On some level, I feel like wish lists are cheating. Whenever I ask someone I love to tell me what he or she wants for a birthday or for Christmas, I feel guilty--shouldn't I know what my best friend/sister/parent/husband wants without being told? I get a huge charge out of flying blind and finding that perfect gift I know, without asking, will make someone happy. It's satisfying, the way I imagine deer hunting must be for some: the tension of the search, the thrill of the chase, the eureka moment of discovery, all culminating in the glory of hauling home the prize.

And yet, I recognize that isn't always practical or possible. We aren't mind readers, most of us, and I truly believe it's a courtesy to others to provide a wish list in gift-giving situations, to relieve the pressure of having to hunt down the perfect gift, and the stress of wondering if you're duplicating something your giftee already owns.

I was having a hard time coming up with a list of my own this year. Or even one single thing, when individual people would ask me what I want! After all, my birthday wasn't that long ago, and I got the two cookbooks I'd been lusting after (Ad Hoc at Home and Momofuku) and I couldn't think of anything else I wanted.

Until I started shopping for my friends and family. Now? I'm ready with my list! So here it is. Go nuts.

*Le Creuset Heritage Oval Cocotte-how many recipes call for a covered casserole? SO many, and I usually just use my Dutch oven. Which works okay, I guess, but this thing is sooo pretty.* Bundt pan - It's crazy, I know, but somehow in all my many bakeware shopping sprees, I've never picked up a Bundt pan. I have a tube pan, and round cake pans, and loaf pans, but no Bundt. Clearly, an oversight. This one is pretty!* Top Chef ANYTHING - I'm obsessed. I admit that. But how cool is this stuff? There's a whole Top Chef Cookbook AND a Quickfire cookbook! And a game? How did I not know about this stuff? I also think I might like to have Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef. Could be interesting for research.
Does that help? I can't think of anything else right now. Maybe some dangly earrings, and the special edition DVD of the new Star Trek movie. I don't know. I'd actually be pretty happy with donations made in my honor to Equality Federation, Heifer International, or the Metropolitan Opera. Oh, and if you could get Gourmet Magazine started back up, that would be nifty!

Happy shopping. : )

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 8:52 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Christmas, online shopping, Top Chef

**SPOILER ALERT** I will be talking about what happened in last night's episode of Top Chef. If you haven't watched it yet, DON'T KEEP READING!













Now then. I assume we've all seen part one of the season finale of Top Chef, yes? Last chance to bail.

It was a tough episode for me to watch. This season is unique in that all of the final four chefs have been frontrunners at one point or another, and I actually think each of them is a talented chef who will go far in his or her career. Kevin is a sweetheart, although I think he sometimes plays it too safe. Bryan brings a level of professionalism and manages to combine technique with solid ideas. Michael, who can sometimes be a pain, does think about food in a way that appeals to me--for instance, in last night's Quickfire when the challenge was about using grapes, he took it to the extreme by using the branches, the leaves, and the fruit. I like how hard he works, and how risky he is, but I don't love his younger-brother attitude and the way he's always got something to prove.

And then there's Jen, who is the only one who rivals Michael in terms of intensity. In Hannibal Lechter's terms, she's a deep roller, someone for whom failure is personal and all-encompassing. No one is harder on Jen than Jen. She psychs herself out.

I loved her. Her food at the beginning of the season always sounded amazing, and very delicate--a thoughtful layering of flavors and textures that did her mentor, Eric Ripert of the perfect hair and sexy French accent, very proud. Then she make a mistake or two and went into a shame spiral, only managing to pull herself out of it by the skin of her teeth in time to make the final four.

I'd hoped the six-week hiatus would be good for her, give her a chance to get her confidence back, and that did appear to happen. She was like the old Jen last night, uncompromising and sure of herself, dedicated to winning. I was so happy--until I realized how much of her we were seeing; every other confessional was from her, which if you watch as much reality TV as I shamefully do, you know means we were being set up to watch her go. Still, I hoped against hope (even though they had her talk about why she was on Top Chef--for her mother--the kiss of death!) and the dishes she made for the crush party sounded fabulous. The judges didn't love her vegetarian option, sure, but they raved about the Sonoma duck. It's "duckiness," how the accompaniments supported but didn't overwhelm the flavor of the bird, etc. I had hope!

Until they got in the judging room and Tom asked her to talk about why she confited the meat instead of grilling it, as she'd originally intended. And Jen said she hadn't been paying close attention to the wood-burning grill and the fire died out, so she had to do something else. When asked if she was happy with the way the dish turned out, she said she wished she could've used the grill for the smoky flavor, even though she'd said while serving it that she loved the way it turned out and thought it might even have been better as a confit dish.

That was what did her in. She had the opportunity to cast her decision to confit the duck in a positive light, and instead she downplayed the dish and played up her own inattention. The story could've been that the grill wasn't working so she had to make a change on the fly, but hey! It came out so great, she ended up loving it more because the confit was part of what enhanced that duck flavor all the judges loved so much! Instead, the story the judges took away was that she was unfocused and scattered in the kitchen, and that maybe the duck could've been better.

It made me think about story, and the ways that memories and perceptions can be colored by the details we add later. The dish was the dish was the dish. They loved it when they were eating it, but by the time they got to Judges Table, they were looking for more details from her to bolster their opinion, which was based on a memory. And instead of giving them a positive story, she gave them a negative one.

I've seen this happen on other shows; on America's Next Top Model, often a girl who's consistently delivered better photo shoots will be sent home in favor of a girl who "wants it more." Gordon Ramsay, on Hell's Kitchen, is particularly susceptible to the story of an inexperienced young cook who works hard and learns a lot while on the job.

As much as the judges on Top Chef try to base their decisions on the food, they're human. And humans crave context.

So Jen went home, and I felt awful for her. But I also took a lesson from her--modesty is all well and good, but in a situation like that? Stand by your work.

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 10:52 AM 11 comments  

Labels: Top Chef

Are you setting your Tivo? I know I am!



This is going to be AWESOME.

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 12:59 PM 6 comments  

Labels: food, Top Chef