Thursday, October 29, 2009

TV Tray Quickfire


You know as great as the last Quickfire Challenge was (Tag Team Relay Race) is how pathetic this week's Quickfire turned out trying to reinvent a classic TV dinner. Time to review the classic TV dinner.I don't know what the carrots were glazed in but it was not of the culinary world, I think the glaze was more an industrial world product. How easy would it be to reinvent this into something better? Oh wait, not only do they have 60 minutes to reinvent but they get inspirational prompts.
What? Which is it? Reinvent or use TV shows as inspiration for your dish? I see crap on a plate coming. Which 7 shows did they pick to "inspire" our chefs? Sopranos, Flintstones, Gilligan's Island, MASH, Sesame Street, Seinfeld, and Cheers. Right off the bat there's an issue. Some of these youngsters have never seen these shows. Eli is even too young to have watched Gilligan's Island on Nick at Night. Mike I. has never watched Seinfeld at all? I seriously doubt the brothers have seen too many episodes of MASH or Cheers. Jennifer actually sounds like she has a working knowledge of the Flintstones. Even if all these chefs were some sort of TV freaks (what? Why are you looking at me like that?) and knew that there were iconic foodie elements to be mined, they are still limited to what's in the pantry.
Of course beef ribs would be perfect to work with for this inspiration yet there was nothing beef like or bone like for Jen to use. I guess she's left to reinvent the classic fried chicken with mashed potato dinner.Sesame Street?? Cookies? You know Robin was screwed. Was she supposed to punt on the Sesame Street aspect? Good Grief.Eli has the double whammy of having never seen Gilligan's Island nor having never eaten a TV dinner. I'm guessing he's also never had to decide between Ginger or Mary Ann. (Hint - one makes a mean coconut pie).Mike I. has pulled one of the best sources of iconic foodie TV, Seinfeld. The show is a veritable smörgåsbord of choices. The Big Salad, bobka, black and white cookie, Chinese food, risotto, hell, half the scenes were in a diner. Easy right? Except if you've never watched the show.

Dun Dun DUHHNNNNNNNNNNN

Bryan also had a good source. MASH had the classic Rib Delivery episode, the fresh egg episode or he even could have gone with Korean food. He made roulade which was more of a reinvention of the TV dinner's mystery meat aspects.
Cheers, while set in a bar, was light on food. Michael V. says he's reinventing bar food as a TV dinner.
JACKPOT! Kevin picked the Sopranos and he could have nailed this challenge with one hand tied behind his back and blindfolded.Which he did and takes the win again. Dude is seriously looking like a juggernaut.

4 comments:

Making Space said...

I am amused and disturbed. It's a weird mix of feelings. LOL

moi said...

How could anyone NOT have ever, ever, ever watched an episode of Seinfeld? How culturally bereft does that make you? Talk about scary. That disturbed me even more than Padma and Gail's outfits.

Big Shamu said...

Moi, it's just wrong. I think that was the real reason why he was auffed.

LaDivaCucina said...

Where do these idiots live under a rock? I agree with Moi, Seinfeld has been in syndication for years and you can most likely catch it on TV at least three times in one day!

Eli! I don't know if he was trying to sound smug (like his upbringing never provided an opportunity to eat a TV dinner) but hell's bells, don't these people SHOP? Eli is not at the celebrity chef level where he's not been in a grocery store for 10 years! There is an entire aisle of TV dinners in our grocery, are you saying you never walked down the frozen food aisle?

I can't stand when people are smug about their ignorance.

And I'm sorry, I just MUST snark about Jennifer's scare do!!! WTF, girl, you ever hear of a comb? Or a cut? Cut that frizz off, that was one scary look of her in that white jacket with her hair all over the place.

Just give the freakin' prize to Kevin already I'm getting bored with this!