f13.net

Premiere is this Wednesday, 11/12, at 10/9c on Bravo.

http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/best_of/index.php

It's about time!  :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill: :drill:

What an odd mix this year.  You have award winners that are executive chefs all the way to a guy still in cullinary school.  They also seemed to have cast a wide net on cooking tastes and styles. 

Damn, I love this stupid show.

And a guy who never went to cooking school.

That I can understand.  Experience can be the great equalizer... but sticking a student in with seasoned vets seems like a tough road. 

:awesome_for_real:

Awesome. I'm glad I saw this thread or I'd have missed it.

Ookii makes sure we never miss the good stuff.

Ookii is lovely.

is not Ookii

I always get the two of you confused due to your blinding ginger hairs.

Ookii isn't Trippy, I am.

(http://www.watchfarscape.com/forums/images/smilies/1053178760.gif)

I hope apple salad guy doesn't go.

Oh apple salad guy.  :heartbreak:

Initially I was voting for him because I actually kind of wanted to try the apple salad. Which is more than I could say about whatever the hell the girl had made.

Then he just kept sucking so bad, you kind of had to want him to pull through. I suppose I was also hoping that the culinary student thing would become a good story, and secretly hoping before the show started that he was some sort of young student genius.

Then salmon on gluey black rice noodles w/ soy sauce.

Oh, apple salad guy. That's something my unimaginative ass would make home alone on a Tuesday night.

Dang they let the cute one go first :ye_gods: :awesome_for_real:

I'm kind of biased cause I've eaten a ton of it in my life but holy moley salmon, any way you cook it, is not Chinese food.

Women and gay guys everywhere are pissed.

But he was actually the second. Which makes me feel a bit sorry for that girl, because she won't really be remembered. Even as the "first to go". She just sorta got there, and then they were like "So hey, turn the fuck around then".

No you silly goose I did mean the girl. And she had the Easy-Bake oven too! :awesome_for_real:

Oh. She was considered "the cute one"?

Yikes. I suppose.

I guess there's a serious lack of straight men doing the casting.

The women are "meh" this year but I thought she was the cutest of the lot. They need another one like Casey :awesome_for_real:

/drool

(http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/food/07/08/22_topchef2_lgl.jpg)

Jesus Christ. Jeff is the long-faced twin of Chase on House.

It's 8AM and I have nothing to do.

So here's my thoughts 20 minutes in:
1. Redhead deserved to go.
2. Regionally themed dishes are lame as shit when they go out of the way to get people from varying places around the world.
3. So we've had obvious male winning and female winning series. Now it's stacked on "the rainbow team" or whatever they said. Interesting. Ok, not really. Just an observation.
4. Absolutely no one in this season has shown the fight of previous winners. And they need to stop bringing middle-aged mothers on the show, that's laughable to me. Even if they're good.
5. Also, too many unlikable douchebags. I do not have hopes for this season.

6. Carla is a jackhob. What a goddamn weirdo. I hope her spirit guides tell her to shut the fuck up.
7. Listening to these people talk, it's fucking infuriating - it's like they're the most unexperimental bunch of chefs. And I don't mean they should be arrogant fucks who freeze apples and throw them against the wall to make apple sauce, I mean - who the fuck hasn't eaten russian food or seen an indian isle in a grocery store. OMG THE SPICES I'M OVERWHELMED. Get outta here with that shit. ENTERTAIN ME DAMNIT.

Two of the least experienced people get kicked first (ages 23 and 21).  When tossed into the deep end, it's generally going to be the people that have learned by doing that will shine.  I'm hoping that the Hawaiian guy from Vegas does well.  He seems like a talented and humble guy. 

As for last night, I'm surprised they didn't kick the 40 year old restaurant owner... if you can't cook something properly after 20 years of cooking experience, you may not be a Top Chef.  At least the 21 year old has some long-term promise.  I think his inexperience hurt him when having to leave his comfort zone.  I guess he could have done like Ilan and just make everything the same and claim it was "his style". 

Looks like we may get some drama from the Euros. 

We're not going to get drama from the Euros. We're going to get drama from the bigoted stupid cracker from NY.

Scratch that, the Hawaiian might be inspired and talented.

Of course, being the closest thing to Asian on the show he has the best chance anyway.  :oh_i_see: If he was gay, he'd be a lock-in.

It definitely gave some people like Leah a huge advantage having actually cooked in the country they were making the food of. On the other hand it showed that some people like Gene are able to accurately recreate the flavors of food they've only tasted once or a few times. So it kind of worked both ways.

Those two aren't going to come close to winning.

I think it's kind of too soon to tell that. Also, you don't have to be a Hung to win the competition as Stephanie showed last year.

Yes she is. She's on the show just for her personality.

And that was a shame, wasn't it? :grin: In all seriousness though - and this isn't a sexist thing - last year was basically "hay, a woman is winning, deal with it." The outcome was probably decided before the show even started. They need to keep both male and female viewer demographics.


I should try out for top chef and tell them that I'm fueled by the heart of a tiger the soul of the american auto industry.

Seriously, her eyes freak me out, she needs to go away.

Goddammit!

~sigh~

Now I have no idea who to cheer for...I can't believe the cute gay guy got sent home first. I also can't believe the cute gay guy had no clue how to cook fucking Asian food.

I'm so disappointed in my people. :drillf:

The cute gay guy was really really adorable.  The guy that he had to go against was mocking him a bit because he was so naive and so honest about what he was doing.  I could have punched him in the junk!  Though I guess it was true in a way that you should keep what you're doing to yourself.  Anyway, the end when he hugged that last guy it was so sweet.  The Nazi looking guy from Finland seems very accomplished.  He has that typical Euro arrogance I see in a lot of chefs, for some reason.  He shares that with the bloke who is Captain Kirk's personal chef, but I've not been so impressed with Fabio.  Stupid name for someone who's not on the cover of a Barbara Cartland book.  I predict a lot of whining this season.   :awesome_for_real:

He is SO metro it hurts. I want to punch his face just to break up the pretty.

The student and the cute one, though? They had to go. I mean, shit, she tosses together a salad with absolutely no thought in it, and he tries to cook Asian food badly. Yeah, salmon is not Asian food no matter how well you cook the noodles underneath it.

EDIT: Also, yes Carla, Ms. Spirit Guide... WTF? I swear, she looks like Bil Cosby, if the Cos was an anorexic tranny.

I know he had to go but he was so adorable.  Adorable boys are just adorable!  Spirit guide lady is nutty looking.  I'm not sure whether she'll end up cool or not.  First impression wasn't great, but I'm always wrong about this sort of thing at the start.  I kind of like the guy from Hawaii who has all those tats.  I thought he was going to be a jerk at the start of the show, but I warmed up.  He's tough and still kind of sensitive.  I also sort of liked the big guy whose name is Richard, I think.  (I might be getting this one confused with someone else)

Also, my biggest laugh of the episode was when the man in the beginning was talking and actually said, "I was screwed up the ass" and they didn't edit that out.  Excellent.

Japan eats tons of salmon -- it's just not a Chinese thing.

Not the way he prepared it, at least not that I've ever seen in a japanese restaurant. Probably would've been ok if he's seared it at really really high heat and cooked just a bit of it - though other fish would've made a better choice (tuna fucker! god that guy made me angry) - or bought sushigrade salmon. He had no clue what he was doing is really the end result.

