Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show S1E4, ‘Food on the Fly,’ with Sean Keane

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Sean Keane from the Roundball Rock podcast joins us this week to discuss Top Chef season 1, episode 4 — “Food on the Fly.” This episode challenged the chefs first to get all their quickfire ingredients from a convenience store and then to prepare an entree that could be reheated in a microwave. These days David Chang and all the hip chefs brag about all the things they cook in a microwave but back in 2006 these fancy boys and girls all acted like someone shot their dog. “I haven’t used one of these in 10 years,” says chef Andrea, who is inexplicably still on the show. Yet cutting them down to size was all part of the plan, to get them to drop all the fancy talk and try to relate to some normal people. I guess we thought that’s what foodies needed back then, and it seems like the Top Chef producers weren’t wrong.

This episode also featured possibly the meanest Top Chef guest judge ever, in Jefferson Hill, then the executive chef at the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus, yet another San Francisco location that doesn’t exist anymore (we will stop reminiscing about these one week, but not this week). These days Jefferson Hill is… well, no one really knows. He seems to have disappeared from the internet record. Other drama includes Miguel stealing Tiffani’s idea for Krispy Kreme bread pudding, Miguel trying to get Stephen to understand not everyone is a snob, and Dave being upset that Harold and Stephen clowned his lasagna.

Candice ends up going home, and it feels like the producers were setting up a character arc for her that never panned out. We try to figure out which classic Real World tropes each Top Chef contestant was cast based on, and then argue over who is the most successful Real World castmember. Good times were had. Food was watched. Pack your knives, and also your headphones.

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