f13.net

Started back up tonight. Dunno if the whole "Las Vegas is whacky so we are going to do whacky things!" angle is worth much, but the contestants seem so to be at a rather high level (other than a few of the usual dregs) so might be good. Can't wait to see everyone prostrate themselves before Joel Rubuchon like the God that he is.

Yeah, it had a much better start than all of last season. I can tell you that the next person to go is probably Eve. I was expecting her to go for that bland shrimp cream curry thing.

My wife was rooting for the one who did get tossed to get the boot just so she wouldn't have to look at her earlobes.

Uh, I was looking for this but apparently it's not on Bravo in Canada? I have to wait for it to start on September 7th on Food TV?

I am unamused.

That thing she cooked looked friggin' awful. I mean it just *looked* atrocious.

The cv's of this year's crop look pretty amazing.  I'm looking forward to watching this in a few weeks when the herd has been cut a bit.

Yeah, I thought that was a no-brainer boot. The seitan looked awful, apparently tasted awful, AND she didn't know that it was awful, but defended it proudly as something she cooks in her place. At least the bland curry thing looked like it might not have been bland. I like the woman who did the chicken with the fried egg on top--so far her stuff has a kind of original look and she's cooking with some bold flavors. A lot of the other folks are doing dishes that are excellent but in some sense "mainstream" nouvelle American.

Just realized this came back on, downloading now. Anyone know if Top Chef Masters is related to this show?

Masters was the spin-off of this series.  Top Chef original recipe is better IMO because the stakes are higher for the chefs who are up and comers rather than well-established celebrity chefs.

Once I noticed her ears, it was a pretty easy choice of who I wanted off.  I really hate that stuff, it's revolting.

New to the show BTW.  I have a general dislike for all things reality TV, but this seems to be a cut above.

I'm wondering why Wolfgang didn't peddle a book or set of knives to the winner of the elimination challenge  :grin:

I really can't watch reality TV and when I'm watching Top Chef, I skip the offscreen drama unless there's someone that is just outright funny, which has only happened in two seasons really. If you skip that crap, you're effectively watching a skill-based show, which is a lot more palatable.

Now you could argue things like American Idol and such are the same thing. But they're not. Those people are amateurs with a dream, which is really the spirit of reality tv - suckling that teet of fame. At least Top Chef has people who have made a career of what they're doing BEFORE they got on the show, or fully plan on doing so, win or lose.

That's the way it used to be on American Idol but not anymore. In Season 7, four of the Top 10 had previous record contracts and a 5th had released an album independently. These days AI is more about the "professional" singers who failed in their other attempts to gain fame and fortune and everything that goes with it.

You seem to know shit about American Idol.

Why?

:awesome_for_real:

I watch Big Brother.  (http://www.sheknows.com/graphics/emoticons/blush.gif)

Episode last night was boring and predictable.  I may just stop watching for the next 6 weeks.  I think I already know who will be left by then. 

That's why I mostly DVR these sorts of shows.  That and the fact that the catch up bit at the beginning gets longer and longer which makes me frustrated. 

Edit: I thought this was the True Blood thread.

As much as I'd love to get in on ripping this, I can't even watch it yet. :(

This season does appear to have the professionalism back. Though it was pretty easy to predict who was going off - I knew Eve wasn't going to last 3 weeks with that shit. The pierced chick who keeps fucking up the chicken may pull it out - she at least has good ideas, it's her execution that is piss poor. That Michael guy though - the braggart - he needs a stabbing.

Rather than post something new, I thought I should repost this quote for my own good.  I need a reminder. 

Another boring and predictable episode.  14 people left, so I need to take about 8 weeks off from watching the show. 

The early episodes are good for one thing: setting up the character and personalities of the chefs that you know will be there at the end. The people getting kicked off at this point are just red shirts.  Apparently they are booting two people off next week as the quickfire loser is getting tossed. I think next week is the one where Joel Robuchon is on which should be fun to watch.

