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Top Chef New York Season 5

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marigold:
An interesting article an interview with Leah:

Top Chef’s Leah: Do I Regret Kissing Hosea — Yes and No

Love her or hate her, New Yorker Leah Cohen nearly made it to the semifinals of Top Chef. But she was cut on Wednesday after a runny egg dish failed to impressed a who’s who of famous chefs. Apart from her food, the chef also cooked up one of the season’s most memorable — and scandalous moments — when she shared a kiss with fellow contestant Hosea, even though both chefs were dating other people at the time. Calling from New York, Cohen talks about the fallout from the kiss, explains why she was “done” with the show long before her ouster and tackles our five burning questions.

Everybody is wondering, what’s your relationship with Hosea like now?
We’re really good friends. He’s my boy. I love him like a friend. Just straight off the bat we just gravitated together, and it was one night where we kissed. We were drunk and we kissed. It just happened. Of course, I wouldn’t have cheated on my boyfriend on national television, which was probably the most f—-d up thing I did on the show. I can’t take that back. I’ll take full responsibility for my actions.

Do you regret what happened at all?
I definitely regret cheating on [my boyfriend] on national television. He’s not my boyfriend anymore because of what happened on the show and other things. Do I regret kissing Hosea? Um, yes — but no at the same time. I don’t know. It’s weird. Whatever it is, I did [it]. So, there’s nothing I can do to change it.

You’ve been in the bottom on several occasions. Did you ever feel that you were going to be going home earlier than you did?
During Judges’ Table [at the farm challenge], I was kind of shocked because I thought “team pig” that was losing team. Then for Restaurant Wars, since we had no idea who was going home, I had made tons and tons of mistakes that day. It was like a bad day of work, but unfortunately if you have a bad day of work on the show, you get kicked off. I would have definitely gone home if it wasn’t for Stefan and Fabio’s [work]. From then on, I was just over it.

Do you mean you just kind of gave up?
I think everyone has a certain level of how much they can take. You can prepare yourself as much as you want, but doing the show, it was way more stressful and challenging than I had ever anticipated. The night of Restaurant Wars, after that challenge, I was just done. I was over feeling the anxiety, the stress and I kind of had enough.

Back to the farm challenge, many people thought Ariane, who was on your team, was unfairly eliminated.
I really thought that Radhika was going to be eliminated for that challenge, and then when I found out that we were on the bottom, I thought it was between myself and Ariane. They kind of played it like Hosea and I teamed up against Ariane, which was not the case at all. I would have never intentionally thrown Ariane under the bus - nor do I think to this day that I did. And I read that a lot of people were upset. I was upset that Ariane got eliminated as well. I didn’t think it was going to be anyone on my team. There’s a level of feeling bad about it, but in the end you’re there for yourself.

Before leaving last night, you said you feel like you didn’t cook your best food on the show. What did you mean?
Before coming onto the show, I really did not have a lot of experience. I had never put a dish together from start to finish - and since [being on] the show, I know I’m a lot more capable of some of the food that I produced. I made a lot of working mistakes, like undercooking the fish for Restaurant Wars. Overall, I think, you’re in a stressful situation and you’re thrown all these curveballs. … They threw me off. I know the food that I do now is way better than anything I’ve produced on the show.

Our Top Chef 5 Burning Questions:

Describe your Top Chef experience in one word.
Stressful

What is in your refrigerator right now?
I have beer and kimchi.

Name one food you cannot stand.
I don’t like white asparagus.

Pick your favorite fast-food restaurant.
I like New York hot dogs from the street vendors.

Gail or Toby?
Gail, hands down. I don’t really think Toby brought much to the table. Toby was just there to be the Simon Cowell of Top Chef.

Link: http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/02/12/top-chefs-leah-do-i-regret-kissing-hosea-yes-and-no/

marigold:
Another interview with Leah:

Top Chef Exit Interview: Episode Twelve

In a season that’s been lagging of late, it was a surprise to suddenly find that it was time to determine which cheftestants would move on to the final leg of the competition. It was also a bit of a shock to see such a simple, straightforward challenge for this definitive challenge, which involved cooking “last suppers” for food-world luminaries inside the cavernous Capitale. But the episode was not without drama: Fabio broke a finger, Carla made green eggs and ham, and Stefan managed to ruin salmon. Carla and Fabio got the thumbs-up from the judges, leaving the other three on the chopping block. In the end, it was Leah Cohen, the youngest and least experienced of the remaining cheftestants, who was instructed to pack her knives. We spoke with her earlier today about why she was ready to leave the show and what she thought about kissing Hosea.

