New season of Top Chef, Navarra chef on [General]

2014 Mar 12
So the new season of Top Chef Canada just started. And just letting people know Ottawa Chef Rene Rodriguez from Navarra is one of the contestants.

2014 Mar 12
And not without controversy....

m.huffpost.com

Stupid way to draw attention to the show. Although it seems to be working; I think the negative attention isn't all that great for them though. Overshadows the chefs looking for exposure. Needlessly playing on worn-out stereotypes and cliches. Etc.

2014 Mar 12
Oh puleez! (To the ad NOT to AD_2.) I find it ironic that most home cooks are women but they are vastly underrepresented in restaurant kitchens. Ads like this are doing nothing to encourage women to consider a career in the food industry. #endrant

2014 Mar 12

Here's an interesting article, I was listening to NPR one day and caught this reference:

www.splendidtable.org

In several of his books, Anthony Bourdain talks some about the problems female chefs have to deal with.

2014 Mar 12
Wow.. if I were in that pic on the right with that text over my head, I'd be royally pissed. Presumably all those guys signed something saying they couldn't sue anyone. Very not classy, Food Network Canada.

2014 Mar 12
This would be a good time to state that all reality TV is crap. And Top Chef type shows are just food-related reality TV. Do something better with your time folks. Go out and eat a nice meal with good people! Or cook. Or read. Don't watch this stuff.

2014 Mar 12
There are a few "reality" shows that I find entertaining and make time to watch, Top Chef is one of them. But I do not think this "boys vs girls" concept for Top Chef Canada is a smart move. I'm glad to see a few respected female chefs rail against this on Twitter, and also glad that the Top Chef Canada twitter account is responding to the criticism, but it's not going to change anything for this season.

Pitting the sexes against each other is never a good idea. Marketing the show to males with that "women don't belong in the kitchen" message isn't cool. I'd be pissed if my face was on that poster.

2014 Mar 12
I'm with you FFoodie on 'all reality tv is crap', BUT, imnsho, cooking competition reality tv is substantially less crap. I still consider the false drama and bogus 'character stories' created by selective editing to be crap, but at root, the cooking and creativity, generally, are neither fake nor forced, and I enjoy watching talented chefs working under insane time limits to come up with something awesome, or fail miserably.

2014 Mar 12
Bring back the original IRON CHEF !!!

2014 Mar 12
Yes! Even though Iron Chef was dramatic it was all about the cooking, not about fabricated interpersonal conflict! :-)

2014 Mar 12
I don't want girls in the kitchen. I don't like to eat cooties!

2014 Mar 13
My beef (pun intended) with IRON CHEF is the peculiar need for four hosts... there's the guy from Hawaii 5-0 hamming (pun intended) it up, then there's the host, two on the floor commentators and then the judges chiming in just because otherwise they sit around loafing (pun intended) and overall i just find the cornucopia (...) of commentary extraneous. The cooking itself is riveting tho'.

2014 Mar 13
I think this battle of the sexes is great! Afterall, what were women fighting for for so long? EQUALITY! And here are two teams, one comprised of men and one of women competing as EQUALS. HURRAA I say!

And with regards to the poster, perhaps they should have been even more careful with how they worded it. If you reread it a few times you'll notice it says "THIS kitchen is no place for a woman" Of course it isnt! The Women's team has their own kithchen, and THAT kitchen is no place for a man.

(And I thik the whole "this kitchen is no place for a woman" thing is a play on "a womans place is in the kitchen"... which is not a phrase I believe in btw)

2014 Mar 13
My love (♥ for those diggin' the new hearts) of the IRON CHEF is the peculiar need for four hosts... there's the guy from Hawaii 5-0 hamming (pun intended) it up, then there's the host, two on the floor commentators and then the judges chiming in just because otherwise they sit around loafing (pun intended) and overall I just find the cornucopia (...) of (mis)translated commentary bang on! The cooking itself is OK, too.

2014 Mar 14
After reading this post yesterday I went home to watch Hell's Kitchen last night all to discover that Gordon Ramsay has also divided his chefs into women's teams and men's teams this year. Team members were asked to prepare their signature dish and they presented in pairs - one man and one woman. Both the women's team and men's team scored approximately the same amount of points. (By the time the totals were announced I decided that washing my dishes was more fun than watching this show. And I hate washing dishes...) Gordon swore at both teams in equal amounts and he was winding himself up so much I was wondering if he was going to implode... I haven't seen this show since the first season and am not planning on watching it ever again. Life is too short to be miserable.

In the meantime I came across this article from the Huffington Post on food tv: www.huffingtonpost.com

2014 Mar 14
TV is indeed moving towards the point portrayed in the future-satire movie Idiocracy:

www.youtube.com

Love that film. :)

2014 Mar 14
Thought that was going to be about electrolytes. OH WELL.

2014 May 16
Ottawa's own Chef Rene Rodriguez won Top Chef Canada! I thought that this would be worthy of a mention on a site dedicated to the Ottawa food scene...

2014 May 16
Pretty cool to see a local chef win, but I am a bit surprised that he actually won. I've watched all of the Top Chef seasons, but for some reason I don't remember if they always use only the final offerings for their judging....I thought they had to take the season into account on some level...maybe not officially, but I'm sure they do even if just a small amount. Normally you have a very good idea of who will win, but this season was up in the air as far as I'm concerned. Very good season overall IMO.

2014 May 17
And remember, shows like Top Chef have a lot more to do with entertainment than actual food. Yes, I'm cynical, but I know how show biz works. Still, I'll take it for what it's worth and kudos to Rene Rodriguez for adding to Ottawa's growing prominence in the Canadian food scene!