Top Chef, I Heart You!! {shhhhhhh, it's a secret} Part 1

I'm not supposed to watch TV.
It's against my religion.
No, that's not it.
I don't believe in television.
Mainstream media scares me.
And I'm not talking head-in-the-sand paranoia.
I've been on TV.
In various ways.
I've been a subject of books, articles.
I know how media gets skewed. To fit someone else's idea

of how to make the world look like it works.

I know censorship. Well.

and yet.

TV has helped me in the past few years.
I have a show I consider mine. {Grey's Anatomy.}
And I have a subscription for Netflix because I wanted to watch certain shows start to finish.
Six Feet Under. The Wire. CSI: Las Vegas.
After working for many years, 80+ hours a week,
I fell behind in watching (/knowing) about modern culture.

I go through phases.
What I've done on Netflix:
Basketball. Documentaries. Queer History.
Important Films Worth Seeing Again To Refresh One's Memory.

But this new affliction is weird.

I can't even get Bravo on my home TV. [You've heard of pool-hopping?]
My friend Aaron is selling me the episodes in dime bags, one per week on something as ancient as VHS tapes. He is cruel and inhumane and I want to have his children. (think heroin.) Too bad he's fey, although that hasn't stopped me before, heh.
But I digress.

I wasn't supposed to like Top Chef.

People I trust and admire have suggested it to me before. The truth of the matter is that I don't think I know anyone who has not mentioned it to me at least four times.
And, in fact, I personally know the person behind Television Without Pity's re-cap of Top Chef.
Yes, I have touched her. She wears pretty, shiny dresses. And, besides being a fabulous writer, she is insanely, pee-in-your-pants, in a good way, funny. Funny goes far with me.

(I even met one of them at The Pastry Chef Conference.)
We will not discuss here why she could not make pannacotta on TV.
See what I mean?
TV can ruin a perfectly good chef. Or further ruin a poor one.

In all, absolute, dark suit-seriousness though, this is why I love Bravo's Top Chef:

I heart Howie.

I would work for him. I think he is trying really hard, is very serious and knows many of the traits a chef should have. He said something tonight I loved. I am going to paraphrase. He said that just because you put a lot of complicated ingredients on a plate does not make you a great chef. I do not think he is perfect. And I know he does not think so either. Which I love. Those who know they are great all on their own, like cowboys on islands, are not chefs. They are playing on no-one's team but their own. While it is important to know what one's strengths are, one does need to know that every kitchen is a team.

I do not heart Hung.

I know this character. I know this model number. He is the person who knows it all and few people with their own minds want to work for them. He's "young and full of cum", as the punk-rockers would say. He has the guts to be a great chef, no doubt, but his cockiness might get in the way. I hope some really great chef(s) kicks his arrogant ass. In a good way. God knows mine has been and I am better for it. Does this sound like I'm preaching S&M? Maybe. But all great crafts are learned, not stolen. We learn from other humans, even when our medium is not human. Hung is more proficient, or he is more classically trained than Howie, but he lacks an understanding of the overall picture of what it is to be a Chef.

    If all I had to do to be a great Pastry Chef was make great tasting desserts, my job would be very easy.

I was in like with Lia, but she's gone.

She's self-taught, which you know I love & appreciate. I think she was efficient, clean & professional in the kitchen, which also goes a long way with me. I don't think she was ready to be a Chef, but I give her serious points for trying, especially because she's so young in her career. (I am not referring to her age in years.) I think she's off the show because she's green. But I think she learned a lot. A lot about the humans. About those humans with chefs coats that she may not come into contact with in the fine dining kitchens that exist in NYC. Spread a wide net, that's what I say. Never throw back a fish you don't recognize. Not until you've tasted it. At least once.

    Believe me when I say this: every cook I have ever worked with has thrown something into the pot that is the soup of my career. I look forward to working with those in the future I will admire, dislike, love, despise, bewilder and encourage me.

    Part 2 tomorrow, Friday August 3 at 12 am PST.

Comments

[Jennifer Jeffrey]

You are so cute! I would never have pegged you for a closet TV addict.

I can't stand the box either, but I did get hooked on one show this summer: So You Think You Can Dance. Those kids can MOVE... amazing to watch. And I have a secret crush on House, but that's about it. I've never watched Top Chef, and probably won't, but it's great fun to read your comments about it.

[Claire]

I heart Top Chef too! I have far fewer compunctions about it, I'd imagine, being an out of the closet TV watcher and lover of all things food related, more so when it involves random tests of "skill". Hung's model number is not unknown in any of my circles either (writers, musicians, people in general), and I salivate for the day when I get to see his knives handed to him. Good to know I have a skilled compatriot who also may walk on the dark side of Bravo.

[Jane]

I love the Television Without Pity recaps, but we (www.chow.com) do a Top Chef recap, too! We interview the losing contestant in a podcast every week ....only this season, the Bravo PR person is on the line and the conversation has gotten way, way, tamer. Last season, everybody was ranting about the lame Kenmore Pro equipment, the clueless producers, etc. This year, they hem and haw and say, "It was an amazing experience. It changed my life." But it's still fun. Joey was not a big fan of Rocco's.

[Stephanie]

Aw, Shuna, thanks for the props! I heart YOU!

[Dad & Ellen]

Very funny to read about Shuna the TV hater falling in heart for a TV show!! Glad to know you're not perfect!! BTW, we heart you!

[Ms. Glaze]

I cooked with Hung in Las Vegas for a few weeks and he's actually a really great guy. He taught me a lot in a very short amount of time. It's unfortunate that the show is portraying him so badly. Because he's not that way in person. I guess competition sometimes gets the best of us.

[Jay]

I think you're WAY OFF about Hung. Perhaps he lacks some of the "American" ways of "humor" and ease, but you must have not listened to his background. What you quickly say is "arrogance" was really sheer, unadulterated "drive". There's quite a different attitude when one is cooking to survive. Hung and generations of his family are inseparable from their passion for food. A poor boy from Southeastern Asia who hard works his way into National recognition is far from arrogance. It's a true American Story.