the competition this year, citing his schedule since 'Top Chef' ended. He hopes to try again in 2012.
Believe it or not, moves like this are what made Gillespie a fan favorite. Even though he cranked out consistently solid food week after week during the season, he was also relatively humble and aware of his limits, a quality most of the chef'testants never displayed.
Continue reading 'Top Chef' Contestant Drops Out of Bocuse D'Or Competition
Posted Dec 31st 2009 2:02PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Festivus, Project Runway, TV Squad Lists, So You Think You Can Dance, Top Chef
More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a major category that came of age in the aughts: Reality shows.
While I would never call myself a reality TV junkie, it really bugs me when people make blanket statements like, "I hate reality TV," or, "Reality TV is the bane of my existence." The genre has grown so much in the past decade that it has become just like scripted television, in that there's good and there's bad. Even though we're splitting this up into two lists, "Reality," and "Trashy Reality," you won't see a single show that starts with, "
Who Wants to Marry" on either list.
This list is dedicated not to the guilty pleasures, but to the shows that you wouldn't be embarrassed for your neighbors to know you watch: the
classy reality, if you will. So without further ado, here is TV Squad's list of the best reality shows of the decade.
Continue reading Best TV of the '00s: Reality Series
Posted Dec 20th 2009 3:08PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Survivor, Project Runway, Contestants, Celebreality, Top Chef
A year has passed and there has been a lot of best and worst lists here at
TV Squad. I know tons of reality television shows have grazed my TV so I've compiled a list of the best and worst reality shows of 2009.
Finding the best shows are easy, but it's hard to pare down the worst list. I define "worst" as shows that had potential and never did anything with it. While shows like
I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here and anything involving the words "
Real Housewives" aren't mentioned, they aren't the worst because they started at rock bottom and had nowhere to go. Several of the worst shows I've mentioned could just go through some tweaking and it could have been amazing.
Continue reading Best and Worst TV of 2009: Michael P.'s list
Posted Dec 10th 2009 1:15AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E15) Well, it's pretty hard to argue with a Top Three whose members have won twelve of the thirteen elimination challenges, as Tom tells us at the beginning of the episode. Some of you may think that
Jen was robbed in favor of creating more drama by having the Voltaggio brothers in the finale, but I disagree. She had a several-week stint toward the end where she just fell apart and barely made it through elimination. None of these guys had that, so they absolutely deserve to be here.
However, it is mighty convenient that having brothers in the finale tugs at our heartstrings just a little bit more, since they bring the moms in for the final challenge. I love the idea of having the chefs create a first course that reminds them of childhood memories, especially since we got such good stories out of it. Kevin's mom loves fried chicken skin! Brian was inspired by the texture in his mother's simple dishes, while Michael was a picky eater who "hated everything." I guess he got past that.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Season Finale, Part 2
Posted Dec 3rd 2009 2:45AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E14) Well, if you think this competition was getting easier, forget it. This is the toughest
Top Chef I can remember. These final four were all excellent and as they gathered for the last leg to the finale, you could see that it was game on.
Unlike other seasons, there aren't any obvious villains in this group. Who are you rooting for? I don't know. I like them all in some ways, and yet there isn't a clear favorite either.
I like Kevin, but the Voltaggio brothers have been excellent, too. Their food really does look good enough to eat! And Jen, for all her insecurities, has been great throughout. Tonight would be a close call. More after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Season Finale: Part 1
Posted Nov 19th 2009 2:30PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Top Chef
Okay, take the idea of
Shark Tank (or
Dragon's Den if you're a BBC America fan), mix it with the
Top Chef folks, offer a great grand prize and hope for the best. That's the recipe behind
NBC's new food competition show, United Plates of America. The network is turning to the Magical Elves from
Top Chef -- no, seriously, that's the production company's name -- to succeed in the food field where NBC has flopped in the past. Remember
The Chopping Block? Remember Rocco DiSpirito's
The Restaurant? NBC has more luck with the dieters on
The Biggest Loser.
This go-round is not about a single restaurant. It's about a chain of restaurants. To me, that's a questionable goal. Most successful chains start off with one great restaurant and then take off. This concept is go big or go home. Maybe it's more complicated, but it doesn't sound that way.
Continue reading NBC cooks up a new food reality show with a big prize
Posted Nov 19th 2009 1:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E12) When I saw that the title of tonight's episode was "Culinary Olympics," I didn't really imagine what the chefs would be going through. Were they going to be pole vaulting into the kitchen, did they have to prepare a meal on an ice skating rink? What could be the Olympian angle? Well, apparently there's a culinary competition that's as intense as the Olympics -- and it's not held in a kitchen stadium with Alton Brown doing play by play.
