Top Chef Puts The Art in Culinary Arts
The culinary arts is just that-an art-
The television show Top Chef is successful each season in forcing the chefs to merge food and the world around them in an impactful and novel way. I’d like to share my favorite episodes where I find this to be the most evident. The world is interconnected in so many ways and it can inspire us as long as we keep our eyes and ears open to it.
Culinary Arts Merged With Entertainment
Season 6 Las Vegas- Episode 12-Strip Around the World: Las Vegas lent itself a flashy and grandiose backdrop to extremely strong talent in season 6. This point in the season left only 6 cheftestants and a fun, thematic to the season challenge. Each cheftestant had to visit a different Las Vegas casino to serve as inspiration for their dish. This challenge highlighted a part of Las Vegas everyone knows (casinos) and was creative and fun.
Season 9 Texas-Episode 11- Fit for An Evil Queen: This episode required its top chefs to create a dish based on the 2012 gothic film Snow White and the Huntsman. This challenge allowed the chefs full independence and creativity. This episode provided the best executed dishes by the chefs. The dishes were bold, cynical, dark, and almost evil. This episode is one of my favorite examples for this blog post. It goes to show how you can take one medium (film) and translate it successfully into another (food).
Culinary Arts Merged with Geographic Location
Season 11 New Orleans- Episode 4- Captain Vietnam: The New Orleans season does the best job of utilizing the filming location. In this episode cheftestants explored how a large portion of New Orleans cuisine is based in Vietnamese influence. This episode allowed viewers to see how food identity is created.
Season 13 California-Episode 2- Pop Up Pandemonium: Groups of chefs were tasked with creating a menu invoking the prominent cuisine of a particular LA neighborhood. Vegan, Mexican, Persian, and Korean cuisine were highlighted. This episode confirmed how one area can be influenced by one (or more) cultural influences.
Season 17- All-Stars L.A.- Episode 2- The Jonathan Gold Standard: The chefs traveled around L.A. to the different restaurants featured by the late food critic Jonathan Gold. This episode conveyed how food in one part of one country (Los Angeles in the United States) can be influenced by so many other cultures.
Culinary Arts Merged With History and Literature
Season 13-California- Episode 11- Hammer Time: Chefs were asked to create dishes based on different international culinary periods. They learned more about their assigned period from resources at the San Francisco Public Library. This episode highlighted how food choices and food availability are influenced by factors like world events and agriculture.
Culinary Arts Merged With Art
Season 17- All-Stars L.A.- Episode 3- Strokes of Genius: This episode is the one that inspired me to write this post. The chefs were assigned historical art movements (Baroque, Neoclassicism, Renaissance, Rococo). After touring the Getty they created dishes based their art movement. I was fascinated how the influences of colors, shapes. and figures in the artwork influenced the final dishes.
