The Kitch Lit Series: Visual Edition

The current season of Top Chef is one of its’ best yet. The Los Angeles-based season is only the second true All-Stars edition. Former contestants have been brought back now and again but a true All-Stars season has not been filmed since season eight – almost ten years ago now – when Richard Blais earned his redemption. 

Top Chef has seen its’ fair share of ups and downs (I’m looking at you, Top Chef Texas) but deserves praise for changing and adapting the formula in an age when being good is not good enough. Introducing components such as Last Chance Kitchen completely changed the game; the chance for an eliminated chef to earn a spot back in the game adds a level of anxiety for the remaining chefs and the audience watching at home.

This All-Star season features contestants that were eliminated too soon, eliminated for a good dish among great ones or who made it to the finals but just missed out on the title. Gregory Gourdet, Melissa King, Bryan Voltaggio and Jennifer Carroll are just four of the returning chefs that left their mark on their own season but went home without the title. The mix of chefs this season is nearly perfect. Different styles, different cuisines but all share a genuine respect for their craft, the ingredients and each other. Catty, accusatory quarrels are nowhere to be found. 

The other highlight of this season is the incredible caliber of the challenges. An early episode featured a tour of Jonathan Gold’s favorite LA restaurants and the corresponding elimination challenge asked chefs to pay homage to those restaurants and Gold’s favorite dishes. The Kaiseki challenge with guest judges Niki and Carole Lidi-Nakayama of famed restaurant n/naka was a fascinating exercise in restraint and precision, with varying levels of success. The very next episode included a trip to Michael’s Santa Monica, a restaurant whose pedigree includes the likes of Jonathan Waxman, Roy Yamaguchi, Mark Peel and Top Chef winner Brooke Williamson. Oh, and you must recreate, update and put your own stamp on a signature dish originally created by those renowned chefs during their MSM tenure… and then serve it to that chef. No pressure. 

With just a few episodes left, the finalists are off to Italy for the finals. I can honestly say I would be happy to see any of the finalists take the title. The quality of the show, seventeen seasons in, gives me hope that Top Chef will live on for years to come. One thing is for sure, you know where to find me Thursdays at 9:00pm.

The Kitch Lit Series: Periodical Edition

Hop in that Delorian, it’s time to travel back in time. Pre-global pandemic, pre-2008 financial crisis, back to a time when the President of the United States, while, yes, a doofus, did not scare the absolute shit out of me. And, back to a time when Gourmet magazine was near the top of the publishing world. 

Reading Gourmet magazine is even more of a time warp now since it harkens back to a time when we could gather at a restaurant, faces uncovered and free to share the pleasure of waiting for a meal to appear, almost as if by magic, on the table in front of you. Gourmet is a reminder that at one time producing quality long-form content was a thing to be achieved rather than traded for social media likes - though not for much longer. Issues of Gourmet share the phone numbers for the restaurants and purveyors about which they write. Phone numbers, people, not websites.

My curiosity with Gourmet stems from my appreciation for Ruth Reichl’s writing and, it so happens, her illustrious career included ten years as Gourmet’s Editor in Chief. Off to Ebay, where garbage goes to change hands. My order of 12 issues from throughout Reichl’s reign as Editor arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago, and though I have yet to devour every single issue, I am quite pleased that I bid on that auction.

Gourmet – in the Reichl years – nicely balances what seems to be appeal to the uber-wealthy and the home chef. Because of my fascination with the restaurant industry, I loved the 50 best restaurants issue, but I read it acknowledging that financial barriers (which beget proximity barriers) will likely prevent me from ever stepping foot in any of them. 

My first trip to New York City included, by happenstance, a morning walk by Le Bernardin. Looking at the clean lines of the signage, and the calm  of an empty restaurant before a busy night of service, it was not that I felt unwelcome. Rather, it was clear that given my middle-class upbringing and proclivity for penny-pinching, I would feel so out of my element dining in the restaurant so as to not be able to enjoy myself. Gourmet gives off the same air. I do not find fault in that. I binge HGTV knowing that I will never live in a multi-million dollar home. 

I was pleased to find that Gourmet includes recipes that do not feel completely out of reach for a person with modest skills and resources. I even pulled out the recipe for Elvis’s favorite pound cake. Will I ever make it? Doubtful. But were I to set out to conquer the recipe I do believe I would be successful. 

Gourmet did not survive the dual challenges of the economic downturn of 2008 and the undeniable societal lean replace print media with social media. The last issue was published in November 2009. Luckily, the end of Gourmet was not the end for Reichl, who published her first novel in 2014. In her 2019 book Save Me the Plums, Reichl explores her tenure as Gourmet’s Editor in Chief. With insight into her methodology and the challenges she faced, reading old issues of Gourmet magazine feels anything but dated and stodgy, it is simply a glimpse into a time gone by. A time that, thanks to documentarians such as Reichl herself, reminds us that we can ensure that the best and the brightest people and practices continue to shape our future.