Bravo & Top Chef Masters Needs to Learn a Lot of Viewers Don't Like James Oseland Judging

I must have recorded and watched Bravo's Top Chef Masters Season 3 because when Season 4 started up, last Wednesday, my DVR recorded it.

Curtis Stone being the new host seemed sort of familiar. I did not remember that Top Chef Masters had gotten rid of the original tournament method of finding the Top Chef Master, replacing the original method with the Top Chef method of all chefs competing in a Quickfire Challenge, followed by an elimination challenge.

I think I like Curtis Stone being the host better than the mousy woman who preceded him.

I liked having that old lady who spent a wild night with Elvis, Gail Greene, as a Judge. The Elvis girlfriend is gone. Replaced by another mousy lady I've not heard of before and a food magazine editor I've not heard of before, or seen before, named Ruth Reichi.

Ruth Reichi does not have that Gail Greene Elvis girl friend type likability.

And then there is the other Judge. James Oseland. Why does Bravo not get the memo that a lot of their viewers are put off, badly by James Oseland?

It took two seconds to find 3 good anti-James Oseland quotes on the Interwebs...

"Oh no. Last year's format means I am most likely out out out. Oseland back pretty much deals the deal."

"Oseland is an insufferable, toady twat."

"Oseland is sooo creepy, and it seems like he pushes the other judges to vote his way."

The above 3 quotes about sum up my James Oseland sentiments.

Only a couple of the celebrity chefs were known to me, one being Art Smith, who has previously been on Top Chef Masters, and who has shrunk to about half his previous size.

I also sort of remember Takashi Yagihashi and Thierry Rautureau.

Chef Lorena Garcia's claim to fame, for me, is that she is known for helping fix Taco Bell's menu with new items like the Taco Bell Cantina Bowl.


I don't know if I'll keep watching. The first episode of Season 4 was sort of annoying. The challenge of splitting in to two teams, to make the best Vegas buffet ever, and then, once the chefs bought what they needed to cook, throwing the curve that one one buffet had to be Mexican, the other Indian.

I'd rather just get to watch really good chefs cook really good food than watch really good chefs deal with really annoying twists.

Floyd Cardoz Wins Top Chef Masters While James Oseland Annoys Viewers

The first two iterations of Top Chef Masters used a format that differed from Top Chef. It was more like a tournament, with each rounds winner determined by the number of "stars" the judges gave the chef.

In the first two iterations of Top Chef Masters I knew who most of the chefs were.

In the season of Top Chef Masters that ended on Wednesday, with Bombay born Floyd Cardoz winning, I had not heard of a single one of the chefs.

So, combined with the fact I knew none of the chefs and the format being changed to being pretty much just like Top Chef it was like watching yet one more season of Top Chef, but with different judges.

I like the judges on Top Chef. I don't like most of the judges on Top Chef Masters.

Particularly James Oseland. This man does not have a television friendly persona. Looking at Survivor Sucks this morning I see I am not alone in my opinion of James Oseland.

Some choice blurbs about James Oseland from Survivor Sucks....

Yeah. Oseland is an insufferable, toady twat.

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Oseland is so gross. I kinda hope they keep his little Dave Foley look-alike flunkie around though. He's not so bad when he's muted.

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Oseland is sooo creepy, and it seems like he pushes the other judges to vote his way. I also don't like when they use the two young bloggers as judges. They don't seem qualified. A better judging panel would be Ruth and Gael, and maybe that guy with the curly hair from last season and Gail rotating in and out. And please get rid of Curtis and return to the old format. There, show fixed.

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It skeeved me out when Oseland was almost bawling, his voice quivering, while talking about Floyd making that dish for him. Cweepy.

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If there is a 'villain' on this panel, I would say it was James Oseland.  He was the one that was picking apart Mary Sue's 2nd dish.  Conversely, he was advocating the dish Floyd prepared for him.  In terms, of which chef was most successful in replicating their favorite dish, Mary Sue not only nailed it, she actually exceeded it.  One of the many reasons I didn't want to see Oseland on the judges panel is he is terribly biased and abused his power when they had the old star system.  He had it in for Michael Chiarello and gave him fewer stars and overstarred Rick Bayless' score.

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I actually, as you know, gave up on this weeks ago. I don't like the newer format, which is too close to the other TC, but my main thing is I honestly cannot watch James Oseland. I literally feel queasy every time he speaks or even ogles the food. I even gave the finale a shot last night, but had to skip out until the very end. It may be pathetic, but yes he skeeves me that much.

