I’ve been avoiding discussing Top Chef for one simple reason. I am simply fed up with the show. After last season’s bullying disaster, and the later allegations of how certain people were edited to look innocent in said disaster, I was ready to leave the watching to people with much stronger stomachs.
But something interesting happened with this season. The chefs were actually talented. Sure there was the usual preening and chest puffing we have come to expect from reality shows. But, these people seemed to have the goods to back it up. And I got interested. But, then the show ruined it all.
Let’s back up a little. Last season, we saw some ham handed editing that was meant to make Elia seem innocent in what has now become known as “clipper-gate”. Unedited footage showed Elia – hair still intact- was on the floor laughing as Marcel struggled away from Cliff and locked himself in the bathroom to sleep unmolested. After that horror show, Elia and company happily go about shaving their heads as though they had not just tried to hold down a sleeping man and forcibly shave his head. They merrily went on their way as though Marcel deserved what happened and the only real problem was that the judges didn’t find it as funny as they did. While I blame the contestants for their bullying mob mentality, I have to blame the show for its insistence on trying to mitigate Elia’s involvement.
Now is this something that we should blame the producers of the show for? Or should the blame fall on Bravo’s shoulders? I’m not sure but the show is suffering from an identity crisis of sorts. Is it a competitive cooking show, or is it simply a reality show? It seems that after almost three seasons, we should know by now. More importantly, THEY should know by now.
Let’s have a look this season. The first episode left me frustrated because there are no clear rules or guidelines available for how the chefs and their dishes are judged. Should Howie have been disqualified for not completing the challenge? Well, according to that episode, no. According to that episode the part that he DID complete was better tasting than Clay’s complete submission.
However, if we look at season 1. Dave was sent home because he didn’t complete the challenge even though what he DID complete was judged better than Tiffany’s complete entry. Now it can be argued that in the case of Dave and Tiffany they were much further along and therefore Dave’s omission was the bigger blow. However, we have Collichio telling Dave that he could have put anything on a plate and called it a third dish and he would have won. Which then becomes confused in season 2 when Clay is told that he would have been better off leaving the chops off the plate and presenting an incomplete entry. Which leaves me as an audience member wondering what the actual rules are and what weight is given to each part of the judgement criteria.
But looking more at this season, I am seeing even more problems from the conflict between competitive cooking show and reality show. Lets look at Micah. From general internet comments she seems to have been a much disliked contestant. But upon reviewing the footage I can’t find a reason why except for her being given the “evil edit”. In my opinion she seemed confident in her abilities even if she was emotional enough to make season one’s Dave seem even keeled. But there was much debate over her supposed snobbishness towards American cuisine.
This perceived snobbishness comes from the “Family Favorites” episode. First there was the reaction to recreating an American classic in a healthy way. Right off the bat most of the chefs are unhappy with the challenge. Lia claims to be out of her element because she is not used to creating healthy food. Hung says “All those dishes look disgusting to me.”
Micah claims to have never eaten fried chicken or chicken a la king (which I can give her that, I’ve never had chicken a la king either and I’ve lived in America my entire life) and chooses meat loaf and mashed potatoes because she figures it will be easy to improve upon- which it doesn’t take a great chef to know thats true. Now a lot of people called “bullshit” on this since we later found out that Micah is originally from Massachusetts.
But, I have to say, and correct me if I’m wrong here, I’ve never thought of fried chicken as being a staple of a Massachusetts diet. If Micah had been from a southern state I would be more inclined to call “shenanigans” on that but in this case, I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. Micah goes on to say her “reaction to American comfort food is bleh”.
So, at first I thought maybe it was this comment that caused so much upset over her alleged snobbishness. But then I remembered Hung saying American comfort food was “disgusting” and figured that was definitely a worse put down than “bleh”. So it had to be something else.
And then we get to the comment that launched a thousand hate responses to Micah. “I know that Americans like to put ketchup on, so instead we did a roasted tomato, red and yellow pepper sauce- it’s underneath.” Still, it wasn’t this comment specifically that labeled her as anti-American. It was actually Chef Portale’s misquoting her comment with his “I don’t like the way she said ‘us Americans” that launched so much hate towards Micah. Which is not what she actually said. I mean its right there in the footage, but his misquote and accusation of an attitude is what people paid attention to. For me, the worst thing Micah did in the entire episode was not making a good meatloaf (because there is just no excuse for that). But the show allowed Portale to perpetuate the “Micah hates America” attitude without anyone ever correcting him on what she actually said.
There were other things in the episode that I also took issue with but I discussed that in that episode’s entry.
Lets step away from Micah and look at my latest reason for being fed up. I have to say that from all the seasons so far, my favorite challenge is always the Restaurant Wars. It gives us as the audience the chance to really see how the chefs work together or not. And it gives the contestants the chance to really rise to the top or fall to the bottom of the heap. But my issue this time wasn’t with any portrayal of the contestants or any issue with the lack of transparency in the judging. My issue is with the dismissive way the show sabotaged accomplished food writer and critic Andrea Strong.
Now, you can find a much better discussion of the sabotage here. But, I do think that it was completely wrong and more than a little disgusting that Ms. Strong was introduced as just a “food blogger” with no other information about her long food and restaurant background being given to either the audience or the contestants. Now, I am JUST a food blogger. I have no restaurant experience other than eating in them. I have no formal training as a chef- I’ve only cooked my entire life and love food. So, if it were me or someone with my background as a guest critic then the title would be a fair assessment. But, someone as accomplished as Strong should have been given the same suck up treatment they have given any other guest (Ted Allen, I’m looking at you) who has come to critique the performance of the contestants.
But what really ticks me off about the Andrea Strong situation is that there is no apology forthcoming from the show or the network about this oversight. Instead, Andrea was forced to defend herself and her credentials after the fact on the Top Chef website long after the hateful questioning of her background had already been posted. Hell, she wasn’t even given the redemptive second episode treatment that Chris “yes, I’m a bitch but Madonna is my sister” Ciccone was given.
What’s worse is that she wasn’t really given any kind of voice in the episode. Instead, we have her lumped in with the ridiculously bitchy Chris Ciccone. To make her even more the bad guy, they (the judges) read unedited snippets from her notes aloud while still maintaining the dismissive “she’s just a food blogger, what does she know” attitude- snippets that didn’t even make it into the actual review she posted as the guest blogger for Top Chef. But as I said Keckler does a much better job of explaining why their treatment of her was so shabby.
And these are just a few of my complaints about this show. I like the competitive aspect of it and really wish more time was spent on the actual food. But, I hate the underhanded tricks being played on the audience and Top Chef’s implied encouragement of its rabid fans to attack the people the show has intentionally shafted.
Speaking of shafted, I was really sorry to see Tre go. Shitty tattoo aside, I thought he really had the goods to be Top Chef. I also liked his attitude going in even if his own cockiness got the best of him.
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