Top Chef

Yea I know I'm a little late but regarding Top Chef on Wednesday, come on Bravo, I'm getting kinda bored. Let's get down to business. It's time to get rid of Ron, and the red-headed woman who was in the bottom 3 last episode. They really should've just trashed the whole bottom three cause I'm just getting sick of watching them each round. There's only about 5 people who can really cook and they are Jen, the two bros and the two chubby Jewish guys.

Mike, the one with the spiky hair, is basically the kid at school who thinks he's so cool and tries so desperately to hang out with the popular kids, and he almost succeeds, until they realize that he stinks at football. He really thinks hes part of the top crew, but from what I've seen, hes really not.

So alright Bravo. Let's get it down to the bottom five. Maybe cut two people in one episode like you did two weeks ago? Like seriously, why is Ron still here? I mean he seems like a cool dude and all, but come on now. And if you're gonna keep him around at least put up some closed caption when he talks. The talent this season is really concentrated in the top 5 and until it gets down, it won't be as interesting.
End Rant. It's 12:30, goodnight.

Top Chef posting

I haven't blogged about Top Chef at all this year, but that's not to say I haven't been watching. By the time Wednesday rolls around I'm anxious in anticipation for each new episode. Last week's challenge was my favorite so far. I was quite jealous when I saw the chefs preparing food from Stone Barns. Then they complained about not being able to go to Whole Foods! Come on!

I really like Leah, and she really likes Hosea. Can't wait to see what goes down this episode. I'm really disappointed with Fabio's recent performance. In the first few episodes he looked so strong. It looked like it was gonna be the Europeans down to the end. I really hope he doesn't leave though. He has got to fulfill his role as the hilarious Italian guy with quick and witty remarks; like the time Jamie had made scallops for two straight challenges, "this is Top Chef, not top Scallop!" -Not sure how he came up with that one.

And how can I forget the new guy, Toby Young. I wonder if he has already informed Obama that he knows where the weapons of mass destruction are located.

I'm extremely excited for this week's episode. Restaurant Wars is the best. I feel like this episode is the real test of the chefs' skills not just in the kitchen. If they can succeed in restaurant wars, they can succeed in the business. Well, that's a stretch. I just hope no one does diner food this year.

Top Chef

Hey, don't read this if you don't want to know who won.


This was quite the finale. The cheftestants chose from 3 chefs, each with a different set of proteins. They would then cook with these chefs. Stephanie wisely chose Eric Ripert (I swear he's in 90% of this site's posts) or the "Ripper" as Grub Street calls him, my main man Richard chose Dan Barber, the chef at Blue Hill in New York (really intellectual chef), and Lisa chose April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig. It was quite interesting watching Eric Ripert, a chef who now does frequent the kitchen, work. I liked it even more when Steph thought she had caught him doing something wrong. There was the slightest glimpse of a little Eric Ripert drama on Top Chef.

It was rather funny hearing Lisa's interpretation of her "bonding" with April, compared to mine. Lisa really thought they were getting close. To me it just seemed like the directors showed a few scenes where April was asking her questions. But I don't really know now do I?

Surprisingly, Stephanie and Eric were quite flustered, yet Lisa was grillin and chillin throughout the competition. Even more surprisingly, she put out some great food for the judges (not that I would've been able to tell by looking at it). Richard clearly choked, and said so at the end, realizing his imminent defeat. I really think he could have pulled this off, and I was disappointed that he didn't really show off what he could do. At one point I was extremely scared for a moment that the rules of gravity would subside, the earth would turn upside down, and Lisa would win Top Chef. Anyway, I quickly looked past those fears and Stephanie won. Woohoo! Can't wait till next season.

Oh and, if you happen to be a Bravo producer, I'll bake you brownies if you can get me on Top Chef Junior.

Top Chef Junior

OH
MY
GOD

Read this. Seriously, read it right now then come back here.

Done? Ok.

I am so frikin excited about that and you can be sure I will try as hard as I can to get on that show. Training starts tomorrow. Now I'm going to watch the Top Chef season finale, and pray that my boy Richard can pull out the W. Post on that coming tomorrow. Oh and I'm really banking on Padma being the host for TCJ.

Restaurant Wars

What a great episode last night. The cheftestants finally had a fun challenge.

The show started off with a quickfire consisting of manning the egg station at a popular breakfast joint (not Ihop). Antonia won, but we really didn't get to see much of the challenge. Clearly most of the time was being saved for restaurant wars. Mmm I was excited. Antonia's advantage allowed her to choose her team, and she clearly had the best picks, taking Steph and Richard. Wow, that's a team to beat. That left Spike, Lisa and Dale, and ahh the drama was inevitable.

