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Los Angeles Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Love these 8 Emmy nominees? Here are the TV classics to watch next
When William Shakespeare wrote 'What's past is prologue,' he wasn't thinking about television. But the Bard's wisdom certainly applies to the latest batch of Emmy-nominated series. Here are the spiritual predecessors to eight of this season's most-lauded shows. (All of the older titles are available on DVD and/or streaming.) Gritty, graphic, authentic and told in real time, 'The Pitt' has impressively elevated the big-city hospital drama. The popular genre has seen dozens of shows from 'Dr. Kildare' and 'Ben Casey' in the 1960s to 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Chicago Med' in the 2000s. But let's not forget another groundbreaking ancestor of 'The Pitt': 'St. Elsewhere,' which ran from 1982 to 1988. Smart, philosophical, at times darkly comic, the series took place at a run-down Boston hospital where, like 'The Pitt,' a talented, if beleaguered, staff faced life-and-death choices for often underserved patients. If Denzel Washington was that show's breakout star, which performer on 'The Pitt' might follow suit? Fifty-two years before Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) fell for gentile podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) in 'Nobody Wants This,' the CBS sitcom 'Bridget Loves Bernie' found Jewish cab driver Bernie Steinberg (David Birney) meeting and marrying Irish Catholic schoolteacher Bridget Fitzgerald (Meredith Baxter). Conflict and chaos ensued — and not just on the series. It was canceled after one highly rated season following vociferous protests from religious groups over the show's then far more controversial theme of interfaith marriage. Life imitating art, the show's stars wed in 1974. The movie biz has long been ripe for parody, and 'The Studio,' which follows the misadventures of hapless studio chief Matt Remick (Seth Rogen), takes its satire to frantic new heights. 1999 saw a more venomous forerunner in the short-lived Fox comedy 'Action,' in which crass, ruthless and failing action-film producer Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr) took a chainsaw to Tinseltown in desperate pursuit of his next hit. Like 'The Studio,' it featured a vivid ensemble of quirky industry types and frequent celebrity cameos. Yet if 'The Studio' portrays Hollywood as competitive and chaotic, 'Action' painted it as downright cutthroat. Running a high-end restaurant is no joke. But unlike 'The Bear,' which eschews traditional TV comedy, the 1990s BBC sitcom 'Chef!' (What, no 'Yes, Chef!'?) leaned into the laughs, without sparing viewers the angst of its current counterpart. British comedian Lenny Henry starred in the show's three seasons as Gareth Blackstock, the haughty chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant in the English countryside. Like Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) in 'The Bear,' Gareth is a perfectionist, but he's more dictatorial with his put-upon staff. The final season of 'Chef!' added a laugh track. Imagine 'The Bear' with one? Public school has proved fertile territory for workplace comedy, and creator-star Quinta Brunson's mockumentary-style 'Abbott Elementary' deftly revived the genre. But in the mid-1970s, 'Welcome Back, Kotter' hit the zeitgeist with its sarcastic Brooklyn high school teacher (Gabe Kaplan) and his diverse (for its time) band of remedial students called the Sweathogs. It also spawned its share of catchphrases ('Up your nose with a rubber hose!') and made John Travolta a household name. Though broader and less issue-oriented than 'Abbott,' and more focused on the students than the teachers, 'Kotter' remains a worthy precursor to the current show. 'Only Murders in the Building' continues the TV tradition of average folks becoming amateur sleuths, set around a primary locale — in this case, a Gothic Manhattan apartment complex. From 1984 to 1996, 'Murder, She Wrote' saw another accidental detective, mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), solving crimes largely in her home location: seaside Cabot Cove, Maine. Though 'Murder, She Wrote' was more homespun and gently dramatic than its stylish and farcical descendant, and wrapped up its cases by the end of each episode, both shows feature an ongoing gallery of famed guest actors performing with theatrical flair. Before psychotherapy was de rigueur, the 1970s hit 'The Bob Newhart Show' was the first comedy series whose lead character was a shrink. And if the deadpan Bob Hartley (Newhart) was less personally beset and more professionally detached from his patients than his 'Shrinking' counterpart — grieving hot mess Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) — he was a memorable template for small-screen therapists to come. One a bouncy multicam sitcom, the other a soulful single-camera dramedy, both shows rely on quirky, amusing ensembles, though the folks in 'Shrinking' are decidedly deeper and more layered. Welcome to the 2020s. The tense and propulsive 'Slow Horses' unfolds within Britain's domestic intelligence agency known as MI5, specifically a unit for disgraced operatives run by the gloomy, scathing and brilliant Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). Sound familiar? For 10 seasons, from 2002 to 2011, the BBC series 'MI-5' (a.k.a. 'Spooks') covered similar ground as its band of counterterrorism agents battled Russian aggression, nuclear threats, kidnappings and more. But unlike the notoriously dumpy Slough House setting of 'Slow Horses,' much of 'MI-5' took place — though was not shot — inside the agency's grand Thames House headquarters in London.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did Squid Game Stock Diapers? Which Character Was Done Dirtiest? And More Lingering Final-Season Qs!
