The right people went home. I was rooting for Eugene too because of his story and I liked his spunk. But it became clear that his gumption wasn't getting it done and he wasn't really interested in the criticism he was getting. It sounded like he realized something about his cooking by the end of this episode - a moment I really enjoyed. Good for him.

Melissa really has all the looks of a contestant who is out by the 2nd or 3rd show. What could her audition tape have possibly looked like? How she made it this far is perplexing.

I am impressed with Radhika's ability to win Quickfires. I am unimpressed by her performance in the Elimination. She apparently pulled out a really esteemed dish, a trump card in her repertoire, with the idea to impress the new judge. She said people came to the restaurant just to eat this soup. Then she screwed it up. Her description of what went wrong? The bisque apparently got away from her. She's got skills, but that looked really sloppy.

And people need to get past it - Ariane has been the best or second best judged chef. Like it or not, creative or not, she keeps cooking food the judges like - apparently a fact that Dom is beginning to acknowledge.

She seems to be in a zone.

gastro gnome wrote:And people need to get past it - Ariane has been the best or second best judged chef. Like it or not, creative or not, she keeps cooking food the judges like - apparently a fact that Dom is beginning to acknowledge.

She seems to be in a zone.

For the record, I have never claimed she wasn't making good food... rather that she isn't making the kind of food she'll need to have a shot at winning

gastro gnome wrote:The right people went home. I was rooting for Eugene too because of his story and I liked his spunk. But it became clear that his gumption wasn't getting it done and he wasn't really interested in the criticism he was getting. It sounded like he realized something about his cooking by the end of this episode - a moment I really enjoyed. Good for him.

I was glad to see him go. He was just the sort of ego-driven, excuse-making, whiny bitch that I can't tolerate.

For the record, I have never claimed she wasn't making good food... rather that she isn't making the kind of food she'll need to have a shot at winning

If this were the last couple of seasons, I think that's true, but this seems like a weak field this year.

Vital Information wrote:OK, I say this with absolutely no evidence or proof or anything but TV producers and network exectuves and most importantly ad buyers are not blind. They see that more and more TV is being watched via DVR/Tivo. They know that eyes are not seeing their ads as much. This would seem to me, guessing, that less can be charged for advertisements meaning the money has to be picked up somewhere else.

And yes, the ad time sold by Bravo is not the same thing as the money coming from product placement fees, but my hunch is still hunching and it tells me these are all related.

I could be totally wrong

No, you're most certainly not wrong. This was a big deal in the advertising biz as far back as 2001 when DVR's were just emerging.

But as I stated earlier in this thread remember that typically Bravo makes the money from commercial time and the production company makes the money from product placement.

There can be reciprical agreements on either end as well.

Eugene: he was living on borrowed time. His creativity has produced several of the biggest screwups to date. He was the M. Night Shyamalan of this contest, it's been a long while since The Sixth Sense or even Unbreakable.

Ariane: solid, capable... but Stefan cooks things right, too, and they're creative. I say she makes it close to the end, certainly past Carla, say, but not to the very end.

Editor: this was the most obvious episode yet of who was doomed, based on how much airtime they got to puff themselves up early on and talk about how much they liked being here. Editor, you may pack up your Avid and go.

Toby Young: Dr. Gaius Baltar.

He was just the sort of ego-driven, excuse-making, whiny bitch that I can't tolerate.

SteveZ, you basically summed up what I didn't have the words for, thanks.

Mike G wrote: Editor, you may pack up your Avid and go.

OK, that's really funny.Well to me it is.

While I never thought of Ariane as a winner, I think they should have given her the benefit of the doubt this once.

And I really cannot stand that new judge. He's all sound bite.

sujormik wrote:While I never thought of Ariane as a winner, I think they should have given her the benefit of the doubt this once.

And I really cannot stand that new judge. He's all sound bite.

Sorry, a professional cook who admits that she can't tie a roast simply can't win this contest. As soon as she made that revelation, she had to go.

man, the lamb & pork teams totally butchered their protein. what kind of idiot CUTS ALL THE FAT OFF OF A PORK SHOULDER/BELLY ???? That sliced pork dish looked positively anemic.

