The question is, is she run down because she has a cold (which will go away) or because she's losing it under the pressure? To me she has the potential to be like Jamie last year, just hits a wall with the competition after a certain point (though for different reasons) and is almost glad to go. Or, she might just get over her cold and be fine.

Any Formula One fans here (I know, strange habits -- cooking and racing). In any case, Jen reminds me a lot of Kimi Raikonnen (currently of Ferrari).

There is the strange combination of talking in a complete monotone, while doing some amazing stuff. I can just imagine her explaining how she capture an elk by running after it, wrestling it to the ground, butchering it with a pocket knife, and cooking it using a bunsen burner and three vegetables that she found during the chase, and then serving it to a group of twelve and her making the story as boring as if she was reporting that she just drove down to the supermarket.

Like I appreciate Raikonnen's work, I actually LIKE that Jen makes things seem very boring. There is an odd charm to it.

Her monotone voice and lack of expression reminds me of most of the women who were on Top Chef Masters. I will be shocked if she isn't in the top 4.

Darren72 wrote:Her monotone voice and lack of expression reminds me of most of the women who were on Top Chef Masters. I will be shocked if she isn't in the top 4.

Good point! I agree. Initially, I found Jen's flattened affect offputting, but I think now it's her deliberate attempt at repressing her drive, perfectionism, and anxiety. I hope and think she'll be a finalist as well.

I can still see her personality through the monotone. And she seems to be just as solid as Kevin.

Go beards!

jimswside wrote:

tem wrote:
If she really is '43', she's the most haggard looking 43 I've seen in a long time. She looks at least 55.

she is a rough looking 43..

I was guessing mid-50's as well.

Agreed, but cancer and chemo can do that to a person.

DML wrote: I can just imagine her explaining how she capture an elk by running after it

Agreed, but cancer and chemo can do that to a person.

And, it looks like, a year-round tan.

stevez wrote:

DML wrote: I can just imagine her explaining how she capture an elk by running after it

LMAO! Brilliant!

=R=

So what you are saying is that it has been done? That would explain the deadpan.
I re-watched the episode before last (the Penn and Teller episode). Even when under serious stress, she still had this deadpan expression.
I'm really impressed by that.

DML wrote:So what you are saying is that it has been done? That would explain the deadpan.
I re-watched the episode before last (the Penn and Teller episode). Even when under serious stress, she still had this deadpan expression.
I'm really impressed by that.

As do the brothers, which is why I predicted early on that they would either be gone or else involved in some serious sibling backstabbing. It appears that we are getting the first inklings of the bro on bro battle. It's about time, because both of those boys can cook. If they don't start making better TV soon, there may be an "upset".

DML wrote:Any Formula One fans here (I know, strange habits -- cooking and racing). In any case, Jen reminds me a lot of Kimi Raikonnen (currently of Ferrari).

F1 fan here! In fact, one of our cats is named Kimi (it's a good cat name, even if we're not rabid Raikkonen fans). I like your analogy, although I think Jen has more drive to win than Kimi right now! It will be pretty funny to imagine Jen's monologues in Kimi voice. "yessotheconditionswerechallengingtodaythecarwashandlingnotsowellbuttheteamputinagoodeffortandourresultswerewhatweexpected"

If I had my druthers (and it's been a long time, under any circumstances), I'd like to see Kevin and Jen in the finals with one of the Voltaggios.

After not being able to watch for a few weeks I'm finally caught up.

I still think it's going to come down to either Kevin or Jen. Say what you will about Jen's personality, but clearly she can cook (she was the opening chef at Eric Ripert's restaurant in Philadelphia which, at least for me, speaks volumes).

No surprise on Ash going home this week, it was long overdue. Robin will go soon enough.

I thought the relay challenge was one of the best ever on any season of Top Chef because it revealed so much about the chefs' processes -- how they think, improvise and build on others' cumulative work. It tested their knowledge and instincts, and measured their experience, too.

As for Restaurant Wars, as I watched the blue team segments, I kept thinking to myself 'this is exactly how someone great ends up going home.' In the end, I didn't think that happened but based on what we saw, it certainly could have. On the flipside, it was immensely satisfying to see the red team put together such a fantastic service at the exact right moment. While it was not a conflict-free road for them, it was still a great example of grace under pressure.

