“Top Chef: Seattle,” returns for its tenth season on Wednesday, November 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo and this year there are more changes. Wolfgang Puck will lend his expertise to the judges panel. The restaurant mogul will join Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Hugh Acheson and Emeril Lagasse with Padma Lakshmi returning as host.
Last year, Lagasse joined the judges panel as the chefs took on Texas. He ended up receiving the bulk of Sarah Grueneberg’s tear filled hissy fit after she lost to Paul Qui. The chef told the respected and highly successful judge to “f**k off’ after the elimination. Lets hope Wolfgang can remain out of the line of fire from eliminated cheftestants.
I was lucky enough to speak with Wolfgang regarding the upcoming season of my favorite reality show.
What is the bigger mistake that will send you home on Top Chef – failing to execute a dish or failing to season a dish properly?
Wolfgang Puck: You know, I think for me if somebody would not season the dish, over season it, or forget to put salt in it you would think, "Why are these people on Top Chefs?" Yet how can you forget to do that? It's like going to school and you forget to put your clothes on, you know, how can you do that? Say, "I'm going to walk naked to the thing." Now anybody could cook a steak instead of medium rare, medium, you know, that could happen that it's not executed exactly maybe, or an egg instead of having it 3-1/2 minutes you have it 4 minutes, it's just a little overdone. I could close an eye on that. But I would be very upset if a chef doesn't season the food right, which means he doesn't taste. And I tell all of my young chefs and everybody in the kitchen the most important thing for a chef is to taste.
So seasoning would be failure and that would be the kiss of death. You can pack your bags.
Wolfgang Puck: Yes, definitely yes.
Lets talk about the personalities of your chefs. Does that ever weigh in on the back of your mind when you're judging a dish? For instance, this person seems really passionate about cooking, or this person seems more aggressive. There always seems to be the people that you love to hate and hate to love on the show. Does that ever weight in there?
Wolfgang Puck: You know what? I don't really weigh into it. I have too much experience with chefs and cooks I hire in the restaurant, you know, who some of them have the big talk and they come in very much like, you know, like a bullfighter would go into an arena and then I give them three eggs and I say, "Make me an omelet." And I give them a regular pan, not a Teflon coated pan, and, you know, most of them look, just look, and say, "Wow what is the big deal?" And most of them cannot make it right. So I show them in two seconds and I said, "You know what? You talk a lot, but you don't even know how to cook eggs."
So there's an ego check at the door?
Wolfgang Puck: Yes. So I think it's very easy to cut the ego down.
The last few seasons haven’t been able to capture the magic of season 6 for me. Perhaps I just miss the appeal of the Voltaggio brothers and the likeability of Kevin Gillespie. I find it hard to pick a contestant to root for as the squabble and throw out the old cliche: “I’m not here to make friends!” I am thrilled to hear that cocky chefs will be getting their ego checked by the only chef to win the James Beard Outstanding Chef of the Year Award twice.
No comments:
Post a Comment