Yesterday I spoke to Jill Snyder, the latest cheftestant to pack her knives and leave Top Chef. Jill's a chef in Baltimore, MD, where she enjoys making desserts and crab cakes. She wishes she would have defended her dish better, but claims that with the cameras staring at her, she choked up. To see what Jill has to say about ostrich eggs and the judges, read more.
On the ostrich egg: I've used eggs before and I thought using an ostrich egg would be the same. I thought it would make me more original. I have yet to experiment with them. I wanted to wait until this came out, but now I think I will cook with them. It's a creative dish and I think people will like it. I tasted it and didn't think it tasted like dog food. It was egg, asparagus, mushrooms, and cheese with a rice crust. It would be really hard to make those flavors taste bad, but I guess it's a TV show.
On getting kicked off: It felt horribly disappointing. I didn't really get to show a good representation of my cooking, but it's just a show. I've cooked for many more people than the judges. I thought Ariane was getting kicked off, she didn't really cook anything. I know a lot of people ate that dish. I was surprised, I mean Padma spit it out. I guess it's all in the judges' opinion. They thought who could go further in the competition. I guess maybe I should have been a little more dramatic, throw somebody under the bus or something. It was really hard to think of what to say when the cameras are on you.
On Tom and Padma: Tom and Padma are there to judge things. Whatever their opinion is, that's what is going to go. It's kind of intimidating being in front of people who are famous for being critical.
On deciding not to do dessert: Originally I did want to do dessert and a lot of people wanted to do dessert. I guess I should have stood my ground and done the dessert. Since I botched the hot dog challenge, I thought an entree would better show off my cooking skills. I really wish I had done a dessert because I thought all of those desserts were really bad.
On the hot dog quickfire: They asked for a gourmet hot dog and we had a certain amount of time. I thought I could do dim sum. A little bite-sized hot dog. I thought they would appreciate it. I wasn't picturing sausages in some bun because I don't see that as gourmet. I was thinking, how can you make a hot dog gourmet? I put the Asian twist on it. I know how to make sausage. I've made it plenty of times before, but I was worried the judges weren't going to take a sausage instead of a hot dog.
On the Feedbag's open love letter to her: What? I didn't even know. Wow, of course that's really flattering. Well he's probably disappointed in me now that I lost. I didn't even know, I will have to check it out.
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based on the way that the show was edited - i knew that ariane wasn't going home, as surprising as that was. i think that had jill defended herself more then she could have stayed since she probably has a lot of skill, but remember that this is for TV and you need to have something to draw viewers in. Ariane reminds me of Betty all those seasons ago - not the best cook on the show, but she was a reason to watch.