Hot Chef in Town

[scrivener]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Wow, you're a tough one! I love it!

You still aren't forgiven for the Filipinos/Mexicans comment. I'd lie low.

[scrivener]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

shoot--she has to wake up at the butt crack of dawn just to find time to go to the gym, and at 5:45 p.m. is posting on HT to find a recipe for creole mac so she can make it for dinner. then it turns out the recipe uses a can of something called "spaghetti sauce." if that isn't a recipe right out of sandra lee's kind of cookbook, i don't know what is!

Post of the month.

I think there is undeniably a chauvinism in Bourdain's disdain for the likes of Ray and Lee, but there is a certain chauvinism even in the other chefs' (and the network's) acceptance of them. There is nothing wrong with appreciating Ray's cuteness or Lee's _________ (I'm too nice to be specific, but wow), but people are always commenting on them, and I mean the other Food Network personalities. They do it for Giada especially. Nobody (on the air, anyway) comments on the physical appearances of the male personalities. All I can interpret this to mean is that looks matter for women ('though they are not everything, thank goodness) but not for men in the world of cooking.

I have never hid the fact that I appreciate beautiful women, but I'm not a chef on television. You'll never hear me in my own professional setting comment on the physical appearances of my colleagues, and I have worked with some STUNNERS. In the same way, people of both sexes need to stop commenting at all on the appearances of their colleagues.

I don't blame Bourdain for his prejudices. He's an expert in his field and he knows what he's talking about. But what he's talking about and what Ray and Lee are trying to do, as ericncyn reminds us, are two completely different things. It's like criticizing Terrell Owens because his end-zone dance is nowhere near as graceful as what Emmitt Smith did on Dancing with the Stars.

[cynsaligia]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Post of the month.

woo hoo! *blush*

It's like criticizing Terrell Owens because his end-zone dance is nowhere near as graceful as what Emmitt Smith did on Dancing with the Stars.

or kathleen battle criticizing mariah carey.

[Pomai]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

FYI...

Travel Channel is running a 'No Reservations' marathon today. Sweet!

Episodes seen so far have been Indonesia, Malaysia and, now playing, India.

Tony sounded quite serious about retiring in Indonesia, which certainly sounds more fitting for him than, say, Maui. After watching that, I'd consider it.

[nachodaddy]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

I have met Sandra Lee up close and personal. She was filming an episode at a bed and breakfast we were having an 'off site' meeting at.

We had to move our meeting around a lot to accomodate the shoot schedule. She came up to us after day 1 and was apologizing for making us move around . In a friendly way, she asked why we were there, and then enquired what we did for a living.

We tried to explain to her in terms that we figured she could figure out and used a TV commercial that was playing often at the time on the Discovery Channel. It involved a fishing boat. She then added one and one together and deduced we were from the set of "Deadliest Catch". We tried to explain further but she was whisked off to makeup or something and that was our only touch point with her.

For the next two days, whenever she saw us from afar she would wave wildly and say "Hi guys from the Deadliest Catch" or something to that effect. We all smiled to ourselves. Blonde.

Never been close to a shoot before so the only thing that I can say that was mind altering was the sheer amount of food that was placed out for the crew and how often people were at the trough. It was liked they were eating for 50 minutes of every hour.

Met Mario Batali once too. Total @-hole, rockstar mentality. Loved the varicose veins though.

[lavagal]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Now that I'm unemployed (and desperately seeking!!!!), maybe I will get around to the coq au vin. I actually make a very delicious chicken in wine, HONEST! I still get up at the butt crack of dawn to work out, though. It's so I'm home and showered and up and at 'em when the girls get up at 6:30 for school. Now that they're on break, maybe I'll get up at 5:30 instead. I'm just a morning person! I have this thing about being dressed when the kids get up. It is a motivating factor, gets them to make their beds and get dressed themselves!

Anyway, I guess I like Sandra Lee because she has the same crap in her cupboards that I do. I like Rachel Ray because she understands that I want to fix it fast, but I want it to taste damn good. I think Giada is an incredible package. What the pho? Who gets to be all that and a size ZERO?

All I want for Christmas is a job and a 2008 that is a vast improvement on 2007.

One more thing, Ercncyn: I have yet to make creole macaroni. I, too, was skeptical about making something that called for a jar of spaghetti sauce. I'm going to wait until school resumes and visit for lunch on January 23, when Uncle Val at the Koko Head School cafeteria has it scheduled to appear. And if by then I have a job, I'll stop over before school, as I know he gets in about the same time I head over to the 24HF in Hawaii Kai. I know because I see the lights are on over there in the kitchen.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

[Erika Engle]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Sandra Lee attended a prestigious culinary academy -- Le Cordon Bleu, I believe. She said so on a Food Network "behind the scenes" type show in which she was profiled.

She said she spent a week making bouillabaisse and had an epiphany about how much easier it would be to make, using some store-bought ingredients. Something like that, anyway.

My point is, she IS classically trained ... even if she never pursued a career in a restaurant kitchen. I suppose that means she's not technically a chef (just like someone who went to law school but didn't pass the bar/take the oath is not fully considered an attorney?).

I think the way she makes her food, treats and cocktails make those things totally accessible to the home cook.

The tablescapes, however ... I'm just never going to attempt one.

