Category Archives: food

Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show S1E6, ‘Guess Who…’ w David J. Roth

comedy, food, TV,

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David J. Roth from Defector and The Distraction joins Vince and Joey this week to discuss season 1, episode 6 of Top Chef, “Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner,” with guest judge Ted Allen!

This episode could’ve been alternately titled “Miguel’s Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” as it started with Miguel feeling like the whole world was against him, then he put Palmolive in the dishwasher, and then he put salt instead of sugar in his dessert, and then he ended up at judge’s table, and finally he finished things off by calling Tiffani “A snake. SSSSSS” one of the all-time most memorable Top Chef trailer clips.

Dave cried red-faced into his wine glass and lots of other stuff happened too, but the important thing is that Andrea is finally gone. My God, it feels like it took forever, didn’t it? it seemed like someone else was about to get sent home, but Andrea, who thought she was above this competition all along, basically decided to fall on her sword instead, making up some dumb bullshit about green onions on her way out. Much like Joe Biden, the best thing she did was to leave the stage. Good riddance, Andrea! Have fun pooping!

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

food,

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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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Frotcast Top Chef Post-Show S1E3: ‘Nasty Delights’

comedy, food, TV, ,

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Joey and Vince are back talking about season 1 of Top Chef. This week we’re talking about season one, episode 3 (103), “Nasty Delights,” which really is a fantastic Top Chef episode and quite possibly a big reason we still have this show 21 seasons later. Stephen Asprinio deserves his place in the Top Chef hall of fame. All-time great reality show character. The chefs had to make octopus, and then they had to make monkfish for little kids. Crazy how this episode turned out, because some people who went on to become food TV royalty probably should’ve gone home this episode. Justice for Brian! (Or, maybe not, maybe he deserved it).

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Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show: Amar Santana on S1E1

food, TV, , ,

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Top Chef Wisconsin (aka Top Chef Season 21) may be over, but the Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show isn’t. This week we welcome Top Chef season 13 finalist and season 20 fan favorite Amar Santana, chef/owner of Broadway and Vaca, both in Orange County, California. Amar is great interview, and actually seems to enjoy talking to us for whatever reason. Which I hope won’t get him into any professional trouble. Years ago I tasted Jamón Iberico for the first time thanks to Amar, which is one of those things you never forget.

We get all the Top Chef inside info from Amar, including what his casting process was like, how much editors manipulate the show, and whether Top Chef winners still dream of opening new restaurants. He takes us back to when he first heard about the show, working alongside Ilan Hall (who went onto win Top Chef season 2) as line cooks for Charlie Palmer, and why he decided to be on it. He talks about the moment Top Chef stopped feeling like a reality show and started feeling like a legit cooking competition (it involved the Voltaggio Brothers), as well as the auditioning process, the psych evaluation, and more.

Finally, we made Amar go back and watch the first episode of the first season of Top Chef, and we discuss all the things that make it kind of hilarious to watch now, from Katie Lee being the host instead of Padma, to Tom Colicchio’s soul patch, to that crazy Irish guy who got kicked off for putting his finger in Hubert Keller’s sauce (Ken Lee). Uh, that’s DJ Hubert Keller to you.

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Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show, Episode 2

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Vince and Joey are back talking the latest episode of Top Chef, part one of the finale in Curacao. This week, part one of Top Chef’s season 21 finale took the chefs to the Caribbean nation of Curacao, where the final four competed in a battle to combine gouda and lionfish, and then in an eight-course fish tasting menu on a Holland America Cruise Line with fresh fish ambassador, Morimoto! As promised last week, host of the Roundball Rock podcast and Top Chef superfan, comedian Joey Devine is helping me, Vince Mancini from The #Content Report/Frotcast, break down the latest Top Chef ‘sode. Enjoy, share, subscribe, and check out our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling.

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Bonus #Content: Phil Rosenthal Talks ‘Somebody Feed Phil’

comedy, food, TV

So, I know we didn’t do a new show last week, and this week we’re doing a Ben tribute episode that’s going to be Patreon only. We’re getting the whole band back together for that one. Including Bret! So we’re going to do that one Patreon only and donate the proceeds to charity.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share this interview I did with Phil Rosenthal. Phil created Everybody Loves Raymond and he has a new food show out on Netflix, Somebody Feed Phil. I do a lot of these phone interviews and they don’t always make great audio, but I wanted to share this one because Phil is just such a great interview. I can tell he’s good because when I get the transcripts back I barely have to edit anything. He just naturally speaks in complete sentences. He’s great. Enjoy!

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Extra: Kyle Mooney, Tom Colicchio

food, movies

We couldn’t get the Frotcast gang in the same room this week, but, I do have some interviews to share. The first is with SNL’s Kyle Mooney and Dave McCary, who starred in (Kyle) and directed (Dave) Brigsby Bear, a strange yet sweet movie about a kid who’s raised off the grid watching a TV show that his father has made just for him. We get deep with Kyle and Dave about the filmmaking process, and about San Diego-based comedy, something they have in common with the Frotcast. The second is with Top Chef host Tom Colicchio, who tells us about his first food memory, the validity of “Jersey red sauce,” the way the food industry has changed with the advent of food TV and the internet, and more. Donate at Patreon dot com slash Frotcast, email us at frotcast@gmail.com, and we’ll be back with the whole gang next week. 

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