Top Chef: Season 2

With the food, you just have to take the judge's word. What fun is that? Still I'll probably watch it.

Harold makes an awesome, formidable judge! They should make him a permanent addition.

I am very much in favor of Elia Aboumrad, her name has both "boom" and "rad" in it. Plus: foxy.

DAMM IT IS COLD SHOWER TIME FOR ME

Things definitely seemed to blur by in this episode for me, but of course episode 1s always have a lot of ground to cover. Didn't get too much of a bead on anybody, although the one dude with the Wolverine hair seems to be trying WAY too hard to be this season's Stephen.

Thought the victory seemed well-earned - I LOVED the presentation of that dish, the dense packing of textures that feel very much part of a whole. No spilling out all over the plate for that guy. I also like the "mystery crate" challenge, although it really amounts to just a normal weird-ingredient challenge. Having never had frog legs or chicken livers I was ill-equipped to really imagine any of the food, sadly. The flambe dishes, especially the shrimp ones, were definitely mouthwatering - bullshit that we didn't get to see them all!

Yes.

And the rap.

Other than that, 100% douchebag and I hope he chokes on his own foam.

In a small restaurant group like a kitchen or wait-staff, there's always that one person that everyone hates, who brings it on him/herself. This time it's Marcel.

maybe just avoid him and cook and not freak out on him in public places (Sam) or talk shit about his dish while presenting one's own (Ilan)? weirdly, nobody did seem to hate Betty (the blonde woman), even though she hated Marcel like it was her job.

I really disliked Marcel at the beginning of the season, but the other contestants make him look like an angel.

"these greens are worthless."

and the winner:

"it tastes like...HOTEL FOOD"

OK! That's my rant for the day.

I still was kind of surprised it wasn't Sam though, I sort of expected him to be set up for the win from the beginning. Ilan turned into a whiny bitch towards the end.

People hate him because he's a big fucking cock.

And about twenty or thirty times dickier.

I really can't do any better than "he rubs me precisely the wrong way".

I'm not watching this because I hate reality shows, but I'd love a compilation just of her parts. She's finer'n frog's hair split eight ways, rowr.

ew

also did someone else notice the rapture song used on the commercial for Top Designer on bravo?

everybody see this?

Season 3!

in last night's charity episode, MC Marcel busted a few more rhymes and had everyone on both teams calling him a douchebag inside of fifteen minutes.

"Immina bust out the shit in the kitchen
'cuz I got a serious itchin'
to lay it down like the serious dishin'

Did I hear right that one of his friends is on the new season?

yeah, the Asian guy seems to be familiar with him

Who knew Herc could cook?

Anyone notice Camille from Paloma in GP?

she's worth the price of admission

I wish there were a tv killfile for padma. Why is she awkwardly kicking water at me? Tho it's not like Colicchio hasn't gotten a bit wearing in his judicial role either. I was gonna ignore this time around but they sucked me in with Bourdain and these dudes seem more interesting than last time. I wish they'd change/get rid of the intro.

anybody else watching this?

who's your front runner to win?

I think the chefs are uniformly better this season, but they are also largely more douchey. Gotta figure Tre and Hung will be around for a while at least. Also: Brian, keeping it real for the Pacific Northwest.

is brian the snake dude?

this is going to be a test of will to see how much padma i can stomach. someone should make a movie starring her and ben stiller to see how many people can survive 90 minutes without killing themselves. actually, the show should just consist of an hour of colicchio joshing with dudes, gayle simmons (?) doing cute crit on her feet, and food porn. also, there should be a challenge where 'your protein' is ted allen.

padma does nothing for me either. so far i have Hung as the odds on favorite to take it.

I think Hung flames out early or comes close and misses out (like Sam). Tre is way too intense - dude looked like he was facing a firing squad in the bottom-four lineup last night. I'd put my money on Brian.

Gail Simmons is just awful, Bravo reality shows should get away from inviting magazine editors, they never add anything of substance. (Neither does Padma, but she's hawt.)

Gail Simmons isn't attractive? OH WOW WE DISAGREE AGAIN.

at least one of the girl contestants is looking tasty though.

