Santander wrote:Bourdain can't pronounce Achatz or bruschetta right (he's actually gone both ways on the latter)...

I'll never have the satisfaction of him knowing about this, but my neighbor and kitchen buddy gets back at him (unwittingly) by dropping the "r" and pronouncing his last name like the Louisiana delicacy "boudin" ...

rickster wrote:

So I'm going to do the "I am woman, hear me roar" chant. Can someone hit Michael Isabella over the head with a side of beef for me please? Can you say chauvenist pig? I know that the restaurant business is heavily male, but give me a break. His comments regarding the female contestants really got under my skin. I'm sure he didn't know that Jennifer Carrol worked for Eric Ripert when he made his snide little comments. I'm so glad she wiped the floor with him.

Don't forget the guy (we didn't see his face, just heard him off camera) who said to Jennifer, "oh, you must be a pastry chef" when they were introduced.

I was going to mention that as well, but I wasn't for sure who said it.

Kennyz wrote:If I hear that tall blond from Philly, whose food everyone liked, say "CevEETCH" one more time this season, I will jump through the screen and strangle her.

Moderators,

Is there any way the post in which the quote above appears can be removed? My lawyer tells me that it will make my defense very challenging.

Sincerely,
Kennyz

Perhaps it was an unfavorable edit but listening to Ashley carry on throughout the episode about her gayness and about how a challenge involving marriage was problematic for her was beyond annoying. As Preeti said, 'this is the world we live in.' As a chef, especially a restaurant chef, you rarely get to choose who you cook for. But beyond that, this is a reality tv show, to which you willingly signed on. So please, just shut up and cook.

Other than the self-indulgent whining, I really enjoyed this episode because it revealed that quite a few of these folks have well-developed skills. Seeing their talent (acknowledged) was a pleasure to watch. It seems that the 2 brothers -- Michael and Bryan -- along with Kevin and Jennifer are the ones to beat at this point.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote: Jennifer ... beat at this point.

Exactly.

somehow getting sucked into this show,

glad to see the girl with the tatoo across her neck get voted off for that odd seitan stuffed chili relleno dish on the "vice" episode. Also glad to see Eve go last night, not being able to prepare shrimp properly is pretty sad. She also had such a clueless look oin her face whenever the judges had questions, or comments about her dishes.

I see on of the guys winning this thing, none of the female chefs have impressed me at all so far.

my favorites are Hector, Kevin, and Michael.

Ashley also got under my skin last night, her agenda should have been left on the cutting room floor, and had no part in a cooking show imho.

I'm having a hard time with this year's "cast." It seems like several people might have been cast less for their cooking skills, but for their second-rate resemblance to various Hollywood insiders, such as:

[The aforementioned] Eve as Rosanna Arquette
Ron as Michael Clarke Duncan, former Chicago ComEd man & star of The Green Mile
Michael as Ben Affleck
Ashley as Matt Damon
Kevin as Timothy Busfield, or that guy from thirtysomething and
Robin, as the late Julia Phillips, producer of The Sting et al. and author of You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again

Ashley also got under my skin last night, her agenda should have been left on the cutting room floor, and had no part in a cooking show imho.

It seems like the first half of the season is full of these kinds of manufactured personal controversies, just because the overall level of cooking is kind of lousy until they weed about half of them out. It doesn't really become a cooking show until they're down to about 8, at least somewhat capable, people.

aschie30 wrote:Ashley as Matt Damon

Brilliant.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Other than the self-indulgent whining, I really enjoyed this episode because it revealed that quite a few of these folks have well-developed skills. Seeing their talent (acknowledged) was a pleasure to watch. It seems that the 2 brothers -- Michael and Bryan -- along with Kevin and Jennifer are the ones to beat at this point.

Taken on descriptions alone, I have been extraordinarily impressed with the types of dishes presented by this group. There wasn't a single item at the bachelor/ette party that I didn't want to taste. This group is operating at a higher level of culinary creativity/boldness/skill than any previous top chef group, IMO.

As for the political issues, yes, she should have just shut up and cooked. But, you've got to believe that at least half of that drama was contrived/drawn out by interviewers/producers.

So, as much as she's a reality show contestant, you are a reality show viewer. Don't pretend that you're not, and don't get upset when there's a little false drama that's injected for the obvious purpose of creating characters and getting people talking.

So, as much as she should shut up, ignore the issue, and cook, we should just shut up, ignore the issue, and watch the cooking.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:As for the political issues, yes, she should have just shut up and cooked. But, you've got to believe that at least half of that drama was contrived/drawn out by interviewers/producers.

So, as much as she's a reality show contestant, you are a reality show viewer. Don't pretend that you're not, and don't get upset when there's a little false drama that's injected for the obvious purpose of creating characters and getting people talking.

