Atlanta represents and falls flat on ‘Top Chef’
March 13th, 2008 by Besha Rodell in Food mediaIt looks as though our hometown boy may just do us proud on this season of “Top Chef”. Richard Blais was in the top four chefs in last night’s premier, after serving a crab cake to the judges. Anyone who ate at Blais’ most recent restaurant Element would have recognized his saran-wrapped dish with the smoke that wafts out. I have to say, it was really fun to see food on the show that I have had some actual experience with. I remember Blais’ smoked mayo well…yum! Although Blais did not win the challenge, judge Tom Colicchio called his food “forward thinking”.
Unfortunately, the other Atlanta chef Nimma was sent home after cooking a salty shrimp scampi.
I loved that Blais has a competing haircut on the show.
I also for the first time gained an appreciation for what the show is doing for the taste of viewers. The pretension of deconstructed dishes, or the fallacy of cutting the fat off of a duck breast is something cooks and diners in this country need to hear about.
We’ll be keeping up with the show in more detail as it progresses.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Besha, I think you might find the following link amusing.
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/03/13/the-10-greatest-foie-hawks-in-top-chef-history/
and richard has been pegged to win in many a discussion outside of our lovely city, so cheers to that.
Also, I have heard rumblings of our future Top Chef to be doing a burger joint…say it isn’t so! Too good to be true.
March 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Thanks for the link BJ!
Yes, it’s true, he is working on doing a burger joint. However, I think it’ll be kind of like his deal at Elevation – he will design the menu, train the staff and be an integral part of the concept, but I don’t think he’ll be on site as the chef. At least that’s what I inferred from the brief email exchange we had. Stay tuned as I get more info…
March 18th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Nimma is definitely a line cook and probably wouldn’t do well on Top Line Cook if she is not salting things one minute and over salting them the next. She also attempted to make a cauliflower flan (which failed) and instead made something called a cauliflower scramble?! I would never order something like that if I saw it on a menu. She did add some diversity to the show, which is lacking, but was not qualified to be there with the present caliber of chefs.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I have to say I was pretty shocked at the “caliber” of chefs. There seemed to only be a few folks there who are decently worthy – I know that’s been the case all along, but by this season I would expect the talent level to go up. The fact that none of them knew how to make a soufflé was pathetic.