I was also really surprised when Carla said she used to be a model. She does have the tall, thin, Bony body like most models. But I just doesn’t see the grace, kind of jerk and almost spastic.
A personally don’t like Hosea, because he embodies and relishes all the bullshit of Boulder. He believes he runs a great fish house. But the food there isn’t all that good, and he constantly fails screws up fish dishes. All hat, no cattle, just like everything else about Boulder.
Last time I was at Jax, the food was absolutely amazing. And I’m hardly a huge fan - I’d liked Jax when I lived in Boulder, but it was nothing spectacular. When we returned there for a visit about a year ago, we ended up at Jax one night sort of accidentally, and were blown away at how good it had been. It was the best food we ate that week we were in Boulder. And yes, that includes the dinner we had at Frasca.
Other than that, I share your general disregard of Boulder.
I couldn’t care less if someone hates Boulder or Hosea, but to say that he constantly screws up anything is entirely a fiction that exists only in your own mind. If you actually watch the show you’d know that he is the one contestant who doesn’t screw things up, ever. He’s never been taken to task for his cooking - the times he’s been on the chopping block are because his team lost or he missed on the concept of the challenge (like this week).
Also, his restaurant is consistently excellent. Read the reviews at OpenTable and Zagat.
You’re entitled to your own opinion, but the facts belong to all of us.
Facts? here are the facts about Hosea’s seafood:
He didn’t rest the monkfish and couldn’t tell that it had been seered first.
He couldn’t butcher an eel.
He couldn’t butcher a sardine.
At least one judge wanted to send him home for his attempt at Shrimp Scampi.
And he almost got booted early for using crappy canned crab meat.
Constantly screws up fish dishes? YES!
What bugs me about Hosea is his constant carping and jealousy over Stefan. If he really thinks he’s better than Stefan, then why can’t he ever beat him? Stefan’s won like a zillion challenges, both QF and Elimination. I don’t remember Hosea ever winning anything.
His xenophobic whining is also annoying. He’s such a douche about that. After Stefan beat his ass in the fish cleaning challenged, Hosea made some snotty comment about Stefan having cleaned eels since he was a kid, and sneered that “that’s why Europe is so great.” WTF is that supposed to mean? Eels are eaten in Germany, therefore Europe is inferior? What a dick. He’s Joe the line cook.
And I don’t think it goes both way. I’ve never seen either Stefan or Fabio say a bad word about the US. Hosea just has an inferiority complex. He knows they’re better than him and attacking their ethicity is his impotent way of trying to equalize them. It’s really no different than trying to belittle superior chefs for being black or being women. It comes from the same place, and it has just as much validity.
I still think Fabio is an annoying ass, but I am nothing but impressed with his hard core performance in this episode.
Carla still bugs the living crap out of me in her commentary segments, and I think I’d have to stab her in the neck with a fork if I were ever in a kitchen with her, but the lady can cook.
The fact that Leah’s eggs and hollandaise weren’t the way everyone liked them but were still the way some people liked them should have kept her on. Stephan committed the greatest sin in cooking: He screwed up his protein, and he screwed up what’s probably the easiest protein to cook correctly. Even he said something to the effect of, “If I can’t cook a simple piece of fish properly I deserve to go home,” during his arrogant bleating during the kitchen scenes.
Up until now Stephan has annoyed me with his personality but impressed me with his cooking. This episode should have been his go home. The judges absolutely broke their guideline of evaluating on only the meal in question. It was his excellent previous performances that saved him.
It’s easy to slightly underpoach an egg or misjudge an emulsion sauce. It’s quite difficult to overcook salmon unless you’re completely failing to pay any attention whatsoever.
I wasn’t a huge Leah fan, but she got completely jobbed in this episode.
I never saw that comment as snotty. It seemed to me like “Stefan’s been working on eels as a kid. I knew I was screwed.” And he’s always talking about Stefan because he knows Stefan is the best there and he has to beat him to win.
Hosea’s won two elimination challenges and one quickfire, the same as Carla and Fabio.
Hosea was second in the fish butchering challenge - he hardly failed.
I don’t get the Eurolove for Stephan. With his sneering attitude and air of superiority, if he were American everyone would hate him. He gets a pass because he has an accent.
I don’t see this alleged attitude of arrogance and superiority in Stefan that everybody else sees. When has he ever said that he’s better than anybody else?
Well, he is a seafood guy… 
All the fucking time. Do you actually watch the show?
Yeah. I’ve never heard him say that. I’ve heard him say things like “There’s no way I’ll screw this up,” but I’ve never heard him sneer at his opponents the way Hosea never stops doing (when he’s not cheating on his girlfriend).
While I do vaguely recall a few quips by Stefan, I don’t think he is particularly more disrespectful than other contestants. After all, wasn’t it Hosea yesterday who dissed Carla’s Green Eggs and Ham?
My two cents.
I don’t get the impression that Stephan so much downplays the others talent as much as he keeps harping on how good HE is.
A distinction without a difference perhaps.
And I personally certainly get some across the Atlantic snobbery coming from folks on BOTH side of the Atlantic.
He’s also a sexist pig. Continuing to hit on Jamie after she’s made her preferences clear is just one example. And he was definitely sneering at Andrea when he chose her in the previous-all-star head-to-head-bowl show.
Don’t know about sneering at Andrea, but he was definitely leering at her.
I can see describing Stefan as arrogant - he does frequently talk about how great he is and how he’s going to win a certain challenge. But he seems pretty good-natured in his arrogance, if you know what I mean. And, he does win a LOT, so perhaps “not aggressively modest” would be a better term for him. He seems to hang out and joke with the others as equals, and he totally pitched in when the fridge was left open - he seems like a good sportsman to that extent.
I had assumed that the producers were influencing who gets sent home. No, they can’t go by audience reaction, but I doubt you need a focus group to know that Fabio is more entertaining than Jeff, and Stefan more than Leah. (Ugh, mopey, obnoxious Leah, who can’t even stand up straight in front of the judges!) Or perhaps all that’s needed is for the judges to have even a subconscious knowledge of these factors - then when a call is close, the boring one goes home.
Count me as one who’s grown to like Carla. Though I would be OK with any of them winning. Did I hear Hosea say he’s not formally trained as a chef? If so, it’s damn impressive he’s gotten this far, and perhaps I can forgive the constant whining about the Eurochefs.
The Bravo website has an interview up with Jacques Pepin. This is all months after the show was taped of course, so they ask him what dishes he remembers from the challenge other than the one he requested. He says:
It seems like Leah’s dish was worse than they made it sound on TV.
If you can’t make Eggs Benedict without breaking the sauce, you’re not really Top Chef material.
Tom posted his blog finally. He made it pretty clear that Leah fucked up the egg and the sauce. So there was basically nothing good about her dish.