Top Chef Restaurant wars

RIchard is the best one left, but I think we may be in for a surprise. I saw excerpts from an interview Ted Allen did with the food critic from the Dllas Morning News. WHen asked about the finale, he made it a point to again reiterate that the best chef does not always win the competition.
 
As I stated earlier, not a lot of talent, imo. A guy like Brian from last year would be #2 right now. Same with CJ or Casey. hell, Howie was good.


Spike, I think has some chops.


Lisa is not a dumb ***, she is a ***** though. Snake.





I don't think any team Richard has been on has lost yet. In hindsight, why fight over being executive chef? I t does seem like whoever is the exec chef, is gonna get axed. And, honestly, they had to know they were going to lose.
 
I think Richard is as good as anyone who has ever competed on this show. He has a point of view and natural talent. He has won fine dining, desserts, grill... all kinds of different styles. I'd put him up against Harold, Sam or Tre... the best chefs in their respective seasons (even if the last two didn't win).

Stephanie, Dale and Antonia were/are all solid. They miss from time to time, but on the whole have a very solid product. I would put them up against the Tiffanie's, Ilan, and Casey's of previous seasons.

Lisa and Spike, while generally not my favorite could both stand up to the mid-range chefs from previous seasons (Howie, CJ, Miguel, etc).

I think the chef's as a group this season are better than most seasons. Where they fail is in how beige they are. There are very few strong personalities this go round and they've been harder to differentiate until late in the run.
 
MIA, throw in Marcel and Hung in that top group as well.


Casey, I didn't think was "talented," if you catch my drift.
 
I think Marcel was better suited for the second group. He had a good concept but was not yet ready for primetime. Hung, I thought, was weaker than Tre, so I didn't include him in the "best of his season" group. That said, he was better than the rest of the rabble.

I thought the first season had Harold, Tiffanie and Lee Ann as serious ontenders and everyone else was an also ran. Dave was the closest, but how many times do you need to hear the criticism "undereasoned" before you start tasting your food?

The second season was actually pretty weak season talent wise with Sam and Elia standing out (possibly Cliff too). Marcel had 5 preparations and would just plug in different ingredients each week... until the finale, and then I was impressed. Ilan, who won, cooked good spanish food and nothing else. Credit for knowing what you are good at... but he hardly impressed otherwise.

The third season had a lot of personality and was a fun season, but the banner was realy held by Tre and Hung. Nobody else could put together two good weeks back to back. I feel I should give Hung more credit, but the fact is he claims to have lived in Mexico for a while but couldn't cook arroz con pollo the easiest damned dish in the country... I still haven't forgiven him for that.

I think the top three this season (Richard, Antonia and Stephanie) could hold their own against the top three from any season. I think the middle is pretty comparable, but the bottom was more talented than any other season. It is a shame they are so boring, this would be the best season thus far.
 
Maybe season 5 could be a top chef all star edition? I know Brian Caswell from Reef in Houston went to the casting call in New Orleans for season 5 a few weeks back. I do not know if he made it, but I do know the guy is super talented and the show would benefit from having him on there.
 
Good episode, those cuts of meat were fantastic.

I am very happy Spike is gone, just did not feel he could handle it. He has always skated by hiding behind and blaming others, this was him alone, and he blew it.

I have no idea who will win, but I love this show.
 
Thanks for the interesting season-to-date analysis. Great work, mia!

After reading that, I'm even more baffled that Spike and Lisa got as far as they did. I liked the challenge this week; as someone else pointed out, everyone was on their own so the weaknesses were easier to discern.

I'm SO GLAD Spike and his hats are finally gone.
 
I think the episode last night was a clear indication that Lisa should have been gone the week before and that Dale should have been around to take one of the final 4 spots. Lisa does not belong with the other 3. Nor did spike. Dale did, and that still pisses me off.
 
I tire of watching Lisa's grimacing, folded arms routine during every Judges' Table.

No doubt, the final would be more compelling with Dale instead of her.
 
007, i totally agree. when the judges mentioned that Lisa had been in front of them 5 times, and spike 7 times (or something like that) i thought it was obvious that both should be gone. if richard doesn't make the finals this show will be a crock.
 
