What the hell is everybody’s problem with Marcel? I don’t get what they think he’s doing to provoke so much of their middle school bullying and harrassment. He’s a little eccentric but he doesn’t seem like an asshole. Ilan came off like a real bitch tonight. So did Sam. So did Betty. The more they pick on him, the more I find myself rooting for the poor little guy. especially since he seems to take it so much in stride and never blows up back at them.
Anyway. I’m glad Betty is gone. I couldn’t stand her and her soups looked like ass. So did that green mess she did for the quickfire.
Kudos to Michael fr winning both the quickfire and the main challenge. What a shock that her operates at the top of his form when he’s stoned out of his gourd.
I’m starting to like Elia as a dark horse to make the finals. She’s been doing consistently well in the challenges and she’s been getting good edits. Cliff is still fairly solid. I think Sam is starting to slip in the edits a little, but he’s still doing ok in the challenges.
I’m so glad Betty is finally gone. She can’t plate at all. Her quickfire challenge dish looked like vomit on a plate. Mike came across as an idiot savant tonight. His dished looked yummy even if he sounded even more incoherent than usual.
I liked Betty at the start of the season, but it was time for her to go. She’s probably a decent caterer with a standard menu, but I never saw ‘Top Chef’ dishes from her. That green mess tonight was exactly that. “Lets throw every green vegetable together regardless of flavor or texture.”
Marcel bugs me for some reason too. I think its the hair. But he is definitely doing something that is rubbing them guys the wrong way. I imagine living with him daily is starting to grate on everyone (except Elia or Cliff.)
I really dont have any favorites this time around, but I’m leaning towards Sam and Cliff as the final two.
It’s a toss-up to me as to I think might be the final two. I do think Cliff, Elia, Ilan, and Sam will be running neck-and-neck. Mike and Marcel? I’m not so sure.
I can understand why everyone picks on Marcel, and it’s not just his hair. There’s something not quite “right” about him, although his eccentricities (foam, anyone?) play a large part of it. To me, he does give off that “I’m better than you” vibe, which irks me to no end. Yes, he is talented, but he needs to learn some humility.
I wasn’t particularly happy nor sad to see Betty go. After that monstrosity in the Quickfire, you knew the clock was ticking for her.
Although Marcel is quirky,annoying, and has poor social skills, I don’t think he deserves the total juvenile pile-on (at least from what we are shown). I think that the kid is kinda pathetic and sad. I was disapointed by the poor sportsmanship and general jackassery displayed by Ilan. Mike Belushi had me cracking up. I like his usage of the ol’ “Hey you got a spot on your shirt…woop” trick on Marcel as he was walking out of the door.
I thought that Ilan deserved to go for him losing his cool with Marcel and for screwing up his dish. I was OK with Betty going, she was annoying.
Marcel is just an annoying little turd with no concept of team. Remember last episode when his team carried the day by a wide margin? And then who has to interject with a whiney little ‘yeah but I didn’t need his leadership’ but Marcel. He represents a vast black hole of cool, and notwithstanding the admittedly juvenile pile-on, I can’t stand him. He’s just fricken’ lame.
Though he’s one of my favorites, I thought Ilan deserved execution tonight. Poor sportsmanship notwithstanding, how do you screw up Gluttony in a cooking contest? I think Mike is next for the chopping block, they were pretty generous with his edits this week, a little shot at redemption before he takes the knife.
I was really pleased for Mike that he won both challenges. And with two seafood dishes! Seafood is difficult to cook well, but he did a great job with it both times. In Coliccio’s blog, he suggests that Mike hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to spend a lot of time around really talented chefs, and he’s learning from them. I am glad to see that Coliccio isn’t treating Mike as badly as he treated poor Dave in S1.
