Top Chef: The Jonathan Gold standard

March 26, 2020 10:27 PM - Season 17, Episode 2

This week the chefs honor the late, great Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold. Using Gold’s last guide list, the chefs fan out all over Los Angeles to sample the unique taquerias, food trucks, mom-and-pop cafes, upscale eateries and ethnic cuisine only found in the City of Angels. Drawing inspiration from this one-in-a-lifetime culinary odyssey, the chefs create dishes to serve 200 of Jonathan Gold’s friends, family, and restaurateurs that he loved at the iconic Union Station. Noted food writer and personal friend of Jonathan Gold, Ruth Reichl serves as guest judge alongside Padma, Tom and Gail.

Another episode designed to push some of the chefs well out of their comfort zones.

(This memorial episode also opens with a dedication to Floyd Cardoz, a tragic loss to the coronavirus.)

posted by praemunire (5 comments total)

Its not going to be very long into this season that we start losing folks who dont deserve to go home. Angelo always seemed like a raw talent with serious underlying issues - his business decisions/relationships off the show never really tracked for me given his apparent talents. . . . but i was really glad to see him go and not lose eric so early.

I felt like they kind of packed too much in on their tours? or maybe just didnt make it clear enough whether they wanted them to be inspired by one stop or meld multiple?

anyhow, feeling EXTREMELY smug as a pun-loving jewish chef who loves to borrow ingredients and ideas from everywhere, because i independently came up with (albeit a non-asian) masa ball soup this year but i do want to hear how Nini got hers to come out tender bc i had some textural issues and was thinking of going for a mix of matzah and masa next time. (i sometimes think too much about food pairings just because of word play - ive been enjoying tAJIni sauce in various formats for a while - yes thats tahini + aji amarillo)
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:25 AM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

You know, I'm starting to think BMW may just be a sponsor for the show.

I'm with you Exceptional_Hubris, kinda shocking to see Eric in he bottom three on the 2nd episode! But it does sound like he blew this one. In a normal season he probably would have been in the middle while some other way-under-qualified chef landed at the bottom. But in All Star, those folks just aren't there.

"That tuna died in vain" may be the single most insulting thing I've ever heard on TC. Really felt like Reichl (who I think is usual a great judge) going for the pull-quote -- which she got. It showed up on LCK, as well. Double out of place on a show honoring Jonathan Gold who would have never said something like that.
posted by Frayed Knot at 8:23 AM on March 27, 2020

the Better than Bouillon product placement was also pretty intense
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 9:13 AM on March 27, 2020

(Pssst, it's because a mustache is not actually a personality.)
posted by praemunire at 5:02 PM on March 27, 2020

I'm not familiar with Jonathan Gold but it was pretty amazing to see how emotional the restaurant owners were about a food critic!

Malarkey's gotta go. I'm not into someone who thinks he is so slick like that.

I didn't remember Ruth being so mean - her tuna comment was funny but brutal.

I'm glad Stephanie survived!
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:47 PM on March 29, 2020