Two seasons ago, that would have been the case. More recently, they've started playing on the fact that folks were getting smug about their ability to call the chef going home five minutes into the episode.

I am constantly trying to figure it out. I feel like usually, they will focus on the person to go from the very beginning through out. Notice that Radhika was one of the first interveiwed and then throughout, even before she won the challenge.

Another note to future contestants on Top Chef: When brought to judge's table and asked why you are there, NEVER answer "I don't know."

This is on the same level as: When someone asks if you are a God, you say yes!

Anyway, I read Tom's blog at the Bravo site. In some ways, it makes me see where the judges were coming from picking Sunset Lounge over Sahana. But not enough to matter. He leads with FOH issues and it seems clear that this was the main differentiator. I still have issue with this. If these are skills you want the chefs to exhibit (enough to tip the scales against the way the food tilted), then they should be an ongoing component of their challenges - not just a test of one person, once or twice during the course of the season.

Restaurant Wars almost universally disappoints. It's really a war to maintain mediocrity and avoid failure (with last year being an exception). I keep watching and hoping that people will learn and improve, but usually someone melt down and you see some pretty bad food and decisions - often some of the worst you'll see during the season's run. I have to think that it stems from the grueling 24 hour run-up and the nearly impossible task.

Restaurant Wars is much ballyhooed, but it is probably the most dramatic of gimmicks rather than a litmus test of any kind.

brandon_w wrote:

elakin wrote:regardless, i'm gonna come out and say it--this season of top chef is a dud.

My thoughts exactly. There longer it goes on, the less I am interested in any of the contestants. Last nights episode was really boring, I thought the fridge problems would lead to some excitement but it didn't.

I will probably keep watching, but I cannot come up with much to say about it.

A month later, I share the feeling about the show. There is nobody on the show that, if I knew that they were opening a place and I knew I would be in town, I would be interested in going.

The food just doesn't look interesting this year.

It almost seems like everybody is going through the motions/

Since it's been 2.5 days since the episode ran and there's been no posts, I can only assume that there's been a collective "meh" about Jeff's ouster.

I actually enjoyed this episode. A good and enjoyable challenge where they got to coo, a decent guest judge, and again, a minimal use of Toby. And some actual drama with who's going home.

I'll just miss the chuckle I got every time they showed Jeff on screen with his restaurant's name underneath.

Dale wrote:I'll just miss the chuckle I got every time they showed Jeff on screen with his restaurant's name underneath.

Me too.

jeff got reamed. fabio should've been sent packing. he overcooked his protein and then tried to bullshit his way out of it at the judges' table by claiming that having to wait to serve his food caused the meat to be overcooked? huh?

plus, the rest of his plate was hideous. limp, wilted mache topped with melty-looking shaved cheddar (at least crumble it). awful.

jeff's plate seemed fine. seemed like he got beat by a superior dish, but he didn't screw the pooch, like fabio did.

i believe the fix was in (to quote blago). i think the producers stepped in and nixed the ouster of fabio. he is fun to watch and listen to, i will admit.

the challenges on this episode were both among the worst i've ever seen. i believe they are dumbing down the challenges to account for the fact that almost everyone on the show this season is untalented.

20 minutes to make a dish? why? dumb. i love the show, but found myself uninterested about halfway through this episode. i'm actually starting to think i may just stop watching.

I actually thought the guest judge was a pretentious jerk.
Tasting the food twice just to confirm how bad it was?
Did Jeff say more than 10 words all season? It was good to see him gone, if only because he was a completely uninteresting person.
The show is an addiction, but as one of the "All Stars" [not a very impressive group by the way] said, maybe the show should have ended after Season Four.

It seemed to me that Fabio's sins were worse than Jeff's (and I think Jeff is probably a better chef overall), but who knows what was edited out. Notwithstanding the overcomplication factor, I think Jeff's style of cooking ("light and playful," for lack of a better characterization) is probably not up Tom's alley, which may be what ultimately doomed him. Prior to this point, if I was handicapping things, I would have probably picked Stefan, Jaime and Jeff for the final (in that order). At this point, I just hope Leah doesn't make it.

I was not a big fan of the elimination challenge -- I realize they got prep time in addition to their 20 minutes, but it seemed a little too Quickfire-ish for me, particularly at this point in the season with only 7 contestants left.

