I recently watched the final episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts and found it quite pleasing. I achieved to get my food competition fix sure, but I was in awe. I don’t think I could really get into a whole season of just desserts, but what it did was give me a whole different perspective on why Top Chef has such a broad appeal. Quite simply put; I couldn’t do what those pastry chefs do! I’ve tried my hand at simple cakes, cookies, sugars, truffles, and bread, but not even on the same planet as what the pastry chefs of Top Chef produced. It is absolutely mind bending to me that in a little over ten hours three chefs can put together 5 different pastry disciplines. I will critique and say that I am somewhat underwhelmed by the sugar sculpture/show piece aspect of Just Desserts. I think what the chefs create is just amazing to look at, but in my opinion it is more art than culinary. I am totally and whole heartedly impressed with the Entremet the final three chefs made; pleasing to the eye and the tongue.
Well, my revelation does not stop with the impressive work of the pastry chefs on Just Desserts. My lasting revelation is that the Top Chef Institution projects something that most people feel they are not capable of reproducing. I have not looked at Top Chef that way in the past. With the first episode of Top Chef: Texas set to premier next Wednesday on Bravo I want to give it a try with this new perspective. I’m sure to get frustrated by silly quick-fire challenges or overproduced personal conflicts between contestants, but I’m willing to forgo those road bumps in order to enjoy the cooking through a more open mind.
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