Tag Archives: Top Chef

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

comedy, food, TV, ,

PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! Sign up at Patreon.

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).

For some delicious bourbon and rye, check out our sponsor, blackwooddistillingco.com.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show: Amar Santana on S1E1

food, TV, , ,

PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! This episode is free, but Patreon subscribers saw it earlier. 

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.

As always, thank you to our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling Co. (Yes, the show has a sponsor, that’s why it’s free on all platforms).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show 3: The Top Chef Wisconsin Finale Breakdown

TV, , ,

LEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! This episode is free, but Patreon subscribers saw it earlier. 

Joey Devine and Vince Mancini are back with the last Top Chef post-mortem, on the Top Chef Wisconsin finale! (Which actually took place on a boat in Aruba). We actually recorded most of this after having watched every part of the show except for the last five minutes in which they declared a winner, and then had to go back and finish the podcast after the winner was declared. We thought we knew who had one with a great deal of certainty. And it turns out, we were wrong! We break down the entire meal, dish-by-dish, and then return with our discussion of the winner, what we’ve been cooking, and how we rank Top Chef Wisconsin, aka Top Chef season 21, in the pantheon of Top Chef seasons. Hope you enjoy, and thanks again to our sponsor, Blackwood Distilling.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show, Episode 2

food, TV, , ,

PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! This episode is free, but you would’ve heard about it sooner on Patreon.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More

Frotcast Bonus: Top Chef World All-Stars Winner Buddha Lo

TV, , ,

Big news for fans of Top Chef Power Index: I interviewed Top Chef World All-Stars winner Buddha Lo. Buddha became the first back-to-back Top Chef champion in the show’s history. In terms of how dominant he was, all I need to say is that I had him ranked number one in the first episode of his first season, and then had him number one again after all but one of this season’s episodes (and don’t think he didn’t know that I snubbed him in my episode one recap this year — I had him at number two).

You expect a guy as exacting in his approach as Buddha is to be kind of dull or a dick, but Buddha is just too Australian for that. He retains his casual appeal, and has such a unique background that he always makes for a great interview. Who else could I ask such pointed questions about what a dugong tastes like and expect such specific (and weirdly mouth watering) answers?

Read the whole write-up over at GQ, or (AND) listen to it here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS | More