Ariane - Top Chef: New York

[Krom]

A few thoughts about Ariane . . .

It DID stick out to me when she had several others tasting her dish, mentioned herself that it was too sweet, but then went ahead and served it anyway.

WTH?

I was surprised that when she was cooking the turkey in the Foo Thanksgiving Challenge, she got annoyed/irritated when the other chefs kept askng her about the turkey, was it done, was it cooking, etc?

WTH?

Come ON, Ariane . . .

Please.

I mean, seriously.

She'd been in the bottom two not once, but TWICE in a row. How could anybody NOT possibly question whether or not she'd be able to pull off cooking the turkey? Matter of fact, I'm REALLY surprised that somebody didn't just take over cooking the bird from her, since they were so nervous about her skills. Would that have been right to do? Heck, no. But, given her previous track record, and her Stew Room meltdowns, it would've been totally understandable to me if somebody'd tried, just because they didn't have any faith that she WAS able to get the job done.

ESPECIALLY when they walked in and saw the conditions they'd be producing the meal in.

I think she might last another show or two, but I'd be really surprised if she lasted any longer than that, because I truly don't think she's got the starch to hold herself up in this competition.

JMHO.

My assumption was that her teammates were setting her up. They all knew that if someone screwed up the Turkey, they'd likely be the one to go home. So they let her generate some rope to hang herself with. And she didn't. From her point of view, even if she suspected they were doing that, the risk was likely worth it, since she certainly didn't want to underwhelm the judges again.

[Jexter]

It's interesting. Though I like Ariane, I never would have expected her to generate as much controversy as she has. But maybe that's it. I like her, others like her, but then there are those who clearly don't.

She's no less of a chef than many of the others we've seen so far and has been nothing but nice and humble so far.

Therefore, I can only chalk the controversy up to humans' desire to go after the easiest target. She's an older woman with less experience and two bad rounds under her belt. Having the bad rounds right out of the gate makes her seem like she'll be a perpetually weak contestant, but only time will tell if that's the case. This week, she was a winner (albeit on a losing team).

Ariane seems to be the easiest target at this point.

[Harmony2000]

My main issue with her is her apparent lack of an experienced and varied palette and her inability to go outside her culinary comfort zone. I say apparent because this could all be editing. I just don't understand how a chef who is a graduated of the CIA doesn't have more experience in different cuisines to draw upon. I understand the argument that money, etc may have hindered her. However, she claims to have cook books and even said at one point that she had a cook book showing her something. My question is, does she actually make anything out of those books? If she did, wouldn't she be able to draw upon that at least?

I don't know. I just REALLY didn't like her the first couple of shows but I didn't end up disliking her as much after this last one. She went up a notch with the turkey thing. I just wish she'd stop with the crying and whining already.

About the stop eating thing, they were probably all chowing away but the editors chose to only show Ariane as the one with food in her mouth for whatever reasons.

[ThePinkOtterPop]

Ummm, I assumed the service was finished.

Ummmm, that's an incorrect assumption because the judges were coming to their table right as Ariane was stuffing her face which is why Jeff had to tell her to "stop eating".

[MFWalkoff]

Aaaaaand that's the last "ummm" in this thread. At FORT you can bash the reality show contestants all you want, but figure out a way to disagree over them in a friendly and non-passive-aggressive manner, please.

Thank you.

[suetoo]

[QUOTE=Harmony2000;3243217;]My main issue with her is her apparent lack of an experienced and varied palette and her inability to go outside her culinary comfort zone. I say apparent because this could all be editing. I just don't understand how a chef who is a graduated of the CIA doesn't have more experience in different cuisines to draw upon. I understand the argument that money, etc may have hindered her. However, she claims to have cook books and even said at one point that she had a cook book showing her something. My question is, does she actually make anything out of those books? If she did, wouldn't she be able to draw upon that at least?

I think that the edit here is very heavy.

We went to her restaurant again on Saturday night (our reservations were made before we even knew she was going to be on the show).

Nearly every item was different than what we saw several weeks ago, and everything was absolutely fantastic. In fact, there was an appetizer with polenta, goat cheese and lobster and chanterelle mushrooms that was the single best thing I have eaten in recent memory. It was comfort food in a dish.

She came out (her restaurant only has about 10 tables) and she was talking about the experience, and was a really good sport about it all.

There were some very asian-inspired things on the menu, and some were very mediteranean. (I think that her failure with faro inspired her). I was at a party that she catered, and the menu was classic French cuisine. I don't think you can pigeon-hole her.

I never "got" that she never goes into the city, and is unfamiliar with so many different cuisines. Her first dish was definitely not her "niche", but it was the grain that she was unfamiliar with; the lamb and its seasonings were dead-on, according to the guest judge. Any decent chef, when confronted with an unfamiliar ingredient, would turn to a book. I don't understand the issue here, and I think many people are jumping to the wrong conclusion.

And, for what it's worth, I did order the lemon meringue martini, as I remembered that it was great, and wanted to try again. It was served in a martini glass. At the bottom was a very crisp cherry pastry that was a big blast of flavor. The rest of the dish was a perfectly executed lemon curd, and there was a little bit of beautifully golden meringue on top. All I can say is that something must have happened to what she made on the show, because this thing was terrific. And many of the other tables around us also ordered it, and the glasses were all empty.

[Harmony2000]

I can buy what you are saying more than some apparent disparities in editing. Mainly, I didn't understand how a trained and educated chef wouldn't have experience in other cuisines. So yeah, I can more easily believe that it's the editing making her seem this way.

You make her dishes sound yummy. I'd try them if I lived in the area. I just wish she'd stop crying!

Do you think she changed her lemon meringue martini after what happened on the show? And more importantly, did she let anything slip about the show? What did she have to say about the experience (don't forget spoiler tags in case others don't want to know).

[Shoepie]

Thanks suetoo. I am sure her lemon dessert is good. She just made a mistake on the sugar measurment on the show. It can happen to the best of them.

I think she is going to shine in the episode this week. The previews make me think so.

What did she say about the experience? I bet her business has done well because of it.

[CrossingGuard]

Thanks for sharing suetoo.

Count me in as one of the people who are rooting for Ariane. As others have said before, she's probably not going to win, but hopefully she doesn't get eliminated too soon.

[suetoo]

She, of course, did not reveal anything about any eliminations or personalities. She did mention that she was looking forward to the reunion show, after my husband asked her at what point did she physically have to hold herself back from throttling Padma.

She also did say that she truly liked all of the other contestants, and she has made life-long friends from the group, Carla being one of them.