I really like Rachael, too -- and hope she doesn't burn out, given her incredibly demanding professional life. She just signed a renewal deal with Food Network -- which has at least partially 86'd both Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Bourdain's Hawai`i episode is scheduled to air the evening of Monday, March 3, playing three times (10 pm, 11 pm, and 2 am Tuesday - that's Pacific Time, btw).

[Adri]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Bourdain's Hawai`i episode is scheduled to air the evening of Monday, March 3, playing three times (10 pm, 11 pm, and 2 am Tuesday - that's Pacific Time, btw).

Thanks! I was trying to find out when that would air

[Pomai]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Bourdain's Hawai`i episode is scheduled to air the evening of Monday, March 3, playing three times (10 pm, 11 pm, and 2 am Tuesday - that's Pacific Time, btw).

Just a friendly reminder, the Hawaii episode airs tonight!

8pm, 9pm, and 12am Hawaii time (same show repeated) on the Travel Channel, Oceanic cable channel 58 (325 digital).

After tonight's episode, cab drivers in Waikiki will be wondering why all of a sudden all these mainland tourists are asking to take them to New Uptown Fountain in Kalihi.

"I'll have the Spam, Curry and Kim Chee Omelet Bourdain special, please."

[pzarquon]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Watching now...

Starts off shopping for a "Hawaiian shirt" (-1 point), focusing on the loudest of the loud (-1), and blowing $3,000 on a pattern that's more at home on a Florida golf course (-1).

Goes next to Puka Dog on Kauai, describing it as Hawaii's unique take on the hot dog. Except it isn't (-3). As clever and cute as it sounds, throwing mango sauce in a tube-toasted hot dog is about as Hawaiian as pineapple on pizza. The creators of the Puka Dog settled here less than 15 years ago from Pittsburgh and Switzerland.

It's not looking good.

Local cuisine is basically summarized as "Asian" cuisine (-1). Yeah, a lot of it is, but...

Next, Ono's Hawaiian Food (+3) for the Hawaiian plate (+3). Then, to Side Street Inn (+3) where he gets drunk (+6) with local chefs (+3), trying all sorts of stuff, including portuguese sausage, opihi, moi with hoisin sauce (+3). "It's an American Singapore, and by the way it's a state!" (umm... draw).

Goes to the North Shore (+2), but surf is down, so he ends up zipping about on a jet ski (-2). He skipped a visit to the Poke Stop in Waipahu for that?

More to come... so far, eight points.

[pzarquon]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Visit's Peter Cole's house (+2) to talk surf history (+1) while eating poke, sashimi, and seared ahi (+3). Lots of stock footage of surfing...

Next up, Spam! (+6) Goes to the New Uptown Fountain (+2) with David Choo (+2). He starts with "Spam Musibi" (oops) with fried rice. He likes it! I guess next was a spam moco. Then spam breakfast. Then chicken tofu. Then homemade chili. Then spam saimin. (+3) "Spam has, in every sense, found its way into my heart. By the way, do you know the Heimlich maneuver?"

Uh oh. The "tiki craze"? Well, at least he went to La Mariana. Draw. "Nothing makes a drink taste better than drinking it out of a head."

Filipinos up, in Kalihi. Nice walk through a "working class section of Honolulu." Time for a backyard pa'ina (+6). Ika and lup cheong with oyster sauce mayonnaise. Poi, beef lu'au, ahi poke, squid ceviche (?). Hula. And beer (+3).

Now, onto Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, with some nice aerial lava footage (+1). With R.J. Hillhouse in Royal Gardens, visiting Jack Thompson at the Lava House (+1). They have a basic plate lunch picnic (+1). They talk at length about the "what ifs" of the lava returning. Which, of course, it has, as we're seeing on the evening news now. Oddly, Bourdain's voiceover says he was evacuated and Madame Pele "settled the matter for good." Makes for dramatic TV, but Jack's still there (-3)!

Oh no. Paradise Cove luau, the "worst case scenario, the kind of thing I hate." He says, "I was going to rip into this bogus for tourist escapade like a junkyard dog." Except. He decides to give it a pass. "Damn, what's happening to me, I'm getting soft!" D'oh. Draw.

They set Todd the cameraman on fire (+3).

Twenty nine points. So, on balance, a good show. Though he sure spent more time at non-food destinations than I'd expected.

[escondido100]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

in the beginning of the show he introduces his friend Bruno... they eat hot dogs together...Bruno lives in South Kona...he is my neighbor....he grows coffee... we help him harvest it.....he is also a special effects guy for many hollywood productions.....he works on many local productions and of course travels alot........small world....

[Adri]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Since he's on the Travel Chanel, I'm willing to give him a break on the non-food destinations. I'm glad they went to some non-touristy places, too.

[Lei K]

Re: Hot Chef in Town

Pretty much liked and disliked the same things as you Ryan. My disappointment about the show comes from the fact that he didn't even have a segment on native Hawaiians/native food. Ono Hawaiian Foods would come across as "Asian" cuisine to the unknowing viewer.

When the show started off at Puka Dog, I cringed.

I expected more out of Bourdain. This is the man who went to Quebec and ate a seal with the Inuit. I think the indigenous culture of Hawai'i deserved to be recognized on a show about Hawai'i.

Loved the spam, loved the pa'ina, loved the Alan Wong BUT the show was missing something quite important, in my opinion. In the end Hawai'i came off a bit cheesy and pretty much exactly how CONUS peoples already think of the "50th state." But again, this is just my opinion.