Any Top Chef viewers out there?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Has this show really gone downhill? or what

I used to love it...now, not so much.

Tom Colicchio is just so boring and stiff. But, he thinks he's a tv god.

Padma still rocks.

[NYC_SKP]

1. You know, we used to love it and about two years ago, I guess, just kind of stopped watching.

It may be partly due to it's being syndicated to different channels.

It may also have to do with so many different variants of the original show.

Sometimes success of a thing kills the thing.



PS, got to meet one or two of the chefs from one of the early seasons.

Ate at Mia's restaurant and chatted with her and her mom before they closed their restaurant.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. I remember her - that's cool. You are so right - they have a good show and then

they think they have to do different things and change what made it good to begin with. Now, you really don't learn much at all about cooking. One of my favorite shows is Amazing Race - interesting to see the different countries and cultures. But, it was much better when they had normal, everyday people trying to climb up a hill or something. Now, they have athletes and of course the requisite two blonde model types.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Yes. Amazing Race. I guess Hollywood has always been that way.

Selecting athletes and these perfect couples and the blonde sisters/twins is really getting old.

But it's not new, this drawing from a select pool but pretending that everyone is regular people.

Take the Dating Game. We were led to believe that contestants were ordinary people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dating_Game#Guests

Some were, but many seem to have been drawn from a pool of local aspiring actors.

Amazing race has become less and less amazing with time, though I still enjoy it.

[littlewolf]

2. nope do not have cable do watch master chef

they are doing Jr. master chef now, bunch of kids.
pretty amazing what they think of, and how good they
really are.

[hollysmom]

3. I still enjoy it.

I like masters better because it is more sharing and a little less competitive and the chefs know each other and have a sense of humor, but I like most of the people this season, they need to get rid of a little more deadwood, but it is pretty interesting as is and I enjoy last chef kitchen which I watch immediately after the show, Tom is very warm on that show.

I find Tom a decent person, saw him on TV the other day to discuss hunger in America, he is an involved man, who should be proud.

ETA, my favorite year was the Vilaggio season, still like both the brothers and how they interact.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. Yes - his work on hunger is great. Wish they'd do more blind food tastings/review...that would

really spice the show up a bit - no pun intended.

[fizzgig]

4. i watched it religiously for many seasons

the last one i remember watching was the season with the voltaggios (i still say kevin should have won). i don't have cable, i'm sure it's on the internet, but i haven't gone looking for it.

[packman]

8. Two things that signal a Cooking show declining

(1) The chef stops cutting garlic/onions on-screen and has it precut
(2) The show goes over seas and the chef is now touring and cooking in some other country.

One of the first cooking shows I remember was The Frugal Gourmet, but he stopped chopping and began touring, always with young boys . Out of curiosity, I googled him and discovered:

SEATTLE - Jeff Smith, a white-bearded minister who became public television's popular "Frugal Gourmet" before a sex scandal ruined his career, has died, his business manager said Friday. He was 65.

Smith died in his sleep Wednesday, Jim Paddleford said. He had long suffered from heart disease and had a valve replaced in 1981.

-------------------------------

Fittingly, he will be wrapped in tin foil and cremated in a 375 degree oven.

Boy, can I pick them

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

13. I had no problems with Jeff Smith's cooking

And I didn't know about the alleged pedophilia until after he was off the air. However, I was annoyed by two things he said on his program.

One was him talking about some primitive tribe that he described as living in goodness or some such phrase. First, I have never bought the "noble savage" shtick. Second, as a Methodist minister, he was supposed to believe in original sin.

The second was his mention of a restaurant in Washington, D.C. called "Mrs. Simpson's", named for the Duchess of Windsor. Smith said that Edward VIII had to abdicate because the British would not accept his marrying an American. No, that was not the objection; after all, British aristocrats had been marrying Americans for years (not only was Winston Churchill's mother an American, his paternal grandmother was one as well). The objection to her as Queen was that she was Mrs. Simpson, and Mr. Earnest Simpson was still very much around. Indeed, Simpson was her second husband, and her first, Earl Spencer was also still alive. In other words, they were objecting to a woman who had been divorced twice.

[eissa]

9. I still love the show

The Voltaggio season seemed to be the peak -- those brothers really brought it. But I still love watching it, and I really like all the judges, especially Tom and Hugh (Padma can grate sometimes; you're on a cooking show, not the catwalk.)

I got to meet Fabio a few years ago. My daughter and I took the BART into SF for a day in the city. Got off on Embarcadero and saw some Top Chef tents set up. We walked over, and lo and behold there was Fabio doing a cooking demonstration! We sampled his dish, took a photo, and giggled like little school girls!

[pinto]

10. I don't watch it but I'm a regular Food Channel viewer.

I put it on when I'm cooking / eating at home. Just seems to fit. I'll watch almost anything that's on save for a handful of shows.

[Beearewhyain]

11. I watch it but

I do think it has gone downhill over the seasons. Among other things, I seem to remember in the earlier seasons there was a lot more attention to the details and techniques the chefs were using. Now we barely get a list of ingredients and *poof* there's the dish. I enjoyed it more when I felt like I was learning something.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. exactly. you really hear nothing about technique or what would be even better would

be the thought behind putting all the flavors/ingredients together....And, explain what a gastrique is. And the stupid ideas ! Last week they wrapped everything up in foil - ingredients - and the mothers of Padma and the other chick picked them for the teams not knowing what they were. Seriously. Why in the world would you thing viewers would find it great to see how they made something out of brussel sprouts and chocolate pudding.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. Not this season, but last season

Someone presented Wolfgang Puck a risotto, and he said, "This is not a risotto, let me show you how to make a risotto." He then took the cooks into the kitchen and showed them how to make a risotto. I wish they had taken the camera in as well, and had Puck show the audience how to cook a risotto. That would have been far interesting than watching the judges natter about the contestants.

On the British version of MasterChef (available in the States on BBC America), I watched Monica Galetti prepare a hollandaise sauce, and discovered I'd been doing it wrong for years. I didn't whisk the eggs long enough, and mine was too thin.

[Beearewhyain]

17. I remember the risotto episode

And I thought exactly the same thing. Especially because I have always wanted to make a good risotto and my understanding is technique is 90% of the result. I watch the show because I like food and to me food is and should be the star, everything else is secondary.

[Beearewhyain]

16. It's a little sad when

Chopped is getting less gimmicky than Top Chef

[Phentex]

15. I sorta half watch...

but have no problem fast forwarding to the end just to see who goes. I hate the gimmicks and would just rather them have real challenges and see who can cook.

I hate when they bring on some lame actor/actress to guest judge. I am not sure why they think that's entertaining at all.