The latter team tried an Asian restaurant, which was doomed to fail, while Antonia's group played it rather safe with a gastropub. I'll keep this post short, but I wish I could've gone to the gastropub. Is it only me? Or does anyone else hate Lisa? I can't stand her. Contrarily, I love Spike. It's pretty obvious he has no chance of winning, but the fact that he can seem to slide by every episode by doing nothing, is pretty amusing. Does he buy a new hat for every challenge?
I was kinda annoyed that Dale had to go home. Looks like no more Dale-Lisa drama for us viewers. I really hope Lisa flips at like Richard, who is rather quiet, next week. I wanna see her uppercut.

Dale being cut is just one step closer for Richard, and that makes me one step closer to the 5 bucks I'm entitled if he wins!

Sam Talbot!

Sam Talbot, what a guy (he's even well dressed). Sam was my pick to win Top Chef season 2, and he should have, but came up just short. He came back last night as a guest judge and maintained his signature scowl throughout the episode.

The cheftestants had to forego giving some Chi-Town cops doughnuts and feed them some healthy meals. Spike (and his hat) won the quickfire with a messy-looking salad, and as a result got to shop for a few components of his healthy dish 10 minutes before anyone else. His choices would be unavailable to anyone else. Though he wouldn't admit it to Tom, Spike clearly tried to sabotage everybody by choosing bread, tomatoes, and chicken. Despite this advantage, Spike made an awful grape and olive filled chicken salad which he claimed "should work because it's salty and sweet." Tom reminded him that olives and grapes have other flavors to them.

I honestly can't remember the winning dish. I know Dale won, but none of the good dishes really stuck out to me. The bad dishes, on the other hand, were noticeable. Andrew's "sushi" did not appeal to me in the slightest. I knew he was landing himself in the bottom three once he substituted sushi rice with a parsnip, pine-nut mixture. Lisa was also in the bottom for jumbling some veggies and rice into what she called a "stir fry."

At judges table, Lisa made another enemy in Andrew. Of course she had to call him out in front of the judges. Fortunately for her, Andrew and his dirty mouth went home. I think Bravo might have rigged this elimination so that they could move their rating from TV-14 down to TV-PG.

As I saw in the preview for next week's episode, I was wrong about what I said in my previous top chef post about wedding wars replacing restaurant wars. Can't wait till next week.

I'm Popeye's Wet Dream

I'm popeye's wet dream, quotes Andrew, amidst a mountain of spinach.

This week's episode was my favorite yet, despite the fact that they took out the beloved restaurant wars and replaced it "Wedding Wars." The cheftestants started with the skills challenge, which divided them in two teams and pitted them against eachother in peeling oranges, cleaning artichokes, filleting monkfish, and making mayo.

Richard's (blonde mohawk) team obviously prevailed as it was clear they had the better cooks. They then won the elimination challenge which required them to cater a wedding. We saw Dale freak out a few times, Andrew utter a few priceless quotes, and we saw Richard do that thing he does (win).

Did anyone see that monkfish dinosaur? That thing is rediculous! I wonder if that's what gave Andrew a "culinary boner?" Or maybe it was my girl Stephanie who really knows how to work a whisk.

I loved seeing Dale get angry and dent that locker, kinda exposes him for the five-year old he is. The Dale, Stephanie, Nikki tension really elevated Top Chef in the drama aspect. I felt like I was watching the "Real World" with no sneaky hookups and a lot of stoves in the house. Actually I take that back. Who knows what happened with Spike and Mark (the aussie) in that bathtub.

I don't know how the contestants managed to stay up for over 24 hours without passing out. All that seemed to do was create a few yawns and stop Andrew from talking.

Anyway, the food from that challenge was delicious. I wanted Richard's brisket and I would've loved some of Stephanie's cake. In the end, Richard pulled out the victory, but gave the award to Stephanie (what a guy) because she took the challenge of making the cake. Nikki was ultimately sent home, probably because she hasn't done anything up until now. She had just been gliding by on the strands of her pasta, not creating any sort of impact on the competition. I stick with my prediction and say Richard's gonna win. I have money resting on him and I have the utmost confidence that he will pull out the W.

Until Next Thursday

Top Chef

Top Chef is my jon. Translate that to English and you have "I love Top Chef." I however, wasn't too fond of last night's episode which started with the contestants making Uncle Ben's microwave rice and concluded with them making $10 family meals. Ultimately Mark was sent home due to some lackluster vegetable kerry (curry in American accent).

Why didn't I like it? What's wrong with a family meal challenge? Aren't I a family guy? Um, of course, but I don't want to see $10 meals when I watch a show who's ultimate goal is to find a "Top Chef." I want to see heavily refined, well, not necessarily refined (depends on your style) but food that was painstakingly created and clearly shows the chefs potential. Uncle Ben's microwaveable rice! Come on!

I also can't believe that the chefs just used $10 to create a four person meal, and went to Whole Foods to shop! What food store on earth is more notorious for being overpriced? Ok, maybe Williams Sonoma but that's more appliances. Though Whole Foods usually has good quality products, I would definitely not reccomend it to someone on a budget. Anyway, next episode should be exciting. We will talk more then.