Top Chef on Bravo [spoilers]

[Cervaise]

I thought this was one of the better episodes this season. Very interesting quickfire; it’s remarkable to know that I and many of our foodie Dopers would have done equally well or better on the quiz. And the main challenge was a great idea, even if the guest chef was a tool and the product placement was more overt than usual (which is saying something for this show).

@amarinth

I think it was a tossup between Howie, Sara, and Joey - any of them could have gone home for last night’s performance.

All three of them are doomed. At this point it’s just a roll of the dice when they’ll be ejected.

The gender imbalance is interesting. This season, the men are much stronger than the women, with respect to skills and knowledge. Some of the women may have been ejected unfairly (the braised-butter-lobster-on-the-grill struck me as being entirely arbitrary, and a failure of the show to clearly define the challenge), but none of them really had, or has, a shot to win the whole thing. It’s unfortunate, and the show’s producers may want to pay more attention to this if there’s a season four.

[Duke_of_Rat]

@8675309

Anthony Bourdain totally snarked on Rocco on Tom’s blog. Bourdain said when describing Rocco"Though for the first few moments, I thought David Gest had taken his place."

I agreed. Rocco looked a little nipped and tucked.

He’d never make it around here

@Anthony Bourdain

baited breath

[Cervaise]

Link to Bourdain’s guest appearance on Tom’s blog

[MovieMogul]

@Cervaise

Link to Bourdain’s guest appearance on Tom’s blog

Wow, that was brutal.

Bourdain has several blog entries and it’s rather refreshing to see someone who doesn’t hold back on judgment because he has to continue to interact with the “cheftestants”. Thanks for the link!

[Mesquite-oh]

@8675309

Rocco looked a little nipped and tucked.

Who was that lady? She was kinda pretty.

[mhendo]

I just watched this episode after taping it early in the week, and i think that Joey was the right choice. I’m not a huge Hung fan, and i agree that he should have pushed harder to get his way, but Joey and Howie have both made clear over the previous weeks that they can’t or won’t take advice from anyone else, especially from people they don’t like. Sara also tried to give Howie a bunch of advice and he pretty much ignored her.

Also, when they were all in front of the judges, Joey just flat out lied about stuff. I know that in the team competitions, each contestant has to do his or her best to promote his or her own personal contribution, but there’s a difference between creative embellishment and shameless lying.

Hung said, quite correctly, that he had recommended freezing the sauce and all the other ingredients separately, and Joey said that he had heard no such thing. Hung pointed out, quite correctly (i know, because i checked), that he had recommended they use penne, and Joey denied that also.

I don’t think Sara is a greatest chef there, and i think she’ll be gone before long, but i don’t think she deserved to go this week. Howie is not only stubborn, but his overt aggression and his yelling must be quite intimidating in person, especially for a woman.

As far as the general issue of team challenges goes, i’m ambivalent about the issue of “taking charge.” Colicchio told Hung that a top chef needs to take charge in the kitchen and let people know what he wants, but when you have two stubborn and egocentric chefs working together then it can be hard. On that level, it’s a little unreasonable to expect two big egos to work together, or to expect one to take orders from the other.

On the other hand, though, Tre and C.J. are both top chefs, and they showed that they can work together fine. It’s a matter of temperament and being willing to talk about things and listen to the other person, and to accept that just because someone has different ideas doesn’t mean they are ridiculing or disrespecting you.

I really liked the quickfire challenge. I wouldn’t have won it, but i would have done better than a lot of the contestants. Hell, i knew what the tahini was as soon as she stuck her finger in it. And Hung’s exit from the challenge was just too priceless for words.

[mhendo]

@ArchiveGuy

Wow, that was brutal.

Bourdain has several blog entries and it’s rather refreshing to see someone who doesn’t hold back on judgment because he has to continue to interact with the “cheftestants”. Thanks for the link!

Not only that, but he has some rather unflattering references to product placement and the commercial aspect of the show itself. Given his recurring appearances, i’m not sure if this is hypocrisy or what, but it was quite refreshing to see.

One thing i didn’t agree with:

Casey and Dale had a good night, though it has been forcefully pointed out to me of late that actually putting meatballs in with your pasta (as opposed to serving them on the side) is about as Italian as guacamole.

That might be true, but the competition was not to design Italian food for Italians; it was to design “Mediterranean” food for Americans. And, for most Americans, meatballs in pasta is a perfectly “Italian” combination.

ETA:

Also, this:

I was truly sorry to see Joey go. His tears at the end spoke of a good heart. He went out looking good–after losing a contest which, frankly, I’d be proud to lose. Joey’s the chef of a damn famous restaurant in New York freakin’ City.The place every ambitious cook and chef hopes to work–in the big leagues. So he’s already a “Top Chef”–and already a winner in my book.

Sorry, but if you’re an already-successful chef who’s happy to whore yourself out to a TV station for a shot at wider fame, then you have to accept that the stuff you’ll be doing for TV isn’t necessarily the stuff you’d do in your own kitchen. You don’t get to turn around when you lose and say, “Well, i’ve already proven myself so i don’t need this competition.”