ARE YOU PEOPLE WATCHING THIS SHOW?

This had to be one of the best episodes of Top Chef ever.

Agreed. Cooking for Robuchon, Baloud and Keller at one sitting is pretty freaking amazing.

The judges fucking hate it when you mess up the most basic types of cooking. But yeah, cooking for that group of chefs - as I explained to my brother-in-law who knows nothing about gourmet chefs, "That table is full of motherfuckers. Robuchon is the head motherfucker."

We're catching up now. I really did not like the conclusion to the Air Force episode. I agreed with the guy who got pissed off that he was held individually accountable for his Greek salad with shrimp: don't team people if you're going to break them out and tell them that their part of the team was shit. And the pasta salad was obviously not so great, but don't fucking *rage* on people for it. Just say, look, not as good, gotta eliminate, sorry. That's what should be the judging half of the professionalism--invite a bunch of people who are already successful and professional, don't insult them to no end, just say, "Sorry, in a strong field, you're less strong" once you're past the seriously hideous failures. I mean, I'd rather keep someone with a mediocre pasta salad in the mix over someone with a good clam chowder if the place they're serving is a 110 degree Western desert.

The show did not team them. The contestants did that on their own so they are responsible for what they did and he chose to individually cook a second dish (plus didn't have much to do with the one that was good).

I guess. I dunno, I just hate it when things are a bit fuzzy in the set up in these things, because I'm tired of shows where the competition is all about dicking around with the rules/psychologies. I guess in the basic terms it would have been best to get him before either of the women, because the Greek salad was pretty clearly something you could do in ten minutes with some canned/frozen stuff, whereas the pasta salad seemed, eh, not too bad. The basic challenge was a good one: what can you do in this kind of kitchen, with these ingredients? The NY Times had a column a long time ago where Pierre Franey and other chefs would just go into the kitchen of a random Times reader without prior set-up and try to cook with what they had plus a few fresh ingredients bought by the paper (e.g., work with broth, spices, grains, etc. in the pantry). Fun. That kind of thing is a good guide to who is a fully rounded chef. I just wish they could cool it on the "summoned to the principal's office" feel once they get this quality of professional involved--after you've turfed out the few who really aren't in it, chill and talk to people like they're colleagues.

Who the fuck decides that it's a good idea to make a ceviche for a bunch of cowboys in 100 degree heat?   :uhrr:

I hate the fact that I can't stop watching this show. 

Not one but three of them, no less!

Well, sure, the "trio of *" method is how high-end chefs polish turds. If one of something could be good, three MUST be better, right?

That was exactly what I said when it was brought up. MMmmmmm, raw marinated fish sitting out in the sun for hours. No.

If the marinade is acidic enough and it's marinated for long enough it's no longer raw.

True - but sitting out in the hot sun will make what should be cold fish into lukewarm BLEARG.

I'm kind of glad Ron got eliminated.  While he was entertaining and I enjoyed his calling for swords and laying down voodoo protections against snakes it was obvious that he was in way over his head.

I'm betting on Michael and the always looking like she's been put upon blond chick being the two finalists.

My money is on Bryan and Kevin. 

I just want to slap that look off her face, it pisses me off no end.

Anyway, ceviche is a hot climate food from long before such a thing as refrigeration existed.  Think of it like pickled fish, not like sushi.

I have to agree.  I thought he was very sweet but he didn't seem to do much right.

I figured Jen (the one with the puss face) was pretty much a sure thing the first time I read her bio and nothing I've seen since has made me change my mind. There is definitely a top tier here that is really strong though. I feel kind of sad for the speedbumps like Ron who I agree seemed really nice, quite interesting, and totally out of his league. A lot of them are the more entertaining chefs, but they're just not on the same level.

Ron had a language barrier, it was pretty clear that he didn't really get what some of the challenges were about.

I like puss face, I have a thing for competent no-nonsense women. She and Ashley are the only female chefs worth anything, though Ashley is clearly out of her depth. Out of all the chefs on the show Jen seems the best suited to run a restaurant.