Mirin, which he used to glaze the top of the salmon, is the key ingredient (along with soy sauce of course) in teriyaki sauce.

I can put soysauce in my spaghetti, doesn't make it asian.

Just like cooking the fish the way he did, putting it on asian noodles and covering it with mirin didn't make it asian.

He failed so hard. :|

If you are cooking with Asian ingedients and using Asian cooking techniques it's Asian, by definition. Also we're talking about *Chinese* food here. His dish was Asian, even if it wasn't particularly inspired, it just wasn't Chinese.

Edit: basically to me he made a bad Japanese dish which is why I would consider it an Asian dish. The broiled mirin-glazed salmon is just like you would make broiled salmon teriyaki minus the soy sauce and sugar.

See, to me a food is of a certain country if that's how a person of that country would make it. I would buy that he made an Asian-American fusion dish. But instead of the "American" part of "Asian-American" it was "Uneducated and Disgusting." :oh_i_see:

That assumes you actually know how people cook in that country and that all cooking in that country is of that one style.

Right, but as schild says, they don't eat it like that. And the black rice noodles seemed more of a Chinese thing than a Japanese anyway. That was a very muddled dish conceptually.

He got caught on "Asian" not "Chinese." Too bad, so sad. He wasn't going to stick around for long anyway. Chinese is so common, I can think of three or four styles of it I have a handle on. How you could not come up with that. Oi.

My partner read somewhere that the quickfire was quick to the tune of a full 9 hour day filming  in the sun. I'm actually not big on the immediate ejections, but I think of the various tests they've done, that was one of the most fair ones. With that many apples it really was skill and not just a lucky break on pealing say two. I've always thought they should do four tests over two episodes and then eject four at a time to cull the useless.

I'm all about team rainbow. Jamie's really cute.

My fan backups would be Hawaii guy and Mary Feldman eyes.

Sigh....

Somehow my cable provider got rid of Bravo from the cable package I have.  :cry2:

I'd be all for team rainbow if it wasn't the sort of thing you make up for tv to parody actual non-flagrant homosexuals.

At that point it just comes off as Team Stereotype.

I might agree, but there have been so many gay people, particularly lesbians on TC tho. The special before the last season was like 1/3rd lesbian? And Tom has been a bear icon since the first season. It really seems just natural.

That's the thing, though, there have been so many including that lesbian couple (Jennifer and Zoi) why bring special attention to it?

My early favorite (though maybe not to win it) is the Hawaiian. He just seems like a cool guy. As for who is talented enough to win it? I haven't got enough of a feel for this cast yet. The 40-year old chick who almost lost it on the faro risotto? Yeah, it won't be her. She'll be gone by week 4. Crazy Jill Cosby Eyes? Week 6.

The Hawaiian guy is my favourite so far, too.  And Righ's!  He does seem cool.  Sort of tough and soft at the same time.  I hope the personality I've seen so far endures.  He seems to have skills, too, which is always nice. 

I am mandated by the lesbian solidarity act of 1972 to root for Jamie, but Gene (the Hawaiian) is definitely the favorite outside of that. He's not full of himself and seems to have skills, plus he's someone who worked his way up, which I always appreciate. I'm always reluctant to pick favorites too early though in case someone buys it from some kind of foolish trick elimination.

On that, I said I wasn't a fan of early elimination. I'd rather see them do the first two or three shows without eliminations and eliminate the bottom four based on cumulative performance, just to avoid the silly stuff.

On the why so long to get to NYC, I'm not surprised they took their time. It's one thing to move from SF to Chicago or Miami, but I have to wonder where they go from here.

Los Angeles of course :awesome_for_real:

I think Vegas may be a reasonable choice. 

Paris.

Can't do Paris unless it's like the final season for the show.

I'm going to bet that they do the next season in Seattle, New Orleans, Atlanta, or Las Vegas.  It just makes sense. 

Does Vegas have any sort of local food culture? I always got the impression it was mostly celebrity chefs opening add on restaurants.

Battle Shrimp Cocktail.

Padma spits your food out and you don't go home.

What the fuck?

Producer's choice there. The ostrich egg chick was duller than dirt. The sugar queen is at least an entertaining train wreck.

Except Sugar Queen was in the bottom last week too. I can't believe she actually has a supposed 4-star restaurant given her willness to serve crap food to the judges. And she used the same fucking "it's hard to tell what it tastes like after tasting so many times" excuse *again*.

Jill, however, was in way over her head, as the hot dog challenge proved, so I can understand why she was let go even though I would've voted for Ariane.

The fuck does it even matter. Both of them will be gone soon enough.

Just completely lackluster.

Cause I'm afraid she's going to be one of those contestants that's always in the bottom but never gets eliminated till near the end cause somebody else always fucks up slightly worse than she does.

I presict she is this season's Lisa.  Always in thr bottom but kept around for the sake of the drama.  She's not bitchy though, just pathetic.

Isn't that all of them this season?

She makes me stabby. Nothing like someone who claims to be a chef, can't seem to cook even basic shit worth a damn, and then mopes about all the fucking time. She's annoying as hell. However, I knew the minute that stoner chick Jill picked the ostrich egg, she was fucked.

Missed the first part of the series *smacks head*, I should know just to get all my information from F13.

That frickin' Italian dude is lulz. When he started defending himself right away, I stared thinking what the hell? Comedic value for sure.  Those olives did look very interesting, I would like to try them.

Otherwise, looks like I am in the same boat rooting for the Hawaiian.

Those olives looked awesome!  Did you see then shiver on the fork?

Is there going to be a new episode tomorrow for Thanksgiving?

Just wondered.

Yes there is.

Episode Highlight: Gail Simmons' hard nips.

Damnit, Ms. "I don't have any taste buds" is still on the show.

And what the fuck is with the product placements this season?

Yeah, they've been there in the past. And I understand that money = funny.

But come on. It's getting to be a bit overboard at this point.

I'm waiting for them to cook with Kraft products in the Craft kitchen :awesome_for_real:

Edit: they've also toned down some of the shilling that they used to do in previous seasons. E.g. they no longer have Padma explicitly pimping the cooking equipment like she used to do.

A few microwaves is nothing compared to the pimping of the Kenmore Pro Kitchen of years past. Though the Great Wall of Glad endures, a monument to humankinds ability to... preserve?

I was surprised to see our big gay guy go, particularly given that Bravo was selling Team Rainbow tee shirts. On the challenge, adapting thanksgiving is bad enough without making people cook it in a microwave. Just kind of silly.

The Butterball and Swanson placement was pretty over the top, but I figure in the DVR world where no one watches commercials someone has to pay the bills.

They've had at least one other episode with Swanson broth in a previous season (can't remember which one ATM) so they've been a sponsor before. I assumed the Butterball thing was them donating the turkey for the chefs to cook.

No way they get that much exposure for a lousy 200 bucks worth of turkeys.

Yeah I'm sure they either coughed up more food to feed more than just the Foo Fighters+entourage or just paid money.

For that much shilling?

They coughed up fairly large dollars. There was little turkey involved.

Glad I wasn't the only one that noticed. :)

Pretty Boy probably should have been the one to go home, but the fact he showed leadership and the team wasn't a complete fuckup saved his ass. Those were some uninspiring dishes from him.