=R=

Very good episode. That Quickfire may have been the neatest ever. It was very intriguing to hear each chef's take on the challenge before them and their thought process from the moment they took off the blindfold. From the perspective of someone who doesn't work in the culinary field, I thought the success of both teams in the QF really displayed the talent level in this season's cast. It made me wish it had been done in past seasons so I had a point of comparison.
I'm glad they used an existing restaurant as the stage for the Wars. I always thought it was a waste of time and talent to have one of the chefs spending most of his/her time up front, setting up tables, wall decor, etc. I understand those skills are important, but in the context of this contest, seemed more incidental to the overall goals.
One thing I noticed about Eli in the front of the house, not only was he attentive to the judges, but he wished them a thanks&goodbye as they left, which I believe forgetting to do so was a criticism of front of housers from previous seasons of TC.
While she really isn't up to the talent of the others and really needs to go asap, I was glad to see Robin get some praise at the judge's table. I don't know if this is a result of the animosity toward her that exists from the others (or that the producers want us to believe exists), but we found ourselves cheering a bit at her success.
Kevin is really coming off as a genuine guy, as much as anyone can look genuine in front of a phalanx of cameras.
The disappointment that Kevin and Jen in their performance in front of the judges I thought was refreshingly sincere. It didn't seem to spring from some place of fear that they'd be booted off the show; just that they felt really bad that they hadn't cooked up to their potential. For them to view that as the primary reason for sorrow, IMO, that speaks to the kind of quality that should exist in a top chef.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I thought the relay challenge was one of the best ever on any season of Top Chef because it revealed so much about the chefs' processes -- how they think, improvise and build on others' cumulative work. It tested their knowledge and instincts, and measured their experience, too.

As for Restaurant Wars, as I watched the blue team segments, I kept thinking to myself 'this is exactly how someone great ends up going home.' In the end, I didn't think that happened but based on what we saw, it certainly could have. On the flipside, it was immensely satisfying to see the red team put together such a fantastic service at the exact right moment. While it was not a conflict-free road for them, it was still a great example of grace under pressure.

=R=

I also really liked the Quickfire. Ronnie, good point that the Restaurant Wars is how a good person gets sent home. My wife and I commented to each other that, despite how bad Jennifer and Kevin's performances were, we are sure they will find a way to send Laurine home. In fact, I got the impression that Tom was blaming her for Kevin's undercooked lamb because she didn't speak up about it as they came out of the kitchen.

I like to check out Tom's blog, though, because he usually provides more insight into the judges decision-making. In this case, he writes that Laurine basically made two big mistakes: her front of the house service was terrible and her lamb dish was "by far" the worst of the night (though it seems some of the reason for this was that Kevin undercooked it). Kevin and Jennifer, according to Tom, each had one good dish and one bad dish.

I do note, though, that even if Laurine had told the kitchen to fire the dishes quicker, it isn't obvious that they would have been able to do this. They weren't just sitting around waiting for orders to come in.

See http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/t ... raffic-jam

I'm calling BS. They're supposed to be judging week to week, not factoring in past performance. Jen put out 2 horrendous, nearly inedible dishes, and demonstrated more kitchen stupidity than nearly anyone else in the history of Top Chef. No way in hell that if the roles had been reversed - with whats-her-name-that-got-booted cooking those 2 dishes and Jen F-ing up the front of the house - that Jen gets sent home. They were keeping Jen around even if she put cyanide in Tom's portion.

Kenny, if they sent Jen home now, they couldn't do any more bikini shots of her.

In Tom's blog, he said they liked one of her two dishes and didn't like the other. I don't remember that from the show. But in any case, he concluded there was one strike against her, rather than two for Laurine. But Tom also complained about her lack of management of the kitchen, which did not seem to earn her a strike by his calculation. Agreed, the result seemed contrived. But I'm much more excited to see what Jennifer cooks than Laurine. So I am happy to play along here.

Darren72 wrote:In Tom's blog, he said they liked one of her two dishes and didn't like the other.