There's something about the brothers I don't like, they seem too clean-cut and boring.

I like Eli and Kevin: when they hit a challenge right, they hit it with more imagination than the brothers. The brothers are mostly executing very perfectly a kind of "normal" version of top-flight cuisine. That's obviously just great but it seems to me at times to be a bit soulless, to not have that special twist that makes you think, "Hey, this chef has some ideas about food". That deconstructed lasagna that Jen did sort of showed them up, because she understood that this was time to make it simple and go for flavor.

I'm thinking Ash is going home soon. Nice guy obviously, and skilled, but that sheperd's pie was a kind of clueless thing to do. If I had to deconstruct a shepherd's pie, I'd braise a lamb shank in wine and then shred it, make some mashed potatoes and a pea puree and then put the puree in a well in the mashed potatoes, and then make a sort of potato crust by frying thin-scalloped potatoes together in a single layer, cutting that in a thin band and weaving it around the lamb and mash in a sort of S-curve. Then make a frico with parmesan and lay that across. Something like that. Just plopping some chops down with the rest of that shit was a kind of wtf thing to do. If I were him, I'd also bag the idea of making custards for now: he isn't the only one who has had trouble making them work under the time and conditions constraints in the  history of the show.

The other folks clearly hate Robin, and yeah, the "I had cancer boo hoo" thing was sort of annoying, but she seems pretty ok to me. Some of the issue is that she's really more a caterer and restaurant owner than a chef/executive chef in her background, so she doesn't put dishes together as well as most of the chefs do.

Michael I could take or leave--he's pretty uneven.

I thought Ron was probably a gifted cook with an interesting culinary background. A great bet to run a successful restaurant, but not really a chef in the sense the rest are. I looked at his bio and I can't figure out of he has any sort of actual culinary education. I can't find one of the places he listed and the other offers short workshops and specifies they don't do professional training.

FWIW for those who don't know, Jen the puss face is former sous chef of La Bernardin and runs Ripert's restaurant in Phili. Probably the best resume of anyone I can remember on the show.

They're both extremely boring. Bryan mainly because he has zero personality. While being a little edgier than his brother,  Micheal still cracks me up because he's such a dork about his food and pretty much refuses to go along with a challenge if it doesn't let him do his food. He also thinks very highly of what he does.  No cracks in the fascade as he hasn't really done a bad dish yet.

I like Bryan's food better, but Michael seems to be a better technician.  The guy's food always looks fantastic and well executed.

I hope Kevin wins, because he's awesome and not a douche.  He's the chef I'd most like to cook for me.

Ash or cancer lady are going home next.  Their execution has typically been crap and it seems like you can only get away with that for so long.

There are definitely tiers of chefs this season. Top tier: Jennifer, the brothers, Kevin; Mid-tier: Eli and douchebag Mike; and then everyone else. Robin and Ashe will be the next two in some order, though there will likely be one top tier chef who will lose it during Restaurant Wars and get kicked off the island. My guess is one of the brothers will get on a shitty team and take charge of the sinking ship. I think Jennifer is my pick to win it - you just can't argue with her resume.

Jennifer has the pedigree but lacks the air of authority.  I feel like she spends too much time stressing out or second guessing her talent.  Both are bad traits for someone that needs to have 100% control over the kitchen.  If she can hit her stride and find some confidence, she'll go all the way.  I just have my concerns that her self-assessment skills will, instead, be perceived as a weakness. 

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

Jen is the executive chef at a Ripert restaurant, and has clearly shown an ability to control the kitchen on the show (e.g., the armed forces challenge).  The sound bites they pick for her seem to be the classic Bravo attempt at misdirection far more than Jen lacking confidence or authority.  Her resume and success on the show so far indicate the exact opposite of what you are suggesting.

I like how even when she thinks she's failed a challenge.  She ends up in the top 3.

