Speaks to how memorable he is. I call him this season’s Carlos. He’ll be gone soon. You don’t win friends or Top Chef with salad.
I almost shudder to think what you’d get for Once Were Warriors. A bottle od beer smashed upsaide your head I suppose.
I’'m also surprised at how bad some people’s taste in movies is.
This season kind of sucks. There isn’t a likable personality on the show. Stephanie is a really good chef, and seems very nice, but is not very entertaining to watch. Last season, there were more entertaining chefs with actual talent. This year, the entertainment is coming from Spike, who I think sucks, and the crazy asshole, who also doesn’t look great.
Is it just me, or were last year’s contestants just a way, way higher caliber of chefs?
I thought it was another challenge that could have been more fun had it been more organized, with fewer douchebags all around. Maybe they should have been asked to pick movies (somehow misdirecting them away from what it’d be for) before receiving the challenge - like, a list of 3 choices, and then when they paired up they could choose one of the six choices to work with, to try and avoid foolishness like Spike’s. I haven’t seen Good Morning Vietnam, but I get the feeling he just went for something that had ‘Vietnam’ in the title. What a maroon. And I hate his stupid hats and toolish demeanor. Honestly I think he should have gone instead of Manuel, from what I saw - everyone can’t be the leader all the time in a group situation and Spike’s concept was idiotic and lazy. But perhaps I’m missing something in editing and every single choice the judges hated was made by Manuel - if so, I guess that’s fine. I can’t help but figure Manuel’s being so nice and accomodating to everyone on purpose so tv-watchers/financial backers across America will coo over him, but that’s just me being cynical.
I sort of like Dale for the win - he’s kind of a jerk sometimes, but the superjerks have got him completely beat, and he seems to cook really well and think about his concepts, execution and presentation, which is the most important to me. I read a couple of interviews where he comes off well, also. I’m half-in-half-out on NightRabbit’s comment about having to have variety - I don’t think one necessarily has to adopt all cooking schools to deserve international respect, and I’m pretty sure some of the culinary world greats are pretty adherent to their preferred styles. Especially on a show like this where unrealistic restraints factor in, I’m not going to expect someone to dump what he’s confident with and what he thinks will work well for the challenge in favor of a different cooking style that might get screwed up - Asian fusion (though the Asian fusion restaurants around here almost invariably suck and annoy me) is somewhat able to encompass a generous range. Nikki’s re-use of fresh pasta, on the other hand, I do find irritatingly specific. Actually, that includes Andrew’s tapioca and Richard’s smoke, too. It’s fine to interpret different challenges from a particular viewpoint to me, how are you gonna try and break out plastic wrapped smoke more than once, in 13 challenges or whatever? Also, stop frigging calling it caviar unless it’s real fish eggs, Twitchy. Otherwise it has a name already.
While I’m on the subject, wtf was up with his “weak choosing the strong” comment? Not only is it generally dumb and needlessly combative, Dale had just kicked his ass in the quickfire.
I have a feeling “Talk to Her” was confused with another movie. The Christmas Story ended up being a cute idea, but it almost seemed like an accident, what with whatshisname’s meatheadedness. Food looked good, though. I was so curious about the winning meal and it looked delicious if off-putting. I liked that it was a little abstract. The oompa loompa thing would have RUINED it for me, good on the other two for squelching it (from the commercial I thought he was making fun of someone’s race or something). Zoi’s uninformed bitching may have busted her down to my least favorite contestant, but she’s still got some real competition with Andrew, whatshisname and Spike in that area.
Also, the “if you don’t know who this is you should just leave right now” comment was stupid. Even if you must be fully informed about the chef greats in order to be a great chef yourself (arguable), why would you need to recognize their faces?
Soylent Green would have been AWESOME.
Sorry for the bump; I typically watch this movie days later via TiVo.
No kidding. Had I been a contestant, I would have insisted on using Tampopo for inspiration. Beaucoup geek points.
I will say that the “top tier” of chefs this time around seems like a stronger group than in seasons past. There’s always a core of professionals who will predictably survive to the final four, plus a bunch of marginally qualified people who are there for color and interest. The only suspense in the show is (a) the order in which these extra people will be eliminated, and (b) how the final four will shake out. This season, that core group of strong chefs (named pretty much by consensus in this thread) is more evenly matched, i.e. equally talented, than usual.
Oh, and re “your pasta is too floury,” that’s just plain amateurish. I made a floury batch of pasta. Once. The first time I tried it. It was fixed the next time. What, is she not using semolina? Unforgivable.