I had a culinary letdown last night

So last night was the finale of the fifth season of Top Chef on Bravo. Having worked in a restaurant a great deal I've served my share of good food (a hearty emphasis on served; I'm far to lazy too cook at all much less very well), but being a man of humble means, I've seen only glimpses of the crème de la crème. The best I can probably recall was the five course taster menu that my brother and I enjoyed at Alan Wong's in Honolulu for his 25th birthday (highlight's included "soup & sandwich" Tomato soup and Mozz/foie gras grilled cheese, poached lobster, onaga, twice-cooked shortrib, and coconut tapioca).

However the finale two challenges this season took place in New Orleans, and I certainly have some fond foodie memories of that place. There was dinner at Arnaud's my freshman year with my father (My first taste of turtle soup to start followed by Chicken Pontalba). There was the Brennan's two-fer for my 21st birthday: the Bourbon House the night before, and of course brunch at the original Brennan's on the day of (Eggs Nouvelle Orleans has yet to be dethroned as my most delectable breakfast ever, but the best part was the Banana's Foster fireball that nearly consumed my brother's head). And of course there was the no holds barred tour for my college graduation, that included lunch at Galatoire's (an unparalleled softshell crab sandwich), and dinner at the site of last night's Top Chef finale Commander's Palace (soup trio, and resplendent Gulf fish).

Coming into the finale we had the prohibitive favorite, the caustic Stefan who after displaying his prowess over the rest of the competition challenge after challenge, is starting to slow down at the wrong moment. We had Hosea, by all rights a strong chef, but not entirely the most consistent throughout the competition as he's been too easily distracted by Stefan's largess, and Leah's feminine wiles. And we had the Martian Carla. She nearly got eliminated twice for being less than assertive, but she clearly has the most momentum coming into the finale. I would have to say I was rooting for Carla.

Every season has had its heel (Stephen, Marcel, Hung, Howie) and often times it is one of the most talented, if not the most talented competitor. I've only ever rooted for the once before (I was satisfied when Hung took the title in Season 3). While Stefan was undoubtedly the strongest in this season, I didn't want him to win.

As the judges all commented favorably on each contestant's hors d'œuvres it looked to be shaping up to be one hell of a competition. And Carla killed both the boys with her first course; should serve as a warning against future chefs to think against presenting raw fish in the final round.

Unfortunately this was the peak for Carla as she revealed her weakness in her last two courses, relying to heavily on her sous chef Casey's advice. She won an earlier challenge by showing her ability w/ simple cooking, and yet she chose to sous vide her protein. How do you send the love in the sous vide bag Carla? And you absolutely killed w/ your tart's previously. The small oversight with overcooking the souffle was almost like karma kicking you for straying from your strengths.

In the second course Hosea showed up well with his foie gras & scallops. I'm a little astounded that there was even an issue in the kitchen about the foie. Hosea, if their are THREE portions of foie for a competition with THREE contestants, shouldn't you only need one? Stefan shouldn't have even had to contest his right to some of that foie. I think karma again reared its ugly head, as Stefan's perfectly cooked squab & braised cabbage out-shined Hosea's dish.

The final course became a semantics argument that truly deflated the competition. Hosea chose to forego the logical choice of doing a dessert, chosing to stay true to the natural progression of him dishes by cooking venision (on an unrelated note, I've been craving a good venison dish for months). This decision can viewed as cowardly or cunning. Hosea mentioned that he didn't want to lose Top Chef on a dessert, and who can blame him. But a good chef should have at least one good dessert up their sleeve.

Stefan never thought twice about doing a dessert. Why should he? His desserts in the Restaurant Wars challenge single-handedly saved Leah from going home. But he somehow forgot that this was the last course he would be serving in this competition, and he under-delivered in a big way. Its a shame that he had the stones to do a dessert, yet lost b/c of it. I actually think that next season that the dessert should be made a mandatory part of the final challenge. In my mind's eye I see it as a pitch-perfect twist: Have them plan their perfect meal excluding dessert only to throw it on the table for the contestants in the eleventh hour.

Overall I was disappointed. Hosea clearly won the final challenge, but he is by far the weakest chef of the five victors (Harold, Hung, & certainly Stephanie are leagues ahead of him). Hopefully next season turns out better.

this is why I love NPR

I currently subscribe to nine NPR podcasts. This is actually a pared down selection for me, as I had to curtail my podcast list, due to the fact that my inability to listen to actual music was being hindered by my ever-replenishing slate of online radio content. Therefore shows like All Songs Considered, It's All Politics, NPR: Movies, & Talk of the Nation, got the boot b/c they were A) too similar to another podcast I enjoyed, B) not in season (I'm only deeply interested in politics in an election year so sue me), C)featuring too many stories I was hearing on other shows, or D) just ran too long. (I subscribe to longer shows, but they tend to be weekly shows). My listening list is creeping back to the 30 mark, and I fear another subscription trim may be imminent.

