Thursday, July 8, 2010

Be My Little Baby

I can't decide which is sillier, chefs sharing an apron and making a dish or having chefs making baby food. One of the aspects I like about Top Chef is that it puts professional chefs to the test, meaning that most of the challenges could happen in your restaurant. However I don't know any restaurant that caters to the "baby crowd".Which leads me to only one conclusion, a guest judge punked out on whatever challenge they had set up and they scrambled and came up with this.
Tom and Padma plus a table of toys and food.
They are making the dish for Tom and Padma's kids both who are under 10 months old. They are going to judge puréed food? In true reality show form, shouldn't the babies be fed this food? And! It's a high stakes challenge with two winners chosen and each getting $10,000. Arnold, if chosen, wants to give his money to an orphanage.

This guy wants to spend it on a hooker and an eight ball thereby cementing his place as the creepy bad chef of Top Chef DC. Just letting him near baby food seems über creepy. Then again not much creepier than Tom and Padma exploiting their own kids for a Top Chef challenge.With this many chefs...
...they didn't really cover the food too much, just the highs and lows. With a challenge this silly, I'm not covering it at all except that to say the top four were Kenny, Angelo, Lynn and Tamisha with the money going to Kenny and Tamisha. I will say that Tom and Padma seem to be ok with feeding their babies food with things like licorice oil and fenugreek and since I have no children or any experience feeding a baby food, we'll have to leave it at that. Hopefully we won't be seeing this challenge again next season or showing up on Top Chef Masters because it was Crap on a Plate.

12 comments:

the dogs' mother said...

I gotta say Padma has everything she needs to feed a two month old baby...

Big Shamu said...

Yes Froggy, yes she does.

Making Space said...

Oh, bummer! Somehow I thought this episode was going to be more intriguing than it was. Sounds right that the idea must have been thrown together. I'd think this kind of restaurant COULD find a market. Lord knows I could have used some place I could have gone where I didn't have to screen the food like crazy. Anyway, the idea gave me a nice walk down memory lane.

moi said...

While I already commented below on the utter silliness of this challenge, I did forget to say this: I doubt most parents have the time or the money to make their own baby food from scratch, anyway, so what was the ultimate point here? Other than to waft the slight odor of upper middle class elitism under our noses? Of COURSE Tom and Padma can afford to do this—or hire someone to do it for them—but the average viewer? Not.

And not to offend my many beloved friends with babies, but if I want to escape the confines of my own kitchen and luxuriate in someone preparing a beautiful meal for me, the last thing I want to hear are babies crying. So chefs? No need to cater to this demographic, por favor.

Finally, just had to get this in: what in the name of all that is holy was Padma wearing? It looks like a prison tee.

Big Shamu said...

Moi, I have no idea what she was wearing. Perhaps that black patch opens easily to allow a little quickie feed for little Krishna?

Milk River Madman said...

I couldn't agree more. As far as I'm concerned, they can start eliminating contestants 3 at a time and get the season over.

Melissa said...

This was a test promo for a new show, "Top Chef Kiddie", hosted by Suri Cruise. NOTE: Not to be confused with "Top Chef Kitties", sponsored by PURINA, makers of Cat Chow, Fancy Feast and BREEZE Tidy Cats - the new cat litter system that makes life clean and easy.

Big Shamu said...

While Melissa may have her tongue firmly planted in her cheek, don't think the Top Chef producers haven't seriously toyed with a kid version of Top Chef. However it's one thing to work adults 16 - 18 hours a day with hardly a break but it's another work kids that hard.

Captain Obvious said...

Captain Obvious didn't get the elimination challenge. The teams who cooked the best didn't end up in the later rounds, but yet the team who cooked the best of the worst won trips to Italy and Spain? Or was Captain Obvious off of his trolley last night?

Umm...the last time I checked, it's cheaper to make your own baby food from scratch. I don't know where the 'don't have the money' thing comes from. And YES, Captain Obvious has a 2 year old.

Big Shamu said...

I'll be trying to figure out the way they did the Elimination challenge soon because it was perplexing.

So, CO, when the two year old was a wee babe in arms, did you go crazy with the spices like they did in the show or keep it nice and bland?

Melissa said...

I'm with CO on the "making your own baby food." When my now 12 and 14 year old PITAs were young, we made our own. Lots of times it was simply leftovers I'd toss in the food processor and freeze in the ice cube trays. Or when stuff was on sale at the grocery, I'd buy in bulk and "babyfood" some of it. Spice-wise - I'd go easy on the heat, and the salts and sugars, but enjoyed incorporating other spices and herbs (fresh if we had 'em) into the food. Much like what I cook for them now...not sure if they liked it, but they sure did eat it.

Big Shamu said...

Is is wrong that I don't know what a PITA is besides something you stick a falafel in?