The following contains full spoilers for the third/final season of , now streaming on Netflix. (.) More from TVLine Leanne Morgan Netflix Sitcom From EP Chuck Lorre Will Drop All 16 Episodes This Month - Watch Trailer The Yes, Chef! Season 1 Winner Is... The Bear: Carmy, Sydney and Richie Bare Their Souls in an Intense Season Finale - But Is It a Series Finale? When it comes to Netflix's original Squid Game, it's all over but the (baby) crying. The Netflix megahit's third and final, six-episode season dropped on June 27, and with it came the bittersweet conclusion to Gi-hun aka Player 456's (Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae) mostly death-defying odyssey. Season 3 subjected the players who'd survived Season 2 to games of Hide & Seek and Jump Rope; featured the Korean thriller's first newborn competitor; saw both detective Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) and undercover guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young) succeed in their missions; and closed things out with an Academy Award winner's rousing cameo. Days after my binge, though, more than a dozen questions remain, as detailed below. Review my at-times tongue-in-cheek ruminating, and weigh in with your own burning Qs…. That hilt looks like the kind you see on a toy sword you get at an amusement park! Was it any surprise that one broke upon being lightly dropped? It was pretty cool when Gi-hun/Player 456 nearly chased cowardly Dae-ho/Player 388 into a center chasm hidden behind a door. But… that was the extent of the 'traps.' Seems like you coulda had a hungry alligator inside one of the anterooms, or something. What, did he only pack 12 hits inside the cross that he, Nam-gyu/Player 125 and Min-su/Player 124 all partook of? Or, were there two layers? Because that stash seemed to last forever. This one really bothered me, how Dae-ho/Player 388 re-appeared across the atrium, on a lower level, some seven seconds after Gi-hun spared his life. (It'd be one thing if the players were intimately familiar with the maze-like layout and stairwells, but…) It was absolutely devastating when Hyun-ju/Player 120 was accidentally-ish stabbed to death by a kill-y Myung-gi. But say what you will about the witchy shaman aka Seon-nyeo/Player 044, her getting offed by a PTSD-ing Min-su/Player 125 was pretty random, too. Or, in recruiting Ji-hun/Player 222 — assuming they knew she was (quite) pregnant — did they proactively prep a sleek, Squid Game-y bottle with warmer, plus a bassinet? Were there also diapers and/or a 'tracksuit' onesie we didn't see? After Jump Rope, the survivors returned to a dorm that had been stripped of its stacked beds/staircases, and winnowed down to just seven beds. That room got broken down, its contents moved to where, in just a little over 20 minutes…? Privately meeting after Jump Rope and the formal dinner, the Front Man offered Gi-hun a knife with which to kill the other players in their sleep, explaining that the final game could not be played with just two people (Gi-hun and the baby). Should that detail have been shared with everyone entering the Jump Rope round, or would it have made the game play strategy especially ruthless? Sure, it's inherently hard to get to, but Jun-ho was able to just sidle up to the interior dock and walk through an unlocked door to access the ladder going upstairs? When the Sky Squid Game playfield was first revealed to Gi-hun et al, did you suspect players would have to make a running leap to each of the next platforms? Of all the places on the final, circular platform that Gi-hun and Myung-gi could have toppled off, how great was it that an exposed piece of rebar was there for Gi-hun to grab onto? And that he spotted it/acted quickly enough to indeed grab onto it? Gi-hun sure was counting on the little lady not squirming out of her swaddling and wriggling a few inches away! If a language barrier and/or a desire for social satire/commentary was to blame for Squid Game Seasons 1 and 3 giving us the infamously cartoonish, painfully boorish VIPs, might those who back a Stateside edition be one half of a