That's what I'm talking about.  Drai is probably right in that I'm just seeing the editing team's effect on her outward personna. 

I see a Top Chef as the next Ripert, not as the next someone-that-runs-a-kitchen-for-Ripert.  I could care less who these people cook for.  I want to see what they can do without someone telling them what to do the first time they run into a snag. 

I guess I want too much. 

You mean like she did in the catering/airforce thing?

She's strong.  Is she good enough to win the whole thing?  I assume the producers think so.  I hope she can string together more performances like that rather than being portrayed as the unsure, second-guessing type.  I still like Kevin best, but mostly because he's an eccentric.  

I'm always rooting for people who aren't entirely a product of the CIA/elite apprenticeship system, but under these conditions, eventually it tends to show where an eclectic or self-taught background just can't compete for range and experience and confidence. Kevin's an interesting case because he's got some solid experience but he isn't really a blue-chip guy like the brothers, Jen or Eli.

I like the look of Eli's food, though. I've had three or four of my favorite meals ever at the Buckhead Diner, though that was some time ago now.

We've been watching some of the re-runs of old seasons--I didn't start watching until season 4. Season 2 had some freaky emotional shit going on--more like a Gordon Ramsay show.

Tom Collicchio might be my favorite reality-show judge ever, though. Really smart judgments, and when he winds up to get irritated with contestants, it feels righteous and appropriate. (The Season 2 thing where he tells the final group that they could give a shit about what's going on in the kitchen is just so on target as a moment of a mature person telling young people to get a grip and grow up.) Plus I like his restaurants a lot...I blew some poker winnings at Craftsteak once and it was about the best use I could have put them to.

Eli is probably not going to make it.  He doesn't seem to be able to execute under pressure.  When the judging happens he is usually in the middle of the pack.  Not bad enough to get called to the carpet but not good enough for kudos either.

Kevin, on the other hand, is the sleeper that seems to be walking away with the competition.  He may not win, but if he goes down, he looks like he'll be fighting to the last.

A good chef always seems to bite it during Restaurant Wars so this week should be fun.

This. I think it's gonna be down to him and Jen, with Kevs taking it for having more "soul" in his cooking. 

I'm rooting for Jen and Kevin as well.  The brothers seem to annoy me more and more as the show goes on.

I'm thinking Robin has lost her last remaining protective shield, though whats-her-face was lucky not to get whacked for that rillette. (I started yakking to my wife the moment she said the word: do NOT do that if you haven't made it.)

Well shit, I know how rillettes are made, even if I haven't done it myself. Also, boo that no one was brave enough to use offal.

Ash was really an idiot.

I keep losing because I keep listening to other people instead of cooking my food. This time I'm finally going to do what I do, clean simple flavors that taste good!
...
So I was going to make a warm tenderloin with polenta but Mike suggested chilled tenderloin and that sounded totally rad and stuff so I'm going to do that!

Not to mention his embarrassing knob-polishing of one of the brothers the other week. The guy clearly thought he was in over his head and would be happy as a line cook for many of the other chefs.

Chitlins has a really long cooking time, though, and they smell terrible while they're cooking. None of the other chefs would have been very happy. It looked to me like the pigs they got had already had all the viscera taken away, too.

I was surprised that no one tried to do a sausage, though: could have paired very nicely with pinot.

Jen should have really gone home this week, but the show simply couldn't have the two remaining female chefs be Lauraine and Robin.

Restaurant Wars always humbles.

Yeah, if they did the judging based only on this one week it should have been Jen. But doing the judging that way in the end runs counter to finding a "top chef" when you eliminate talented chefs in favor of people who have done absolutely nothing the entire time.

Then again, Lorraine did a bad job up front and also her one dish was inedible.

I never understood how one person has to work the front. It has little to do with being a chef and that person invariably is going to either skate by since they didn't have any real cooking to do or get axed for not doing real cooking. I don't understand the mentality of people who volunteer to work the front.

