Top Chef Season 4: Of Pizza and Piccata
Rocco DiSpirito? What in the world was he doing on the premier of Top Chef’s fourth season? He isn’t from Chicago, has no connection to pizza (deep-dish or otherwise) and hasn’t got any new products to promote. His appearance on Top Chef last season coincided with the launch of Bertolli Mediterranean-Style Frozen Dinners (remember the tragic “create-your-own-frozen-entrée” tie-in challenge?) but Bertolli products were no where in evidence in the Top Chef kitchen, nor in the commercials that punctuated the show’s segments.
“He’s a rock star in the culinary world,” commented chef Mark Simmons, a Hobbit-coiffed kiwi who was perhaps interred inside some New Zealand mountain while DiSpirito was disgracing himself on the reality show The Restaurant.
Nevertheless, Rocco looked good (not quite so…plumped..as he had last time out) and acquitted himself honorably. I had hoped for some fireworks between him and fellow judge Anthony Bourdain since the latter has been tirelessly slagging off on the former for years, calling him a “‘thatsa speecy, spicy meatball!’ shill-for-hire and ex-reality show personality” and observing that “Rocco DiSpirito has really raised the bar for what I consider grotesque.” But the two sat on opposite ends of the judges’ table and made nice, to one another at least.
The contestants (cheftestants, in Bravo-ese) this time around do look like a talented bunch. Uniondale native Richard Blais, a big-time chef in Atlanta, was actually on Iron Chef last year, competing against—and losing to—Mario Batali in Battle Chickpea. Check out his career path here.
His self-selected rival, the profane and hyperkinetic Andrew D’Ambrosi, is a sous-chef at Manhattan’s Le Cirque. I liked his description of his creative process: “It’s like molten ****ing lava pouring out of you.”
Even though it was poor Nimma who was sent packing, the tragedy of the night was Ryan’s chicken piccata. Desperately dredging up childhood piccata memories—which called to his mind mashed potatoes and rice—he came up with a dish that was neither tasty, nor interesting, nor piccata. Where, I wondered, did this guy spend his childhood?
Los Banos, California, it turns out. Pop: 35,211 and located about two hours from San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento. In other words, two hours away from a proper Italian restaurant. The Italian pickings in Los Banos right now include Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s, Me-N’-Ed’s Pizzeria, Mountain Mike’s Pizza and Perry’s More Than Pizza.
The restaurant reviewer on the town’s online forum, OurLosBanos.com (“A Positive Community Resource”) practically wet himself a few months ago over the opening of M & M Italian Restaurant where the owner "pointed out several things that they specialized in, one of which was the chicken piccata. I decided to give that a whirl having no idea what it was but it sounded good from his description.”
Apparently, piccata-ignorance is rampant in Los Banos. But that may be coming to an end. “I must tell you," the reviewer continued, "that I have raved about the Chicken Piccata for about 3 days now... it was THAT GOOD.”
Not that M&M; is a perfect dining experience. “There are some minor downsides however and a couple of these fall under the 'breaking in' period that restaurants go through that we spoke of at the beginning of this review. First when it came time to pay, our credit card was taken out of the building and down to the Buy & Save market.”
A word from our sponsors: Kenmore is apparently out; GE Monogram ovens were prominently featured. As was Whole Foods.