And Ilan is a total dick. He strikes me as the kind of guy who was never one of The Cool Kids, and now that there's someone he can get away with picking on, he's doing it every chance he gets. His dissing Marcel's dish to the diners was inexcusable, and I was very happy that Coliccio and Padma called him out on it in front of Marcel. I don't think they bought Ilan's "Aw, shucks folks, I was just funnin'" schtick for a second, and I think Ilan knew it. Also, Marcel was the only one to point out at the supply store that they weren't allowed to take discounts. I didn't realize that was one of the rules, but from everyone's reaction, it appeared to be.
And so glad Betty is gone! Harpy.
Betty was the right call. She’s been in the bottom three a couple of times and clearly isn’t as talented as the remaining chefs.
It was clear Marcel wasn’t going because they didn’t think the dish was bad, just that it didn’t embody lust.
Ilan was a dick, but that’s the first time he’s ever been in the bottom three on either the quickfire challenge or the primary challenge (I think) and he’s generally been at the top so I don’t think it would have been right to kick him out over this dish. They were right to call him out on his cattiness and I do think he’s getting his kicks out of the Marcel pile-on. That said, from day one he’s thought Marcel is a dick, which he is. Not as much of a dick as Steven, from Season One, but still a pretentious, self-aggrandizing dick.
I’ve noticed that on a lot of these creative reality shows the ‘strong’ woman tends to get singled out for more vitriole than any of the men. Is it the editing? Is it encouraged? Is it deserved? I dunno. I thought that was going to be the case with Betty but she slowly began to deserve it. She seemed strong at first then began to take everything out on Marcel when the pressure grew. It might have been a good strategy but she picked the wrong guy to beat down.
I was disappointed that they chose to do a three week hiatus on a show that’s not as good as Project Runway and doesn’t have as good of contestants as last season’s Top Chef.
But holy cow this episode was awesome! No wonder it was an hour and fifteen minutes. The producers struck gold and couldn’t bear to cut even a single minute of the Marcel pile-on.
I mean, how funny was it that everyone was dogging on Marcel being a virgin and then one of the dinner guests actually makes a comment about how his cherry tart wasn’t lustful enough because Marcel clearly hasn’t had enough sexual experience? That had me rolling off the couch.
We’ve started to love Michael’s blase` attitude. It’s refreshing. How sad is it that he’s the first and only one to win both the quickfire and the challenge and he does it in a week where he’s granted no immunity and there’s no prize for winning?
Whatever Marcel’s little ticks may be, the bullying is way out of proportion to the provocation. I think it’s just classic nerd-bashing. He didn’t “bark at” Betty, for instance. They just scapegoat the guy and make up shit to be outraged about.
I have a question. I caught the repeat of this episode last night. In the end credits, there is a paragraph that flashes by too fast for me to read. I think is says something like, “The producers confer with the judges when deciding who will be eliminated.”
Does anyone know what that disclaimer says?
I’m curious because it seems as if some contestants are kept around longer than their skills merit because they make the show more interesting. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as they get eliminated eventually.
I was happy to see Michael win both challenges. I’ve always liked the guy and it’s kind of cool to watch him get stronger as the competition goes on.
We need more shots of Elia doing yoga.
and last, who was that actress that they cooked for. I know I’ve seen her, but I can’t place her. I missed her name when they were describing the challenge.
Debi Mazar, whom they described as being in Entourage although she wasn’t in it very much recently. I think she is also in Ugly Betty. Earlier in her career she did more movies, although I can’t hink of any at this time.
I’m not sure of the exact wording on the disclaimer, but this is standard procedure on just about all these types of shows. There was a bit of a flap on Last Comic Standing (during the second season, I think) when the judges didn’t realize that their votes were not the only deciding factors. In one epsisode, Drew Carey and Brett Butler stormed out when the finalists were announced because they didn’t realize the producers also had votes.
I missed the original airing of the episode, and caught a repeat. The repeat was only one hour long. Has anyone seen both the original and the repeat? What did I miss??
Thanks for the answer, JeffB. I now have a clearer picture of how Betty lasted as long as she did, especially after the peanut butter cookie disaster. The producers probably understand better that the judges that cleavage sells.