Author: Mike Farley (Page 15 of 117)

Top Chef All-Stars: Jamie continues to skate

Last night “Top Chef All-Stars” resumed on Bravo, and there are 13 chefs left. They began as host Padma Lakshmi announced the Quick Fire Challenge, and told the chefs that they would be going up against a world class chef in a race of speed. That chef would create a dish quickly and they would each have to create their own dish in that amount of time. The chef? Head judge Tom Colicchio. This was must-see TV, because no one who watches the show has likely ever seen Tom cook before. And these all-star chef-testants were in awe of Tom, as was everyone watching. The dude created a fish dish in 8 minutes, 37 seconds that looked amazing, and I don’t even like fish.

So the least favorite dishes were Dale (pad thai gone wrong), Jamie (one single clam on a plate) and Angelo (made a raw dish when Tom specifically said not to). The top dishes were Mike Isabella (made a similar dish to Tom’s–black sea bass with capers and olives while Tom’s was with clams, tomato and zucchini); Marcel (made a similar dish but with Asian flavors like dashi broth); and Richard (grilled beef tenderloin and foie gras). The winner was Mike, and his prize was a new Toyota Prius as well as immunity! Wow.

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The Biggest Loser: no fear of the unknown

Last night was the season premier of “The Biggest Loser: Couples,” and it sure was interesting. The producers always try to keep both you and the contestants guessing, and last night they did that, and in fact they are still doing it as you read this today. That’s because the two trainers they added this season still have no identities, and why they won’t just come out and say who they are is just plain annoying. But more on that in a bit.

At the start they focused on Arthur, who at 5’8″ and 507 pounds is the largest person in density this show has ever seen. This season also includes Moses, a 400-plus pound man who is of Tongan descent, just like Sam and Koli and Filipe and Sione were in seasons past–proof that those folks love to eat and eat bad things. There is also Rulon Gardner, the wrestler who won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics and also competed in the 2004 games, but who is now over 400 pounds. The theme is couples too, which only means that the contestants were brought on in pairs–parents and children, siblings or just friends.

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Top Chef All-Stars: tennis anyone?

Last night’s episode of “Top Chef All-Stars” was mostly shot at the site of the US Open tennis tournament in Flushing, New York, which took place back in August and September. Anyway, host Padma Lakshmi along with Top Chef Master Tony Mantuano announced the quickfire challenge, which was to make some sort of holiday stuffing. Of course, they couldn’t make it that easy. The chef-testants were asked to do this without using any utensils and having to be as resourceful as possible. The winner would receive both immunity this week AND $20K. Wow.

Tony’s least favorites were Carla’s quinoa, which she jokingly referred to as “undente,” meaning it was not cooked enough. She knew it and so did Tony. He also didn’t like Tiffani’s sweet maple stuffing because it was too sweet; and Casey’s mushroom dish, which didn’t really resemble stuffing at all. His faves were Tre’s cheddar/bacon/chili cornbread stuffing; and Marcel’s stuffing with raisin brioche, cherries and currants. Tre was the winner, so he had immunity this week as well as a cool 20 grand. Nice!

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Hell’s Kitchen: a winner and a bitter

So it finally came down to Russell vs. Nona for all the marbles, and if you haven’t noticed, “Hell’s Kitchen” has regressed to the point that they don’t do the finale live anymore. But that’s okay….if they did, it would be two long and grueling hours. As it was, they started out with Nona and Russell being whisked off in a helicopter to the site of LA Market, where one of them would become head chef. But of course they would have a challenge, and that would be to whip up 5 courses in 45 minutes…say what? Really? There is no way I believe they did that. Anyway, Gordon Ramsay brought in some of his celebrity chef buddies and subordinates to judge each course. As always it came down to a tie after four rounds (has it ever not?) and for the meat course judged by executive chef at LA Market Kerri Simon, Russell won. So his prize? Once they arrived back at the dorm, they were surprised by eight of their former teammates being there. They would choose their teams, and Russell had the first pick.

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Top Chef All-Stars–two more go home

The episode of Top Chef All-Stars began this week with shock that Jen was sent home last week. Really, it’s going to be a shocking elimination every week with this cast of heavyweights, isn’t it? But many of them felt Jamie deserved to go home since she got hurt and went to the hospital, thus skating by last week. Then the quick fire was announced with host Padma Lakshmi and chef David Chang. They would break into four random teams, based on how they were standing at the moment. They would each have the same ingredients to work with–to prep and create a meal as quickly as possible using lamb, garlic and artichokes.

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