gleam wrote:but I'm glad SOMEONE said something about Rick Tramonto having shitty frozen scallops in his restaurant.

Yeah, even though it's poor form to insult the host of the challenge (and guest judge), I'm glad he had the courage to mention it - although he could have been a bit more tactful.
The sound of collective jaws hitting the floor after the comment was priceless.

I'm no fan of Spike's, but I don't know...it was a valid point, and I sincerely doubt it was the deciding factor in the judges' decision. Personally, I would've liked to see Lisa go home, but from the judges' blogs, it sounds like Spike biffed a bit harder than Lisa did.

Interesting footnote to Tom's blog, he makes it sound like he also disagrees with the choice to send Dale home. I haven't drunk as deeply of the Dale Kool-Aid as some others (I'm too full from all my Stephanie Kool-Aid), but it's hard to say the decision was less than questionable. Especially since this means Lisa's in the final four. Yuk.

Honstly, from what I've seen, this seems like the least talented cast the show has had yet. At least last season there were a couple I could get excited about, but this is really going from bad to worse.

jpschust wrote:Honstly, from what I've seen, this seems like the least talented cast the show has had yet.

Not sure I agree, as no one seems less talented than Elan and he actually won.

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jpschust wrote:Honstly, from what I've seen, this seems like the least talented cast the show has had yet. At least last season there were a couple I could get excited about, but this is really going from bad to worse.

I'm a little puzzled by this sentiment, too. Setting aside Lisa, between the remaining three, I'd put the least of them over Dave from season one, Elia and Ilan from season two, and Casey and Brian from season three without even thinking about it (results bedamned). And I've never been as excited about the finalists across the board as I am this season. I've got two I'm genuinely thrilled with and anxious to see what they do, and one who has a real shot, even if I feel she's a step behind.

Yeah, I think Richard and Stephanie are as good as anyone from any season. I feel that way about Tiffani, too, and probably Lee Ann. I also feel as if there was more depth of talent this year than any other. (Although it can be hard to tell about that.)

Tramonto is now claiming that the Top Chef producers planted the scallops in his walk-in:

"The Top Chef producers stocked and paid for the product that went into our coolers. Unfortunately, due to editing and the whole reality tv way of filming, it was not conveyed that it was part of the challenge, nor is the conversation shown where Tom pointed out that they were not the restaurant's product. None of my restaurants have ever used frozen scallops or any product that is not of the highest quality. Other than that, it was a pleasure being part of such an amazing production, and I loved the way that Tramonto's Steak & Seafood looked on screen. It was a lot of fun to be part of."

MJN has much more at http://www.hungrymag.com/

According to Tom's Blog, the scallops were provided by the Allen Bros:

Rick Tramonto took Spike to task over this, which brought on Spike’s feisty reply, “With all due respect, the scallops were in your walk-in.” My heart sunk when I heard this because I’ve known Rick for years and can say with certainty he doesn’t use frozen seafood in his restaurant. Along with the high-end steaks they had provided for the show, Allen Bros. had included a variety of other products to round out the restaurant’s existing stock, including frozen scallops, which is how they came to be in Tramonto’s walk-in. I learned later that Rick knew this when we taped the show, but chose not to make a federal case out of it. But as a colleague and fan of Rick’s, I feel it’s important to set the record straight.

Going back to the previous episode with the exit of Dale, Bourdain has posted about it, fyi:

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/2008/05/post.html

So Rick is willing to serve poor quality food to his customers just because it is for a TV show?

Maybe we should ask before making reservation: "You are not filming anything there that night are you? Because I really don't want to be served a lousy product just to make good TV."

I'm not sure what is worse -- deliberately ordering them, allowing them to get into your walk in and allegedly "not knowing", or choosing to serve a bad product to customers for TV drama. Either way, Rick doesn't look good.

DML wrote:So Rick is willing to serve poor quality food to his customers just because it is for a TV show?

Maybe we should ask before making reservation: "You are not filming anything there that night are you? Because I really don't want to be served a lousy product just to make good TV."

I'm not sure what is worse -- deliberately ordering them, allowing them to get into your walk in and allegedly "not knowing", or choosing to serve a bad product to customers for TV drama. Either way, Rick doesn't look good.

Are you sure that everyone in the restaurant that night was actually a "customer"? Tom said that they would be doing 60 covers that night, which sounded pretty low to me. I was under the impression that it was more of a "friends and family"-type of evening.