I have a strange crush on Gail. And a mini gay crush on Ted.

I think it's set up for Tre and Hung to be around til the very end. One of the big, loud, yelling guys is going to be gone soon.

i will miss you
http://www.bravotv.com/_content/topchef/bios/bio_camille.jpg

has anyone been to her resturant in brooklyn?

what's it called?

I was surprised that someone who's already an executive sous chef at Jean-Georges (Lia who won last night's challenge) would go on this show. seems like her career's going pretty ok without potential tv humiliation!

Gail seems bitter and catty because I think that she is privileged and feels like she's entitled to be waifish thin. That said, she's kind of cute and needs to embrace the fact that not being waifish thin is ok. Padma does nothing for me. Salman dodged another bullet.

Actually, the thing about the show that interests me is that I actually watch it while finding 95% of the judges, guests and contestants loathsome. I want Lia to win because she seems pleasant and humble. However, she isn't enough of an egomaniac to pull it off.

Lia is way cuet, even with rosacea.

waifish thin + chef = why?

Exactly.

I think Hung flames out early

dude is so obnoxious

got dissed on the cocktail challenge, he's like "that judge is confused, I so called him on it"

what a dick

that girl camilla's resturant is called Paloma it's in green point i think

http://www.palomanyc.com/

hmm haven't been

looks interesting

wonder if the food is any good

i liked Lia. sorry to see her go. although i did't think she'd make it to the final i thought she would be around a little longer

Note that Chef Tom didn't mention his criticism of the round bald guy's braising again.

Padma lookin' foxy tonight.

how did i become a howie fan all of a sudden? i guess it's because he reminds me of all the chefs i used to prep for: combative and low-verbal, but very smart, hard-working and creative, and super-fucking-loyal once you got on their good side.

as far as the food goes, and not the overtly-manipulative theatrics, i think micah's got something really exciting. her flavors/presentations are pretty compelling while still feeling comforting & original. i wonder how much of this is because they are (south african) and unfamiliar to me, or if she's just got a populist bent that i like.

I liked Howie immediately for whatever reason. Everyone seems to like each other. Even Hung seems to have the ability to just be a human being around the other people when he isn't running with knives or defending himself. I don't think there's a Marcel or even a Tiffany this year.

Casey's restaurant: http://www.shinseirestaurant.com/
Surprisingly not located in some North Dallas hellhole suburb.

Tre's: http://www.abacus-restaurant.com//indexinner.php

I can't stand Hung because I always hated the guy who argued with the teacher/professor about a paper or during crit but never said anything more substantive than "NO, yer wrong."

hung seems to be set up as a villain: that suggests to me he'll be in the competition for a long time, or that he'll go out in a blaze of assholery.

tre's small plates look superb

I'm bummed they canned Lia. The problem with her was that she was too nice and normal and likely didn't make good television in the eyes of the producers. This is why Hung will be there until the end even though he's barely in the top five. That mousse should have gotten him kicked off the show.

What was up with the guest judge? What a fucking bitch. Jesus Christ. If someone defined "class enemy" it's her.

You can't kicked off for the test fire event, though.

Hung is still there because his chicken was better than Lia's dish, if only slightly so. They didn't like Hung's dish, but people were actually avoiding Lia's. Plus, unlike Hung's, it wasn't recognizably latin.

Hung is totally riding on the wave of his geoduck/black chicken dish, and he'll probably be eliminated pretty soon, I think.

It's a bummer about Lia because she's super cute. :(

I watched this at the gym last night!

Is polenta really that 'non-Latin'? I thought it's used in a lot of South American cooking?

I've liked Howie since the comfort food challenge. It was kind of touching when he was talking about the history of heart disease in his working-class family made the challenge mean something for him.

