etee's Blog

Top Chef
October 25, 2006

This week, I would love to write about how the chefs put out wonderful, tasty dishes that WOWed the judges and audience. I would love to write about spirited competition, and good sportsmanship. I would love to write that, after a hard-fought and close challenge, the judges had to eliminate one of the losing team, even though they felt everyone should stay.

But I can't. Because this week, Top Chef was all about the ugly side of Reality TV. Betrayal. Lying. Dishonesty. Possibly even criminal conduct.

And all over a case of lychees.

After the Quickfire challenge, the competitors were divided up into two teams, who then went shopping for the ingredients they would need for the Elimination challenge. Each team had a budget of $500.00. One of the teams went over budget, and had to leave some items behind. As they were loading up the van, Otto said (and I quote) "I think we got a case of lychees for free." Within easy earshot were teammates Elia and Marisa.

What happened 'next' was astounding: Marisa repeated to the camera what Otto had said, but with a subtle twist. And, with that twist, she changed the whole meaning of his statement around. Instead of his realizing that maybe they had failed to pay for the produce, it came out as if he had deliberately stolen the case from the store. However, neither she nor Elia called him on it - then. But, once they were back in the kitchen, both of them could hardly wait to tell head judge Tom Colicchio, and embellish the tale even more. Otto ended up taking the lychees back to the store, and when his team lost, he also ended up taking the fall, "bowing out" of the competition after both Elia and Marisa teamed up to throw him under the bus. This worked to Marisa'a benefit, as she would have almost certainly been the one eliminated, thanks to her horridly botched panna cotta.

I am reminded of what Dilana over at Rock Star: Supernova had to go through, back when the 'drama' she was involved in became the focus of the show.

However, this one is even uglier. It is obvious based on the fact that Otto's original statement was captioned that the producers of Top Chef knew damn well what he had said. That also means they knew (or else very strongly suspected) that both Elia and Marisa were at best lying to save their own hides, and at worst were involved in a criminal conspiracy (which, based on his statement, it is not for certain that Otto was a member of.) Now, while shoplifting isn't as serious a crime as mass murder, it does make the show and the network look bad, and could expose them to some liability. So, it behooved them to make an example of someone. And, it appears from the dialogue that Otto realized he was "it", and at least had the sense to fall on his knives for the good of the show.

Does this mean that he was a complete innocent? No, he did suspect there was something wrong with the lychees, and should have simply said "if they aren't on the receipt, they gotta go back." Failing to do this was a serious lapse in judgement.

But, in my opinion there was a major injustice done in this episode. If Otto needed to leave, well and good; but Elia and Marisa should have followed him out the door as well, and they should have been given their "release" by the judges right then and there. Not because they screwed up their cooking, but because they allowed this situation to develop to an unacceptable point, then attempted to use it for their own benefit.

That, folks, simply is not done.

I hope that Otto doesn't find kitchen doors closed to him on account of this. I think Tom put it best in his blog, when he said

I think all good people lapse on occasion, and a competitive headspace can unfortunately get in the way of ethical thinking. Overall, Otto was a good guy, but he made a poor choice. He redeemed himself by bowing out, and saved Marisa in the process.

Yes, Tom, he did. And, in my not so humble opinion, he wasn't the only one.

As far as Elia and Marisa go... I hope I never have the misfortune to step into a restaurant where either one of them are working. I am afraid I would have a reaction similar to the one Mia had just outside of the fish market.

I am sorry, but for the rest of this season Top Chef won't be quite the same for me.

Update 27-Oct: After giving this some thought, I realized that I missed two key points in my original posting.

The first has to do with Otto's state of mind. During the various questionings (first when Tom was made aware of the lychees, then again at Judge's Table), Otto seemed confused. The impression was left that this was due to a guilty conscience on Otto's part, but as I replayed the passages (thanks TiVo!) I became convinced that Otto's reaction was that of a someone trapped in an event the outcome of which is both unpleasant, and beyond their ability to change. Sort of like what a condemned prisoner goes through just before the execution takes place. He also showed signs of being the victim (as it were) of 'ambush interviews' (sort of like when a lawyer asks a witness on the stand "When did you stop beating your wife?" - there is no good answer to that one.) In any case, resigning from the competition was probably the best thing Otto could do, as otherwise he might well have found future employment in the field next to impossible.

The second has to do with the sequence of events as they unfolded. Again, thanks to the wonders of DVR technology, I was able to replay the episode, and I no longer have any doubt that this whole thing may have been 'manufactured' to provide an element of drama. I am not saying that the producers caused the case of lychees to end up in the back of the car, unpaid for: rather, they saw what is not an uncommon ocurrance (there have been times when I have walked away from a checkout register, only to discover that the cashier had failed to scan one or more items - I also make it a habit of going back and rectifying the situation right then), and created a mountain of controversy out of what should have been a molehill.

The second point is what I truly believe is the Achilles Heel of Reality TV. It is real drama, and we see it as real - instead of the make-believe that we get in normal TV fare. However, instead of providing truthfulness, the genre has now morphed into truthiness (that is, something that gives the appearance of being truthful.) As a result, the whole experience seems somewhat cheapened. And, "cheap" is not something I associate with the likes of Food and Wine Magazine.