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kerrie,
It's you. There's nothing uninteresting about watching competent, classy professionals doing their best. You want "compelling" characters? Go watch Big Brother.

I study Medieval and Renaissance cuisines as a hobby and must agree with Syd, with a few additional thoughts. We have been working to dispel the myth about heaving spicing masking rotten meat for some years now. I have studied cuisines from most European countries as well as the Middle East, China and Japan and can tell you that this is definitely a myth. As Syd pointed out, the only people who used spices other than herbs that could be grown in the garden were wealthy households. Spices were imported at great expense from the Indies, mostly. Even pepper was rare. On the other hand, acquiring fresh meat was relatively easy. There are many recipes for beef, pork, veal, lamb, mutton, game of all sorts, fish of all sorts, etc. The meat might be aged, but we do that today and don't think we're eating rotten meat.

Even in wealthy households, spices were kept under lock and key and often there was an officer who was responsible for the dispensing of spices for the day's cooking. Often food would be heavily spiced as that was a way that a host could show his guests just how wealthy he was!

Another reason why some of the recipes appear to use enormous quantities of spice is because the spices at that time were substantially less potent than they are today. Shipping from the East took months or years...and by the time a spice reached its destination, much of the strength of the spice would have faded. Consider how much strength a spice loses in your own cupboard if it is more than a year old.

I doubt you'll do it, but those of us who study Medieval and Renaissance cookery would really appreciate it if you would correct the misinformation you have passed on. I enjoy watching Top Chef and have learned a great deal not only from watching the contestants meet the challenges, but from your and the other judges' commentary. That's why it is so important that you make this correction...I am far from the only person who has and is learning from you!

Thanks!

I'm a medievalist by trade but admittedly, not a food expert. However, I am in possession of a medieval cookbook made by scholars, not cooks.

I would say that "medieval food is heavily spiced" is pretty inaccurate. Maybe banquet food? I am certain that peasant food is bread, polenta, ale, cabbage, etc. One tactic would have been to do very simple grains and vegetables.

As for meats, game meats are popular, particularly aged ones (this is where the term "well hung" comes from). If I had been doing a "medieval" dish, rabbit, pheasant, and venison come to mind as appropriate. The use of game meat would most likely code for nobility due to the practice of forbidding vassals to hunt on the lord's land (which was pretty much all land in some areas).

In a collective eating setting, a banquet, your "table" might be a slab of hard bread. So I could see a bruschetta-type construction actually looking like medieval dinner. Stews and gravies did much to break down trenchers (your edible tables).

A banquet trick immortalized in a children's rhyme involved the placement of live birds in a pie crust (yes, it happened). Another popular technique would have been cooking a fowl, saving the feathers, and then reattaching them to the roasted bird to give the impression that the food is "alive." Food, for official occasions anyway, in the Middle Ages is more about spectacle--the display of wealth and artistic prowess--than taste.

My favorite medieval story about food comes from the Decameron. A Genoese lady is keen to deflect the attentions of a rather unpleasant suitor, who despite the fact that she is married, just won't stop bothering her. She invites him to dinner and serves a full banquet of dishes, but each one is made of chicken and only chicken. He comments that it would have been nicer to have some variety. Her reply? "No matter what they look like, all chicks taste the same." Now, that's probably misogynist, but also hilarious. And very much to the point.

So if I'm ever tasked with cooking medieval food? Maybe I'll do an all-chicken banquet. At the very least, I'd make sure I didn't cook anything with New World foods like tomato, chocolate, or potato, or Asian foods like pasta or rice.

Or failing creativity, I'll just take something and douse it in black pepper, which for many was the only available spice (and so expensive, that in parts of Europe you could pay your taxes with it instead of coin).

To be quite fair, nothing at Excalibur looked particularly medieval to me, except maybe the ale. And that chicken.

I'm a medievalist by trade but admittedly, not a food expert. However, I am in possession of a medieval cookbook made by scholars, not cooks.

I would say that "medieval food is heavily spiced" is pretty inaccurate. Maybe banquet food? I am certain that peasant food is bread, polenta, ale, cabbage, etc. One tactic would have been to do very simple grains and vegetables.

As for meats, game meats are popular, particularly aged ones (this is where the term "well hung" comes from). If I had been doing a "medieval" dish, rabbit, pheasant, and venison come to mind as appropriate. The use of game meat would most likely code for nobility due to the practice of forbidding vassals to hunt on the lord's land (which was pretty much all land in some areas).