It seems that the problem with Lia was that she is an inconsistent cook. According to the judges, she made some pretty bad food on several occasions. She wasn't a regular in the top three either.

either inconsistent or too specialized. she could probably make crazy fancy french food in her sleep but you have to be able to improvise on stuff you've never done before.

a couple people (maybe including Lia, I can't remember) also majorly screwed up this week by not having a good answer when the judges asked they changed about their dish when their time got cut in half. gave the impression they were gonna make a 90-minute dish anyway and just coast for the rest of the time!

asked what they changed

the more i see Ilan post season 2 the more douchebaggy he seems to me.

i was an early noticer of his douchebagginess, go me, tho now i think he seems like a nice enough guy with bad taste in clothes and maybe other things. lia is def. cute, but maybe not as cute as j-g. a harold-lianne liaison would be cuett.

my dark horse winner - the one what looks a little like elia.

i actually was rooting for Ilan during the last season because of my distain for Marcel but i've done a total flip-flop on those two now.

it was funny to see clips of season two all wasted playing mock quick fire challenges.

yeah, that was hilar

i would sign up to be on one of these shows strictly for the seemingly endless supply of booze they have access to

it was hard to root for anyone at the end of season 2, they were pretty much equally douchey

actually no, Ilan gets the #1 spot for pushing Elia to accuse Marcel of cheating in the final challenge. that was seriously wack.

Sam still seemed to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder in the show last night.

Ilan sucks, but so does Marcel. I mean, if Michael doesn't like that guy, that should be pretty indicative, since that guy likes everyone.

these Bertoli things seem ok as far as frozen dinners go.

Rocco surprisingly awesome as a guest judge since he seems like such a douchebag. I wish they showed the judges arguing more (ala "WTF are you talking about of course truffles are Mediterranean?!"), but I guess that only works if you have a counterbalance to Tom (Padma, Gail, Queer Eye guy being lightweights).

I have a friend who works for Bravo and he has told me that in the last episode Hung throws a knife at someone in a fit of rage after they call him "shrimpy boy."

I don't believe you.

Rocco is super creepy looking in a botox/facelift kind of way.

Hung getting punked on the food bee was great

lol at a whole episode revolving around bertolli and a bertoli-sponsored rocco infomercial

I thought they were gonna get rid of Sara M.

Howie was a crybaby though. Tom asks Sara, what did YOU do, she says "I tasted the sauce and said it needs paste so Howie added it". All she did was list what tiny contributions she made. Then Howie flips out "IF IT'S GOING IN THAT DIRECTION, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOUR PASTA, YOU SUCK."

Joey needs to watch the episode and see how many times Hung said "freeze...it...seperately".

Howie is pretty lame. also he sweats in the food every week, it's gross.

I was surprised cause I really thought Hung was the type of guy who'd grab Joey by the head and be all "NO DUDE SRSLY"

i'm still a fan of Hung. they seem to be trying really hard to cast him as the villain this season though. but i don't see anyone standing out as a true douchebag as in seasons past.

rocco certainly has a bit camera presence but gets little respect as an actual chef these days.

I thought they'd get rid of Sara too, but then they'd be down to, what, two women left? They had two lumpy guys and one of them had to go.

Rocco seemed really not smart.

I've totally come around to Hung. He's a bit of jerk, but he's also got an undeniable charm. The way he moves and talks is interesting to watch.

http://www.neighborhoodies.com/images//product/misc/tc_hung_450.jpg

I was surprised cause I really thought Hung was the type of guy who'd grab Joey by the head and be all "NO DUDE SRSLY"

He was affraid Joey was gonna say "Hey, you don'ta know how we do things in New Yawk, FUGGEDABOUT it" then break out in tears.

could be he figured they would blame Joey more for not listening, which is sorta what happened

Hung's definitely not as hateable as Marcel but you have to admit his whole "I don't even need to taste it ... oops" routine was hilarious

xpost - hahaha omg. wearing the ITALIA shirt no less. suck it up, Big Joe!

he was sort of a slobbering mess. not the way to go out

I'm sure crying like a little girl with go down well with his guido constituency.

I didn't like the guy, but there is really nothing so gross as seeing sweat drip off Howie's nose into the sauce or something. Sweatband, dude, please.

Sweat's the secret ingredient. In fact I hear they're shooting an Iron Chef where when they lift the display that holds the secret ingredient, a naked, sweating Howie is going to be sitting there in a little sauna.

