Thursday, September 13, 2007

CJ Jacobson's Defense to Being Jacked by the Not-So-Giant Broccolini Stalks: Bravo Made Me Do It!

It's certainly one of the most interesting defenses we've seen so far, possums, and it goes something like this:

CJ was voted off because his desiccated, burnt, mint-oil-slicked broccolini was, in Tom Colicchio's opinion, the worst dish of Top Chef's three seasons. So, one wonders, why did CJ serve it in the first place?

CJ tells Grub Street that the broccolini were overcooked

"and looked bad, so I didn’t want to send them out. I said, 'I’m not sending these out.' But they said, 'You have to send them out.'

Who did?
I can’t tell you specifically. But it was production. I said, 'I lose if I send these out,' and I did. In retrospect I should have said, 'Screw you,' but I did send it out so it is my fault."


CJ tells our pal Lesley at Eater LA a similar story:

"I didn't want to put the broccolini out but I was told I had to. It would've been an OK dish if it was cooked propertly. Those ovens are really fast. They get up to 400 degrees right away, and it's a convection oven, so it overcooked and burnt the broccolini. I don't know what would've happened if I didn't put it out."

It smells like a minty, potentially successful duress defense to us. Shouldn't Justice Colicchio have been apprised of this fact before imposing the tear-jerking sentence of death by pykagging?

1 comment:

MH said...

after about half way through the episode it did seem that CJ practically KNEW he was leaving. hell, he was saying goodbyes and nice to know ya's before the fina judges tabe.