Unfortunately, the deadline for the Four Points by Sheraton’s Best Brews Internship has passed, but you can help pick the winner in a couple of weeks. The lucky aspiring brewmeister will get to work with Chief Beer Officer, Scott Kerkmans. Not a bad title, huh? Many a young man (and woman) has lain in bed after a night of pizza eating and beer guzzling, dreaming of such a chance. In fact, CBO Scott Kerkman looks like he just graduated from college himself.

I can’t wait to see the 15 finalists. And don’t forget. Chef2Chef has its own internship opportunity for chefs and culinary students. You can apply here.

Found originally on Craigslist.

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You can see it right? The Top Chef producers have set viewers up for a battle of the sexes.

During last week’s show, the producers broke up the lovable lesbian couple Jennifer and Zoi (Zofer tees coming soon!), and concluded with a fight scene that would’ve made Soprano’s producers proud. Spike, who earlier in the episode remarked “unless you are going to take two women and strangle them, there comes a time when you gotta just go with it and do the best you can,”threw down with Antonia because he let her bully him out of cooking butternut squash soup for the challenge. Uh, problem with women there, Spike? (HT to Slashfood for the quote). Dale showed Lisa what a man he was by doing his best rap star crotch grab while screaming at her for being such a sourpuss. And Jennifer out-manned everyone by kicking over a chair and facing off against all the other cheftestants with an impressive “don’t f*&# with me” stand and deliver pose. Whew.

Speaking of cussing, there has been some controversy about all the bleeping on chef shows like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen lately. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me, but it does seem as if the producers of Top Chef have upped the bleeping anti for effects sake. I can’t believe that this season’s cheftestants are that much more profane than those in the past.

This week, producers allowed Dale charm his way back into our hearts by apologizing to Lisa for acting like an ass, and then acting like a kid in a candy store when he met legendary Chicago Bears Gayle Sayers and William “The Refrigerator” Perry. Lisa kept being a sourpuss and (incorrectly) forecasting her own wins. And what happened to Kiwi Mark? He seemed sort of depressed on the day of the challenge–only to become truly depressed when told to “clean up his act” by head judge Tom Colicchio (who also appeals to bears). For some reason, I can’t stand to see a sad Kiwi. As a nation, New Zealanders are usually so upbeat.

Cheftestant Stephanie continued on in her “steady wins the race” way, and if rumor-mongering Pete Wells is correct, perhaps a female chef will win the whole she-bang?

Ryan, who served tailgating Bears fans poached pears with creme fraiche (!) was logically sent home.

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At first, I thought it was a mistake on the part of some of the Top Chef cheftestants to choose cheesy movies like “Top Secret” as their challenge inspiration; especially since guest judge chef Daniel Boulud just finished telling them that “Casablanca” is his favorite film.  Balaud probably hasn’t had the pleasure of seeing such great American film classics as “Top Secret” or “A Christmas Story,” but guest judge Richard Roeper is nothing if not a film critic who can appreciate a little less sophistication in his film classics.  In the end, if your dish is good, you get away with using the cow scene from “Top Secret” as your culinary inspiration.  (Warning:  off color humor in what I’m guessing in Polish ahead.)

The lack of imagination, with the exception of “Willy Wonka,” and “Like Water for Chocolate,” which cheftestant Spike promptly rejected for “Good Morning Vietnam” so he could cook Vietnamese food, was a bit disappointing   How about “Eat Drink Man Woman” for instance?  You’d think that would be a movie on most chef’s viewing lists but I could be wrong.  The chick focus probably spoils it most male chefs.

Watching cheftestant Ryan shout out that “Dumb & Dumber” and “Old School” are his favorite movies was, well, not surprising.  Watching his teammate Kiwi Mark discuss the plot of “A Christmas Story,” a movie’s he’s never seen, was priceless.

Parting note: Richard’s smoke equals Marcel’s foam.

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This week, the Top Chef judges split the chefs into two teams and sent them into a Chicago neighborhood to beg door-to-door for groceries in order to put on a block party for them the next day. I admit, I’d probably let Top Chef cheftestants into my home if they knocked on the front door, but they wouldn’t find much more than a fridge full of condiments–surely not 10 pounds of pork like the found in one home. Is it normal for your average American family to keep 1o pounds of pork in the house unless its the pet pot belly pig?

The Red Team lost the challenge because, like dumb-asses, they cooked traditional block party food when everybody knows that the judges on Top Chef don’t want to be served traditional food. Have the members of the Red Team ever watched the show? Pee-Wee Herman-haired cheftestant Richard just finished winning the quickfire challenge by making a taco that wasn’t a taco!

Did you know that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods? That’s what Padma said. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. I’m not sure what other cities are made up of, but since those other cities aren’t Chicago, I guess they are made up of something different.

At the Judges Table, cheftestant Andrew, in a fit of desperation and ADD, declared that he would have to be dragged out of “his house” by security if the judges declared him this week’s loser. That outburst would’ve been enough for most people to send his skinny butt home, but the possibility of violence obviously made the Top Chef producers do a jig of reality TV delight. By the way, this week’s winner of the obligatory use of the phrase “spot on” award goes to Ryan.

Who will next week’s winner be?In the end, it doesn’t matter how perfect your corn dogs are, you aren’t going to win Top Chef cooking carnival food (unless you make a fancy funnel cake like winning cheftestant Stephanie). I was sad to see one of this season’s blue-collar chefs, self-taught cheftestant Erik, lose. However, Erik didn’t lose just because his corn dogs were soggy, he has been in over his head from the beginning (nacho souffle anyone?). He also is on tape saying that Mexican cuisine can’t be fine dining. Ouch–not a good idea when you just made soggy corndogs and Rick Bayless is this week’s guest judge.

Since you don’t have to worry about winning Top Chef, why not try Chef2Chef’s most popular funnel cake recipe. Yum. Carnival food.

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When Wylie DuFresne likes your sideburns, you have some impressively coiffed sideburns. And if you call yourself a molecular gastronomist, you have to have sideburns. Cheftestant Richard found out how important mutton chops can be in a quick fire challenge the hard way. Oily chicken my bootie. DuFresne just admired Kiwi Mark’s sideburns.

Although men’s facial hair is always an important topic on Top Chef, the moment that stuck out for me during was cheftestant Erik’s comments about being a “soul chef” as opposed to being a chef with no soul as molecular gastronomists like Richard and DuFresne are. Is anyone else having a Marcel v. Illan flashback?

Claiming that using new technical innovations (appliances!) and techniques removes the soul from cooking is ridiculous. Perhaps Erik, Ilan, and other innovation averse chefs would like to cook by campfire? That would really prove how much soul. they cook with. For an eloquent defense of the new approach to cooking was presented by Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se, and writer Harold McGee in The Guardian in 2006. Innovation and soul can co-exist so it’s time to end that debate.

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Season 4 of Top Chef premiered tonight and it appears that almost all of the cheftestants have been working in San Francisco, which says a lot about the quality of chefs in the Bay Area. And in a predictable reality show twist, two of the San Francisco cheftestants are a couple, a lesbian couple. How edgy of the Bravo producers, who never met gay-friendly programming it didn’t like.

This year’s show takes place in Chicago and there are a couple of hometown chefs in the competition. On attitude alone, Dale is already a stand out. Andrew is a live cheftestant with a colorful vocabulary. I’m pretty sure I heard him use “cat” and “fat,” as well as the phrase “shark-toothed” to describe competitor Richard. Andrew is obviously ready to “throw down.” (more…)

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