I hate it when an entire team gets immunity. This time they happened to all do decently but it's just a setup I've always found annoying. As for the loser, man, shit, guys don't cry on tv. Girls shouldn't either. /snarl. That "pretty boy" as you put it won't get kicked off for a while unless he totally screws the pooch, very rarely are there good leaders on Top Chef and with the inevitable restaurant episode, they probably will keep him on there until AT LEAST that just to see a team not be a total clusterfuck.

I mean shit, he was good enough that even when the team lost they didn't throw him under the bus - which is the opposite of every other season of Top Chef and all of the team elimination challenges.

It's early though, so even if that setup protects the weakest person that week it's not like there's a lack of bad people to choose from. If they do it closer to the end, I agree it's annoying. One interesting thing is in Tom's show blog he said that he tried to convince the Foo Fighters to pick the Cougars as the winner since he felt that their proteins (god how I hate that term) were better than Sexy Pants' but if they had done that that would've protected the person with the worst dish, Richard.

I'll be honest. I wanted the short overweight lesbian to get kicked off for her fucking crime against fashion with that stupid fucking headband. What? You don't have to be rational in the first few episodes, it's not like she has any chance whatsoever of winning unless everyone decides to make shit sandwiches from here on out.

Also, I had no problem with her until she wore that thing. /SNARL

Which is why I say the leadership thing is why he stayed, because it sure wasn't on those dishes. If he had made two crappy dishes and not led, he'd be gone. If the team had been total shit, or they'd started sniping on him for being the leader, he'd have been gone. The fact he led and that didn't happen gave him a leg up on the spit s'more, which was probably on the same level of shittiness as Pretty Boy's 2 dishes.

I caught the Thanksgiving episode tonight and then tried to see if they had any other episodes on Hulu.  No dice.  Went to Bravo's site and all they had was this season's premiere (which I watched).  I wish Bravo would get with the fucking program like NBC and others have done.  Anyone know of any other legit ways to watch the show without me resorting to slow torrents?

In any case, I've discovered that for some reason I enjoy watching cooking shows.  Particularly this and Kitchen Nightmares.  Still can't stand Hell's Kitchen, though.  Too much manufactured drama.

The weird thing is Hulu has had all the episodes for the previous seasons online, this is the first time it hasn't.

Zzzz...

Yeah... the show is jumping the shark.  WTF is up with reading a note left by someone that was sent home?  Is that the best they can do? 

I have a suggestion to the producers:  Tell the contestants to shut up and cook. 

I was just about to use the exact phrase in a response, but I thought I'd wait until after next week's show to suggest it.

Frankly, I couldn't really remember anything that happened during the episode about 30 minutes after it was over. Except the note thing. Which I remember for all the wrong reasons.

Doing a live TV presentation was out of character for the show. That's "Next Food Network Star" territory, and relied as much on personality as the cooking, which is something Chef Tom has always said the show wasn't about. Lesbian chick almost went home as much for withdrawing when she fucked up the egg as for fucking up the egg. Let's get back to the cooking, plzkthx.

We watch Food Network Star for pure spite and gloating at how awful it is and speculation about how many days or weeks or months the tiny number of people with actual food chops remaining on FN have to wash to feel clean after they do their 10 minutes on it. Emulating this show is beyond comprehension. FFS bring back the vending machine challenge. Bring back anything. Cancel the show. Bring on the strichnine challenge. A challenge like this is something that real chefs will want to avoid being seen on.

Which there honestly hasn't been that much of yet this season. Of quality, especially.

(http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/JumpTheShark.jpg)

Two weeks later and the season is putting me to sleep.  Am I alone here?  There are so many people on the show that are quickly becoming forgettable.  How about Tom's speech at the end of this week's episode?  If you have to tell chefs to step it up, then maybe it's time to pull the plug and declare noone a Top Chef.

Yup yesterday was another weak episode.

This season sucks so fiercely.

I'm catching up, but Carla, PEANUT BUTTER?

Fuck.

A "fucking" slipped past the censors from the hawaiins.

Martha fucking Stewart. I mean, it was fairly obvious right when you saw her goddamn shoes, but fuck. This show just jumped a shark. A spineless shark.

Truly, an american icon.

I hope everyone makes Fuck You Stew.

Two things are grating on me:

1) Everything is a catering challenge.  Let them cook some fucking food, not appetizers cooked for 200 people. This has been a problem for the entire run of the series, but this year is ridiculous.

2) Every fucking person on there is hawking some book.  Enough already. Hopefully the new tough psycho judge just wants to rip people up instead of hawking lousy cookbooks.

Well, not only that, but this entire show is full of people - as I said during week one - missing the killer instinct necessary to win and be rooted for. At this point I want Stefan to win because he's a big dickhead. Or Fabio. Nothing pisses off Americans more -  and by extension American chefs - than Europeans winning anything. Next year we should get some mean motherfuckers out for blood. I imagine Tom hates this season anyway.

Edit: Also, I'm tired of the tiny lesbian either talking about being gay or being a whiny bitch. I'm also tired of the mom on the show winning for cooking fucking meats. Stupid rednecks that can't read can cook meats perfectly. Fuck.

WHAT THE FUCK HARLEM CHOIR.

Just for the record (and before I get to the end of the Christmas episode) I want the floppy haired blonde guy that looks like Chase from House to win. Wanted him to for a while episodes. But for the sake of the series, I'd be OK with the europeans.

Annnnnnnnnd my night of catching up is basically over. All I remember is Natasha's cleavage.

Yeah, this season is REALLY WEAK SAUCE. I don't hate anyone on the show, I'm more annoyed by certain people. And none of them have impressed me at all with the food they've cooked. The Xmas episode was especially weak. No one should have won that challenge - while some of them looked decent, none of them made me go "OH WOW, DO WANT!" And it's been that way for weeks. The ones how have won recently haven't done it by innovative concepts, they are winning on simple execution. The people who are trying some crazy stuff are failing miserably. And they have done way too many catering challenges. I really hope it starts to improve, because otherwise they just need to send them all home and start again.

Contestants are mediocre. The product placement is back to season 2 excesses. And they're in NY and who would ever even be aware of it. They are so planted in the holiday stuff that they're isolating them from the city lest the viewers see that it's actually summer.

I'm even getting tired of the dyke.

Not the best season.

I'll be honest. If tomorrow night is more of the same shit, I probably won't watch again.

Everything about this season of the show has been weak.

In the promo for this week, it was about cooking your own meal by the looks of it....so no more catering for 300 people in 3 hours bullshit.  This season has been very ho-hum.  Fabio does make me laugh, and the lesbian irritates me - that's about the only excitement out of it.

I think tomorrow is actually just a repeat of last year's "holiday special" where people from seasons 1-3 competed against each other.

My initial reaction was "That'll be so weak, wtf".

Then I realize that it'd be much better than anything that this season could produce.

And I really hated that christmas episode.

Based on the preview from last week's episode the next new epsiode (sometime next year) has the new judge Toby Young who sounds like a real ass (never read his books).

Toby Young is a big dickbag. He's also pretty bad at being funny while being a dickbag, unlike Bourdain.

So, a shittastic season is going to be even worse with the addition of this guy.  Wonderful.

Really a damn shame. Top Chef was one of my favourite shows.

This season sucks. I hate soccer moms and nitwits and this season is filled with them. The Italian guy made me laugh in the last promo with "This isn't top scallops" (A poke at Jamie). But so far WTF is everyone thinking.

