Top Chef Season 5

[Trippy]

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

[Azaroth]

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.

[Trippy]

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

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.

[Numtini]

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.

[Abagadro]

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.

[Trippy]

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.

[Abagadro]

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

[Trippy]

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

[Azaroth]

For that much shilling?

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

[HaemishM]

Episode Highlight: Gail Simmons' hard nips.

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.

[schild]

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.

[Trippy]

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.

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.

[schild]

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

[HaemishM]

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.

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.

[Big Gulp]

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.

[Evildrider]

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

[Trippy]

Zzzz...

[Nebu]

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. 

[Azaroth]

Zzzz...

the show is jumping the shark.

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[Numtini]

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.

[Azaroth]

Let's get back to the cooking, plzkthx.

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

[Nebu]

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.

[Trippy]

Yup yesterday was another weak episode.

[schild]

This season sucks so fiercely.

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

Fuck.

[schild]

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

[schild]

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.

[Abagadro]

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.

[schild]

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.

[schild]

WHAT THE FUCK HARLEM CHOIR.

[schild]

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.

[schild]

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

[HaemishM]

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.

[Numtini]

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.

[Azaroth]

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.