Top Chef, Season 3: Episode 6
August 6, 2007 by Tracey Thompson
Filed under Recipes
Joey has left us and it appears that many professionals think that Rocco Dispirito left us all along time ago. Anthony Bourdain, being the only Top Chef, Bravo Blog who is pure–commercially unattached that is–can be honest:
This wasn’t so much a contest as it was a cautionary tale. For surely, in culinary schools of the future, students, in Media Training 101, shall be shown faded videos of the tragic, Icarus-like trajectory of chef Rocco DiSpirito. And– as if watching a highway safety film–they shall watch last night’s episode of Top Chef where they will learn of the hidden dangers of “this thing of ours”, the inevitable collisions between ego and ambition…between business alliances beyond our control…and our own desire to just cook and cook well.
Bourdain also thought that the challenge, was not that but rather lame. He put it more eloquently of course. I agreed with him that this was nothing more than Top Chef being used as a promotional tool for Bertolli and Rocco. They only mentioned Bertolli every 10 minutes and at the end promo-ed their contest.
Tre and CJ kicked it and won themselves a trip to Italy. So, who do you think is closing in on the Final Four? My picks are Hung, Howie, Tre and Casey.
Sure, Anthony Bourdain is witty…no argument there. But some of these Rocco attacks are just pathetic now. NBC’s ‘The Restaurant’ humiliated and scarred him. But how many reality stars hold credibility after a show? You think some of these Top Chef non-winners are going to have it easy back in the kitchen (i.e the ones with more eccentric personalities). I assure you they will be judged by their TV egos rather than their dishes. ALSO- one should familiarize themselves with a little thing called EDITING. Even if you work pleasantly and efficiently in a kitchen, the production staff and producers will only show your faults…or what they edit around to look like your faults!
Bottom line, enough already with the Rocco bashing. It’s not funny anymore. Those that knew his level of talent at Union Pacific know there’s truly amazing talent there. Those that go off ‘The Restaurant’ alone should read TV Reality 101 before they cast such a harsh judgment. Rocco has paid his price and then some. It’s time to move on.