I didn’t like Carla’s “Send it out with love!” comment, but I do like that when she’s called on a dish that didn’t work out, she’d doesn’t do an eyes-wide, “oh, you’re kidding! I thought it was wonderful” look.She was ready to go home last night because she screwed up. And really, with the cake, she asked for Radika’s input, which was 'It’s fine - go ahead." Carla would’ve been fine in the front of the house, I think. She’s puppy-friendly and outgoing. Jeff’s attractive, but nothing else.
Fabio thinks he’s charming, but that insincerity puts me off. But he was attentive to the guests, which was a lot more than Radika was.
I’m glad the viewers said that they wanted the Leah-Hosea stuff left out of the show. That’s not why people watch Top Chef.
I wonder why so many people on the Quckfire chose to do fish? Because it cooks quickly?
You only know he’s being at all insincere because you get to see the “confession room” stuff. To the guests, he’s being nice, attentive, and funny. That’s being charming.
Without the confession room stuff, you’d hardly know that Jeff and Jamie are self-absorbed and over confident. Stefan would come across as even more of an ass.
I think that it is gamemanship and common sense to purposefully aim for the middle of the pack in the quickfires that determine team captains as well as virtually all elimination challenges.
There really is no benefit in winning each week, except for the few times that they have cool prizes. It is more about surviving the round. It would be in a contestants best interest to prepare dishes that are 6 to 7 out of 10 on the risky/difficulty/familiarty scale rather than take risks and try to win each week.
People usually get kicked off because they made mistakes, not because their food was pretty good, just not as good as the others. They might get chastised for it, but mediocre contestants can survive just by playing safe and letting others make mistakes. Sure, eventually they will get booted but they stay on the show longer and get more exposure.
They really need to change the rules of the show some if they want the chefs to shine.
Fortunately, the Chefs are usually competitive enough that the competitiveness overrides their sense of self preservation.
What happens ONLY on that epsisode should NOT be the sole consideration for staying or going.
Close call at the bottom. All you ever make is scallops, the other guy is creative, always different but this dish wasnt as tasty in reality as it sounded in theory?
Goodbye scallop girl!
You never screw up, but this time the darn equipment JUST wasn’t working and there wasn’t any reall good alternative. The other guy screw ups fairly regularly, and this time his food was really bland and unimaginative but it just wasnt screwed up?
Goodby Mr. Bland food!
They SAY past performance isnt a factor, but I’d bet it is some. I just think take it up a notch. BAM!
I can see the reasoning behind not judging based upon past performances. On any given judges panel there’s one and sometimes two judges who have no previous experience with the food the cheftestants have created. So if you’re judging based upon total experience, how do you judge? On the other panelist’s say so? That doesn’t seem fair.
Also, when you go to a restaurant for the first time, you base it on what’s on your plate in front of you, not the previous two weeks worth of effort.
I also believe that the judges sincerely try to base their decisions solely on that night’s performance. Of course you can’t wholy eliminate from your psyche previous experiences when judging but I do still think they try.
All that said, I agree that judging based upon your entire time in the competition is the way to go. The judges should be able to say “look, we’ve told you the past three times you’ve been in front of us to add salt. Clearly you’re just not listening to what we have to say. Bon Voyage.”
The competition is about how good a chef you are. There are ways to horrifically screw up and get tossed out even if you coulda been a contenda, but overall I know that even the great chefs have an off day and when you compare that to a mediocre chef who continues to be mediocre but just barely did better this one time…well, they should take the entire competition in mind and send the mediocre one home.
I am in the minority but I do not like Restaurant Wars and this episode highlighted why. Radhika gets sent home for being poor at the front of the house (which she was, and deserved). I think that is just stupid for this show to have that situation.
Actually, if it’s made properly, it can be very, very tasty. A thin, almost-clear sauce, which when you taste it, has a surprisingly powerful tomato punch. It’s not the easiest thing to pull off (it takes forever to do it properly, drain and filter and drain and filter and drain and filter), and right now it’s on the cusp of so-trendy-it’s-passe, but it can contribute serious pizazz to a plate. Based on the time they had available, and the quick shots of the plate showing the liquid sloshing around, I think they did it badly.
