Top Chef Hung all the way

I looooove watching Top Chef, even if it makes me hungry at night. This episode was the final four and we had been expecting an elimination down to two final competitors, but midway through, Tom Colicchio said that because of the talented chefs, it was going to be 3.

The guy i've been rooting for the most, despite his crazy snarky antics and cockiness is Hung Nguyen. Yeah, he's APIA but he's also technically the best chef - and I would kill to have knife skills like his - poetry in motion! The other reason why I like him is that he wants to bring it for the immigrants, and for his mom who taught him how to cook. And he grew up in Pittsfield, MA, which is pretty much the middle of nowhere. He has the fierce immigrant drive, and when he talks about his mom, all the light comes into his eyes. So yeah, sometimes he says catty things, and the producers edit it to make him look like a bad guy, cos let's face it, viewers looooove the drama - it's the spice of the show. Plus, check out this metromix interview with Dale about how people get portrayed.

Then let me ask you some questions about you competitors, if you could describe each one as one particular dish …

I don’t know if I can. All their personalities are so complex. Some people look a little different than they do in real life.

Like who?

Hung [Huynh], for instance. His onscreen personality … he was portrayed in a certain way. He was my roommate throughout the entire series—actually, him and Brian. We thought it was funny that the little boys room lasted until the end. Everyone on the series was nice. We all did get along. Whether we liked to cook together or not, that was something different. As far as roommates and friends, we all had a great, great time together. I think that was very surprising to the producers.

Because they like a little more tension?

Yeah, and the one thing we did was that we were our own tension relievers. Even if we didn’t get along in the kitchen that day, we still got along at home because we were in such a stressful situation.

Hung is made out to be the cocky one. Is that true?

I would say it is a reality show and whatever you see on the camera is real. He’s definitely extremely confident.

So yeah, do they get annoyed by Hung when he doesn't go help a competitor finish up their dish? Yes, but Hung is right in that this is a competition, and he's not actively backstabbing anyone. He even helped Sara Nguyen early on when she was given $200 to buy food, and she wanted to buy 20 $10 steaks. He told her to watch out cos that was the full amount, and then she wouldn't be able to buy anything else. So he's not the Marcel - if you notice that when they all give each other hugs after staying in the game, he's very much a part of it. (Although I did think that his complaining that his potato dauphine fell flat because no one else helped him plate it was lame, especially since he had 30 extra minutes than everyone else, and he also refused to help another contestant plate beforehand.)

This episode, they got to go home and pack up the items that they were going to bring with them to Aspen, only to be informed after the quickfire challenge that only the winner got to use their special ingredients.

So exciting! I am thinking it's either Casey or Hung, but to date Tom Colicchio has only picked white men to be Top Chef, so hopefully we'll get a winner whose food is both yummy, and they as a person will add some diversity to the winners. Bring it!

Bush tears apart consumer safety

Well, the old Republican Congress tried their darnedest to pass a bill that would have gutted local food and safety laws that are more stringent than the lax and toothless federal protection.

Consumers Union, the most trusted magazine in product reviews, said: "Food Safety – Although Congress was thwarted in its attempt to enact legislation that would have undermined state and local food safety laws, they failed to strengthen federal regulatory oversight over our food and product safety systems. For instance, they did not move to create a single federal food agency that could act quickly to prevent and deal with e coli outbreaks and the like, leaving instead the patchwork of federal agencies and weak oversight that exists now."

Then in the past 2 months we've had a Spinach recall due to E. coli, we've found Salmonella in peanut butter and cantaloupes. See, I always thought Salmonella was a meat-related bacteria -- how the hell does it get into jars of peanut butter?!?! I can ind of see it on the outside of cantaloupes more, but peanut butter?!? Next thing we know, we'll have salmonella bananas for breakfast.

Check out the latest google news for our buddies sam 'n ella. Not only do we have the delicious PB&Diarrhea combo, we've got some yummy hummus to go with that side of vomit.

Now, Bush's latest cowardly decision as the Decider is to bypass our elected representatives to recess appoint a Republican lobbyist to head up the Consumer Product Safety Commission which is like having the wolf watch the sheep:
"Baroody has served as the chief spokesmen for the National Association of Manufacturers, a group the San Francisco Chronicle described as "an industry group that opposes aggressive product-safety regulation and punitive fines."

I guess there's nothing Bush won't do for his corporate cronies, including getting all of America sick.

Bourdain blasts FoodTV

I don't love Anthony Bourdain (too much of an arrogant jerk, especially while eyeing the waitresses in Thailand) but he is dead on in his takedown of FoodTV. I can't stand Rachel Ray. I can't stand that there is now a restaurant in Boston named EVOO, and that people think it's good and chic. Semi-homemade Sandra Lee, Ace of Cakes, pretty much everyone except Alton Brown (who I adore) comes in for a good thrashing, esp. the guy in charge.

Here's a bite: "I’m sure they’re growing future replacement options in petrie dishes somewhere, conducting Top Secret focus groups at suburban malls with their latest Bright Young Hopeful."

Side note, I also enjoy watching Bobby Flay get beat down, but that's also because he's also an arrogant jerk.