Top Chef - Las Vegas

new season, yall. started last night. looks like a talented crop overall.
kinda gimmicky throwing in a bunch of vegas chance style influenced challenges but whatevers.

SPOILERS

two ladies in the bottom really really deserved it. "i'm usually so complicated so tonight I'm going to make a really simple dish" and "I'm gonna use seitan because it's different".

oh man. Maybe if she was a proud vegan chef, if she really had a point that she could make kick-ass food w/ seitan I would kinda respect that, but just because?

this season is gonna be awesome!!

i was shocked that they didn't send the blonde girl home. i would've thought that tom would've said something about her palette if she put out something so bland even tho she is supposedly known for BOLD FLAVORS or w/e. but looking back, they did show the seitan woman talking about how she needs to win for her son so i guess that was some foreshadowing there.

i want the haitian guy to win btw

haitian guy is awesome.

I thought the blond would be out too. Her food was bland, her personality was bland. At least the seitan lady had entertainment value.

i'm just glad i don't have to see those plugs anymore, it's bad enough to see all the fat pasty white tattooed folks.

Some promising chefs, but I thought the challenge was pretty lousy. Half the people just incorporated alcohol into their dish and the other half proved that they don't understand the meaning of the word "vice."

haitian guy's vice was like "it was hard on that boat."

fat pasty white tattooed folks.

i like baltimore-girl! her dry chicken aside, i think she'll be pretty good this season.

lolz yeah so many tats! too many people too

wait who got sent home I tuned out before the very end - it wasn't vegan girl? That shit looked disgusting

I really like Jennifer C. (know her from Cafe Kati in SF and then Le Bern in NYC), I really want to see Mike I. (the cocky shit-talker with the over-plucked eyebrows) fall on his face.

I have eaten at Mattin's restaurant and thought it was blah... For comparison, I have also eaten at Hubert Keller's restaurant and also thought it was mediocre. The two other bay area chefs are like caterers for software companies, they should be packing up soon... the cancer survivor lady with immunity and then the boyish Indian gal.

Very excited to see Joel Robuchon as a guest chef on Top Chef, he has one of the best restaurants in the USA imho.

Maybe if she was a proud vegan chef, if she really had a point that she could make kick-ass food w/ seitan I would kinda respect that, but just because?

Plus she seemed to think that all of the criticism of her dish was because it was seitan and the judges were too conservative to handle her vegan dish, when really it was because the dish was poorly prepared and seasoned. Most of the rest of the chefs at least acknowledged their screw up.

isn't there at least one bitchy self-righteous vegan chef per season

(oops left out "tattooed")

i think Mattin will be great for some lol french guys laughs.

yeah, not really sweating her dismissal, less weeks of seeing those horrible "SCARRED" tats (i counted 2 in different fonts) and those horrible, horrible plugs that came out of like makeoutclub for the midlife crisis crowd.

i'm rooting for tough philly chick. you figure if eric ripert hired her to cook at his philly place she must know what's up. puck really dug her fish.

^^Jennifer C., I'm also pulling for her.

kinda smashy too

puck was bring the zings in that ep.

yeah Puck was good. throwing the donuts was funny

really unattractive cast this season. perfect fit for vegas. can't wait for the challenge involving plastic footballs filled with cocktails.

We were soooo upset that Michael? (eyebrow-waxed guy) seemed to actually cook well since he spent the entire episode being a total bastard and making strangely misogynistic comments. I said "this guy is like everyone on Chopped" and now I wish I also said "this guy is like every long island italian chef Ramsay visits", but seems like maybe he can actually cook.

i was totally hoping he was fronting too and on his way to a quick flame out.

The preview scenes at the end of the episode made it seem like he gets schooled next week. He definitely looked like he was sulking.

okay, philly girl was ripert's sous chef at le bernardin before taking over his new restaurant in philly. she definitely knows her way around a kitchen.

her menu looks yummy, by the way. too bad i'm not a philly guy anymore:

http://www.10arts.com/

haitian guy's vice was like "it was hard on that boat."

― 69, Thursday, August 20, 2009 3:31 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha he looked SO SHOCKED when tom was like "it wasn't really a vice, bro"

puck was bring the zings in that ep.

― carne asada, Thursday, August 20, 2009 4:04 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ptm^^ they should hire him as a perma judge if gayle gets pregnant again

We were soooo upset that Michael? (eyebrow-waxed guy) seemed to actually cook well since he spent the entire episode being a total bastard and making strangely misogynistic comments/

yeah it was hilarious how he was like "okay NO OFFENSE GUYS but a girl SHOULD NOT be beating me" like we were all just going to wash our hands of that. i wonder if he would've thought it appropriate to say "okay NO OFFENSE GUYS but this BLACK IMMIGRANT should not be beating me"

is toby young out? if so, that's a disappointment.

serious? He made me want to poke out my eyes and stick them in my ears so I would never have to listen to his epic-poem length forced and utterly unfunny metaphors.

I thought he was pretty funny, but i think it was more laughing at him than with him. i think the other judges hated him, and that was entertaining too.

Yeah I admit that I liked how much Tom seemed to like to dislike him.

it was great, even padma hissed at him a couple of times.

haha i guess that was almost a redeeming feature of having him. i dont think it was enough tho

Fuck Toby Young.

Wolfgang Puck is so awesome.

Totally concur with Shasta on not wanting to see those horrible plugs anymore.

Fuck Toby Young.

Wolfgang Puck is so awesome.

Yes, I wish Wolfgang could be on every episode as a judge. Toby Young is like a bad Cowell wannabe.

nah, Toby Young was hilarious. I'm glad they sent that woman home, i'm pretty well-inked, but she looks ridiculous. Plus if she wants to get more tats, she may want to consider a new artist.

I don't think he said even one thing I thought was funny.

I thought Puck's dismissal of Hector's steak was obnoxious though: this is America, we don't deep fry steaks. If he blew the preparation it's one thing, but they all seemed to object to the nature of the dish. I like him and the Haitian guy so far.

bill magill has the worst opinions on everything, even top chef!!

They also said that Hector was in a very strong group. I don't think they thought his was the fourth-worst dish of the night.

The problem with Hector's dish was conceptually: his vice was smoking, yet any remnants of the cedar smoke in the marinade was hasta la vista by the time he chicharrone-fied that prime rib.

Like i said above, i found it entertaining how much everybody else hated him. I got a kick out of having the little fucker on the show.

xxpost

you're a fucking twat Jordan S. you're not exactly burning up the board's with any deep critical observations yourself, cocksucker.

you are the worst

xp Woah was that really necessary?

nice.

This season, things are heating up in the ILX kitchen.

I fully expect to see Bill and Jordan hugging it out and sharing a beer by episode 7.

I've got hopes for Hector. He slipped up the way a lot of people do in the beginning, not really thinking through the challenge and jumping to show something that they think makes them different/special. Not totally unlike seitan girl, he was just dying to show off that latin flavor with his chicarron style steak without really thinking it through about if that was the best way to get "smokey" across. Still, it looked good and I'd eat it! When I heard him mention "cigars" as his vice I was hoping he'd do a moroccan style cigar dish.

The dark horse is Ash, the NYC dude who seems to make a huge issue of his sexual orientation oddly.

"Haitian dude" (as tokenistic ILX is fond of calling him wtf!!!) has a name and it's Ron Duprat. I think he will be in trouble early as he'll be shopping in Whole Foods all season long and they already showed him asking a WF emp "Do you have an Island section?" and then complaining that he doesn't have access to all the things he needs. I think the judges threw him a bone here but when the challenges get harder, he will suffer more than the others.

The dark horse is Ash, the NYC dude who seems to make a huge issue of his sexual orientation oddly.

can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not but lol bravo

I don't know who to root for w/r/t Jordan S or Bill Magill, as I'm not really familiar with either of them or their cooking skills but I give Jordan a Santouku and Bill a cleaver and ready set go!

No it's odd because there's been hella lesbians all up in Top Chef for several seasons (I only tuned in recently).

I would guess that annoying eyebrows from LA guy, drunkass Eric Ripert chef and beardo from Atlanta are all going to do pretty well. Everyone else I didn't get much of a sense of. If Google chef lady makes it past the half-way point I'll be shocked.

Google chef is ridic... She can't open up a clam and her dish was whatevz. Stick to the suburban office workers imo.

To be fair to her, on the clam thing she got totally set up.

She should've said "If you guys want to win I shouldn't be doing clams because I've never done them before".

^^^

the "vice" thing was handled pretty lamely by everybody imho (ooh America where everyone picks the one vice its okay to have: drinking!)

woulda been funnier if someone had made a cocaine-themed dish or something

"She should've said "If you guys want to win I shouldn't be doing clams because I've never done them before"."

Well dude who'd actually done clams should have stopped and said wait we need to switch this around. I don't think she was clear how difficult it was going to be for her (which if she'd never done it, isn't entirely surprising.)

To her credit at least she didn't cut her hand off like the seitanic chick.

I thought the gay thing was weird too. He made some comment about how unique or different it is to be gay in the kitchen. This is a NY chef who's seen the show before, I assume?

The douche-y LA brother I think got the vice concept right with tittays...

I thought the gay thing was weird too. He made some comment about how unique or different it is to be gay in the kitchen. This is a NY chef who's seen the show before, I assume?

― dan selzer, Friday, August 21, 2009 3:10 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark

i think bravo put it way out there in the first 5 mins of the whole season because of their sort of 'embrace' or w/e of the gay community during the proj runway era. obv it's not a notable thing about this guy.

woulda been funnier if someone had made a cocaine-themed dish or something

― go Nick go! Scrub that paint! Scrub it!! Yeah!! (Shakey Mo Collier)

i'm thinking some chefs did but i think the network must have put the kabosh on the refs, eli's dish featured bear powder and the donuts had some powder ref as well.

bear = lumps of beer powder razored across the dish (jk, but not really)

At least gay dude didn't say "Team Rainbow", ffs.

"Bear powder" would have been a hell of a vice.

weren't the donuts prepared by the michigan gee shucks blond lady? kinda doubt she's into the blow.

I thought the michigan gee shucks lady did the lousy shrimp/curry bullshit, but I can see why you'd get them confused.

yeah, that's right.

At least gay dude didn't say "Team Rainbow", ffs.

― Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Friday, August 21, 2009 3:14 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah otm

Although Team Rainbow was cheesy as hell, I actually really liked Richard "Bear Powder" Man.

i bet chubby guy with beard wins

oh and bill magill

the bear seems to disorganized, i know he's one of the biggest names on the show but he seems like he's gonna get voted off for fucking up. remember Hosea one last year and he was one of the most boring, unimaginative, untechnical chefs of the last 6 remaining.

too*

everyone involved know Hosea winning was a total crock of shit

I don't disagree, but could you be more specific?

there's a thread for last season where I detailed his shortcomings at length, specifically the fact that he's a seafood specilaist (in Denver lol) and he finished dead last in Ripert's seafood challenge, scoring a 0/3 for eel, monkfish and something else i can't remember.

Oh I thought you meant the judges gave in to the producers or some such. No doubt he's hacky...

http://www.bravotv.com/media/images/persons/mike-isabella.png

BOOT CUT

i know lots of you are Ron (aka "Haitian dude lol") fans but dude had a line that was easily missed, when he was introduced to Jen C. (philly chick) said she worked at 10 Arts, he was all "orly are you the pastry chef or something?" and then the Bravothunderclap.wav roared.

Was it him who said that? For some reason I thought it was someone else.

Between that and Mike's "I'm not gonna let a girl beat me" shit I gotta say I am kind of rooting hard for drunk-ass philly chick.

"My vice is lol binge drinking" got pretty boring.

Rooting for Haitian dude and drunk-ass Ripert disciple, I think. Also balding, chubby redhead who might be an Aspie.

Which balding chubbie redhead? There are two, right?

pretty sure that Joel Robuchon is on tonight, it'll be the first time seeing one of my favorite chefs on the show so I'm stoked.

Are there? I only noticed the beardo who won.

so joel robuchon's really good?? i shld check out his restaurant here in london. i just always been kind of wary since he has so many places

definitely really really really great. chef of the century in gault millau (sp?)

I wanted to go to the Vegas L'Atelier but no one would go with me. :(

I saw former Top Chef contestant Jamie from Absinthe at last week's La Cocina thing on Folsom. She was making hot dogs (or should I say JAIME'S WORLD FAMOUS HOT DOGStm). I did not buy one.

scallop dogs?

Oh I thought you meant the judges gave in to the producers or some such. No doubt he's hacky...

yeah this is all covered on the last season's thread - in addition to what Shasta points out about his erm obvious shortcomings, the real reason he won at all was because the other two finalists completely fucked up their dishes (I forget how exactly) and you could tell the judges REALLY wanted to vote for anyone else but Hosea, but were hamstrung by how badly their favorites ended up performing in the final challenge.

but yeah, seafood specialist from Denver - WHO CANNOT IDENTIFY FISH - won the fucking show? gimme a break

man the gays be bitter this year

what was gaylady thinking????? philly girl tried to warn her. hey, i've got a few minutes, i'll make an extra dish that i don't know how to make!

and shrimpy ninja! how demented was that? hey, they hated my shrimp last week, i'll make more!

i kinda hate the dead ringer brothers. i really want them both to lose.

Shrimp lady really needed to go home.

I thought the weirdest thing about the shrimpy ninja dish was that she said somewhere that she hoped the shrimp's natural flavor would come out and save it...? Shrimp is not really an overpowering flavor lady, its pretty bland and tasteless and requires being married to other, stronger flavors. Like, had she never eaten shrimp before

brothers are creepy agreed

And it didn't even sound like shrimp was something that she was all that familiar or comfortable with, so to go back to it was just cray cray.

I also find it weird that I've never heard of her restaurant, since I know Ann Arbor pretty well. Must be pretty unremarkable.

But then I mostly just think of bars when I think of Ann Arbor, so maybe it's me.

Her cooking was in no way as intolerable as her accent.

Is that straight up Yooper? Ugh.

I am really loving Jennifer so far. My dream top five at this point:

Jennifer
Mattin (adorable!)
Ron (adorabler!)
One of the twins (don't care which, honestly, but maybe the dirtbag one would be fun)
Hector

Maybe beardy dude over Hector

I'm kinda pulling for Hector at this stage but you just know at some point he's going to run into the complaint that his cooking is too ethnocentric if he doesn't branch out

I just wonder why Ashely, if she was so vociferously against the wedding challenge (fair enough), decided to make a second dish. "I disagree with this so I'll suck up to it"? Um.

she told the judges they had the time and the cash for more ingredients. i don't think they even hated her panna cotta so much it was just that they were hazing her a bit for doing 2 dishes instead of focusing on one.

mattin's red kerchief, ugh, so slapworthy

YES

Whoever compared him to Tintin was otm.

ashley being worked up over the wedding challenge thing -- while i don't doubt her sincerity on the issue and i'm 100% in agreement with her -- i dunno, it seemed edited in so heavy-handedly. typical bravo audience pandering imo. it's a cooking competition, you know?

i like fatlanta/redbeard but i found this week's ep pretty boring. it's weird. jesse reminds me SO much of my former roommate (who also spent time as a cook) and fatlanta sorta reminds me of her bf.

h8 it when ppl who get kicked off say 'i just dont think the judges where used to/ready for my type of food'

NO YR FOOD JUST SUCKS

yup with her it was especially bad, she was like "i'm too next level for em" and the judges had said "well if you're going to use such traditional/boring flavors you'd better do it right"

I almost want to go to Eve for dinner now out of morbid curiosity, but I would feel bad about wasting the money.

there's always lunch/brunch?

i wonder if shrimp is on the menu?

I was thinking of going to Ann Arbor anyway, maybe a lunch is in order.

http://www.evetherestaurant.com/menu

SPICY GULF SHRIMP
Gulf shrimp sautéed with chilies and fresh lime and surrounded with bundles of marinated seaweed, toasted macadamia nuts, dried tropical fruit and shaved coconut, served over mixed greens dressed with spicy peanut vinaigrette

I want to vomit reading that

that is a total "make up yr mind already" dish

What did shrimp ever do to her to deserve that?

they got her kicked off Top Chef, for one

BOY I SURE DO HAVE A LOT OF STUFF LYING AROUND I'D BETTER DO SOMETHING WITH IT SHRIMP
Gulf shrimp sautéed with chilies and fresh lime and surrounded with bundles of marinated seaweed, toasted macadamia nuts, dried tropical fruit and shaved coconut, served over mixed greens dressed with spicy peanut vinaigrette

on martha's vineyard restaurants would close for the season and on their last night open you would get specials like: Beef, pork, chicken, scallops, shrimp, bluefish, and lamb on a bed of greens

I think this season kinda sucks so far?
Less people please. Also I don't give a shit about your !!!!!!$$$15, 0000 $$$$!!!! prizes or your IMPORTANT STATEMENTS about marriage equality or how cool you are or whether tony hawk goofus or blando gallant is the better brother, i just want to see your fuckin' food.
http://eater.com/uploads/2009_08_Showgirls.gif

I agree that they have way too many cheftestants, which I guess will equal more episodes or more double eliminations, either of which can be good...but in the meantime these first few have been pretty lame. The last one was edited so haphazardly I couldn't begin to parse out who made what, not to mention that a couple of dishes weren't even shown.

If you're not impressed with this season, my homegirl had a chance to interview Colicchio and he said without a doubt, this season's dishes were the best of any season yet.

So there may be less drama and dry-humping, but the food is supposed to be a couple notches higher than before.

NB: I'm not a fan of Colicchio's cooking.

"If you're not impressed with this season, my homegirl had a chance to interview Colicchio and he said without a doubt, this season's dishes were the best of any season yet."

Yeah that's kind of a given when you have what three James Beard nominees, a couple of Michelin stars, a whatever tattooed douchebag is and a exec chef for Eric Ripert in the running. That said I agree that the separation between the good chefs and the weak ones have never seemed quite so jarring.

Great cooking and chefs thinking on their feet is really all I care to see from this show. If they engineer another fauxmance like last season, count me out.

I haven't had the opportunity to try Colicchio's food (except 'wichcraft) but he never fails to impress me the depth of his food knowledge.

His crooked sunglasses drove me nuts last episode.

oh hi dere
http://i32.tinypic.com/2jfgdox.jpg

that pasta salad was sad. that was like, sub-backyard bbq food. bowtie pasta and broccoli ffs

also the "9/11 made me want to be a chef" speech had me roffling

Got a little choked up when the troops came out. I am clearly getting old.

I was a little shocked that both parts of team pasta salad didn't get sent home.

"9/11 made me want to be a chef" was so weird.

No wonder the food at Google is free... shit, the food in the South Bay is pretty horrible, but even I would pay money to eat off-campus.

His crooked sunglasses drove me nuts last episode.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 6:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^ glad i wasnt the only one to notice this. plus the blazer plus shorts look is really no good.

PASTA SALAD! WTF?

I was a little shocked that both parts of team pasta salad didn't get sent home.

I was hoping. let's move this thing along

clip from next week shows that someone gets eliminated after the quickfire (!)

"9/11 made me want to be a chef" was so weird.

I am still puzzling over this wtf statement.

If we don't cook the terrorist win

we all had our own unique responses to that horrible day

i thought FOR SURE that the other gal was gonna be sent home, kinda surprised by Preeti. But then again, she had no idea how to open shellfish so I would have sent her home on the first day.

she almost sunk that other girl in the quick fire by using her pasta water to blanche asparagus.

She definitely deserved to go, that much was obvious.

Jennifer was awesome as executive chef.

whenever there's two people and one of them knows they put out crap and the other thinks its good, the one with no taste goes home, and that's what happened last night. Tom said as much, they had to decide between the person who wasn't competing but at least knew it wasn't special food, and the chef who thought it was a great idea well executed.

and yeah, think about what a clusterfuck it would've been if Jennifer hadn't been executive.

i am torn by the fact that jennifer comes off as kinda snobby-obnoxious to me but she's clearly the most talented/competent contestant.

I'm a bit more forgiving about her obnoxiousness since it's pretty clear that most chefs are chauvinist jerks.

"most chefs" including that d-bag Mike

mr. "I can't believe a GIRL keeps beating me in the quickfire!"

Or whomever said to her "oh so you're a pastry chef?"

that was the Haitian dude, wasn't it?

