chef academy, episode 1

or, emmanuel delcour is awesome.

as previously mentioned, i am unable to resist a food/cooking-based reality show. add in this guy, and i'm positively licking glued to the tv.

bravo's chef academy is a kind of jumble of cooking show, talent contest, and docudrama featuring famed chef jean cristophe novelli. the chef and his about-to-give birth girlfriend arrive in the US from the UK to set up a branch of his esteemed school of cookery.

up first? visiting the location, picking the contestants, the requisite melodrama, and a glimpse of the students' er, chops. i won't go into too much detail, for those of you who haven't watched. it's quite enjoyable. the fact that it's on monday nights at 11:00P is a bit odd; why no tie-in with top chef? anyway, watch it and report back. there may be a quiz.

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ok, i lied. spoilers after this point (if only so i may get on my soapbox for a bit. this has nothing to do with food, so feel free to move along if pseudo-serious social commentary is not for you)...

as it has already been alluded to in the teasers from next week's show, video previews on the website, and various and sundry blogs, mr. delcour had a previous incarnation, under a pseudonym, as an actor in adult movies. read: he was a porn star. (and, might i add, the only porn star that has ever made me actually want to watch. but i digress.)

i was hoping they weren't going to include this fact in this new show. not because i have any problem with the profession personally, but because of the inevitable puritanical backlash that seems to come with any such admission. already i've seen bloggers posting about 'outing' him and comments that bravo should have done a better background check.

while i understand that pornography is obviously a loaded issue, and not exactly considered to be a mainstream subject of discussion, i personally find it frustratingly hypocritical that a society that spends literally billions of dollars on porn annually can simultaneously turn their collective noses at anyone involved in said industry.

anyway, my point, and i could go on at length but i will restrain myself, is this: i hope that this show doesn't turn into a disdainful attack on a former porn star while it obviously capitalizes on any resulting publicity. of course, i'm not sure why i would expect adherence to such a standard from a reality tv show, but it would be refreshing, would it not?

okay, class dismissed :).