"episode" news and stories

Only one week into season two of Bravo's Top Chef and things are already getting a lot more interesting, primarily because we are getting to know the players a little bit better. The honeymoon seemed to wear off quickly, as at the start of the show everyone agreed that they really felt like they were in a competition now that someone had been asked to pack their knives and go.

This week, things started off as usual with a quickfire challenge, though this one required a 4:30 am wakeup call. All the chefs headed off to the Los Angeles fish market where they were given $100 to pick out fish for sushi. Once they returned to the kitchen, they were given 30 minutes to prepare a dish for the guest judge, Chef Hiroshi Shima, an expert in the field.

Is anyone a fan of Dave Lieberman? The Food Network is counting on what they believe is his appeal with younger audiences to make his newest ventures, Dave Does, a success. Dave Does is a web-based series that is launching on the Food Network's website in August. This is the second internet-only show for Lieberman, who starred in a series titled Eat This a few months ago. Unlike Dave Does, the previous show only ran for a few episodes, though Food Network reps say it was very popular. The new show will deal with the latest food trends, gadgets and "insider" restaurant locations in cities including Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Portland in each of its thirteen, 5-minute episodes.

Lieberman is entertaining in small doses, so the "webisode" format works well for him. The unfortunate thin about the show is that it is not a cooking show. That makes this just another example of the Food Network moving further away from people who like to cook. How many shows can they have that feature "insider restaurant locations"?

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After a trying experience last week with microwaved food, the Top Chef chefs again found themselves preparing food outside of their element - both literally and figuratively. Instead of working in the kitchen, plating and serving, the chefs were sent out to San Francisco's Mission District to peddle their wares as street food. In addition to mingling with the people, the chefs had to focus on ethnic flavors throughout both tasks in the episode and in doing so, found that they were further from their comfort zone than they realized.

The quickfire challenge was designed to test the chefs' ability to recognize ingredients without seeing them. I agree with the comments that Tom Colicchio, one of the judges, made on his blog - namely, that the challenge was not really representational of their ability to recognize ingredients because the ingredients chosen were very exotic. Guest chef and judge Mike Yakura, head chef at Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese restaurant, choose ingredients to taste that some of the chefs had never before worked with. Expecting that all chefs should know all possible ingredients is unrealistic, if not impossible, and the competitors did not do terribly well. Out of the 20 ingredients - which included longan, tamarind, hibiscus extract, chili paste, nopal, konnyaku, durian and nato - the chefs tasted, Tiffani and Miguel only identified 1, LeeAnne, Harold, Lisa and Stephen identified 3, and Andrea identified 4. Andrea, winning the challenge, received immunity.

The second episode of Top Chef ran Wednesday night on Bravo. The bulk of the episode took place inside a fetish shop in San Francisco, since the main challenge involved making a sexy dessert. It was interesting to see some of the contestants cutting loose among the latex-clad party goers - one of which was RuPaul - while others were clearly out of their comfort zone. But as usual, there were two challenges on which the contestants were judged.

The first, quick challenge for immunity, dealt with presentation and the chefs were asked to make a fruit plate in 30 minutes. Elizabeth Faulkner of San Francisco's Citizen Cake served as the judge for this challenge. Some of the chefs really didn't seem to understand that not only were they making a fruit plate, but that they were competing against other people, so originality was important. Half of the chefs had garnished their plates with pineapple tops, which Ms. Faulkner didn't like, and the majority of the other plates looked very similar. She criticized some plates for looking like they were part of a buffet. The three top plates were Cynthia's, which was minimalist and used papaya seeds as a garnish, Harold's, which showcased his knife skills, and Stephen's, which used fruit and herb combinations served in espresso cups. Stephen won purely on originality; his presentation was gorgeous.

Last week, our Cooking Live series focused on a savory stew. This week, I'm turning over to the sweet side with a classic breakfast favorite: coffee cake. If you're not familiar with coffee cake, it gets its name because it is designed to be served with coffee or tea, as part of a mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal, not for dessert. This coffee cake is a Martha Stewart Living recipe that is brimming with streusel. In fact, it has more streusel than batter, though the batter expands to a respectable amount once the cake has baked.

The recipe that inspired this "episode" is Cardamom Streusel Coffee Cake, which won me over with its delicious appearance. It also gives me a good opportunity to take my own Martha Challenge, and see if I have better luck with her (and her publication's) recipes than some others have. I guarantee that a few liberties will be taken with this recipe, so stay tuned for the ingredients and my version of the recipe later in the week, with a full series of posts detailing the method, mixing, baking and eating of the cake on Friday.