"i can't even say her name so i just say purty"

fuuuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooooooou.

also pretty sick of Jesse. when she kept hitting her forehead with the heel of her hand in one of her interview segments I was thinking Chris Farley. "I'm! So! Stupid! Argh!"

when she loses she will return to her van down by the river.

http://www.bravotv.com/media/images/persons/top-chef-season-6-exit-603.jpg http://twopennypost.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/danielthekaratekid.jpg

just sayin

also pretty sick of Jesse. when she kept hitting her forehead with the heel of her hand in one of her interview segments I was thinking Chris Farley. "I'm! So! Stupid! Argh!"

Yeah, my husband said the same thing about Jesse. I guess all she needs now is a van down by the river.

you know what else? a van down by the river!

I like how the Puerto Rican guy and the Haitian guy are difficult to understand because of their accents - so they end up having about only 3 sentences each per episode... and this episode had Jennifer cutting one of them off: "You can talk later".

Also Georgia boys repr4sent! We have 3 of them this year: "fatties" and Hector (Puerto Rican guy).

don't they all work within like 2 miles of each other

Woodfire Grill (Kevin aka red-headed beard-o dude's restaurant) looks pretty good actually.

Beardo is one of the only ones that doesn't annoy me.

Kevin, Jennifer and the Bros for the finale

Those brothers are probably cylons or terminators, they don't seem human.

i'm saying kevin, jennifer, and the bro who won the bachelor/ette party challenge for finale.

As stated upthread, I think Ash is a darkhorse, wouldn't be surprised to see him make the final show.

and remember, even someone as unskilled as Hosea can win.

they're programmed to not display emotion i think xp

i hope the people still in this have learned one thing this season. this is your enemy:

http://4pack.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/shrimp.jpg

DON'T DO IT. STAY AWAY FROM THE SHRIMP, PEOPLE.

unless you've got one helluva dish.

I haven't seen the episode yet, was there shrimp in the pasta salad? If so, LOLOLOLOLOLOL.

shrimp is the new scallop

no, it wasn't in the pasta salad. i won't spoil the shrimp surprise for you.

x-post

i'm still shaking my head over the pasta salad. not only could I have made that salad, i could have done a better job!!! for real! if i can make it, you are going home. that's all i know.

pork and potato salad dish was SO fucking smart! come on, southern army guys and bbq food? that was perfect.

Yeah, I just made pasta salad last week and thought mine looked better than the one they ended up with. And it's not like I'm the greatest chef, either, so that's saying something. xp

Did the Mike team make pork belly or bacon? There seemed to be some confusion about that.

Ash reminds me of a kinda-goofy comic actor but I can't figure out which one.

1st: bacon is pork belly.

2nd: they used "slab bacon" which the judges couldn't believe they made something so refined from.

Thanks for clearing that up for this vegetarian dude.

I've never seen Tom as impressed as he was that that pork belly dish was made that way.

Apropos of nothing, but I was a backwaiter at Craft the second year it was opened and I got fired for a bad attitude so I TOO have felt the wrath of colicchio.
FYI though, the food at Craft was fucking awesome. I once ate so many pastries and ice cream cups after closing that I was sick for a half a week. I still have pleasant memories of the venison and the jerusalem artichokes.

i think i lasted about eight months or so.

"even someone as unskilled as Hosea can win" is the new "you gotta be in it to win it"

the 9/11 thing that got me most was that she was all 'on 9/11 i felt like cooking so 2 years later i went to culinary school'.

Do these people not watch previous seasons or something? NEVER MAKE A SALAD. Of course the pasta salad people were so dumb on so many levels that it didn't matter. Preety still operating under the misconception that it matters what the people they are cooking for think, rather than understanding that it's the JUDGES that will send you home. I think Mike just stupidly thought (like Ashley the previous week) that he would somehow get extra credit for throwing something together. DON'T MAKE AN EXTRA DISH! The problem was that he had nothing to do with the dish that his team made that was actually "good". At least he seemed to comprehend his mistake (couldn't tell if he was more pissed at himself or the judges, frankly.)

Just once I'd like the guy to say "Yeah, I'm not a pastry chef and it's definitely not my specialty but fuck's sake: I'm on TOP CHEF and they bump somebody every season for not being able to make a decent cake. So I prepared about four dessert recipes and tested them so I should be fine."

Especially don't pull a Mike and make an extra dish if you aren't also making something awesome. You can get away with one awesome and one bad thing, but not just one bad thing.

how could frenchie have blown this one!

liked this episode. kinda confirms the jennifer/dead ringer brothers showdown to come.

also, i would have thought that southern beardo would have been a little bummed that he couldn't cook for his idol. i guess eating with him was enough?

and they made the right choice, emimination-wise. cooking and serving a piece of meat properly is something that a thawed out caveman new to our modern world could have done better than that guy. it really doesn't get any more BASIC than that.

"kinda confirms the jennifer/dead ringer brothers showdown to come."

Oh I think you are underrating beard-o, but I def. agree those are the four to beat.

I was wondering if Jennifer and dead ringer Michael are getting ready to "make a bangin' dish together" wink wink

best episode in a while I thought. that show has never had a collection of chefs sitting around a table that matched up to that group last night

I wondered if Kevin would be disappointed too but otoh he got to sit and chat with all those guys

it really doesn't get any more BASIC than that.

Hector and Ash totally had the easiest dish to pull off and messed it up. probably can find a better steak au poivre at a vegas buffet

Goofus, Gallant, Beardy and Vicious Blonde are your definite finish line types.
This was pretty good. I hope they stick to double elimination next week too. STILL TOO MANY PEOPLE.

I was wondering if Jennifer and dead ringer Michael are getting ready to "make a bangin' dish together" wink wink

I wondered that too but then thought I was maybe reading to much into it.

I want to try bacon jam now, thanks to beardo.

man you know he was just waiting for the right moment to break out that bacon jam. real ace in the hole.

also i would bet good money that the amuse bouche that pancakes mclipring got booted for was what she serves in her restaurant
http://www.toonpool.com/user/701/files/how_embarrassing_273265.jpg

I was actually pretty sure that vicious blonde was into the Latino guy; they were always hangin' out and I'm pretty sure they were in the hot tub until the drunk frenchman barged in with his awesome shirt

I am officially rooting for Jennifer at this point.

I think anyone who hasn't been rooting for Jennifer from the get-go has been watching a different show from what I'm watching.

thirded.

Yeah she's my favorite with beardo running a close second. He's just cuddly looking.

I can't decide between her and beardo, I like them both. The dead ringer brothers are just too robotic to like, although they seem talented.

I thought annoying Mike was gonna get the win for the deconstructed sauce. it never really came out in the judging that Brian "invented" the sauce and Mike just executed it

http://www.skilletstreetfood.com/baconjam.htm

I wonder how many people are buying this today.

I was wondering if Jennifer and dead ringer Michael are getting ready to "make a bangin' dish together" wink wink

― dmr, Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:23 AM

i felt it, too

keep meaning to try skillet but i've heard it's insanely rich, etc, and i'm not handling all this omg bacon corn dogs ribs shit too well lately.

now i am thinking that jam would be really great on grilled cheese, though. hmmmmmm.

"how could frenchie have blown this one!"

Btw the answer to this is that by all accounts frenchie is a pretty meh chef. I don't know anyone who loves his restaurant.

i was happy to see my top chef masters crush again. <3 u hubert!

"i felt it, too"

i did too! that whole "we don't even have to speak, we know what the other is doing" bit could have come out of a romance novel. of course, he's all business. when they asked them what it was like working together, she said "easy" and he muttered something about competition and having to be better than her. what a killjoy.

i was yelling "take her, dude." to the tv at one point

yeah the judges' table was one part. also when they were all shopping and cutesy banging their shopping carts into each other. my wife was like "that group thinks they're the cool kids in class don't they."

yea my gurl was all like "i think something besides food is cooking up here 'twixt jen and mike." and this, yo prolly not exactly what beardo made, but damn if i aint gonna try it sometime soon. when he sayeth bacon jam my ears pricked forth. also this episode threw into striking relief the breadth of competitors.

and i going to hoot and holler when this guy gets bonged

This guy?

http://cdn.videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/top_chef_lv_4/michael.gif

this guy is great tho
http://eater.com/uploads/2009_08_Kevin.gif

Just want to say having Joel Robuchon on Top Chef is kinda like having Satan himself on Headbanger's Ball, not sure how well it translated how significant dude was. In fact, to have a show where Daniel Boulud is playing 2nd fiddle kinda shows how insane the talent was on that show. Hubert Keller and others don't deserve to sharpen Boulud and Robuchon's knives.

I thought it was weird that they brought in Robuchon for an early episode and not for the finale or something late into the season.

Just want to say having Joel Robuchon on Top Chef is kinda like having Satan himself on Headbanger's Ball

Love this, btw.

Also, Mattin is a fair-to-middling chef. Yes, he is French but he's from Biarritz which is about as close you can get to the Basque Country before leaving France. The cuisine his SF restaurant serves is Basque, not French.** I think I heard him say he moved to the US when he was in his early 20s so there is a question of whether he possesses the maturity or discipline that one might imagine when introduced as "French chef".

**I love Basque cooking, maybe as much as classic French and Japanese, I am not making a judgement here.

yeah, i was wondering how they were gonna top the episode where everyone cooks for GREATEST CHEF EVAH. gonna have to be downhill after that.

x-post

I think they had to schedule the show around Robuchon while he was in Vegas... Apparently only visits his Las Vegas restaurants once every 2 months. My friend is on an email list that alerts her whenever he's coming to town.

next they'll have ronald mcdonald judge a rehash of the vending machine challenge

special guest: hamburglar

i honestly wouldn't mind a little vegas razzle dazzle. maybe an omelette speed challenge at one of those insanely busy breakfast buffet places and wayne newton singing and a motorcycle daredevil jumping over their heads into a pit of french circus performers. or something like that. basically, i just want to see who can make the most fluffy omelettes in an hour. but i'm low and base like that.

an hour?!?
how bout 15 minutes

or who can make the best omelette just using the contents of wayne newton's dressing room refrigerator.

or who can make the best omelette using wayne newton

Bryan's victory got a one week "stage" at Robuchon, how rad is that?

I bet Kevin wishes he had competed instead of eating.

Maybe not in this case, given that it was a team event.