Giada or Nigella sweat I could handle </Surmounter>

More sweat = less need for salt

"You're just... more of an asshole every day." Throwing Sara under the bus immediately was such a douchebag move (even though she deserved to go home).

Not sure why the male judges didn't catch on to why cooking in heels and a cleavagey dress/shirt as those two did might be a problem?

i did find myself lusting a bit over sara for the first time last night. the cleavage was workin. that being said there's no way she was going to go far in the competition

as the season goes along it’s getting a little more difficult to actually pick a front runner though. nobody has really stood out to me.

Not sure why the male judges didn't catch on to why cooking in heels and a cleavagey dress/shirt as those two did might be a problem?

it didn't appear that the female judge caught on either, but that may be explicable

it’s getting a little more difficult to actually pick a front runner though. nobody has really stood out to me.

I would say Tre is up there, but I'd also say it's probably a good thing if there aren't any front runners - one thing that KILLED last season was that there was such a gulf between the Really Talented and the Sorta There, so that the Really Talented, as Tom kept observing, just kind of sat back and chilled for half the game while the Sorta There were weeded out. The only thing they had to fill their time was being dicks.

Meanwhile, please tell me someone else is reading the BravoTv.com blogs, if only for the minor firestorm kicked up by Anthony Bourdain talking five pages of shit about Rocco DiSpirito?

Anthony Bourdain's recaps have been great!

yes, I just discovered the Bourdain blog last week, he's great

I thought it was a weird juxtaposition of bitching about Rocco when he seemed to have the most substantial opinions about the food (compared to Queer Eye dude or the magazine editor or Padma or any guest judge or even Colicchio). Now that they've got a group of talented people with no obvious losers, the next step is to make the judging and commentary more interesting.

it wasn't his judging that was bad, it was the fact that the stupid challenge of creating a frozen dinner was a tie-in to Rocco's stupid ads and stupid new show. I hated that episode.

the coldstone creamery quickfire was awful too

Yeah, they don't need to sell these things quite so hard. Padma going "And what doesn't remind you of summer more than cool, delicious Cold Stone Creamery ice cream?" or whatever was just absurd. Maybe ice cream generally, but really Cold Stone is about the last ice cream I think of. See also the Cold Stone Creamery thread.

I did think Rocco was actually pretty good as a judge. I liked him blowing off Tom's claims about truffles not being Italian enough.

Chef Boulud in da house!
good call with the restaurant battle do over. those are always my favorite episodes.

Who is teh suck?
Sara M. she's been flying under the radar for too long now. All of her qualities were on display last night; bad decision making, poor execution and all around ineptitude. she needs to go.

Ugh. Another week of this? I don't like the restaurant challenges. The problem is that the contestants are judged as though they have had months to prepare for the opening of the restaurant when they've had hours. It seems a little excessive and just gives Padma more opportunities to display her totally hatefulness as a human being. "I think there is dust on my plate." Fuck you.

The guest food blogger thing was just sad. "Well, we had this catty food bloggers secretly trashing your restaurant that you had only 24 hours to put together." I liked that the response from the contestants was basically, "who the fuck is this blogger and why do we care?" So web 2.0 Bravo. Nice one.

Also makes the judging kind of bullshittey - kicking someone out for bad interior design (although, yeah, vanilla candles WTF?) or getting jumpy while waiting tables? Do not want.

BOOOOOOOOOO.

I would go show my support for Tre but the Abacus tasting menu is like $110 + booze.

we were sad too, but he hasn't looked all that interested for the last couple weeks

is the food any good @ his restaurant.

don't know anyone who's eaten there - http://www.abacus-restaurant.com//menu.php

i thought Tre would be there longer then that

one of the tre-cj-brian group was going to have to go down. for people who were propositioned as the front runners, they are all mostly punishingly inconsistent.

i think the final four will be dale, sara, brian, cj.

if hung wasn't an antagonizer he would have gone 5 episodes ago.
at least marcell could cook.

bourdain on his blog thinks hung is the front-runner to win

I thought it was between tre and CJ as far as who would go. If they woulda said "CJ you stepped back and let someone take else over, do u really want to be a chef" and axed him that would have been a fair criticism i think.

bourdain probably likes hung as much for his personality and theory as he does his actual cooking. has hung even been in the top 3 in any individual challenge?

it was obvious by the way ted allen was harping on that salmon that tre was going to go, not to mention he fucked up those potatoes pretty bad last week. it's only a matter of time w/ cj, i think. dale, brian and even hung have the upper hand on him.

if next week's challenge is an individual one, casey is a goner.

that salmon concoction was so... WTF. Sometimes Tre seemed to have the finer sensibility, and then the next minute he'd seem hopelessly naive or bush-league. So it's hard to be sad.

