Well, I am actually kind of bummed that Stephen finally got the boot. Not that he didn’t deserve to go long ago–He’s just the kind of person that you love to hate.
I have been rooting for Harold, but I don’t think he’s going to make it past next week.
I have been waiting for Stephen to get the boot meet ass treatment since the first eppy, but I’ll have to say I thought it would be Harold to go tonight.
My question: When faced with less than desirable quality (the salmon), would not a chef make a menu change rather than serve substandard fare. In this case the menu may have been chiseled in stone, but in the real world would that be the case?
If the salmon quality was that bad, they should have either changed the menu or gone to a fish market first thing in the morning (which might not have been allowed). My guess is that the quality wasn’t as bad as Harold made it out to be, but the preparation didn’t live up to standard.
The cake mix idea was absolutely horrible. It doesn’t really save much time, and you sacrifice a lot in terms of control and taste.
It was time for Stephen to go, but I’m glad that he plans to raise the standards of restaurants in this country to a level never before attained.
When Scott was describing what they wanted for the reception, I thought at first he said “prawn canopy” instead of “prawn canape.” That would have been an interesting presentation.
What a mess of an episode! I think the contestants should have been advised that they would be preparing their menus the next day BEFORE they created them. These people are smart enough to come up with a do-able menu under those circumstances. But this way, they were put in a hole by throwing out their ideal menu and then being forced to prepare it, start to finish in unfamiliar surroundings, in 16 hours. That’s ridiculous! Isn’t the first question a caterer asks the client: when is your event?
I honestly thought Lee Anne was going to get the axe because it was her menu and she was in charge and everything sucked. But I’m happy that Steven the Skunk can slink back to whatever wine cellar he snuck out of! The food world is better off without him.
This has puzzled me as well. Baking cake layers is not rocket science and I can’t fathom why baking has freaked all of these so called chefs out. I can always taste the difference between package and made-from-scratch cakes. The icing and decoration would be the part that requires the special skills.
I agree. Under what circumstances in real life would a chef be faced with the challenge of planning and preparing a wedding meal in less than 24 hours? It’s Top Chef, not Emergency Chef. The whole thing was so contrived and ridiculous that it really made a joke out of the entire concept. I bet Scott and Scott are regretting they agreed to participate. I ended up feeling sorry for everyone throughout the entire episode–the chefs, the wedding party, the happy couple, and the waitstaff who had to endure Stephen’s wine instruction. I did agree with him about the cake mix though.
I’m glad that Stephen was around for this episode because I really think if he hadn’t still been there, Lee Anne would have been thrown under the bus.
I asked this in last week’s post. Didn’t most of these people receive formal chef training and don’t they teach at least a basic course on desserts and or baking? Why are they all so afraid of desserts?
Glad to hear Stephen is gone. Did he make that face like he had no idea what they were talking about because they couldn’t possibly be saying anything bad about him?
He again deserted the kitchen in favor of giving detailed wine serving instruction to the wait staff. Then when he was called on it by the others, tried to lie his way out by saying he was only gone a couple of minutes. I don’t recall him getting to make the “I’m shocked” face.
Did you notice how Dave floated under the radar for the whole challange? Not a word for his participation, either positive or negative.
Stephen was telling the waitstaff the region the wines came from. What a doofus. But the problems with the food were attributable to him only because he was slow and after he completed his food he wandered away. I guess since this was about teamwork, you could say that was his fault.
I don’t know why Harold’s salmon was so bad - it wasn’t the best fish, but they were complaining more about the preparation - greasy, etc.
The cake was so puzzling - it’s not hard to make a cake from scratch.
LeeAnn did sort of drop the ball, in that her menu didn’t work.
StG
Didn’t you hear? he’s going to raise the restaurant industry to a level that the world has never seen! Soon, all will tremble before him! <maniacal laughter>
I can’t believe Tiffini is pretending that she’s not being negative about other competitors… at least she seemingly is a good chef.
This is nowhere near as good as project runway. The challenges are just too odd and too out of place. The judges aren’t likeable and it hurts having the “Tim” as a judge. That needs to be a separate person. And Katie sucks on camera.
Right on all counts. Plus, the television audience has no way of knowing how a dish tastes and that’s pretty much what’s being judged. We’re in the dark. Whereas, on PR, we can at least see how the finished garment looks on the model. We can judge right along with the judges.
I’m in total agreement about the lack of a Tim Gunn. The contestants need a mentor. Judges should just do judging. They need to be impartial. The mentor can report about kitchen bitchin’, etc., but should really serve to sample dishes, make suggestions, etc.
Kathy Lee Joel should go back to her mansion in the Hamptons and concentrate on keeping her husband clean and sober and leave the hosting of food shows to someone with talent.
And wasn’t that Wedding Planner a wreck last night? She looked like a floozy. Bad choice, even though she WAS Kathy Lee’s wedding planner.
Well now I’m torn. I’ve wanted him and his knives out for a while, but I’ll miss the entertainment his stick up the butt attitude provided.
