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April 21, 2006
... and here's why it's relevant.
Harold Dieterle's eyebrows aside, I've figured out why I'm so drawn to Top Chef. I love a trashy tv program as much as the next kid, sure, but there's something about the competitors of this show that intrigues me, and it has everything to do with their approach to food.
Stephen's schtick is condescension and obliviousness, which makes for entertaining interpersonal skits, but what's really interesting about him is his philosophy of food. He's a supreme stylist, extremely invested in how the food looks on the plate and how many esoteric ingredients he can use in one dish. His aim is to educate his patrons and open their minds and palates. If they don't like the dish, it's simply because they don't understand where he's coming from ... if only he could take a few more minutes to explain where shiso comes from, they'll get it, right?
Stephen's plates always look beautiful. And his ingredients always sound intriguing, if not appetizing. Credit where credit's due. He thinks long and hard about these decisions and approaches them as an artist.
Harold's approach is a bit different. Every bit as skilled as Stephen (I believe a bit more, myself, by virture of experience), Harold not only wants to create dishes that are beautiful ("I make food look pretty") and successfully executed, he won me over when he made it clear that his food also needs to have heart. This is a man who wants to feed people, not create squiggles on a plate. And it shows in his work - though he can fancy up an ingredient list like any serious chef, his food has substance. It looks like it tastes delicious, and from the judge's comments, it does. He isn't interested in "educating" the people he cooks for - he wants to make them a meal they'll love. His art has soul, and I can really appreciate that.
Having established that I normally don't give a shiso about televised competitions, because I think they're mostly rigged and totally boring, I've been wondering why I care about who wins this show (is it clear that I'm pulling for Dieterle?). I think it's because Harold's approach to food is like my approach to writing. Yep, here's where the relevancy sneaks in.
I write poems, which is kind of a frivolous enterprise in the grand scheme of daily life. Just as we can survive on basic food and don't really need haute cuisine to lead satisfactory lives, we don't really need poems, not in the way we need instruction manuals and the newspaper. On the other hand, life would suck just a bit more if we didn't have people reaching beyond the obvious to create new dishes and flavor combinations, and if we didn't have a way to examine life on a less literal level than the daily news offers.
As a poet, I'm not so interested in making squiggles on a page and calling it the dish. I don't ever want to stand up at a reading and lecture the audience on the form I used to write the poem I'm about to read to them. I want my technique to always be in service to the story, to bringing language alive on the page for the reader, to eliciting spontaneous gasps and tingles in the feet. I want my work to have a heart and a soul, and human connection to be behind everything I write. I want my readers to have a real experience when they read my work, and I want them to be satisfied.
If a reader ever feels "gee, there's not much there there," that's a failure on my part. I am aware of and attentive to style and flash and innovation, but only in service to the poem, not the other way around.
And that's why watching reality tv is important, kids. Sometimes it helps you put your own work into perspective. Also, the biggest douchebags in the world go on those shows, and the schadenfreude feels so wrong, yet so, so right.
Posted by eek at April 21, 2006 05:22 PM
Comments
That's usually why I'm only into the first season of competitive reality shows. After it becomes a "phenomenon" the focus is on providing theatrics rather than the pleasure of watching people create. Happened with Project Runway.
Posted by: monkey at April 21, 2006 10:13 PM
Stephen annoys me with his pretentious smarm. I know he's mostly capable but ugh. I started out rooting for Tiff but well, she annoys me too. Harold now, oh yum. I think he's got a chance!
Posted by: yankintexas at April 24, 2006 02:14 PM
Harold line forms to the left, man!
Posted by: eek at April 24, 2006 04:30 PM
I'm in that Harold line too... his food always looks so delicious and skillfully prepared. But the best is when he's so darn serious the whole time... then tonight he burst out laughing when Dave was talkin' to himself in the walk-in. I LOVE IT when Harold breaks up -- such a treat!
Love your Top Chef entries :)
Posted by: Madley at May 4, 2006 08:02 AM
Harold has the best laugh and the best hugs. Now if he'd just have made that vegetarian option...
Posted by: eek at May 5, 2006 11:31 AM