Yikes, Casey sure lost it:

http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2009/02/26/casey-thompson-speaks-out-about-top-chef/

bibi rose wrote:Yikes, Casey sure lost it:

She was aghast at Carla cooking French food because she wasn't classically trained. I though Carla was classically trained, which was one of the major points brought out in Carla's mid-season spurt.

very un-gracious of casey to run down carla like that. just no need for it at all. not cool.

I really liked Casey up to the point of reading that crap. Its one thing to defend yourself and your reputation (which in all honesty wasn't in jeopardy anyway), but its something else to run down a contemporary like that. She rarely demonstrated this level of disdain during Season 3, and shouldn't be surprised at how the show is edited AFTER BEING ON IT FOR 13 EPISODES !!!! Pretty damn petty and self-centered.....

She was aghast at Carla cooking French food because she wasn't classically trained. I though Carla was classically trained, which was one of the major points brought out in Carla's mid-season spurt.

Not sure how one defines classically trained, but she went to L'Academie d' Cuisine in Gaitherburg, Maryland.

I agree that even if Casey got a bad edit, which is certainly possible, she was pretty mean spirited.

In a throwback to early-show give-aways that others have commented on, I thought that the clip of Hosea stating that he worked for someone else while Stefan and Carla both were owners foreshadowed his victory.

I was surprised that Marcel was the quietest of the three returning runners-up.

I agree with Dmnkly above that fan favorite was solidly with Fabio until Carla shed some tears. Maybe a tie?

bibi rose wrote:Yikes, Casey sure lost it:

http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2009/02/26/casey-thompson-speaks-out-about-top-chef/

After reading the above, i (for some unknown reason) read her last blog post from season 4. The nigh insufferable entry includes this gem:

We all know Andrew is going home -- did Lisa really have to call him out for the technicality though? I really do think that is cheap and just plain wrong.

Man, how must one feel when in defense of your own sad work, you point out someone else's inefficiencies? I wouldn't feel good. I guess that is how I was raised.

So, Casey, how does it feel?

By the way, Arianne has shown up on this week's Iron Chef America, as a last-minute sub for Amanda Freitag -- she doesn't work at Freitag's restaurant.

Finally got around to watching the finale tonight.

Very disappointing.

It was heartbreaking to watch Carla go down the way she did, but it was her own doing and I'm sure she's better for the experience. I do think she'll win the fan favorite (heck, over 60% of viewers watching the finale thought she should have won based on the in-show poll...and that was after she had screwed up her meal).

Also, I didn't think the final challenge was any more restrictive than it's been in seasons past. I don't ever remember them having days and days to cook the final meal. I thought it was always x number of hours one day to prep and then y number of hours the next day to cook.

radiator wrote:I really liked Casey up to the point of reading that crap. Its one thing to defend yourself and your reputation (which in all honesty wasn't in jeopardy anyway), but its something else to run down a contemporary like that.

Amen. Casey had slowly but steadily won me over during the course of her season but I cannot conceive of an excuse, explanation, or reason to say what she said for publication. If she wants to believe it, that's her business. And there's no doubt that she's not responsible for Carla's decision to take (or not take) her advice, but to go on record with that really extraordinary rant is inexcusable.

Which brings up my biggest problem with Carla. She, too, slowly won me over as the weeks progressed. But her insecurity about her ability got tiresome. She is clearly a talented chef. Whether she was "worthy" of being a Top Chef is beside the point. The theme that kept repeating itself, win or lose, was her insecurity, her unsureness of herself. In a way, I found it even more tiresome than Stefan's cockiness. And I think, in the end, she allowed herself to be swayed by Casey because of both her insecurities and her generous nature. She wants to be liked and to be respected. Fine. But that doesn't mean you abdicate your responsibilities...and that, to me, is why she lost.

To add a little context to Casey's response, it's worth remembering that she woke up yesterday and probably hopped on the 'net to hear what people thought of the finale, only to discover that there were thousands of people screaming for her bloody stump of a head for killing their beloved Hootie. I've even seen a few places (unfortunately) where folks decided to turn Casey's "steamrolling" of Carla into a racial issue.

