the reality tv of food

strangely for someone that was on reality television, i do not think very highly of the whole genre. however, there are certain reality tv shows out there that are just so damn tempting to watch. i was flying jet blue last week from washington, d.c. to long beach, california and indulged in a top chef marathon on bravo. okay, so top chef came out about the same time as the next food network star and i am probably going to be viewed as a traitor (and probably also violating 100 of the 1,000 clauses in my food network contract) for saying this but i would much rather watch an episode of top chef any day. this is not to say i would have rather been on top chef instead of the next food network star. if i was eaten alive on the food network, i would have been thrown into a meat-grinding machine to be made into human sausage for consumption by blood-thirsty vultures on bravo. but the two shows are inherently different. one is about food and the other about personality. one is lo0king for a chef and the other is looking for an entertainor.

i'll admit i tuned into the first episode of top chef last spring. i was intrigued to see what we were up against ratings wise. after one episode, i had had enough. i hated the shit-talking, the egoes, the pricks and the typical "chef" attitude. i did not watch another episode for the rest of the season but while watching this marathon, i realized if you can ignore the reality tv contrived personalities and just concentrate on the food, the dishes that were created on top chef were pretty incredible and those final few were talented chefs. the purpose of top chef is not about teaching the home chef how to cook.  it is about top-notch gourmet cooking. in the final three episodes of the competition that i caught in this marathon, i saw some of the best chefs in america talk about food and for that alone, the show is well worth watching. i had just recently dined at ame the very talked about new "it" restaurant in san francisco opened by chefs hiro sone and lissa doumani and there they were on television, critiquing dave martin's black truffle mac and cheese (which i'm making this week because who can so no to the decadence of truffles complimented by the simple comfort of mac 'n cheese?). to have a show that brings together america's top culinary talents, the likes of michael mina and hubert keller, is no small deal and is well worth checking out. and if you happen to also like the shit-talking that goes on on the show, all the power to you and reality tv. while it'll be hard for them to top the culinary cast that participated in season one, i'm sure they will. it is reality tv after all. just when you think it's subsiding, it always manages to give you more. i just hope the nice guy wins again.