So far, I’m been surprised at how much I’ve been enjoying the third season of Top Chef. The focus has lied mostly on the food with the personal drama adding to the epicurean pursuits, without overshadowing it. Even better, they finally found people who can talk about food, which is exactly what the show has been lacking. There’s a part of me that wonders how this show held onto its audience in season one considering the Joelbot’s wooden hosting and Stephen’s limited but pompous vocabulary — looking back, did he have a positive word to say about himself that wasn’t “superlative”?

But, of course, I have nits to pick because if I were just saying “Good job” I’d still be procrastinating on this post.

So. Last week’s episode had a Quickfire Challenge that was pretty much sponsored by Bombay Sapphire Gin. I don’t mind the product placement since I do enjoy Bombay Sapphire and it’s not a product that fits poorly in the show (like, say, Payless Shoes being hawked on America’s Next Top Model.) The challenge was an interesting one — create an appetizer to go with a randomly-assigned drink. “Easy,” I thought at first, but then I realized it’s only easy if you take the task in the opposite direction. Making a cocktail to match your appetizer is pretty easy, after all just take some of the flavors found in your appetizer and put them in a drink… with the most easy thing being to make a simple syrup with leftover herbs, mix with spirits and serve. (Ever enjoy a basil martini? Lovely.)

Bombay could have gotten their money’s worth, this was a well-integrated bit of product placement, but somebody really fell down on the promotion. A number of the cocktails the contestants had to work with sounded interesting, prompting me to visit the Top Chef website looking for recipes for the cocktails featured in the show. Nothing. Then I check out the Bombay Sapphire website, where I find the basic cocktail recipes, but none of the nifty-sounding ones from the show.

So, basically, all Bombay Sapphire got out of their product placement dollars was a platform to make their marketing pitch. Maybe that works for people who aren’t Bombay customers, but they had the opportunity to get their customers to use a little more of the Bombay Sapphire in their homes and completely missed it. I’m a bit baffled by this slip-up, it just seems so obvious to go from demoing Bombay cocktails to telling customers how to make them for themselves.

By the way, I’ve been reading Lee Anne Wong’s blog and her episode recaps totally remind me of why she was my favorite season one contestant. Top Chef really could benefit to make her their Tim Gunn.

But season three managed something season two never did, it got me involved in the challenges the way I would in season one. Last week, we had three competitors attempt a dessert course. As usual, they talked about not being pastry chefs and went ahead and did some baking. Since (from what I can tell) they’re not allowed access to cookbooks and baking can be a very precise art, I never get it when someone decides to make something like an pineapple upside down cake when there are desserts that are far more forgiving, like souffles, cremes, mousses, etc. (One competitor attempted a panna cotta, a dessert that requires as much precision as a cake.)

Overall, at this point, my biggest complaint about this season Top Chef is the challenges. Are so many twists within the challenge really necessary? A few weeks ago the competitors were asked to re-invent a classic American comfort food… in a low cholesterol version… for an audience that wouldn’t be so receptive to re-invented classics… while also satisfying the judges’ desire for innovative, signature dishes. That’s too much complexity to capture on reality TV, at that point you’re just going to make your challenges seem unfair.