Not Top Scallop

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Other new writing:

• A tour of my home coffee set up for Serious Eats

Top Chef is in Madison

Top Chef is filming a Wisconsin season, and right now as I write this they’re in Madison. Yesterday they had a challenge to run around the Dane County Farmer’s Market to grab ingredients for an elimination challenge, which was filmed on the rooftop of a high-end restaurant on Madison’s capitol square.

I love watching Top Chef. It’s an entertaining TV show. But more than that, I appreciate that it’s a show that’s focused on, more than anything, the food being prepared. As someone who likes to cook and eat, it’s my ideal version of TV. But that’s apparently not always what people want to watch. I think about this Top Chef round table that Vulture posted during the last season, and in particular this quote from Jason P. Frank:

While I recognize that most people like watching messy reality shows for interpersonal drama, I can’t help but point to the millions of messy reality shows on Bravo that aren’t Top Chef. It’s the most dominant form of TV out there. The round table goes on to decry Buddha Lo as boring TV for his methodical approach as a Top Chef fanboy. But why can’t we finally just have a show about food that’s actually about food?

Other popular cooking shows are more about the hook than the cook: Chopped and its Food Network siblings love to drop chefs into dire situations trying to navigate putting something even remotely edible onto a plate. Top Chef, on the other hand throws its chefs a series of softballs and lets them sink or swim based on their ability to mildly tweak food they know how to cook. That same roundtable talked about how exciting it was to see Melissa King seemingly come up with dishes on the fly vs. Buddha whose food was entirely rehearsed. But that’s all TV magic: if you’re at the Top Chef level, everything you put on a plate has been something you’ve worked on to some degree. It’s not a show about improvisation—Top Chef is about displaying talent that’s been refined over many, many years.

It’s the same reason why we love sports. LeBron James didn’t walk onto the court and learn how to dunk on the fly. Steph Curry didn’t magically discover he could knock down threes back-to-back under pressure. It’s a display of raw talent refined through nonstop practice and execution. It’s pros doing their job.

I’m excited about this farmer’s market challenge because I go to the same farmer’s market regularly throughout the summer. I love getting inspired by the farm-fresh produce only available in these few short months, and I can’t even imagine what the chefs could have come up with. In a few months I’ll get to see a professional approach to how I spend my weekends. And that’s thrilling.

TV shows don’t always have to be for everyone, and I hope Bravo understands this, even if Top Chef does start to lose viewers. Season 5 of Top Chef featured contestant Fabio Viviani complaining to the camera about fellow contestant Jamie Lauren cooking scallops for every challenge. “It’s Top Chef, not Top Scallop,” he bemoans, giving a line delivery that replays over and over in my head in his perfect accent. I’ll remember that line forever, but I don’t remember any of the food from that season. I will, however, remember Buddha’s beef and onion broth served in a wine glass that blew every judge’s mind. And I’m way more excited to know that you can make beef wine than to have a catty response at the ready.

Read

• American Track Now Has Its Most Electric Sprinters In Years via Dennis Young on Defector

I loved reading this piece about the incredible run (pun intended) Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson had at the world championships. These are two absolutely incredible athletes, and like always, incredible performances are always enhanced by learning the stories behind them.

Watch

• Dead Again, 1991 (Kenneth Branagh)

To say that Dead Again is a very coherent movie is maybe overdoing it. It is, however, a very fun movie, and best watched without too much knowledge going into it. What could be an overwrought bonkers plot is deftly executed by director (and star) Kenneth Branagh with a nod and a wink to the camera during some of the more outlandish scenes, and somehow it all just works. Emma Thompson isn’t quite in her element as a blank slate character, but Branagh swings for the fences in a delightful campy way.

Listen

• The Elements by Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane

As much as I enjoy the 1960s combo sessions where incredible players would jam on popular tunes and cut a record based on the best cuts, I’m a sucker for conceptual jazz records of original compositions. One of the most famous versions of this is John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, which is his version of a meditative prayer to a higher power. A lesser known piece is from fellow tenor man Joe Henderson working with Coltrane’s widow for The Elements in 1974. I’ve been swept up in early 70s jazz records for how wide they cast their net: most new compositions in this era lean heavily on funk and soul for the basis of their songs, but The Elements is different. Each track is shaped by a mood and feeling, digging into strange chromatic and pentatonic scales. You can listen to the whole thing up on YouTube, and I think it’s worth letting it play all the way through.

Consume

• Door County peaches with honey ricotta on toast

It’s peach season here in Wisconsin, and the micro peninsula microclimate of Door County produces excellent fruits. Peaches right now are fragrant and sweet, and perfect to lay on top of a bed of ricotta spread on toast with a drizzle of honey on top. It’s summer, and you should eat like it.

Artwork by Ashley Elander Strandquist. You can view her illustration work here and check out her printing business here.