Doesn't excuse the nastiness of the rant by a longshot, but given what I've seen on some other sites, it makes a certain amount of panic at least understandable.

Dmnkly wrote:Doesn't excuse the nastiness of the rant by a longshot, but given what I've seen on some other sites, it makes a certain amount of panic at least understandable.

Ah, but panic is precisely the time when you wait until you've collected your thoughts. Especially when you're in the public eye, know you're in the public eye, and know that anything you say will (a) shoot around the world in a flash and (b) be around forever and ever and ever.

So, Hosea won?! I was watching Law & Order. Since I don’t care for the current main cast (except for the luscious Alana de la Garza), that tells you what I thought of Top Chef this season. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the show during the last half of the season. I haven’t seen the finale, but I’ve read the posts here.

Several things turned me off to Top Chef this season. On top of the list is the quality of the contestants. This season’s cast appeared to be the weakest, top to bottom, by far in TC history. Seriously, a culinary school student made the cast?! At least with Candice, it was the first season. For a novice to make the cast now suggests that the pickings are becoming really slim for contestants.

The aptitude of the contestants can certainly be called into question. It seemed that this cast was very weak on technique. I still can’t believe Ariane won an Elimination Challenge by just cooking plain lamb. Plus she needed help from everyone else to do it! Then she was eliminated because she didn’t know how to tie a roast! Because the technique was lacking in so many contestants, they did away with my favorite Quickfire - the mise-en-place relay race! I know, there was a variation in the first episode, but it wasn’t nearly the same. On a side note, can they get rid of Restaurant Wars? I’ve always felt it was overrated.

To make matters worse, there were no distinct personalities here, with the possible exception of Carla. Take away Fabio’s accent, and he’s just as vanilla as the rest of the cast. I couldn’t complain about any of the eliminations that happened this season, because there were no “injustices”. Everyone who was eliminated deserved to be so, though there were several times when SEVERAL contestants deserved the axe.

I got the impression that the producers knew they had a lousy cast on hand. That’s why they brought in those “All-Stars” for one episode, to inject some personality into the show. They didn’t bring back the big guns from seasons past; most of the “All-Stars” were eliminated fairly early. It’s probably because they didn’t want the “All-Stars” to crush the current cast. It was close enough as it is. The best thing about it was seeing Camille again (yum!). The producers had to cringe when their big dog (Stefan) got punked by Andrea. Andrea!!

During the Super Bowl on NBC, they had a TC mini-challenge during the pregame broadcast. I laughed when I saw it featured chefs from Season 4 (Antonia and Andrew vs. Richard and Spike). I don’t think they wanted to feature anyone from the current season because, well, for the most part, they suck.

Notice that the sous chefs in the last episode were runners-up from previous seasons. This marked the first time that previously eliminated contestants didn’t serve as assistants in the finale. I can’t blame them. The chef who would have drawn Leah would have been at a distinct disadvantage. BTW, how come Casey was brought in instead of Dale Levitski? It seemed clear that Dale was the runner-up in Season 3. Did Dale piss off the producers with his lame blogging in Season 4? Is it the babe factor?

Part of the fun of watching TC is pulling for certain chefs and railing against others. Who wasn’t rooting for Stephanie in last year’s finale (and not just because she’s a Chicago chef)? Who wasn’t rooting against the vile Lisa? They tried their hardest to portray Stefan as a “villain”, but while he certainly came off as arrogant, it didn’t really take. That’s because there was no one to root FOR. None of the other chefs demonstrated enough talent or likability to be seen as a counterpoint to Stefan.

The editing of the show was absolutely subpar in the beginning of the season. The first few episodes seemed fairly disjointed. The amount of commercials was very annoying. There was one instance where they had about a three minute commercial break, came back with a 20 second sound bite from Jamie, then took another three minute break. It was then that I officially stopped watching the first showing on Wednesday nights.