smidgen more nuanced? And will they be mostly foreign, if the Korean series largely cast its VIPs with Americans? And can we assume that In-ho supplied her with a clearly marked PIN code for the debit card, assuming she wouldn't think to enter 0456? And, um, where does one sign up to get slapped by Cate…? Those are lingering questions about Season 3. What are ? var pd_tags = new Array;pd_tags['15672168-src']='poll-oembed-simple'; var pd_tags = new Array;pd_tags['15672164-src']='poll-oembed-simple'; Best of TVLine TV's 30+ Best Cliffhangers of All Time From Buffy, Friends, Grey's Anatomy, Twin Peaks, Severance, Soap and More 20+ Age-Defying Parent-Child Castings From Blue Bloods, ER, Ginny & Georgia, Golden Girls, Supernatural and More Young Sheldon Easter Eggs: Every Nod to The Big Bang Theory (and Every Future Reveal) Across 7 Seasons
New York Post
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Real chefs weigh in on what 'The Bear' gets right and wrong
Yes, chef! Emmy-winning hit 'The Bear' returned for Season 4 on June 25 at 8 p.m. — and it puts chefs back in the spotlight. The awards darling Hulu drama follows Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) as he takes over his late brother's (Jon Bernthal) Chicago restaurant and wrangles his kitchen staff, including Syd (Ayo Edebiri), his volatile cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), line cook Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce), and handyman Neil Fak (Matty Matheson). Now, several real chefs are weighing in, telling The Post what the hit show gets right — and wrong — about their profession. 17 Jeremy Allen White in 'The Bear.' HULU Emily Brubaker, 44, the Resort Executive Chef at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, CA, shared that when she used to work in a 3-star Michelin restaurant, she saw her own experience in 'The Bear's' flashback scenes with Carmy and his cruel old boss (played by Joel McHale). 'When Joel McHale is leaning over [Carmy], and people [in the kitchen] are saying times, like, '24, 13,' and he leans in and says like, 'you're trash, and you're never gonna be any better than this' and things like that – my husband and I actually stopped watching ['The Bear'] for a little while, because it was like PTSD,' she recalled. She added that the show's flashback to Carmy's fine dining work experience was 'crazy because it's just so realistic.' 17 Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri in 'The Bear.' FX Networks 17 Jeremy Allen White as Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto, Lionel Boyce as Marcus, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard 'Richie' Jerimovich in 'The Bear.' Brubaker, who is also a contestant on NBC's cooking competition series 'Yes, Chef!,' (which has its season finale Monday at 10 p.m.) added that in Season 3 of 'The Bear,' when characters such as Andrea Terry (Olivia Colman) appeared on the show, that also rang true. 'Last season with all of those amazing chefs popped in almost like mentorship…is a lot of what the industry is like,' she explained. 'You have these people you look up to who are like the unicorns of the business, and having them come in and give you advice or even critique what you're doing is all taken heart. But, it sometimes can be really hard to hear,' Brubaker added. 17 Emily Brubaker in a photo from her Instagram in April 2025. chefbrubs/Instagram 17 Emily Brubaker in a photo from her Instagram in June of 2025. chefbrubs/Instagram Thomas Vignati, 29, a private chef based in New York City, told The Post that the practice of everyone on the show calling each other 'chef' is legit. 'I keep in contact with my old bosses, and I call them Chef – not even their names,' he said. Before pivoting to private work, Vignati worked at restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern and Lilia. 