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Top Chef Season 5, Episode 9: Stephen Starr is killing it
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Top Chef Season 5, Episode 9: Stephen Starr is killing it
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About a year ago at this time, I was somehow asked, along with Foobooz's Art Etchells, to be a judge on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Prior to the taping, which took place at Collingswood's excellent Pop Shop, two of the producers pulled Art and I aside to go over some particulars. Most of the stuff was solid but benign advice — smile, act natural, speak up, etc. But they did share one nugget of info that I remember finding particularly humorous: They basically instructed us not to act like total dickbags.
A few Throwdown judges in the past, they told us, saw their .2 seconds of cable TV exposure as an opportunity to make their critical bones, and proceeded to tear apart the dishes of the competitor(s), Flay, and in some cases both participants. Not because the food sucked, necessarily, but just because they could act like snitty sonsofbitches and get away with it. Needless to say, the producers were forced to reshoot segments in these cases until they were able to capture the fam-friendly quips that so characterize the Food Network program.
This phenomenon, of course, is not unique to TV, but it certainly comes up a lot on Top Chef. The show's guest judges, regardless of their roles in the industry, often seem like they're forcing the cruelty just because they can. (This also seems to apply to Toby Young, but that's an issue for another post.) The distinction here is that I'm guessing TC's producers take the exact opposite approach of Throwdown's: They gotta be convincing their judges to act as farcically inhumane as possible. That's why I was amped on the fact that Philly's Stephen Starr represented us so well on last night's much-anticipated Restaurant Wars (RW) episode.
Quickfire: The remaining eight cheftestants were asked to develop a dish that would serve as a microcosm of a specific restaurant concept. The top two dishes, they learned, would be designated as the captains of the RW teams. Here's where the Starrchild came in. Instead of smarmily slamming everyone's plates with disgusted one-liners (paging Jean-Christophe Novelli), he simply told the chefs whether or not he liked their stuff. "I don't think I'm going to be going into business with you, buddy," he told Jeff. Jeff was like "Alright." Fabio tried to weave some sort of precious multi-course dealie that featured tuna and swordfish carpaccio, a roasted vegetable salad and a filet mignon sandwich all on one plate. Starr looked at the latter item and made us proud by saying that it was "a cheesesteak." The Italian countered by attaching the "high-end" descriptor to his offering. (You think filet makes it high-end? Do your research, Fab!) Steve's two faves: Radhika, who's won about a million Quickfires; and Leah, who, along with Gross Couple partner Hosea, sucks.
Elimination: RW always makes for the most compelling episode of the Top Chef season for one simple reason — when you give a bunch of Type A knife jockeys less than one day to see an entire restaurant from concept to fruition, EVERYTHING WILL GO TERRIBLY WRONG. It's brilliant. Rad's teammates — Carla, Jeff and Jamie — settled on an "old spice trade" restaurant called Sahana. Leah, ew-gross-they-kissed-ew Hosea, Fabio and Stefan ran with a concept called Sunset Lounge, which sounds like it would be a place that relies heavily on the use of raw bean sprouts and Smart Balance.
Sahana was a terrible dining experience for the judges, as front-of-the-house leader Rad decided it would make more sense to have a series of panic attacks in the kitchen than care for her guests. Though they liked the curried carrot soup with smoked paprika oil at the outset ("I like the cucumber thing at the end that I'm getting," said Starr; hey, that's how we talk, too!), the rest of the dishes had problems, culminating with the unmitigated disaster that was Carla's not-frozen frozen yogurt. Oops. ("I wanted to shake her really hard," Starr would later say of Carla's limp judges' table defense of the dessert. Same!)
Sunset went considerably better on the service end, with the unflappable Fabio charming the pants off everyone ever — including Starr, who gave him a nice lil' man-wink — by managing to make himself sound even more foreign than usual. Impressive. Then came the controversial snafu that resulted in this week's elimination being not so cut and dry: Leah served a bunch of people severely undercooked fish. I was talking to my dude Emynd about this earlier: Yes, Radhika completely screwed up the front of the house and Carla served a goopy dessert. But are those worse offenses than potentially hospitalizing a dinner guest? I would say no — but that's irrelevant, since Sunset took it thanks to Fabio's people skills and solo winner Stefan's stellar dessert.
Radhika ended up packing her knives. At first blush, this seems fair for two reasons — 1) she seems poised to become a celebrity chef, and to be successful in that role, you need to be able to work a room; and 2) one of the prizes for winning Top Chef is a chunk of cash to open your own spot, which also requires talents beyond behind the line. But did she trot a potentially hazardous entrée out the kitchen door? Nope.
Let's hear what you thought about the elimination in the comments.
Agreed! Leah is unbearably lame. Maybe next week. I was personally bummed out there was nary a mention of the fact the Philly is in fact Starr's HQ.
great stuff drew and you hit the nail on the head with how awesome starr was tonite. i really liked how starr called toby "rough" when toby said the israeli couscous tasted like dishwater. toby almost looked ashamed. i do like carla and i think it was partially not her fault as to her stuff falling apart, where as radhika...well, it was allll her fault. but at least carla sent her food out with some love, haha. this whole leah/hosea thing needs to stop. i think she's next to go next week.
While true that getting someone sick is definitely worse than simply disappointing someone. I was surprised that Carla got yet another pass. I mean, each week she has been not so on top of her game and talking about 'love'. Other than desserts (not like I can make a pastry to save my life) what has she done lately? Eh.
Did anyone else find it disappointing that there was NO mention of Starr's Philadelphia roots? They described him as the successful owner of Buddakan and Morimoto IN NEW YORK. No mention of the fact that they started here. I thought that was lame, though I did think he was a good judge.
I agree with the frustration of lack of mention for Philly. I also find it interesting that in past season's restaurant wars, the head chefs frequently took too much of the blame for general problems and often went home because of it (e.g., Tre). In this case, the 2 head chefs truly deserved to be sent home for poor performance.
[...] Stephen Starr Talks ‘Top Chef’, Guest Judging [Eater] Top Chef Season 5: Episode 9 [Meal Ticket/City Paper] [...]
Yes, the complete disregard for Starr's Philly credentials was weird. Adam Erace discusses it best here.
The best part of the episode was when Fabio essentially said he could sell shit in a bucket. And he's right. I don't think he'll last that much longer, but he and Stefan need to take their mutual Euro-love fest on the road and open up a restaurant together. Stefan's a dick and Fabio the most charming cliche you'll ever see on TV.
For how much I enjoy the restaurant wars episodes, I was very unmotivated to see this episode. Now I don't have to!
I have been to several Starr restaurants in Philly and I always left thinking that the restaurant was absolutely beautiful, but the food was just "eh". What he said about Carla made me laugh. Maybe SS has to go into his own kitchens and shake a few chefs.
[...] [...]
[...] Starr made his first appearance on Bravo’s Top Chef during Season 5’s Restaurant Wars episode. For Top Chef Las Vegas, he sat at the Final Table during last night’s finale episode. Meal [...]
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