That said, this may have been one of the toughest assignments ever on
Top Chef. I tried to envision how past season winners -- let alone the runners up -- would have done in the same circumstances that these final five faced. I can't say for sure that I can think of one that would have aced it ... and for how this five did, read on.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Culinary Olympics
Posted Nov 12th 2009 9:29AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E11) This episode isn't about drama, stunts, or (gasp!)
vegetarians. It is simply a case of "we have six chefs and we need to get down to five," so it kind of felt like a filler episode. The guest judge was Nigella Lawson, and while
Nigella Lawson would be a welcome edition to any TV show, there just isn't a whole lot going on here.
Although, I will say that the quickfire challenge probably provided foodie fantasy fodder worldwide, as it opened up with Padma in bed, wearing a robe with tousled hair -- and if that wasn't enough, we find that Nigella is also in a robe and in bed as well. Granted, they're different beds, but still: same room. The ostensible reason for this was to to a breakfast in bed Quickfire challenge, but come on-- they didn't have
Tom Colicchio in that bed.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Strip Around The World
Posted Oct 29th 2009 12:40AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E10) After last week's restaurant wars, which I found really disappointing, I was hoping for a really tough challenge tonight. As
Hemal guessed, having Natalie Portman as a guest judge did turn this main competition into a vegetarian duel. Oooh, yum. Vegetables. More about the kale and mushrooms after the jump.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Meat Natalie
Posted Oct 27th 2009 8:00PM by Hemal Jhaveri
Filed under: OpEd, Top Chef
There's always an actor or an actress that, for whatever reason, raises your ire so much you can't stand to see the person in anything, be it a TV show, movie or glossy magazine spread. However irrational it is, his or her presence is enough to set your teeth on edge.
This week, I have to decide if my love for the Voltaggio brothers out weighs my dislike of Natalie Portman.
Until recently, I didn't particularly feel one way or the other about Natalie Portman, who's set to be the guest judge on
Top Chef this week, but after reading her
recent editorial preaching the upside of vegetarianism on
Huffington Post, I'm ready to add her to my small but intense list.
Continue reading Why I may have to boycott this week's episode of Top Chef
Posted Oct 26th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Top Chef
If you're a fan of
Top Chef, there's nothing tougher for the contestants than desserts. Just this past week during 'restaurant wars,' did you notice that one team decided to have no desserts on their menu at all. They just didn't want to risk blowing it.
Well, Bravo noticed, not just last week but all through the
Top Chef series.
Bravo's creating a Top Chef spinoff called Just Desserts in which chefs will have no choice, they'll have to deal with sugar, icing, cakes and struedels.
Top Chef: Just Desserts is the second
Top Chef spinoff, after
Top Chef Masters. I'm anticipating
Top Chef: Maitre D's down the road, aren't you?
Continue reading Bravo orders from the Dessert menu
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 2:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Top Chef
As far as I can tell, from comments on this site and other sites I've looked at,
Top Chef Masters wasn't loved by fans half as much as fans love the original
Top Chef. I think fans want two things from their food competition shows: more conflict and a sense that the contestant isn't necessarily a "master" at cooking (though being a chef is fine). For the most part, the chefs on the first season of
Masters were nice and professional, and I think that the fact that they're all great chefs already zapped some of the tension that usually comes with the judging segments of the show. Plus the chefs competed in sections, not usually all against each other.
Continue reading Top Chef Masters coming back for season two (with a new judge)
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 10:29AM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E09) The thing that sets
Top Chef apart from similar shows such as
Project Runway or
Hell's Kitchen, is the level of professionalism on display. While both of those shows have strong contestants, on the whole, the pool seems more amateurish than those on
Top Chef. This was clearly evident in this week's episode with the Quickfire Challenge.
The challenge, in which the contestants had to go in blind and complete a dish in ten-minute segments was amazing. I was thoroughly impressed with not only the fact that they could do this in the first place, but with how cool and calm everyone stayed. There wasn't a single contestant who didn't seem completely professional-- a fact that was evident when you saw how impressed guest judge Rick Moonen was with everyone.
Continue reading Review: Top Chef - Restaurant Wars
Posted Oct 15th 2009 1:10AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Top Chef
(S06E08) Well, things have certainly heated up on
Top Chef, haven't they? Oh, I'm not talking about in the kitchen; I'm talking about in the house. These chefs are getting testy, or some are. Eli mentioned in the open that there was a lot of "emotional stress." Well, he should know because he's behind some of it. Then there's motor mouth Robin. Could she really be as yappy as she appears to be on camera?
Continue reading Top Chef: Pigs and Pinot
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