Top Chef-DC Starts Tonite

Good episode last night. No game-playing or editing to make it look like there was game-playing. It was just about cooking. Can't argue with who they sent home, but I was hoping for someone else. I was happy with who won as well.
 
Me too. Tiffany is heating up. Those tamales looked good. Seems like they are all stepping it up. Restaurant Wars next week. Should be a good one.
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SPOILER



Wow -- wouldn't have guessed before the show that Kenny would be sent home. Seems like his dishes were off (sald was too much, and the dessert was just bad), so can't really argue with the decision. That said, that asshat Alex survives another week by NOT COOKING and by doing a terrible job on the front end. He has to go.
 
I hate to say it, but The Next Food Network Star has been better than Top Chef this season. Coming off of the best season of Top Chef ever, that is just shocking... particularly since TNFNS has usually been a snoozer and a poor attempt to duplicate TC.

Kenny/Kevin's rant about Alex was just embarrassing. If they thought Red was breaking the rules, then waiting until Blue lost the challenge to act outraged about it was weak. There are only two jobs on Restaurant Wars which are considered dangerous, exec chef and front of the house. Even if you want to say Alex didn't own a dish, he was still put in a place where his efforts were going to be evaluated by the judges.

I'm done with Amanda, who cooked one dish which had three components (steak, greens, sauce) and only one was good (the sauce). I'm done with Alex, who has no personality but manages to still be a douche. I'm also done with Kenny, however, who acted like he was the number one despite rarely making good on that claim.

Once again, I need to condemn the production crew. If they knew Kenny was going out in RWs, then why did they set up this false Angelo v Kenny dynamic which never really amounted to anything... particularly since it seems Angelo and Ed have a history together. It seems this crew just latches onto whatever drama is going around the set any given week with no sense of the broader story they are attempting to tell. There is no cohesion from episode to episode, the food has been so deemphasized (either by a production crew who doesn't know what they are doing or a group of contestants who really can't cook) that we might as well be watching Big Brother, and they've done such a poor job of giving us background on the contestants that I really don't particularly like anyone.

Seriously, 9 episodes in and the only character that I knew anything about (health problems and dead wife) just went home. I don't have a good feel for any of the remaining 7's background in regards to their personal life or culinary experience. Tiffany, the most likable remaining contestant by far, gets three sentences per episode. We know that (1) she is from beaumont, (2) she's engaged, and (3)... what? Has she gone to cooking school, did she work with any restaurant greats, did she have to learn how to cook by herself from home while she personally home-schooled 9 Katrina refugees all while tending to her dying mother whose only wish was for Tiffany to make her a Yak Roulade before she shuffled off her mortal coil... a roulade which never came? I got nothing.

What I DO have, is Angelo. Angelo has a wife, serious competitive streak (though no background as to where that comes from)... and quarter of a mile on the rest of the contestants in regards to skill and vision. I don't like Angelo (and how could I) so I guess I'm not suppose to want him to win... but who then? I have no emotional attachment to any of the rest of the cast, not do I have a good sense of their cooking because that just doesn't seem important this year.

Episode 8 was GOOD. It was the first one this season where I actually wanted to eat some of the food. I had high hopes that the production crew was just waiting for the group to narrow before turning it on and that we were due for a good stretch. Ep. 9 was an absolute let down, a boring episode capped off with more meaningless drama which went nowhere and was important to no one. Hell, we even had a reappearance of the infamous Pea Puree, which it seemed was only there to rub salt in the viewer's eyes. I would love to give this season a "meh", but they seem to be determined to get a "feh".
 
yeah. the season is not good. Kenny was all hat and no cattle. it seems from the beginning that this group was just really thin on talent. the whole season just sucks.

as for tnfns being better. I would agree, but that only displays how awful this season of TC has been not that TNFNS has really been good. It is extremely unlikely i will ever watch one minute of any of the shows of whoever wins this with a possible exception of Tom. I would not watch Herb. He is an annoying douche. I will not watch Aartie Party. she seems like a nice lady, but I have no interest in her food. I would not have watched Aria either. I might have watched brad, and might have watched Briana simply becuase i thought she could really cook.
 
I think they did this season the way they did because of how good last season was. They could have some super talented chefs this season, but i think most people would be saying, The Volt brothers could kick all their asses. Or kevin could kick all their asses. But when we get to next season, you're going to be thinking about Amanda, Alex and the other dolts on this season and not season 8.
 