I know it isn’t the same thing, but my father-in-law makes a chunky salsa all the time out of basically just onions, tomatoes, cilantro, salt and tapatio. My favorite part, the watery, spicy tomato “juice” that is left at the bottom.
I thought Radhika’s elimination had as much to do with her inability to make decisions and effectively supervise as it did with her lack of attention to the guests. I don’t remember what the judges cited as the exact reason for her firing, but she certainly showed that she lacks the assertiveness to be a truly great chef.
Yeah, I know why, but it seems to me that that is a test that only she had to pass, the others just got to cook, which is what they do anyway. Now she could have delegated someone else to the front, but the same problem exists. One person on each team is basically judged on a different criteria then the others.
oi could understand if everybody had to prove they could lead a group to run a restaurant, but that just wasn’t the case.
I’m not too concerned Radhika is gone, I never pegged her as a posible finalist, I just think it is pretty inequitable.
On the other hand, that person has creative space to arrange the circumstances to his or her favor.
It’s curious to see Stefan at play. He is an awesome chef, but he rubs everybody the wrong way. He has the confidence you see a person who *knows *he is great and therefore don’t give a damn. But still, you’d think it come and bite him in the back someday. Who wants to work with the evil genius?
Imagine if he just toned it down some and played his social cards right. He’d be outstanding.
Well, for all we know, he actually is a reasonable guy in real life, but he has chosen to be the walking hand grenade because it disrupts everybody else’s rhythm and sabotages their efforts in the competition. He would hardly be the first guy in reality-show history to use this tactic. It may be a little more effective on this show, because the vibe tends to be more nicey-nicey than other TV competitions.
Just pulled this off the DVR last night. Good god Hosea and Leah are annoying and sleazy. It’s one thing to kiss somebody when you’re already involved with someone else, it’s another to do it ON NATIONAL TV. You know, they probably didn’t know how the episodes were edited or if Bravo would even choose to show that aspect or not until the episodes aired. Can you imagine if these people stayed with their SOs? The “Wtf?”-feelings during every episode as the sexual tension builds. The fucking EXPLOSION that would (hopefully) take place when it all climaxed in an ultra-squicky make out scene? What if they were watching with their families? Uhhg. So trashy.
Fabio- Overall he is good. I feel he relies on his personality a bit much to win in the end. Leah- She is lacking I do not feel she will go much farther. Boring and easily distracted. Carla- I am surprised she has made it this far. She will be weeded out soon. Hosea- He may become better after Leah gets kicked off. He has some talent. Jeff- Has this guy actually won anything. Quickfire or elimination? He is good but not more. Jamie- This girl is good.
Top three:
Jamie
Stephan
Hosea
It was a tough call but I think Fabio will make a mistake near the end. Stephan and Jamie will go head to head for the final and Stephan will win.
I agree with this, and I was relieved to see that the viewer vote showed that none of us really want to see that (although it was a good lead-in to the problems they had in the kitchen. Nothing like a little guilt soup to take you off your game.)
I’ve had a hard time lining them up in my head, but after reading this thread, I think you’re pretty right on. I would not be surprised, though, if Jamie pulled ahead of Stefan. He likes her. She could psych him out. Unless he’s that much of an asshole, which is likely.
I know that some people here think I rag on Jeff too much, but until he wins an elimination challenge or even a quickfire I will continue to do so. If there is a better example of perception vs reality between Jeff and Leah I would like to see it.
Perception:
Jeff is a good to great chef/leader and Leah is needy, boring and is not a very talented chef.
Reality: Leah has 4 wins ( two quickfires and two elimination wins ). Jeff has 0 wins, a large goose egg.
Look, I don’t like Leah’s personality either but she deserves more credit than she is getting around here.
This episode sucked. First of all, why bother having a guest judge if the diners get to chose the winning restaurant? Then there’s the stupidity of having a restaurant win because of better desserts. Why even serve desserts? Mostly, I’m having a hard time getting passed the fact that a “chef” sent out undercooked cod (Not a hard fish to cook correctly) and was not eliminated.
This may be the weakest seasons contestants ever. Stefan and Jamie seem to be the only decent chefs on the show. How does that happen?
Oh. And I hate Jamie’s lipstick. Enough with the gloss already!
