Hung’s a pretty decent chef on his own, with some solid Asian chops, and Angelo still couldn’t seal the deal in Singapore. He couldn’t have hand picked a more competent sous chef for his style of cooking from all the previous TC contestants, and gets Hung on a silver platter.
If he had won, he’d probably never live down the “Hung carried your sick ass” remarks, but it just wasn’t in the cards.
Other than Ed’s “Turd with Salty Spooge”, the rest of the grub looked pretty dang good.
Kevin won. The one guy out of the final four I couldn’t stand. 
Well, that means I won’t be re-watching this season. Sometimes it’s fun to rewatch from the beginning and really focus on the chef that eventually wins.
Not with Kevin. He spent the first half of the season in Kenny’s shadow. Then he was the whinny loud mouth baby screaming about stolen pea puree. I’ve never seen such an unlikeable winner.
I noticed the Doctor said day 1 that Angelo couldn’t cook. There are health codes involved. The Doctor had to agree it was safe to allow him to handle food. Darn. I wish they would have let Kelly substitute for Angelo.
I was disappointed that Voltagio didn’t get more time showing what he did. And it is bringing out the conspiracy theorist in me. Did Kevin win, or did Voltagio win his second top chef in a row.
Not that I am implying that there was anything slimy about it, But when I have to guess who it was who put the real knock-the-judges-on-their-ass wow factor into the reinvented Singapore Sling that put him over the top… I’m putting 20-1 on Michael.
Hung would be interesting as a Sous chef. He was never one to take orders, and with out Angelo in the Kitchen, I’m guessing other than basic concept Angelo was working on Hung’s dishes in reality, which was the only realistic way to do it.
And Ed was so busy convincing and congratulating himself who was in charge, That he skipped the minor detail of actually being in charge and actually having any fucking clue what was going with the desert ‘he’ was serving.
Far from my favorite season, very likely the worst after the first . Next season will have to really show something or Top Chef will drop off my stuff I give a crap about list.
Alex was thought to have stolen Ed’s pea puree.
Yeah, but if I remember right I think Kevin was raging pretty hard over that, in addition to Ed (who for his part seemed to just sort of say “whatever”). That said, the puree thing pissed me off too, and I can think of nothing that makes me dislike Kevin. He seems like a nice guy, and his food always looked good. I think we will hear more talk of the puree during the reunion show next week, hopefully it is interesting.
Wow.
It’s the kiss of death in a restaurant review when just about the only compliments concern the layout and the decor.
The Village Voice out and out says it sucks.
I wonder if Ed’s line cooks screwed off while he was away filming Top Chef?
That’s one of the hazards of leaving for so long. If the managers and staff start goofing off everything goes bad. Sometimes these chef/owners think they can stop cooking and only run the business. That’s usually a terrible idea.
Ed showed skills on Top Chef. He’s obviously a good chef. He’ll have to get back his butt back in the kitchen and personally fix whatever went wrong. Maybe hire & train new line cooks.
You know, we never saw it, but Ed always looked to me like a bit of a drinker. The Village Voice review talks about the “wildly popular” bar in one end of the restaurant. Hmmmn.
I never like Kevin, and I can’t say why exactly. He just always had an angry energy about him, I guess. I found myself feeling sorry for his wife a lot. Btu he was also the one always willing to speak the truth.
They announced the cast of Top Chef All Stars during the reunion show. It starts in December.
Here’s the list. They picked a few chefs from every season that didn’t win.
Sadly the two best chefs from Season 6 (Kevin and Bryan Volt) aren’t in All Stars. I’m guessing they are too busy with their restaurants. Exposure on Top Chef easily triples their business.
I’m surprised Stefan from S5 isn’t on All Stars. He just opened a restaurant and would benefit by getting on TC again. Stefan really didn’t have much competition in S5. He had almost 15 years more experience than the others. I would have enjoyed seeing him go up against stronger chefs. The challenge might have made him step up his game a couple notches.
Angelo seemed mentally exhausted in Singapore. I wonder how he’ll do in All Stars? I think that started taping right after S7 finished. He didn’t have any time to really rest and refocus.
Anthony Bourdain is the guest judge in All Stars. 
Marcel is back. Cool. I liked that guy, and could never see why they had such a huge problem with him.
It’s going to be nice having a Top Chef season that doesn’t include any really bad chefs. Up till now there’s usually been only two or three that stood out each season.
Still, a new pecking order will quickly emerge. It’s going to seem strange having a past season favorite in the bottom. TC fans have debated season vs season for awhile. Finally we’ll see who the stronger chefs really are.
It would totally suck to be the first chef eliminated from Top Chef All Stars. Your season you make the finals (or almost) and on All Stars you get the boot after 44 minutes.
I was a little surprised that Marcel is participating. There was an “all stars cook off” kind of episode a season or two ago. All Marcel did was bitch about the whole Top Chef process. I wondered then, if it was so awful why agree to come back?
Was that the dinner table chat kind of thing that was hosted by Fabio where he basically told him if he didn’t want to talk about things he shouldn’t have shown up?
Yes, did they also cook on that, or am I conflating two shows?
I’m hopeful that Eric Ripert is a regular judge. I find him quite charming. I also liked Tom’s response to being called grumpy. “The payoff’s supposed to be good food. When the food’s not good I get grumpy.”
This is good news! Not only Anthony Bourdain, but I’ll have several favorites to cheer for! Tiffany from this last season is nice/talented/lovable, plus there is also the ‘trio’ to cheer for.
(The trio of ‘talented but socially idiotic’ : Angelo, Richard and Marcel.) I unabashedly loved them all.
Will Marcel still be teen wolf? Will Richard still have a fauxhawk? Will Angelo still be tight roping the line between ‘eccentric’ and ‘flat out crazy’?
Plus, there are quite a few who will make interesting t.v. (it’ll be nice to have Fabio back smarming up to the camera again.)
Maybe it’s just getting older and my memory getting spotty but why don’t I really remember Antonia Lafaso clearly from her previous season? I went to the page for Season 8 and still don’t have a clear idea of who she is. She certainly didn’t make the finals for her season did she?
If I’m remembering correctly, she went fairly far but not to the finals. She had a young daughter and some angst about being away from her, and she won a challenge that had to do with making cafeteria lunches for an elementary school.
I heart Carla!!! She reminds me of some Sesame Street bird puppet, but she’s got some damn good cooking chops.
I think it will be a fun show!