I enjoyed last night’s episode, but I wish anyone but Art would have one. He’s the epitome of full of oneself, name dropping, I’m so important chefs. He’s even more of an ass in person, and I wasn’t overly impressed with what he served up.
FallenAngel - Did you taste it?
I remember one Top Chef ep where there was a panal of extremely prestigious judges, who were asked what they’re like to have for their “last supper”. The winning dish, as I recall, was roast chicken and fresh spring peas. That’s it. Sometimes simple can be sublime.
StG
Would have one what? 
I really enjoyed last night’s episodes. I was so glad that none of the chefs tried to sabotage anyone else, as you know would have happened on the regular version of the show. These people are already world famous professionals so they’re not in this competition to win for the sake of winning or to further their careers, but to win money for their charities. I think that’s why in all of the episodes so far everyone has been so respectful of one another.
I met Art Smith once and he was really cool and seemed pretty down to Earth. If you’ve ever had the chance to have either his Hummingbird Cake or goat cheese biscuits, I’m sure you’d be able to forgive him for a bit of arrogance.
Edited to add: On re-read, that last line sounded a little snobby. I’ve never eaten at Table 52. Smith was doing a cooking demo/promotional thing for WMAQ here in Chicago and giving out free box lunches. That’s how I was able to meet him and enjoy his food. 
YES! That sounds like a great show. I would make it from beginning to end. Start with an initial meet-up with general and menu discussion, then shopping, cooking and feasting. The conversations (and cooking observations) would continue throughout.
Don’t get me wrong, I expect some arrogance from a chef with his degree of success. What goads me about him is his (I’m guessing) insecurity-based name dropping to prop himself up. “These people love my food,” rather than the standard, “I make great food,” style chefly arrogance.
I’m not knocking him as a cook. He’s quite talented, and I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve had at his restaurants. I’m knocking the fact that he’s come across as a prick whenever I’ve met or seen him.
As to the comment above asking if I’d tasted what he made, no. That said, I’m a cook myself and, like most cooks, have the ability to pretty accurately estimate what a dish will taste like if I know the ingredients and production methods.
I’m a huge fan of simple and rustic, but to me Art’s dish didn’t stack up against some of the competitors’.
I would love to see this.
I have a soft spot for Rick Bayless, so I’d love to see him win, but he’s so quintessential Southern Mexico in style, he may struggle.
The only Top Chef contestant I’ve heard anything about is Richard Blais and his burger joint Flip. I saw one measly half page article in Food & Wine about Season 4 winner Stephanie Izard. Have any of them done really great things after the show?
S1 winner Harold Dieterle opened a restaurantin New York.
There were 3 things that really bugged me about Art. Firstly the name dropping, which was a bit over the top. Secondly the fact that he called out Roy on his pasta being too ordinary and boring because “everyone loves pasta”, and then made fried chicken for the elimination challenge. Third I thought it was a bit tacky that he chose his own charity to represent, as it seems a bit against the spirit of the thing to me. I was hoping for Jonathan or Michael to win instead.
Of the finalists so far I’ve liked Hubert Keller and Suzanne Tracht the best.
How is that tacky? He’s not alone in that anyway.
Rick Bayless founded the Frontera Farmer Foundation, and IIRC, there was someone in one of the earlier episodes from the Napa area that also launched a charity so their back-of-house staff could get affordable health care.
Didn’t anyone else watch last night? I loved watching the mise-en-place relay. I don’t want to give too many spoilers away.
StG
I’m rooting for Keller to win, or maybe Lo. The only one I don’t like a lot is the big guy (who’s name I can’t recall right now).
It definitely seems that Rick, Hubert and Anita are WAY more comfortable in this format than Art and Michael.
Did anyone NOT think that the “cook your signature dish” thing was a setup for something?
Hey, did Art ever mention that he cooked a meal for President. Barack. (wipes eye) Obama. ?
I was somewhat irritated by Art, and hope he gets voted off the island next week. The other chefs talk about what they cooked; Art talks about who he cooked for.
In the same week that the episode with Art Smith aired he was on CNN (don’t know why exactly) and I paused in my channel surfing to see what he had to say. It was such a littany of name dropping that it really turned me off.
What baffled me about last night’s episode…if all the ingredients were there in Top Chef kitchen for them to cook their signature dishes, why did we need the Whole Foods commercial? I get that they wouldn’t want to use all of the same ingredients, but clearly some producer had to find out what they needed for their “signature dishes” and supply it. Why not get 2 racks of lamb, and double up on grouper, etc.?
I imagine because they were told to do a reinterpretation, not a recreation. Honestly, I think more of them should have gone farther in their reinterpretation. For instance, if Suzanne Tracht had chosen to go with something other than grouper, we’d probably be rid of Art right now.
I really want to like Art, but I think the name-dropping is because he’s insecure. He was talking about how the others had run restaurants for years, etc. Until recently he’s basically just been a private chef.
StG
I can understand the name dropping to an extent, because the obvious question asked of a private chef is “to whom”, but he pushed me over the edge last night when he mentioned that he chose the dish he did because the Obamas enjoyed it when they came to his restaurant. You know, I’d be entirely unsurprised to find that the Obamas have been to some of the other contestants’ restaurants as well, and what would have been wrong with saying “This has been a big hit when I’ve made it in the past.”
Obama’s not only been to a restaurant in my city famous for its pancakes, Pamela’s, he invited the chefs to come and cook for him on Memorial Day. Take that, Art! 
He doesn’t get on my nerves that much, but I did notice the name-dropping. By the way, I’ve had the pancakes there, and they are good!
They may have sous chefs and others to do the grunt work, but they did all right on the mise-en-place challenge. I didn’t see any drama, just professionalism. I appreciated Bayless noting that the two chefs chopping onions were using different techniques, but both worked. He’s still my favorite of the bunch, but I like what Anita Lo did with the challenge – it looked the most like a reinterpretation to me. I agreed when Bayless said the Elimination Challenge was “mean.”
I’ve really enjoyed watching the show. There’s just something about watching people doing what they do best and do better than most of us.
I think Rick Bayless just appears to be a really delightful guy, as well as being an excellent cook. He is always gracious and good humored.
I’m rooting for either him or Anita to take it all, though I wouldn’t be sad if Keller won, either.
I’m enjoying the little “behind the scenes” moments they show from time to time. I loved the one where the pastry chef whipped up a batch of cookies for them all when they left them alone in the kitchen.