In a collective eating setting, a banquet, your "table" might be a slab of hard bread. So I could see a bruschetta-type construction actually looking like medieval dinner. Stews and gravies did much to break down trenchers (your edible tables).

A banquet trick immortalized in a children's rhyme involved the placement of live birds in a pie crust (yes, it happened). Another popular technique would have been cooking a fowl, saving the feathers, and then reattaching them to the roasted bird to give the impression that the food is "alive." Food, for official occasions anyway, in the Middle Ages is more about spectacle--the display of wealth and artistic prowess--than taste.

My favorite medieval story about food comes from the Decameron. A Genoese lady is keen to deflect the attentions of a rather unpleasant suitor, who despite the fact that she is married, just won't stop bothering her. She invites him to dinner and serves a full banquet of dishes, but each one is made of chicken and only chicken. He comments that it would have been nicer to have some variety. Her reply? "No matter what they look like, all chicks taste the same." Now, that's probably misogynist, but also hilarious. And very much to the point.

So if I'm ever tasked with cooking medieval food? Maybe I'll do an all-chicken banquet. At the very least, I'd make sure I didn't cook anything with New World foods like tomato, chocolate, or potato, or Asian foods like pasta or rice.

Or failing creativity, I'll just take something and douse it in black pepper, which for many was the only available spice (and so expensive, that in parts of Europe you could pay your taxes with it instead of coin).

To be quite fair, nothing at Excalibur looked particularly medieval to me, except maybe the ale. And that chicken.

Hey,
Is it just me or is this season missing something? I find it to be lackluster and uninteresting. I'm not suggesting that anyone needs to shave their head or threaten to shave anyone else's but I find almost all of the chefs to be devoid of any real personality. It's all so serious. No one is even compelling enough to dislike. I "sort of" root of for all of them in the hopes that someone will do something or say something that will amuse or entertain me. No luck, so far. Any thoughts?

There is a difference between a vegetarian and a vegan. A large portobello cleaned of the gills, stuffed with a melee' of veggies would have provided all the needs of a vegetarian. Protein and a non-meat meal. In fact it would have even met the needs of a vegan. Vegetarians will eat eggs, milk, cheese and other by-products of an animal without sacrificing the life of the animal. Vegans are more extreme. The guest judge did say she was a vegetarian, not a vegan. So it left open a whole slew of foods available to use. All it required was a bit of imagination and the skills to provide a tasteful and pleasant dish.

I think the way we all learned our food science in health class, dairy, legumes, etc. are thought of as vegetarian proteins. Thank you to the person that explained that there is a lot of protein in leeks and spinach. I still say that the dishes that week were pretty sad looking. No stir fry, no rice, no noodles, few potatoes, very little color. With that produce delivery, there had to be some colorful peppers, fresh brussel sprouts, fresh spinach, apples, pears, nuts, etc. All of these contribute to beautiful hearty main dishes. As glad as I am Mike I. left, I'm eaqually ready for Mike V. Why does he have to be such a "Richard". He complains about others swearing at him, he turns around and does the same. he tries to take over someone elses work station and then tells them to RELAX! Even if he won this competition, I would never eat in his restaurant.

Tom,

Thank you for acknowledging that crafting a vegetarian meal isn't about serving a substitute for meat or tossing together some unimaginatively prepared veggies. A chef should approach a vegetarian meal the same way she or he approaches an omnivorous meal: you take the highest quality ingredients you can get your hands on and you elevate them. And as Mike V. learned the hard way, elevation is not about complication. Sometimes a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil is the best way to honor your produce.

"A leek is not a scallop — it's not even a protein — and there's no reason to make it look like one."

The recent referencing of meat as "the protein" on cookery related programs brings rise to such inaccuracies as Tom's quote. Beef has about 16 grams protein in 134 calories; leeks have around 3.4 grams in 138 calories. So on a caloric basis, leeks have in the neighbourhood of 21.25% the protein of beef. Not too shabby.

Spinach is even more of a protein king than leeks. For 130 calories of spinach you get the same 16 grams of protein that you get in dead cow.

So, let us ban the association of protein as a synonym for meat.

Tom is right, though, a leek is not a scallop although it does have just over a quarter of the protein as a scallop.

And Kevin McCaffrey took aim at those who consider hunting to be a sport. “It’s not a sport if both teams don’t know they’re playing.”

LOVE the show!