Dallas Does Reality TV

The knives come out: Three Dallas chefs, including firebrand John Tesar, tocompete on Top Chef

Dallas cheftestants Danyele McPherson of The Grape, John Tesar of Spoon andJoshua Valentine of FT33.
Top Chef returns for a 10th season November 7.

Dallas scores big once again in reality TV. Three local chefs will compete on Top Chef: Seattle, the latest season of the Bravo cooking show hosted by Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi. It premieres Wednesday, November 7, at 9 pm.

The show will follow the same format as last season's Top Chef: Texas by opening with an unusually large number of contestants — 21 — including four from California; three from Los Angeles; two from New York; two from Boston; three from Colorado; three from Washington, D.C.; and one each from Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Georgia.

Dallas contestants are Danyele McPherson, John Tesar and Joshua Valentine, who will be the pastry chef at FT33, the new restaurant from chef Matt McCallister.

Oklahoma native Valentine, 33, got his A.O.S. in culinary arts from Le Cordon Bleu, Minneapolis. He has worked at Restaurant Alma in Minneapolis; Local, Stephan Pyles and Samar by Stephan Pyles in Dallas; The Coach House in Oklahoma; and Divine Swine.

Valentine says before filming began, he was unaware there would be other chefs from Dallas.

"I had no idea about the other Dallas chefs," he says. "I didn't know John other than by reputation and reading about him. I worked with Danyele at Stephan Pyles when Matt [McCallister] and I were there. She was a line cook."

He says that during the taping of the show, the three Dallas chefs didn't group together. "Everybody was fending for themselves," he says.

On the Bravo website, McPherson is described as the 31-year-old sous chef of The Grape, originally from Waynesville, North Carolina. She got her BA in anthropology from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, followed by an "attendance" at the Culinary Institute of America, before leaving for an internship. Stephan Pyles is listed under her work experience.

New York native Tesar is the 54-year-old chef and restaurateur of Spoon Bar & Kitchen who attended La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine, Paris. His resume is lengthy: Club Pierre in Westhampton, 13 Barrow Street, 44 & Hell’s Kitchen, Vine and The Supper Club in New York, RM Seafood in Las Vegas, The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas. Hey, there's no mention of The Commissary at One Arts Plaza.

The show will bring back Top Chef: Last Chance Kitchen, the digital video series hosted by Tom Colicchio in which losing contestants get a second chance at appearing in the show's finale.

Dallas has provided endless contestant fodder for reality TV, from Mark Cuban and Michael Irvin on Dancing With the Stars to Sean Lowe of The Bachelorette to Sunny Sinclair on The Biggest Loser. Tim Halperin, Hollie Cavanagh and Kelly Clarkson appeared on American Idol; Jany Lee and Hilari Younger made it to HGTV's Design Star. Louise Black and Shirin Askari were contestants on Project Runway, and recently it was announced that Joe Kirkland (of Artist vs Poet) will appear on The Voice.

Oodles of Dallas chefs have gotten in on the reality-TV action, from Ben Starr and Jennie Kelley on MasterChef to Blythe Beck on Naughty Chef to Morgan Wilson and Lina Biancamano on Top Chef: Just Desserts. Plus there was Carrie Keep on Hell's Kitchen and Liza Garza and Melissa d'Arabian on Next Food Network Star.

Three area chefs have competed on Top Chef: Tiffany Derry, Casey Thompson (now in Napa Valley) and Tre Wilcox. Fort Worth chef Tim Love was on Top Chef: Masters, and Tesar was on Extreme Chef last year. (He won.) Bravo just announced Top Chef: The Cruise with Derry, Thompson and Love.

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Movie Review

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

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The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

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