Starts tonight. It’s been a long wait since it was leaked last summer.
I’ve never been a fan of the silly running around, create a dish out of thin air, with no time to plan, approach to cooking. But, that is what the show is about. Ramping up the pressure with even shorter time limits and less equipment will definitely throw some of these chefs off their game.
Watching this season will be bittersweet. Seeing my season favorites get sent packing is going to suck. I was hoping they would use the Top Chef Masters format. Group five chefs together, let them cook and pick the best food. The best chefs from each group go to the semi-finals. Masters doesn’t have the silly bullshit and drama like regular Top Chef. But, no one asked me how to stage All Stars.
Spoiler free article that describes changes this season.
I’ve fallen out of love with Top Chef for no specific reason. Didn’t watch the last season or Desserts. But this might get me back into it. I’m happy they actually brought back mostly good chefs, left out the winners, and didn’t cast the really nasty people (I’m looking at you Lisa.) I’ll be rooting for Richard the whole way through.
Top Chef has always reminded me of a basketball game where you strap 15 pound weights on the players arms and legs. Make them play non-stop for 30 hours every game. Then have judges snark and criticize when they miss a few easy shots.
What you get barely resembles a basketball game. It’s something that only vaguely resembles one.
Top Chef is not a real cooking competition. Chefs don’t cater events for over a hundred people without any assistance in the real world. They spend a lot of time developing & testing new recipes before they offer it on their menu. Creating a recipe out of thin air and serving a world renowned chef a few hours later only happens on a reality tv show.
I do love the show. At least I did until Just Deserts. All that bullshit drama was a major turnoff. They literally had this disturbed guy melting down,crying, and screaming. I quit watching for several weeks until that whack job was gone. If Top Chef ever jumps the shark like that I’ll be done with the show for good.
I’m looking forward to a Richard / Marcel smack down. Both love molecular gastronomy and use all these weird chemicals. Who’s the better mad scientist?
I don’t think Just Desserts can really be compared to Top Chef. To my, it’s much more a Project Runway with food. Those pastry chefs are all crazy divas!
Richard, easily. I’m kinda bummed that Marcel was the first molecular gastronomist on the show, because he kinda killed it for everyone else. I remember when Richard first showed up he very quickly made the claim that he wasn’t a molecular gastronomist.
Well, the first one falls. The spoilers and speculation I’ve read had me really worried. There was talk of a huge, popular elimination. Someone like Jen. Nope. The person eliminated was no surprise to me at all.
Elia kept her hair but packed her knives. I recall reading a year or so ago that she had quit her job after Top Chef and stopped cooking for awhile. She always choked under pressure in S2. It’s not surprising she hasn’t improved one bit. Richard Blais got very lucky he wasn’t eliminated for not finishing his dish.
I liked seeing the chefs helping each other during the QF. I hope the good sportsmanship lasts for awhile.
Just to be safe and not ruin it for anyone. I can’t believe Bourdain was so brutal to Fabio. He knew the guy was Italian, grew up there, and learned to cook in Italy. Telling an Italian his Pasta dish sucks giant turds is a huge insult. Especially from an American-Italian. Something like this could hurt Fabio’s Italian restaurant business. I suspect the feud between Bourdain and Fabio is just beginning. He’s not going to be the sweet lovable guy we knew in season 5.
I only started watching in season 5, so Elia wasn’t someone I knew anything about. But Stephen hardly seemed to care at all, and Fabio, who was so entertaining in season 5, was just surly and rude.
I really liked the elimination challenge, though.
This Richard Blaise guy (who, again, I didn’t see the first time) seems to be held in comically high regard by everyone else, and must be seen as a favorite.
I thought Fabio was a grade A hypocrite. He was a dick to Marcel during the reunion show and brought up sore issues for the sake of ratings and Marcel wanted no part of it. He even brought it up - that he still had hard feelings about it when he was the one poking Marcel with a stick! You’d think he’d be a little more savvy to Bourdain - who says wacky, insulting shit since that is his persona - for the sake of RATINGS. If you can’t handle you’re on a TV show where the producers will do almost anything for drama, stay home!
On the eliminated chef: I know nothing about Elia that I wasn’t told in this episode, and I wasn’t paying much attention to the food,but as soon as she refused to watch the criticisms, I knew she was going to be in the bottom, if not sent home entirely.
The way I remember it, Richard breezed through his season, made great food, and didn’t engage in any drama. I think he expected to and the audience expected him to just walk away with it. During the final though, he had an off day and Stephanie Izard had a great day and he ended up not winning. He appeared to be gracious about it but I get the impression it sticks in his craw a little bit.
Well, I think he was 50/50 with Steph going into the finale, but he had a really bad day (he even admitted that he choked during the Judge’s table) and finished behind Lisa, who is probably the worst chef to ever end up in the final three.
Anyone else get the feeling that Mike Isabella is completely out of his league? He wasn’t even good on his first season and was clearly brought back to be some sort of villain (which he wasn’t that big of a villain in the first place). He seems like the guy on the normal seasons that never went to culinary school and has only worked as a line cook.
Right, Stephanie won 4 elimination challenges and was in the top group another six times, not counting the finale. Richard won three and was in the top group another three times. The only thing he had on Stephanie was that she was in the bottom group more often than he was (looking back at the results, it’s interesting: Stephanie was never in the middle; every episode she was in the top or the bottom).
Anyway, they were both really good, but it’s not accurate to say Richard breezed through or was upset by a lessor competitor.
I loved last night’s episode, and am really looking forward to the season. Usually the first couple of episodes are tough viewing because you don’t know who anyone is and there are usually a few people who obviously aren’t long for the show. Last night really hit the ground running.
I liked Angelo last season. He seems like a decent guy, always willing to help someone out. They kind of hinted around that he was trying to sabotage other contestants with his help, but I never really saw that.
Looking at Angelo, Richard, Antonia, Carla and Tiffani as final chefs. That will probably change as the season goes on, but these are really excellent chefs. With this many chefs I would imagine there will be a couple of weeks when they will eliminate more than one. Has anything been said about that?
I, too, am looking forward to this season. It sounds like the producers are really going to pour on the challenges.
He’s certainly not a favorite, but seems unlikely to be an embarassment. My guess is that they wanted at least 2 chefs from each season, and couldn’t get Brian V or Kevin G. That season you could be the 5th best chef (which Mike I arguably was) and still never win a challenge, with Jenn, Kevin and 2 Voltaggios.
Yeah, it’s a damn shame that Kevin isn’t back. I wonder how many people they tried to get back but were too busy. Judging by the comments made in the first episode, pretty much everyone is enjoying a lot of success since being on Top Chef.
It’s been a long wait since it was leaked last summer.