I've lived for years within miles of Abacus but never could afford it.

Sometimes Tre seemed to have the finer sensibility, and then the next minute he'd seem hopelessly naive or bush-league.

this is pretty OTM. i like this season as a show, but the talent level is obviously down. sam would have ROMPED through this season.

I think the talent level is up - everyone in the top 10 this year save Howie seems to be roughly as competent as the top 4 last year.

But that's making them play it safe - last season you could improvise a little because you knew one of the putzes was going to do something really stupid. Too many team challenges as well, with everyone responsible for something fairly small.

Now way is Casey in the same league as last year's top 4.

It was really embarrassing watching Casey cut those onions.

if hung wasn't an antagonizer he would have gone 5 episodes ago.
at least marcell could cook.

the talent level is obviously down

How can you make these judgements without TASTING any of the food. Unless you know a lot about cooking techniques and combinations of flavors, the only way to evaluate the food is by its appearence and the reactions of the judges. The show is so heavily edited that you can't even really rely on the judges' reactions. So how can you say that Hung is an inferior cook and the talent level is lower than last season?

bourdain probably likes hung as much for his personality and theory as he does his actual cooking.

actually he hates his personality and thinks he's an egotistical douche. but he thinks he has mad knowledge and if he can dial it back a notch and cut down on his bad tendencies (eg cauliflower ice cream) he's one of the only people innovative enough to really stand out.

and yeah I thought the general consensus was that the talent level was up this year, or at least that it was more evenly matched as opposed to last season (four or so serious chefs vs. a bunch of scrubs)

How can you make these judgements without TASTING any of the food. Unless you know a lot about cooking techniques and combinations of flavors, the only way to evaluate the food is by its appearence and the reactions of the judges. The show is so heavily edited that you can't even really rely on the judges' reactions. So how can you say that Hung is an inferior cook and the talent level is lower than last season?

-- Super Cub, Thursday, August 23, 2007 7:06 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

because marcell won challenges.

Against weaker competition (with a couple of exceptions.)

omg alex in SF how do YOU know the competition is weaker? did YOU do any TASTING of the food? how DARE you pass any judgement on the chefs on a reality show?

Haha actually I haven't even watched the show this season so that insight was GAINED solely by word of mouth and WITHOUTH EVEN SEEING THE FOOD! TAKE THAT CRITICS!

I like the idea that we should never be able to discuss Top Chef without tasting the food. Isn't it the premise (gamble?) of all cooking competition shows that you can?

I think they're ruining this show with the increasingly gimmicky challenges

airplane food, really? yr gonna base the elimination around who can best navigate a Boeing warmer oven?

that said, Bourdain should be a permanent judge

"that looks like something they found in the back of Bob Marley's closet"

for realz. that shit was lame. they might as well have them cook with with an Easy-Bake Oven.

OTM about Bourdain too! that guy is great

Everything about this show is gay and wrong, but the worst part for me is that simply can't stand anyone on it, from the chefs to to the judges. Occasionally a guest will be tolerable.

** since Trey got booted anyway

i think Kasey is pretty likable though.
the show has been good in the past. i keep hoping it will be good again.

I agree, too many hokey challenges. and no one seems like LOADED with talent on this show, as compared to seasons 1 and 2.

hung seems pretty amazing, if a total douche. kasey has really grown on me, after boring the piss outta me for the first half of the season.

Anthony Bourdain is so badass. My personal hero.

you see the episode of his show where he went to brazil and did ayahuesca and then had to pretend he hadn't the next day?

Dude was trippin ballz

yah. the one last week in argentina was great.

