Top Chef Season Seven

[Khaldun]

Begins tonight.

Not wild about it being in D.C., but ok. We will see. Hopefully quality level of chefs is where it was last season--I really do not want two or three quality chefs and a bunch of fuckwits, that's Gordon Ramsey's stock in trade.

Top Chef Masters was good this season, by the by.

[Nebu]

The quality of last season will be very tough to match.  I'm not optimistic about this season, particularly with the early episodes.  I hope to god they don't try to drum up drama for the sake of ratings.  It really detracts from the cooking.  

Edit: I think I'm more interested in the Art show that airs after Top Chef.  It seems like a very interesting concept.  Top Chef, but looking for the best artist.  Subjective reality shows FTW!

[Numtini]

I'm always good for a Top Chef. I thought at first the level was lower, but there's some people with significant recognition. We'll see how it goes. I'm definitely not missing Toby as a judge.

And yes, Top Chef Masters is great. It's Top Chef with nice people and no drama.

I'm liking the art show a lot, which for me is rather odd.

[HaemishM]

My biggest comment about the first episode was that none of the plates looked all that good. Their presentation skills as a whole were way below par.

[Khaldun]

Not liking Angelo. I really don't like excessive gamesmanship on this show--it slides it towards being just another shitty reality show, I prefer this to be at the classy end of things. There's enough tension just because these guys all stand to gain meaningful reputation capital by doing well--they don't need someone to play dickish games trying to sabotage others. I'd like to see the judges just come right out and tell the contestants, "If we think you're deliberately trying to sabotage others on your team while staying clean enough to go to the next round, you're done."

[Nebu]

Giving immunity for a quickfire was always a terrible idea.  Give them a prize or an advantage, not immunity. 

[HaemishM]

Yeah, the immunity strategy thing is starting to rub me the wrong way too. Fuck it, JUST COOK. If your shit is good, you'll go on.

Totally called the banana pudding getting chick sent home, though. This seems a lot like last season - three or four pretty damn good chefs along with a lot of dross you know is going to get weeded out.

[Khaldun]

I thought sherry-chicken lady arguably deserved it more. Banana pudding lady might have been able to pull it off with a bit more money (so that it could be strawberry-intensive) but sherry-chicken lady was just in the grips of a bizarre obsession with that idea.

I was surprised nobody pulled the "hide the veggies in more appealing stuff" trick that's so big with the Rachel Ray crowd these days. Was really a lackluster response to the challenge overall. Which I suppose demonstrates partly why we have the problem that we do with school lunches.

[HaemishM]

I wouldn't have been surprised to see sherry-chicken lady go home for that, since it was essentially her fucking expensive choice of sherry that hamstrung banana pudding lady into less ingredients. Why her team didn't bitchslap her about sherry in a school lunch, I don't know. Yes, I know the alcohol burns off - but do you really think any school would purchase an ingredient like that for their lunches? The whole point of the exercise was how good a chef are you without the crutch of fine, expensive ingredients.

Either one deserved to go home for that. I think the choice they made had a little to do with her other crappy performances so far.

[Numtini]

I think they bounced the banana lady simply because she replicated exactly the sugared up fake food sort of thing that the challenge was supposed to provide an alternative to.

The sherry was unappealing to kids and politically volatile, but at least was healthy.

The immunity thing reminded me of all the things I like about Top Chef Masters, but I'm sure the producers are orgasmic at having such a perfect reality tv villain on the show.

[Der Helm]

reality tv villain

I kind of like the guy. 

[Khaldun]

He certainly is a good chef. I just wish they'd not play up the bullshit, because some of that is editing and all that, and some of that is rule structure. I don't know why they didn't get the message that people liked the classy, more collegial set-up last season. They probably should be getting the message now: ratings are down by a goodly amount.

[Khaldun]

I'm thinking part of the problem this season is:

a) too many weak chefs
b) no middle-range people who have good days that you're rooting for because they're likeable (Ash, Eli)
c) obviously superior people are either totally lacking in charisma or are villainous in a show where much of the audience doesn't really want Richard Hatch-ish villains
d) it's in DC, a place most of us want nuked from orbit

[Signe]

What was Padma wearing?  It looked like a plastic gorilla chest. 

[Abagadro]

Heh, my wife made the exact same comment.

Maybe she raided Mr. Burns's closet.

[Khaldun]

I could not figure that out either--it was really weird looking. For a little while I thought it was a strange looking baby bjorn and that her kid was in there somewhere, but that obviously wasn't it.

Another badly designed elimination challenge, I thought. It let a team that completely fucked up their breakfast service escape unscathed because they made a decent lunch while the three teams that were fighting over dinner appeared to have made three really good dinners and to have done fairly well with every other meal. I feel for Kenny, because it's clear that he really is one of the more skilled people in the competition both technically and in terms of quality, and yet he keeps getting sandbagged by the structure of the competition.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, they should go back to the drawing board on that challenge. You essentially only had to cook one really good meal out of three to be safe. I didn't like it at all. Angelo's rivalry with Kenny is really starting to grate on me. It reminds me way too much of Hosea's dickbag jealousy of Stefan in season 5 and we all know how bad that season was. This season is really reminding me of that. Lots of mediocre chefs with only 2 or 3 good ones, and even the good ones would probably have gotten raped on last season's cast.

[Numtini]

I actually liked that format. I'm still not quite sure about both members going home, but I think it did remove some drama even if it isn't quite fair that you're relying on someone else to survive.

I looked at it that you had to screw up 3 meals to go home, not that you had to do one good one to be safe.

[HaemishM]

But it wasn't even that you screw up three meals as you don't cook 3 meals that are as good as someone else's one meal. It didn't work for me at all.

