Congratulations Stephanie!

Congratulations Stephanie Izard! You just won Top Chef. It was a little touch and go there for awhile. The way the judges were talking, I thought for sure they were going to surprise us all and announce Lisa as the winner.

Why? Well, Tom Colicchio has been quoted as saying that they don't judge the chefs cumulatively over the season, so they were just judging on what they ate last night. And it seemed like the judges liked Lisa's food more than they did Stephanie and Richard. However, looking back, they all seemed to love Stephanie's lamb chops with braised pistachios, mushrooms and blackberries. Tom C. said that the food surprised him, and my gay husband Ted Allen mentioned that he thought more chefs should use pistachios in food.

Poor Richard, he pulled a Casey from last season and choked. And he was a big enough man that he admitted that he choked at the judges table. Many of his dishes were criticized for being underseasoned, his pork belly was not crispy enough, the one dish that the judges seemed to like unreservedly was his banana scallop and bacon ice cream (more successful than Marcel's avocado ice cream of season 2). However, Padma mentioned that Richard had won a Quickfire challenge with the banana scallop earlier in the competition.

Still, I had a feeling that Stephanie was going to win it. She and Richard had been head to head in winning both Elimination Challenges, although Richard had also won a good number of the Quickfire Challenges. From the beginning, I sensed that those two would be in the finale, although I could have sworn that Dale would be joining them along with Antonia (oh well 3 out of 4 ain't bad).

I loved the idea that they repeated from last season of having well known chefs acting as sous-chefs to the cheftestants in the finale. Eric Ripert from Le Bernardin (I have never eaten here but an old boss of mine at Cartier was very good friends with the owner. You would think he might have taken me to lunch there to say thank you for all the times I ran out to get him cigarettes but what can you expect from the French?), April Bloomfield from The Spotted Pig (I have eaten here, and the night I was there David Schwimmer was also at the restaurant. I'm telling you I'm a celebrity magnet) and Dan Barber from Blue Hill (I've walked past it but they serve mainly meat and offal).

It was interesting to see Stephanie hovering over Eric Ripert as he scaled the red snapper. And his comment about watching Richard and his molecular gastronomy, that if a chef ever thinks he's learned everything, he's sunk. Gordon Ramsay could learn from some of these chefs that guest on Top Chef. Even Bourdain knows when to be humble.

It used to be that the winner of the show was given money to start a restaurant, but let's face it, $100,000 doesn't go far no matter where you live in terms of opening a fine dining establishment. If you wanted to buy a Subway franchise maybe. So now they just get $100,000 to do whatever they want with the money, plus a great trip to the Swiss Alps.

So good luck Stephanie, and I hope to come and eat in your restaurant the next time I'm in Chicago.

Keep cool!

Elizabeth

Talking Top Chef

First of all, how awesome is it that there are 3 women in the finals this year (even if it does include sour puss Lisa) instead of the usual one? I'd say that there is a very good chance this year that a woman will finally take the title of Top Chef. No offense to Richard, but I'm really hoping you go down dude next week, and that Stephanie and Antonia are the final two. Stephanie has been one of the most consistent chefs this season. She's won, what like 4 Elimination Challenges? Antonia is pretty awesome as well, although the poached egg deal, is so over.

As for Spike? Sayonara dude. I've been jonesing for this guy to go since like the second week of competition. The whole hat thing, while cool, was getting old. And his need to try and screw everyone over, just backfired on him repeatedly. How much did you just want to slap him when he snapped at Rick Tramonto about the frozen scallops, about how he shouldn't have had them in the pantry? Loved Tom Colicchio mentioning that Spike had been in the bottom 7 times this season.

Ah my Harold, it was so good to see him, although I always get the feeling when they bring him back, he'd rather be anywhere else but on Top Chef? Seriously, you are getting a free trip to Chicago and a real meal, look happy for once. All we need to do is to bring back Cliff and Tre wearing a wife beater and I will be a happy girl. In fact, I was so happy to see this episode that I left during the intermission of Sunday in the Park with George to watch Top Chef. That's kind of sad, when reality tv is more exciting than Stephen Sondheim!