On to the judging. During the first half of the season, it looked like Tom Colicchio wanted to be anywhere except doing the show. Lots of short, monotone answers (“It’s okay.” “It’s good.” “I don‘t like it.”) with no critique or insight whatsoever. From what I’ve seen, he was more into it down the stretch.

I didn’t think the show would miss Ted Allen as much as it did. As for Toby Young, who cares?! When he debuted, you could tell he spent the previous evening writing zingers and waited for the right moment to unleash them. To Gail Simmons, congratulations on your wedding. However, if you come back next season, either lose 20 pounds or buy some clothes that fit. Fashion police! I can’t believe I’m getting tired of Padma, but I am. I think Colicchio is, too.

Top Chef raised the bar for cooking-based reality shows. (It amazes me that the Food Network continues with the horrible “Next Food Network Star” debacle.) However, the decline that began in Season 4 really exacerbated in Season 5. I’m sure it’s still profitable for Bravo, but this show’s best days are behind it. Are you looking forward to Season 6? I’m not.

I finally watched the finale last night. Ew, what an awful finale for an already disappointing season. Is this a sign to come if there are future seasons?

I was so sick of the Hosea-Stefan drama, another reason I really wanted Carla to win. I completely concur on the previous comments re: Casey . I'm glad that the sous chefs were not recently eliminated TC contestants from this season. I would've been so disgusted to see Hosea and Leah again.

Sorry to be so longwinded, but there's a couple other things I want to rant on.

It bugged me to no end that not one, but TWO elimination challenges were not decided by the judges. Restaurant Wars was decided by the patrons, and the All-Stars episode was decided by culinary school students. Students!!!!

Regarding Eugene, when he suggested the surf and turf sushi, I immmediately shouted at my TV, "Eugene, please pack your knives and go!" The show labeled him as a sushi chef. No way. No freakin' way! That is an insult to all sushi chefs worldwide. He may be able to make some California rolls where he works, but in no terms is he a sushi chef. I liked him up to that point, too. But that was the worst concept I'd ever seen on TC.

jaybo wrote: The amount of commercials was very annoying. There was one instance where they had about a three minute commercial break, came back with a 20 second sound bite from Jamie, then took another three minute break. It was then that I officially stopped watching the first showing on Wednesday nights.

ugh, this phenomenon is REALLY getting on my nerves. Lots of programs are doing this now. It's a Tivo-busting technique, to try to trick you into watching more commercials instead of fast forwarding through them (you stop forwarding, because you think the show's back on). Countdown does this too, and it drives me crazy.

also agree about restaurant wars. I've always thought it was stupid that poor interior decorating could bring down a competitor. In the real world you hire a consultant!

please lay off Gail. she's beautiful. and body-snarking is very uncool.

In the real world you hire a consultant!

In the real world you also better manage that consultant. I have no problem with restaurant wars being about, you know, the whole business of running a restaurant. It's Top Chef, not Top Guy Who Works For Somebody Else In Boulder, Colorado. (Whoops.)

I also had no problem with Gail's Breast Wars against Padma's early show of THO last week.

sarcon wrote:please lay off Gail. she's beautiful. and body-snarking is very uncool.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. I have no problem with Gail's body type. I just thought she wore clothes that were unflattering to her, at least on camera. I would never throw stones from my glass house.

jaybo wrote:

sarcon wrote:please lay off Gail. she's beautiful. and body-snarking is very uncool.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. I have no problem with Gail's body type. I just thought she wore clothes that were unflattering to her, at least on camera. I would never throw stones from my glass house.

It was more than that. Her overall appearance was never good, and that went from her personal appearance to her body language to the clothes she was wearing and of course what she had to say.

There was always something very unlikeable about her.

I, for one, am done with this show. Good the past few years, but there was nothing there this time to justify spending an hour of my time every week.

Whatever else you say about him, you have to love Stefan's choice of URL:

www.cockychefclothing.com

Has anyone ever tried the basil chicken salad from the Jewel deli? Just wondering if it's any good, after seeing Radhika buy a large tub of it today.

At least she hasn't appeared in a commercial for Jewel's basil chicken salad. Yet.