Texas007, first off I agree that TNFNS gets the win because TC isn't competing... but you have to admit that the Iron Chef episode was great. I like Tom when he is on, but someone needs to shave that man down. Honestly, he looks like a wookie, and that is going to be a problem getting ratings on FN... particularly since his show really wouldn't bring anything new to the network.

Speaking of which, Arti has one thing going for her that no one else in the competition (at any point) has had... that her show isn't ALREADY on the food network. FN has shows by the boatload which do Italian, French, "American", Grilling, Healthy, Home Cooking, Southern as well as Professional cooking, all of which are hosted by people who are already have a proven name for themselves. What the Food Network does NOT have is any "exotic" food represented in its lineup. The gaping hole of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, African, Eastern European, Northern European, South American or Central American is hard to ignore. If they had someone who could make any of those foods accessible to an American audience and they would have an actual, honest to goodness, NEW show on the FN. Why cannibalize Bobby's or Guy's audience when you can put something on TV which is actually novel?

someone, that's certainly possible... but I have a hard time ignoring the fact that they just made a pretty significant change in their production team going into this season. I'm inclined to believe that some of what we are seeing is a new team getting their feet wet AND editors who would rather show Survivor than a cooking show.
 
Really? Honestly, my complaints about this season all boil down to it being too much like Hell's Kitchen... the contestants have questionable culinary backgrounds, there is no emphasis on the food and there is a bunch of drama which really isn't service of the competition. I like Hell's Kitchen just fine because it doesn't pretend that it is anything other than what it is, but TC has some actually culinary legitimacy which makes it special... and that is not being honored this season.
 
Meh... more of the same.

Also, on a semi related note, I watched the first episode of Aarti Parti (the name of the show DOES make me want to hang myself) and it isn't bad.
 
Last night's challenges were interesting. Second week in a row they've ditched teh right person. And what's up with Angelo? He is completely lost these days
 
I really thought inviting Rick Moonen on to host a Quickfire about "idioms" was a fairly sizable missed opportunity. Even so, I think the flaw in the "idiom" concept became immediately obvious when each of the contestants ignored the idiom entirely except the food product it referenced. The salami wasn't hidden, the fish wasn't fried, the beans were not spilled, the bacon wasn't brought home. They might as well just put the ingredients up on the shelf and stopped trying to be so clever about it.

This is what the 5th time that Angelo "helped" a fellow contestant to an early exit... and he wonders why no one likes him.

The theme of an early leader flagging late is pretty common in TC. Richard Blaise, Jennifer Carroll, Stephan Richter... they all came on so strong for so long that when they petered out at the end it was almost baffling. I think it is hard to have a target on your back for that long and continue to perform. I think there is pressure this late in a competition to pick up your game, but when you are cooking well, that pressure leads to making unnecessary changes. Once you've been thrown off stride it is hard to get back in it. I thought the fact that Angelo got apparently zero feedback during the QF was devastating to his morale. Constructive criticism is good and healthy, and for the most part Angelo has either gotten praise (which isn't as helpful as you might think) or nothing... and it is weighing on him.

So now we are down to five... and this should be interesting, because the only person who has distinguished himself from the field is in a slump. Tiffany and Ed seem to be the safest bets to make it to the finals at this point, because they have both mounted late season progress... but Kelly, Kevin and Angelo have been pretty hit and miss. Kelly has regular problems with her seasoning (both over and under). Kevin seems to be entering into a pretty dark place in his head, which he needs to break out of to stay competitive. Angelo has not only been uninspiring, he has made MAJOR mistakes regarding his choice of bread two weeks in a row, and he runs a restaurant known for high class sandwiches.

At the start of the season I picked Ed, Kelly, Alex and Kenny to make it to the final four, all of whom made it to restaurant wars, two of which are still in play going into the final two episodes. I feel pretty good about that.
 
Kevin, the *****-Baby Huey, needs to get the boot. If whining were a Top Chef quality, he would already have won.

Kelly is nothing more than a crying, little brat who makes excuses and sheds a few tears when things go wrong.

Ed is not as good as he thinks he is and a far cry from the 4th place finisher from last year.

