Top Chef’s Melissa Harrison Saw the End Coming

Melissa Harrison, the other ejectee from last night’s Top Chef, was, unlike most cheftestants who find themselves on the hot seat, unsurprised. Harrison was the very picture of certain doom last night, as sure of her fate as a prisoner on the gallows. We asked her for the post-mortem.

Melissa, I’ve seldom seen someone so sure they were going down. It was like “I Shall Be Released.”

You kind of what’s going to happen. When you’re watching people critique your food, and they have strong reactions like that….I knew [losing] was a strong possibility.

Do you feel that that dish didn’t really represent you as a cook?

I didn’t represent myself at all. I’m very proud of who I am as a cook. and that wasn’t my proudest
moment. I didn’t think they understood what they were trying to do. It was supposed to be an upscale fish taco!

Well, what was upscale about it?

I used good tuna, a wonton, different kinds of ingredients, a kind of Asian influence…I just don’t think they got it.

So it was a kind of a conceptual disconnect.

Well, You can’t win them all.

Comments

3 Responses to “Top Chef’s Melissa Harrison Saw the End Coming”

DocChuck on January 8th, 2009 4:05 pm

“Losing is a strong possibility” seems an understatement after the judge has declared that your dish tastes like cat food.
DocChuck on January 8th, 2009 4:26 pm

The “Real” DocChuck appreciates the fact that this lovely young woman, lacking the ugly “Roman” nose, the facial hair, the breast hairs, the overly-ample buttocks, and the other troubling physical features of “chiff0nade” and her impostor sisters from SeriousEats, is STILL a winner in the Doc’s book.

If I weren’t already happily married to a medical doctor from Texas (of Scottish heritage), Doctor E., I would perhaps adopt this lady, put her up in a Southen’ mansion, and hire her a maid and a chef to tend to her immediate needs.

Then again, maybe not.
DocChuck on January 9th, 2009 4:37 pm

The REAL DocChuck can (and HAS) do much better than an Ellie Mae Clampett lookalike. Who serves food that smells bad.

Thanks all the same, though.

Leave a Reply

Last Meal: A bacon cheeseburger at HB Burger. 2 days ago
Josh Ozersky is the Restaurants Editor for Citysearch and author of Meat Me In Manhattan: A Carnivore's Guide to New York and The Hamburger: A History.
Wine, Women, Fish, and Song at Le Bernardin’s Vintage Dinner from The Feedbag on Vimeo.
MORE VIDEOS >>
Best Celebrity Chef
Jean Georges Best Chinese Food
Chinatown Brasserie Best Lunch Spot
Katz's Deli Best People Watching
The Waverly Inn and Garden Best Fast Food
Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries Best Hamburger
Shake Shack Best Outside Dining
Barbetta

MORE PICKS >>
Fishtail
John Dory Pomme de Terre
A Voce
Almond
Perbacco Cafe
Rouge Tomate