The show just lost half its appeal with Camille getting booted. Not that she ever prepared or did anything worth 10 seconds of camera time, but I will miss her.
I think that was her that they always showed climbing into the Jacuzzi in a bikini. Too bad there’ll be no more of that.
Well, I thought she was cute, but she never really did anything of note. Time to start cutting deadweight. On the other hand — every season — EVERY season — somebody decides to make dessert when it’s expressly required for. And EVERY season somebody hangs for it. Time to wise up. Next time one of your team member’s says, “Hey, let’s do dessert!” he or she should have a knife pressed to his throat before he/she can finish the sentence.
Besides that, pretty bland episode. I hate the teamwork friction drama in this show. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about general disagreements about the direction or gameplan of the team. Somebody’s always gonna take the lead / come up with the idea / direct traffic. But when they’re not working well together? Come on.
I don’t care if they’re prima donna executive / head / sous chefs — they didn’t get there by themselves. There’s a ton of working in teams and taking direction in the development of a chef - I suspect, no matter how much the lady doth protest, that they all have those basic skills. That leads me to conclude that it’s pretty much manufactured for the camera. And I don’t like that in the context of this show (never really have).
I much prefer the drama of — oh God, my dish isn’t working, what do I do? Or, shit, I knew I shouldn’t have decided to pair electric eel with ketchup. Or even the speculation on who’s playing it safe and who’s really trying to innovate.
My two cents — like the kitchen drama. Hate the interpersonal drama.
ETA: Well, there is that, Terminus… but I think, so far this season, they’ve really underutilized hot shots of the fine bikini-thonged women of Miami strolling on the beach. I expect that will change now that Camille is out. 
Yeah, she was the only one that I would say even came close to being a hottie. Now, it’ll just be about the food. 
I always thought Camille was cute but enough camera on her last night and I began to realize she looks like a crackwhore. I like the Asian girl, whatever her name is. Mostly I’m just puzzled by what the hell is going on in Miami. Who were those people last night with the sashes and shit around their necks? I live in South Florida, like good food and don’t spend all my time slumming, and I’ve never heard of that crew. They looked like tourists forced off of sobe and into tin foil medallions at 4 am for the benefit of Bravo’s camera crew.
And for that matter, who was that father of Florida cuisine they had on a couple of weeks ago, Norman something or other? Whatever. Heard of his restaurants but it’s not a you-must-go-there situation, you’d think he invented the key lime the way people were acting.
I laughed at Ted Allen’s question about the sashes: “Are the medals for volume of food consumed?”
The most exciting part of this episode for me was watching Dale slice into that hunk of foie gras; living in Chicago, I must flee the city limits to eat it. While the pineapple dessert tasting was an unmitigated disaster, I have to agree with Dale that things like tuna tartare and the beef tenderloin were things the chefs could do in their sleep. In that regard, Lia’s shrimp really deserved recognition.
I feel like I watch Top Chef to see some amazing dishes and combinations of food I’ve never even thought of. I watch Hell’s Kitchen so I can see what was described above as kitchen drama.
I don’t like the notion of team tasks on these shows. It’s not really analogous to real world teams, where there are well recognized hierarchies of authority and established menus with reasonable budgets and time constraints. I also don’t like the notion of immunity. It’s far too much reward for a trivial 15-minute task. But when the two are combined — an ad hoc team with an immune member — it can really spell trouble for the poor slobs stuck with a slacker.
Last night’s episode was kind of dull but I am sort of enjoying the lack of drama this season. They all seem to be decent chefs this time and there’s a minimum of vitriol and melodrama. It’s kind of cool just to see a focus on the cooking.
I agree with DtC. I’m liking how this hasn’t been the personal drama train-wreck last season turned into.
Camille leaving - no tears here. Trying to utilize corm meal to make a pineapple upside-down cake? she deserved the boot for that alone.
Seems Hung always has a “the judge is stupid” remark if he gets passed over in the immunity round.
Of course the way the previews are edited you can’t forecast anything but things looked a little dicey in the kitchen next week.
That’s one of the two Saras. Her’s is the one pronounced normally.
I actually find her and Casey cute. I’ll miss Camille, but the eye candy isn’t gone yet.
By the way, according to Cecil, you can’t use pineapple in jello because some enzyme will unjell it (which is what happened in the show) however, none of the chefs mentioned that and I can’t find any other site besides on this board. Of coursel that report is from 1974 so I guess Jello could have chaned since then.
It says on the box not to use pineapple. Colicchio even made the point that she should have read the box.
If they were bound and determined to plunge headfirst into pineapple, there’s other things that could have been done that works very well. For instance, could they have ventured into the pineapple ice cream or sorbets? (not sure if that would have been within the rules)
It is probably still too early for chef vs. chef drama. They are still getting together for group hugs. Even though we have seen a few episodes, they probably haven’t spent a week together yet. When there are fewer chefs left and they are moving into the end of the 2nd week, then they might start working each other’s nerves. Camille did look good in a bikini, but she was going to get bumped off soon anyway. That girl who is trying to look like J. Aniston kinda bothers me, as well as the New York guy who is whining all the time. I don’t have a favorite- maybe Tre or Hung (whom the rest of my family thinks is annoyingly arrogant).
I’m not sure what the real time vs series time is but I would think it’s not an episode per day for filming. Maybe this has been mentioned somewhere in the show blog information that’s available, but I personally haven’t read any of them.
I can’t cook, but if I knew I was going to be on Top Chef, I would learn a few dessert recipes.
Amazingly, it really isn’t that hard. I’m merely a pretty-good home cook, and I could have knocked off four or five desserts, pineapple or other, that would have been markedly better than what was offered. I mean, panna cotta is easy. I’m amazed at how thoroughly it got screwed up. It’s weird watching the show, seeing the gaps in knowledge; somebody knows how to herb-macerate fruit but can’t bake a freakin’ muffin? Seems like some of these people suddenly decided they were “Chefs” and turned to the most interesting recipe in the Aquavit cookbook as the beginning of their education, instead of picking up Joy of Cooking or Silver Spoon and starting with chapter one, or better yet standing at their grandmother’s elbow in the kitchen and watching quietly for a year. Crimony, ejected because you don’t know the difference between cake and cornbread. How embarrassing.
I couldn’t find anything on Top Chef, but I did find that Project Runway tapes everyday.
from here:MSNBC. That actually sounds pretty grueling.
It 's just sisyphysian, these reality shows. They make the dessert, they don’t make the dessert- damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If that corn meal round was soaked with some cuarcao and pineapple juice it would have passed. I think corn and the texture of a well saturated corn cake would play perfectly with pineapple. I like corn and pineapple, makes a good salsa.