[Khaldun]

See, I don't think the teams that were forced into cooking dinner actually screwed up any of their meals. They just didn't cook a breakfast or lunch that were so stellar as to top everyone else's (which in the breakfast group meant beating a much larger contingent of teams). I'd almost rather they did it the opposite way: you got to move on to lunch if you were one of the top six teams at breakfast, and on to dinner if you were one of the top three at lunch, so that progression was a sign of quality. Then pick a dinner team as the winners of the round with a big prize; find a loser from the breakfast failures to send home. Think about it: the three dinner teams had good if not out-of-the-park offerings at all three services, but one of the winning lunch teams didn't even plate their breakfast stuff fully.

[Der Helm]

Just now saw this little disclaimer at the end of the last episode...

"Winning and elimination decisions were made by the Judges in consultation with producers"
"Some elimination decisions were discussed with Bravo"

and

"Contestants are informed of the rules and must meet eligibility requirements to receive announced prizes"

Never noticed those before. Are they new ? The first two seem to be pretty straigt forward, but what is the third one about ?

[Abagadro]

They've been on there for years and serve as a source of constant accusations of conspiracy and tampering.  Colichio has maintained a bunch of times that the producers don't meddle in the judging, but who knows.

[Der Helm]

They've been on there for years and serve as a source of constant accusations of conspiracy and tampering.  Colichio has maintained a bunch of times that the producers don't meddle in the judging, but who knows.

I guess that shows how much attention I pay while watching TV.

Is this the only format with disclaimers like these ?

And of course do the producers meddle in the judging. They need to, to ensure an ongoing narration. Is there anyone left who thinks Reality TV is "real" ?

[Numtini]

Pretty sure Runway has the same disclaimer.

[HaemishM]

Man, this season is already really grating on my nerves. Angelo's obsession with Kenny is giving me a real creepy/stalker vibe, the two couples that seem like there's possible romance angles also really fucking annoying, and the fact that most of the chefs just don't seem worth a shit is draining my interest.

[Evildrider]

I like how all the chicks are drooling over Kenny tho, and I think a couple of the guys too.  :O

Seriously I hope Angelo dies in a fire.  He's the most annoying person on there so far.

The show overall isn't the best this season, I don't mind them showing more of the chef's interactions tho.  I think the producers just want some fucking to go on so they can spice it up. 

[Khaldun]

Most of the time I'm just not thinking, 'wow, that's a really interesting plate' or 'great idea'. It's like, eh, ok, that's pretty good. And you have a bunch of chefs who whine about everything: I don't make pies! I don't use a grill! I don't work outdoors! I can't work with food if I don't know what's going to be there! If you read Collicchio's blog, I think that if anything the editing is downplaying the amount of whining from most of the contestants about the challenges.

[Evildrider]

I think they are whining cuz some of the challenges are more like Dinner: Impossible, then what Top Chef should really be about.

[Khaldun]

What, using a charcoal grill? Or coming up with some good ideas after seeing what you've got to work with rather than deciding on something in advance and getting it from Whole Foods? The latter is something a really good chef should be doing anyway--going to your vegetable supplier and butcher and seeing what's seasonal, what's good, what's unusual, and working with it.

[Nebu]

I think that it would be a better show if they would tell the chefs about their cooking conditions in advance.  Then we could see if their culinary skills would shine under all conditions.  Similarly, the time constraints they put on the chefs are sometimes bordering on absurd.  The drama they create for the fans does detract from the actual cooking. 

[Khaldun]

I think if the Top Chef and Top Chef Masters challenges were closer in spirit that would be better, yes. But I don't have any problem with time constraints as long as the expectations and the ingredients are in line with those constraints. (e.g., don't hand people something that simply can't be good without hours of braising and give them 45 minutes). That's where the "bag of beans" complaint was strange: if you've got dried beans and you don't have a pressure cooker, you can't make beans in anything less than a day, really.

[Paelos]

I think if the Top Chef and Top Chef Masters challenges were closer in spirit that would be better, yes. But I don't have any problem with time constraints as long as the expectations and the ingredients are in line with those constraints. (e.g., don't hand people something that simply can't be good without hours of braising and give them 45 minutes). That's where the "bag of beans" complaint was strange: if you've got dried beans and you don't have a pressure cooker, you can't make beans in anything less than a day, really.

This annoys me as well. If you are going to pull timed shenannigans like that, you might as well be doing an episode of "Chopped," which is about the most hackneyed cooking competition on TV. Here's a Boston Butt, some dried farva beans, fish sauce, and some avacados! Make me some magic in an hour Chefs! Go!

This show is supposed to be better than the drek reality on the Food Network.

[schild]

Angelo is the shit, some of you don't like fun.

He also has absolutely zero competition and it was obvious before the first quickfire even happened. If they give the title to someone else this year they may as well just bring Ilan on the show again and give him the award.

[HaemishM]

Angelo is the shit, some of you don't like fun.

He also has absolutely zero competition and it was obvious before the first quickfire even happened. If they give the title to someone else this year they may as well just bring Ilan on the show again and give him the award.

No. He can cook. He and Kenny seem to be the only really good chefs on this season. But goddamnit, he is becoming more irritating than Marcel, as grating as Spike. He's like dry ice in the jockstrap.

[Evildrider]

Angelo is the shit, some of you don't like fun.

He also has absolutely zero competition and it was obvious before the first quickfire even happened. If they give the title to someone else this year they may as well just bring Ilan on the show again and give him the award.

No. He can cook. He and Kenny seem to be the only really good chefs on this season. But goddamnit, he is becoming more irritating than Marcel, as grating as Spike. He's like dry ice in the jockstrap.

He's not even fun to watch cook.  He has no personality except for being a douche.  I think Kenny is just as good as Angelo, but he tends to do too much in his dishes.