I agree that the show should focus purely on cooking skills, but they also seem interested in their ability to work under time constraints (priming them for tv show appearances?). If I had to guess, I'd say that it's because the Chef/Owner of a restaurant is often the face of the restaurant.  I think that they want to see if these future restaurant owners have the skills to work the front while the hired help is in back making their creations.

If you want to be cynical about it, you could say that the winner of this contest is being groomed to be a personality in the front of a restaurant.  The cooking skills are nice but the (hopeful) next step for most of the contestants is nation-wide openings and TV appearances.

Even some of the not-so-good chefs on the show are already owners of one or two restaurants.

I don't think it's cynical, really. An executive chef is part of your marketing: they do have to be able to connect with the diners and with potential customers. They're perfectly right to say that someone who aspires to be an executive chef is going to have to cultivate some charisma as well as cook food, to tell a persuasive story about the food they're cooking and then get that food to match the story. A really successful executive chef who has the kitchen running the right way is going to be in the front of the house for at least part of every dinner seating--connecting with customers, seeing how it's going, keeping an eye on the service, getting a feel for how the food is being received by people.

I called this the moment the brothers got put on the same team and that other girl who isn't important enough to remember was in the front of the house. The entire thing.

I did not call Robin making a palatable dessert. She still sucks. This was an anomaly.

Lorraine and Robin were the last of the dead weight, now it's just Robin. Oh, Mike "How You Doin'" Isabella is pretty unremarkable too. He needs to get the axe. Eli has been skating by on luck, too.

Robin is actually really good at desserts it seems.  If it weren't for her last couple of desserts she'd be gone from the show.  One got her an immunity and the other got even more praise from the judges.  She is most definitely the next one gone off the show though, however I'd like to see her outlive Mike and Eli.  Just for their reactions.

Eli could probably come back in a few years and clean house.  He is 25 and the top contenders all have 5-10 years of experience on him.

Hung was 29 and won, so your theory is reasonably sound.

Ilan was 24 and won and IT STILL MAKES ME ANGRY EVERY TIME I THINK ABOUT IT AND I HOPE HE GETS MAIMED BY A BUNCH OF TINY WOODLAND CREATURES ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

Well, Ilan's first restaurant opened a little over a month ago...and was shut down right away by the health department. http://www.zagat.com/Blog/Detail.aspx?SNP=NLA&SCID=37&BLGID=23378. Fucking horrible name for a restaurant, also.

Marcel's still a sous chef somewhere, I think.

Speaking of Top Chef establishments, friend of mine here went to Jen's restaurant in Philly and said it's quite bad, though some of that is clearly Ripert's design for the place, not the cooking per se.

I'm sorry, but season 2 was all about Sam and by extension Cliff since he was Sam's only competition.

Yeah. Sam's restaurant is doing quite well, from what I've read, it's out on Long Island.

I didn't mind Ilan winning because I hated that douche Marcel, but yeah, Sam should have won season 2 hands down. Getting kicked for "not cooking" was a bullshit reason. Seeing how little Ilan has done with all that money and notoriety since makes me angry, and I bet it makes Chef Tom regret that comment.

Yeah, Lorraine and Robin were the dead weight. Mike and Eli will be after that unless something wonky goes on like the bitch wins immunity. I see on next week's preview that Isabella looks like he wants  to mack on Natalie Portman so bad - it's likely to kill him.

If you have to lose on Top Chef, and it's doubtful if Mike will win, then probably the best way to go out would be while making a pass at Schild's cousin.

Wow. The post you're referencing was made like 4 years ago.

Not my cousin, one of the kids in my high school.

Yeah, schild has mentioned more than once that he wants to be in a Portman-Johansson sandwich. 

I'd prefer an Amanda Seyfried / Scarlett Johansson sandwich, but I'd take one with Portman instead.

You would probably do it with any combination of those hot actresses who still look 17 as long as you didn't have to kiss them.  You're so slutty.