Also, thought the judges were more protein-biased than sauce biased in their reviews.

Yeah I think who you got paired with kind of determined how pleased you were with this event.

Easy cannon fodder: Haitian guy, super boring chick with yellow headband, Red-headed chick (next week I think), french guy, angry lesbian

Well that's pretty much everyone except for red-headed gay guy, loud-mouth LA jerk and the four we've already mentioned.

I'm actually not sure that Ashleigh (angry lesbian) and Ron (haitian guy) are that ripe for the picking. The other three though def. seem out of their league.

you're forgetting Eli (young Atlanta coat-tail rider chubby fauxhawk)

Eli seems like a top sixer to me.

We should do an elimination pool up to the last episode!
Place your bets for next week's elimination any time prior to the first airing to get in on this action.
I'm voting redheaded lady.

Yeah I'd say her or head-band lady are the most obvious choices.

i kinda wish jennifer wasn't the only competitive woman. seems kinda mean to have all these women on who obviously aren't in the same league as some of the dudes. or maybe i'm just the sensitive type.

its funny... last season, Leah was in the top 4 or 5 and she wasn't as talented as anybody left in the remaining 10 of this season.

No it's really pretty crappy, but it's kind of an unavoidable by product of forcing the contestents to be 50/50 male/female split in an industry that is decidedly NOT.

I'm not sure anyone last season will end up being as talented as the remaining 8 or so in this season.

angry lesbian might have some skills? sorta?

I think Stefan would've fared pretty well.

Yeah he's the obvious exception.

Stefan should have won. never forget.

Is Stefan the guy who choked in the final challenge? That's the only ep from last season that I saw.

Uh not really. He just made a crappy dessert basically. Carla was the one who choked.

You might be thinking of Richard Blais from the season before actually.

i understand that you can't make everything even steven, but if puerto rican guy hadn't screwed up that meat then there might have been 5 women in a row kicked out.

Oh, okay. The guy who basically flat-out said "I completely choked on this challenge and could have done so much better" to the judges?

but i'm enjoying this season overall!

That was Richard Blais from the season before.

"i understand that you can't make everything even steven, but if puerto rican guy hadn't screwed up that meat then there might have been 5 women in a row kicked out."

Nah Tom made it pretty clear on his blog that Tin Tin was going home.

"The snails we presented to the chefs were live. However to cook a live snail requires a lengthy purging process that the chefs wouldn’t have time to do. They were given snails that had been precooked, and just needed to be seasoned while being finished. This leveled the playing field, so that those chefs who had never before worked with snails weren’t put at that much of a disadvantage."

^^I had been wondering about this

oh yeah. cooking those suckers is a ass long process and i was kinda thinking about that quickfire too.

Oh wow I need to start reading tom's blog!

Headband = other half of shrimp duo? She and redhead lady should go.

o hi
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=797665277

/stalker

what an overbite!

haha, they're all friends with each other:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=705268448

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=677332472

totally just done for the show.
didn't stop me from sending her a friend invite.

i can only see the last one. maybe bc of networks?

Totally uncomfortable watching Jennifer & Tattoo Bro at the judge's table. They were making googly-eyes at each other on national TV!

Can't decide between Southern Beardo and Jenn. It's fun hearing him talk about food, she just seems like a badass - smart, quiet guy who's devoted his life to one thing vs. kitchen Terminator. A more interesting pool might be which of the clear Top 4 (brothers + these two) will screw up and get bounced before the finale. It'll probably be whichever one signs on as head chef for the restaurant challenge.

Beardo is doing great obv. but will need to branch out beyond "southern" some more.

i would bet cash that they axe one bro before the top four. they're gonna get plenty of drama just from winnowing the field; I think you get a whole bro on bro episode. Maybe even restaurant wars!

I say the excessively earnest bro goes early.

Um, the one without the tattoos, if that wasn't clear.

goofus and gallant
tony hawk and marlon blando

guys i dont have cable and i want to watch this online

maybe this'll work? http://watch-series.com/serie/top_chef

hell of pop-ups but it worked, thanks!

also try realitytvfan.com or something?

babe in the woods w/r/t tv online, fwiw

you know how you know when someone is not long for this show: when they say something like, "we don't have cactus where i am from. therefore, i don't know how to cook cactus." a really bad excuse for a chef. so long tin tin.

why so much with the ceviches at all times everybody

yeah the rash of ceviches got pretty tiresome

do some actual cooking guys

you guys, when the (douchebag) executive chef at a greek restaurant pronounces "gyros" as "jai-rows"... not sure if i ever want to eat there tbh.

i'd never heard of the lonesome dove guy. is he hot shit?

that guy seemed like a real dick.

pronounces "gyros" as "jai-rows".

haha I thought this too

i'd never heard of the lonesome dove guy. is he hot shit?

― scott seward, Thursday, September 17, 2009 9:17 AM (3 minutes ago)

he made a short-lived appearance as a contestant on TC Masters...

those ranch hands were from what ranch exactly? hidden valley?

great url, that's about all i can say about this...

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/09/01/padma-lakshmi-indie-rocker/

http://cdn.videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/top_chef_lv_5/cactus.gif

lol! they way he was pronouncing cactus had me busting up last night.

I don't think I would ever eat food prepared by Robin.

so i missed the first half and was too tired to count heads: did anyone get kicked off during the quick fire?

Nah, Tintin was the only one to go home.

at this point i almost feel like i'm watching just in case one of the second-tier actually manages to knock out one of the more-than-probably final four.

as much as beardo seems like a nice dude, this shit is so already down to jennifer and one of the brothers, probably the one that keeps winning the challenges. (brian? bryan? billy bob? i can't fucking remember his name.)

Brian seems like the clear favorite at this point.

i would have rather seen Robin go home and keep tintin around a little longer for lulz.

the judges were commenting on Ashley being a sleeper pick.

yeah, the first time she finishes outside of the bottom three... ?

Who wouldn't want to eat in the restaurant of a chef who makes an amazing dish 1 out of 10 times and dreck the other 9?

hey, some of us live in new jersey.

if you make a judge sick then you are packing yr knives. but if you only make a judge spit out yr shrimp then you may stay.

http://eater.com/uploads/2009_09_mattin.gif

needs Snowy jumping up and down in the background or something

lmao!

http://www.10daysoff.be/nl/programma/gfx/pic_snapcracklepop-thumb-400x298.jpg

I'm not completely convinced that Mattin is not in fact a Rice Krispie.

snap

heart heart heart

when will ppl learn that if yr in the bottom 3 you dont say 'i thought my dish was really good!! i'm so surprised to be here!'

lonesome dove guy was hilarious on Masters.

yeah, if you're in the bottom three, your dish wasn't good, and if you say you thought it was, you're gone.

That's pretty much why robin didn't get booted I think.

does chlorine even come in sticks?

Lonesome Dove guy has a burger joint in the Stockyards I want to try. The Love Shack!

he had a place in NY a few years back that flopped.

i vaguely remember seeing him on something before. forget what.

which dish won? i knew one of the brothers made the dashi but i couldn't remember what the other one made or who made what that won. oops.

Bryan (older bro). I remember his technique and preperation (paraphrase: "I spent an hour staring at the fire pit visualizing how the pans would all align"), more than the dish itself... pork tenderloin and bitter greens?

wasn't he the one who said early in the episode that he wasn't going to change his style just because they were cooking outdoors? so otm with that. unlike martintin who has become the 2nd footnote in what is fast becoming the season of KNOW THY SEAFOOD.

i thought that was the japanesey one?

I get those cylon boys mixed up. could easily have been him. I was half right, lol.

also: I could watch that Martintin gif upthread all day long. loooooll

nope, the younger brother (Michael, LA surfer tats) made something with a dashi broth... and when asked if he had an asian cooking background he said he had an "everything-cooking-background".

yea the winner was pork and rutabaga puree i think

oh! and polenta. That was the other component.

I went to a dinner party last night with a chef who worked with Preeti prior to the show and said she is a bitch and hard to work with.

I ate at the Love Shack today - had the Dirty Love (beef, bacon, cheese and a quail egg) without the Love Sauce (some kind of mayo-y stuff). Fries are cut wide like normal fries but very thin, so they come out kind of in a big ball. All outdoors, looks like it would be fun on a weekend.

"I would be a green zebra tomato – extremely distinctive from all the others, a little hard on the outside, but pure love at the center."
BITCH

sorry, i'm easily influenced.

I think it's pretty clear who the next couple of folks to go home are now. Can't see Robin, Laurine and Ash being around for long.

and after that Eli, Michael and Ashley.

err Michael = Mike Isabella, douchebag with the overplucked eyebrows.

The producers HAVE to have gotten pretty much gotten as much out of the "what's she doing here" thing with Robin now.
Although lil' chubby's post win schtick about "oh sure u win cuz u had CANCER" was both OTM and o_O

i hate that guy. he's the worst cuz he thinks he's all that, but it's so obvious that he isn't.

x-post

"and after that Eli, Michael and Ashley."

Yeah it's pretty clear that the problem with chefs as talented as Jennifer/Kevin/Dead Ringers is that make everyone else seem kind of chumpish by comparison.

I mean the problem from a dramatic standpoint obv.

I'm wondering if Mike sticks around to become this year's top three bad guy and two of the other contenders somehow slip?

He doesn't even seem like much of a bad guy. Most of the chefs seem to like him.

xp seems unlikely to me. He seems out of his depth.

chefs DO love him. But I think he can be made to look a boor in edit real easy.
chefs also seem to think he's kinda hot shit. Wondering if edit is making him look weaker than he is to make an ascendancy more of a shock?

"Wondering if edit is making him look weaker than he is to make an ascendancy more of a shock?"

Well it couldn't be that much of a shock. I mean did win (or was he just a nominee) like some prestigious Best New Chef thing, didn't he? That said it seems like his lack of culinary training is clear when it comes to challenges where you have to know things like various French sauces and how to make eggs florentine, etc.

yeah it's like dude, can you not check your cell phone and look up eggs florentine? His "what country is eggs florentine from" comment was really DUH.

His "what country is eggs florentine from" comment was really DUH.

Was it? A dish that contains English muffins, ordinary ham and sauce hollandaise is unlikely to be from anywhere but the US or maybe Britain in my opinion. He still annoys me, though.

he didn't know what was in it! going by florentine under those circumstances would be a safe bet.