I really prefer Rick Steves. Ok kidding.

rick steves ... of 'back door productions' ?

he doesn't strike me as being of any particular persuasion besides Canadian.

bourdain's other good zing was saying that brian's rubbery lobster had the consistency of a doll head

http://media.canada.com/idl/vasn/20060617/203278-72905.jpg

I have mixed feelings about Bourdain...all his "lou reed of cooking" I'm such a bad-ass talking about booze and cigs and how decadent he is at all times, just comes accross so annoying half the time...

BUT...No Reservations is fucking GREAT and amidst all of that he comes up with some amazing insights, simple things about life and he expresses them simply and eloquently and I end up finding it really moving. The trip to Cleveland w/ Harvey Pekar was great, and the episode in Beirut should be nominated for a Pulitzer or some kind of award.

I was let down a bit by the NYC episode(s) he did with Zimmern. He admits to not knowing the outer-boroughs, and I know they have to make it a "travel" show, but do I really want to watch him on the Trapeze for 10 minutes or have Fat Dave the Cabbie take him to a rifle range? Shouldn't Dave have taken him to Di Faras or SPP? The trip to Kebab Cafe was great and reminds me I need to take my parents. For those who haven't been, he has veggie and basic meat options, it's not all goat brains or whatever.

That Doll Head reference had me confused but laughing.

In the Time Out issue where they ask all the chefs secret questions, one chef's response about Bourdain was "Terrible cook, great writer".

Have you been reading his blog on Bravo.tv and his feud with Rocco? Great stuff.

was there more on that? I thought after the first salvo AB was trying to squash the beef. haven't read the blog the past couple weeks.

The episode in Beirut is tiresome (read like one giant advertisement for goarmy.com.) I also liked Bourdain a lot more before I found out that he left his presumably long suffering wife not long after Kitchen Confidential came out and then immediately married some young italian babe who he just had a tot with.

It's a travel show. What do you expect from an episode that takes place the day a war starts, intense investigative journalism? Just dealing with the issue of being amidst that all of a sudden, of talking to and about the people who were there to show them around, then the people who were there to keep them alive. Dealing with boredom and stress etc. How is that an ad for goarmy.com?

There was AB's initial post, then Rocco's response, then at the end of a later AB post, the beef squashing, I think.

wait so bourdain did compare the lobster to the head of a doll? i thought i might have misheard/misunderstood him.

plastic doll? doll stuffed with cotton? porcelain doll? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

oh man I had a dream last night where bourdain wrote about out-of-print music he liked for my blog.

I'm watching too much TV.

http://www.craftamerica.com/images/products/12370-p_dimple_doll_face.jpg

mmmmmm tasty

"doll head" is what I heard but it was hard to tell. so bizarre.

I think my perception of the Beirut show was heavily influenced by the fawning Salon piece.

i can't wait for Hung and Padma to get it on

and the Bourdain-Colicchio version of Grumpier Old Men

xpost
so not gonna happen

Is it just me or does Hung always look completely blown out on this show? He's been roasting joints in the walk-in or something.

i heard 'doll's hair'

Hung is the greatest. Watching him quickly prepare chickens was one of the best things ever.

In an upcoming episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain will be sharing a holiday dinner with the Queens of the Stone Age as they wear intentionally-atrocious holiday sweaters and get wasted.

he rocked those chickens quick like

i think Casey is still chopping the onions

in Tom's blog about that episode, he said that Casey had a really dull knife, but it was still her fault because that's something chefs have to deal with.

In an episode with challenges tailor made to showcase his strengths, Hung Calls his shot and actually backs it up with convincing dominance. Dude has skills and it showed.
I can’t imagine that somebody like Tre wouldn’t have shined at this point in the competition as well.(still sucks that he got bounce like months ago) You have to give it up to Casey though. She seems to have a natural talent and has been making some constantly solid dishes. All in all it was nice to see some straight up challenges that didn’t involve planes or frozen foods or whatever the hell else they’ve been doing.

yeah exactly

and the right person got the boot, too

yeah, she needed to go. and what the hell kinda accent is that anyways?
is that supposed to be jamacian?

