Top Chef: New York

http://www.observer.com/files/imagecache/article-teaser/files/20bayard0907.jpg

lol williamsburg high-rise

pretty good first episode I thought. I liked the main challenge. gave the outer boroughs some shine!

bald grouchy Euro dude seems set up the be the villain

is this on hulu by any chance?

http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/_images/bios/stefan.png

Vinaigrette is NOT an emulsion. End of Story!

xpost looks like it will be
http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=top+chef

Great episode! I can't get enough of knife skill challenges, and I love the face off thing. Guest judge was too nice, though.

I thought this was great. Maybe my favorite series of cooking challenges. I am betting someone punches Stefan out by the end (probably Daniel.)

they usually only put 1 or 2 eps on hulu

yeah there is only a recap on here

i'm rooting for the dude from Hawaii for sure.

So far I am rooting for the Absinthe lady (whose food I've actually eaten) and the Big Cuddly Bear Dude.

wonder who will be on as a guest judge besides the usual suspects of Rocco, Bourdain, Wylie

David Chang? Mario? (feel like he woulda been on by now if he was game.) has Thomas Keller ever been on? maybe April Bloomfield (oh yeah she was on last season), Zak Pellacio ...

I honestly think Chang would turn it down.

I was curious if they threw out the CIA student as a lesson to all the culinary school types who are probably trying to get on the show - like "wait until you've actually worked for a while, dumbass".

Martha Stewart will be a guest judge is the previews are any indication.

Yeah it's weird I don't know how the determine the 17 contestants, but just looking at the two that got sent home I was like "okay they are fucked" (Colichio seems to rabidly had chefs NOT cooking stuff ya know.)

had = hate

I was curious if they threw out the CIA student as a lesson to all the culinary school types who are probably trying to get on the show - like "wait until you've actually worked for a while, dumbass".

I don't know if it was a lesson so much as it was a perfect illustration of how underprepared your average student is. No knife skills, no knowledge of cuisine, no creativity ... amateurs with no kitchen experience and little practical ability. Both of them failed in almost every task they were given. It was really quite stunning, especially after all the good vibes of them running into each other and etc.

But what I don't understand is why they were picked to begin with. It's nice to have attractive people on the show, but it doesn't help if they get eliminated immediately!

I liked that, whether through editing or just out of sheer obviousness, it was easy to pick the quickfire and elimination loser and winners at a glance. I mean, spinach salad with bacon and apples? As everyone on my couch said at once "WTF, _I_ can make that!" And while rainbowkinder might've made for good television, it was clear that he had no idea what he was doing.

Bald vinaigrette Euroboy seems like both the bad guy and the guy to beat.

I wish I had TV so I could watch this. But primarily I was thinking that guy in the white jacket is super, super hot.

The student was kind of lucky to go home early -- most of the challenges are built around exactly the kind of stuff (like snap-preparing unusual meats or running a serving station) that you're only going to learn through having worked for a while.

I was sad to see cute Chicago Indian girl struggling, though.

"It's nice to have attractive people on the show"

Yeah this is getting crazy. Chefs are not this attractive really.

Miami guy with the perfect hair is really annoying.

Also I was really hoping the "vinaigrette is not an emulsion" argument was going to be backed up by some kind of cagey semantic thing like "technically it's a nanoemulsified suspension," but he went the other direction -- "vinaigrette is not an emulsion, it's just vinaigrette."

"I'm not annoying, I'm just a guy whose way of relating to other people bothers some of them"

Actually he's just annoying looking (although his little "I've got to check my hair before I leave the kitchen" tale was kind of annoying just on its own I guess.)

But primarily I was thinking that guy in the white jacket is super, super hot.

not to taunt you further Laurel but him and the italian guy were already talking soccer in the first episode

Note: I can't believe there are two Coloradans in this. I don't particularly care for either of them, but two Coloradans is kinda cool.

i was half-watching this and was being driven crazy by the frankenbiting, like i am with every reality show. pretty obvious setups imo: the dude not knowing about indian food coming out with something awesome, the dude who was slow on the plating beating the douchey italian guy. good work on the reunion pals both being knocked off on the first episode though.

You it's interesting mix of places this time. Weren't there like 4 SFers/4 NYers/3 Chicagoans last time around?

not to taunt you further Laurel but him and the italian guy were already talking soccer in the first episode

I think I have to call my boyfriend now; my boyfriend who, luckily for me, looks a lot like that guy in the white suit jacket and will whisper sweet exceptions to the offside rule in my ear.

well at least there are no faux hawks this season.

there's a weird semi-reverse stache on stefan's rival

There are exceptions to the offside rule?

Wait, I guess that mostly revolves around what you consider an "exception" and what you consider "part of a complex multi-faceted rule"

But what I don't understand is why they were picked to begin with. It's nice to have attractive people on the show, but it doesn't help if they get eliminated immediately!