This season has just flat-out sucked and no one is deserving of the title of Top Chef.
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Yeah... I don't know if I needed Tiffany to win, but it would have been nice to have someone I actually liked in the finals.

Wine pairing quickfire was a decent idea, but only served to illustrate that the chef's only kinda knew what they were doing in that area. Most were just trying to put red meat with red meat and calling it a day. Which is to say, good job to the production crew for matching the guest judge to a challenge, but I kinda expect the final 5 to do better than they did.

The elimination challenge was kind of a mess. First off, though I think the freeze dried element was pretty neat, but I kinda don't think a challenge that gimmicky should decide who goes to the finale. This is something that they probably should have scheduled pre-restaurant wars. Second off, if you are going to go that direction anyway, though, they should have committed to it and had the chefs serve actually rehydrated food. The fact that they got to serve whatever they wanted with the arbiter being the unfortunately lit Vicky was a let down on that front. Finally, as big of a deal as they made about the mussels kinda made the judging a formality. I believe completely that the producers manipulate the footage to sell a narrative, that they didn't do that here made the episode just kinda peter out.

I was hoping, as obvious as they made it that Tiffany was going home, that they were going to let her go the finales and then do a double elimination quickfire in the next episode. I mean, Tiffany, Kenny, Amanda and Alex are ALL likely to be in singapore as finale helpers anyway.

I dunno.... meh.
 
I'm just underwhelmed by this season.
I'm hoping the rumors are true that next season will be "Top Chef All-Stars," with "losers" form previous seasons returning. If this is accurate, there are some great personalities coming back:The Link
 
If that link is true then we know that Angelo does not win TCDC since that link clearly states it is comprised of all stars who did not win.
 
minor spoiler

This week's episode was pretty good. Liled the wok quick fire, and the cooking in the elimination round seemed uniformly good. Ed's secret decision to gear up for two dishes was smart, but kind of douche-y considering everyone agreed to do one.
 
Best episode of the season. Ed trying to talk everyone else into cooking one dish was douchey, but once the decision was made I don't spite him for sandbagging his second dish. He was riding Angelo pretty ruthlessly, but I thought that part was funny.

The scenes for next week were a little disturbing, I'd hate for Angelo to go out that way.
 
That was my reaction, as well. Ed slapped him around pretty good in the first part of the finale, I could see that shaking him so hard that he got "sick".

Reminds me of Fabio from a few seasons back, when he dislocated his finger. He was making jokes about lopping off his finger and searing the stub on the grill so he could keep going. If you want to compete, you'll compete.
 
FINALE SPOILER ALERT



I'm OK with Kevin winning. He started off kind of slow this season, but built and had a really good finish. Angelo was whiney, but actually came through pretty well (with Hung's help). Ed has been pretty consistent this season, but the dessert sank his chances from what I could tell. The last two weeks have been the best of the season.
Need to watch the Reunion show next week -- they are going to announce the next season. Hope it is the "All Stars" version.
 
It seemed as though Ed's overly fussy first three courses put him in a position that his desert completely sank him. When he decided to delegate 25% of his meal, you kinda saw the writing on the wall.

I'm not sure how to judge Angelo, since Hung basically did 70% of the work. I appreciate that the concepts were Angelo's, but part of the challenge here is actually turning out the food which Angelo's part in was limited.

As to Kevin... yeah, I dunno, clearly he won it on the merits doing what he has been doing for most of the latter half of the season. He makes artful plates of tasty food, and it won him the whole competition. On the other hand, he is a bit of a douche.

Incredibly strong finale to an otherwise fairly weak season. You going to watch Top Chef: Just desserts?
 
"On the other hand, he is a bit of a douche"
--agree, but so were basically all of the guys this year

Yes -- I watched the first episode of Just Desserts. Need to see a couple more to really judge it
 
A bit disappointed that Kelly didn't make it to the end.

That said, from what started out seeming to be one of the weakest casts in memory, I thought the final 4 contestants were quite strong. Now, I don't think any of them would have been in the final 3 (or maybe final 4 last season), but they weren't so clearly outclassed as the cast seemed earlier in the season.

Of course, looking at the entire case, there were quite a few that were pretty weak contestants. If memory serves, I'd say most of the non-Final 4. (I reserve judgment on Kenny since he "seemed" like a strong chef, but hard to tell with the show editing early in the season).
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