Top Chef - 5/14

Man, Andrew was such a dick on this episode! I had started to like him a little bit, but not after last night. I think sushi was a stuipid dish to make for the cops any way, but why didn’t he use rice? “I lost my rules sheet early on.”

I didn’t feel like the girl (I still can’t remember all their names, dammit!) “threw him under the bus” for calling him out on the no grains in his dish - but she should have let the judges realize that themselves. She looked whiny. And saying “I’m afraid I’ll get hit” was also dickish. He was a bit scary in the waiting room, though.

I loved that Spike’s dish was crummy. Olives and grapes together don’t sound all that great to me, either.

I think they picked the right person to go home. “You don’t need to have security escort me out.”

I love this show, but I almost feel like it is too clear that Richard is going to win. Antonia may end up being decent competition, but Richard is constantly in the top three. Dale can only cook Asian food, and the rest of them are pretty much doomed to eviction.

I liked the lesbian with the fauxhawk to match Richard’s and wish she had stayed, but other than that I am really enjoying this season.

My final 4 picks are Richard, Stephanie, Antonia, and Dale, with Stephanie or Richard in the winning spot. I like Antonia, but I think she’s more of a home style cook than a chef, and I don’t think she’ll come through in the bigger challenges the way Stephanie will.

That said, I’m itching for Spike and Lisa to be gone. Andrew was a good pick to go tonight. None of those 3 have the skills to continue, and they’re annoying as well.

Plus… I’m soooo happy that they’re going to do Restaurant Wars. I felt ripped off when they said that they were doing that stupid wedding catering gig instead! In fact, all these catering or “make this and pack it up to be served later” things are annoying. Give the contestants a kitchen and let 'em cook the way it’s supposed to be done.

When they listed the bottom three I said no matter who they pick I’m going to be happy.

Lisa’s such a bitch. She always looks pissed and whiny.

Both Andrew and Spike were beginning to grow on me, but after last night’s episode, any burgeoning love I had flew out the window.

Cockiness is fine as long as it’s in check. Spike stepped over the line. If you’re going to play the game like Survivor, you don’t broadcast why you’re doing what you’re doing! It was so painfully obvious, never mind what the JT thought.

I think whatever condition Andrew has (ADD, perhaps?) finally got the better of him. But would’ve he still followed the directions had he not lost the challenge sheet? I’m torn.

Lisa, go away. I want to smack you every time I see your pouty puss.

Totally agree with your analysis! I do hope Stephanie wins personally - and I can’t wait for Spike and Lisa to be gone - I can’t stand either of them.

Yeah, it’s unfortunate that Andrew really screwed up because I would have rather seen Lisa or Spike go before him. If he hadn’t lost the rules and/or actually read them would he have done something different and maybe come up with a better product? Maybe, maybe not. Actually I was kind of hoping that the judges would be so disgusted with all of those three that they’d send them all home and then not eliminate anyone else for a couple more weeks and just let the remaining contestants cook for a while and show us what they can do.

It was good to see Stephanie in the top again though.

Neighbors of the house where the season was filmed have reported who the finalists were…I won’t bother spoiling it (you can find it elsewhere), but some of you are going to be pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised.

The judges already noted that there were no grains, but I have no problem with Lisa mentioning it. Andrew was an arrogant punk, and I’m glad he’s gone. It really seemed like a no-brainer.

It was extremely hypocritical of Lisa to whine about Andrew not following the criteria when she was the one who refused to make Polish sausage a couple of weeks ago.

I also don’t beleive anyone sabotaged her rice. If anyone had done that, you can bet they would have shown it. I think she just forgot to turn it down herself. I’ve done the same thing many a time. It happens in kitchens.

But she didn’t. The editing made it look like there was no polish sausage in the dish, but if you read the blogs on BravoTV.com, you’ll see that there actually was polish sausage in the dish, it just wasn’t the main focus.

Actually, that struck me as extremely, extremely odd, and to be honest, the only conclusion I could draw is that someone might have sabotaged it. Every time a chef screws him or herself over, there’s a shot of the blunder with the chef’s voiceover saying something ironic. Chef forgot the baby dolphin steak? Long, lingering shot of the meat sitting on the checkout counter as the chef, currently driving home, says, “I can’t wait to grind me up some dolphin!” They love to show how the chefs screwed up. If Lisa cranked it up, I honestly think they would have shown it.