For those who care, here’s Stephen’s website. It’s every bit as pretentious as he is.
Good news for those of you watching this show as a substitute for Project Runway. The 3rd season of PR will begin July 12th. Which means the finalists will be able to debut their lines at Fashion Week in the Fall instead of Spring. Woo hoo!
And Hell’s Kitchen (which I liked better than Top Chef) season 2 starts June 12.
I loved the shot of the waitstaff staring at Stephen as he blathered about the wines. They had the exact same expression as the customers in the restuarant challenge. Stephen is apparently still under the impression it means utter enchantment.
He’s gone! Thank god.
While I dislike Tiffani, I like her more than Stephen. I like foot fungus more than I like Stephen.
In any case, I’m rooting for Lee Ann. She seems a nice woman, a talented chef, and an honest person. Harold is defeatest, Dave is a spaz, and Tiffani is a bitch.
I was really glad to see Lee Ann acknowledge the amount of help Dave was giving everyone, and to see Harold defend Lee Ann. Classy.
I think Dave’s time is now up. There is nobody left who he can outcook. There is nobody left who has bouts of incompetency worse than his. Tick-tock.
I agree with annieclaus. The challenge this time was just so unrealistic as to be meaningful. As much as I like the last couple of episodes, I disliked this one. But at least it got rid of blowhard Stephen.
I don’t think the point of the challenges is to present the chefs with realistic scenarios; they weren’t trying to find out who is capable of designing and executing a wedding reception in 24 hours. The point is to set up situations that test abilities that are important in the real world: creativity, flexibilty, improvisation, stress management, working on a team, managing a team, relating to customers, etc. While some of the challenges may seem unrealistic, I think they do help reveal the qualities that an executive chef needs.
Take this challenge. It’s unlikely that anyone will have to plan a wedding reception in a day, but say you’re doing a reception with salmon on the menu, and when you go to your fish supplier, the salmon is of low quality. What do you do? Harold (and Lee Anne) showed that they weren’t prepared to deal with that type of contingency. On the other hand, when they discovered they didn’t have enough canapes for cocktails (another realistic possibility), Dave stepped up and created a second option.
Most of the challenges so far have been unrealistic:
[ul][li]Create a signature dish (most realistic)[/li][li]Erotic desserts for a party at a fetish shop[/li][li]Fish lunch for kids[/li][li]Microwavable dinners[/li][li]Food carts[/li][li]Dinner party for Ted Allen (realistic)[/li][li]New restaurant concept from scratch (in two days?)[/li][li]Wedding reception (in one day)[/ul][/li]For the most part, not realistic, particularly given the time constraints, but the field has been narrowed down the the best four, so I think the challenges are doing their job.
But with this one - I don’t see how LeeAnn (or whoever ended up winning the quickfire) could have “won.” That person was screwed from the word go.
“Design the coolest menu for a wedding” means that the chef is going to be taking risks and going for broke in their design. The grooms were going to pick the menu with the biggest “wow” factor that also coincided with their personal tastes. “Wows” take time.
When they’re then told they have 16 hours, the QF winner has to either give the menu they originally designed (and do a mediocre job) or slash that menu to ribbons and do a good job at a much less impressive menu that the grooms didn’t want. Neither of those choices is good, and either one is going to get the QF winner called out at the judges table. LeeAnn chose the former and got reamed for it. But I think she would have been equally criticized had she chosen the latter “They asked for ____________ where was the __________? Why did you lie to your customers?” In Tom’s annoying little voice.
Yep. Though I’d think they would have sensed a trap before the pitch. I think Dave did when he commented about how everyone else’s lack of catering experience was showing up in their menus.
I have to disagree with all of you guys that are complaining that it was an unfair challenge, that they did not have enough time, was unrealistic, etc. I mean you guys do have jobs don’t ya? 
At every single one of my jobs, there have been situations like “The main office just called, the numbers they gave us for the project report weren’t really correct, and unless you want to go to white collar jail, we need to redo the reports, keeping these numbers in mind and have them in Austin, in binders, by 3:00pm tommorrow.”
Or how about the common Sunday “Dad, uhhhh, I got to do a project on the industrial revolution, it is 25% of my grade and it is due tomorrow, umm can you take me to Wal-mart? And do you have access to Powerpoint and color laser printer and do you know how, ummm, how to use Powerpoint?”
You have to remember, this is a gameshow on TV! I think that it would be less interesting if you just had the chefs in their “comfort zone” doing mundane chef tasks. I think it is interesting and hilarious when they had to do things like convenience store gourmet and having to prepare another chef’s dish. You definitely get to see more of their personality when they are under stress and are forced to be creative.
I too am glad that Stephen is gone. Although he did add a lot to the show since he was so easy to hate, I was just afraid that he would win. I was rooting for that Chunk le funk guy, but now I think that i will root for Lee ann. Harold is nice, but too much of a wuss.