Well he didn't know components so it didn't matter.

xp

can you not check your cell phone and look up eggs florentine?

pretty sure they take away your phone. no phones, computer, anything like that

unless it is a Very Special Episode, then you get a T-Mobile Sidekick to call a loved one

going by florentine under those circumstances would be a safe bet.

Not if, say, he had studied Italian cuisine more closely than American brunch food. For all we know, he was actually snobbily tweaking the other chefs. "Look at me! I don't even know where these vulgar dishes are from or what's in them?" Chefs are notorious for looking down on brunch culinarily.

what a disaster for brunches

Well, from a business point of view, they're often a place to get rid of stuff that hasn't sold over the week is all I mean.

There is definitely gonna be some drama w/r/t to Mike later... I don't want to play spoilers on here, but all y'all may be interested in re-screening the first episode at some point because they have little teasers flash-forwarding very quick cut scenes from future episodes. There are two contestants remaining that have some SERIOUS drama up ahead based on those teasers.

Also, I hate Toby!!! His criticisms were probably the most spot on this episode and he made no horrible attempts at jokes/puns, but still... go away!!!!! Bring back Gail. Was Gail too nice?

There is crazy Eli/Robin drama coming, isn't there?

Go rewatch epi1 and pay special attn when they do those quick edit flash fwds!

Am I misremembering and its Mike/Robin then? Or is there just additional Mike/Someone drama? I think its in the kitchen IIRC.

haha! :P

oh what's up next week? our recording got cut off before the previews started.

It so hard to keep everyone straight when they all have fauxhawks.

what he said.

i think it's funny that in the first episode it was kind of swept under the rug that ron didn't understand the concept of the vice challenge and in this episode he was basically totally ousted for not understanding the concept of deconstruction. they should've had someone explain the challenges to him in creole.

is michael i really that much of a sexist asshole or do they just edit it so every episode opens with him going "THERE ARE A LOT OF SHITTY CHEFS LEFT, LIKE [woman x] WHO IS CLEARLY WORSE THAN [dude y who was eliminated in the last episode"

Toby is like a stereotype of a pompous windbag of a Brit. They have him for drama, obviously, but even Tom rolled his eyes at him a couple of times.

dear hatian dude, i am sorry you did not win the american dream of coming on a boat to win a reality show and be named top schef. better luck next time.

is there any way we can get rid of like, 3 chefs next episode? this was really boring. and the quickfire was a little too similar to the vices thing.

yeah the quickfires are often way better than the challenges but this last one was a fucking copout

anything that keeps robin around longer is a fail imo

yeah, fuckin chemo right?

i think they must have told toby not to do any of those 'this dish reminds me of elvis in his later years...' type stuff + thank god

His "what country is eggs florentine from" comment was really DUH.

Was it? A dish that contains English muffins, ordinary ham and sauce hollandaise is unlikely to be from anywhere but the US or maybe Britain in my opinion. He still annoys me, though.

― l'homme moderne: il forniquait et lisait des journaux (Michael White), Thursday, 24 September 2009 18:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ham + hollandaise is eggs benedict

who said it had swiss cheese in it bc that was O_O

i thought it did! eggs florentine usually has mornay sauce which is made w/ gruyere

all the florentines i've had were just eggs spinach and hollandaise!

but maybe we do it wrong here.

yea i've just googled it and it looks like some recipes say mornay + some recipes say hollandaise

I think ham is optional or at least it is these days.

"oh what's up next week? our recording got cut off before the previews started."

Looks like they are cooking in the apartment in pairs. Mike/Robin together at last!

the diff between benedict and florentine is subbing spinach for ham.

Kinda what I thought too.

3rded

yea like i said, i googled it, and some sites say that it has hollandaise and some say mornay

so who knows

Toby basically saying “yeah I know paella is a Spanish word and all but why don’t you guys just pronounce it like I do? fucking spanishes and their words” then Michelle comes with the quick zing ! awesome

So happy that beardo won. Ron was a nice man, just not so great at parsing the challenges. But Ash is definitely on the down slope. WTF at his custard for the quickfire. Isn't he he same guy that tried to make icecream once before and it didn't set? granted he fooled them that time, but is he ever just going to try to cook things he knows how to make well? I want to slap Eli really hard. Dude is just a straight up tool. Though the Robin comments were kind of LOL/WTF.
Tired of Robin, tired of Laurine, tired of Ash. buhbye.

ash is an idiot.
love beardo. love. just noticed this ep he is totally bald and covering it up with a mini fauxhawk lololol.

I noticed that too!! So cute.

I also really loved that Kevin and Jessica walked out with their dishes all 'lol my dish looks like crap'...especially Jessica feeling like she might be in trouble.

but it was a great, great sign when Kevin said he had spent most of his time at the restaurant TASTING his food. see? See contestants? when you say you didn't taste your food, that means you don't give a crap. it means you may go home. ABT. Always. Be. Tasting.

who is jessica?

Jennifer, I think.

Whoever said above that Kevin isn't a serious contender is crazy btw. I think dude's stuff has looked consistently amazing.

yea i think kevin's great

And unlike "jie-rose" he seems to actionally like know how to cook stuff outside his comfort zone.

was a little concerned about his OMG BACON/RIBS/CORN DOGS thing at first but he's put out some pretty awesome looking dishes.

"OMG BACON/RIBS/CORN DOGS"

His first dish was some slow cured Arctic Char, right? I mean dude clearly likes eating crap (how much you wanna bet he and Eli have little "parties" where they get stoned and eat microwaved pizza watching Jacques Pepin) but he doesn't seem to like cooking it (or think its appropriate to do so for this competition anyway.)

that reuben thing would've gone over better if he'd just used corned beef.
"i understood the challenge, but i wanted to do my own thing" almost always equals you are cruisin' for a bruisin'

ugh need more coffee. Yeah, I meant Jennifer.

Yeah Kevin is my favorite now, most definitely. But I'm 100% rooting for Jennifer because she doesn't seem to have a bad dish in her. Even when she thinks she sucks.

also Ash substituting pureed peas = facepalm. Really?

tbf it was deconstructed dishes. a protein sub isn't that OOT esp if you sub in a similar colored/textured one.

w/r/t ash, he'd rather serve something platable rather than a failed component.

i was thinking of the bacon jelly and pork shoulder etc
xpost

"w/r/t ash, he'd rather serve something platable rather than a failed component."

Yeah I think the quickfire demonstrated Ash's failings as much as the elimination. The tomato was particularly WTF though on the latter.

I was really surprised how poorly Dead Ringer's quickfire went over, because I thought it looked really cool and the description sounded interesting.

why did nobody try a black and white cookie?

vegas not ny?

love beardo. love. just noticed this ep he is totally bald and covering it up with a mini fauxhawk lololol.

I noticed this too and wondered why he didn't just shave it all off. Kitchens can get pretty hot.

did i record the wrong thing or was there no new ep last night?

no new episode. not sure why.

yeah they do this a couple times a season.

i was sad.

padma got way too baked and they had to retape it

Padma Lakshmi, "Top Chef" hostess-with-the-mostest, has a bun in the oven

Next quickfire will be making an amuse bouche with pickles and chocolate ice cream.

lol! WHOEVER BRINGS ME THE BIGGEST CAN OF ANCHOVIES THEY CAN FIND WILL WIN THE ENTIRE COMPETITION.

i was sad too

no beardo. :(

This is Daddy (not hers, her baby's):

http://www.gossipsauce.com/tags/ted-forstmann

why is she so into gross old men

what. the. frak. that baby's gonna come out 40 years old straight from the womb. Criminy.

wtf

i think in forstmann's case, he has more money than god...

but as for SRushdie, idk, i think it' s kinda cool and showed character. i crushed harder on her after learning about that.

this is a bad year for Steve Shasta... first Kourtney Kardashian and now Padma... :-(

If you had told me that a famous foodie liked old dick I would have definitely guessed Zimmern.

what a disasta for shasta

Padma is so fucking hot-looking great this season, still acting bizarre as ever at times, which I find very attractive.

Zimmern's straight, I think.

I refuse to believe it.

I stayed away from this thread because I couldn't find an upload of the latest season to watch, finally decided to give in, be spoiled, but at least find out what happened in the episode - and there was no episode. Hah.

-season +episode

(sternly) "Curry isn't middle-eastern"

*pause, blank stare*

Ashley was more interesting and showed more promise then several of the remaining chefs. They should've just sent Robin, Eli and Ash home. How embarrassed was Michael during Ash's ass-kissing at the judge's table? And way to back-pedal after saying "there are many chefs here who are way better then I am".

Laurine is flying under the radar, her dishes seem to be improving.

Good to see Jen with a win (esp. for sauce, one of the first times this season where they awarded a top prize for sauce/sides over a protein).

Ash's weird spiel probably shortened his stay quite a bit, taking a fall over something that isn't necessarily his fault was odd.

Ashley going home before Robin, Eli, Laurine, or Ash sucks too, she had rebounded from a poor start and got fucked by Eli's over seasoning and frying (wtf?) of the gnocchi.

ash was soooooooooooooooooooo asking for it! god, i can't believe they didn't kick him out. he really doesn't deserve to be there after that weird confession.

soon as he started talking at judges table, I started saying "GOOD BYE...GOOD BYE..."

couldn't believe he stayed. They said something about having to choose the worst dish of the two and pick someone from that team, but I call bullshit on that.

Do any of you notice that high pitched jangly noise whenever Padma talks? It happened on the last two episodes and I think it's the sound of her bracelets clinking against one another. But seriously it's like hearing a high pitched squeal whenever Padma talks... maybe it's soothing and subliminal to most people.
-----

Ash didn't throw Eli under the bus for making it too salty. I thought Eli was definitely gonna go home but I'm glad that he didn't because I like him more than Ashley (or Ash for that matter).

ash was soooooooooooooooooooo asking for it! god, i can't believe they didn't kick him out. he really doesn't deserve to be there after that weird confession.

That was seriously a "Please send me home" speech.

Ashley* didn't throw Eli under the bus
She could have stayed if she argued better.