Seriously, a deviled egg? Really?

I think that this season has exemplified the fact that the "simple" fad has jumped the motherfucking shark once and for all.

Dude, I don't care how perfectly cooked to the standards taught in the Culinary Institute of America that piece of fucking turkey is. Fuck off. It's a slice of turkey and four roasted potatos with a fucking carrot. I don't give a fuck if it's seasoned with JUST the right amount of salt and pepper. That shit is subjective to an extent anyway.

ESPECIALLY if I'm watching television, I want to be impressed with novel concoctions and byzantine flavours. I want passion, ingenuity, artistic flair. Take your perfectly cooked piece of plain turkey and cram it up your ass sideways. That shit is boring.

Simple can still be interesting when it's presented well enough and if it's paired really, really well.

Otherwise, yea, I agree. These fuckers need to rewatch the first 3 seasons, minus the season 2 finale, and get their shit together.

I am as disgusted as Azaroth, incredulous as PopTart and as cynical as Nebu about this season.  Schildy is right - these people need to review the  seasons that made this show interesting and good fun to watch.

I was just thinking this morning that half these fuckers shoulda been on Hells Kitchen instead of Top Motherfucking Chef. You can see the look on Colicchio's face, that this cast is fail. Everyone sucks so badly they can't even eliminate anyone.

Something had to be done instead of gliding along on greased wheels of suck when they found out that all of their contestants were ass.

Set up incredibly difficult and interesting challenges. It'd be more interesting to watch them all fail in epic fashion than slowly and quietly kill the show with deviled eggs.

This. And not gimmick challenges like cook everything with a fucking bunson burner, but actual tough challenges. I FEAR restaurant wars with this cast. I don't think any of them have the chops to pull it off without making the dirt simplest food they can make.

I wonder since its hard to tell from the preview if this new guy will sit in for Tom C. for one week and be the axeman that Bourdain was previous season, or will he just be a guest judge sitting on Padma's right. The way they word it is new guy is bringing the double elim.

If so does this show a weakness for Tom, like another posted before how Tom has others come on to be the evil guy.

Toby Young is replacing Ted Allen is what I read.

Little Teddy has his own Top Chef ish show on Food Network - it's called: CHOPPED, or something like that.

The floodgates of TopChefalikes hath begun.

Tonight is going to make or break it for me with this show.  I've been loyal for the past seasons, but I'm losing the will to watch.  If it sucks, this is my premptive warning that a rant will be forthcoming.

Turncoat! Bravo made that fucker (Queer Eye), now he's jumped ship to the lucrative waters of Food Network. Such a little bitch.

Is it just me, or did the commercial make it look like he ripped of Good Eats?

I find him more likable than Alton Brown though.

Well, first, just because there are already 37 cooking-competition shows on TV doesn’t mean there are enough of them on Tuesday.


Second, what else are you gonna watch at 10 p.m.? The new Leno?


And third, aside from having chefs, judges and a knife in the logo, this show is different from anything out there. (Note: All culinary competition shows are required to have a knife in the logo.)


Herein, some backstory about “Chopped,” my second Food Network operation, which premieres on Jan. 13.


“Chopped,” which was created by the NYC production company City Lights Media, has actually been percolating at Food Network for a few years. It started out as a pretty over-the-top conceit that I’ll tell you about sometime over drinks, but ended up as a clean, simple, yet stylish show, where the emphasis is on chefs, food and judges.


Every episode features a different group of four chefs, none of whom continues on to future episodes, and three rounds: appetizer, entrée and dessert. Each course comes with its own basket of mystery ingredients—anywhere from three to five—and all of those items must be included in the dish. Originally, the chefs were given 30 minutes per course to conceive, execute and plate four servings of their dishes; but about three shows into production, the net in its vicious wisdom decided that was too easy (!), and shortened the appetizer course to 20 minutes.


After each round, the contestants present their creations to our panel of three judges, assembled from a rotating cast of excellent NYC chefs. And the creator of the least favorite dish is, in a word, chopped. The last chef standing—in every episode—receives $10,000. Not bad for one day’s work.


Shooting the first season of this show was one of the best experiences I’ve had in television—and not just because we did it in three weeks (which helped). The set is sleek, the producers, crew and judges were amazing, and Food Net’s culinary department proved once again that they’re the best in the biz. Also, to my enormous pleasure, we had a Steadicam, the coolest piece of camera equipment going (and brilliantly wielded by a fearless shooter who I quickly dubbed—what else?—“Shakes.”)


But what really does it for me is this: All the drama, all the tension, all the tears and tribulations and triumph come exclusively from the contestants’ ability to cook something great—or not—under pressure. That’s it.


I mean, what would you cook? Imagine being handed a quail, artichokes, smoked paprika, bok choy and cornflakes. Imagine you have 30 minutes (max) to conceive, execute and plate a dish that utilizes all of those ingredients, while three well-known chefs and the Food Network audience picks apart your every move. This is, in some ways, more difficult than the great “Iron Chef America,” which requires chefs to focus on only one secret ingredient—far easier than integrating five distinct foods, and also automatically providing your menu with a theme. To say nothing of the fact that the chefs who make it onto “Iron Chef” are senior, experienced artists at the top of their game. “Chopped” competitors are for the most part younger chefs, and are considerably more freaked out about cooking on national TV than, say, Laurent Tourendel or former White House chef Walter Scheib. As such, panic ensues. Sweet, sweet panic.


There also is a culinary straightforwardness about this show that I find really satisfying, and particularly appropriate for a company called Food Network. There is no sleep deprivation, no “Big Brother” house full of bunk beds and cameras, no booze-fueled personal drama (as much as we all love the brainwashing and catfights on that certain show I used to judge). There are no team or catering challenges. Best of all, there is no product placement, so you never see passionate lovers of good food being forced to use packaged convenience junk thanks to Kraft/Altria/Exxon’s sponsorship. (In fairness, we do occasionally throw in a jokey ingredient, like, say, gummy bears, just for laughs. But we don’t take sponsor dollars from Gummy Inc. to plug their product.)


So, in short, “Chopped” is a different kind of show. Check us out at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13, and see if you like it as much as we do.


Coming soon: news from season two of the new-and-improved “Food Detectives,” now in production in NYC, and premiering at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20!


Cheers,
Ted

Ah, so it's an F-Word ripoff, not a Top Chef ripoff. Well played, Ted.

"It's Top Chef, not Top Scallops" is one of the better lines to ever come out of the show. 

But, do you think Toby Young could possibly come up with more tortured metaphors? Trying a little too hard there buddy.

I thought the same thing. I didn't think Toby Young was much cop either, "battle of the blands" being his best quip. Golf clap. I think Hosea has potential along with Euro-pricks Stefan and Fabio. They could cut the rest of the cast early. At least the competition this time was more interesting even if most of the chefs didn't really rise to the challenge. Fabio completely fucked up his lamb and didn't come close to being in danger - that's how many useless people they still need to trim. They really went to town making sure that we read the T-Mobile Sidekick LX handset, even pulling focus so that the alleged subject's face was out of focus so that the logo would be in focus. Shameful. Apparently the boring French dude didn't have a book to shill. Which was nice.

No, he had a new show to shill.

This blog does the most hee-larious recaps of Top Chef.  (http://thursdaynightsmackdown.com/2009/01/07/top-chef-7/) (It's not mine, in case you think I'd do that.)