And I knew the lamb team was doomed when they showed Arianne deboning the leg of lamb and pulverizing it into submission. I think the fact that she said she needed to tenderize baby lamb is what did her in. They realized she had no clue about how to treat certain raw ingredients and knifed her despite her past successes. The inability to tie a roast didn't help, either.

For those of you (like me) on the "far less than impressed with Toby Young" train, you might find some of the pretty brutal comments on his Bravo blog entertaining.

He's less of a critic as he is a bad standup comedian whose act consists of nothing more than insulting the crowd. He's got his pre-planned insults and retorts, he's just looking for a place to put them.

That said, it's pretty entertaining watching Tom this season. I'm pretty sure he thinks they all stink. Last night was certainly another situation where the entire losing team could be sent home. Then the Hosea and Leah Show could take place off camera where it belongs.

I am SO over Padma. I thought it was shameful the way she 'homered' for Ariane last night and frankly I was glad that Toby called her out over it by asking about the judging criteria. How many times have we seen obviously talented chefs eliminated in previous seasons due to one stumble (Tre, Sam, etc.), while ne'er-do-wells have stuck around far longer than they should have?

Last night, however, Padma deemed it appropriate to minimize Ariane's atrocious lack of skills because of her previous peformances, which didn't seem that impressive to begin with. To me, the whole sequence smacked of favoritism, which I long suspected was more in play than anyone involved cared to admit. I loved the blind judging last week and wish that it were a part of the process more regularly.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I am SO over Padma. I thought it was shameful the way she 'homered' for Ariane last night and frankly I was glad that Toby called her out over it by asking about the judging criteria. How many times have we seen obviously talented chefs eliminated in previous seasons due to one stumble (Tre, Sam, etc.), while ne'er-do-wells have stuck around far longer than they should have?

Last night, however, Padma deemed it appropriate to minimize Ariane's atrocious lack of skills because of her previous peformances, which didn't seem that impressive to begin with. To me, the whole sequence smacked of favoritism, which I long suspected was more in play than anyone involved cared to admit. I loved the blind judging last week and wish that it were a part of the process more regularly.

=R=

I didn't think Padma was defending Ariane's performance last night, or suggesting that the judging criteria be altered in any way. I thought she was specifically responding to that useless Brit's overgeneralized comment that Ariane "can't cook". It was only in that context that she talked about Ariane's past performance.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I am SO over Padma. I thought it was shameful the way she 'homered' for Ariane last night and frankly I was glad that Toby called her out over it by asking about the judging criteria.

ronnie-

My recollection of that exchange is a little different -- I thought Toby's comment was pretty out of line -- it was something along the lines of "well she (Ariane) can't cook." And Padma's response was that actually she had performed previously and that therefore, she has shown that she can in fact "cook." I think Padma's statement was strictly in response to Toby's comment and less a pronouncement on how the judging should go. Now, I agree that (supposedly) the judging is on an episode-by-episode basis and in the past, good people have gone based upon one-episode screwups, so I'm not quibbling over Ariane being the one to pack her knives this week. But given that Toby has been involved in this competition for a mere episode or two, to me, it wasn't his place to pronounce Ariane or any contestant as not being able to cook in general. I thought that was pretty obnoxious and kind of mean. I suppose that exchange could have been edited pretty heavily and maybe we didn't get the whole story there.

I wonder if there was more to the tying-the-roast thing than we realize. I find it so hard to believe that Ariane really claimed that she never tied a roast before. Watching the beginning of the show when it re-aired, when Team Lamb was in the planning stages, I think Leah suggested a "rouladen" (I think) of lamb, and I think, Ariane said she'd never done one, and Leah volunteered to do it. I wonder if Ariane meant that she had never tied a roast (of rouladen) and the way it was edited it came out that she had never tied a roast before. Again, not making excuses -- there were plenty of other things to axe Ariane for last night -- but it's so shocking to me that a chef would make that claim. Maybe there's some insight on the blogs . . .

