Thursday, January 4, 2007

INCIDENTALLY, THE GRILLED GRUYERE AND CARAMELIZED ONIONS SANDWICH ON RYE AT 'WICHCRAFT IS QUITE TASTY: So this is my first season watching Top Chef. I'm enjoying it, but in my view, it's wasting its biggest asset: Tom Colicchio.

After making his name at Gramercy Tavern, Colicchio opened the first solo restaurant of what is now a burgeoning Jean-Georges Vongerichten-style national empire: Craft. Craft is probably my favorite all-around restaurant in all the world (or, not to engage in undue hyperbole, those parts of the world I have visited). I am a huge fan of the "single perfect ingredient cooked perfectly" model, and no place does it like Craft. Here's their menu -- everything is just stupendous. I have sworn repeatedly to Mr. Cosmo that the next time we go, I am composing an entire meal just from the vegetable side dishes -- the Hen of the Woods mushrooms are to die for. (And I am now noticing that my favorite dish, the poached lobster, is currently not on the menu, so -- attention Mr. Cosmo -- perhaps now is a good time to go! ) It's an incredible restaurant.

So, having Colicchio on board for Top Chef, why in the world would you waste him as a mere judge, when you could use him in a Tim Gunn capacity and bring the show to a new level? Currently, he visits the competitors while they're working on their elimination challenge dishes and hears what they're planning, but doesn't engage in any substantive discussion other than the occasional eyeroll or skeptical eyebrow so as not to influence the dishes, which he will subsequently be judging. I understand why they do it this way -- the competitors are not supposed to become a bunch of Colicchio sous-chefs -- but think of Project Runway. The genius there is the education we as viewers gain about fashion design and garment constuction via Gunn, not just the successes and failures of the competitors.

Colicchio's blog helps, but still, wouldn't it have been great to hear him talk to Elia after the Quickfire (when he couldn't change her decisions) and have this discussion with her (lifted from his blog):

My mind reels from all the possibilities one has with “White” as a starting point. Fresh ricotta cheese, cream, cauliflower, root vegetables like turnip and parsnip, the radish world -- jicama and daikon. You’ve got egg whites and lardo, an extravagantly flavorful form of bacon fat. Sour cream, goat cheese, mozzarella, every white fish in the book, and don’t even get me started on potatoes.

You get some of this sort of thing in the tasting comments as well as judges' table, but I wish there were some way to incorporate it into discussion with the competitors themselves. More Tom! More Tom!

P.S. I have been watching a few of last season's episodes lately. Who in the world decided that Katie Lee Joel should be permitted to appear on TV? Ouch, that accent! It's like she tried to eliminate her West Virginia roots by covering it up with a nice dose of Philadelphian nasality. Even the band must face the music -- that's what the moral is to me.

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