So, as much as she should shut up, ignore the issue, and cook, we should just shut up, ignore the issue, and watch the cooking.

Best,
Michael

So true, so true. And as Mike posted above, the early part of each season always brings more of this type of stuff. But I am a mere amateur viewer (are there even professional tv viewers?) and cannot control my reaction to it. The contestants, otoh, are professionals and should know better.

=R=

The whole thing took me back to the whole "Team Rainbow" thing of a prior season. We get it, we just don't care. It seems like the producers always put in these little quasi-dramas at the beginning while all of the sub-par cheftestants are still around.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this season so far. The woman that works for Ripert and the bigger dude with the beard are my top 2 right now.

But, you've got to believe that at least half of that drama was contrived/drawn out by interviewers/producers.

So, as much as she's a reality show contestant, you are a reality show viewer.

. . . and you can take it as a given that when one of the contestants yelled "Go and grab the Glad Wrap!" (or something to that effect), every producer in the editing room shouted out "That stays!"

As of now, my picks for strongest contenders are Kevin, Jennifer C, and the two brothers. The most annoying are Ashley, Eve(out), and Michael I.

Those brothers are much too serious. I predict that they'll both be gone before the finals because they're just not good TV. (Unless the sibling rivalry thing heats up quickly)

Steve "Talent's Got Nothin' to Do With It" Z

jesteinf wrote:The whole thing took me back to the whole "Team Rainbow" thing of a prior season. We get it, we just don't care. It seems like the producers always put in these little quasi-dramas at the beginning while all of the sub-par cheftestants are still around.

*** .

But that's also part of the reason that I'm not really watching it anymore. I don't care who you sleep with. I care if you can cook.

DML wrote:

jesteinf wrote:The whole thing took me back to the whole "Team Rainbow" thing of a prior season. We get it, we just don't care. It seems like the producers always put in these little quasi-dramas at the beginning while all of the sub-par cheftestants are still around.

*** .

But that's also part of the reason that I'm not really watching it anymore. I don't care who you sleep with. I care if you can cook.

I really don't there's enough of the bad stuff to justify turning it off. Even at its peak of B.S., the show is about 5% about the drama and 95% about the cooking. Those scenes are over before I'm done rolling my eyes.

Dear Future Top Chef Cheftestants,

Please do not make pasta salad. No good will come of it. Ever.

Love,
Josh

Dear Josh,

That sad sack would not be welcome at the family reunion.

Regards,
Pasta Salad

Dear LTH,

I come from a military family. My grandfather fought in WWII.

Kevin

I enjoyed last night's episode and am grateful/relieved to see the apparent cannon fodder remain as such. At least 2 of the bottom 3 -- the pasta slingers -- seemed to be appropriate choices, especially in light of everything we've seen from them so far this season. Preeti appears to have no palate, as she repeatedly didn't understand that her dishes just weren't very good. Laurine seems (not so) discretely focused on vegetarianism and health, which is always the kiss of death in this competition, in which any sort of culinary determinism is usually an anchor. As for Michael I., there's no reason to believe that the Shrimp Salad wasn't awful and he's certainly annoying but I haven't seen enough of him yet to say if he's a contender or a pretender. He can certainly "talk the talk," though.

What bothered me about the episode, from a purely dramatic angle, was that we never saw 2 people who were largely successful being acknowledged. The potato salad, which seemed to be Eli's dish was glowingly praised but even at Judges' Table, nothing was said to him about it. Jennifer C. ran the kitchen with aplomb and we saw the judges discussing this amongst themselves, yet we never saw them giving her any praise for it. Again, not a big deal but in light of the fact that the episode was 75 minutes long, it was an obvious missed bet.

=R=

Halfway through the episode my wife says to me, "That pasta salad looks like a nice dish....if you want to be executive chef of the Whole Foods deli counter".

Overall, a good episode. A lot of dishes that just made me think, "I want to taste that!"

ronnie_suburban wrote:What bothered me about the episode, from a purely dramatic angle, was that we never saw 2 people who were largely successful being acknowledged. The potato salad, which seemed to be Eli's dish was glowingly praised but even at Judges' Table, nothing was said to him about it. Jennifer C. ran the kitchen with aplomb and we saw the judges discussing this amongst themselves, yet we never saw them giving her any praise for it. Again, not a big deal but in light of the fact that the episode was 75 minutes long, it was an obvious missed bet.

Me too. Seems like they mis-edited this episode a bit. Quickfire seemed overblown, way too much about honoring the military, way too little at Judge's Table.

eatchicago wrote:Halfway through the episode my wife says to me, "That pasta salad looks like a nice dish....if you want to be executive chef of the Whole Foods deli counter".