Top Chef Masters Tells George Mendes to Go Because His Fast Food Was Not Good

Top Chef Masters is seeming sort of ridiculous. I don't think George Mendes was all that displeased to be released from what he'd gotten himself into.

To me it would seem far more interesting if we got to see these chef masters doing what they do best. As in cook to their best ability in a real master chef level kitchen.

Instead we get to see them thrown curveballs. Like this week, before they go to Whole Foods, all they are told is whatever they make has to be able to be eaten without utensils.

Then they get brought to a fast food joint I'd never heard of before to learn, to the chef's horror, that they are turning their ingredients into fast food to be served to diners and via the drive-thru.

First one team of 4 did the cooking while the other 4 took the orders. And then they reversed.

The insufferable James Oseland showed up with his very young protege, who's name I don't care to remember, were the first to order everything on the menu from inside the fast food joint. Curtis Stone and his girl friend, Danyelle, showed up at the drive-thru to order everything.

The chef masters had a terrible time trying to cook under the bizarre circumstances. There was a lot of upset spewing around the restaurant.

I find the Canadian uni-brow chef, Hugh Acheson, very annoying.

In the end, George packed his knives and left, while Mary Sue won due to her fast food fritters.

Next week Gail Simmons is a guest judge. I hope that means we are rid of Oseland's intern protege.

Top Chef Masters with Unknown (to me) Master Chefs, a New Host in Curtis Stone with Annoying Judges like James Oseland

I liked the first 2 seasons of Top Chef Masters. On the first 2 seasons I knew a lot of the Master Chefs, had either seen them on Top Chef, or knew of them by other means.

On the first 2 seasons of Top Chef Masters I knew of many of the chefs, but had never heard of the host before. I can't remember her name now. But she was not a good host.

With the 3rd season of Top Chef Masters I have met the host before. I'd watched Take Home Chef with Curtis Stone, on TLC, many times.

I like Curtis Stone. He seems to be a very nice Aussie import. But, he seems a bit awkward, at times, being a show host.

I don't remember who the judges were on the previous 2 iterations of Top Chef Masters. I'd likely not heard of them before. I have seen one of the judges on the current Top Chef Masters. That being James Oseland.

James Oseland's weaselly mannerisms get on my nerves. The last couple weeks one of the judges has been a young protege of Oseland's who also gets on my nerves. I can't remember his name. He's the editor of an online magazine about food.

The format for Top Chef Masters has been changed from the tournament format of the previous iterations, to a format that more matches Top Chef.

The Quickfire Challenges have seemed more difficult than most Top Chef Quickfires. Last week it was make a dish with a bug in a couple minutes. This week it was you have 12 minutes to make a dish using cheese.

Even though I'd not heard of any of these Top Chef Masters before, they seem obviously to be very good chefs.

I particularly find amusing the Canadian uni-brow chef, Hugh Acheson. This week he got all bent out of shape because the chef who ended up getting the boot, Suvir Saran, gave the diners and judges a lecture about the evils of red meat, while Hugh was standing there ready to serve them something he'd cooked that included a chunk of steak.

One of the chefs reminds me, lookswise, of Jillian Harris from The Bachelorette. Her name is Naomi Pomeroy. She seems quite competent and very bossy.

Another one I like is Mary Sue Milliken. She keeps landing in the bottom, while clearly being quite competent. The strained cooking environment would wreak havoc with anyone, competent or not.

If Bravo continues to insist on putting Top Chef Masters on the screen for our viewing pleasure, please find new Judges. Or as Top Chef Masters seem to often call them, Critics.

Find new critics. But, keep Curtis Stone. I'm sure he'll grow better at the hosting job.

Top Chef Masters: Rick Bayless Wins

I was wrong when I blogged about Top Chef Masters yesterday. It was not a two part ending and it was not only season 1 winner, Harold Dieterle being a guest judge, it was all the Top Chef winners. My DVR sorted it all out for me and recorded what it needed to record.

I'm a fan of Top Chef Masters and its winner, Rick Bayless. I want to eat his Mexican food.

There was no Quickfire Challenge. The 3 remaining masters were driven to the Getty Villa, it being a huge mansion in the Los Angeles zone. There they were told to prepare a 4 course meal, with course 1 representing their first food memory and other courses representing things like their first success and where they are now.