Says it all really.  Hosea and the two euros are the only ones worth watching.  The rest of them are just waiting for the axe to fall. 

Top Scallops FTW!  Thanks Fabio, I'm giving the show another chance just because of you. 

God, this season's cast is just dreadful. I agree that Hosea and the two Euros are the only interesting ones out there. Eugene was at least inventive but his execution sucked. The rest of them are boring, mediocre chefs who should have never made the show. I shudder to think of the rejects.

Ms. Scallop really really needs to go. She's past the point of annoying now. Too much ego for not nearly enough talent. More scallops? How original. It seems like the only reason people have been winning challenges this season is because they haven't fucked up easy shit.

Pretty Boy needs to learn to make fewer dishes, because he always tries to make too many and ends up making one or two boring ones or fucking up all of them.

Jamie seemed to have really impressed the judges though with her last dish.  That French douche seemed to love it, as well as Tom and that Toby Young fellow.

They did look good, but you have to imagine that after serving undercooked scallops (yum, e. coli) she would have taken enough care over cooking them. She's served scallops four times now, hasn't she? I was hoping that they would be completely overcooked and rubbery. That would have been good TV. If I were judging this season, I'd order pizza every week just in case.

Inevitably some of what they serve is shit, but for the most part things are good or great.  The judges want things that are spectacular, I'm sure the food they serve would taste great to you or I.

What makes you so certain that I share your vulgar palette?

On any other season, I'd agree. But not this season. Most of it looks like shit.

You're human when you don't have a mouse and keyboard in front of you?

Finally!

I'm to the point that I don't care what happens until it's down to Hosea, Fabio, and Stefan.  Last night demonstarted that everyone else is just there for filler.  Three teams and who are the obvious leaders?  Please.

I love it when Stefan flirts with Jamie just to fuck with her and make fun of her lesbianism.

Being surrounded by all these mediocre chefs is causing Fabio to cruise, and its showing. Hosea is starting to think too much about Stefan's mind games instead of beating him in the kitchen. They're both safe for weeks yet, but they're going to need to pick up their focus soon if they don't want Stefan to walk away with this in the final.

You could see that they were reluctant to send Ariane packing because she has a decent palette and has made some good food compared to most of the other filler chefs - I suspect that like me they had pigeonholed her, Carla and Jeff into 'final six filler'. New boy Toby impressed Tom with his judging on that one, and I agreed too. We want them all cut, but if the producers demand stringing out the series for more product placement, she was the biggest fuck-up and any amount of good dishes in weeks when others' were worse doesn't excuse that much fuck-uppery. Tom called it dishonoring the food. She totally honored that meat in the most American way. By beating it senseless. Unfortunately honor/dishonor doesn't help make food taste better, and so she's gone. One more down, so many to go.

I think they're just going to continue to cut people based on future potential.  Ariane had done everything she could but still could never be a "Top Chef".  The show isn't "Top Worker Bee". 

Jeff has promise but doesn't know how to edit.  Radikah is too meek and a one-note.  etc. 

Fabio, Stefan, and Hosea are the real leaders here and will be in the finals unless one of them serves raw meat.  Hell, Fabio served raw meat a couple episodes ago and he still didn't go home. 

I think she's cute as hell.

Anyway, let's see what restaurant wars brings.

Hopefully not a bag of fail?


Edit: Excuse me. Hopefully not "Monkey ass in an empty clam shell".

And by the way, does anyone else fucking HATE Toby Young?

I've found his obviously prepared "witty" comments to be akward and anything but witty. He's trying too hard to be funny and witty, and it's just fucking embarassing. IMO.

Everyone hates Toby Young. That's been the theme of his life since he came to America.

Cya Radhika or Carla.

Obviously eliminations are obvious.

Leah is preserving herself through sluttiness.

Edit: Nvm. Radhika. She's the leader in a Restaurant Wars episode on the losing team.

Being an unfunny dick is his thing now.  It has been ever since he made more money writing a book about how he is a dick (http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Lose-Friends-Alienate-People/dp/0349114854/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232597814&sr=8-3) than from anything else he'll ever do. It keeps getting him gigs, so you can't blame the guy any more.

He isn't really a food writer though, he's done a few crappy reviews for the Standard (London tabloid), but I have no idea why he is on this show.

Yes I see his presence on the show being akin to Dennis Miller being on Monday Night Football.

While that episode was possibly the best of this season, it was nowhere near as entertaining or inspiring as past Restaurant Wars.

Fabio was hilarious.

This has become the Fabio and Stephan show.  If either of them get sent home, I'm done watching.  There's just noone else with both the leadership and talent to be considered Top Chef.

"We could-a serve monkey ass on a empty clam-a shell, we still gonna win dis ting"

Yes. He's trying to be old school Dennis Miller (before he went full batshit conservatard) without any of the wit, charm or intelligence. I really really want them to send Leah and Jamie home as well, though at least Jamie seems like a competent cook. Carla is just batshit insane and both Leah and Carla should have gone home over Radikha... except that the judges fucking hate it when the leader of the losing Restaurant Wars team does fuckall but mince around and look lost. If not for Stefan's dessert and Fabio's charm (the monky ass quote was money), the cheating dim bulb goes home for epic fish fail.

I think Chef Tom is absolutely gobsmacked at how many bad chefs are on this season. When Carla told him she was sending the shitty yogurt dishes out with LOVE, I thought his head was going to assplode.

It's fairly obvious at this point that Tom was not involved in picking the chefs for this season, where he may have been previously.

The only smart person in this whole episode was Jamie who said she wanted nothing to do with being the team leader for restaurant wars. It's a guaranteed 50% chance of going home. 

I don't mind Toby Young.  He's funny and snarky and makes me laugh.  I've even read a bit of one of his books.  He is actually pretty witty and very smart.  He is also, somewhat unfortunately, completely in love with himself, which can be annoying sometimes.  I'd love to see some of the "Have I Got New for You" episodes he did.

Odd, he hasn't come off as smart, funny, or snarky.

More dumb, out of place, and entirely unfunny.

It might not be the best forum for him, but I think he's alright.  Ted wasn't all that, either.  I'm trying to think who would be just perfect for that job and I can't think of anyone off hand.  There must be someone suitable out there.  Half the people on this board would be better than either Ted or Toby.  I wonder if having a T name is mandatory.  If so, maybe Trippy.  He's good at very nearly almost everything.

Bourdain.

Not sure anyone implied Ted was good either. Toby just happens to be worse. Somehow.

That might work.  He's smart, funny, and he'll eat (at least try) anything.  I've liked his guest spotss.  I bet his input would have the contestants using some odd bits of... uhh... thingies.  The only problem I see is whether he can be trusted around the female chefs!  And the other way around, too!  He seems much better suited for the show, I think.

I don't think Bourdain will be back on the show, wasn't he pissed off at them about something?

Ted would occasionally get off something worth listening too, and for that came out above neutral. But Toby is constantly comes off like he's squinting at a cue card and is annoying in general. I'd rather have an empty seat.

I'm starting to blame production and direction for this season. Restaurant wars is really the sort of top episode of the season and this was just awful. Yes, the chefs are not doing well and clearly the show needs some shaking up when you have people avoiding leader because the leader getting sacked is a cliche. But I can't even remember what they cooked, the themes barely got touched on at all. Only thing I really remember was who was rumbling around in bed and "kissing" whom.