Everyone wants to win Top Chef. But once the competition started and you sized up your competitors, how far did you expect to make it?
My personal goal was to make it at least halfway through. Top eight would be great and anything more than that would be really great. I didn’t think I was going to make it as far as I did.

In terms of the specific challenge, “the Last Supper,” did you feel that of the three of you, Hosea and Stefan, that you deserved to be eliminated?
Stefan hammered his fish. It was completely overcooked. And Hosea’s shrimp scampi was a little 1980s. I thought I was fine, totally making it to the final four. But after the judge’s table, before they deliberate, when they just give the rundown of everyone’s dish, I realized that I was going to be sent home.

There were three of you who sort of stumbled in this challenge. Do you think it was just because the pressure was so high?
Yeah, I mean the panel of judges that we had to cook for was [of] the highest caliber, and that definitely played a role in the stress of this challenge. Everyone wanted to make it to New Orleans and be in the final four. It wasn’t a hard challenge — you’re creating people’s last supper — and overall none of the dishes were complicated. It was just who we were cooking for that made it that much more challenging.

It also seemed like there was a lack of instruction. They just said, “make the dish,” right?
Do we go the traditional route? Or do they want us to be creative with it? It was a little undefined in what exactly we were supposed to do. I guess it should have been pretty straightforward, which is what Carla did and Fabio did.

If you had been able to pick any of the five dishes, instead of eggs Benedict, would you have made a different choice?
Maybe, maybe not. Eggs Benedict is pretty easy. I don’t know how I managed to **** that up. They were all pretty easy, so any one of the dishes, I thought, were fine to have.

What was the best dish you made on Top Chef?
The white-asparagus soup for Grant Achatz that I won the Quickfire for.

At certain points throughout the season, it seemed like you gave up a little bit or were exhausted.
I was just over the whole thing midway through. I didn’t feel like being there anymore, I didn’t feel like dealing with the challenges and all the stress of the show. The game kind of took over and beat me.

What about your interaction with Hosea?
Everyone paired off and gravitated towards whoever they got along with the best. With Jamie, it was Ariane and Carla. With Danny, it was Gene. And for me it was Hosea. Did they portray it accurately? No. But we did have a connection and a strong friendship.

Did that get out of hand?
Yeah. That episode where we kissed should have never happened.

Do you regret that?
Yeah, absolutely I regret that happening. It was silly and it was a mistake.

Did Top Chef take advantage of New York?
I thought that it would be more city-related. We never went to the Greenmarket. There were all these people — I guess paparazzi, if you will — trying to find out what our next challenge was. So to keep it under wraps and not have anything be spoiled it was sort of difficult for them to be in the city, where there were all these people around. They were expecting us to go to the Greenmarket, so, of course, we couldn’t do that.

What do you feel like you learned from this experience? Did it change you as a chef?
I think that, prior to going on this show, I don’t think I would have been able to do what I’m doing right now at Centro Vinoteca. I redid the whole menu, and I’m running the kitchen. The show just gave me a lot of confidence. It was probably the most intense experience that I’ve ever had as far as culinary life is concerned. I’d never come up with dishes before the show. I’d never done a complete dish from start to finish. So now to have done the show and be running my own restaurant and have the menu be 85 percent my food is pretty amazing for me.

Link to the article: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2009/02/top_chef_exit_interview_episod_7.html

scuzneck:
Alrightie, Top Chef Last Supper...

This was by far the easiest episode to predict as it was happening. Both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge were simple to predict the outcome.

The Quickfire, featuring Chef Wylie Dufresne, had the chefs make an egg dish. Now, without looking back at the program, I believe it was just that a dish. I personally don't remember breakfast being broadcast as part of the challenge but I have been wrong before. As soon as the challenge was issued and I saw the Hosea, Leah, Fabio and Stefan were planning more than one dish, I knew Carla would be a shoo-in to win this challenge. But that was just me, my wife thought I was bonkers and she is a Carla fan.

Fabio tried to do too much, while kissing the buttocks of the guest judge. Leave molecular gastronomy to the experts Fabio. Trying to impress Dufresne with molecular gastronomy is like trying to impress Mozart with your Concerto in D minor when all you've played in trombone in high school marching band. Fabio was so off the mark it was laughable. Now, with that said, there is no way I could have even gotten close to anything he plated. But what he plated was very poor for Fabio's standards.