Matt wrote: At this point, I just hope Leah doesn't make it.

But at least she's interesting to look at.
Not that, as a married guy, I would watch a show for that reason.
Just sayin.

the "All Stars" [not a very impressive group

consider the fact that all of the "all stars" were NY-based chefs.

can you say "too cheap to pay for plane fare"?

elakin wrote:jeff got reamed. fabio should've been sent packing.

That was initial impression too. But then I remembered that Fabio actually earned some points. The people liked his food better than the food from whomever he was competing against. With Stefan, the votes were split among the judges, but the people liked his competitor better. Jeff was the only one who lost the vote with the judges and the people.

It seemed to me that Fabio's sins were worse than Jeff's (and I think Jeff is probably a better chef overall), but who knows what was edited out.

I thought this too, but Tom says on his blog that except for the overcooked venison, Fabio's dish was quite good. The sauce I think he said was excellent and everything else on the plate worked well.

just as a heads-up to anyone interested, Stefan himself (!) has been posting comments over on Dom's blog (which features just about the best TC blogging I've read).

DML wrote:I actually thought the guest judge was a pretentious jerk.
Tasting the food twice just to confirm how bad it was?

I must have missed that part, but from my perspective I always appreciate a judge who has something to say and the ability/experience to back it up.

I hate it when guest judges show up and say nothing during the quickfire, and have next to nothing to add at judges table. At least this episodes judge was opinionated and more than willing to support & defend them. (Although the "Hey-I'm the judge here" came off pretty jerk-ish, for sure.)

So far, however, the best judge has been Dan Barber @ the Blue Hill event.

My wife pointed out right away that it was completely obvious that Jeff was leaving from the beginning of the episode. They obviously tape the interviews with the contestants after the episode is filmed. Jeff, in all of his interview interludes, was acting different: sad, in kind of a droopy-dog way. Jill pointed out immediately that he wasn't looking at the camera seemed quiet and sad and he's definitely the one who got kicked off.

Overall, I hated this challenge because of the way the judges just had to go "i choose this dish". Minimal commentary or culinary discussion. Just a bunch of trash-talking and people raising their hands. Boring.

eatchicago wrote:My wife pointed out right away that it was completely obvious that Jeff was leaving from the beginning of the episode. They obviously tape the interviews with the contestants after the episode is filmed. Jeff, in all of his interview interludes, was acting different: sad, in kind of a droopy-dog way. Jill pointed out immediately that he wasn't looking at the camera seemed quiet and sad and he's definitely the one who got kicked off.

Overall, I hated this challenge because of the way the judges just had to go "i choose this dish". Minimal commentary or culinary discussion. Just a bunch of trash-talking and people raising their hands. Boring.

Yes, yes and yes. I also thought the judging method was flawed and counter-intuitive. In the instances where the judges split their votes, the winner of the tasters' votes then received 10 points. Since those were the instances in which the dishes were most on a par with each other, the tasters' votes should have only resulted in 3 points being awarded, not all 10. I'm too lazy to go back and see if this affected the outcome but it did indicate to me that the challenge was ill-conceived and therefore, uninteresting. Not only did it not make sense -- a smaller margin of victory should result in fewer points being awarded, not more -- but it also gave the tasters more influence than the judges in deciding the outcome.

=R=

Fabio is a quote machine - I'll give him that much. And he said something I agreed with more than anything else I had heard in weeks:
"20 minutes? That's not cooking. That's rushing."

As others have said, this challenge had very little depth. It appeared to be another wheat-from-chaff challenge - designed to move the chains and thin the herd. This would sit better if the "All Stars" actually seemed to pose a significant challenge - only 2 had made it this far into the competition. Maybe the choice of opponents speaks to convenience or expediency. Despite the idiotic rules, scoring and concept of the challenge, the 7 chefs still in contention to win this season eked out a pedestrian victory against this less than formidable competition. If I didn't dislike the challenge so much, I might draw some conclusions about the capabilities of these chefs.

It also didn't speak too highly for this season when Tom suggested that the 3 chefs at Judges' table were 3 of the stronger competitors this season, it seemed like damning with faint praise. Based on their performances, only one of the three really had any chance of winning.

