MediaVillage.com, August 2nd, 2007
My girlfriend grew up in a family of non-chefs. To her, grilled cheese was best made in a microwave. She survived college thanks to the frozen food section in the grocery store. It's not that she never tasted good food - since her family couldn't cook, they always went out to restaurants. It's just that in retrospect she's realized that she never appreciated how great that food was.
Then we started watching Top Chef. While the drama on Top Chef is one reason that the show is wildly successful, it's the superb level of cooking that also attracts viewers. Hell's Kitchen thrives for the sole reason that Gordon Ramsay's show is one hundred percent about the yelling and theatrics. The food is not the focus of the show, as it is on Top Chef.
Top Chef introduces viewers to a new level of cuisine and teaches them the hard work and detail that goes into creating those dishes. The skilled "chef-testants" consistently bring new and innovative dishes to the table, and the judges and guest judges educate the viewers with their insight and criticisms of the dish. Speaking of the guest judges, they also do their part in introducing us to superior restaurants.
A few weeks ago, chef-testant Howie won the challenge, which awarded him the chance to spend a week in the kitchen of guest judge Alfred Portale's famed restaurant Gotham Bar & Grill. You know a show is of a high caliber when it is able to feature chefs like Portale. On the episode that Portale guest judged, the contestants had to reinvent an American classic. Portale told MediaVillage (during an extraordinary dinner at Gotham) that he was very pleased with what the contestants did in the quick fire, but in that elimination challenge, he was very disappointed.
So, during a later phone interview with Portale, we asked him if he was worried that he'd have to let the winner of that challenge work in his kitchen. Portale responded, laughing, "That's pretty funny! No, I wasn't thinking that far ahead quite honestly... We were really uniformly perplexed at why it seemed as a whole all the chefs were having difficulty with the challenge, when it seemed rather straightforward to us judges."
Often times the contestants on Top Chef will criticize the challenges' obscurity, yet Portale does not believe that's a good excuse. "Crazy things happen all of the time in kitchens, and while some of the challenges might not translate literally, they do represent some of the real life challenges in terms of surprises and unexpected things," Portale said.
Luckily for Howie, he survived the American classic challenge and Portale chose his Fennel Crusted Pork Chops with Apple Fennel Salad & Sultana Raisin Emulsion. Even more lucky for Howie, and the viewers, is that Portale was on Top Chef in the first place.
Portale was somewhat hesitant about doing the show, as he told MediaVillage, " My feeling was that it probably was mainly scripted, and that they were doing multiple takes, and that they were following a script. But I learned that was far from the truth." Top Chef might just be the most real reality show of them all - viewers see what actually happen.
Having taken many chefs under his wing, Portale said he had no problem with his job as judge on the show. "I found I was very comfortable in that role. I think that it's a very natural thing for a chef to critique and try and be supportive of new ideas and point out whatever areas there might be for them to improve. It was a very natural." That's a positive comment for viewers to hear, as Portale said he would love to come back next season as a judge again.
Referencing the idea that Top Chef really does influence the way people eat and look at food, Portale said, "I think that it's very important. I hadn't realized to what extent the show is viewed. It's very impactful. I think it only educates people and makes them more passionate and aware of not only the food, but the challenges and difficulties of being a successful chef."
Portale knows a thing or two about being a successful chef. Plus, when we asked him how he thinks he would have done on Top Chef if he had been a contestant early in his career, he quickly answered, "I would have won, of course!"
Spoken like a true Top Chef!
Reporting by Jacki Garfinkel
