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| Zooey Deschanel Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images |
When she added "no eggs or dairy" -- never uttering the word "vegan" -- and professed her intolerance for soy or wheat, we sensed the evil guiding hand of the show's producers, eager to ratchet up the tension for the five remaining celeb chefs. The only way they could've played it up more would have been to have her break plates and pull a "Mommie Dearest" at the dinner table: "I told you, no gluten ingredients EVER!"
No such luck. The star of the heavily Bravo-promoted "500 Days of Summer" was a model of apologetic demureness when she met the cooks pre-meal, although she did decline Michael Chiarello's request to sing couple of a cappella songs in exchange for his culinary handiwork.
Behind her back, the Italian cuisine maestro was the most outwardly offended by the restrictions, calling them "off-putting."
The comment seemed all the more surprising when he whipped up, for Zooey and her hipster entourage, a lovely dish of store-bought quinoa pasta with his own heirloom-tomato salsa. His simple, fresh ingredients, highlighted by topnotch oil and seasonings, easily took top honors.
But as always, irony, thy name is "Top Chef." Tasked with the challenge of a vegan dessert, the fabulously flustered Art Smith was criticized by the judges for committing the very same crime as Chiarello: buying a premade main ingredient. But while Chiarello was at least able to justify his choice -- Italians will often select dried pasta over fresh -- no one was letting Smith off the hook for buying a few quarts of frozen vanilla Rice Dream and slopping it on a plate with fresh strawberries and homemade almond brittle. (Honestly, can you blame them? That stuff tastes like a pile of freezer-burnt Rice Krispies.)
In the end, Smith was asked to go home, allowing next-to-last Anita Lo -- whose biggest sin was a lackluster grilled eggplant -- to see another day. Coming through with flying colors were Hubert Keller and Rick Bayless, who wowed the crowd with white gazpacho and sweet corn tamales, respectively.
But to hear Gael Greene describe it, the real winners of the night were Deschanel and her animal flesh-challenged friends. The grande dame of food criticism repeatedly referred to them with the pity one would reserve for a feral child forced to subsist on water and dust: "The vegans seemed so surprised -- God knows what they get to eat!"
See what former Top Chef Masters contestant John Besh had to say about judging, being judged, and the challenge of cooking with one arm behind his back.
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8-07-2009 @5:16PM Gary said... Vegans are all very well and good,as long as there served with beef..
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8-07-2009 @5:27PM Gary said... But I still love Padma(meowww)
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8-07-2009 @5:42PM JSTONE5717 said... I find this whole article ridiculous! I watched the episode and when Michael said the challenge was "off-putting", I believe he meant that the restrictions made it difficult...and that's all! As for Zooey, I thought she was a charming young woman and who cares what she chooses to eat? It sounds like she has a lot of dietary restrictions which contribute to her choice but it doesn't really matter why.
The point of the show is to be challenged outside the chef's comfort zones and I think that goal was achieved. I'm not vegan but I enjoy learning new recipes, even if they don't have meat.
And, these chef's aren't getting a dime for doing this. All the money they win goes to a charity. That is made clear at least two or three times each episode.
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8-12-2009 @2:55PM That Guy! said... Why wouldn't she go to his restaurant? If I'm picking the restaurant, I'll drag my vegan friends out to places that don't specialize in vegan food (and I in turn happily go to vegan restaurants with friends, fair is fair). Most chefs will whip up a vegan dish for their guests with varying degrees of skill and imagination. I've seen everything from an uninspired plate of grilled veggies (yawn), to asian stir-fry or even something with a little thought put into it like ratatouille on a bed of fluffy polenta. Call ahead and some places crank out delicious veggie and mushroom terrines and home made praline ice-cream. Now there's a veggie dinner I'd eat regularly. The restaurant scene is ever evolving, one hundred years ago you'd find beef tongue on the menus of the best dining rooms from coast to coast but we don't see much of that anymore, do we? Vegan dishes are part of the new paradigm and if you can't adapt and pull it off with some style and imagination you don't deserve to be top chef.
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8-07-2009 @6:05PM lovethejava! said... John F.C. Taylor said...
Another reality show I don't watch. So who really cares who can cook what anyway? Invariably these shows produce portions that would n't sustain most people from meal to meal. I'd sooner watch Dinner Impossible or Man vs Food. At least the portions there are enough to keep someone going without all the fancy personalities and the self preening they do.@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Um, then why did you waste your time reading and commenting on a this? To promote other shows? To show that you don't know what real portion size should be? The plus side of Top Chef Masters is that charities are receiving money, fancy personalities and preening aside.
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8-08-2009 @1:00PM Shelley said... I have 4 mother-in-laws. My Father-in-law put himself about a bit. My least favourite is my real M-in-Law ( husband's Mum ). I respect peoples dietary choices, so long as they don't "force them down some-one elses throats" so to speak. Life gets difficult when she comes to stay every year. I tried for years to accomadate her diet, but when she said she was unable to eat anything with olive oil in it (organic, premium olive oil...full of anti-oxidents) I just got it together to shrug and say "Hmmmm...Sorry about that. That's a bit of hard luck"...that was after I found out she was shovelling down butter and cheese sandwiches at a rate of knots and being a hypocrite. A good, healthy diet, whatever you eat, is good. To preach isn't. I'd have probably gone Mediterranian, Greek or Thai foodwise.
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8-07-2009 @6:52PM Tony said... I bet Zooey does eat some meat ! !... OH BABY
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8-08-2009 @3:20AM Karen said... Chiarello couldn't make risotto or polenta, because both require butter or cheese (dairy) to make them palatable.
