I’ll bet it comes down to Stephanie and Richard, but it’s kind of disappointing that this season’s Top Chef is so easily predicted. I’m pretty sure Blais is going to win.
Maybe Lisa was a production decision?
Also, it did seem like Tom, Padma, and Gail were deferring and kowtowing to Rick Tramanto. I think they didn’t do there jobs as judges and decided to be cordial instead.
I see Stephanie graduated from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.
I worked with a Chef that graduated from Scottsdale Culinary Institute back in the early 90’s. Very Young and talented Chef with stars in his eyes, he didn’t last long at the hotel, Thank God… I’m sure he went on to bigger and better things. The guy had some really Great Southwest Recipes, and was right in the middle of that trend in the late eighties, early nineties. Top Chef should do a Scottsdale, Arizona episode, great culinary town from what I’ve heard.
Thanks, that was helpful. I usually hate organs and offal, and just can’t tell whether I might like these or not (same with foie gras).
Sweetbreads are my absolute favorite animal product, bar none. That is, of course, presuming they’re cooked well; they’re fairly delicate, with some fussy prep, and easy to screw up. But prepared properly, they’re like meat candy.
And looking at Lisa during the final few minutes, with her crossed arms and “I smell excrement” expression, I started to laugh. “Girl,” I thought, “your face is gonna freeze like that. Oh, wait, it already has.”
But no one gives bitchface like Lisa gives bitchface.
I took this with my phone while I was watching the show this week and I had to share. That may be the best bitchface I’ve seen in a long time.
Yup, that’s the one.
Bitch-face.
That’s not even one of her better bitchfaces. She has this one where she’s doing the cold stare but has this slight sneer to her lips. It looks like any minute she will start rabidly frothing.
Well, if keeping her on last week (or any of the number of times she was on the chopping block) was a production decision for the drama then they sure were right that we love to hate her.
** Wile E ** I reread the blogs and I guess I dreamed the nice comments for Lisa. Lee Anne pretty much says she is a bitch without actually saying it.
Ted Allen did say something nice but he seems to get along with everyone. So unless I can dig up where the heck I read that, I guess Lisa maintains her bitch status.
I think both Tom and Ted implied that the Lisa we see is the Lisa of the edits, not the Lisa they knew. I thought that was the implication when Tom said that watching the episode, he understood why everybody thought Dale should stay and Lisa should leave, but he never said the judges made a mistake with the information they had.
Maybe, just maybe, Richard is so sure he has it in the bag that he stays up drinking really late the night before and clutches during the final challenge. Nah, I don’t really think so either. Or maybe Stephanie will present something so-o-o-o-o sublime that even though they’ll say it was an incredibly tough decision, she’ll win. That could happen.
If Richard reacts to Tom saying he played the last challenge too safe by bringing smokers and gizmos that could work against him (remember Marcel’s ungelled geleé in Hawaii?). On the other hand, if he’s thought it through that way, he could end up playing it too safe again.
I doubt Richard underestimates Stephanie. All he has to do is look at the blackboard to see the total wins of each contestant. Antonia seems like a really good cook also.
The only way Lisa can win is to throw the other three into the GE ovens and pretend that it was an accident.
I’ve never had foie gras, but I imagine it is close to the Braunschweiger and Chicken Livers that I do enjoy… Only, much more mild and buttery.
Apparently, I enjoyed Scrambled Eggs and Brains as a baby. I still can kind of taste those.
I absolutely think Richard respects Stephanies qualities. Remember that he shared the prize with her after the wedding wars, because she pulled off a great wedding cake, something he wouldn’t be capable of doing.
Wouldn’t it be amusing if the next challenge was rice cooking?
Sorry to resurrect this so late, but I just read Tony Bourdain’s blog and his explanation of why Dale was sent home and not Lisa when he guest-judged and I had to share.
Thank you very much for that link. There are some very telling comments in it, like this one:
They weren’t as bad as Lisa’s laksa; they were a lot worse. He also pointed out that Spike was playing a lot more politics than I was aware of.
Chef Bourdain also pointed out one key difference between the two teams. The team with Antonia, Richard, and Stephanie were determined to work together to make sure that on one their team went home. If Dale’s team had taken that approach, maybe the outcome would have been different. If someone had said to Dale, “The scallops aren’t working. They’re way too sweet,” and if he or Lisa had been willing to listen and adjust their dishes accordingly, there’s a chance neither would have gone. I can’t even call telling Dale his scallops were too sweet or Lisa her laksa was too smoky criticism. It’s more like advice which a sensible person would listen to and consider.
I don’t necessarily follow all the links in a thread, but the link singular1 gave us is well worth reading.
Yeah, it sounds like what Bourdain is saying is “Dale is probably the best chef of the three, and he only had one truly bad dish to Lisa’s two, but hers were at least edible and his wasn’t.” Hearing it like that I can understand his reasoning, although I still think following Chef Tom’s approach of keeping the chef with fewer bad dishes would be more likely to result in the best chefs still being around for the finale.
I found this to be one of Tom’s best blogs, both in the practical cooking knowledge he conveys as well as his insights into the competition aspect of the show.