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Singh brings a fresh look to `Check, Please!'

By Steve Johnson
Tribune television critic
Published October 17, 2003

For its first two seasons of existence, the WTTW-Ch. 11 restaurant-review show "Check, Please!" succeeded in spite of its host.

Amanda Puck, ex-sister-in-law of restaurateur Wolfgang and manager at Chicago's Spago, seemed to know a lot about restaurants but lacked the conversational ease of a natural television moderator.

That's essential in a show whose winning premise, almost irresistible to those who make dining out a fervent leisure-time pursuit, is that three ordinary Chicagoans make anonymous visits to one another's favorite restaurants, then convene to discuss their experiences with the host.

And while perfect diction is no requirement for television success, as NBC anchor Tom Brokaw proves, Puck's was another stumbling block to viewers, a cadre of food fanatics who nonetheless made the show a ratings success by the PBS station's modest standards.

Now, for a third season that almost didn't occur because PBS shows don't just need viewers, they need "underwriters," there's a new host, Puck having left for what she, the station and producers describe as "personal reasons."

Alpana Singh, the 26-year-old sommelier at Everest, steps in and does a fine job in Friday's first show of the new season (8 p.m., repeating at 2 p.m. Saturday and 11 p.m. Sunday).

Not only do her credentials from a high-end restaurant boost the show's credibility among foodies, but she comes off as entirely sufferable during the know-it-all moments required by the show's format, those interludes when she breaks into the conversation to hold forth on a chef, a spice or cuisine.

And with a seemingly natural warmth, she'll get better at creating flow among her average-Joe restaurant critics, rather than just peppering them with occasional questions.

She should especially learn to probe for more detailed and frank opinions, because the show's ongoing weakness is that it too often settles for a kind of lazy consensus among the guests, who sometimes seem more interested in not offending one another's tastes than in speaking honestly about their meals.

The trick is to do so while retaining the appearance of impartiality, because Singh's role as a prominent employee of a restaurant in the city's dominant Lettuce Entertain You chain makes her more than an impartial observer.

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Originally posted by huzefa
When is this on?

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