Kenny, aschie,

It was more a sense I got than anything absolute or direct. Yes, Padma was responding to Toby's 'she can't cook' comment but she also gave Ariane the <paraphrasing> 'it was an honor to have you' goodbye. She almost never says anything after 'pack your knives' and it just felt like there was some favoritism popping up which, thankfully, was not allowed to blossom.

Separately, any take on this show is subject to the editing. We have no idea what really transpires or how much we don't see or hear. Of course, we can't ever taste the food, either.

I'm still over Padma

=R=

aschie30 wrote: I wonder if Ariane meant that she had never tied a roast (of rouladen) and the way it was edited it came out that she had never tied a roast before. Again, not making excuses -- there was plenty of other things to axe Ariane for last night -- but it's so shocking to me that a chef would make that claim.

All the same to me. If you're a professional cook you need to be able to tie a meat roll. Roast or rouladen - you have to be able to do both if you have a serious position in a professional kitchen. Based on that alone, I think she had to go.

I do disagree with the she-can't-cook notion. Of all the contestants on the show, she's near the top of the list of people whose house I'd like to visit for dinner. She seems pleasant, relaxed, and like someone who would put together a nice home cooked meal. The pompous Italian who knows some fancy culinary school techniques - he's the one who, imo, can't cook.

Kennyz wrote:

aschie30 wrote: I wonder if Ariane meant that she had never tied a roast (of rouladen) and the way it was edited it came out that she had never tied a roast before. Again, not making excuses -- there was plenty of other things to axe Ariane for last night -- but it's so shocking to me that a chef would make that claim.

All the same to me. If you're a professional cook you need to be able to tie a meat roll. Roast or rouladen - you have to be able to do both if you have a serious position in a professional kitchen. Based on that alone, I think she had to go.

Yeah, I agree. I just meant that maybe that comment was taken out of context and was part of a larger discussion about the rouladen and she burped that she never tied a roast before but didn't mean that. I just find it shocking especially considering that she seemed to be successful at cooking and preparing meats in the past . . . (I mean, who hasn't tied a roast? Even home cooks tie roasts.)

ronnie_suburban wrote:She almost never says anything after 'pack your knives' and it just felt like there was some favoritism popping up which, thankfully, was not allowed to blossom.

Well, she did get teary-eyed when saying "pack your knives" to her boyfriend, CJ, two seasons ago.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm still over Padma

ronnie- When were you ever under Padma?

considering that she seemed to be successful at cooking and preparing meats in the past . . .

well, she pretty much got lucky the last time she won for cooking lamb racks. screwed up the timing and then when she had no choice but to pull them, they were dead-on. cooking meats isn't hard when you're cooking one big batch/roast and it's all getting cooked to the same temp. it's not like they don't have thermometers to use.

put that woman on the broiler station at a busy steakhouse and watch as she crashes and burns.

(I mean, who hasn't tied a roast? Even home cooks tie roasts.)

i think a huge number of people buy them already tied from the butcher.


arianne was a hack. bubbye!

JLenart wrote:

Mike G wrote: Editor, you may pack up your Avid and go.

OK, that's really funny.Well to me it is.

Made me laugh also. Quite funny.

Sorry, a professional cook who admits that she can't tie a roast simply can't win this contest. As soon as she made that revelation, she had to go.

Live by competently cooking meat, die by incompetently cooking meat, that's Ariane's Top Chef epitaph. She won when competence was enough to rise over the truly hapless. (Even though I agree with Kennyz, she seems like about the most tolerable of the bunch on a human level.)

what kind of idiot CUTS ALL THE FAT OFF OF A PORK SHOULDER/BELLY ????

They can't really have done that, can they? (The bacon bits looked all right, properly striated.) I think they just cleaned up a loin too much, that's what the main serving looked like, loin. One thing I wondered was if Jeff, working at his Florida resort kitchen, has ever seen anything but industrial pork. A naturally-raised pig often has waaaaay more fat (check the pics in the baconblogging thread and compare the ones I bought at Peoria to the ones from the farmers in Iowa).

