Here is one reference to Elia’s bitching about Tom: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2010/12/top-chef-exit-interview-elia-blasts-tom-colicchio.html
She was whining because he was in a Coke commercial and then says he is using crappy product at his restaurants. Great response from Tom in that blog.
Thanks for the link, lisacurl. Elia sounds super bitter, and Tom is so good at rebuttals.
Jennifer’s elimination is really shocking. One of the judges (Gail, I think) has said in her blog that she thought Jen would have won any previous season, just not when she was up against Kevin and the Voltaggios.
Still, it’s true that she didn’t seem to handle the emotional aspects of the competition that well. I remember her really starting to lose confidence in herself as the season went on. But it is pretty crappy that they had to cook on almost no sleep, which is sure to affect some people more than others. But that’s nothing new for this show.
Regarding the remaining chefs, I agree with the poster above who said that Tiffani has really matured since her season. I’m glad they showed the comparison with how she reacted to cooking for kids last time. That said, for the most part I thought she wasn’t that bad even in Season 1. I think she may have been bitten by the phenomenon where what’s “assertive” for a man is seen as “bitchy” for a woman.
I think Tiffani might be one of the favorites, along with Angelo and Richard. Then again, I thought Jennifer was the favorite going into the season, so what do I know. If there’s any one I’m especially rooting for, I guess I’d say Carla.
There’s only one chef I’m rooting against, and that’s Marcel. I just think he’s an asshole. In his season (Season 2), all the other chefs hated him (even Elia turned on him by the end, and she’d been his friend before the show.) But they never really showed why. Sure, he always seemed a little too pleased with himself, but not to rival the arrogance of Stephen from Season 1 (also an All-Star), who was constantly trying “educate” everyone. Then Marcel came back as a sous chef for the season 5 finalists. Just watch the second video clip on this page: http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/11/bravos-sleazy-top-chef-reunion-dinner-episode/
Summarizing for those who can’t see the video: In front of the judges, Marcel interrupts Richard Blaise in mid-sentence, prompting one of the judges (Toby Young) to say “Marcel, shut up for a second, then we’ll ask you a question”. Marcel takes offense, Young immediately says “I didn’t mean to be rude”, and Marcel starts dropping F-bombs. Toby tries to get it back on track with another question, and Marcel comes back with “If you were listening to what I was just saying…” in a tone that’s dripping with condescension, complete with obnoxious hand-gestures. And he wasn’t even there as a contestant!
The Season 2 chefs were still obviously in the wrong for trying to shave his head, but after that I could sure understand why they’d want to.
You’re right on that, I mixed up names. It’s going to take a few more eliminations before I keep everyone straight.
Well, here’s the thing, if that was “his” dish, and he had a problem with the plums, then he should’ve been the one cutting them up. He shouldn’t have told anyone else to do it.
And reiterating, he didn’t do the initial “insufficient” prep on the plums. Therefore, he needed to *talk *to the person responsible for the plums before taking it upon himself to change them.
Probably.
How do we know that? Marcel is a passive-aggressive, arrogant little twerp, given, but if Angelo and Blais had said “smaller plums” would he really fight over that? Clearly there was a breakdown of communication; the three of them hadn’t discussed presentation on the dish. If they had, the size of the plums would’ve been hashed out already. The answer to a breakdown in communication in a joint operation isn’t to take things into your own hands.
I don’t hate Angelo. But if we want to talk personality, it’s a mistake not to recognize that he has a history of being extremely stubborn in the kitchen, and a selfish know-it-all. The ballpark challenge in his initial season is a perfect example. He gave wretched advice to the contestant who was still a culinary student (or had just graduated) about her tuna tartare prep, (something a seasoned chef should’ve known was incorrect, even the student went against her instincts with it) and then during the challenge insisted on expediting in a very aggressive, adamant way, and aggravated everyone on the line in doing so.
I have no love for Marcel either, I hope he’s the next one out on his ear. But this isn’t about personality, this is strictly about kitchen etiquette. His point stands: you don’t touch someone else’s mise en place without so much as a word. You ask. In the time it took Angelo to tell Carla to cut up the plums, he could’ve said “hey, Marcel, these plums are way too big, we need to cut 'em down.” Not hard at all.
The joke would have been on them. The moment Ilan fires up the electric shaver, the Wolverine claws would have extended and amateur chef tartar would have ensued.
I’m confused by that. I thought that one of them did say something like, “no herbs”, but if they had no herbs or spices at all… I’m puzzled. How could Tom complain about the eggs being bland and without flavor? They’d have no way of flavoring the eggs (except adding shrimp or something, I guess?) I suppose salt isn’t a veggie spice, but still Tre made a sauce. So: did they have spices and herbs, or not?
I don’t know the answer to that question (and I’d like to know too), but apparently it was more bland than her teammates’ dishes that were made with the same restrictions. If her dish couldn’t be made flavorful without herbs, she probably should have chosen to make something else. They also apparently had issues with the texture.