17 Chef Thomas Vignati at the Union Square Farmers market on June 25, 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post 17 Emily Brubaker on NBC's cooking competition series 'Yes, Chef!' Pief Weyman/NBC 17 Chef Thomas Vignati at the Union Square Farmers market on June 25, 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post He added that he thinks the show focuses too much 'on the obsessive nature of working in a restaurant kitchen. They make a point to show that it's sometimes to the detriment of your personal life. I think that's accurate in the sense that it requires a lot of sacrifice.' However, he believes 'The Bear' exaggerates it. 'There's the trope of the suffering artist that gets pulled in. People who work in restaurants are normal people who have lives and can find work/ life balance,' Vignati insisted, adding he feels 'The Bear' sometimes leans 'too heavily on the suffering artist trope.' 17 Ronny Miranda in a June 2024 Instagram photo. ron_the_cook/Instagram 17 Chef Thomas Vignati at the Union Square Farmers market on June 25, 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post He said scenes in the show that have irked him are moments where 'they sprinkle things in to make them seem like an authority on kitchens.' Vignati recalled a scene in the first season when Syd unnecessarily name-drops 'a cartouche,' saying it 'made me roll my eyes' since it didn't ring as realistic for what a chef would say and seemed to be there just 'to show that Sydney knows what she's talking about.' But, he said, 'On the other hand, it's cool because it does give [regular people] a lexicon of food terms. For instance, Vignati recalled that even when he's working privately, he notices that some clients 'definitely watch the show.' When one client was walking behind him in the kitchen, he shared that they called out 'behind,' which is 'a real thing that happens in [professional] kitchens.' 17 Ronny Miranda on the NBC competition series 'Yes, Chef!' Pief Weyman/NBC 17 Ronny Miranda in a May 2025 Instagram photo. ron_the_cook/Instagram He noted that he finds it 'funny' that people add that language to their home kitchens after watching 'The Bear,' but said, 'That's an interesting dynamic' and noted that the show 'is fun to use as a tool to explain what life is like.' Ronny Miranda, 42, who is the Conference Lead Chef at the Culinary Institute of America's Napa campus, told The Post that he enjoys 'The Bear' but also thinks that it 'glorifies' the 'toxic chef' stereotype. 'It fixates too much on the harsh realities of our industry – like Carmy perpetually dangling on the edge of sanity.' 17 Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White in 'The Bear.' FX Networks 17 Ronny Miranda on 'Yes, Chef!' Brendan Meadows/NBC 17 Chef Thomas Vignati at the Union Square Farmers market on June 25, 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post He explained, 'And that's tragically true and accurate for a lot of chefs in the industry. But they're not showing the passion that he has. When they do show passion, it comes out in these weird, angry ways instead of showing the joy of cooking.' Miranda, who was also on the NBC competition series 'Yes Chef!,' revealed that the show 'gets a lot of stuff right: it's hard to be a chef. A lot of times, it's a lonely task.' 17 Emily Brubaker on 'Yes, Chef!' Pief Weyman/NBC 17 Chef Thomas Vignati at the Union Square Farmers market on June 25, 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post He noted that most restaurant kitchens are 'absolutely more supportive than it shows on 'The Bear.' They're showing the harshness of the industry and the negative aspects of being a chef when they could be showing Carmy growing.' Brubaker explained that when she first told her parents she wanted to be a chef, they thought that was 'insane' because it meant that she would have to work holidays and 'the craziest hours.' 'The Bear' and other chef-related movies and TV shows 'have really shown that we do it because we love it. It's because we're artists,' she explained. 'You're never going to tell a painter that they paint too much or that they disappear from the world because they're working on a project.' Brubaker said that she thinks 'The Bear' has opened people's eyes 'to how dedicated we are to our craft, and the passion and the talent that goes with it.'
