An interview with Leah:
Top Chef Exit Interview: Leah Cut, Says Things Went A Little Too Far With Josea, Portrayal Of Their Relationship “Wasn’t Accurate”Wednesday night on Top Chef Leah Cohen was sent packing, knives and all, when her eggs benedict wasn’t up to snuff for the rather morbid “last meal” challenge. In an interview yesterday, the 26-year-old, who caused quite a stir this season after a caught-on-tape makeout moment with fellow cheftestant Josea, dished on her side of the kissing story, and talked about why she was more than ready to head home, which just happened to be four blocks away. Read on:
You said the experience was much more difficult than you’d expected. What did you expect going in, and how was it so tough?
I think I didn’t realize how quickly on the spot you’d have to come up with ideas. For me I think it’s more of a process of trying out things, and testing them out. I’ve watched previous seasons of the show so I knew you’d have to be quick on your feet, but I didn’t really think it was like oh you have 30 minutes, now go! The way it’s portrayed on TV is actually how it really goes down.
You can never prepare yourself for the actual playing of the game. That was challenging for me as well.
Was being from New York and having to be there, but not actually home, difficult?
That was really difficult. We would go on challenges and we’d be like literally four blocks away from my apartment, and I’d be like ohh, I just want to go home! It was like I’m so close to my bed and everything from my regular life, and yet I can’t just go to my bed for one night.
So, what happened with Josea?
Not much. Whatever you saw on TV was pretty much the extent of what went down. We hung out all the time. We were really good friends, and then we kissed on TV. There’s really not much more to it. We were really just good friends and it kind of went a little too far. For the most part he was just like my support there on the show. Everyone paired off and formed cliques and friendships. Everyone had someone they went to to help out, and for me that was Josea. I guess since we were of the opposite sex, there’s always going to be a little flirtation, but for the most part we’re just good friends. We’re not anything romantic. We’re not romantically involved, and I wouldn’t even say we were so on the show. I just see him as a friend.
Are you still with your boyfriend?
No, unfortunately not.
If you could have switched your final meal with a different culinary celebrity, who would it have been?
I would have probably chosen the same thing that I got. I thought overall that all of the final meals were pretty simple and straight forward. I was happy with eggs benedict, so I don’t think I would have changed it. But if I had too choose, I guess I probably would have done the squab and peas. That one was pretty easy, and it was for Jacques Pepin, and he’s pretty awesome.
Would you have changed anything with your dish if you had to do it again?
Instead of thinning out the hollandaise, I probably would have just kept it thick. I thought the egg was cooked properly. I know that Tom and some of the other judges thought that it wasn’t cooked properly, but a slow poached egg is supposed to be like that. I would have picked a different bread, too. I don’t think Padma liked that I used challah. I should have done like an english muffin, or something really traditional.
It seemed like towards the end you were losing steam, was that accurate? Were you feeling ready to leave?
That was accurate. I really kind of just did not want to be there towards the end of the competition. I was stressed out. Doing each challenge really wears you down. At that point I didn’t feel like participating any more, which probably wasn’t the best idea not giving it 100%. But you live and you learn. That’s part of the game; it’s designed to wear you down, and unfortunately I couldn’t handle it.
You mentioned in your exit interview that you didn’t expect to be friends with Jamie. Why?
In the very beginning I was always with guys for pretty much the entire show. We had two separate apartments and I was always over at the guys place. It was me, Josea, Fabio, and Stefan who were always hanging out together. I didn’t really hang out with, or make friends with a lot of the girls, except for towards the end of the competition Jamie was there. I think we’re both really similar in a lot of ways, so in the beginning I didn’t think we were going to get along. So we didn’t even try being friends. Then towards the end of the competition it was me, Jamie and Carla who were the only girls, and we really kind of bonded because of that. Jamie and I are really good friends now. She’s probably one of my favorite people that I met throughout the entire show. It’s just weird, I didn’t think that we were going to click, but towards the end we got along really really well. We have a lot more in common than we thought we did.
Were you surprised when she got kicked off?
I was surprised when she got kicked off only because I thought she was going to be in the final four. I tasted her dish - I mean we all taste each others dishes - and I knew that she would be going home because her celery was too salty and the skin of her fish wasn’t crispy throughout, so for that challenge I thought she was going to be sent home. But overall I thought she was definitely going to make it to the finale.