Booting Radhika was ridiculous partly for that reason.

It's a fucking cooking competition. She didn't cook anything, Tom. It's not Top Waiter, sorry. I'm also sorry that you didn't get your goodbye, and seemed to make a bigger deal out of that than of anything that happened the entire episode. Ge tthe fuck over it. You don't cook a goodbye.

She did a fairly poor job leading, fine. She also brought one of the ONLY unique (if one dimensional) repetoires to the show. Jeff SHOULD have been front of house, and everyone pretty much pointed that out, but he squirmed out of the responsibility because he knew what the fuck was going to happen to the leader of the losing team.

Saying she made no decisions was ridiculous as well.  Yes, she did.

In the scene with her tasting the cake, she said "That'll be fine". Maybe it was a bad decision, but she made the decision. Ultimately as a competition of chefs, though, someone making a bad dish isn't completely her fault.

Granted if and when Sahana lost, there were only two real choices. Choosing Radhika was valid. But like Numtini said, it's getting a little stupid when the leader of the losing team just gets booted each time because it's easy to blame EVERYTHING on them - and because people at the judges table can often be head chefs and owners who lead the teams and want to overemphasize the great and amazing importance of their roles to themselves by booting anyone who fucks it up, blaming the entire debacle on them.

Radhika was going to get the boot eventually.  It was really a matter of when. 

The fact was that she was in charge.  That being the case, a smart leader on a COOKING SHOW should have chosen to be in the kitchen.  I would have booted her too.  Giving her $100k to start a restaurant would have been like lighting the cash on fire. 

Making Jeff front of house wouldn't have made him leader, just as Fabio did not become the leader when he was selected to be front of house. Just sayin.


It is a TV show. There are any number of little cheats going on for the sake of "good TV". Fabio, Stefan and Hosea could have made the most de-lish food in the first part, and nobody would have owned up - they were not going to be the team leaders because they've already led, and they've already passed. The next few weeks decide who goes into the final couple of episodes with them. They chose the leaders they did because they were among the people who are on the chopping block. For good reason. They're terrible.

Radish and Barmy were the two most miserable contributors to the show this week. That was identified, and clearly the judges wanted to get rid of both, but those wacky producers seem to want a few more weeks of this show for some reason. There's probably some other T-Mobile device they want to sell. The only reason you could possibly object to Radish being cut is that you are jonesing for Barmy to leave. We all are. It'll happen.

Give me a break. I was commenting on a cooking show at 2am.

It's top oats! How about that? Carla says she's an oats girl. You're really more of a nuts girl darling.

Well... that was nearly Fabio's last night in the bonky bed. Stefan cooked the worst crap, and pulled a stupid move by choosing a chef he thought would be weak. But he was never in danger. He's Stefan - great TV and he's cooked more good food than the rest of them put together. Fabio made yet another basic cooking mistake, but more than anything, it was the guest judge who took an instant dislike to him. He wanted blood, and only an all out assault on Jeff's short-cut saved him. Phew.

And so Carla, Jamie and Leah manage not to be eliminated yet. Who will be out next? It probably won't be Fabio, even if he undercooks or overcooks something.

I just watched restaurant wars. Carla is a loopy bitch. She needs to go away.

I would think Fabio would go out before Jamie, but I hope the last four are Hosea, Jamie, Stefan, and Fabio.

Carla and Leah need to GTFO.

Haha wow. Carla wins and those 3 are on the bottom. I think Top Chef just punk'd me.

Jamie and Fabio are a toss up for me, too.  I'm pretty sure that Stefan and Hosea will be there at bitter, bitter end, though.

Speaking of restaurant wars.  I watched the first two episodes of this season's Brit series, The Restaurant.  It's all a bit sad.  Raymond Blanc is much too nice and tells sweet sad stories in a heavy French accent.  He has nearly no personality at all, but he's a dear.  The contestants mostly creep me out.

I would just like to request that someone purchase me a Team Fabio shirt. I will buy the koolaid all day long.

Please chef do not put acid on that cheese, loved that line.

Its great to see Fabio lie thru his teeth full on about warm cabbage turning his venison from medium rare to beyond well done.

The picture they showed of the meat when it was served did not look entirely overcooked. Of course, Jeff was the right one of the 3 to pick to go, but really, that whole cast should go.

Fabio cracks me up.  I'd love to see him win the whole thing just because he's amused me so much more than anyone else this season.  That's how much I don't care about their food.

Yeah, I didn't pay exacting attention when each dish was served was flipping channels on that, but I watched full on the judges tables.

Anyone else get the impression that Jeff seems more scatterbrained all the time, whenever it was time for him to talk to the camera he was always looking down or off to the side, he couldn't engage us the audience which is exactly opposite of what he does when they roll the opening credits giving up our first impression of what each character is like. Sadly Jeff was one of my favs to win but he never seemed to come around and get into winners form seemed as if each week he became more distracted.

Fabio just seems to be rubbing each judge the wrong way, the only way Fabio will win is if Gail comes back to champion him.

Yup, pretty much.

Last episode was so great, although I wish the outcome was different.

I'm alright with the outcome.  That was going to happen eventually.  The person that left just wasn't one of the best (in my opinion). 


Note: Being vague on purpose to avoid spoiling it for others.

What was the outcome? Oh yeah. Makes no difference. Who will be the next person to leave? There's only two more superfluous episodes before we get down to the competition. But so many more tight zooms on T-Mobile and GE logos to fit in. Oh my.

I think they sent the wrong girl home and now I have to agree with Schild. Fabio is making this season enjoyable. Monkey ass and fried banana.

I assume the monkey ass was raw.

Doesn't matter which girl got sent home, there aren't any girls on the show worth their salt. I'll watch it today.

lol carla wanted to do theater

Oh god I wish Hung was in this season. I liked seeing him make the meal when he was on, but seeing Rippert gobsmacked would have been AWESOME.

I was going to say this but now I don't have to because you stole the words right off my fingers.

It's not really fair at this point. Stefan is heads above everyone, it just didn't show early on. But he's not as fun to root for as the previous obvious winners.

Edit: Also, it's possible Carla didn't win because Rippert didn't want to spend a week with that freak.

Carla has done well the last couple of times but the only consistently good chef is Stefan, and he's sort of annoying.  Does he even actually know what a douchebag is?  I think I might be the only person here who actually likes Carla - even though she's really really weird.  Her flaky cheerfulness doesn't irritate me, it makes me laugh.  Fabio is the most fun and the easiest for me to cheer for, even when he's being uselessly stubborn.  I love that he lies.  I don't know why, it just tickles me.  I can tell by his face that he knows he's not fooling anyone, either - he just does it anyway.

For the record, I don't think the wrong girl was picked because Jaime should've been kicked off a while ago. There are other people I would've rather have seen in this event. The other girl is simply floating by on mediocrity.

Most importantly though, this show completely destroys people who oversalt.

Edit: Fabio obviously just doesn't give a shit. He's italian, he's not meant to. As for Stefan, he knows he's being a douche, there's no doubt. He's in it to win it. I think my biggest problem is in what he cooks, normally he'd be the guy I'd cheer for simply because he's a wanker looking out for number 1, which is what this show is about. Harold, Sam, Hung - these guys were the best Top Chef have put forth and all 3 of them had a strong douchebag element. But they were also exceptionally interesting to watch cook. Stefan is good, and without totally fucking up, he's got it in the bag. But he's sooooooooo uninteresting.

