The Craptastic Toby Jones

Spencer Ackerman shares my disgust with Gail Simmons’ ghastly replacement judge on Top Chef:

For some reason, Top Chef decided to rid its judging process of beautiful and knowledgeable Gail Simmons to make way for a braying foetus with thick glasses who lives to bait Graydon Carter. The people who make New York City uninhabitable — media people; people who need to get their JanSport strings tooken — won. Was Graham Norton unavailable?

The trouble with Toby Young is obvious and oughtn’t be belabored. He chews the scenery; adds nothing to an understanding of a meal; and isn’t funny. A bad meal isn’t a weapon of mass destruction. Watching him sully Top Chef makes it clear that heaven would be a place where Toby Young is hit by a car for all of eternity.

If it makes Spencer feel any better, the lovely Ms. Simmons has not left the show for good. She got married during production and went on leave.

About that Lamb Ragu

In case any of you dear readers are interested, I ended up not making the lamb ragu discussed yesterday here and here. I realized that I had half a frozen leg of lamb in the freezer already, and rather than buy more lamb meat, I opted to make a tomato-based lamb curry instead. 

Tragically, I made a disastrous last-second decision to thicken the curry with some Greek-strained yogurt leftover in the fridge. I dumped an overabundance of yogurt into overly hot sauce and, you guessed it, the yogurt curdled. A beautiful, fragrant dish transmogrified before my eyes into something wretched. It honest to god looked like I had vomited into the saute pan. I was going to toss some freshly chopped cilantro in for an burst of freshness and flavor but I couldn’t. It seemed too cruel a fate for the cilantro. 

I would so have been booted from Top Chef last night. (Poor Arianne by the way, I was secretly rooting for her).  

Let this be a lesson to all aspiring cooks out there.

BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ADDING COLD, MILK-BASED SOLIDS TO HOT LIQUIDS!!!

The Ikea Gourmet

Serious Eats prepares a 4-star feast using only groceries from Ikea. Yummo.

Re: Reverse Elitism Alert

 

Image Courtesy CBS

 

In my snarky haste I forgot to note in my earlier post just how fabulously delicious the main entree of lamb ragu in CBS’ 3-course feast looks. I adore the idea of two traditional food pairings–lamb/mint and meat ragu/pasta–unorthodoxically combined in such a deft, cheeky manner.  And the fresh ricotta dolloped on top is the touch that puts it over the top–what a luxurious creaminess and supple mouth feel it promises….mmm. Foodgasm.

I’m off to the local Harris Teeter now so I can pick up ingredients to whip up this dish for dinner. I will let you know how it comes out. If I am feeling particularly ambitious this afternoon, I may substitute homemade pappardelle noodles in place of rigatoni.

Glenn Reynolds, if you’re in the DC area tonight I would be honored to have you over to dinner.

Recipe after the jump.

Reverse Elitism Alert

Instapundit has devoted one of his longest posts in weeks (3 lines of original commentary) to indicting the evil mainstream media for alleged tone-deafness.

The Guilty Offender: CBS

The Crime: attempting to pawn off a mouthwateringly scrumptious, homemade and nutritious 3-course feast that can feed your entire family for $35 as perfect for a “shoestring” budget.

He writes:

AT CBS, A $35 HOME-COOKED MEAL is “on a shoestring.” Funny, the dinner I made tonight was a lot cheaper than that. Most of mine are. Guess I’ve been cooking on a “recession-busting budget” all along! I notice that many commenters are also expressing incredulity at the mindset here. Best line: “‘Chef on a Shoestring’? What kind of shoes? Christian Louboutins?” Heh.

Funny, Glenn, I strongly suspect you have never tried making a 3-course meal for your whole family entirely from scratch buying every ingredient fresh (in line with the chef’s constraints on the CBS segment). $35 really aint bad. If you don’t believe me, go ask your fellow anti-elitist crusader Mike Huckabee. He’s into healthy eating these days. A microwavable Stouffer’s lasagna doesn’t count. Heh.

So how much did lunch used to cost at The University of Tennessee’s faculty club back in the good old days huh? You know, before the University decided to cut costs by doing away with such frivolous excesses.