I’m sorry to see Jen leave early because she seemed like she had potential to be one of the strongest competitors, but judging only by her performance that week, it seemed like a fair elimination. I’ve seen some complaints that the undercooked frittata should have earned the elimination for posing a health risk, but I’m guessing it was just undercooked for a frittata, not so undercooked as to be dangerous. They described it as “runny”, but I’d describe eggs over easy the same way, and restaurants still serve that.
Might just be me, but it seems to me a lot of the time when Tom says bland he means not enough salt, which I believe they were allowed.
This is from Tom’s Blog:
So it sounds like no herbs or spices which are plant products. I guess salt is a mineral, so it doesn’t count?
Double elimination tonight.
More after I’ve watched it again at 10:30 central.
Dale from season 3 and Stephen from Season 1. Gone - Dale from Season 4 won a trip and cash.
The team Relay QF was a lot of fun. Casey got a chance to redeem her horrible performance chopping onions in S3. It was kind of funny that Angelo’s team finished the relay first, and had the most time to plan a dish & cook. They landed in the bottom. 
Blais’ team was a little slower but came out with the best QF dish. Everyone on that team (Blais, Spike, Stephen, Tre) got 5 grand
The EC was a little odd. Somehow, nearly everyone got to cook their style of food except Fabio. Angelo got very lucky and cooked Asian. Marcel got Molecular Gastronomy and Antonia new American. Poor Fabio, got hosed and had to cook Asian. I was very disappointed. I’ve wondered how good Fabio is as an Italian chef. This would have been a great chance to see how his skills stacked up in a top class Italian place.
A few people got somewhat shown up. Marcel did not win with his Molecular Gastronomy dish. Dale from Season 4 beat him at his own game. Dale from Season 3 specialty is New American and he totally screwed up his dish. Antonia was a surprise winner of that group. Tre came out ahead of Richard Blais. Angelo, surprise, surprise nailed an Asian Dish.
Antonia really proved tonight that she deserved to be in All Stars. Her Semi-final appearance in Season 4 was no fluke.
Tiffani - is starting to struggle. It’s the first time I recall her totally screw up. Hopefully, she’ll bounce back next week.
Poor Stephen. That guy was so totally lost. He had no business being in All Stars. At least he was in the winning QF group and got 5 grand. Dale from S3 was a major disappointment. That dude can cook better than this. He had no excuse. He screwed up his specialty, New American. That’s surprising. I’m just stunned that he screwed up so badly.
I felt so bad for Fabio. It’s just not right making an Italian chef cook Asian. That’s about as unfair as it gets. I recall in Top Chef Masters they never pulled this crap. The Italian chef (Michael Chiarello) always cooked his own style. They never made Rick Bayless (Mexican food) cook something totally out of his style. This is All Stars. They should have let the chefs pick which style of food they wanted. Blais should have been cooking with Marcel in WD-50. Fabio should have been in the Italian restaurant. I feel cheated that I didn’t get to see these chefs at their very best. Isn’t that the point of All Stars?
This was a really good challenge. They had plenty of time to prepare, they were cooking in real restaurants, and they had to emulate a style, but not really copy a chef. Which is a real world challenge, because if you come in as a new head chef of an existing restaurant, you can’t just start cooking whatever you want. The only thing I didn’t like was the whole “Pick a top and bottom chef from each group.” It seemed like the green team was only “okay” at worst, and there were a couple of bad dishes from a couple teams.
I also like the twist on the relay, especially considering how it ended.
Also, I zoned out at the start. How did they pick teams? It didn’t seem like they drew knives.
It’s not like they forced Fabio to cook Asian, it was just luck of the draw. And judging by the comments during the actual dining portion, he wasn’t really that bad. (One thing I’ve always hated about the judges table, when just an average dish makes it to the bottom, they suddenly act like it was the worst dish ever).
Also, I think Dale is the dark horse this season. He seems a lot calmer this time, and I think he’s going to slide right to the finals without anyone really paying attention to him.
The chefs came in the kitchen randomly. Padma paired them up with who they were standing next too.
I guess I feel bad for Fabio having to cook Asian, but not really. If this were any “regular” Top Chef would we have told random contestant Fabio to suck it up and deal with the challenge. This is Top Chef, not Top Italian Cook.
I think Fabio should have gone home last night. I don’t care how good his dish was. In fact, I’m willing to bet it was quite good. The challenge was to present a dish that would work in that restaurant and never in a million years would I go into a French-Vietnamese restaurant and order a lamb shank with a dollop of Ricotta on it. And that’s besides the obvious lactose issues the dish presents.
Wasn’t Jen eliminated last week? And wasn’t she competing this week? What’s with that?
No - she wasn’t there. Maybe you confused her with someone else?
She wasn’t competing. You might have confused her with Casey, they look pretty similar.