Also, the explanation that Allen Brothers provided the scallops as part of an overall "provisioning" of the restaurant for the EC sounds reasonable to me. Tramanto's a smart guy, I really don't think he would open himself up to be "exposed" for using frozen seafood.

And here are the scallops in all their pre-packaged glory on the Allen Brothers web site.
http://www.allenbrothers.com/jumbo-sea-scallops.html

You'll notice their web site has a link under the picture "Cooking Suggestions" -- and when you click on it a blank screen comes up.
I take it that means "Don't Bother."

>>Brent

I tried the Allen Bros. link, and I did get the cooking suggestion, although it was just a very basic way to sautee them.

Lisa and Spike in trouble again was no surprise - too bad Spike had to go, he totally wasted winning the quickfire challenge. A lot of people seem to be anti-Lisa, the producers seem to want to keep her around so there she is in the finals. Stephanie, Antonia, and Richard seem to be the best this season - let's see what happens next week.

To Sarcon: Dale lost as executive chef making asian food and couldn't take the criticism of the guest judge and Bourdain. The Top Chef should be able to cook all types of cuisine not just one type - Ilan from Season 2 was criticized for his Spanish expertise and Nikki from Season 4 was criticized for her Italian expertise. The critiicism is valid - his asian food expertise led to his dismissal from the competition after his Restaurant Wars collapse.

MrZ wrote:A lot of people seem to be anti-Lisa, the producers seem to want to keep her around so there she is in the finals.

Is there any proof anywhere at all (other than the very general disclaimer we all know about) that the producers have specifically been involved in the judging this season? If not, I'll continue to believe that she's still around for only 2 reasons:

1) there has consistently been someone slightly worse than her in every elimination challenge
2) she's been pretty damned lucky

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no conspiracies r us, inc.

Is there any proof anywhere at all (other than the very general disclaimer we all know about) that the producers have specifically been involved in the judging this season? If not, I'll continue to believe that she's still around for only 2 reasons:

1) there has consistently been someone slightly worse than her in every elimination challenge
2) she's been pretty damned lucky

-Here is an opinion: this is a television show, filmed months ago for exhibition during the last several weeks. TV shows exist on ratings and Lisa and Dale's rivalry and rivalry with others brought a lot of attention to the show. Having Lisa in the finals vs. the three most successful chefs is good television.

MrZ wrote:Here is an opinion: this is a television show, filmed months ago for exhibition during the last several weeks. TV shows exist on ratings and Lisa and Dale's rivalry and rivalry with others brought a lot of attention to the show. Having Lisa in the finals vs. the three most successful chefs is good television.

Much of this is borrowed from an old post, and I apologize in advance.

I can't disprove the existence of a conspiracy to fix the results any more than I can disprove the existence of the chupacabra. And to be fair, I won't completely discount the possibility that you're right and my mind remains open to compelling evidence. But let me just say this. Given what we know, if you believe the producers are pulling the strings and influencing elimination decisions to keep "villains" around for the sake of good television, you must believe the following:

-That keeping a person such as Lisa around until the end would have a significant impact on ratings.
-That the Top Chef audience isn't interested in seeing great chefs compete by making great food, and would rather see good guys vs. bad guys.
-That the producers believe the difference in ratings to be so significant that they're willing to risk completely destroying an already successful show if word ever got out that it was fixed.
-That the producers feel it is vitally important to the audience's enjoyment to help "villains" get deeper into the show, despite the howling and complaints and viewership that tunes out every time there's a controversial decision when a chef like Lisa is kept over a chef like Dale.
-That, in season two, the producers temporarily decided to ditch their "villain vs. good guy" formula for the finals in eliminating Sam, leaving the final battle between two snotty, obnoxious, unlikeable chefs and killing interest in the final episode.
-That the show's casting department is so incompetent, they can't achieve the same ends simply and with no risk to the show's credibility through careful casting.
-That the show's editors are so incompetent, they can't achieve the same ends simply and with no risk to the show's credibility through selective editing to portray certain people as "villains".
-That, despite the large number of snide, snotty chefs who started the season, it's still mathematically suspicious that one of them made the final four.
-That the judges are all in on the fix, and regular judges Tom and Ted, having stated in no uncertain terms that the producers have never influenced their decisions (with the exception of Cliff in season two -- a highly unusual circumstance and just the sort of thing the disclaimer is meant to address), are bald-faced liars.
-That numerous titans of the food world -- including Paul Kahan, Art Smith, Rick Bayless and José Andrés, just to name a few from this season -- are in on it as well.
-That Anthony Bourdain, another frequent judge who has explicitly stated that he doesn't give a damn what the producers want and has never received nor witnessed even the slightest attempt on the part of the producers to exert influence over the eliminations, is the kind of guy who's willing to preside over a fixed contest, and also a bald-faced liar.
-That of all of the people involved, not a single one has felt compelled to blow the whistle.