They did some close ups on the spot prawns on the grill and honestly they looked OVERDONE (bright orange and white banding) from the tops, not sure if those were the ones that made it to the plates or not.

hahaha "cleaning picasso's paintbrushes" hahaha
even tony hawk looked embarrassed.
those prawns must've been real shitty.

i liked how older brother put beardo in his place when younger brother got sent out in front of the judges. That scene illustrated the difference between 30-something versus 20-something.

I thought beardo was just trying to figure out what they put out. it didn't seem like he was judging the item... it seemed more like older brother jumped the horse. but I guess we will never know

Eli's kind of a weasel, and I'm bummed he didn't get sent home. But I understand Ashleigh getting bounced for undercooked prawns.

Ash's stump speech for Michael was cringeworthy. I was afraid he was going to make it even WORSE for Michael, i kept muttering 'shut up shut up shut up'.

Glad that Jenn & Kevin got to team up.

Omg, major lols at Padma's curry showdown with Robin. Yeah, go on Robin, why don't you tell Padma about the origins of curry.

snore over doucheMike's big to do over teaming with Robin/omg we're going home/omg I hate her so much. Such a nonevent, I hate the showrunners for wasting my time with that red herring.

xxp - it also illustrated that although the brothers are talented they unfortunately make for some pretty boring, drama-free television

the next four weeks are gonna feel pretty long while we wait for all the dead wood to be cut

wtf was padma wearing this episode?

my wife dubbed it the "kermit the frog cameltoe pantsuit"

lol

when I first saw the overhead camera shot of her from behind I thought she wasn't wearing pants at all!

"Glad that Jenn & Kevin got to team up."

yeah! my two faves. that was nice. and they were good together too. mostly, cuz they know what they are doing and aren't filled with fear/competitive snark.

snore over doucheMike's big to do over teaming with Robin/omg we're going home/omg I hate her so much.

He was acting like he was in third grade, and was going to catch cooties off of the weird unpopular kid he was forced to work on an assignment with.

really can't stand that guy

i liked how older brother put beardo in his place when younger brother got sent out in front of the judges. That scene illustrated the difference between 30-something versus 20-something.

― ♪♫(●̲̲̅̅̅̅=̲̲̅̅̅̅●̲̅̅)♪♫ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, October 8, 2009 12:27 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

this was so lame. dude was just being such a baby.

yeah i dont think he "put him in his place" so much as "came across like a total douchebag because he was crying inside about how his brother fucked up the fish"

I think older Cylon twin was just a little agitated by the reality that his little bro might get sent home. I thought he was kinda douchey to Kevin, but maybe he hadn't really foreseen Mike getting bounced at all til then. As competitive as they are, maybe he liked the idea of them being in the top 3 or whatever.

not that beardo should have been all asking about it but brother didnt need to be such a tremendous jackass

Kevin wasn't being judgemental, he was just passing time speculating about what people made and what could or couldn't go wrong, and big bro comes to the defense "did you taste it? then i don't think you can judge". Kevin seemed intimidated. He should've stood his ground and said "I can say whatever the fuck I want about whatever the fuck I want, even your brother's stupid halibut!".

Lol. Kevin jumps up and says "YEAH? WELL AT LEAST i'M NOT A CREPEY CYLON LIKE YOU SO WHY DON'T *YOU* SHUT UP!!!"

toby young w/ the criticism straight out of clueless

Kevin definitely didn't deserve to get snipped at like that.

it was really immature

lol @ difference between ur 20s and 30s btw, do u just turn into a bigger jerk in ur 30s or what

I don't know about men but women turn into blossoming flowers in rainbow skittle fields

didnt get that at all, michael had already explained to everyone before padma came in that the outlet powering the plancha and wok had tripped and cut out.

the ediitng showed kevin's questions toward bryan were critical of the taste of ingredients and bryan countered that kevin hadn't tasted the dish so he didn't reserve the right to judge the dish. pretty simple and straight forward. kevin came off a gloating aspie trying to mentally spreadsheet out the dish, and bryan's like "dude, just chill and wait til they come back".

I didn't see Kevin being critical. But maybe I should double check. Anyways we may never know the parts that were edited out.

lol shasta did u watch a different show or

wtf was padma wearing this episode?

my wife dubbed it the "kermit the frog cameltoe pantsuit"

haha, mine pointed out "oh look, she's not wearing any panties" followed by a quick freeze frame pointing out where the lines would show through on that cut of trouser.

lol. top chef telestrator

xpost: lol the Padama-Commando Zapruder film...

shasta you are off base. did you even watch the show? I don't think you have the right to judge.

His questions weren't critical of the taste, iirc, he was asking what the components were in an effort to surmise the issues and if I can remind everybody, the cooking was only part of the problem, the judges all questions the initial concept. It was cool and high-concept, but might not have worked even if the fish was cooked well.

Personally I was excited about the frozen egg ravioli. I yelled out "he's making soup DUMPLINGS! with egg!"

http://cdn.videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/top_chef_lv_7/elli.gif

shasta you have a wife now?

Shasta totally wrong on this. The older brother was a total dick in that situation.

Padma must be pregnant, I noticed she didnt drink any wine, when normally she's getting really fucked up.

i know corporate sponsorship or whatever but these guys drinking crappy overpriced santa margherita pinot grigio is shamefull.

I kind of liked her green outfit. then again, she'd look good in a burlap sack.

yeah, the s. margherita thing was a little weird, plus they all were drinking the white, not the red.

The red was Sokol Blosser from Oregon, probably pinot noir. Not great stuff, but better than Santa Margherita (shudder).

Ive never had an Oregon pinot noir I have not liked. Granted, that's only three, but all have been quality.

It's not plonk by any means, but there are so many better wineries in the state and Sokol Blosser is overrated.

Well apparently Sokol Blosser is a major sponsor.... OR Kevin is a badass.

The biggest thing I want to say about this episode is OMG RESTAURANT WARS NEXT WEEK!! HOORAY! TEARS! SHOUTING! The best things about reality TV but with people actually MAKING something. WEE!!

That bizarre interlude with Michael/Eli joking about Eli getting to second base w/Robin was LOLarious. I like Michael a lot more when he's relaxed around the house and being a butt.

WHEN IS ROBIN GOING TO LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAVE

i was happy that they kicked ash off this week. he doesn't seem to be any more or less talented than robyn, but you can't second guess yourself like he did and stay on the show. i thought it was lol that he was like INSTEAD OF OVERCOOKING THE PORK I'M JUST GONNA KEEP IT CHILLED instead of, like, figuring out how to cook pork & keep it hot without overcooking it.

robyn is def good for entertainment purposes, ESPECIALLY because she gets on the votagglio team for restaurant wars. gonna be amazing.

also, iirc (i think i say this every season), usually something retarded goes down during restaurant wars. i think it was back in the HUNG season when tre got eliminated even tho he was clearly one of the 3 or 4 best chefs. i think in this season you have such a clear break between robyn & the cat food girl and the rest of the chefs that there is no way that either of them are going home, but i could see them booting, like, eli just for the shock value since he's not gonna beat jen, kevin or mike v. anyway

AREN'T going home**

xxxxpost - Lance, I think Sokol Blosser is the only Oregon Winery with a major distribution. Why they would choose them over Domaine Drouhin, Ponzi, Elk Cove, or whoever else is beyond me.

I love seeing Kevin steal all the wins from those humorless jock twats.

And yes, next week looks awesome.

Only two more worthless chefs to go before the real competition starts!

The minute that Ash said "I took some advice from Mike Isabella..." I knew he was going home. Who in their right mind would take advice from that chucklehead?

Robyn is really obnoxious and the passive aggressive schtick is probably one of my least favorite things on earth, but I still felt sorry for her. It's better to just ignore people like that than to pick on them like it is still middle school.

I gotta say that cool kids vs. obnoxious cancer lady is REALLY nagl for this show; it's getting catty and stupid now. This is why I avoid reality shows.

would have obviously preferred to see robin go home but she'll get booted soon enough, i'm sure.

kinda sad to see ash go, mostly because i thought it was cute that he had a huge hard-on & weird adulation for mike v.

where does ash cook in real life? this show can really make you look bad. it made him look pretty dismal as a cook. be careful what you wish for as far as wanting to be on this show!

i was happy to see pig boy looking as happy as a pig in poop. and has he ever looked piggier? but in a cute piggy way.

robin, mike i., and eli all need to go, preferably in that order

re: drama, i would have been more on eli's side if we hadn't learned earlier in the episode that he lives with his goddamn parents.

Who to pick to go home? Jeez, they were all terrible. Ash threw himself under the bus this time.

i couldn't watch ash up there for another week. its just too embarrassing. well, i WAS gonna cook something good, but then i decided to cook something really BAD, you see...

But his line walking into the stew room "Oh yeah, I forgot to add flavor!" was hilarious and fitting.

when they called up the top 4 -- the v bros, jennifer, & kevin -- i really wanted them to say "you guys are the best & we're sending everyone else home"

because really, do we have to draw this out? those 4 are pretty consistently the best

imo one major flaw of the restaurant war challenge is having one contestant solely dedicated to working the front of the house. i want these guys to be judges on their food and not some dog and pony show.

*judged

Maybe have a couple of previous contestants that aren’t doing anything come in or something.

lorraine (?) seems to be fronting one of the team next week so she is my pick to go home

Ash was definitely ripe for the cutting block...I got a baaaad feeling last week when he basically slotted right into playing cylon Mike's sous chef. It seems like everyone in that competition sees him as a second-fiddle guy, a "doer"...and he buys into it. It was hard to even know what kind of chef he was, because his decision-making was so tied to his confidence level, or lack thereof. But in his favor, I will say he's up there with Kevin on just having a cool attitude. He's not pissing people off, he's not trying to form allegiances...he's very genuine, and that should go a long way for him.

"i'm not here to make friends" == can we retire this phrase already?

god yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w536Alnon24

haha i immediately thought of those videos last night when she said that

That was possibly the saddest iteration of "I'm not here to make friends", because usually people say that when they are purposely acting the reality show villain and/or stirring up trouble. With Robin, it was to make herself feel better because everyone despises her.

The whole "rotten robin" thing was HARSH.

Someone should punch Mike Isabella in the face every day of his life.