Fresh Air I consider to be the crown jewel of the nine NPR shows I enjoy. I just finished listening to yesterdays' show, and discovered something fantastic.

Joss Whedon, the brilliant mind behind one of my favorite TV shoes of all time, is ginormous fan of Stephen Sondheim. Not only is he a fan, but they've met, and have dialogue as artists.

Yes the guy responsible for this:

Is a fan of the guy who wrote the words for this:

Whedon's new show Dollhouse premiere's tonight on Fox, and the buzz on it is not great, but I'm sure that he's got a million even great ideas still germinating inside.

EDIT: Just read a great interview w/ Whedon about this show. I guess I can't make fun of my friends who still read Maxim (you know who you are). The bit about how DC comic book heroes make for bad movies it interesting, and his admission that he is ,in fact, JJ Abrams is hilarious.

my songbook pt. 4

For this installment I'd like to examine someone I consider to be one of the best contemporary female vocalists around...Imogen Heap and her song "Hide and Seek"



My introduction to Imogen Heap was in one of the huge center's to my geekdom in my senior year of college. After my laptop and DVD collection were stolen from my room one fateful Christmas break, I was forced to purchase a new laptop, and I was wooed into the world of Apple, by my friend Ozzie. After having a such a horrible time with my Gateway laptop, my G4 Powerbook was a godsend.

I began to stockpile movie trailers from the Apple website. One of the most impressive was the initial teaser trailer for Zach Braff's indie darling Garden State. With my filmic eye at its zenith from all of my film studies classics, I was wowed by this wordless film trailer that relied solely on its impressive film shots and the haunting Frou Frou track "Let Go." Ozzie laughed in my face when I informed him what I had discovered about Frou Frou following the viewing of the trailer. He informed me that he was aware of the artist before seeing the trailer and geeked out when he heard the song in the theater. He had a play count for "Let Go" in his iTunes over a hundred.

I've largely championed Garden State as being one of my favorite films, but its trendiness has softened some of its largess in my minds eye in the years following its release. Much of its hipness has turned sour due to cliche. More than any of the awards it garnered; I was most satisfied with its Grammy win for Soundtrack Compilation, and I felt that the Frou Frou track had much to do with that.

Zach's music choices were eye-opening to me. I was introduced to artists like The Shins, Zero 7, Iron & Wine, Remy Zero; and I was forced to take a second look at artists like Coldplay and Colin Hay. As I entrenched myself in the films songs I noticed a glaring ommission in the film soundtrack (much like in Dazed and Confused with "Hurricane"). Alexi Murdoch's "Orange Sky" which played over the hamster Jelly's funeral was nowhere to be found. I quickly found that the song was a part of first soundtrack compilation for the TV show "The O.C.", and therefore couldn't be legally included in the Garden State soundtrack.

I had avoided "The O.C." like the plague because it was so immensely popular. But this was now two songs on that first compilation that I really dug (The first being "The Way We Get By" by Spoon, that I had on a mix CD) so I decided to seek out the rest of the compilation. And thus the hook was set, and I was slowly drawn into a cheesy teen soap opera.

I was able to justify my dedication to the show because of the music (damn you Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz, and Alexandra Patsavas). In the second season they introduced a live music venue called The Bait Shop, where they were able to showcase up and coming artists. Here I was introduced to Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers,

Another big player in the second season was none other than Imogen Heap. No longer a part of Frou Frou, her song "Goodnight and Go" was featured early on the show, and garnered a fair bit of mainstream play following the show's airing. Then her song "Hide and Seek" became the centerpiece of the Season 2 season finale, first backing the funeral, and then being called back for the show's cliffhanger open-mouth ending.



They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...and there's no better example than the SNL spoof of that very scene. Because I was such a fan of the show the "Dear Sister" digital short made me laugh out loud.



This track cuts me to my core. Imogen's voice by itself is spectacular. The harmonized vocals seem to be the only thing with which you could logically pair it. This haunting song rises and falls beautifully. I used to associate synthesizers and harmonizers with soulless house music, but this song broke down those prejudices.

But what's most amazing is that Heap produced this whole album "Speak for Yourself" by herself. Dissatisfied with how the previous Frou Frou album was mishandled; she took matters into her own hands, and the result is earth-shattering.

