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The Chopping Block

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TexasLady:
SERIES PREMIERE Wednesday, March 11th 8/7c

Celebrated chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White (UK's "Hell's Kitchen") serves up a new original cooking competition series "The Chopping Block," in which the British Michelin star chef offers neophyte hopeful chefs/restaurateurs a chance to compete in America's greatest restaurant challenge. "The Chopping Block" will expose the unseen pitfalls and behind-the-scenes madness that goes into opening a restaurant -- with a grand prize of $250,000. The controversial and unpredictable White represents the contestants' best chance to make their dreams come true, as he is one of the world's most notable chefs and restaurateurs and they will all be under his critical eye.


The heat is on when White ushers the contestants -- split into two teams of four couples each -- to two empty restaurant spaces, side-by-side, in the middle of Manhattan. There, they are given less than a week to accomplish a multitude of tasks, including a design and makeover of each space, planning a menu, and generating buzz-worthy publicity to ensure a crowd on opening night. Both establishments will open at the same time and will be competing for the same customers -- against 26,000 other restaurants in the world's busiest (and hungriest) city.


In each episode, noted food critics will be assigned to observe the chaos that inevitably unfolds on opening night and after the dust has settled, White will return with the reviews. The worst-performing team will have to plead their case -- because one couple will be asked to remove their aprons as they are sent home.

Source: http://www.nbc.com/chopping-block/about/


I'll DVR it, see if it's worth my viewing time.  :lol:

TexasLady:
Excerpt:

Chef Marco Pierre White hosts the reality show ''The Chopping Block,'' in which pairs of hopefuls try to open a new restaurant. (Virginia Sherwood/NBc)
By Devra First
Globe Staff / March 11, 2009

With "Top Chef," "Hell's Kitchen," "Iron Chef," "The Next Food Network Star," and all the planned spinoffs of the above, cooking can now be considered a competitive sport. Tiger Woods drew 1.7 million viewers to the Golf Channel last month with his much-hyped return after surgery. That same day, 3.7 million took in Bravo's "Top Chef" season finale.

Into that landscape, NBC launches "The Chopping Block." Will it bring anything new to the table? Even the name bears an unfortunate resemblance to the previous latest installment in the genre. The Food Network's "Chopped" premiered in January.

Here's the premise: Two teams compete for $250,000. (Cue dramatic voice-over: "It's the chance of a lifetime.") Each group is given an empty restaurant space they must decorate, create menus for, and open virtually overnight. If this sounds familiar, that's because it's essentially a show-length version of the Restaurant Wars challenge on "Top Chef." No problem - reality TV has proved that we will watch a formula that works over and over again.

Read the rest at: http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/03/11/not_much_new_cooking_on_chopping_block/

TexasLady:
My hubby and I watched and it wasn't bad. Two teams, a red team and a black team, compete to open their separate restaurant. The teams are comprised of pairs who will compete for a chance to own their own restaurant.

The cast is confusing, they really aren't introduced when the show begins and the viewer must figure out that the two teams are comprised of the various pairs competing against the other team/pairs. They must work with each other as a team and do their best because the losing team will lose one pair at the end of the episode.

The opening scenes show people having to clean and decorate a restaurant then cuts to the scene where they must prepare a dish for Marco. Everyone has fifteen minutes to find something in two large trucks stocked with food and then rush to the kitchen to prepare something for him. After Marco samples each offering, the winner is named head chef for the next evening’s service. The viewer is left wondering, where are these kitchens. Are they the ones they had to clean? Once the dishes are analyzed and a head chef chosen they are told they must be open for dinner the next evening. (!!!)

Menus are prepared, sous chefs are chosen as well as the front of the house personnel for each restaurant. The teams don't realize that it won't be Marco judging their food but a food critic who comes to dine and observe the quality of the food and the service.

I'll give it a little longer to see how it develops. It's not Hell's Kitchen and it's not Top Chef. Is it a winning formula? We'll see.

TexasLady:
This is such a strange show. 8 couples, 16 people compete in two teams. One team member serves while the other member cooks. Chef Marco says the most important thing in a restaurant is the environment you sit in. So they are given a challenge of painting a blank wall to do with what they wish. The “front of the house” teams are sent to Pier One to find something to make their restaurant "Pop!" What they aren't told is they must also decorate the entire restaurant before service the next evening. The winning team gets $10,000 plus $3000. The losing team must decorate with $3000.
 
While the serving teams shop, the chefs are given a cooking lesson by Chef Marco on preparing a fresh, appetizing dish in fifteen minutes. For the red team he finds fresh tomatoes, capers, olives, olive oil and sea bass and serves it simply.  He shows the black team how to make something simple and make it taste great. Ingredients are coriander, scallops, oranges, lemons. 

The Red Team and Black team decorate their space with a table and place settings. Something that reflects what they would like as a proper environment when dining. Red team uses a shiny red for the wall but add a vertical stripe of a red matte finish to add interest but their tablecloth is wrinkled and the table is wobbly. Marco says it really bothers him, he doesn't like a wobbly table in a restaurant. The black team uses a bright yellow for the wall but neglect to add water glasses to the table setting. One team member wanted to add the water glass but was told ‘No, they don't like having a water glass on the table,’ and that cost them. (Think drama!) Marco tells us from his chair that it lets him see into their mind. Red team wins so they get the extra cash.


The next challenge is to prepare a party for 60 guests with a guest host,  top fashion designers. Nicole Miller for the red team and Rebecca Taylor for the black team. Marco tells the black team to work together. Pull the rope together; otherwise they (?) will hang you. The guests are accustomed to dining in small restaurants so don't mess up. (Marco sitting in his chair wagging his finger says strange things that sound so authoritative but... They will hang you?


