Cooking Under Fire: Doused

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The last two episodes of Cooking Under Fire ran back-to-back tonight on a local PBS station... I knew before the last three contestants got the run-through who was staying and who was going, despite the obviously misleading statements made by the judges. At the end of the penultimate episode they were commenting that Katie Hagan-Whelchel had some of the self-assertiveness befitting a chef but then criticized her too heavily throughout the final episode to make us cringe over the possibility of her losing (so, of course, she won). In the process, they doused any firey tension left in the series. Like so many "Reality TV" shows, the dialogue remained stilted throughout. The only interesting moment came when the questions was asked, what is your philosophy of cooking? Sarah Lawson answered quite simply and eloquently -- but chefs are not judged by their Media-friendliness at this stage of the game. The pre-fab, hokey statements made by all the judges, however, were so flat that what started as an occasional triggerr twinge of the TV control finger nearly developed into spasms, as professional responsibility fought back bodily felt revulsion. Even filler commercials with Ming Tsai were far better excitingly inflected than anything said during the entire show. In fact, no one was even listening to Todd English as he welcomed Katie to the Olives empire. Well, the show is over, the fire is out, and as superchefblog's super-sleuthing predicted ahead of all Media (of which we are aware of, at least -- corrections welcome), the winner now gets to become the head chef at Todd English's second New York restaurant, "English is Italian." Now the real show begins, as Katie takes on the zero-star review made by The New York Times (see previous article). And the challenges don't stop with the critics; they start there. Superchefblog called both English is Italian and Olives New York today to find out when Katie was starting, right? Well, get this. The guy who answered the phone at English is Italian had no idea who Katie is and had never even heard of the show Cooking Under Fire. And the woman at Olives (who was a classy receptionist) confessed that she did not know when Katie was taking over, either (but who, very professionally, offered to find out and call back). So, best of luck to you, Katie -- and read the chapter about Todd in Super Chef, if I may offer some friendly advice. (If you send me your home address, I'll mail you a copy.) praemonitus pramunitus "forewarned, forearmed," as the Roman saying goes. Perhaps you might want to talk to some other women chefs who worked for him, like Suzanne Goin and Barbara Lynch? Superchefblog is seriously rooting for you, because the only reason English is Italian is going to take off is because you inject leadership into that team. PBS, superchefblog has worked to support you (see previous article and update), but please don't repeat this Reality TV experiment again. Then again, if you want to catch real excitement, broadcast Katie's battle to save English Is Italian from Todd! I've even got the show title: Cook, Katie, Cook!. Previous articles: Romancing the Stove - or The Way We Worked? Todd English: Pitching After Puck? English is Italian: No Stars Cooking Under Fire: Already Over Done? Todd English's Foodie Hotel Todd English: Pots and Pans Pucked? Todd English: Childrens Oscars (Update) Ming Tsai TV Todd English Winner Gets "English is Italian"? Todd English Slums With Jeffrey Chodorow Todd English: Trip Over Table? Todd English Flipflops between Bush and Kerry? Iron Chef: America vs. USA Todd English: American Chef Gone Wild Technorati Tags: chefs food restaurants cooking branding cuisine Television Reality TV PBS --> back to superchefblog