Eater
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
José Andrés Dishes on His New Memoir, TV Show, and Top Travel Tip
The day after a whirlwind press tour in NYC this spring — which included sit-down segments on the Kelly Clarkson Show and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — global humanitarian and celebrity chef José Andrés trained down to his D.C. home base, swinging by his downtown Spanish stunner the Bazaar to unveil his most personal book yet. The late-April release of Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs coincided with the premiere of Yes, Chef! , NBC's new cooking competition show in which Andrés teams up with Martha Stewart to train a roster of 12 hot-headed chefs. The Emmy-winning, made-for-TV culinary combo met years ago over a meal at Jaleo, Andrés's first-ever restaurant in Penn Quarter. In one previously aired episode of Yes, Chef! , contestants vying for a $250,000 prize took on the gastronomic challenge of spherification — specifically, whipping up a believable-looking olive that reveals a burst of silky, liquid flavor in one bite. The delicate technique was born at Spain's legendary el Bulli, the three-Michelin-starred institution where Andrés himself worked as a young chef. Now diners can sample the molecular tapa that started it all, with a 10-day special running through Saturday, May 24, at the Bazaars in D.C., Vegas, and NYC. Two years after closing inside the SLS hotel, the avant-garde restaurant is gearing up to stage a big South Beach comeback at the Andaz Miami Beach. With 40 restaurants under his José Andrés Group umbrella, the founder of disaster relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen has no plans to balloon the Bazaar brand. 'For me, we can't have a Bazaar in every city in America. I want to have a passion for the city and I'm super proud of this one here in D.C.,' says Andrés, speaking to an intimate crowd during his April 29 book launch party. The two-year-old location, situated off the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in the historic Old Post Office building, famously has a full-circle backstory tied to Trump. Change the Recipe' s author Richard Wolffe goes way back with Andrés, having penned his first book full of Spanish recipes. 'He made me do it — he said, 'a chef has to have a book,'' says Andrés. 'And here we are a few years later with a few.' (Eleven and counting.) The cute new canary-colored hardcover, just 5x8 in size and under 200 pages long, is a departure from his norm. It's a collection of short stories that cover a swath of topics, including his childhood to nurse parents in Barcelona, why he used to hate (and grew to love) green peppers, food being a universal comfort in conflict zones, and teachable lessons learned in the hectic restaurant world. 'In a night when printers stop working, the bathroom breaks down, and every [customer] has a request, we make it through and 'change the recipe,'' says Andrés. 'The beauty of our profession is you adapt.' He says his daughters were ultimately the motivating factor behind the memoir. 'I think we all have to do this — write down memories. Especially if you're no longer here,' he says. But he's not going anywhere soon. 'I've been doing this for 32 years — and I look forward to the next 32,' he says. 'So we'll all be together for my 87th birthday. Probably I'll even be making the food.' We snagged a quick chat with Andrés on the side, in which he reveals a bonafide biography is on the future horizon. Eater: What's Martha got that you don't? José Andrés: She's very practical — she doesn't hesitate and she knows what she wants. She has so much energy. [While filming, she'd ask me,] ''Where are we going to dinner tonight, José?' What? I have to go to bed.' Why is it more important than ever to mentor chefs these days? As you grow older, you learn and then try to pass that on to others. The restaurant business is still one of the most brutal and difficult businesses at every level, [between] the success rate and the hours that anyone has. But still at same time, it's one of the most fascinating professions anybody can be a part of. Tell me more about what this new book means to you. The short stories are very simple, yet sharing a moment that's important in my life — maybe a lesson I gained from it, and maybe someone's searching for the same answer to the question. I want to write something bigger later in my life. And I will, eventually. Longer stories and thoughts. Congrats on taking D.C.'s decades-old Oyamel to NYC this spring. That was a good move. I bring another concept to Hudson Yards and get to expand another brand. I heard you got off the Amtrak from NY about an hour ago. You travel so much — what would you say is your top packing tip? [Whips off navy suit jacket and waves it around like a napkin]: Buy clothing that doesn't wrinkle! This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 'Yes, Chef!' airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. on NBC; Andrés also stars in Netflix's newly released spinoff series, Chef's Table: Legends . Sign up for our newsletter.