I thought it was funny how they downplayed Toby Young after his big buildup last week, too.

I may have been mistaken in that I think the main dish was a tenderloin. But, I still contend they used the wrong cut to begin with as I'm pretty sure they would have had enough time to do a butt roast that would have been way more tasty.

I've never had a Stone Barns-raised baby lamb to work with, but I can tell you for sure that I wouldn't beat it with a hammer if I did.

I've cooked plenty of lamb legs and it has never once occurred to me to "tenderize" it.

She should not only should have been kicked off of the show, but banned from Stone Barns forever.

Note to future Top Chef contestants: Tom likes stems. Tom likes bones. Give Tom what Tom likes.

This was an interesting episode of Top Farm. Or was it the Honor-a-Thon. Whatever. So the setting changed. It's still make the most of your ingredients - just like the Quickfire (and the juxtaposition of those two ingredient selections was not lost on this viewer).

As a defender of Ariane's performance thus far, I agreed it was time for her to go. What I thought was interesting was the shameless villianization of Leah and Hosea. It seems the editors favored the sentimental favorite, Ariane (how many times do we need reminding that she's kind of a novice and the oldest one there) at the expense of L + H, whose love story is dragging on like a too-rare roast or an ostrich egg that just won't set. Seriously, does anyone at Bravo want these two to seem like anything other than starry-eyed, rug-pulling, half-wits? I agree, with a prior poster - take it off camera. And take your knives with you.

Some other quick takes.
- Jeff will never be sent home for doing too little. He'll be sent home for doing a little too much and not doing it well.
- Radhika, I kvetched about you cooking too much Indian. Well, I preferred it when you at least cooked.
- Fabio, you're an accent with a pasta fetish. How can you not be worried about being pigeon-holed? Especially when you can't even sauce properly.
- Carla is the amazing invisible tart-maker.
- Leah, who are you? What do you do? What is your style? You are the new Melissa.

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed they didn't do more with some of that fantastic veg. But I guess this episode was supposed to be about the meat. This was a great idea for a challenge. I hope they go to a farm again in the future. Basically, you start with great stuff, so it really shows failures in technique and concept.

Is it just me or does next week take a turn to MTV's Real World New York starring Leah and Hosea??? The coming attraction shows them snuggling on a lounge together and whispering sweet nothings-puleeze.

IMHO the next to go are Fabio, the ravioli king, Radhika and Leah.

Also, I keep getting the sense that Toby Young is a Simon Cowell wannabe or a movie critic.

Tom Colicchio saves Joan Nathan. I already thought he was dreamy but now....

http://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/tom-colicchio-hero/

Hellodali wrote:Tom Colicchio saves Joan Nathan. I already thought he was dreamy but now....

http://internetfoodassociation.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/tom-colicchio-hero/

Tom doing the Heimlich on Joan is more exciting than anything on Top Chef this season.

aschie30 wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:She almost never says anything after 'pack your knives' and it just felt like there was some favoritism popping up which, thankfully, was not allowed to blossom.

Well, she did get teary-eyed when saying "pack your knives" to her boyfriend, CJ, two seasons ago.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'm still over Padma

ronnie- When were you ever under Padma?

LOL . . . a boy can dream, can't he?

But as I posted above, it's over now, anyway!

=R=

So Radhika went last night. My guess was that Carla would. Judging is not supposed to be cumulative but I think in past seasons, once they get this far along they've let people skate once or twice if they have a good record.

That said, I really like Radhika but-- if I watched it right-- it was the correct decision by the judges once that team had lost. Radhika blew it whan she didn't insist on running the kitchen. She is sweet but doesn't seem very assertive. She had crap luck this time but the show would be boring if no sudden reversals were possible.

I wanted Leah to go home, with that dumb fish and and the whole stupid hookup with Hosea. What is wrong with those two? I couldn't believe the way he was talking about her, what a d***.