Handbill Handout

The Top Chef: Masters Finale was the other night. Unlike many of my fellow fans of the guilty pleasure that is the Top Chef franchise I enjoyed the “Masters” version of the series. To me it seemed more focused on the craft and personalities of the chefs as opposed to some personal Real World-type drama nonsense. The finale in particular was for me a perfect food show. The concept was each chef was to tell his story in the form of a four course meal. The first course would represent his earliest food memory, the second would be the food that made him want to become a chef, the third was to be a dish from his first restaurant and the final dish was to represent where the chef is now and where he wanted to be in the future. It was one of the most enjoyable episodes of any television show I’ve ever seen. If some network actually had the guts to make a series out of this concept focusing on one chef per week, not even making it a competition with all of the contrived drama that tha...

I hope Mr. Softee can survive this review . This whole seeing-Bruni-in-person thing is still weird though. Then again I got used to seeing Ruth Reichl's face everywhere, and I don't think it was as big a deal when Grimes quit the job. Still, I wonder when Bruni will make his Top Chef or Iron Chef debut. It's gotta happen, doesn't it?

A new (to my knowledge ) word has been coined to describe the sort of relationship Leah Cohen and Hosea Rosenberg had on Top Chef NY: showmance . Welcome to the 21st century.

People of a certain age may remember that there was a guy named Hulk Hogan who was one of the most recognized names in popular culture roughly a quarter century ago. He’s still around today as an occasional actor and game show host but in the mid-to-late 1980s into the early 90s he was an active pro wrestler, voiced his own Saturday morning cartoon and appeared in movies and television shows on a regular basis. The reason for his popularity was only in part because of his own inherent look and charisma. Hogan was the quintessential all-American good guy. He was a big muscleman but gentle with the kids. He told everyone to work hard, say their prayers and take their vitamins and they would be as successful in life as he was (never mind the subsequent admissions of heavy steroid usage). He was a virtuous gentleman with the ladies. He was everything an American hero should be. Of course, that wasn ’t the whole reason for his success. As they say, every protagonist needs an antagoni...

Next week's guest judges include Wylie, Jacques and Lidia. I would pass out having to cook for those three. Wow. I mean wow. The only way they could impress me more is if they threw in Keller and Achatz, and they already used Achatz earlier in the season, and they used Ripert this week. I can't wait. And as long as I'm employed, maybe I'll get on that Le Bernardin res. With the Global Economic Collapse, you can actually get in there now.

I can't wait for these pork bellies to dry. One week down, one to go for these guys. 9 days in a pancetta cure, 2 weeks hanging and they'll be ready for fryin' and use in things like the Mrs' wonderful pasta sauces. Yeah, I didn't quite square of the lower one, so sue me. I wanted every bit of the porky wonderfulness. What's up with the title of this post? Well, last night the Mrs., myself and my buddy CS had the pleasure of seeing Neil Young and Wilco at MSG. They weren't together; Wilco was the second support band and honestly I wished they had ditched the other opener and given Wilco a full 90 minutes or more instead of the 50 they got. No knock to the first band, I'm just greedy especially given what we paid for the tickets. Arena rock: not cheap in the 21st century, even in the days of the Great Global Collapse of the Oughties. Wilco were excellent as always, they're the first opening band I've seen in quite some time to almost get an encore...

Wow, I guess that's the death knell for the hipster crowd . Time to follow the early adapters to the North Shore of Staten Island, kids. Not all of us long-time residents bite. The restaurant scene is improving but we need some venues where old farts like me can see good music . Multiple genres please . Preferably accessible by the SIR . Thanks.

They showed Mike Eruzione during the Pens-Wings game. He now looks vaguely like Herb Tarlek from WKRP . Tonight's comments helped along by Ruvei Barbera D'Alba and Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon . Both go perfectly with the Mrs's awe-inspiring spaghetti with portobello mushroom sauce. minus 1 minute: This must be the week the Gorgon (Lisa, copyright Adam Platt ) goes home, right? 0 mins : The Mrs. blames Bourdain for Dale going instead of Lisa last week. Fair comment, Bourdain has always been a "buck stops here with the head chef" guy as opposed to Collichio who might've sent home the person who executed the crappiest food. Which was Lisa. 1 Please God, no more grooming shots. 3 Damn, a butchering challenge? I've gotta get my Father In Law to critique this. 4 We call FIL . He says "Wow, look at those rib-eyes. They look nice, put them on the grill". They wind up not showing enough to get a sense of how skillfully or properly they brok...

Remember how this works? If not, check here . And look out for the spoilers (you knew that already though, right?) -1 beard dude is definitely on dope, right? 1 they get to "touch each other"? Dear God, where is the Top Chef Lesbian -Cam (sponsored by Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite)? Then again, maybe not. Other contestants whine about missing family. I've said this before: you've seen the show, right? 4 A veg plate. They better do a pop up video thing explaining brunoise , batonet , chiffonade ...... 5 How do you think they decide who gets to yell out the time remaining? 6 How many hats did Spike pack for this show, exactly? 7 Dale tourneed a frickin ' avocado? Wow. Blais does the little piles of food and scores. Huh. I guess Rocco is nowhere in sight this week. 10 Dale wins. Staten Island girl is one of the bottom 3. 12 What, you both haven't seen Mad Max? Commercial break: Flyers lose, playoff hopes in jeopardy. In the words of Nels...