Part way into the prepping the chefs were surprised to get a helper in the form of one of the chefs from their own restaurants.

I have trouble remember details, so there is no way I can remember the names of the dishes these guys cooked. Suffice to say it was all complicated, all looked good and, apparently, judging by the swooning of the judges, for the most part, tasted incredible.

When the time came to count those stars, Hubert Keller came in third. And then Rick Bayless got one more star than Michael Chiarello. Making him Top Chef Master.

The judges waxed poetic about the revelatory nature of the Mexican cuisine, with one commenting that Rick Bayless has shown them that Mexican cuisine is on par with French and Italian in terms of complexity and sophistication.

I want some of that mole with all those ingredients that caused more food swooning than I've ever heard.

At the end, Rick Bayless was sort of touching when he said of all the chefs he was the one with no formal training. He is a self taught chef. His dad ran a BBQ joint in which dad was the Pit Master. Rick Bayless said his dad, the Pit Master, would be so proud that his son was the Top Chef Master.

Tonight I hope to manage to watch last night's Padma show and see the new Top Chef'testants.

Top Chef: Las Vegas Starts Tonight

On the Bravo TV Top Chef and Top Chef Masters websites both say they will be on tonight, Wednesday, August 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

I believe there are 2 episodes of Top Chef Masters remaining, with season 1 winner of Top Chef, Harold Dieterle, being a judge on the last 2 episodes.

Top Chef taking place in Las Vegas should be interesting. All the regulars are back, including my favorite host, Padma Lakshmi. Along with head judge Tom Colicchio, who is my favorite head judge.

Food & Wine magazine's Gail Simmons is back judging.

Also back is that annoying little bald British guy, Toby Young. It seems fitting that Toby Young is the author of a book titled Lose Friends and Alienate People.

The line up of celebrity chefs and other type celebrities has more names that I recognize than the "stars" on the upcoming new season of Dancing with the Stars. We'll be seeing my neighbor, Tim Love, Penn & Teller, Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Boulud, Hubert Tuller, Michelle Bernstein, Natalie Portman, Jerome Bocuse, Paul Bartolotta, Laurent Tourondel and Nigella Lawson.

We start with 17 chef'testants tonight. Looking at the cast bios and photos it looks to be an interesting group. I am sure a lot of good drama and great food is about to be cooked up.

I hope my DVR can figure out when to record Top Chef and Top Chef Masters.

Top Chef Masters

Top Chef on Bravo is one of my favorites. It took me awhile to warm up to Top Chef Masters. I watched the first episode, the one with Tim Love, and did not start watching again til it was down to 6.

Tim Love is the only one of the Master Chefs who's food I have tasted. At both his Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and his Love Shack. Both in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Tim Love was one of three eliminated in his episode, with, I think, Hubert Keller being the one to advance to the finals.

Watching these Top Chef Masters do Quickfire Challenges is quite entertaining. They are using the best Quickfire Challenges from seasons past of Top Chef. Like the cook eggs with one hand tied behind your back challenge.

The first of the Final 6 to get sent home was Suzanne Tracht. She is know for retro American dishes.

The second of the Final 6 to get eliminated was Art Smith. He's the chef who helps Oprah Winfrey put on weight. He really bombed on this week's vegan dessert. But, I thought it was going to be Anita Lo who got sent home. She was very tired and the vegan eggplant dish she concocted also looked very tired.

I like how all the chefs are supportive of each other. There is absolutely none of that Top Chef staple of bickering drama.

I wish Padma was the host. I've not warmed up to the Top Chef Masters host. Her name is Kelly Choi. I only like one of the three judges, that being Gael Greene. Though I'm a bit appalled that, apparently, in her memoirs she details an affair she had with Elvis. Then there's a UK judge named Jay Rayner who is mildly annoying and an American, or maybe Canadian, judge named James Oseland, who I find really annoying. Not a TV friendly face.

Now that Art Smith has left the building, the 4 Masters remaining are Rick Bayless, he being a very tightly wound perfectionist who makes very good Mexican food. Then there's Anita Lo, her speciality is Asian flavors. I like Anita. Actually I've liked all the Top Chef Masters. Then there's Michael Chiarello, his forte is Italian cuisine. And then there is Hubert Keller, originally from France, now firmly planted in America where he is both a French chef and a burger master.

The prize on Top Chef Masters is winning money for your charity. It all seems very noble.