Overall, a good episode. A lot of dishes that just made me think, "I want to taste that!"

ronnie_suburban wrote:What bothered me about the episode, from a purely dramatic angle, was that we never saw 2 people who were largely successful being acknowledged. The potato salad, which seemed to be Eli's dish was glowingly praised but even at Judges' Table, nothing was said to him about it. Jennifer C. ran the kitchen with aplomb and we saw the judges discussing this amongst themselves, yet we never saw them giving her any praise for it. Again, not a big deal but in light of the fact that the episode was 75 minutes long, it was an obvious missed bet.

Me too. Seems like they mis-edited this episode a bit. Quickfire seemed overblown, way too much about honoring the military, way too little at Judge's Table.

I did like the snippy, take no excuses Padma at Judges Table, though. She jumped all over every excuse the contestants made and didn't cut them any slack. That was unusual for her. It was kind of surprising, and I liked it.

Yeah, I think they had a real knockdown dragout with Michael and maybe Preeti, which was discreetly edited. But the judges seemed genuinely angry, we just didn't see what could have made them that mad. (I've been watching the reruns from Season 3; back then people argued with the judges all the time, they've clearly learned since then that that doesn't help your chances.)

Drinking game for this episode: a shot every time somebody says "some of them just came back, some of them are going over."

Halfway through the episode my wife says to me, "That pasta salad looks like a nice dish....if you want to be executive chef of the Whole Foods deli counter".

Even that's too kind, because at Whole Foods it would have had sundried tomatoes and goat cheese. I think Preeti thought she was on Season 8: Top Chef Vegan Coffeeshop/Mystery Bookstore With Cats Running Around. Too bad she got sent home, it would have been fun next week when everybody else's dishes were like braised elk and swordfish carpaccio, and she would have made tabouleh.

ronnie_suburban wrote:Perhaps it was an unfavorable edit but listening to Ashley carry on throughout the episode about her gayness and about how a challenge involving marriage was problematic for her was beyond annoying.

And that was followed by an armed forces themed episode, another institution hardly friendly to the gay/les community. I noticed the show producers didn't weave any Ashley social commentary into this episode.

stevez wrote:Those brothers are much too serious. I predict that they'll both be gone before the finals because they're just not good TV. (Unless the sibling rivalry thing heats up quickly)

Steve "Talent's Got Nothin' to Do With It" Z

Don't know if I agree with that. That kind of intense brooding persona didn't exactly hurt the ratings when Harold was cooking his way to the top. Just because someone isn't effusive doesn't imply that they're a snoozer.
Also, where did that French San Fran guy come from? I thought maybe they snuck someone in there. Apparently, he (whatever his name is) has been there all along. I don't know if this is an indictment of my attention span (previously convicted) or this season's production quality. I feel like by episode three, I should pretty much, at least, recognize everyone.
Also, no Toby thankfully, but Gail has been braying away at the judge's table. I miss Gael Greene.
On a more positive note, I really enjoy a lot of the dishes I'm seeing prepared, especially from a conceptual perspective. I don't find any of the contestants terribly unpleasant. And I really enjoyed, as someone who hasn't been in a professional kitchen, seeing Jennifer as the kitchen coordinator (chef de cuisine?).
Also, a question about the bacon. What exactly did they do? Did they cook the slab as a whole? And if so, was it pre-cut or just a block of bacon (man, the phrase 'block of bacon' sounds way more delicious than it should)?

It looks like they kind of glazed and roasted/braised it (though it clearly wasn't falling-apart soft), something like this Balthazar recipe. I think what Tom was most impressed with was that they managed to disguise the taste of supermarket bacon, it didn't just taste like salt and maple syrup.

The French guy has been there but hardly been allowed to speak.

The French guy has been there but hardly been allowed to speak.

But when he does, it's very cute, as is his silly little Gene Kelly-esque scarf/kerchief. His name is Mattin, but even when he's called 'Martin,' he just smiles that beatific smile. I got a giggle out of the Caribbean fella who looks a lot like Tommie Harris (and who has that 'huh???" back-story about being stranded for six months in a leaky rowboat, or such) calling him 'Frenchie.'

Also, every ep without Toby Young is a little gift to us from a benevolent God. Heck, they should just have Mark Peel on every week!

Chicago Expat wrote:
And that was followed by an armed forces themed episode, another institution hardly friendly to the gay/les community. I noticed the show producers didn't weave any Ashley social commentary into this episode.

They didn't ask and she didn't tell.

got around to watching the episode last night on dvr. glad to see Preeti go, as others have said she seemed clueless as to how bad the pasta dish, and previous dishes have been.

I thought the "pork belly" dish looked grerat as well, as Hectors potato dish. I also would have liked to have tried the braised pork and potaoto salad dish.

Thankfully Ashley kept her thoughts and agenda to herself, and just cooked on this episode.