I guess this is what I meant as a "lesson" - pick one of the (probably thousands) of current culinary school people to get on the show, knowing that they will probably be way over their head and have to go home early. Let them know that, no, they don't know everything and experience in a real kitchen is huge.

I thought it was kind of amazing how many of the people had never cooked Indian / Middle Eastern / Chinese / whatever food before. Most people I know who love to cook love to find and try different cuisines and have probably tried to cook most of these at some point. But I can see working in a couple of different restaurants for years and getting one particular thing down and never having time to learn other stuff. I've never worked in a restaurant so who knows.

Also... hey, you are about to go on the most famous, most grueling reality show in the world. Might as well learn to prepare one dish in every style with every protein before you show up, right?

"most famous, most grueling reality show"

Haha uh no. Still you'd think would practice more, wouldn't you. And remember not grab something they've NEVER cooked with on a challenge.

And learn to make a couple of really good pastry items too, cause inevitably they end up having to and 90% of them can't and bitch about it. It's the fifth season, you should know this by now.

You know, an alien watching this show would probably conclude that North American humans eat WAY more scallops than we actually do.

And that scallops cannot be cooked in a mediocre fashion. Either good or terrible.

And yeah, you would certainly think at this point that folks would do some goddamn research. Seriously, you've NEVER COOKED CHINESE FOOD?

Oh the freezing cold looks when teary defensive 40-something mom said at least she had books to refer to at her restaurant, if someone wanted middle eastern food. Also, blonde woman from Colorado - did she say she wasn't familiar with italian food? Really?

Haha uh no.

I meant 'reality cooking shows' but I guess you think Iron Chef is harder?

Colorado is just awesome like that, Jaq

If you narrow it cooking shows, yeah I agree. I thought you were claiming this was more well known/harder than like Survivor or the Amazing Race or whatever.

americans top idol

Survivor is easy, their food is always cooking 101.

Which is more grueling: a jungle island being forced to eat grubs vs. a living in a loft apartment Williamsburg being forced to interact with Gail Collins?

You may have a point.

did she say she wasn't familiar with italian food? Really?

yeah that was pretty lol

Colorado is just awesome like that, Jaq

Aw now, Macaroni Grill started there, right? though, um, okay, I see your point...

Results 1 - 10 of about 13,200 for carla crying top chef. (0.20 seconds)

as soon as the souffle thing happened this episode was excruciating to watch imo

actually, as soon as the second courses came out and the judges started to talk about her beef being tough.

Over this season's 27 challenges (both quick-fire and elimination), Hosea won exactly four times.

The first was a group win when he rode on the coattails of Radhika and Fabio.

The second was a quickfire spelling bee style challenge where he outlasted Stefan in the Mole ingredients identification... he's from New Mexico and Stefan is from Finland.

The third was when someone left the refrigerator open for the xmas episode and all the ingredients and prep spoiled... his dish was the least disgusting is how one judge put it. Nobody was eliminated because of this snafu.

And then the final episode...

Anyone else think Colicchio had a hard-on for Stefan and voted against him to show him up?

it definitely seemed that colicchio was bringing up stefan's cockiness as a negative a lot in the past few episodes. which, in addition to being a bullshitty justification for disliking his food, is hilarious coming from colicchio.

hmmm maybe, i mean he was really going at him hard in the first episode of the finale

btw should i go to hosea's restaurant in iowa (<<---huh)

also everyone was basically into stefan's dessert except tom who had a hilarious but negative reaction

Tom's face looked like he didn't want to vote for someone to win, though I can't recall who.

But this show is edited to fuck so I have no idea.

Totally bummed by this finale.

I don't understand why Marcel didn't say "Are you sure you want to freeze that?"

Casey should have her chef license taken away imo.

i enjoyed watching stefan make those lollipops! it was fun to watch him cook in general.

yeah, i remember not liking casey when her season aired. of course carla should have stood up for her own dishes, but thanks for being bossy and worthless, casey!

i liked casey in her season, like carla she was like the lone female that no one gave a chance to (just elia, like one of my top 5 top chef contestants ever)

but she was also annoying and not that good, i remember thinking. i liked elia, too, until the whole shaving-marcel's-head fiasco made me wish for that season to just be over. actually, the finales are always sort of anticlimactic, i think.