Sunday in the Park with George is kind of about the painter George Seurat but not really. It is more of a meditation on a painter named George who is so consumed with his art, he neglects human relationships. Hmm, where have I seen that before? Not really original and the music was just middling Sondheim. It was sort of Sondheim in his Stravinsky period, sort of atonal and not fun. The performances were excellent and the staging was intriguing but not enough to make me stay through the whole performance.

I think I mentioned that I'm done outlining Chapter 14 in my manuscript. Now all I need is some Victorian etiquette books and I can rock on with it through the edits. It has been hard getting back into writing mode after the long weekend, although I did do some editing. I have a feeling until the end of June, I'm going to be writing 7 days a week on this book which kind of sucks but is necessary.

Hmm! What would Nora do?

Weekend in New England

I'm off to Massachusetts tomorrow for the NEC conference and of course I've left things to the last minute to do, like color my hair, buy sneakers, and toiletries to take along with me.

They are having a little black dress party and since I'm trying to save money for National (San Francisco c'est tres expensive), I'm wearing this BCBG dress that I bought when I was supposed to spend New Year's Eve with Fun Guy. I've only worn it once so far, to Dancesport's Xmas party, so it's due for another airing. Its a little fancy perhaps, but when have I ever been afraid of overdressing?

Last night for my friend's birthday we went to see Shine A Light, the new Rolling Stones concert film. We met beforehand for drinks at the bar at the London Hotel which is next door. The restaurant and bar are Gordon Ramsay's creation, so this was my first time getting to experience a little of the Ramsay mythos. Let me just say that for the prices they were charging for cocktails, Gordon Ramsay should have been personally serving them! Seriously, there were items on the bar menu that were cheaper than the drinks. You can check it out for yourself here. However, the bathrooms were amazing, about the size of a New York studio apartment. They could rent them out and make some extra money.

As for the movie, well, I'm probably not the right person to ask. I'm not a huge Rolling Stones fan. I like them fine but I've never bought any of their albums, I've just downloaded a few songs from iTunes. Mick Jagger just reminds me a little too much of Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt. My friend had a blast, dancing in her seat, singing along, it was a joy watching her have a good time. I have to say that I'm impressed that Mick Jagger can jump around like that for someone who is eligible for Social Security. He was wiggling his bum, pulling up his shirt, dancing around, wearing tight pants. Gave me hope that life doesn't end when you hit your sixties.

It's a fairly conventional concert film. Some interesting bits of Scorcese and the Stones getting ready for the filming and the interaction between the Clintons and the Stones, particularly when Hilary brought her like ninety year old mother to meet the band. There were some special guests during the concert, but they were like totally random, Jack White from the White Stripes, Christina Aguilera. What I really loved were the vintage interview clips with various members of the band over the years.

Afterwards, I ran home to watch Top Chef in real time for a change. I hate when the cheftestants complain about how they came up with a better idea in the team challenges, but no one listened to them. Dude, if you want to be a Top Chef, make your opinion known, and stick to it. Don't claim that you came up with something better when you didn't follow through. Spike should have insisted on making soup instead of the beef carpaccio. It would have been light and palate cleansing. Spike and Antonia arguing about whether they should have made butternut squash soup, with Antonia saying that she agreed to do it, and Spike claiming she didn't. Very passive-aggressive behavior, but I loved Antonia's comeback that the truth was on film for posterity. After last week when Spike made poor Manuel cook Vietnamese food and got him eliminated, Spikie and his hats must have decided to keep a low profile this time.

And then Dale's tantrum later and complaining that Lisa won for making bacon. Umm, Dale all you did was cut up some chilis for a garnish. How is that better than Lisa making bacon with a spicy miso sauce that Ming Tsai just loved. As Ted Allen said last season, everything goes better with bacon (perhaps Lisa watched that episode). I did agree with Dale about not wanting to do Asian, although it ended up working for them. Just because Ming Tsai is Asian and owns an Asian restaurant, doesn't mean that you have to make Asian food for him. You have to be damned sure that your food is going to be good. Seriously, do you think that when Ming Tsai goes out for dinner, he heads for the nearest Asian restaurant? Maybe he might have wanted a little Italian or Cuban food. I found it a little insulting, and so what if Lisa likes to cook Asian food. Its like Brian last season making fish all the time.

I don't know if I'm going to be blogging while I'm at NEC. If I can find a computer on Saturday, I might write up a brief post. If not, see you on Monday.

Thanks for reading,

EKM