Of course then Zach Braff chose to include "Hide and Seek" in the soundtrack for his next film "The Last Kiss." The film came out two years after the songs release, and it had been almost played to death. While the music on the compilation was stellar again, I was disappointed to be familar with the majority of the artists already. Coldplay, Cary Brothers, Remy Zero, Imogen all made their second Braff appearances. But again there were some musician revelations

Snow Patrol - Chocolate -- the song featured in the trailer...almost engineered to feature heavily in a romantic movie; I've since latched tightly to Snow Patrol
Fiona Apple - Paper Bag -- revitalized an interest in someone I dismissed as a one-hit wonder (when I saw her at Vegoose in 2006 she killed it; a much better perfomer live)
Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk - Paperweight -- Radin I knew through following my Braff appreciation to Scrubs; the real revelation was Fisk, who I remembered vaguely as Sissy Spacek's daughter who was in that terrible Orange County movie with Tom Hanks son. Being the daughter of The Coal Miner's Daughter, the fact she can belt out a tune comes as no surprise, her being a darling redhead is just icing. I've constantly sought out any and all of her music since. She's currently working on her first album, and her singing has appeared in two other films I'm Reed Fish an Penelope)

So the cycle continues...Thanks Imogen I await your new album as well as Schuyler's first.

mad about Mad Men

its embarrassing to admit that I wanted nothing to do with the AMC TV series Mad Men at first glance. It idea of rehashing and glorifying 1960's Manhattan held no appeal for me. I decided that I would try and watch the show solely because one of the featured players was a relatively unknown actress named Christina Hendricks.

I had more or less fallen in love with Hendricks during her three episode arc on the failed Joss Whedon sci-fi western series Firefly. She was a conniving grifter buried in the gorgeous body of a voluptuous redhead. I am a true sucker for redheads in all forms of media and in my everyday life so the hook was not so hard to set. I was depressed to find that she had done very little mainstream work other than Firefly at the time, so when he image showed up in the promos for this period drama I became mildly interested. Turns out she can fill out the clothes of the period quite nicely.



So I randomly tuned in one night last year to what turned out to be episode 8 of 13 from the first season. The show moves a very deliberate pace, and because I was not up to speed with the subtlety of the characters involved I lost interest very quickly and dismissed the show.

Then the accolades at the end of season awards shows began to trickle in and I wondered what I had missed. The lead actor Jon Hamm defeated the favorite Hugh Laurie for the Golden Globe, and the show beat out Grey's for best drama. The SAG awards probably should have followed, but they became a ridiculous love-fest for the Sopranos.

So I queued up the first season in netflix and decided to take a closer look. The first episode "The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" had me from the opening scene. Jon Hamm as Creative Director at Sterling Cooper (an advertising agency on Madison Avenue; ad men on Madison = Mad Men) is the epitome of all that is cool about the 1960's he's well put together, and well off, with the perfect life. He's unfaithful to his wife like so many men of his stature are in that era, but we learn throughout the series that he doesn't just troll the nightclubs for a nightly tryst; he seeks independent, complete women. These affairs contrast the vapid home life provided by his cookie-cutter housewife. As the layers are peeled back from Draper's character we find him to be anything but the man he projects.

Another character that piqued my interest was the brand new secretary Peggy Olson played by Elisabeth Moss. Olson, fresh from secretarial school, is assigned to Draper. She is wide-eyed and conservative. She's shown the ropes by the vampish office manager Joan Holloway (played by the aforementioned Hendricks) Holloway gives her tips on how to use her femininity to receive small perks around the office, and even recommends her a doctor. Olson also shows character progression, by proving to be more than a secretary, producing copy for two ad campaigns, leading to a promotion at the end of the season. She represents a remarkable duality of a woman who can think for herself, even though she has been raised to be subservient, but who makes the same mistakes of other women in her place despite her uniqueness.

The shows appeal lies in the 1960's cliches that reflect glaringly against today's ideals. Every character smokes cigarettes almost every chance they get, as the dangers of tobacco have yet to be fully realized. The workers at Sterling Cooper barely hide the bottles of liquor in their desks, and partake regularly throughout the workday. One almost believes that they rarely do any actual work. Yet many issues that are still pertinent today are addressed: closeted sexual orientation, marital infidelity, women empowerment in the workplace, escaping a family name, sexism, etc.

But ultimately the series is about our love affair with words, and our desire as a culture to be sold. Ad men make their living on that perfect catch phrase that lassoes the unsuspecting housewife into choosing one brand over the other. The breaking down of the advertising process is intoxicating, and no one seems to know the game better than Don Draper.

I was given chills by his pitch in the final episode of the first season, called "The Wheel." He was producing a campaign for Kodak's new slide projector, in which he must incorporate the new wheel mechanism they have introduced. He mocks the obvious choice other ad agencies would use ("Kodak has clearly re-invented the wheel"). He then delivers a breath-taking pitch while he showed slides of his own family vacation to the Kodak executives (I've broken the lines as it was delivered; with each break pausing for the changing of the slide:

"This device isn't a space ship,
its a time machine.
It goes backwards and forwards;
it takes us to a place where we ache to go again.
Its not called the wheel;
its called the Carosuel,
it lets us travel the way a child travels.
Round and around and back home again.
to a place where we know we are loved."



Its impossible to replicate Hamm's dynamite delivery, or to explain how the words are drowning in personal meaning, as their are several plot lines that hinge on these very words.

All I can say is the show is incredible and I can't wait to see more.