If all of the above strikes you as reasonable, then yes, it makes perfect sense to believe that Top Chef is fixed. It is a rational opinion, MrZ, that you are absolutely entitled to. But when you consider all of the other presumptions that must be made if this is the case, I personally find the simple, straightforward explanation to be far, far, far more compelling.

Dmnkly - Relax dude - I just stated that Lisa moving to the finals with the producers' input is just an opinion.

Here's another opinion - Lisa was in trouble less often than Spike and certainly during the last elimination (when he used frozen scallops in his dish and argued with the owner of the Steak restaurant) and so she won the 4th spot in the finals due to better dishes. I stated in previous posts that based on the trajectory of the episodes - Antonia, Richard and Stephanie would make it to the finals.

MrZ wrote:Dmnkly - Relax dude - I just stated that Lisa moving to the finals with the producers' input is just an opinion.

I know, I know, I'm sorry... I'm done... zzzzzzzzip

This is cool -- Top Chef is rolling an 18 wheeler across the country to promo the show among cable affiliates.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/flashVideo/element_id/2140219069/taxid/31763.html

>>Brent

I for one am glad that weasley Spike is finally gone, and agree with many other posters that permanently sour-faced Lisa has made it this far mainly for good TV through purposeful ediiting. If you want some real laughs, read some of the topic boards at Bravo's website-there are some serious Lisa-haters there. I also stumbled upon some hilarious Top Chef episode recaps by blogger Ann Mah at
http://www.washingtonian.com/authorprofiles/12000.html.
She posts the day after each episode. Last piece of info unearthed recently-Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak resto just opened up at the new MGM Grand Foxwoods
in CT, that explains in part why he's been elsewhere so much for this season . Yes, I am way too interested in all things TC , but glad to know I'm not alone.

jesteinf wrote:

DML wrote:So Rick is willing to serve poor quality food to his customers just because it is for a TV show?

Maybe we should ask before making reservation: "You are not filming anything there that night are you? Because I really don't want to be served a lousy product just to make good TV."

I'm not sure what is worse -- deliberately ordering them, allowing them to get into your walk in and allegedly "not knowing", or choosing to serve a bad product to customers for TV drama. Either way, Rick doesn't look good.

Are you sure that everyone in the restaurant that night was actually a "customer"? Tom said that they would be doing 60 covers that night, which sounded pretty low to me. I was under the impression that it was more of a "friends and family"-type of evening.

Also, the explanation that Allen Brothers provided the scallops as part of an overall "provisioning" of the restaurant for the EC sounds reasonable to me. Tramanto's a smart guy, I really don't think he would open himself up to be "exposed" for using frozen seafood.

Well to clear things up, my GF was there at the restaurant today for lunch and spoke with Rick. He said that Bravo did plant the scallops (and many other things) in the cooler as a tricky set-up to see if any chef used them (instead of refusing them as Spike should have done). He would never serve something of that sub-par quality. And as for the "diners" it was probably filmed on a Sunday afternoon when they would normally be closed and invited "friends and family" similar to doing a dry-run on an opening restaurant. "Hey, y'all who wants a free meal and a spot on TV?" That thought is just IMHO.

I don't care if Lisa's face is so sour that you squeeze her to brighten a dish before serving. I don't care that her posture is more defensive than an anti-aircraft missile. I don't care if she is whiney, combative, or snide.

Her food just doesn't seem to be that good. She has one win. Aside from that, all the attention she seems to gather is negative. As I mentioned, no other finalist has gotten this far with as few trips to the winner's circle/outright wins. It is true that Marcel and Dale did not win any elimination challenges until the finals, but they had at least won a quickfire each, generated genuine gustatory interest at times and peaked perfectly at the end. Most importantly, neither of them were just scraping by so consistently that they were on Chopping Block speed dial.