I think there is a good chance that somebody has.

dude is a tool of the highest order. for all his complaining about Robin, he's just as annoying, if not more so.

her behavior seems pretty obnoxious just from the little bits they feature on the show. i can't even imagine living with that, especially in a competitive setting.

it would be great drama if she actually had a chance to win though.

i think robin could outlast the other woman and maybe even eli if eli fucked up in a big way. THEN you would see some seriously pissed off superchefs.

course they make it look like robin is doing the screwing up on the preview for the next show. so, maybe her time is up finally.

yea i was hoping when it was robin, ash and headbands that tom would say something like "you are all going home tonight." cuz they are so obviously the lower tier. have to say tho i am a little shocked that making cat food described by chef palmer as "terrible," does not get you packing knives. and if i was robin i would just shut the fuck up, cuz they already don't like her, have gone out of their way to show it and there is nothing she can possibly do except win the thing to show them up. she is not going to win tho, cuz that's for beardo.

if pig boy plays his cards right he could be the next molto mario. the very apex of pigboydom.

"she is not going to win tho"

Two words: Ho. Sea.

have to say tho i am a little shocked that making cat food described by chef palmer as "terrible"

According to Tom's blog 1) the other judges didn't agree that it was like cat food and 2) it still tasted better than Ash's dish.

"Two words: Ho. Sea."

The competition is a lot tougher this season.

i think this is interesting from tom's blog (which i always forget exists. and it's interesting!):

"I think you’re seeing by now, as evidenced by Kevin’s win this week, that when we judge the Elimination Challenges, we’re not getting snowed by the “fancy” cooking of the two brothers. Kevin has made consistently smart and strong choices in his approaches to the challenges in this competition, and he did so again here."

no doubt and it would totally destroy the believability quotient if they keep her and dump one of the golden four, but this show is a little off the rails this season.

also from collichio's blog:
"From here on out, we are almost at a point in the competition where you’re either in the top or the bottom; there’s almost no middle left. At this point, any mistake could really get you sent home. You almost have to hope that if you’ve made a mistake, someone else has made a bigger blunder. Remember that anyone could go at this point … this isn’t a cumulative competition ...."
sounds like a threat?

off the rails?

<3 tom's blog

"off the rails?"

doesn't feel under control? the cattiness between competitors elevating to open 'fuck yous' off the set. the vast gap in quality and chaff. the most over-the-top product placement. just not a real good season.

I am enjoying this season, especially because Project Runway has been so bad by comparison.

Totally disagree. It's my favorite season. And I think the cattiness/craziness quotient's always been pretty high on this show (one competitor tried to hold another competitor down while a third competitor was supposed to shave his head on another season!) The product placement has always been ridic as well. The vast gap in quality makes for an unusual gap between the top and bottom, true, but I don't think it makes anything less dramatic. As Tom points out in his blog, anyone can make a mistake. And watching the top four chefs as good as the top four cook is really fun. Their plates have looked consistently great.

ehh i guess it seems to me to be speeding very quickly on the rails. i see a clear evolution from season to season, so this year really isn't surprising to me.

yeah tbh, as far as product placement goes, this one was super tame & avoidable

Project Runway this year is weird in that I like the designs a lot more than the previous season, but the personalities are so. . . blah.

the chip challenge was really lame though. as far as product placement stuff goes.

once they got rid of the annoying crackhead on project runway everyone else is kinda half asleep. i still enjoy the show though.

and early on they got rid of the wacky lady who was ahead of her time and who would stand upsidedown instead of sketching cuz she didn't sketch and she would have been such good comic relief and someone good to hate.

maybe i'm just getting tired of the show.

This is the best season since the head-shaving season, IMO (when you had Wolverine, Tre, Casey, Dale, the tall-ass personal chef, etc.).

You are actually mixing up seasons two (Wolverine) and three (Tre, Casey, Dale, tall-ass personal chef), I think.

I was so so so so so mad that my favorite contestant got kicked off due to Marcelgate and they didn't even get the satisfaction of shaving dude's head as consolation!

my urgent question: why is tom c endorsing diet coke please

He needs money.

Or more accurately he needs more money.

http://ny.eater.com/uploads/robinpilates.gif

Oh, you're right. Hung won the third season. Second (Wolverine) was pretty forgettable until the last five or six were left.

cosign on product placement always being ridic. Remember Rocco Dispirito's 'Bertolli cook frozen pasta in a bag' challenge... the one that Hung supposedly was going to pwn and then was lucky not to get the ass for?

I really enjoy this season, I think maybe my favorite so far. there's usually 1 or 2 who seem WOW amazing, but this time we've got FOUR really, really slammin chefs who are going to make the final few episodes a 100% throwdown (if one doesn't get bounced in a crazy upset, I hope not I hate that crap)

The worst season for me was Lisa in Season 4, season of the witch. I was so dismayed that Lisa stayed in for SO long when she was obviously not up to par that I swore off for the following season, I didnt' think I could stand it anymore. THAT was a hell season. Even if sunshiney Stephanie did make it all come out right. Lisa darkened that door way too much for me. i'm still scarred by it. God she made me angry.

Are they ever putting the older seasons on DVD? I missed the first few, but nothing is available on Netflix.

I don't think they ever will. They replay almost all of them constantly before the newest season though.

i think top chef is too disposable for DVD

As opposed to top notch shows like Hell's Kitchen, The Nanny, and America's Next Top Model.

i've never seen those shows

Those are all crap reality shows available on Netflix. Top Chef is really the only reality show you can't rent. It's weird. Must be some bizarre licensing thing going on.

the nanny was a reality show???

Someone should punch Mike Isabella in the face every day of his life.

and also pls take away his tanning bed privileges! i'd love to see a tanning-to-pale skin breakdown like that one project runway dude.

yr thinking of the other mike, i think

When this gets down to one (or even both) of the brotheres, Jen and Kevin, it will get a little more interesting. We're still at the stage where they're whittling away the one-noters, the conceptually weak or cooking-weak, and playing up the usual 'Real World'-style interpersonal drama.

I respect the hell out of Jen's cooking but I'm a little annoyed either at her or at the producers or both that she constantly has these "Oh no, I'm in the weeds" moments while cooking and then manages to do well if not excellently, though the overcooked pork thing was a little dim of her.

Kevin just seems to ahve good instincts and ability. I'd be surprised if he's not there at the end.

The relationship between Michael and Brian is a little tedious, but the food they put out speaks more eloquently than they can verbally.

Toby needs to fall into a wood chipper.

it seems like jen may be the first of the top four to go home.

"Toby needs to fall into a wood chipper."

He's on his best behavior here, that's not fair. Though i would rather look at Gail Simmons' tits than his bald head any day.

Ugh his pathetic analogies are just. . . pathetic.

His 'hairy armpit/shaved armpit' analogy was so wrong, on so so SO many levels.

he was describing something GOOD, and yet the analogy made me NEVER want to eat again.

^^^^

He's a prat who loves the sound of his own voice even when he's talking utter rubbish and he has that deporable affectation of thinking himself ruthless and uncorruptible when he's merely just being snarky.

let's invite him to ilx

Worse, stiil to me is the fact that however much or little I like his analogies, Toby's taste, his appreciation, his own personal gustatory esthetic are largely opaque to me. He's much better at articulating why something sucks than in telling us why one dish was better than another.

The though has occurred to me that my post was a bit pot-calling-the-kettle black, but I have yet to be guest judge on the show, though I know some people who were.

"pie-ella" stfu

"He's much better at articulating why something sucks than in telling us why one dish was better than another."

Except that he's much more repugnant when he's doing the former than the latter so it kind of balances out.

I will say in his defense that he's not at all unwatchable. I'm guessing that five years of Michael Kors ham it up can prepare you to accept almost anyone as a judge.

Alex have you ever been to Tom C's sandwich place?

I've never been to a Tom Collichio restaurant.

Ugh his pathetic analogies are just. . . pathetic.

What's sad is you just know he has been sitting around all week thinking them up.

How long has this been at the Westfield Center?

All these negative things about TY are why I like watching him, cringeworthy enough to be entertaining. I know I am in the minority on this, though, if not the only person that enjoys him on the show. We've been through this before. That said, as i made clear above, i prefer gail.

Fwiw, I don't find Toby any more annoying than Gail. Neither of them really bring much to the table.

Most of the "food writers" they bring on don't have anything interesting to say. I wish they'd get someone like Ruth Reichl (she probably needs the work now!) or Jeffrey Steingarten.

I'll take Toby over Gail any tick of the clock. can't stand Gail.

Ooh Jeffrey Steingarten would be cool. Or one a more 'man of the people level, how about Mo Rocca? He was always great on the Iron Chef judging, imho. but I love him anyway so maybe I'm biased.

I thought Charlie Palmer's "yeah that's not how you make a rillette" takedown was just brutal.

Gail's voice is really annoying.

Is Gail just an editor who gets invited to a lot of parties or is there something special that qualifies her to be judge?

GF and I always crack up when Gail is on, cuz you can tell she's killing herself trying to slim down so she doesn't look horrendous next to Padma and she's never gonna get that horse by the tail.
just imagining her doing situps by the dozen imagining Padma's face on fire and showing up on the set with taped back boobs; probably wept with joy that big P is preggers now

"It's too, crunchy?"
"It's kind of, green?"
"I'm not sure what all of this is supposed to be." (waves hand, wrinkles nose).

Her criticisms are always so NOT what the food is about, or so vague that it's hard to know if she just hates the color or just doesn't know how to describe what she's eating.

She's an LA accent away from being a Valley Girl. "Like, gag me with a spoon, this dish is grody to the max"

She reminds me of the female judges on old school Iron Chef.

hahah otm!

was JUST thinking that exact thing.