Los Angeles Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘Top Chef' begets Martha Stewart and José Andrés' new ‘Yes, Chef!' Will their kitchen therapy work?
Chefs who behave badly get their own show. Also, pink Champagne cake at Madonna Inn plus more road food favorites. And can fish be too fresh? I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. 'For far too long,' Martha Stewart says into the camera during the opening moments of NBC's new 'Yes, Chef!' cooking competition show, 'the pressure of the kitchen has been an excuse for out-of-control behavior.' 'That kind of behavior doesn't make a great chef,' adds her co-host, chef José Andrés. 'It holds them back.' Stewart and Andrés are correct. And yet, that kind of behavior — yelling at fellow chefs, throwing pans in frustration, undermining colleagues and sometimes inflicting more harmful abuse — has been the roiling soup that has fed reality TV cooking competitions for more than 25 years. It's also been the kind of behavior that restaurant workers have tried, with varying degrees of success, to root out as cheffing became an aspirational profession instead of disrespected grunt work. You can read about the pain as well as the allure of working in and around restaurant kitchens in several recent memoirs, including Laurie Woolever's 'Care and Feeding,' which restaurant critic Bill Addison praised in this newsletter last month, Hannah Selinger's 'Cellar Rat: My Life in the Restaurant Underbelly' and books by two chefs and reality TV cooking show insiders, Tom Colicchio's 'Why I Cook' and Kristen Kish's 'Accidentally on Purpose,' which I wrote about last week. If you've watched even a few minutes of a reality TV cooking competition — from 'Hell's Kitchen's' Gordon Ramsay angrily dumping out a contestant's overcooked steak to even the sweet contestants on 'The Great British Baking Show' expressing frustration — chances are good that you've seen how the kitchen pressure Stewart talks about often does lead to bad behavior. So can a reality TV cooking competition really help chefs become better people — and better bosses? Possibly. But three episodes into the inaugural season of 'Yes, Chef!' — a show cast with '12 professional chefs, each with one thing standing in their way: themselves,' Stewart says — it looks as though the cards are stacked against redemption. 'In our kitchen,' Stewart tells viewers about the chefs, 'it takes a lot more than good food to win. They'll need to figure out how to work together.' Andrés and Stewart have a lot of life experience and advice to offer, with Stewart admitting, 'I have been known to be a perfectionist. And that kind of holds you back sometimes.' But when it comes down to which team wins and which team loses, it turns out that good food does matter more than bad behavior. (Note that there are spoilers ahead if you haven't watched the show yet.) After TV competition show veteran and designated villain Katsuji Tanabe ('Top Chef,' 'Chopped') takes all the eggs in the kitchen so that the opposing team has none to work with, he and his teammates are rewarded with a win. The reasoning: The losing chefs struggled to, in the language of the show, 'pivot.' Even worse for the development of the chefs, the decision of who stays and who goes at the end of each episode is not made by Andrés or Stewart. Instead, a one-on-one cook-off is set up between the contestant deemed to be the Most Valuable Chef (MVC) and another contestant that the MVC strategically chooses to go up against. If the MVC wins, the challenger chef goes home. But if the challenger chef beats the MVC, the challenger becomes the decider. So far, this has led to one of the better chefs, Torrece 'Chef T' Gregoire, being booted largely to reduce the competition, followed by the executioner of that decision, Michelle Francis, getting axed in the next episode, possibly comeuppance for sending home a popular player the week before and partly because of her dish — even though she was handicapped by the egg theft. The sharp edges and head games almost feel retro, closer to the template set 25 years ago this month when 'Survivor' first aired and popularized the whole 'I'm not here to make friends' trope that was common in sports and then became emblematic of reality TV posturing. We'll see as the season progresses whether the chefs can turn around the bad