Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Padma Lakshmi Continues to Defend Marcel Vigneron; Amuse-Biatch Continues to Defend the English Language





















From the last, as-yet-uncorrected portion of Padma Lakshmi's Cogent™ Blog:
We've all had that kid in school who [sic] everyone loved to pick on and I do think somehow this group has decided that he's there [sic] bespectacled Piggy in their Lord of the Flies [sic] scenario. I felt bad for him watching the tape of the show. I saw what he said to Betty and he didn't snap at her, [sic] he just told her to wait firmly enough to get his point across. The voice you hear telling Marcel to "hold up" is the voice of our Assistant Director Sean [sic] who relays when the cameras are ready to film the one and only time that food is served to that bunch of live waiting dinner guests, and if Marcel hadn't waited of [sic] told Betty to wait loud [sic] enough, we would have missed the shot. And Betty and others know that. They just decided that whatever little thing he did was an excuse for them all to behave in that way. Whoever [sic] heard of kitchen folk being that thin-skinned? If you don't like being barked at now and again, you should really get out ot [sic] the kitchen. I do think they're a little frightened of him and his skills, where as [sic] they aren't threatened by, say, Mike -- who [sic] they seem to help along one [sic] more than one occasion. I'm not saying that Marcel is completely innocent, but watching tonight's episode, I was shocked by the level of aggression on everyone's part. I do hope this doesn't continue to be the case. This is supposed to be a professional environment, not one where personal attacks are commonplace.
Poor copy editing skills and grammar aside, we think Padma hit the nail right on the head. We thought it particularly interesting, when viewing the episode again, that part of Ilan Hall's tirade is an injunction to Marcel go to another school and to go to New York and have Ilan teach him how to cook. This was of interest because, at least according to the Bravo bios, both Marcel and Ilan attended the Culinary Institute of America (and we seem to remember reading somewhere that their tenure there overlapped). So is Ilan knocking the quality of his own education? As for teaching Marcel how to cook, Bravo's own bio says that Marcel was a teacher's assistant at CIA, so why would that be necessary? Furthermore, Marcel is a "master cook" at the U.S. flagship restaurant of international superstar chef Joël Robuchon, whereas Ilan is a "line cook" at Mario Batali's tapas joint. Padma, we think your analysis is spot-on. You done good, girl.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with Padma. I think Marcel can be nerve-grating annoying at times. But I feel the line was crossed and the attacks were too personal. They shouldn't lose sight of why they are there: To cook, to compete, not relate and grand-stand and call each other p*ssy virgins like high-schooler p*ssy virgins.

123 said...

Darling, I'm terribly sorry to tell you, but this sentence begins with a dangling modifier: "Poor copy editing skills and grammar aside, we think Padma hit the nail right on the head." After reading this, one would not be incorrect to think that "we" is modified by "poor copy editing skills and grammar." Ouch.

Copyediting, by the way, is one word--no space.

What exactly are you trying to prove with your gleeful policing of Padma's grammar?

Anonymous said...

Ohmigoodness! Why, Andrew Cohen, you're BRAVO enough to use your own name?? Gay to go, er, I mean, way to go! Defend ur girl!
;)

Charlus, how do you attract this attention?? What is your secret?? Andy never visits my blog!

Anonymous said...

I hope Marcel wins the final competition.