For some inexplicable reason the Red team buys Chilean sea bass but Nicole Miller tells a representative of the red team she doesn't want it served because they are endangered specie. They also ordered halibut and baby chicken but not enough because of the sea bass purchase. (See where this is going?) Marco shows them how to trim the chicken leg so it can be eaten whole in one bite, and eats one leaving 19 left and he tells them to give each diner a whole chicken, but they only ordered 40. (Sixty patrons.. hope they don't all order baby chicken.)

I can't even remember what the black team served except a nice salad and lamb.

The food critic, Jeffrey Steingarten orders halibut but but the red team has run out so Michael the chef in charge says switch to the sea bass and the server tells the critic, sorry we're out of halibut but we have Chilean sea bass. Steingarten tells him it is endangered. The server makes a joke, it isn't endangered here and Steingarten laughs. However Nicole Miller storms into the kitchen upset that she heard someone order the sea bass and she refuses to let it be served, the chef in charge Michael, prepares farm raised salmon that is 5 days old. (I'm just reporting...) Mrs. Steingarten doesn't like salmon, and Steingarten doesn't like FARM RAISED salmon. The server doesn't appear to tell Steingarten about the switch and in his critique he mentions that he was told he'd be served the sea bass but got salmon, farm raised salmon.)

Red team loses and the infighting begins. Michael blames Lisa, and as the blame is spread around, Marco asks Chad what he did in the kitchen. He tells Marco that he was the backup chef and prepared several vegetarian dishes that they hadn't planned for. Marco presses Chad about being a backup. Was he playing safe and under the radar? Is he quitting? Chad's partner, Mikey, gives an impassioned speech about how proud he is of the service, how nice his restaurant looks. Marco corrects him, THEIR restaurant. Back to Chad, Marco asks him again to defend himself and he doesn't. Another quitter. Chad and Mikey are gone.

Marco back in his chair, waving his finger says Chad highlighted his weakness by agreeing with his team members. You can't give a man a restaurant who is prepared to lay down. You give a restaurant to a man who is prepared to fight for it.

In his exit interview Chad tells us he wasn't the strongest person in the kitchen and defends his friend Mikey as one of the most amazing front of the house people he's ever known. Mikey says they came into this as a team, they leave as a team.

So far in the two episodes we've seen, a team quits. Step it up producers and Marco, or this show will be on The Chopping Block permanently.

TexasLady:
Since I called Chad and Mikey quitters I thought I'd post a clip and link to Chad's exit interview. It gives a better perspective on why he didn't fight to stay and how his demise came about . The show really isn't a cooking show, it's how to open and manage a restaurant but since it's a realty show, time is compressed. Probably too compressed.


Clip:

The Chopping Block Exit Interview: Chad is Chopped Taking Mikey Down With Him

Mikey Torres and Chad Phillips, two best friends from Washington, D.C., were the second couple chopped from NBC’s The Chopping Block, Wednesday night.  Fancast spoke to the duo after their dramatic elimination where chef extraordinaire Marco Pierre White and the red team called Chad a “weak link” who wouldn’t fight to stay. Chad and Mikey don’t deny that - but have some choice words of their own for teammates Michael and Panya who they call the show’s emerging villains out for blood.  Read on for more on what went wrong during a dinner party for Nicole Miller (a conspiracy says Chad!) and who will be giving Michael and Panya a run for their restaurant blood money.

Chad, what happened during the elimination?  You seemed in the clear until you volunteered that you were a “back-up” in the kitchen - do you regret that?

Chad - I don’t regret saying I was a back-up because that day, that’s what I was.  I had asked Michael who was the head chef that day what I needed to do.  That’s generally what someone working for a head chef in the kitchen does.  They’re given a task and are supposed to follow through with it.  My task was to get the specific bread Nicole Miller requested, and the whole head chef screw-up was ordering the Chilean Sea Bass without even knowing what Nicole wanted, and then when it came back that she specifically didn’t want sea bass, I was the one sent back and forth to the grocery store several times, to fix his mistake.  So no, I don’t regret saying I was more of a back-up because that’s what I was.

Marco told you to fight to stay but you didn’t.  Did you want to leave?

C - Marco is a very aggressive chef to begin with and when it comes to who I am and the way that I like to cook, I’m aggressive in my own way, but not necessarily by trying to stab or blackmail or throw anyone under the bus.  And when he made those little comments, it was like; you really don’t even know the situation.  Yes, you’ve been around, and you’ve been in our kitchen during tapings but when it came down to it, he didn’t know any of the situation; there wasn’t a whole lot to cook, he didn’t know or see the fact that I plated all 65 desserts by myself in the freezer.  And after head chef Michael decided to pull the salads, I was the one to re-plate most all of them with Chelsea.  So it was the kind of thing, if you’re going to make a shabby comment at least know what you’re talking about.  And he didn’t.  But I’m not saying anything bad about him; I’m just saying he just knew what everyone had presented to him.  I respect and love Mikey and had I been able to make a split, I would have jumped off ship and gladly left him to do what he was doing which was a phenomenal job.  I didn’t necessarily want to leave, but I was the least experienced person there, and when I know that I don’t have any tricks up my sleeve outside presentation and the design of something, and when it comes down to the hard core cooking, there was one person in particular, Lisa, that there was no doubt I could even get close to.  I didn’t necessarily want to leave but I wanted to leave the room at that moment and be given 20 minutes to think of how to state my case, but, sadly, we weren’t given that time and all things were pointing towards another couple and then one individual in the couple spoke up and all the guns were pointed at us.


Source: http://www.fancast.com/blogs/tv-news/the-chopping-block-exit-interview-chad-is-chopped-taking-mikey-down-with-him/

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