Where'd that come from? Pretty sure I've said some seedy stuff about Bridget Moynahan, Maria Bello, Monica Bellucci, Julianna Margulies, Christina Hendricks and others.

Maybe not all of them here, but some of them here for sure, and other people.

I can say some pretty unlikable stuff about some Top Chef contestants too if you want to be topical instead of insinuating I like to feel like a predator.

$PMONEY went to your high school?

Did they really need another Vegetarian challenge?  I mean come on.

Mike Volt bagging on Kevin? For shame.

The more the show goes on, the more I hate the brothers.  I really hope Kevin wins at this point.  I think Jen needs to just get her shit together, cuz she's proved she can cook.

I agree with Evildrider.  I think the brothers would piss me off irl, too.  Especially the really really whiny one with the sneery face.  I forget which name is his.  Last night I wanted to rip his face off and shove it up his brother's ass. 

They're the culinary equivalent of an all-A student from an Ivy League school who somehow come off as empty inside--that they do what the system requires of them at the highest level, but don't have an animating passion of their own. Like a hot young newly-minted MFA who is doing lots of gallery shows but is just reproducing whatever the current artistic fad might be.

Whenever it's a young actress that's the big twist. They already had to do vegan for Zooey Deschanel (btw, did anyone get a chance to have their ears bleed over her shitty cotton commercial?).

I call Mike Voltaggio "Tony Hawk." It's the only way I can keep them straight. He had the funniest sour grapes face last night!

Jen doesn't get her shit together, she'll be gone before Robyn. Except that even at her worst, she's still not as bad as Robyn. Mike being gone was inevitable - the minute your shit starts to fuck up and you don't change your plans, you're fucked. Kevin is right now my current favorite to win since he's maintained consistency. Jen's confidence has been undermined by losing Restaurant Wars. She can't decide what to do about anything because she's so worried she'll fail.

10 Arts, I've eaten there and I thought it was amazing.

I think Kevin has reached an Obi-Wan like status, he can't actually lose.  He could literally lose the competition, but he obviously loves food and cooking so much that he's already won.  This is why Kevin is my favorite, he's there because he loves it so much, not to prove how awesome he is like Jen and the Brothers.

Eli's reaction to being in the top 3 was pretty funny.  Almost a, "Sure Kevin and Michael but me?" sort of thing.

Shows you who the other chef's expect to do well.

It was pretty apparent that Mike wasn't going to make it much further, he was way to cocky for pretty much never being in the top.

I thought it was really cute how Eli was trying to hide his Jewnerd boner for Portman. He forgot that she was in V for Vendetta.

Everyone knows that the best work Portman ever did was in Leon.   :pedobear:

Man, that was nasty when Mike slammed Kevin for cooking something delicious as if it were easy to do. If it's easy, baby, then go and do it and stop fucking around with purple-potato-banana-rye-chipotle whatev stuff. That was exactly like watching some art fag MFA who is doing installations of blood-smeared clay over live video feeds of Port-o-Potties at construction sites is getting pissed off because people like the work of a really great observational painter who does landscapes.

I think the thing about Kevin is that it's clear (and not just from his looks) that he lives food, that it's part of his family culture and history. If you look at the folks who are really amazingly gifted chefs who've changed the way we all eat in the last forty or fifty years, that's a pretty consistent thing that separates them from the people who are just great technicians or people who know how to sell a gimmick or image.

Evidently Collicchio says point blank on the blog (http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/tom-colicchio/if-you-can-mock-a-leek-you-can-eat-a-leek-william-shakespeare-henry-v) that Kevin's food always tastes amazing and that's why he keeps winning.

Interesting.

Portman said she was a vegetarian, but I ended up assuming that she misspoke and that she's actually vegan, given that no one used cheese or dairy or eggs in what they made. I get why no one worked with beans--too long a prep or having to use nasty canned ones--but I was still surprised that there was no rice, no nuts to speak of, and that only one chef used lentils. No one tried an Asian-style prep either.