Edit 2: Also, none of the people in this bottom six really measure up to the previous bottom sixes, outside of Elan who is still the biggest upset in Top Chef History.

I can't support getting rid of Jamie when Leah still exists.  Richard from last season seems to be a fan of Leah's style though for some reason, that has to count for something.

Leah simply doesn't look like a top chef. But she seems to have talent. She has absolutely no chance of winning though because she's very obviously not a born leader. She's a cog.

Correct. She wasn't really a candidate for being one the three scrubs in the final six until she pulled out a decent dish at the right time. She's only the wrong person to go home because Leah is still there. But Leah will still be terrible next week. Jaime fucked up quite badly this week, and so it gave them a needed opportunity to send her home. Because otherwise they would have to be honest and say "yes, we know Fabio/Carla/Hosea fucked up again this week, but honestly Jaime, even if you're usually decent, there's no way you can ever bring the game to Stefan, and one of them just might".

Honestly, either Leah or Jamie could have gone home and it would have been the right person to send home. Leah is only there because her fuckups haven't been worse than that week's loser's fuckup. She is AWFUL. She seems to get halfway into a dish, get flustered and just give up like she did in the quickfire, only she can't just stop working because she at least has to put something on the plate. She's worthless, a line cook at best. She can't even lead herself.

Everyone on that show other than Fabio and Stefan aren't even scrubs on previous seasons. They are the fuckers that get sent home first. Carla is the only one of them with any talent, and her talent seems to only be classic French and pastry. I thought Hosea was decent, but he doesn't seem to have the range of chops that Stefan or Fabio do. Shit, they should just crown Stefan now, because other than a massive fuckup of trainwreck proportions, I don't see anyone beating the little Euro manwhore.

I don't know if it's the way they're editing or if it's so, but Hosea seems more interested in sticking it to Stefan than in giving it his best effort.  Maybe that's the same thing as Stefan is the man to beat, but it comes off kind of petty sometimes.

That's how they edited people who wanted to beat Stephen and Marcel from previous seasons. It's likely that they're just setting it up for the finale. Unfortunately, Hosea doesn't deserve to be in the finale. Whoops.

Wrong person got sent home. Not that she didn't deserve it because she did. Worst dish and she was generally surly this episode for whatever reason. Though I did admire the chutzpa in saying Bernadin wasn't to her taste while everyone else acted like a hayseed. She was the pre-season favor and consistently underperformed. I get the feeling she was reality TV'd out. She was done with the show, ready to go home, and her attitude led her to a stupid mistake. But The Other Woman (and you never want to be The Other Woman) is far worse than her. But of everyone on the show? That British asshat. First off the island. Forget the island, make him the main course and Dolcett him.

That wasn't chutzpah, that was douchey arrogance. She's displayed it all season, and hasn't been able to back it up without cooking scallops.


Yeah, he's fucking worthless. I get the feeling from Chef Tom's body language that he hates the British guy and just about every chef on the show is driving him batshit.

It's Top Chef, not Top Pussy!

Jacques -- looking very dapper in his bow tie :awesome_for_real:

Being that Leah went home, obviously not.

Unless Padma wins?

Episode Highlights: Leah's bodacious bangers at the beginning, and then a bit later on, Padma's hard nips.

Did you forget about Carla?  I don't think she'll win, but she's been on a hot streak lately.

The season will go to whichever person fucks up the least between Fabio and Stephan.  Stephan has been getting a bit cocky lately and it has placed him at the bottom.  He obviously has the most skill of all the chefs, but he really needs to keep the fuck ups to a minimum. 

The vaseline on the lens during the dinner made my eyes feel like they were full of rheum. Lidia Bastianich's scary zombie skullet warranted it, though.

Leah is gone. YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! Carla is definitely coming on stronger, but really, it seems like most of them tried too hard when simple and well-executed was the best choice. I really think Hosea will be the next to go.

What's the format for the so-called "final four" or "semi-final"? Have they said? I could see it being a head-to-head showdown with the winners going to a final or just a free-for-all with two going down. It sucks that it looks like it is another catering challenge as those are always the suckiest and they've done a good job of getting away from that the last 6 or so challenges.

If it's like the last two seasons, they'll eliminate one more in the quickfire, then have a 3-person final challenge.

I get the sense it is different though as they are calling it a "semi-final" and I don't remember them ever really using that term before.

That's probably so they can refer to it as the Top Chef Gladware Semi-Final Clash sponsored by the fantastic family of Gladware products and Kenmore Kitchen Ranges.

fify

Finally.

I care less about everyone else and who wins than I did about that slug going home. I don't think anyone's had such a long run of dodging the axeman in any show I can think of.

My partner and I are real big Carla fans, though we're not delusional. Carla did well this ep because she was a good fit for these challenges, it was all about basic simple cooking. Last meals are about basic comfort food not exotics. (Or in the case of death row, bad fast food as near as I can tell.)

And the shrimp scampi I grew up on had cream in it. I really don't think it's that exotic. I prefer without, but in my experience, with cream is certainly common enough.

We were watching Chopped, which is a pretty mediocre show, but my partner commented that after watching it, it was vivid how little attention Top Chef is paying to the food this season.

GE Monogram ranges in the final, not GE Kenmore. And how did you both forget T-Mobile?

My favorite was a few seasons ago when they said announced were going to put the groceries from Whole Foods into the Toyota Rav 4s and bring them back to the Kenmore Pro Kitchen. I think they may have called on a Sidekick on the way back too.

I don't know if I like Chopped.

Yea, I don't like it. Watched the first two episodes. It's just an hour of meh. I have better things to do with my time.

I think Chopped is a great show destroyed by Food Network. They can't get past the idea that their viewers think Fine Dining is TGIFridays instead of McDonalds. There's some good things there covered over by a producer screaming at Ted Allen to say the word "chopped" just one more time so the plebes will "get it."

I'm not all that impressed with Chopped myself. Other than Iron Chef, Food Network just really don't know how to do compelling competitive food shows like this.

Just saw the promo and it says that this next one will be a "double elimination" so it is a sorta semi-final four, then final two set up.

Even the US Iron Chef is a pale imitation of the original.

Oh for the record last week. Stefan shoulda packed his knives. Everyone said his was overcooked. Yet the girl who went home only 2 of the 4 had problems. Clearly this showed to me Stefan was the worst of the week. I'm just afraid of the rioting that woulda ensued by cutting their favorite. Stefan was the worst for last week.

So what? He's also the villain of the season. Which means he's probably going to win or lose, but we won't know til the finals. Unless he severely screws up. Like, by shaving someones head.

The Top Chef fanbois in me says "well played".  Nice reference there. 

I love how the contestants are forced to refer to every object they touch by the trade name.

The hosts aren't quite so obvious and forced, and the long product/brand name shots seem par for the course, but contestants having to mention 'wholefoods' and 'whatever-the-fuck-that-PoS-Toyota-is' six times an episode cracks me up.