If you want Lisa off the show, then the reason should be because her food isn't up to snuff. At least in the spirit of the competition.

It is also why I'm not altogether concerned about her upset potential in the final. If she has not been able to put it together all season, why would she start now?

What Lisa's being in the final 4 suggests is that the stated method of judging, in which previous performances are not considered, is critically flawed. Ultimately, if you truly want to crown a Top Chef, you have to consider past performances. Otherwise, what you end up with is essentially a ladder tournament where the winner is less likely to actually be the best in the bunch and luck is way too great a factor. Case in point: Ilan. I would love to see this adjusted in the future.

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rs and gg: I agree with you both. I am thinking that they have some "grander picture" up their sleeves in furthering some cheftestants past others. Last night's show was a prime example of editing to make some look better than others...like how at dinner they all trashed Antonia's salad (except that the egg was poached well) but at the judges' table they edited out every salad comment *except* "wow your eggs were poached perfectly!"

ronnie_suburban wrote:What Lisa's being in the final 4 suggests is that the stated method of judging, in which previous performances are not considered, is critically flawed. Ultimately, if you truly want to crown a Top Chef, you have to consider past performances. Otherwise, what you end up with is essentially a ladder tournament where the winner is less likely to actually be the best in the bunch and luck is way too great a factor. Case in point: Ilan. I would love to see this adjusted in the future.

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Another case in point: Wendy Pepper on Project Runway. She didn't win but she skated to the final because (by her own admission) there was always one person who did worse. And it really was usually one person. On Top Chef, I thought Dave being in the final the first season was a travesty.

I think the problem is that while Top Chef is a relatively interesting reality show, it's still a reality show. If contestants could, say, accumulate points along the way, the results would be clear after a few episodes and people would stop watching. Maybe not the hard-core food enthusiasts but who knows. People who want to watch a straight-up competition have Iron Chef.

Ultimately, if you truly want to crown a Top Chef, you have to consider past performances.

I actually think they occasionally do, particularly at this late stage and when there's a tough decision to be made, and I believe TC even mentioned something at the JT (as he has also on other instances) to indicate to Lisa that he was counting.

The problem arises when you have guest judges who have not been privy to previous encounters or might have some bizarre tastes of their own. This apparently accounts, in part, for Dale's dismissal in the previous competition, which allowed both Lisa and Spike to contend for the finals (TC implied in his blog that if he had been there, he would've outed Lisa). A similar dynamic occurred in the Project Runway case mentioned above, if I recall correctly, when all the regular judges seemed about ready (finally!) to toss Wendy Pepper off the runway, and then the guest judge, acting as the client, unaccountably chose her design as being the one she liked best!

As a non-seafood eater I have a question: What is the big deal about frozen scallops? Is there a clear qualitative difference? Does the freezing ruin the taste and texture? Or was this sorta a gotcha thing?

I eat steak all the time that was frozen and it is no big deal.

AngrySarah wrote:Is there a clear qualitative difference? Does the freezing ruin the taste and texture?

Yes and yes.

jbw wrote:

Ultimately, if you truly want to crown a Top Chef, you have to consider past performances.

I actually think they occasionally do, particularly at this late stage and when there's a tough decision to be made, and I believe TC even mentioned something at the JT (as he has also on other instances) to indicate to Lisa that he was counting.

The problem arises when you have guest judges who have not been privy to previous encounters or might have some bizarre tastes of their own. This apparently accounts, in part, for Dale's dismissal in the previous competition, which allowed both Lisa and Spike to contend for the finals (TC implied in his blog that if he had been there, he would've outed Lisa). A similar dynamic occurred in the Project Runway case mentioned above, if I recall correctly, when all the regular judges seemed about ready (finally!) to toss Wendy Pepper off the runway, and then the guest judge, acting as the client, unaccountably chose her design as being the one she liked best!

Yeah, I agree that past performances are, sometimes, already being covertly considered but I'd like to see them moved into the forefront and emphasized. As for guest judges, your observation about them not knowing what has previously happened, echoed recently by Bourdain on his blog, is correct but I'm suggesting that they modify that part of the process as well, by giving less weight to the guest judges' opinions or offsetting their 'blind spots' in some other way.

Yes, it's reality tv and rooting for one outcome or another often feels like herding cats.

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