yes I think she's from the Caribbean

but every time she made something w/ "the Jamaican flavors I grew up with" the judges were all "it's bland," "the couscous is terrible"

she never made anything that looked really good

gotta think Hung is the front-runner now, he's won 3 out of the last 4 challenges

I wish Tre hadn't got kicked so early

Tre would have definitely been Hung's best competition at this point. it would have been great to see them battle it out in the finally.

oops..finale rather

I find the accusation that Hung doesn't cook from his "soul" or whatever really insulting and weird. Maybe he's a danger to other chefs in the kitchen, but he really has everything I'd want in a chef apart from that.

Old dudes be hitting on Casey.

I can see the criticism of Hung - maybe he's just really smart to keep giving the judges exactly what they want, but when he's going for the win he shows very little imagination. I keep seeing him as a damn good sous chef or something, but can you see him running his own kitchen, making meals people want to eat?

hung more consistently makes things i would want to eat than anyone else.

is casey really supposed to be attractive?

She's 'Dallas hot.'

shes got an aniston thing about her

yeah i see that, except no

I kept thinking Hung would be like his homeboy Marcel, and he started out that way but at some point realized classics win more than foam.

he did throw a chicken-skin chip on top of his meal, that was at least a little bit of a flourish

he did that before in another challenge me thinks

all i know is brian's meal looked gross

I want to eat that chicken skin chip.

was brians the peasants pie? they all loved it!

in a blind taste test three out of four judges preferred green potatoes

xpost
oh i know! apparently it tasted good but it was this big green .... disc.

it was interesting that 3 judges had 3 different faves

Can't believe that Dale pulled that win out of his ass.

good episode

I was surprised everyone seemed to have trouble on the quickfire, seemed pretty basic to me

I was pretty convinced that Dale was going home. Damn you, Bravo editors.

I lolled at Hung at judge's table, so shameless

TOM: Hung, I am concerned we don't see enough of you in your food. You have technical skills but we'd like to see more soul.
PADMA: Why should each of you be Top Chef?
HUNG: Because I cook with my SOUL, I pour my HEART AND SOUL into every dish, my mom, my grandma, my grandma's grandma, my uncle's cousin's sister, my neice, my first cousin's nephew, al contribute to my HIGHLY SOULFUL COOKING.

i haven't seen the episode yet, but this "we don't see enough of you in your food" sounds like serious bullshit

the "Hung cooks with no soul thing" has been a reoccurring theme though, hasn’t it?
i don't really get this. they keep saying that he has technical skills. i see that what he puts out there looks nice. I’ve never heard anyone say that the food he puts out didn't taste good. does he not season aggressively enough or something?

so why shouldn't he or the scriptwriter give them some back?

i think they mean he's asian, actually

Dale was the only one they seemed to like leading up to Judge's Table. I thought it was obvious he was going to win. Seemed like they basically drew straws for the other three, though.

Hung is a dipshit. "All the cowboys are just gonna want barbecue" - you're in Aspen, dumbass, they're all crazy rich ranchers.

Hung is like a kitchen automaton. Except for the cereal quickfire, dude basically plates up something that's technically proficient, but that appears to be about it.

What I think they're missing, though, is that Hung's soul is the technique.

when will somebody invent taste-o-vision?

the dude is the most inventive in the group. when they say show me your soul, they're complaining about his giving them relatively straightforward dishes. never mind that that's what the challenges keep calling for.

yeah I think they suspect he is playing it safe

but when he tried to do weird stuff he got ripped for it (probably rightly so, cauliflower ice cream looked nasty)

Hung's stuff always kind of seems like more like it's going to be good based on science and practice rather than gut feeling or willingness to gamble on something that might be great or might suck.

He's been playing it safe and they want some Marcel-esque innovation. Or Tom want him to make spring rolls and a nice bowl of Pho.

I would like to see Tom braise his racing cap with a nice hen-of-the-woods mushroom

"Soul" just means "comforting flavors", as Bourdain pointed out in his blog entry. Hung says "refined" but he means "austere", or "elevated". He is less interested in pleasing the audience, more interested in food for food's sake.

