Coaching Cooking

It kills me a little bit to admit this, but I love that Bravo reality series “Top Chef.” The thrill of the challenge and that gorgeous kitchen (yes, with the Kenmore elites, the show pushes those appliances like crack dealers).

What I REALLY love about the show is the creativity of the chefs. Each week the chefs face two challenges: quickfire and elimination. The first challenge, the quickfire, must be completed in thirty minutes. It’s exciting to watch the chefs race around the kitchen. Often, they must use unusual ingredients and remake them into their own style. The results are often riveting and completely inspirational. Mostly it’s amazing to watch the chefs create such beautiful dishes with a scant amount of time (often about thirty minutes or just a few hours to make a full meal).

A recent episode, entitled “Eastern Promise,” challenged the chefs to make sushi. Tom Colicchio, one of the judges and an esteemed chef in his own right, wakes the chefs at an ungodly hour to go to the fish market. The chefs race into the fish market where they have just $100 to buy fish for the sushi challenge.

The chefs have just thirty minutes to prepare their sushi. For me, watching the chefs cook and run furiously around the kitchen is exhilarating. I’m a huge sushi fan and it’s incredible to watch the chefs slice the fish and decorate their plates. Sushi is incredibly difficult to make and the nori (seaweed) is often challenging to handle.

Sushi, for the uninitiated, comprises more than just sushi rolls. Sushi chefs also make dishes with fresh fish sliced thinly and served with soy sauce and wasabi (Japanese horseradish). In “Top Chef” the chefs made dishes that ranged from sushi rolls to sashimi plates (sliced, raw fish). Making sushi is also a chance to decorate plates with the gorgeous colors of the fish and the added color of vegetables and garnish.

I encourage anyone interested in cooking to watch “Top Chef” because it is so fun to watch the chefs work creatively (and under pressure!). OK, I admit that the drama created by this reality series is also engaging. But, again, the focus for me is the food. The added drama just makes the food taste that much better in my mind.