Emmy-nominated Top Chef: Memorable Quotes from the Cooking Show

The Emmy-nominated Top Chef on Bravo is reality TV for the culinary junkie, and the parade of guest judges reflects this audience awareness. While the vast majority of viewers couldn't - and likely would not even want to - recreate many of the dishes prepared, watching two personalities clash and the dishes emerge is difficult to look away from, and each episode has some kind of cooking insight.

Just about every episode has a few particularly memorable quotes from the panel that translate to success at the dinner table.

"What's great about [the Bertolli frozen dinners] is you put something in a pan and you feel like you've cooked for your family."

Yes, Rocco DiSpirito is currently shilling the Bertolli frozen dinners, but in Episode 7 (Freezer Burn) he had a point. As host Padma Lackshmi said during the episode, the frozen meal market accounted for $8.6 billion dollars in 2006. Companies have caught onto the fact that families are busy and don't have hours to prepare dinner each night, but still want to each good food so frozen dinners have come a long way. That frozen dinners made it onto Top Chef showed how mainstream the dishes are, yet also how they strive to be cuisine and not just a back up.

"Note to chefs: If you want to make people happy, give them bacon."

Ted Allen aptly described that a lot of people will order any food with bacon on it when he made this comment at the judge's table during Episode 8 (Guilty Pleasures). Bacon may be a guilty pleasure, but this very fact makes it taste that much better. Cooks who find a way to include a little bit of something that everyone likes into meals are guaranteed to please their guests.

"None of this food is craveable."

Food & Wine editor and guest judge Dana Cowen in Episode 10 (Chef Overboard) commented that based on the array of appetizers in front of her the chefs did not seem to take into account what people really want to eat. No one will be wowed by food that is "very common" or strives to please the "average palate" as contestant Hung Nguyen condescendingly served. Instead, when cooks put out a tried and true recipe is both beautiful and tasty, the food will disappear quickly.

"That dish was so ugly it doesn't even deserve to be prison food."

Only Anthony Bourdain could turn a critique about broccolini into social commentary like this one. But as he said in Episode 11 (Snacks on a Plane), how food looks affects how people will perceive its taste. If it is ugly, it is not going to get eaten, or at least not right away.

Learning from the experience of the Top Chefs will help home cooks get their own rave reviews.