“Film Food” quotes from Top Chef

Padma

[before introducing Daniel Boulud] If you guys don't know who he is, you should just leave the kitchen now.

Of course, I have two young chef here who has previously work in my restaurant before, Richard and Ryan. And that will not affect the work of anyone else, be reassured for that.

I wanted to do a cucumber where you run your knife across it and you rotate the cucumber so that you have like a thin.. almost like a wrapper. And then I look over and Dale is doing the exact same thing, and just whizzing through them like soft butter. So I decide, maybe not.

Is anybody else's hand shaking?

Padma

Your challenge is to create a dinner where each course is inspired by your favorite movie.

I love movies, I'm a total movie buff. This is an opportunity to be really creative.

I start thinking, I have seen 2 movies in 3 years, so.. great.

[talking head] I draw knives, and I get Mark. This guy's fucking.. New Zealand, New England.. where the hell is Mark from? We're not going to have anything in common!

Why don't we just put down a bunch of movies?

Yep, so what are your movies? I love Dumb and Dumber. I think it's funny as shit.

To Kill A Mockingbird.

Right, old school..

Crazy Bad..

Crazy Bad? What's that?

[talking head] "Like, what movies do you watch?" And he starts naming this stuff, and all I hear is "blaaaah blaaaah blahhhh."

[talking head] He has not seen Once Were Warriors or Mad Max or Bad Boy Bubby.

What about the Christmas movie?

Which one?

Oh, oh, oh.. What's the one with the kid that gets shot with a B.B. in his eye and they go get Asian food instead? You know what I'm talking about? He takes the glass light for his mom's Christmas, and he puts it in the window..

I don't know.

And they go and have Chinese food and have duck instead of normal turkey because the turkey got fucked up? It's a normal Christmas movie.

Do you know what it is? I don't know.

It's a Christmas fucking movie..

Yeah, what's it called?

And they sit down at the table.. [goes to Spike and Manuel] What's that Christmas movie, you guys? "You got your eye shot out.."

A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story. Got it. Duck.

[talking head] A Christmas Story is something that, you know, all the families, everybody's seen it. It's, um.. it's.. I believe it's a comedy.

I have no doubt in my mind that the people that will be eating this food will culinarily crap in their pants when they see what we have for them.

First-of-the-season cranberries. Awesome! You know, that's Christmastime right there, isn't it?

Kind of a play on the Fizzy Lifting Drink: a pear and a celery soda. We have been working on trying to get the guests to float. And if you do float, I believe burping is the way to get down from the ceiling.