I Packed My Knives & Went: Aboard the Top Chef Cruise
The author on his experience aboard the “Top Chef Cruise” and seeing former “chef’testants”:
“There were also live Quickfires. There were two of these a night, and they were always packed to the gills. Audience volunteers joined chefs onstage for challenges familiar to anyone that’s watched the show. The MC was shaky, and the whole enterprise exposed the cracks in the entire conceit of this trip; cooking on TV is compelling because of editing and human drama. The live Quickfires had neither. The closest thing to human drama was during a late-night Quickfire when Italian chef Fabio Viviani showed up a bit inebriated and swore and yelled. I thought it was charming, but I overheard guests say that his off-color language had lost him a few fans. And there was certainly no editing. During a sandwich Quickfire, a timer appeared on the screen counting down twenty minutes. These chefs don’t need twenty minutes to cook a sandwich, and I certainly don’t want to spend twenty minutes watching them make one with an arm tied behind their backs, literally, from 28 rows back. I walked out.”