But looking at the food that Casey trots out, I don't really see a huge difference in terms of the kinds of food the two of them create. They're both purveyors of overly ornate haute cuisine, but Hung falls back on his technique as a crutch, and Casey falls back on flavor. Ultimately, the judges are almost always going to pick "delicious with mediocre technique" over "superb technique with okay flavor". That's why Dave did well in Season 1.

That said, I think that Hung is going to blow everyone away next week. I don't like Casey's chance of winning with the "soul" of her beloved pan-asian cuisine (just like her grandmother used to make!) when compared to Hung's inarguable pho cred.

As always, Dale will be around to provide amusing play-by-play for the folks at home.

"Soul" just means "comforting flavors", as Bourdain pointed out in his blog entry.

so it really is racist

Someone should have informed Colicchio that there are no elk in Texas. Or, really, any native large game. Even our deer are basically overgrown German Shepherds.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/elk/

The only native Elk in Texas were in the southern part of the Guadalupe Mountains and belonged to the species Cervus merriami, which has been extinct since the early 1900s.

Now, five small herds of wild Elk live in Texas, in the Guadalupe Mountains, Glass Mountains, Wylie Mountains, Davis Mountains, and Eagle Mountains. Many others are kept on ranches all over the state.

I like Casey's chance of winning based on the stated desire to have a female Top Chef this season. Hung's the Omarosa of the season, not good odds for him. Flighty charismatic gay dude in third place seems like a casting choice winner, glad to see they kept that.

Wanted to make some sort of pho/faux cred joke, but.. meh.

don't you mean feh?

Hung's the Omarosa of the season

low blow! he ain't that bad

He's as close as they come, and every reality competition needs a villain ("bitchy" often suffices, as no one really reaches Omarosa levels). Top Chef had that red-headed chick, Marcel, and now Hung. All runners-up.

i don't really think of Hung as that bad of a guy. he's cocky maybe but besides that the other contestants got along with him pretty well. as for the people you mentioned above there were plenty of people that straight up hated them

if this season had a villain it was Howie

Ah good point, though it only came out on group challenges (when it might have been a cover for his limited abilities). He didn't have the arrogance that makes a true reality TV villain you love to hate.

Haha, what a cool twist having celeb chefs act as sous chefs.

Wow, it seems like Casey totally bombed.

I thought Dale was going to win.

I did to, but Tom really hated his lobster. I mean, when you look at the whole season, Hung never really did a bad dish, just some boring and safe ones, whereas Dale really had some doozies. Once Hung said "I'm doing a classic chocolate cake to show how versatile I am" I was like "HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED ANYTHING!?!?!?"

I thought it might have been Dale for a moment, but Hung was so much more consistent over the whole series. Dale had fits of brilliance but had a bunch of weird fuckups along the way.

The "live" segment (in quotes cause I'm on Pacific time) was funny because Casey didn't seem stressed at all - she knew she wasn't going to win and didn't have to worry about a thing.

Hung is so calculated. I guess that makes him unlikeable to some people but I just love it. Glad he won, even though Dale and Casey would have been fine choices.

The celebrity sous chef idea was very very cool.

http://www.tvgasm.com/shows/images/topchef/season3/hungexcited.jpg

don't have musch to add, it was a solid finale

oh how about when Hung said to Rocco, "I was reading on Anthony Bourdain's blog .... "

that was a little too meta for me.

but where did AB say anything about how Hung and Rocco should have a face off? Does Rocco have impressive knife skills?

RC: I have to agree. Women’s food is, for the most part, more accessible, it’s easier to understand, it’s friendlier, it’s more comforting, and it doesn’t get bogged down in all these nutty freaking trends.
SJ: I find there’s a lot of technique in male food.

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/39595/?ftr-promo

Holiday Special

i'll watch this

it wuz good

i want to make the salted butternut pudding recipe

you saw it already?

i came home to find it tivoed last night?

Deluxe TimeMachineTivo
i want one

tre wuz robbed again.

oh sry didnt mean to spoil it for you.

Item! Top Chef finalist Dale is dating Jack from Project Runway 4.

eew

i don't like jack's face.