If someone else did it, though, I think that Bravo might be hesitant to reveal it. Remember, Tom has said the only time the producers overruled him is when he wanted to kick out the people who tried to shave Marcel’s head. If the judges knew for a fact that someone turned Lisa’s burner up, I think Tom would have insisted they get booted…so bottom line, I wouldn’t be surprised if the producers kept that information from the judges.

I know, tin foil hat time (and Lisa made enough mistakes and is an awful enough person to certainly screw up herself), but I just wondered why they didn’t show her screwing up. There’s always shots of the stove.

I dunno.

Andrew was starting to grow on me. He was always enthusiastic about the challenges and not grumpy about them. I was rooting for Lisa to get knifed (and why oh why doesn’t she wash her hair!).

I would dearly love to see Gordan Ramsay as a guest judge. I could see him tasting Spike’s plain ol’ chicken salad and saying, “Dear oh dear…” or biting into Lisa’s undercooked shrimp, throwing it at her, and screaming “BLOODY HELL! THIS IS RAW, YOU DONKEY!”.

I really, really want Richard or Stephanie to win. If Spike wins, well, he clearly has a photo somewhere of Tom Colicchio having sex with a goat or something.

Lots of people have been given slack on the rules. I had become accustomed to thinking they didn’t matter. I’ll miss Andrew.

Andrew was kind of fun after I started warming to him, But all of the bottom three deserved to be there. Lisa is just a disgusting person, does she ever scrub her face or wash her hair? I wouldn’t want her touching my food.

I agree with Katie1341 that Spike must have incriminating photos of Chef Tom :wink: I have no idea how he is still around, he is a backstabbing no talent asshole.

Antonia is ok but she reminds me of my ex a little too much. She has skill but not as much as Richard, Stephanie or Dale.

I don’t buy it.

If someone had actually sabotaged someone else on purpose, they would have promoted the hell out of that on commercials and promos for maximum drama. You mentioned the Marcel hair incident, but they did show that. They had tons of ads leading up to it promising something “shocking” & “dramatic,” the same as when on an episode of Project Runway a contestant was found to be cheating by having pattern books. If there really was sabotage, you can bet it would be shown in detail.

Either someone accidentally moved the burner or Lisa did it without thinking and doesn’t want to admit she made a mistake.

There was one week or maybe two where I thought maybe Spike and his hats don’t really bother me. This episode convinced me that they do.

I agree with what Antionia said - (and so did Ted Allen in his blog) - that Spike put his energy into depriving the others of basic ingredients and none into creating his own dish. Even if it was good, a chicken salad sandwich is a “ladies who lunch” lunch, not an “I just ran an obstacle course and learned how to subdue a resisting subject” lunch.

From a nutrition standpoint I thought Andrew’s choice was interesting, but it didn’t appear to be well crafted, and according to the judges didn’t taste good. I do like sushi for lunch and so that didn’t seem so crazy to me, but 4 pieces wouldn’t get the job done, and there didn’t seem to be anything with it.

Am I the only one who thought Sam looked sleepy at the quickfire, and maybe a little pissed off?

Do the previews give a sense of who’s on which team for Restaurant War? If Spike and Lisa are on the same team it will definitely lose. If they’re split up it could go either way. Just don’t use scented candles!

But remember that the irony is that she blatently violated the rules on the Improv challenge, supposedly in the name of improvising (i.e. the spirit of the challenge) but as she admitted she (and her partner) didn’t want to cook what they were given.

Andrew makes a substitution in the spirit of the challenge (nutrition) and she comes off with a holier-than-thou follow-the-rules-or-get-the-fuck-out attitude. Honey, if the judges followed your advice you would have been out a couple of weeks ago.

It appears that the rules become important when all other factors are equal, unless the participants do something that is completely random.

I wanted Andrew to stay and either Lisa or Spiketo go home. Andrew’s dish looked kind of pathetic, but I think he stressed out because he wanted to prove his nutritional knowledge so badly.

Spike on the other hand obviously sabotaged for the others and was dishonest about it. Further, he created something that looked very uninspiring. An obvious person to send home in my book.

I can believe that Lisa undercooked her rice. They had her saying a couple times “I’m going to leave plenty of time to cook my rice, because brown rice takes longer”. I can believe she just screwed up. And she still had that chip-on-her-shoulder head tilt. She’s constantly on the bottom and constantly making excuses as to why she’s there.

Andrew’s “That’s your opinion” to Tom was just stupid. Yeah, that’s the opinion of the Official Head Judge, doofus.

StG