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8-08-2009 @3:20AM Karen said... "That Guy"---- Its not that it was just Vegan fare---which I'm sure they all could have easily pulled off---it was the gluten-free and no soy added to it that made it such a challenge!
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8-07-2009 @11:47PM janey said... JulieAnn...
Yes we humans DO have canine teeth!
Humans have four types of teeth, each with a specific size, shape, and function. Adult humans have eight incisors, located at the front of the mouth—four in the upper jaw and four in the lower jaw. Incisors have a sharp edge that is used to cut food. On either side of the incisors are the canines, named for their resemblance to the pointy fangs of dogs. The upper canines are sometimes called eyeteeth. There are two canines in each jaw, and their primary role is to tear food. Behind the canines are the bicuspids, or premolars, flat teeth with pronounced cusps that grind and mash food. There are two sets, or four bicuspids, in each jaw. Behind the bicuspids are the molars, where the most vigorous chewing occurs. There are twelve molars—three sets in each jaw—referred to as the first, second, and third molars. Third molars are often called wisdom teeth; they developed thousands of years ago when human diets consisted of mostly raw and unprocessed foods that required the extra chewing and grinding power of a third set of molars. Today wisdom teeth are not needed for chewing and, because they can crowd other teeth, are often removed.
Yes Zooey is a twit! Is that pronounced ZOO-EY ?
The PROPER name in Greek is Zoe,meaning LIFE
Not some contrived made up crap like Zooey!
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8-08-2009 @1:15AM BoredinOC said... oh for heaven's sake - get over it. the woman isn't a freak - she's a vegan, allergic to gluten and hates soy (spelled TOFU...gag) so what - it made a great challenge for these chefs
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8-08-2009 @1:19AM BoredinOC said... To janey == how do you know her MOTHER didn't come up with the spelling of her name. have you SEEN the way mom's decide to spell names just so it's "different?" they end up tagging the child with a name everyone makes fun of....you know, like YOU.
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8-08-2009 @3:16AM Dana Pearl said... I'm a vegan by choice and gluten-free by doctor's orders. I was raised a carnivore and bread junkie. I prefer my current diet.
I'm constantly amazed when meat eaters criticize vegetarians. Why do they care? What each of us chooses to eat is no one else's business. I was at a party once where another guest asked me how I justified being a vegan? I told her that I didn't have to justify anything to her. (That was the more polite comment that went through my head.) Someone who overheard us pulled me aside later and told me she enjoyed what I said.
The reality about dining out is that people with non-traditional diets have veto power when going out with carnivores. If a restaurant doesn't serve anything I can eat, then my friends and I go elsewhere. It is in the best interest of restaurants to have good chefs who are flexible and creative enough to meet the needs of those of us who don't eat animals and gluten.
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8-08-2009 @5:06PM JulieAnn said... Janey........
Thanks so much for the lesson on human teeth. I love when I learn something new. You are a bit harsh though for making fun of someones name. And calling names like twit when you obviously do not know her. I will pray for you later during grace. Then eat my yummy vegan food with my incisors, bisuspids, canine, and premolars.
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8-12-2009 @1:26PM Erin Cathleen said... My, oh my. Some of these comments are simply deplorable! Not to mention disrespectful. Can't we accept people and their different beliefs and, well, diets? What if Ms. Deschanel has food allergies? Soy, dairy and gluten allergies are some of the most common out there. And when one has to deal with those, eating out can be a veritable nightmare. Compile all those irritating allergies with an aversion to meat, and the typical American (read: unhealthy and disgusting) dining experience is impossible. At least Zooey's restrictions brought the chefs an interesting challenge; kudos to them for trying something "new"... which, in this day and age, should not be all that shocking. Really, people.
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8-12-2009 @3:42PM That Guy! said... "Karen" I had an amazing risotto for lunch in Tuscany that was made of just a few simple ingredients; rice, salt, fresh wild mushrooms, white wine, olive oil and fresh parsley. I kid you not, it was one of the best things I've ever eaten. Unbelievably good. If a no-name country chef can do it I'll bet Chiarello can pull it off and I'm not just saying that because I like him on the show. I liked what Keller and Bayless did and I know that Asian cuisine lends itself to veggie but, I was confident Italian cusine would be the dark horse winner here and it was! I've had so much great Italian food in restaurants that was vegan and gluten free without even trying to conform to the latest food trends. If I ever go vegetarian I think I will be living on little more than Italian cuisine. I'm no top chef but even I can whip up some Italian that is "accidentally" vegan and gluten free. Yeah, the gluten thing makes it a little more challenging, I think that's part of what made this episode so much fun, but whenever I'm visiting a major city like L.A., New York, Dallas, I'm seeing more and more of this in the restaurants. How long before it's the thing in Boise and Sheboygan? I live in Austin, barbecue central, and finding vegan and gluten free doesn't surprise anymore. I think this challenge was very forward thinking.
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8-14-2009 @2:49PM Beth said... Have any of you ever set foot in Los Angeles? Gourmet vegan restaurants abound with a myriad of choices. My family and I have never suffered behind veganism, are far from anemic, and we also live gluten free. Asking these chefs to be creative outside their comfort zone definitely showed who actually has talent.
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8-28-2009 @12:30AM Greg said... What's with all the vegan hating on here? Why does it bother you so much if someone else chooses not to eat meat?
Also, the prevalence of "Vegan food is gross," comments make it clear that you haven't had much of any vegan food. No, the vegetable plate at Ruby Tuesday's doesn't count, and neither does unflavored tofu in a stirfry. Please read a few recipe websites before uttering the infinitely intelligent response of "EAt SOME MEat!!!11"
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11-03-2009 @11:02PM Raya said... I believe the person was referring to coconut icecream. Which is the best gluten-free substitute around.
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