I went back and added up my points for all the contestants after episode 12 (High Steaks). Any discrepancies from last week (see Dale) are because I noted some errors, so I recompiled the numbers episode per episode. Again, group QF wins do not receive the point bonus that an individual QF win does.Points per episode (total points)Richard 1.63 (20)Antonia 1.17 (14)Stephanie 1.00 (12)
Dale 0.86 (10)
Andrew 0.40 (4)
Jennifer 0.36 (3)
Ryan -0.42 (-3)
Mark -0.44 (-4)
Nikki -0.44 (-4)
Lisa -0.46 (-6)
Manuel -0.50 (-2)
Zoi -0.70 (-4)
Spike -0.83 (-10)
Valerie -1.50 (-3)
Erik -1.83 (-6)
Nimma -4.00 (-4)

Notables
Stephanie has appeared before the judges after every elimination this season (only 3 times on the bad side). Presuming she survives until the final elimination, she will be the only contestant in TC history to appear before the judges after the elimination in every single episode in a season.
Antonia has been in the top group for the quickfire in 5 out of the last 5 weeks.
Antonia has been in the top group for the elimination in 5 out of the last 7 weeks.
Lisa had her second appearance in the top group at a quickfire last night, she still does not have a win (in QF).
Lisa continued her streak of 6 straight weeks in the bottom group at elimination.
Spike went 12 straight weeks in the competition without winning an elimination before getting kicked out.
 
the show is somewhat of a crock b/c they should know now that rest. wars can eliminate a top chef by chance. and Lisa is a dumb ****; she has no common sense and comes up with excuses like people are sabotaging her. I think Dale not being on there is a worst travesty than that pud who can only cook with saffron winning the 2nd season..
 
Now that I've been able to sleep on it.. I think it's complete ********* that Dale isn't in the top 4, especially considering mia's complete analysis.

And I completely agree about this season's group--heavy on talent, light on personality.

Richard seems the obvious choice and he's who I'm pulling for. He has the potential to be a "superstar" chef (think Daniel Boulud, not Emeril Lagasse)--respected by his peers, innovative and creative, great technique, very likeable with good leadership skills, confident but not overly arrogant.

If Lisa makes it to the top 3, this show sucks.
 
Dale should definitely be there. I have been waiting for the folded armed ***** to get kicked off for weeks but she has more lives than a cat. She is way over her head now and I will gleefully smile when she bites the dust. She is just such a rude person, who likely has no friends, on of off the show.
 
BTW- did anyone else think the guest judge was kind of a cock. He dinged Spike pretty hard on those scallops, and he should have. Spike made a good point though that dude had those ****** *** scallops in his restaurant. This would be more on Spike for using them, but the guy made such a HUGE deal begging them not to eff up his place and to take care of his customers. After that display why would someone who has such high standards he placed on them have such ****** scallops? Sure Spike should have probably aborted that, but those thing should never be found in a place like that. I put this on the cock owner after his plea they not mess up his customers. He messed them up as bad by having ****** product.
 
On the BravoTV blogs, Tom Colicchio said that Allen Brothers provided the protein in the pantry for the contestants and brought over the frozen scallops.

Tom wanted to make clear on his blog that Tramanto didn't know there were frozen scallops in the walk-in and that Tramanto's restaurant never uses frozen seafood.
 
Assuming that is the case, why did the guest judge say receiving the frozen scallops was on him, using the frozen scallops was on Spike?
 
yeah, the rest. owner was a cock and needs to think things out better; if you know your restaurant will be showcased, you'd better have someone go through everything and make sure there isn't anything ****** in the fridge, etc.. Hell, if there's a scallop app or dish on his menu, I guarantee you people who saw the show will think "we're not getting that, he uses frozen scallops..". bad for biz if they were really his.
 
to be clear Spike should have been dinged for using the ****** scallops. It is on him. I just found the owners holier than thou attitude a bit much. he should know what is in his place, and he shouldn't have had them in there.
 
Spystud, I thought the second part of Harold's restaurant wars criticism was very on point... which is letting a contestant choose their team in restaurant wars is too much of an advantage. Sure they could still screw it up, but this late they know enough about each other to make that advantage over whelming.
 
mia, I agree & you could tell Spike agreed also. That's why he was so quick to volunteer for front of the house. He knew his team couldn't outcook the other & he knew Dale and/or Lisa would falter. The winner of that Quickfire should have been allowed to pick one teammate, with the other randomly assigned by drawing knives.
 
Rick Tramanto on the scallops:

"Bravotv.com: Spike won the Quickfire and got to choose his proteins ... the big scallop question: Did you know there were frozen scallops in the pantry? Could you tell right away they were frozen when you ate his dish? Is there any way to salvage frozen scallops?
No, didn’t know there were frozen scallops in there. We never ever purchase frozen seafood, so it isn’t anything that’s kept in my coolers normally. In the real world, when you’re a chef, you may get something you didn’t order from the purveyor, or there are other people there accepting your product and it does make it into your cooler, but you as a chef need to know when there is an inferior product, and you need to be able to say no. As a top chef, your quality conscience needs to be at a top level. Spike failed that test."
The Link
 
So no one from his restaurant or the Top chef crew knew about the frozen scallops? BS. The butcher shop brought all the meat over and no one ever checked any of it. Even though the episode being filmed that day depended on having everything there. He got outed for serving frozen scallops and is trying to spin his way out of it.
 
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