After the last episode, I lamented the lack of fun challenges and other people have been complaining about the lack of good prizes. We got both this week! I liked the head-to-head competition with contestants from previous seasons making food for a Super Bowl party with ingredients representative of some football teams’ cities, even though neither Super Bowl team was represented. They even had some pretty good trash-talking. It gave a whole new twist to who was liable to wind up eligible for elimination.
If you’ve seen the episode, you know who was paired with whom. Before we found out, though, the gentleman and I were speculating about what the most fun matchups would be, although we only knew the chefs from sseson 4. We figured Nikki and Fabio could result in an interesting, fairly even competition, but Andrew and Stefan would make the most fun Clash of the Giant Egos, especially since they’re both good.
For those of you who didn’t get a chance to watch it and are wondering who got kicked off, I’ll put it in a spoiler box.
The three who lost their matches and wound up eligible for elimination were Jeff, Fabio, and Stefan, even though Stefan won the quick fire and got to pick who he cooked against. Colichio said they were all good chefs, and I agree, but Jeff, as usual was too complicated and not quite good enough, so he got sent home. The winner this week was Carla, who competed with Andrew cooking food from New Orleans against Andrew. I think she’s made her husband and step-son, both football fans, very happy, because she won tickets to the Super Bowl.
I liked this episode. The Elmination Challenge was fun, it really got things moving, it was straightforward but there was enough meat to it.
Downside was there should have been an odd number of judges. I didn’t like you if you split the judges it automatically turned into either a 10-0 win or loss.
I did think the judges made the right decision in the end, if they’d gotten rid of Fabio they would have had to go out and hire someone to say “monkey ass” every week in the commentary.
But please somebody put Carla out of our misery.
I thought the producers were in something of a pickle (no pun intended) because ISTM that Jeff was the most talented of the 3 up for elimination but Stefan and Fabio were the best for ratings. In the end, I guess it’s no real surprise which direction they went.
Actually I don’t agree that Jeff is the most talented. I think he repeatedly suffers from the same problem of overreaching and the overall quality suffering from doing one too many things.
Fabio has slid into mediocrity of late but is highly entertaining.
Stefan has been kicking butt and is the clear front runner from what I see.
Yeah, Jeff was talented but had no internal editor–even after being told time & time again to make it more simple, he never could resist the Siren Song of Too Many Components. Fabio was getting the Loser edit all night so I was afraid he was on his way out, but they picked the right guy in the long run.
Fun to see Stefan (whom I also like) schooled by Andrea. Probably put a little of the Fear of God into him. Still, I think Carla & Leah are most likely to go out next, though one false move by Hosea & Fabio could clearly change all that (I think Stefan & Jamie are pretty safe, unless a spectacular meltdown is in store).
And I’d forgotten how beautiful-yet-completely-sad Camille is. I couldn’t quite tell if she was happy to even be there (though I’m glad she was).
Jeff couldn’t edit and in the confessionals, he didn’t recognize that editing was a virtue.
Fabio had one win early on, but since he’s been sliding downhill and been a part of several losing teams. He’s an interesting tv character, but he’s not been a consistent performer.
I really want to know how they came up with who’s going to do what city… some of the choices seemed wrong.
SWMBO watches Top Chef and occasionally drags me in. I watched this episode…totally lame. Super Bowl - big frickin’ deal. If that’s all you can come up with for a challenge, I’ll stick to playing computer games.
Yep, every time. I’ve been meaning to post that in previous Top Chef threads!
I really enjoyed this episode, especially after what I thought was a pretty sloppy Restaurant Wars episode last week.
My biggest laugh was Andrew doing his German accent making fun of Stefan: “Ja, I’m the number 2 chef in Germany and I’m not even German!” Hee!
And while I understand why people don’t like Stefan, I think a lot of his arrogance is for show and to psych out his opponents. I kind of like him, but am glad he was in the bottom this week, hopefully he will get a little more down to earth now.
I thought it was a pretty good episode- glad to see Jeff “I can’t do normal” go home out of those three. I also liked seeing Spike and Andrew again, and reminded me that this season really doesn’t have the same comic relief except for Stefan. Fabio is just annoying to me, and I keep hearing his voice and expecting the Dog Whisperer :).
Hell, we call Jeff “Dildo Beach.” I can’t believe nobody thought to themselves “this might be a poor naming choice…” when the restaurant was opened.
I was pretty sure when Fabio mentioned his poor, sick mama that he was going to go home. I still don’t quite understand why overcooked venison and disgusting looking salad didn’t get him eliminated. I would have rather Leah gone and Jeff stayed another week, but I’m glad Fabio wasn’t sent home. I want him to pull his shit together and really shine in the next four weeks.
The sick mama mention also threw me at first. At least it provided a few moments of suspense since it seemed so obvious Dildo Boy was packing his knives.
What I found most interesting, and I’d LOVE to see expanded in future episodes, was that the so called “normal” panel of five judges rarely agreed with the “top chef” judges in their decisions. To me, it illustrated that all these people with the refined, upperclass hoity-toity food choices are picking dishes that most normal people don’t really care for. They can’t taste the essence-of-decapitated-monkey-ass-infused-bananna-pellets in the roast quail armpits. They taste the fact that the food tastes like ass, and no manner of foamed-fetal-oyster-saliva can cover that up.
Maybe three “celebrity” food judges, and Joe-Bob from off the corner. I’d love to see the fights in that show!
Well, those weren’t completely normal people, were they? I think they were students at that culinary school. Here’s Chef Tom’s comment about that point.
Besides, Fabio has assured us every week that he could serve us monkey ass, and we’d like it.
Does anyone NOT read it as “The Dildo Beach Club”?
I was very pleased that Carla won this week. I think she’s funny, warm and personable as hell, and I can’t wait to see if she does anything else on television after this. She may not make the best dishes all the time, but she seems to be nearly unique in that she is a realistic judge of her own creations. I also appreciated how at least one of the judges (I forget which) tasted how she cooked it with love this week. I think she might be the front-runner for fan favorite (and certainly would be if I were the only voter).
When the first three won their rounds, and Stefan lost, the scenario of his being the only loser ran immediately through my head. Had he been bounced for that reason, it would have been fair but unfortunate from an objective competition stanpoint. However, the massive ego deflation would have been beautiful to watch.
Of the three that were up for the axe (and perhaps of the full group of seven), Jeff was the right one to go. He always overcomplicates and not only does he not edit his work, he doesn’t even understand that he has to edit. He seems never to have done anything spectacular, and I doubt he had much chance to go a lot further.
It looks like Stefan, Hosea and Jamie are the strongest chefs there, but any of the three others has a chance to slip into the final three if something goes wrong with one of the front-runners one week. And frankly, I don’t think it would be a competitive travesty if any of the six still in it took the big prize.
Was it just me, or does it not speak well of this season’s contestants when they almost got beat up by Miguel, Andrea, Josie, Nikki, and Camille (who?). I really wouldn’t call them all-stars.
Also, was there actually anything in the running for which team won?