Leah. Poor poor Leah. It was very obvious the Leah had her bags packed and was ready to leave even before this challenge started. Her dish was so average that I even forgot what she cooked. Leah, probably should have gone home last week. I think that Jamie would have given a better go at the challenges this week. With all that said, i liked what Leah was able to produce throughout the show.

Hosea's attempt at an egg roll was an incredible idea. But one, he admitingly, had never tried before that attempt. His technique was genius and something I could 1) never come up with and 2)never recreate. However impressive the technique was the taste and/or texture was not something that Wylie thought was worthy of the Top 2.

Stefan's downfall in this challenge was cooking two egg meals instead of just 1. Had he stuck with the mango yolked egg concoction he created he may have won. But, alas, two many eggs spoiled the victory. Stefan's meal did look very very good, however.

Green eggs and Ham. Just freakin' cornball. Dr. Seuss insipred food. Only Carla could come up with that and make it so good that it would win a Top Chef challenge. Carla's plate looked like something my kid's kindergarten teacher came up with and prepared after reading the book. Carla's, though, was probably quite delicious.

(More to Come)

On to the elimination challenge. The premise was simple, cook a renowned chefs "Last Supper". Seems fairly straight forward, which is what I thought the judges had intended. Cook a superior meal, put some of you in it, but stay true to the dish. As the challenge progressed, we saw 3 chefs do that, two chefs that didn't.

Let's start this off with Stefan. He keep to Marcus Samullson's wishes and cooked a salmon in the "Scandinavian" way. His flavoring of the fish was spot on. He failed in two regards. First was his use of spinach two ways. It seems that most of Stefan's dishes can go two ways. Spinach, two ways. Eggs, two ways. Potatoes, trwo ways. Beefsteak, two ways. It is almost like the confidant and cocky Stefan is unsure that one dish can set him apart from everyone else, so he settles for two. His second mistake was obercooking the salmon. A cardinal sin in the Top Chef kitchen. Never Under or Over cook anything. Stefan overcooked the salmon. However, he was safe from elimination due to Leah's and Hosea's poor dishes.


Moving to Hosea. Hosea found himself in the quandry the Fabio talked about in his interview above. The judges seem to be contradicting themselves in their critquing of the chefs. Do you cook food that is complex in nature that show off your true calling as a chef, using varied ingredients and techniques or do you keep it simplistic in design and style, as well as technique? Classic dishes with your flair or classic dishes with no flair? Hosea chose flair. And was resounded with disapproval from the judges. He failed to cook a "classic" shrimp scampi and was therefore placed in the bottom 3. For me it was rightfully so. The challenge, as said before, was simple. Cook a judges' last meal. Cook what they would want. Not what you think they would appreciate being a judge. Hosea missed the mark. Leah's disenfranchisement with the competition spelled his continuation on the show.

Then there was Leah. As I stated before, Leah was ready to pack her knives and go. She just got an extra week to do it. Uninspired dish. Second guessing herself. Eggs not cooked long enough. Total meltdown. Total disaster. Liked Leah and hate to see her go, but it was overdue.

(Still more to come) (jury duty calls)

marigold:

--- Quote from: scuzneck on February 12, 2009, 02:11:20 PM ---Alrightie, Top Chef Last Supper...

my wife thought I was bonkers and she is a Carla fan.

(More to Come)


--- End quote ---

 :lol: awww I like Carla too, she is such a sweetheart loved her reanactment of how she feels like a turtle

Thanks again scuzneck I'm looking forward to more

TexasLady:

--- Quote ---The Quickfire, featuring Chef Wylie Dufresne, had the chefs make an egg dish. Now, without looking back at the program, I believe it was just that a dish. I personally don't remember breakfast being broadcast as part of the challenge but I have been wrong before. As soon as the challenge was issued and I saw the Hosea, Leah, Fabio and Stefan were planning more than one dish, I knew Carla would be a shoo-in to win this challenge. But that was just me, my wife thought I was bonkers and she is a Carla fan.
--- End quote ---

scuzneck, funny you comment on this, I JUST got through playing back the beginning of the Quick Fire and there was no mention of breakfast. It had to do with the eggs. Carla is coming into her own, I give her kudos!

Looking forward to the continuation of your comments.

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