Anyone watch the reunion dinner? Harold really bulked up, Fabio should stick to cooking, and Marcel is  :drill:

Yeah, I watched the reunion. Marcel is still a cuntwhistle. I was really hoping when Fabio asked to cut off the cameras, that he was going to go over to the little wolf-haired fucker and punch him directly in the gizzard.

No one used pasta either. Maybe they edited out the part where she said she only eats 300 calories per meal.

I read the blog: she's not a vegan. Would have been perfectly happy with cheese, dairy, what have you. So I'm seriously at a loss for why some of them cooked what they cooked. Weird.

It's interesting how in a binary decision process you can get by being second worst for more than half the competition.

As for the Portman episode, it reinforced my experience with people.  I get invited to dinner parties all the time.  When I tell people that I'm a vegetarian, they almost universally don't know how to handle it.  American cuisine has become so firmly rooted in meat+starch+veg that people don't know how to make a complete plate without meat being the show piece.  I swear to god that people think I only eat salads 24/7. 

Very true. When I was a vegetarian, people would almost uniformly assume that I ate fish, because fish isn't meat. My wife and daughter were coming to my office for lunch on Friday (I was unaware that we do lunch as a group on Friday). We were looking for vegetarian/pescatarian options in the various takeout menus and one place had "Non-Meat Sandwiches" as an option. Fish sandwiches were in this list. I expected it in the South, where at a diner you can get mac & cheese as a "vegetable" option at a diner. In Illinois? Not so much.

This is a Catholic thing, I think. I didn't eat fish when I was a veg either. I ate lots of bean burritos, mac and cheese and pasta though. You know, "normal people food."

Really good episode...
Tom is taking every opportunity to thank the chefs because my god they will provide an awesome finish.

And we're down to three.  I wasn't sure who we were going to lose but I was pretty confident on who we weren't.

I liked the part at the end where the top 4 contestants were sitting around bemoaning that they all ended up in the same season because each individually could probably win one of the weaker seasons (*cough* last season).

Shit, that final 4 - even the final 5 of this season could have smoked Season 5. I think it was bullshit who they sent home out of that group.

I agree, I really hate the brothers.  I hope Kevin smashes them.

I'm not crazy about the brothers, either.  One of them seems to be a dick and the other one is a pussy.  Sheesh.

At least 2 of the seasons, sure. Not sure any of them could've beaten Harold or Hung though. Kevin might be able to at least compete and not totally embarrass himself though.

It was an interesting choice. I almost wish they'd just said, "Fuck it, this final is gonna have 4 people all the way, that's just the way it is." I can't help but think that they chose Jen just because she was the only one of the four to have had an inconsistent history of performance across the season and thus that there was some chance she'd freak or fizzle in the finale + the good drama of having the brothers mano-a-mano in the finale.

It's interesting that at least one of the brothers seems to have taken an interest in Kevin's approach to food rather than just being a dick about it. If one or either of them goes balls-out and really comes up with something that tastes as great as it looks, Kevin may not be able to come over the top.

I agree.

I agree as well. 

I concur. 

I agree for sure.

I completely concur with the above sentiments.

Tom says the finale was not as close as the producer editting made it seem -

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/tom-colicchio/bait-n-switch (http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/tom-colicchio/bait-n-switch)

He's right about that. The editing really was confusing as fuck, especially considering who they chose to win.

Yeah I'm with everyone, but that's the rules. It's about only the competition of the day. Honestly, at some point I think they should start considering more. But these things all seem to stick to their rules.

It's Top Chef not Top Friend.  :awesome_for_real:

I don't like him, either.  Unfortunately, he really does seem to be chock full of talent, doesn't he?  I really did enjoy this season, though.

I enjoyed the end of the season.  The first several weeks were all about wading through crap until we got to the final 4 people we all expected to be there. 

Oh well. I know whose restaurant I'd like to go to the most.

Speaking of which, Eli has a new gig starting in January in Manhattan.