Elia seemed like a clear contender who just went slowly crazy over the course of the season. Marcel knew who Elia was, I think. Carla kinda came out of nowhere by comparison.

i liked elia, too, until the whole shaving-marcel's-head fiasco made me wish for that season to just be over.

yeah otm, I liked Elia until she became Ilan's little yes-man and whined about Marcel "cheating" in the finale

They just wanted to get to the next season and pretend dude never happened.

works for me

i liked casey in her season, like carla she was like the lone female that no one gave a chance to

that's because she sucked

Jeff should have been top chef but there was no way they were going to vote off both Fabio and Stefan that episode.

http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2009/02/26/casey-thompson-speaks-out-about-top-chef/

KEEPIN' SHIT CLASSY

damn homie

nice USE of CAPS

What a dick.

i liked casey in her season, like carla she was like the lone female that no one gave a chance to (just elia, like one of my top 5 top chef contestants ever)

Kinda bitchy there in D!, but if she thinks that episode is going to color opinions of her ability I can understand that.

Kelly Choi from Eat Out NY to host Top Chef spinoff:
http://www.thefoodsection.com/foodsection/2009/02/jay-rayner-gael.html

Kelly Choi poses for mindblowing o_0 photoshoot chillin' wit a dead goat in Times Square:
http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/tv/20080918_kelly_choi/photo01.htm

the spinoff is Top Chef Masters (24 established pros battle for charity)

the goat I can't explain

Kinda bitchy there in D!, but if she thinks that episode is going to color opinions of her ability I can understand that.

Yeah, but she could have made her point more tactfully. She could have called out the producers of Top Chef without trashing Carla. She could have implied that Carla was not at the top of her game.

http://eater.com/uploads/2009_02_hoseaterminator.gif

Ultimately, it doesn't matter that much who won Top Chef. A victory on the show is no guarantee of success. Hung, last season's winner, is working at a kosher steakhouse not his. Past winner Ilan has fallen off the face of the planet (and that's a boon to the planet). Whereas loser Sam Talbot is quite successful. Hosea's $100,000 can't buy him imagination or intelligence or his hair back. He'll be hawking Diet Dr. Pepper with the rest of them soon enough. Though Stefan lost and Carla bit it hard, both of them leave Hosea in the dust, masturbating alone on his pile of cash and catching the seed of his climax in a Glad container. Towards the end of the episode Carla says, "I came here to show there is a different way to compete. I competed with love." At that she succeeded. Though by the cankerous logic of Top Chef Hosea may have been victorious, it's Carla and Stefan who emerge as sympathetic, talented and kind chefs. Hosea, you can take your money, you can be creepily kissed on the lips by Harpy Leah while the credits roll, but you will never truly be Top Chef.

wtf is casey talking abt in that interview - i thought carla was totally classically trained?

Who knows? I guarantee that little nasty snippet of an interview will hurt her more than her actual finals performance (ironic that she basically calls Carla out for freezing. . . something she herself did during her own finals shot.)

ok so this is crazy but I KNOW CARLA! well, not well or anything but i worked a catering job about 3 years ago and we shared this tiny kitchen with carla and about 4 or so other catering companies oustide DC. i watched this show for the first time this weekend and was like yea she totally looks exactly like that woman from the catering kitchen, and it took about 2 minutes of her talking that i was yup that's definitely her.

she was totally cool, i remember. i don't remember much about her food (i was working with a different company there so didn't notice much) but i'm very happy that she did so well on this show

hey, so guys? did you watch the reunion show? did you see the fabio slaying dragons saving the princess bit??

http://www.geekologie.com/2006/09/25/mario-theme-stolen.jpg

i mean really?

i will watch your inevitable food network program, sir. any day of the week.

shit i forgot this was on!

I watched a little and just got nauseated

fabio won the $10k fan favorite fyi

i mean probably because of this

http://geekologie.com/2006/09/25/mario-theme-stolen.jpg

Waste of an hour. Leah still bores me to tears. I had completely forgotten about the guy who shaves thumb-sized patches out of his beard for no apparent reason.

i get him confused with big gay rich, who i didn't remember existed.

had to be fabio or hootie carla i supposes.
This season put me off the show a bit.

about the only funny parts were when they showed the footage from the "stew room" of them playing glad-wrap volleyball or whatever

they kinda roasted jeff bringing up all that People Magazine stuff. lol @ "I was misquoted"

I will watch the Fabio and Stefan Cooking with Team Euro show any day of the week.

Me too.

I like the complete drunken assery sequence too. Plus the montage of Jeff explaining his dishes.

Otherwise it was a waste of time.

Netflix chef's table fails or triumphs depending on the chef this Dan barber guy is a good candidate for slow beating to death

Precision beating, to extract the maximum pain per blow vs actual damage done so that you really make him suffer as much as long as possible

Mind of a Chef >>>>>>> Chef's Table if it's on your Netflix

ty will look for

mind of a chef is legit amazing. cannot recommend it highly enough. it got taken off usa netflix a while ago tho.

It's back now, except for the last season.

oh fuck

I watched the first forty mins of mind of a chef thanks to youse jokers

It was dreadful obv