attitudes and insecurities that led to them being cast on the show. I certainly hope Andrés and Stewart are given more time to guide the chefs toward their better selves in future episodes. But if you want to watch a show where the chefs are modeling kitchen behavior we'd like to see more of in our star chefs, may I suggest the current season of Bravo's 'Top Chef.' Both 'Yes, Chef!' and 'Top Chef' are made by the production company Magical Elves, but 'Top Chef,' now in its 22nd season, is showcasing a group of chefs who actually seem to care about each other. Yes, there are big personalities on the show, notably Massimo Piedimonte, who often generates eye rolls by the other chefs when his bravado goes overboard. But he is seen in quieter moments trying to tame his impulses and become a better person. And there is genuine emotion displayed when chef Tristen Epps gets word right before a big challenge that his father-in-law has died and his mother encourages him to continue competing. The entire show, from the production staffer who takes him off the set to his fellow competitors seem to support him. There is even camaraderie among the losing contestants who try to work their way back into the competition through the spin-off 'Last Chance Kitchen,' judged solo by Colicchio showing his mentoring skills. When Chicago's North Pond chef César Murillo is pitted against three-time 'Last Chance' winner Katianna Hong, co-owner of the recently closed Arts District restaurant Yangban, there is support and respect shown for both talented competitors by the eliminated chefs watching the proceedings, including chef Kat Turner of L.A.'s Highly Likely. 'Top Chef' used to have a lot more hotheads. 'I'm not your bitch, bitch,' was a catchphrase in the show's early years when one chef pushed another too far. But the new season, which has just a few more episodes to go, is proving that you can cool down the temperature in the kitchen and still entertain. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the motel — the first use of the word is credited to the 1925 opening of the Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo — Food's writers and editors joined our colleagues in Features to put together Motel California, a story series that includes a guide to the state's '34 coolest, kitschiest, most fascinating motels' and our team's picks for the best roadside diners and restaurants. Also in the package: Christopher Reynolds' account of his 2,500-mile search for California's greatest motels, a roadside attractions guide and Marah Eakin's profile of Barkev Msrlyan, creator of the Merch Motel brand of retro souvenirs. Food's Stephanie Breijo spent time at the very pink San Luis Obispo landmark, the Madonna Inn, and says that the 'maze-like, kaleidoscopic lair of chroma and whimsy is home to some of the most iconic food on the Central Coast.' She came away with insider knowledge of the red oak grills at Alex Madonna's Gold Rush Steak House and of the Inn's famed pink Champagne cakes — made in the hundreds each week. But the pink cake recipe remains a secret. Breijo did, however, get the recipe for the Inn's Pink Cloud cocktail — topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Plus: Julie Wolfson guides us to some great coffee shops along the Santa Barbara coast. This week, the paper introduced a new feature, L.A. Timeless, which highlights stories from our archives. The first two stories this week come from former L.A. Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, who wrote about learning to shop for fish at L.A. supermarkets with Jon Rowley, the man Julia Child once called 'the fish missionary.' I got to go along on that reporting trip all those years ago and I'll never forget the lessons Rowley taught us. Her companion story on Rowley went into one of his obsessions: '[T]hat fish can be too fresh ... a fish coming out of rigor mortis five or six days after harvest (in ice, of course) can be far better eating than a fish less than one day out of the water.' Tickets are on sale for our second-annual Great Australian Bite. Last year, we were on the Malibu Pier. This year, chef Curtis Stone is hosting the event with Tourism Australia on his Four Stones Farm. He's partnering with chef Clare Falzon of the restaurant Staġuni in South Australia's Barossa. Read more about the event and how to get tickets here.