I guess I had been rooting for Jeff after seeing Kathie Lee treat his food so poorly on national TV. But I realized as he gave his exit interview that I don't think he smiled once on the show. I won't miss the dourpuss. But I have to say that I found Tom's comments puzzling. At the challenge, he praised the salted sorbet but seemed to give it to Josie in a close call for being "more authentic." But at Judges table, he said the dish lacked flavor.

First of all, authenticity wasn't used as a criteria to decide any of the other contests, so that seemed to be a bit of BS. All I can imagine is that Tom was biting his tongue to not embarrass Jeff in front of all the onlookers. But he isn't exactly known for doing that. If Jeff's dish was watered down or lacked flavor, then he deserved to go home. But the editing made the basis for the decision a bit unclear.

Lost in all of this was some fine cooking from Carla. I definitely thought she was going to lose when she said she as going to make a 20 minute gumbo, so kudos to her for pulling it off. But I thought her Quickfire dish was the most thoughtful and intriguing thing she's produced yet. I won't expect much from her until she can replicate her success, but she bears a little watching.

The series seems to be lurching to an inevitable Jamie-Stefan finale. I hope that we start seeing some strong, consistent cooking from someone other than Stefan so it is at least interesting.

elakin wrote:just as a heads-up to anyone interested, Stefan himself (!) has been posting comments over on Dom's blog (which features just about the best TC blogging I've read).

Thanks for that pointer! I like Stefan's posts. Some people on the site seem to object to them-- think they put a damper on discussion or something. I don't find that to be the case. He's not acting like Ilan did on the Bravo site, telling people they had no right to have an opinion about the show. (That guy is so immature.) I love that Stefan and Jeff were in Florida together when the last episode aired.

I finally watched this. A minute into the show, I was saying "Wow, Jeff must be going down." So much for subtlety and misdirection from the editors (though they partly redeemed themselves with the great little interchange between Stefan and Carla when she was meditating).

I kind of enjoyed seeing the big dogs of the show so far all end up in the dock at the end. On the one hand, Jeff went down because he was eternally the guy with a lot of promise and skills who never quite made anything anyone liked. The world is full of chefs who put five things on a plate because they can't pick, or trust in, the three things they should put on it.

On the other hand, hard to see what justifies Fabio's continued presence-- has he ever won anything? He gives good quote, that's about it. And to be fair, at worst he did a bad job with a bad choice. (Wisconsin-- they should have given him a raccoon to cook!)

I didn't think the challenge was especially good or interesting... but I can't say the final result seemed unjust.

for the love of god could they kick carla off so i just never have to hear her talk again?

I've been following this thread for some time but finally feel riled up enough to chime in.

First of all, what was the thought process in kicking off Jamie? I was certain she was going to the finals. At least she understood her dish and how to decipher the various components, unlike Leah who is culinarily inferior. Sorry, but Leah should have gone, probably as soon as she gave up during the quickfire. No chef worth their knives would throw in the towel like that.

And as for Carla, she's actually growing on me. Her cooking and skill is showing now more than before, and I love her sayings. Tonight's favorite was: "This is what I want to be when I grow up, one of Eric Ripert's dishes." With that being said, there's no way she'll make it to the final.

Thanks for letting me blow off steam!

It really does seem like Jamie made the dish inedible by ruining the celery... leah and hosea's dishes might have not been great, but they were edible.

I'm sad to see her go, but it seemed like the right call to me.

Now, why did Toby have a hearing aid/wireless monitor in his ear through much of judges table? Was he getting fed lines, is he hard of hearing, what?

gleam wrote:It really does seem like Jamie made the dish inedible by ruining the celery... leah and hosea's dishes might have not been great, but they were edible.

I'm sad to see her go, but it seemed like the right call to me.

Not to mention every judge and reportedly all of the other chefs in the kitchen, including Jamie. It sucks, but while Hosea and Leah made mistakes, Jamie's was the only one that rendered her dish inedible. That's tough to get around, no matter how much you'd like it to be so. And believe me, I'd like it to be so.

So, last week, the Season 5 Cheftestants could barely outcook the dredges from past seasons; this week, they very much redeem themselves by doing a good job of impressing Eric Ripert. I really like, nay prefer these type of challenges as they actually get to one's actual cooking skills. That said, I have a few comments.

First, the less important one. Is it me or do the other judges showing little respect for Toby.

