I’d like to see a change made by allowing everyone to cook the first, say 3 episodes, and then at the end of the 4th, four people eliminated. Something of that nature.
Marcel is just made for TV reality.
I was traveling from Wed-Sun and finally had a chance to watch this on DVR last night. Too bad to see Elia go so early, as she is really talented. Man this is going to be a great, great season of TC. Basically zero baggage and every elimination will be painful, although I can’t wait to see Fabio eliminated. Clearly one of the weakest. And too bad that Kevin Gillespie isn’t there as I would love to see him face off against Richard Blais. Maybe also Stefan Richter. Still, great lineup.
Great start. Lucky straw.
Padma comes off as cold and utterly devoid of anything interesting to say. Her bailout phrase seems to be “Tom?”.
I’m excited about this season – some very interesting chefs from past seasons.
Just think, Salman Rushdie used to be that straw. ![[mouth-drop.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/cb6e7b1a33d9283fbdd244c98735e5d3be11476b.gif "[mouth-drop.gif]"){kind=small}
Hater!
I really love looking at her, but I think she’s a stiff and boring hostess most of the time.
Ah well, I do enjoy the show regardless. I liked Top Chef Masters too.
I like TCM, but Kelly Choi is a truly awful host. Just Desserts (aka Hell’s Bakery) was entertaining but weird. And Gail Simmons (like Ted Allen) proves what a good Second Banana she is, as you realize what a terrible host she is - with (gulp, don’t laugh) none of the earnestness Padma brings to “please pack your knives and go.” I forget Gail’s catchphrase, but at the end of every episode I though “you’re nice, you shouldn’t be in the middle of the table, you’re trying too hard.”
I completely agree.
JD
The guy must either have a huge straw, a large wallet or a great personality. I saw him at Momofuku Ssam Bar with an amazingly hot redhead one day at lunch.
I think Top Chef just jumped the shark.
Whoah! Are you kidding me??? Jenn, gone??? Such a wrong call, though what was up with her attitude? Girl, you have to politely agree to disagree. Her defense of her dish, which honestly didn’t seem that good, was a bit insane. That said, Jamie did absolutely nothing and weaseled out of the competition because of a cut every other chef there would’ve ignored. Just stunned. She’s easily one of the most talented chefs there and I expected her in the finals.
Other than that shocker, I thought the quickfire and elimination themes were rather lame.
Even though Tom made a “statement” that they don’t mind them “defending” their dish, and that they would not send them home for it, I think they have already had two issues where there was extreme confrontations of sorts between judges and chefs and they sent her home to send a message to them all. I really do believe that they are afraid of others feeling that it is safe to do the same, and then have it escalate into something worse. I mean, Favio actually threatened Bourdain in the first episode. Then Jenn acted like she was on something and made a fool of herself and went way beyond just defending her dish. I do think she should have been sent home. She clearly was not mentally ready for it. Sometimes, no matter how good you are, you mess up.
And this show is definitely not set up to find out who is the best chef, anymore than project runway is going to find the best designer. This episode shows how it is more interested in fun, pitting people against each other, people doing whatever they have to, in order to get to the next episode.
I was hoping for Jen to make it to the finals, but her behavior was simply inexcusable and her breakdown as she went out the door showed she was either mentally ill prepared for the season or she was under the influence of outside substance(s). I agree with Steve that giving Jen a pass would have sent a bad message to the other competitors. After all it is just a game show really and disrespect for the judges with whom the contestants agreed to be judged is just silly and uncalled for. Sad.
I don’t know about “outside substances” but I bet lack of sleep had something to do with it. However, she took ownership of her dish, saying that Jamie’s absence made no difference. Considering how much the judges poo-poo’d her dish, and how everything seemed to go wrong with it (as opposed to only 1 aspect of Trey’s), then it became clear they had to let her go. Remember, they’re judged on each episode’s work. But I did expect her to last longer. And yes, her attitude probably did not help matters.
If you watch the exit interview, she remains amazingly arrogant about the whole thing, so I’m not sure a temporary lack of sleep accounts for her attitude.
And yes, Jamie’s reaction to a cut that required a whopping 2, count 'em, 2 stitches, was inexcusable. I think I’ve cut myself worse when cooking at home (hello Mr. Benriner!).
Jaime is just ridiculous. Pretty lame set of challenges. I hate to see one of the more talented chefs go due to circumstances(somewhat) beyond their control but you have to be able to move with the punches.
Back to last week Bourdain would beat that poser Italian
like a bag of stuffed ravioli. (IMHO)
I thought Jen would have been one of the favorites for the season (and had high hopes for a steamy Jen-Casey hook-up), but can understand how the dish fell short. Pork belly and hard boiled agg. C’mon.
I thought it was great (whether the dish was good, bad, or indifferent) that once again (like Fab in ep 1) we had a chef defending their dish. Fun different dynamic from normal seasons.
I thought the challenges were kind of lame - but after the classic first episode, it was going to be hard to be as good.
I have to agree that I was surprised to see Jen go so fast, but considering these ‘cheftestants’ have all been through this before, they know how this game is played.
I read somewhere that she didn’t want to participate this season, but Ripert stepped down as judge and pushed her to compete. That’s how we ended up with Bourdain.
While I love Bourdain, I would much rather have had Ripert over that hot mess.
I really thought Trey was going to go home – he made a mistake, knew about it, yet did nothing to correct it. On the other hand, at least he was aware of his dish’s shortcomings, whereas Jen seemed totally clueless. Her breakdown right outside of the stew-room door was shocking; I’m betting on lack of sleep – the 45 min. nap that many of them took had to have done more harm then good — at that point, just stay awake!
As for TC having jumped the shark: no way! I still believe this will be the best season yet; every season has its “clunker” challenges. At least with this season there isn’t a bunch of chaff to sort through during the first half of the season. Each and every week a really good chef will go home (except the weeks when Stephen and Fabio pack it up).
Not to mention Carla. Hootie Hoo!
