Mike I is buddies with Michael Voltaggio. They worked together years ago.
I’ve read several chefs all worked with Michael Voltaggio at various times. Marcel, Hung, and the season 7 winner Kevin Sbraga. Pretty exclusive club.
Bryan V recently helped Mike I open his restaurant. Bryan obviously must have confidence in Mike’s abilities. He literally is banking money on it.
I never thought Mike was necessarily a bad chef, just an average one. Of course, that was the season with Kevin, Jenn, and the Volts, who pretty much decimated the competition (looking at the results, no one else ever won a challenge). I think everyone looked bad to average compared to them.
Could someone who saw last season give me a recap of what happened to Angelo. I saw that he was sick, but Wikipedia doesn’t really explain what all went down.
The first part of the semi final the four chefs visited a huge Singapore market, sampled food, and did a quickfire. Then they cooked the elimination challenge which got Kelly eliminated. Ed won the QF and EC in the semi-final. The guest sous chefs were assigned. Angelo was thrilled he go Hung because they both cook Asian. Ed got screwed and got Ilan. Kevin Sbraga got his old friend Michael Volt. That night Angelo fell ill, vomiting and fever. They brought in a doctor the next morning. He said it might take a few days to clear up. I got the impression he had a virus.
What is weird is… they let Hung shop by himself and prep for Angelo. They talked a few times by phone. The next day Angelo was well enough to cook and he used the stuff Hung had prepared.
I really thought they should have brought Kelly (was eliminated in the semi-final) back to cook. I wouldn’t want to eat food cooked by someone that sick.
I’m still baffled why Ed or Kelly didn’t make All Stars. Tiffany wasn’t even in the final 4.
Doesn’t mean they weren’t asked.
So they were presented with the challenge of making the dishes that sent them home. I expected at least one chef would say, “Perfect! I’ve since made that dish many times over to better myself.” Sure some of them were such bad concepts that no one would return to them, but most weren’t.
It reminded me of last season where they tell the contestants that after a bit of a break, they’ll be going to Singapore for the finale – and one of them had never used a wok!
Very much so. Antonia is also in the “why are you here?” category. And then Spike and Stephan seem to be there not so much for the cooking as for the drama (I remember Spike being one of the few people who have tried to game Top Chef, not for his food. Stephan’s food was never his strong point.)
Good challenges last night, though.
I agree about Antonia. But Stephan is not in the cast.
I enjoyed this episode very much. Great elimination challenge! But Padma was wrong when she said that all the chefs had heard the pack your knives and go admonition. Those making the final two or three have not been told that.
I don’t think Elia should have been allowed on the show again after what she did to Marcel. She made a remark to the effect that she hoped he’d grown up and made no effort to apologize to him.
Bitch.
Stephen. I got his name wrong.
Yay! I once again have hope for Top Chef! After the last season I was bored with the series, and I didn’t watch even one episode of Just Desserts. But All Stars looks great so far.
I was bummed that Elia was kicked out first. I didn’t expect her to go very far - she’s not THAT great of a chef - but I do like her. I was thinking Stephen would go home, as he admits his strong point isn’t being a chef. I’m guessing he’s on the show for publicity, not because he truly thinks he has a chance at winning.
Anyone else think the quick fire was a bit unfair? Some seasons had 4 chefs, some had only 2, and every group had the same amount of time. Of course the 4 chef seasons are going to come up with better/more complex food!
Also, it’ll be interesting to see how the chefs from the earlier seasons stack up to the chefs from the later seasons. As the show matured, it attracted much more successful chefs, and the caliber is just way different. On the other hand, the first season was almost 5 years ago, and the various chefs have had time to mature. Still, my vote is on the chefs from the later seasons - Tiffani is no Jennifer.
I think an interesting twist should be that when it gets down to 4 or 5 contestants, the judges shouldn’t know beforehand whose food they are tasting. I definitely think there are some predetermined “winners” simply based on who prepared the food.
Well, I wonder if Stephen will survive episode 2? That guy is hopelessly out of his depth. He seemed better back in season 1. I don’t think he’s done any cooking since and that was 5 years ago!
Well, that was ugly.
It was certainly compelling television, but I felt the result came most from who-functions-better-on-45-minutes-of-sleep than anything else. Granted a chef has to work well under pressure, etc., but putting such a bizarre handicap on them all really felt like we didn’t actually get to see cooking skill matter.
Wow. What an episode. Wow. I’m very disappointed in that outcome as Jen was one of my favorites ever. Really sorry to see her go home.
Holy crap, that was quite the breakdown.
Yes, that was pretty ugly and really reflected badly on Jen,imho. I am just glad the Tiffany from last season is still there although I don’t think she’s a contender.
Thoughts:
I liked Dale not knowing who Joe Jonas was. Granted, he’s not a chef, but I’ve always wanted someone to say “I have no idea who this is” to the guest judge.
I would’ve stayed up the whole night. Going through the museum would be amazing, and I would be a lot better off with no sleep instead of 45 minutes sleep.
I think Jamie should’ve gone home. It’s pretty crappy that someone who didn’t make anything gets to stick around. She basically had a free pass for the challenge.
With Jen out of the way, I think this season is going to be a head to head race between Richard and Angelo. If you consider the fact that Richard would’ve won the first one if he hadn’t gone over time, they’re basically at a tie. And Marcel seems to think he’s equal with them.
If I had to pick my own All-Stars, it would probably be mostly the cast from Chicago (for the skills) and Miami (for the characters) with a few other seasons sprinkled in. And the final four from Las Vegas.
I feel bad for Jen as she seems to suffer from serious self-esteem issues despite seeming to be a good chef.
Am I the only one who suspects that the audio of her meltdown was probably dubbed into that scene of her leaving the stew room? She probably left her microphone pack on and went into the bathroom and had her expletive crying jag-o-rama there and they couldn’t resist using the audio.
Yeah, I really doubt the whole thing happened as Marcel held the door open. I think the rule of reality TV audio is if you don’t actually see anyone say it, it wasn’t really said at that time.
Actually, the preview for next week’s episode (12/15/10) indicated it will have a double elimination. I suspect we will see that a few times given the number of contestants.
I didn’t get all the Angelo love last season and I still don’t get it. Something about his mannerisms really gives me the creeps. He seems really smug and impressed with himself but in the end he choked. And, I didn’t think his food seemed that consistently great. I also enjoyed how much he already irritates Marcel.
And Jen tonight - wow. That was hard to watch. I wonder if this is going to be the typical reaction from the chefs as they get eliminated this season. I saw mention earlier about Elia really blasting the judges, particularly Colicchio, in her blog post after last week’s elimination. I can’t imagine Jen not having similarly strong feelings toward him after this. It should at least make for interesting drama each week.
I imagine it’s harder now for both sides since they’ve gotten to know each other after the seasons were over.