That said, count me as someone very surprised by the choice of Jamie instead of Leah. OK, Jamie's dish did not taste very good because of what happened to the celery. You are asking these guys to figure out a dish and then make it in 15 minutes. Jamie figured it out, just had no idea how to execute the timing. To me, that's a lot more impressive than someone who had no clue how to make the dish in the first place.

Vital Information wrote:First, the less important one. Is it me or do the other judges showing little respect for Toby.

That said, count me as someone very surprised by the choice of Jamie instead of Leah. OK, Jamie's dish did not taste very good because of what happened to the celery. You are asking these guys to figure out a dish and then make it in 15 minutes. Jamie figured it out, just had no idea how to execute the timing. To me, that's a lot more impressive than someone who had no clue how to make the dish in the first place.

I, too, got the sense from this episode that the judges have no respect for Toby.

As for Jamie v. Leah (geez, does Leah get on my nerves), it appeared to me that, although Leah was terrible at attempting to reverse engineer the dish, Jamie's dish was just bad -- I think Padma said that if she was served that in a restaurant, she would have sent it back. Having said that, even in that day's challenges, Leah was less-than-impressive, and taking into account Leah's past performance (which I do think the judges do somewhat), Leah should have been the one to go. I don't know though, it seemed like another close call where the producers stepped in and kept the more interesting person.

As for Jamie and Jeff, I've said before that I never really saw either of them do anything that impressed me, and interestingly, they were two early-annointed frontrunners who ending up departing in the middle of the pack. I put both Jamie and Jeff in the category of cheftestants who are anointed as frontrunners early on in the season either because they talk a good game, or seem very serious (and, therefore, in both instances, must be competent) but never really follow through to my mind.

Leah seems to be this season's contestant who, like Season 3's Sara or Season 4's Nikki, lucks into making it further than she should.

As for Carla, I thought she really showed her chops the last few episodes (setting aside the frozen yogurt debacle which really wasn't her fault). As annoying and odd as she might be, she does seem like a nice, hardworking person, and I find myself rooting for her now. I'm still rooting for Stefan, euro-villian though he is.

DML wrote:

brandon_w wrote:

elakin wrote:regardless, i'm gonna come out and say it--this season of top chef is a dud.

My thoughts exactly. There longer it goes on, the less I am interested in any of the contestants. Last nights episode was really boring, I thought the fridge problems would lead to some excitement but it didn't.

I will probably keep watching, but I cannot come up with much to say about it.

A month later, I share the feeling about the show. There is nobody on the show that, if I knew that they were opening a place and I knew I would be in town, I would be interested in going./

I am going to change that a bit.

Carla seems to have an interesting perspective on food -- classically trained but willing to mess around with interesting stuff. I would go to a restaurant she ran. The rest? Nothing that I've seen impressed me.

And I'm starting to think Leah is on the wrong show. Shouldn't she be on one of the modeling reality shows? Other than good looks, I don't see what she brings to the show. I haven't seen her cooking anything at all that impressed me.

aschie30 wrote:I don't know though, it seemed like another close call where the producers stepped in and kept the more interesting person.

If you believe the blogs, there was nothing close about it at all. They debated the merits for the sake of thoroughness, and the editors did their best to maintain some suspense, but I believe it was Tom who said that not a single one of the four judges ever seriously considered eliminating anybody other than Jamie.

In the beginning I thought Leah talked a good game and could really be a baddass throughout the competition. I think she's got the skills. But she seems to be folding under the pressure of the competition.

Carla definitely continues to impress and could get into the finals as long as her head is in the game.

Stefan is the one to beat. He's got the skill but he doesn't seem all that innovative. He executes but I haven't really seen him create. His food is probably technically flawless, but at the same time, I'm not going to go out of my way to eat at his restaurant. (Or have him cater my event )

Dmnkly wrote:

aschie30 wrote:I don't know though, it seemed like another close call where the producers stepped in and kept the more interesting person.

If you believe the blogs, there was nothing close about it at all. They debated the merits for the sake of thoroughness, and the editors did their best to maintain some suspense, but I believe it was Tom who said that not a single one of the four judges ever seriously considered eliminating anybody other than Jamie.

After reading Tom's blog, it seems that they had to edit the episode in a way to create a bit of suspense because Jamie was clearly the one to go.