TV Chefs or TV Cooks?
Kevin Sbraga, winner of season 7 of "Top Chef" Credit: Bravo
I haven't weighed in on “MasterChef,” Gordon Ramsay’s latest televised exercise in culinary humiliation. Between all the Long Island-based episodes of his “Kitchen Nightmares,” and the premiere earlier this year of the seventh season of “Hell’s Kitchen,” I’ve watched all the Gordon Ramsay I can bear. But last night I tuned in to the finale of “MasterChef” at 9 p.m. as a sort of appetizer to the night’s main course, the finale of “Top Chef” at 10 (to be followed by dessert, “Top Chef: Just Desserts” at 11).
So let me just point out that in addition to his other misdeeds, Gordon Ramsay is guilty of perpetuating the misuse of the word “chef.” Last night’s finale featured David Miller, a software engineer, and Whitney Miller (no relation), a student. “Which amateur cook,” intoned the announcer, “will be crowned America’s MasterChef?”
As Ramsay no doubt knows, “cook” and “chef” are not interchangeable terms. Nor is a very very very good cook a chef. “Chef” means “chief” in French. A chef is someone who runs a kitchen. It is a management position. What’s more, the people who cook your food in a restaurant are called cooks. The person they work for is the chef. A good amateur cook is no more a chef than a skilled kayaker is a captain.
Whitney won, by the way.
Having gotten that out of my system, let’s turn to “Top Chef.” This season, the show’s seventh, was the first one that didn’t grab me. Usually the casting is spot on, but I found this season’s contestants, for the most part, boring, inarticulate and lacking in culinary point of view. Most of their styles seemed interchangeable, and none had the chops of last year’s four finalists, Jen, Kevin and the Voltaggio brothers.
The shortcoming of the finalists, Angelo Sosa, Ed Cotton and Kevin Sbraga, were thrown into high relief as they worked along their sous chefs for the final episode, past winners Michael Voltaggio, Hung Huynh and Ilan Hall (who grew up in Great Neck)—all of whom seem like more interesting people and chefs.
In the end, Kevin took the prize. Congratulations to him, and here’s hoping the next season of “Top Chef” returns to form.
Kevin Sbraga, newly crowned Top Chef