"ooooooh, it looks so CREAMY. I can't wait to eat it!"

she tends to focus on the finer points of how the food is presented or played since she doesn't seem capable of really understanding the kitchen side of the business -- like omg it looks like my meat was hacked with an axe, guys

played = plated

My food is, like, ugly?

omg I'm supposed to eat this?? yeah right, like, i'm soooo sure

GF and I always crack up when Gail is on, cuz you can tell she's killing herself trying to slim down so she doesn't look horrendous next to Padma and she's never gonna get that horse by the tail.
just imagining her doing situps by the dozen imagining Padma's face on fire and showing up on the set with taped back boobs; probably wept with joy that big P is preggers now

― Does the hole come standard or did you have to special order it (forksclovetofu), Friday, October 16, 2009 1:47 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

loll

gail is a dope judge imo - her & tom & big p make a great team - toby is basically retarded

obv gail is only a judge because of the food & wine sponsorship. she's probably the prettiest editor at the mag and that's why she was picked. i think she brings a diff perspective. it would prob be a bit lame if all the judges except big p were kitchen lifers

My quick review of 'wichCraft--Colichio's sandwich place in SF-- I've been there a couple of times. The sandwiches range from "just ok" to "pretty good" but don't taste very fresh (especially when seeing how much hustle is going on in the kitchen) although I've really liked every soup I've had there. Last time I went both the lemonade and the iced tea tasted like onions, so I'm not sure what happened there. The place is huge, so you can always find a spot to eat at lunch hour and the wait is never too long, which is nice. Overall I think some quality control/consitency is in order. (xposts...)

As far as the show goes I'm wondering what gets left out that makes all the cheftestants seem to hate Padma.

I was wondering that as well. Ash really seemed to hate Padma, but the criticisms she offered on the show didn't seem that bad, Tom's were probably harsher.

I kind of have a crush on Gail.

I dont think it takes a genius as to why they hate Padma (smoking hot, hasn't worked any 14 hour shifts in kitchens, normally higher than a fucking kite, etc.)

Watching Tivoed eps from Top Chef to Next Iron Chef back to back makes me appreciate the Top Chef judges so much more. Even Toby.

Padma's kind of a dick?

Padma's hat was spectacular in this episode, kind of like Superfly at the Kentucky Derby.

haha yeah, that hat was definitely something that falls under the seinfeld category of something only a hot woman could get away with. you know she looked at herself in the mirror and was like "ah fuck it, i'm padma" and all the top chef crew & the judges were like "well fuck, she's padma"

Agreed. Even she eventually thought it was ridiculous, it was jettisoned pretty quickly.

looked like a goddam pringle

How long has this been at the Westfield Center?

Don't know but I haven't heard much good.

I have no probelm with Gail and I think she's rather fetching in her way and all and all less annoying than Padma (whose hat at the pork and Pinot thing I frankly admired) and I thought her critiques of the food were useful and not completely stupid. The P&P highlighted the fact that some of these chefs, talented as they may otherwise be, aren't alwasy up to snuff when it comes to wine pairings, and Gail, as a high-falutin' consumer rather than producer, was usually, whether I shared her tastes or not, pretty savvy about such things.

speaking of Padma's pringle-hat, did anyone else get major lols out of her huge white WWE Titlefight belt in the elimination. With the one two of GIANT belt, then GIANT hat, I got major rofls out of this week's use of the accessories wall.

aw dudes
i like toby, he's kinda like perou on project runway
like the token odd brit guy; i lol'd at that armpit thing

and his glasses were bono-y

Watching Tivoed eps from Top Chef to Next Iron Chef back to back makes me appreciate the Top Chef judges so much more.

otm

Steingarten on Top Chef ugh ugh no. can't stand that guy

he'd spend most of the time criticizing the other judges' palates

such a self-important jackass imo

yea steingarten is a tool. it's like he's trying to be the guy who says provocative things but it just comes off as bullying

"Don't know but I haven't heard much good."

I get the impression he's stretching himself pretty thin.

I think one of the first season quickfire winners got to put a sandwich on the menu.

I'll be honest, I don't understand the impulse to open sixteen dozen different restaurants, but I guess these dudes love money a lot more than I do.

Well, they'd be fools not to capitalize on their fame, but it's a fine line maintaining your 'brand' in terms of quality and consistency and having 8 zillion different business ventures.

I think some 'high-end' chefs just enjoy opening something more people can enjoy, putting their spin on it, etc.. Also, money.

I don't see what about Tom's sandwich shop would make anyone think it's something more people would enjoy. I guess dumb tourists might, but I guessing there are probably at least a 100 better sandwiches in SF (and they aren't in lame malls.)

its a sandwich shop, relax

It's a good sandwich shop. The turkey and the meatloaf are aces.

at least the NYC ones are.

colicchi boom boom down

maybe it's presented differently in SF but the 'wichcraft I've been to in New York is just a walk-up window in Bryant Park to grab a quick lunch, it's not gourmet anything but it's fine for what it is. imo.

no, I agree; that location's kinda weak.
I'm thinking of the one downtown at east 8th. It's been two years since i ate there regularly.
Obscene prices all round though.

It looks like it's a mediocre $10 sandwich sit down deli located next to SF's ritziest tourist shopping district.

yeah, the one on 8th is good!

i ate at that one once. it was ok but i never went back because it was $$.

although most sandwiches in ny are $$$ now anyway so

It looks like it's a mediocre $10 sandwich sit down deli located next to SF's ritziest tourist shopping district.

To bew precise, it's in Westfield, yes, but it's also a storefront on Mission across from the garage. For that kind of place, I'd go to Birley's or Ike's long before I'd bother going to his place.

I'll miss my crush of the season, but yeah, it was inevitable.

Laurine was so nice...I kinda thought based on her personality she would have nailed front of house. Ah well. Chaps my hide a little that Robin did a nice dish, could have done without her bitching about Michael though. I mean come on, you won, who cares. But on that note, I hope Brian calls Michael out a little more on his behaviour...his ego's gonna go way out of control.

Well Bryan's won three times and this is Michael's first win, right? Seemed kind of sour-grapesy in a big-brother way ("He acts like a brat and gets what he wants and I'm sick of it!"), but probably not something that'll carry over very far.

Sure she could have handled the bitching a little differently but if I was in Robin's shoes I would also want to be able to speak my mind about my only dish (I wouldn't have used swear words but I would have gone with Micheal's final decision like Robin did). However, even if Michael was right about the sizing of the dessert he seemed so much more unrelaxed than Robin was when he was telling her to calm down.

"CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN!" dude was wigging out this episode and I really enjoyed the 1 minute clip during one of the commercial breaks where it showed how much of a tightwad and hypocrite Michael has been.

The whole thing at the end of the episode where Brian was like "keep the $2500". Damn. Brian you know you were gonna start something there but maybe you just don't care whether or not you start some stupid fights on live tv. If Brian wanted to tell Michael he was being such a control freak it shouldn't of had anything to do with bringing up the money and saying "you can keep it". That's starting another fight all together.

new Most Disgusting Thing I've Ever Eaten While Watching Top Chef: spaghetti topped with a can of tuna and mustard

Laurine was a wise choice given that everyone did poorly but Laurine didn't have as good a track record.

I also loved the Michael-is-a-hypocrite package.

I really loved the Quickfire and hope they do it every year from now on.

poor laurine. it must really suck to be eliminated based on performance outside of the kitchen, but she really fell down on this one. total lack of quality control & crisis management.

tbh i don't think mike v. was really out of bounds here -- he assumed the leadership role and managed to steer his team to a win. the other team clearly lacked a leader and really suffered for it. as for robin wanting to be acknowledged for her value as a person and her contributions or whatever the hell she was saying -- it seems like a pretty naive attitude to take in the middle of dinner service. if she was plating "her fucking dessert" inconsistently then she should have been corrected, and when she was she kinda blew up.

also lol that quickfire was nutso

p.s. lorax this is not "live tv"

what was the quickfire?

it was like a relay race where chef #1 starts a dish and has ten minutes to work on it. then you pass what you did to chef #2 who has been blindfolded and now gets ten minutes to work before passing to chef #3 who has been blindfolded the whole time. etc. until it goes to four chefs on your team. so they had 40 minutes to do a dish but each person only got 10 to work and you couldn't coordinate, you just had to like at the layout of stuff the last person left you and figure out what the dish was supposed to be.

*look at the layout of stuff

I think Laurine's comment to Tom (if the lamb's not right I'll send it back) sealed her fate

quickfire was an exquisite corpse and I'm kinda shocked nobody said that as unappetizeing (REVOLT) as the phrase is.
padma was an extra special bitch this week, no?

isn't brian's restaurant called "volt," too? way to make a creative departure, guys

is everyone excited for next week's NATALIE PORTMAN VEGAN CHALLENGE lol

Multiple xposts: That quickfire was weird. That must have been torture to stand there blindfolded for up to 30 minutes while everyone else was cooking.

I groaned when Natalie Portman came on the screen. And I had a feeling it was going to be a vegan challenge. Beardo might be in trouble.

i'm assuming it's a vegan challenge, i can't imagine what else it would be.

she looked so hot

I also loved the Michael-is-a-hypocrite package.

I loved that.

I think it will be a vegan challenge, which is weird because it sounds exactly like the challenge w/Zooey Deschanel that was on Top Chef Masters. Maybe one of the producers has a manic pixie dreamgirl fetish.

that quickfire sounds awesome

like that might actually be a fun game to try w/friends??

i loved the QF. one of the best of the year imo.

both dishes turned out really well too

extra long episode, wasn't it?

there have been several like that this season (hour and 15 minutes)

they cut them down to an hour when they show em in reruns

What was with the blue team not doing a dessert? That will always take down a team if there is no dessert on the menu.

they had bigger problems than no dessert, really

It was probably smart of them not to do a dessert since none of them felt strong in that area, and besides, they didn't do anything else right either. (xpost)

Quickfire was fantastic, has to become a regular.

i was puzzled by jennifer's team last night. yeah, front of the house was a mess and probably should have gone to sleezy martini like he said (after the fact, thanks a lot, dumbass), but their food just wasn't that great either and i wonder why. this was a chance for all of them to make stuff that they are REALLY good at making. granted, they all had too much to do in too little time, but so did the other team and they pulled it off. i mean, that one fish dish of jennifer's looked horrible. i've never seen her cook something that yucky looking. tom: "her mentor wouldn't be that happy with her right now." Ouch!

"What was with the blue team not doing a dessert?"

their rationale was that desserts always do bad in these competitions and that kevin's majik meat touch at the end would be so great that they would forget about dessert. didn't exactly go according to plan...

Well, apparently Kevin's pork dish went well - no surprise there - but he botched Laurine's lamb dish and Laurine let them go out.

Colicchio's reaoning for a dessert seems to make sense though: you can prep your desserts early and have fewer dishes during service that you need to fire. Jen and Kevin were having to juggle too many dishes at once.

It probably also did not help that the judges were at REvolt (ugh.) first and Robin and Bryan's desserts slayed them.