I thought she was one of the most talented chefs on the show, maybe more so than the people who are in the final four.
Were you surprised that you were sent home?
I knew when we were at Judges Table and everyone was getting critiqued on their dishes. I knew I’d be getting sent home by the point they sent us to the stew room to deliberate. For the actual challenge going on, though, I thought I did pretty well. Was I shocked to be going home? No. Did I think I deserved to go home? No, I didn’t. I think there were other times in the competition when I should have gone home.
Like when?
Restaurant Wars, but we won the challenge so I wasn’t going to get sent home. But based on performance alone, that was a really bad day for me. That was probably the worst performance of the entire season.
When Ariane got kicked off she seemed to blame you for not helping out with the lamb enough. What’s your take on that?
My take on that was it’s kind of hard when you’re put in a group and two people out of the three have this kind of relationship. I think she kind of felt like an outsider in the group. I never intentionally tried to throw her under a bus. I didn’t think she deserved to go home. I know a lot of the viewers thought that I should have gone home, but I didn’t think we were the losing team. I thought that the pink team should have lost, and that Radhika should have gotten sent home that episode. But as much as I regret, or feel bad for her going home, at least I wasn’t the one who went home for that challenge. It’s kind of a weird situation. I felt somewhat responsible, like maybe I should have helped out more, but she wanted to do the lamb. So Josea and I were like OK you want to do the lamb? Whatever you feel comfortable doing, you do it. Then unfortunately that was what got her sent home. We thought we were being nice and being a team, letting her do what she was comfortable doing. I would have done anything that anyone had asked me to do. I kind of sat on the back burner and was like whatever you guys want me to do, and that was probably my mistake. I should have done the lamb, or Josea should have done the lamb, but at that point we were trying to let her do whatever she wanted to.
Who are you rooting for now?
Josea or Stefan.
Who do you think will win?
Stefan.
Is he as annoying as they make him seem on TV?
You know it’s so funny. Everyone thinks that Stefan is this asshole and you know, he has like 23 years of experience. He has a very successful catering company in LA. He knows what he wants. He knows how to get it done. Yes, that can be arrogant, but he really is a nice guy. He was one of my closet friends on the show from the beginning. I love him. I think he’s awesome. Some people might not like him.
What was your impression of the judges?
You know there’s very little interaction that we have with the judges. It’s pretty much Judges Table that’s the extent of our interaction. I think Gail was awesome, she was really nice and really critiqued you in a positive way, and was really accurate in her critiques. Padma, I don’t know. Padma is Padma, I don’t really have anything nice to say at all, so that’s it with Padma. When Gail left, Toby was kind of this asshole who was just there to bring his English wit, and I just didn’t get it, or think that it was that witty or funny. And Tom, I respect him a lot. He knows a lot about food, and he’s very successful.
Everybody seems to have the same reaction to Padma. What is it about her?
I don’t know. Out of all the judges, we see her the most because we have the most interaction with her through the Quickfires and the Elimination Challenges, but I don’t know. As far as caring about other people goes, she just didn’t care. Whereas Tom and Gail I felt like looked at us as people and not as contestants, and were there to help. There’s only one winner in this entire competition, and whatever else we other losers can take from this experience is invaluable, and I thought that Padma didn’t invest any time in us, and Tom did more. But that’s not her job. She’s the host. She’s supposed to be there to be pretty and be the host.
What did you think of the way you were portrayed on the show?
It was kind of not as good as — I mean, I don’t know. That’s kind of why I stopped watching the show because I didn’t really like it for the most part. It kind of made me look like this clingy girl throwing myself on Josea, and for the most part that’s not how it went down at all. The whole portrayal of our relationship I didn’t think was accurate, but it was a storyline, and I guess it was an interesting storyline that they had to play off.
I didn’t act for the camera, I didn’t do certain things, I was just myself. People who know me know how I am, and people who just know me through the show can think how ever they want about me, I don’t really care. I don’t care what the blogs say, I don’t care about any of that stuff. Not everyone is going to like you, and not everyone is going to dislike you. But I signed a paper that allowed them to portray me any way they wanted to, so I can’t really complain. I knew what I was getting myself into.
Link: http://www.fancast.com/blogs/top-chef/top-chef-exit-interview-leah-cut-says-things-went-a-little-too-far-with-josea-portrayal-of-their-relationship-wasnt-accurate/
