Reality TV Speculation

Which Dallas chefs will return to Bravo’s Top Chef? We offer clues.

UPDATE: Top Chef has announced the eight returning chefs, as follows, with the pertinent Dallas chefs highlighted:

Sam Talbot (season 2: Los Angeles); Casey Thompson (season 3: Miami and season 8: all-stars); Amanda Baumgarten (season 7: Washington, D.C.); Brooke Williamson (season 10: Seattle); Sheldon Simeon (season 10: Seattle); John Tesar (season 10: Seattle); Shirley Chung (season 11: New Orleans); and Katsuji Tanabe (season 12: Boston). The show premieres December 1.

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Cooking reality show Top Chef returns for its 14th season with a December 1 debut on Bravo TV, and it comes with an extra dash of intrigue: The cast is a mix of eight new chefs and eight returning chefs from past seasons who've never won.

Bravo has released the names of the eight newbies (none from Texas), but won't reveal the identities of the eight returning chefs until next week. That leaves us with one recourse: to handicap which Dallas chefs might turn up in that group.

The season takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, with host Padma Lakshmi, head judge Tom Colicchio, and Gail Simmons, who are joined by new judge Graham Elliot. A release describes it as "old blood versus new." Challenges include a shrimp-and-grits cook-off, a "biscuit blowout," and a holiday-themed Feast of Seven Fishes dinner.

Meanwhile, Dallas Top Chef alumni include John Tesar, Tiffany Derry, Tre Wilcox, Danyele McPherson, Casey Thompson, and Josh Valentine.

Let us move on to the process of elimination.

John Tesar. Dallas' most ~~hated~~ loved chef made season 10 must-see TV. His skills surpassed his fellow contestants, and in terms of entertainment value, he was solid gold. His soliloquy on pickles earned its own YouTube (since removed). Many felt he was eliminated before his time.

In promising circumstantial evidence, Tesar parted ways this summer with Aphelia Group, making it a surprisingly Tesar-free summer. (Summer is when the season was in production.) Also, suspiciously, Tesar was unable to show up at CultureMap's Tastemaker awards when he won for Best Chef. You gotta have something serious going on to miss that.

It could just be that he's busy working on his new steak cookbook. But we'll optimistically hope otherwise.

Odds: 5 knives out of 5 on being a likely returning chef.

Casey Thompson. Although Thompson lives in California, she still has ties to the DFW area. In 2010, she helped launch Brownstone, a restaurant in Fort Worth's West 7th district, semi-remotely. So we'll call her "ours."

Thompson has no restaurant of her own right now. Coincidentally, she was just in Dallas to cook at the eighth annual Burgers & Burgundy fundraiser benefiting DIFFA. Which is, hmmm, Tesar's signature event. Where she set up in the exact same tent as Tesar. Double hmmm.

Other promising clues: On May 7, she said she was "working on a project," and on July 15, she posted a "hells yeah!" vote of support for Top Chef.

Odds: 4 knives out of 5.

Tiffany Derry. Derry was a Top Chef fan favorite, and her TV chops were sufficiently impressive that she scored slots on a number of reality-TV and competition-style shows such as Bar Rescue and Chopped Junior. But she's been working on another restaurant called Roots Southern Table, at Trinity Groves in Dallas. This doesn't rule her out entirely as a contestant, but she's been on two seasons already.

Odds: 2 knives out of 5.

Danyele McPherson. McPherson was a Top Chef short-timer, appearing on season 10 with Tesar. She's currently slammed, overseeing an empire of restaurants that include the original HG Sply Co. in Dallas, a second HG Sply Co. in Fort Worth, Remedy on Greenville Avenue, and a new restaurant in Rockwall called Standard Service. No way she has time for TV right now.

Odds: 1 knife out of 5.

Tre Wilcox. Chef Tre Wilcox, who appeared on season 3 along with Casey Thompson, is a busy man. He has six various Facebook pages going, a restaurant in Plano called Julia Pearl, a catering company, and an events space. It's possible he could have also been juggling taping this summer, but Wilcox was very much present in Texas.

Odds: 2 knives out of 5.

Josh Valentine. Former FT33 chef was also on season 10, where he tussled with Tesar. He currently lives in Oklahoma, and his Facebook page indicates a new baby happened this summer.

Odds: 0 knives out of 5.

John Tesar

Photo by Shana Anderson

John Tesar

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Movie Review

The Magic Faraway Tree is a whimsical family lark that fails to take root

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Andrew Garfield, Delilah Bennett-Cardy, Claire Foy, Phoenix Laroche, and Billie Gadson in The Magic Faraway Tree.

With kids and families always on the hunt for entertainment, it’s typically a safe bet for a movie studio to offer up something new, even if it is a film based on an old property. The Magic Faraway Tree, based on a series of books that started in the 1930s, is a very old property, one that its filmmakers have tried to liven up with a few stars, a lot of whimsy, and a boatload of CGI.

The Thompson family, led by stay-at-home dad Tim (Andrew Garfield) and breadwinner mom Polly (Claire Foy), are forced to move to a rundown country home when Polly gets laid off. The kids - Joe (Phoenix Laroche), Fran (Billie Gadson), and Beth (Delilah Bennett-Cardy) - are used to the perks of city life like wifi and electricity, and each of them rebels in their own way to their new lot in life.

Fran, enticed by a fairy named Silky (Nicola Coughlan), is the first to venture out of the house, making her way to a magic tree that transports her to a world full of strange characters like Moonface (Nonso Anozie), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Dame Washalot (Jessica Gunning), and more. Her adventures there not only broaden the world she thought she knew, but may be the key to helping her ailing family.

Directed by Ben Gregor and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Wonka), the film is a pleasant enough lark, but it fails to fully capture the imagination. The five-member family has a lot going on, from an initially-mute Fran to a domestic situation that raises more questions than it answers. The film tries to incorporate an anti-technology message through Tim’s hatred of a smart refrigerator (voiced by Judi Dench!) and the kids' addictions to devices, but it’s quickly shed in favor of other options.

Once Fran makes it to the Magic Faraway Tree, there’s a nice shift in the storytelling, but it’s unclear what the ultimate goal is. It’s a good idea to have Fran, the youngest of the children, convince her older, more cynical siblings about the virtues of the magic world, but the conflict in the real world doesn’t seem to rise to the level needed for the escape the tree provides.

There also seems to be a missing link in the storytelling for viewers to understand the importance of the fantastical characters. The visuals of seeing Moonface and his crescent moon-shaped hair, a man with a suit full of banging pots, and more are fun for a while, but not enough to carry the whole film. A last-minute revelation feels like it was something that should have been disclosed much earlier to help strengthen the emotions of the story.

A two-time Oscar nominee, Garfield is making his first foray into family movies (if you don’t count playing Spider-Man), and while he does a good job, he doesn’t make the best fit for the semi-goofy role. The same goes for the Emmy-winning Foy, who isn’t given much of anything to do. The movie puts the story on the shoulders of the three child actors, and while each of them acquit themselves well, none of them are so outstanding as to be noteworthy.

With nearly 90-year-old source material, The Magic Faraway Tree needed to be something truly special to stand out in the 21st century movie world. Unfortunately, it features a mostly forgettable story that features some fun visuals, a couple of cute kids, and not much else.

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The Magic Faraway Tree is now playing in theaters.

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