Month: June 2008

Lost: Naveen Andrews Interview


Digital Spy has a new interview with Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid on LOST. In it he discusses, among other things, what he thought was wrong with season 3, and how season 4 became better:

We all know what the executive producers, Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse], were going through because they had this burden of an endless show. I don’t think it’s what Damon wanted in the first place. He always used to say to me ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we were a bit like the Sex Pistols and did just one season of great television and then bang, that’s it?’ Sort of smash and grab. Obviously you can’t do that on primetime network TV but he wanted a limit to the show. He managed to do a deal where he was able to achieve that. Now that we have an ending to aim towards, I think it’s inevitable the quality will get better.

Read the whole interview

Stephanie Izard – Winner of Season 4 of Top Chef


I haven’t written a lot about Top Chef this season, but I probably should have. This cooking competition has the sort of contestants that should be on “Hell’s Kitchen”. Any one of the chefs on Top Chef could run circles around the Hell’s Kitchen chefs.

The competition came down to Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa. Richard and Stephanie each won the same number of challenges, and I think both desired to win. They’re both quite good.

The chefs all worked over two days, the first day with famous chefs, and the second day alone. They had to prepare food for nine diners.

The diners had issues with each of the courses, until the third course, when they nearly unanimously loved Stephanie’s dish. The last course had mixed reviews.

In the end, they said that each of the chefs did very well, and that judges table would have some tough decisions.

At judges table, the panelists explained what they thought of each of the dishes. It was hard to determine how everything went, since it appeared to be pretty evenly split.

The judges asked how each of them thought they did. Stephanie said that she thought she second guessed herself on the dessert. Lisa was very confident. Richard thought he didn’t perform up to his own standards, and in his words “choked”, because he over-thought his dishes.

The judges were surprised at Richard’s response. In discussing the dishes, it seemed that Lisa and Stephanie were pretty even. They decided that Richard’s pork belly dish must have been what he was thinking of when Richard said he choked.

In the end, the winner was Stephanie. She really did a great job throughout the season. I was disappointed that Richard felt that he didn’t do his best. He’s really quite talented, and it would have been better if he felt he did well on his dishes.

Congratulations to Stephanie! She was fun to watch throughout the season, and her food was full of surprises until the end.

Excellent Michael Emerson Interview

The Cheappop.com has a great interview with Michael Emerson, Ben, of Lost. The interview was given before the Season 4 finale. An excerpt:

What do you make of the relationship with Ben and Locke? I mean this season there’s almost a sibling rivalry thing going on.

I know that’s been funny in the last few episodes. When Locke, Ben and Hurley have been trekking around in the jungle, they’ve been bickering like brothers or roommates haven’t they? It’s been a nice note of humor I think and sort of a softening of the edges of Ben Linus, too. I mean obviously they’re locked in kind of a competition. I think it’s for a sense of control of the island or a sense of being the anointed one or the chosen one to lead, and Ben seems to have lost that battle. It’s now sort of John Locke’s island.

Read the whole interview

(Thanks to Kali!)

The Next Food Network Star – Star on the Go – summary

the next food network star

Robert Irvine at 3am? Must have been before the falling out with the Food Network. Well, he’s the guest panelist, and tells the teams that the big prize this week is getting featured in “USA Weekend” magazine.

The teams were told to head to specialty shops to answer questions. If you answer the question correctly, you can move on to take your first choice of ingredient. If you don’t answer correctly, you have to do a food prep task. The groups do OK at this, answering most of the questions correctly. One team had to do two food preps, another had to do one, and the last answered all the questions correctly.

After they got all their ingredients, they headed to a train station where they all board a train to cook. They have to prepare a brunch for the selection committee and 30 passengers. Aaron, Adam and Jennifer have Brioche, Ricotta, and Steak. They starts to argue for about runny eggs, whether they should make French toast… things were falling apart. The steaks looked good, but when they finally got food plated, the eggs weren’t looking good. Their presentation goes well, but the eggs were undercooked, and the French toast didn’t go over that well. They did like the steak.

The next team has lamb, blue cheese and baggettes. Nipa takes the lamb (for a lamb kabob), Shane does a salad with the blue cheese, and Lisa does a French toast. They do pretty well, but Lisa needs to a little last minute whipping for the crème freshe. Their presentation goes ok (and Lisa thankfully was much better than last week). The salad is overdressed, the lamb was spicy, but the French toast went over well. The selection committee liked the change Lisa made in her culinary point of view.

Jeffrey, Kelsey and Kevin went last. They had duck, raisin bread, and mozzarella. They make a duck salad, bread pudding, and honey glazed figs with crostini. The last time doesn’t have much oil, they don’t plate the right number of plates (at first), but finish it off. Their presentation is a little over the top, and doesn’t go over all that great with the judges. The bread pudding is tough (and they noticed they didn’t get as much as the other passengers), the salad was OK, and the duck was over cooked. Bobby Flay says he’ll talk to Kevin about his culinary point of view to get him to change it.

They judging starts, and it goes does pretty much as the critiques went as they were eating.

In front of the judges, we see the “walkout” from last week’s preview. Bobby asks Nipa, “Are you enthusiastic about this?” She responds, “I don’t know.” They question her a bit more, complimenting her, and wondering why she isn’t more enthusiastic when they’re enthusiastic about her. Finally Nipa says, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore” and walks out, much to the surprise of the judges and the other contestants.

The judges and the contestants talk a bit about this walkoff. Nipa returns and explains why she wants to get on the network. The judges rhetorically ask whether she’s ready or not.

Lisa and Aaron win the big “USA Weekend” story. The judges narrow down the selection between Nipa and Kevin, and inexplicably pick Nipa. They do put her on notice though, explaining if a Food Network “star” walked off a show like that, they’d probably be fired. Nipa apologizes to the group, and Kevin makes his exit.

Overall, I think Lisa made a good transition from the first week. It was an interesting challenge. Looks like Lisa and Aaron are the odds on favorites to win… at least for now.

Prison for Man Who Robbed Sawyer


Josh Holloway who plays Sawyer on Lost might be able to rest a bit easier today. The man who robbed Holloway and his wife at gunpoint was sentenced to 13 to 30 years in prison on Tuesday. Prosecutors say that Ruben Royce (23) broken into Holloway’s home, threatened them with a gun, took their wallets and drove off in their Mercedes.