I wonder which one he liked - the one he said was just beige, with a broken sauce that tasted like nothing but grease, or the one that featured undercooked shellfish.

Darren72 wrote:Kenny, if they sent Jen home now, they couldn't do any more bikini shots of her.

all the more reason to send her home.

Kennyz wrote:

Darren72 wrote:In Tom's blog, he said they liked one of her two dishes and didn't like the other.

I wonder which one he liked - the one he said was just beige, with a broken sauce that tasted like nothing but grease, or the one that featured undercooked shellfish.

The one with the broken sauce. He wrote "Jennifer could have gone home for making the mistake of choosing to steam the clams and mussels to order, but we all liked the halibut."

Darren72 wrote:

Kennyz wrote:

Darren72 wrote:In Tom's blog, he said they liked one of her two dishes and didn't like the other.

I wonder which one he liked - the one he said was just beige, with a broken sauce that tasted like nothing but grease, or the one that featured undercooked shellfish.

The one with the broken sauce. He wrote "Jennifer could have gone home for making the mistake of choosing to steam the clams and mussels to order, but we all liked the halibut."

The broken sauce dish was trout. The halibut was in the dish with the mussels and clams.

Count me as another fan of this week's Quickfire. Hopefully that will become a regular challenge.

When it got to the end I was pretty sure either Laurine or Jen was going home. Here's how I scored it in my head:

Laurine - Terrible FOH performance (not explaining the dishes when they were put in front of the judges was a huge problem), problems with her lamb dish (even though Kevin actually cooked it, she explicitly told Tom that she would be sending back food that wasn't cooked correctly...and that lamb was obviously very underdone).
Jen - Terrible trout (broken sauce was a huge problem), bad shellfish that was redeemed by well-cooked halibut and a tasty consomme that wasn't really a consomme.

So, in the end, I can see the "two strikes vs one" argument coming from Tom. I believe the judges to take past performances into account (whether or not it's overt we have no way of knowing), and quite honestly that doesn't bother me. Jen has a legit shot at winning, Laurine doesn't.

I still think it's going to come down to either Kevin or Jen. Say what you will about Jen's personality, but clearly she can cook (she was the opening chef at Eric Ripert's restaurant in Philadelphia which, at least for me, speaks volumes).

I've eaten there a couple of times and it was very good on both occasions (it's the lobby restaurant at the Philadelphia Ritz).

Laurine came off her "cat food rillette" week with a pretty weak performance. Jen had a (very) bad night. Jen has the chops to stay in for the long haul, Laurine was in over her head.

jesteinf wrote:Jen - Terrible trout (broken sauce was a huge problem), bad shellfish that was redeemed by well-cooked halibut and a tasty consomme that wasn't really a consomme.

Did they not like the shellfish, or did they just question her decision to cook them to order? I don't remember.

Did they not like the shellfish, or did they just question her decision to cook them to order? I don't remember.

I thought they said they were undercooked and fishy tasting

Darren72 wrote:

jesteinf wrote:Jen - Terrible trout (broken sauce was a huge problem), bad shellfish that was redeemed by well-cooked halibut and a tasty consomme that wasn't really a consomme.

Did they not like the shellfish, or did they just question her decision to cook them to order? I don't remember.

I think at Judges Table they said they didn't like them (and they certainly questioned the decision to cook them to order). There was definitely a shot of a "customer" calling the shellfish "fishy".

I'm pretty sure it was Tom who - after learning that Jen steamed the shellfish to order - said something like "That would explain why they were undercooked."

Kennyz wrote:I'm calling BS. They're supposed to be judging week to week, not factoring in past performance.

They're supposed to be judging week to week? You sure? I'm fairly sure I've seen them give someone a pass for a one-challenge slip based on prior track record. Someone please grab the Official Top Chef Rulebook and check.

Kennyz wrote:I'm pretty sure it was Tom who - after learning that Jen steamed the shellfish to order - said something like "That would explain why they were undercooked."

IANAC, but if not cooked to order, how else would the shellfish be done? Par-cooked and then finished to order? If fully cooked and held at temp, seems to me they would be overcooked, no?

--Rich