Well, they called me back and now I have 1 shot to prove they made a mistake.  I don't know how to make a gumbo, or even what one is, I think I'll try that.    :uhrr:

That was TOTAL bullshit letting one of those 3 get a chance to make it to the finale. Granted, forcing them to win to make it to the finale was more palatable, but really, THEY FUCKING LOST AND WENT HOME. Fabio getting shitcanned for a catering challenge sucked. It sounded like he had good food, with the only complaints being it wasn't hot enough or Creole enough. At this point in the competition, that's enough, especially with what looked like solid dishes from everyone else. It still sucks though, because Hosea getting through blows. He's such a cunt.

I'm really considering blowing off this show for next season. This has been a terrible terrible season.

Fabio > Stephan. 

I was sorely dissappointed in that decision.

I think doing such a specific regional American cuisine as a requirement was unfair when they knew they had two foreign chefs and that's really why I object to Fabio going. It seemed like their big bitch was that it wasn't authentic enough.

If they haven't done the "you get a chance but you have to win" thing then Runway has. But I know I've seen it before.

Shame Carla won, would've liked to see Jeff go all the way even though I think it's bullshit when people get to come back. At least we didn't have to hear about the rainbow coalition or whatever.

As for Hosea and Carla in the finals, depends on the events, but I see Stefan ripping ass.

From first impressions I would have thougt that Carla would have washed out in the first 3 eps.  However as the show has gone on, she's demonstrated that she knows what the hell she's doing.

She's still a psycho though.

She's not a psycho.  She's a hippie. 

A hippie psycho!

Well, maybe that.  Not psycho killer hippie clown, though, or anything like that.  Maybe more eccentric than psycho.  I like her.  She's nice.

I wonder it the "Love" she puts in all her food is LSD!

Perfect final episode for this season.

No one in their right mind would trust Casey of all people to give good advice. It was actually quite illustrative of what makes a really good chef. They need to be complete A-type alpha dogs (male or female, but same personality type) that think they know everything. It's why most of them are first class assholes. Carla was too accommodating instead of sticking to her guns and it absolutely killed her. 

I was satisfied with the conclusion as well.

and Ilan should open a restaurant called "Mediocre Meals."

Edit: Abagadro, the person that won wasn't a total A-type, at all. This is and will always be the absolute highlight of his entire career.

Edit 2: Also, man, who would've thought Toby had the best line in the season "If we're gonna give it to the most soulful chef, we might as well give it to Carla." Bravo to him. Now, go away and never come back.

Edit 3: Worth watching: http://www.bravotv.com/node/33352 - He insults the car they gave away.

Top Chef should be a leader, not a follower.  They don't have to be an ass about it, but they should lead and make the cooks around them better. 

I also liked the help they gave the chefs.  I was expecting some high profile chefs like past seasons, but thought bringing in the old runners up was a nice touch.  That being the case, given the choice of Blaise, Marcel, and Casey... easy choice.  Blaise is amazing. 

I'm not thrilled by the outcome, but I'm satisfied with it. 

I agree. I thought it was funny last season with Stephanie telling Eric Ripert, one of the best seafood chefs in the US, how she wanted her fish prepped, but that's what you gotta do.

Casey was looking good, though :drill:

I was being sarcastic.

The final episode was boring the food was uninspiring.

Carla ruined a souffle, Hosea served venison for dessert, and the dutchman scooped some fucking icecream onto a plate.

People in a restaurant ate it. There was a little pointless commentary. Everyone went home.

Oh, and they picked a Top Chef. I guess.



I watched an episode of Iron Chef America right afterward that had me dreaming about how often I'd go to a restaurant that served the shit on the screen.

Fucking right. Highlight of the episode.

I didn't much care about the ending.  Everything about this season has mostly put me off.  The food, the chefs, the judges, everything.  I might even be put off most cooking shows.  I finally watched an episode of Chopped and wasn't impressed.  The premise is kind of fun, and I like the fact that it's an all in one show thing so there's no actual commitment to keep up, but that's it.  Ted appears to be reading everything he says and I just hate what ever it is that he does with his mouth while he's speaking.  He doesn't look as if he believes a word he's saying!  The chefs are mostly okay or better and I'm interested in what they're preparing.  The show is so mediocre, however, that it nullifies any interest I might start with before the show's over.

Hosea winning is just shit. I actually agree with schild on this one. He's a mediore chef at best. Carla fucked up by listening to Casey (really? WHY HER?), Stefan got fucked by Marcel - he's a terrible sous chef because he doesn't work welll with others unless he's the top. Richard won that competition for Hosea by not fucking him up in any way. Hosea won by not sucking, but none of that stuff by any of the top 3 was all that inspiring.

Season 6 has got a long way to go to make up for this shit salad.

There's some speculation that Richard won it for Hosea by cooking the food. There was foam on top of that thing.

I just ranted about it elsewhere, but this show got very lucky with Harold in the first season and naming Hosea top chef completes the circle by completely finishing off its credibility. The guy is not that good a cook, he simply blundered into it. They need to pick far better contestants, concentrate production on the food not the drama, and retool the show to get rid of the gotcha stuff and look for someone who's honestly the best chef. You just not going to see people like Ripert involved if they're crowning clowns like this guy.

It wasn't just Harold. Hung also completely redeemed the show. But yea, Harold was just a joy to watch.

The only thing I enjoyed about the finale was watching Hosea being a sad, sad, simpleton (flipping off Stefan, taking all the foie gras, saying how great it was to beat Stefan, etc).  It just reinforced what an average dumbfuck this guy is - anyone with half a brain should have been able to tell that Stefan was just putting on the "asshole" schtick for the show and probably to entertain himself during the season.

I think in one of these threads I defended the "every meal stands on its own" episode structure since it made for a more compelling show, but man, I don't think I can take another person winning just because they didn't fuck up the most during any one episode (Ilan, Hosea), rather than winning because they are the best chef.  Stefan loses because of his last dessert dish, even though he dominated all season? Big mea culpa on that line of thinking, especially as Hosea kept advancing.

The best episode of the season may not have really been an actual episode.

Stefan's look after Padma walked in with the hard nipples - I loled so hard.

This thread got me to go back and start watching the whole series,

As someone with it fresh in their mind I really agree with the whole Ilan Spanish mediocrity, He just did the same dishes over and over.

Am I the only one who ends up rooting for the "evil chef"? The whole sous chef setup at the end of both season's seem to cripple the chef's and then the sous's try to screw them(mia/betty) over at the end with the judges.

Marcel: "...I thought it was going to take more then f'n saffron and paprika to beat me, but apparently not..."  :drill:

This has come up before like Betty/Elia with Marcel, but holy shit to make that person the top chef?!

Fabio was the only chef that even kept me watching, but even that was difficult in the last two lackluster seasons. Tom looked so disgusted at times during the season, it showed in season four when they were in diner and he was reading the paper and drinking a coffee while hosting the show. I get the feeling he wanted to weed out so many people during this season but is wrangled in for the better of the show.

The only bright spot is a new season, hopefully they can find some better chefs. Seriously get a couple or even one molecular gastronomy chefs in there Blais and Marcel kept your food contests interesting even when they bombed.

Poll:

Favourite Top Chef Season?

1.

Then 3. But only because of Hung.

Hell, season 1 had a downy that could cook better than anyone on the last 2 seasons.

Actually, 4 was decent, but it isn't a "favorite."

FIFY :awesome_for_real:

On the eyes, Casey was great. But I watch the show for the cooking. You're helping to perpetuate the PROBLEM with the show >_<

If I want to watch great chefs cook weird food and actually learn something about cooking I watch Iron Chef.