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"Top Chef" (2006-) Reality Chef-Competition Series on Bravo - Now in Season 16


cheezepowder

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We don't seem to have a thread on Top Chef on the Bravo network. Season 3 starts this Wed, June 13th at 10pm. Does anyone else watch it? I'm hoping Season 3 will be better than Season 2 (as in, less drama), although the previews don't make it seem that way.

Actually, I'm betting that there will be more drama and the contestents will not be as skilled as the ones from before.

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I thought it was interesting that Lee Ann Wong, from the first season, is now a member of the Top Chef production team. She was probably the most mature, professional chef of the first bunch, but was eliminated in favor of having more of a dramatic good guy/bad girl showdown for the finale, which was ultimately won by Harold Dieterle.

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Actually, I'm betting that there will be more drama and the contestents will not be as skilled as the ones from before.

You're probably right, dw. But this is one of the guilty pleasures I allow myself. I am sure I'll watch the theatrics. It's gotta be better than Hell's Kitchen.

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I thought it was interesting that Lee Ann Wong, from the first season, is now a member of the Top Chef production team. She was probably the most mature, professional chef of the first bunch, but was eliminated in favor of having more of a dramatic good guy/bad girl showdown for the finale, which was ultimately won by Harold Dieterle.
I do agree that Lee Ann was one of the most mature personalities on the show but I do think the right two made it to the finals in season 1. After reading and watching some of the "making of" stuff I think that the judging is actually pretty honest and without influence from producers. I know some watchers will jump to say I am naive but I think it is kind of a Hearst-esque "you provide the pictures, I provide the war" type of situation. I think that they carry out the contest filming every interaction and then after the smoke clears, writers make a story out of the thousands upon thousands of hours they have on film. If the finals had ended up being Leanne and Harold I am sure we would have seen much more shots of the two of them getting into it throughout the season. I know that if I was living together for a month or two cramped up in an apartment in an intense contest with one of my best friends, they would have enough footage to make us look like mortal enemies in a few 30 minute episodes.

Anyways, I thought Harold and red-head chick (blackout on name) were actually the two strongest technical chefs on the first season. I felt that they messed up a bit 2nd season sending Ilan and Marcel. I don't believe it was intentional to create drama but because of the policy that no past contests or behavior affect the decisions. Marcel and Ilan were probably not the two best overall but there isn't much denying that they did the best on the semifinals and due to the guidelines given to the judges, belonged in the final. The other two really crapped the bed on that last elimination challenge I thought.

I thought there was a lot less talent second season in general and most of the chefs in season 2 wouldn't have cracked the top 5 on season 1. Beth and I both commented after seeing the preview for 3 on the number of young attractive chefs in the promo. Nothing against young attractive people I am sure they sell more ad time but when it comes to quality cheffing give me fat old and possibly even ugly.

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The eG thread on Top Chef suggests that this season's contestants might actually be the strongest yet. An executive sous chef at Jean Georges. . .a sous chef at Guy Savoy in Vegas. . .a former sous chef at Trio outside of Chicago. Some good resumes.

Likewise Season 2's contestants had more established pedigrees than those in Season 1, hailing from Casa Mono, Robuchon in Vegas, etc.). Overall I thought the challenges in Season 1 were more conducive to assessing the chefs' abilities than Season 2, which brought us vending machine amuse bouche, canned foods, and overt product placements as part of the challenges.

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I thought it was interesting that Lee Ann Wong, from the first season, is now a member of the Top Chef production team. She was probably the most mature, professional chef of the first bunch, but was eliminated in favor of having more of a dramatic good guy/bad girl showdown for the finale, which was ultimately won by Harold Dieterle.
I don't know that the words dramatic and Harold belong in the same sentence - I think he's clearly the most talented chef of the two seasons to this point, and likely the most mature as well. I actually think Lee Ann would have fared better in season two - no doubt she would have beaten Andy Nusser Jr. (oops, Ilan) and Marcel...Ilan has no range whatsoever, as shown in the reunion challenge.
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I hope the judges eliminate the first person who offers a foam on their dish just on principle.

I don't know if anyone else caught the Season 1 v. Season 2 one-off (the top 4 from each season competed for charity and cooked for the judges & the new Season 3 cast), but apparently there are several "Marcel disciples" in the incoming cast. It was not at all surprising that Season 1 wiped the floor with Season 2.

Also, funny story about Stephen Asprinio, the sommelier. A chef I know taught him in culinary school and said he was quite the character -- exactly the same as we see him on the show. He came into school with stages at places like Nobu and Daniel listed on his resume -- some impossibly impressive credentials for a twenty-something. When pressed, he admitted that he had only eaten at all those places! He was told to calm down and realize that he was a little fish at a place like Cornell (where, for example, the son of the Barclay's chairman had a suite in the hotel and ordered room service every day). At first, everyone else hated him for being pompous and arrogant but after while people realized that Stephen was just being Stephen and really came to like him. I have to say, he put in the most impressive showing in the Season 1 v. 2 showdown.

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I don't know if anyone else caught the Season 1 v. Season 2 one-off (the top 4 from each season competed for charity and cooked for the judges & the new Season 3 cast), but apparently there are several "Marcel disciples" in the incoming cast.
Marcel's "rap" on this showdown special may have been the most cringe-worthy TV moment I've ever seen. Holy cow. There's gotta be a You Tube clip out there if you didn't see the show.
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During the challenge, it really was no surprise that Season One beat up on Season Two, it really wasn't even close. The only person on Season Two that really did well, during the challenge and the entire season, was Sam, he was the best by far. But, I have to agree with an earlier post, you have to be good every week and he did a bad job in the semifinals, so he didn't make it to the finals. It sucks, but that is the way it works sometimes.

Personally, Harold was the best in season one and Sam was the best in season two. And, while I never liked Marcel, I think that he got a bad rap in season two, he was a prick, but it is not like the other contestants were that much nicer or more mature.

Interesting story about Stephen. He definitely seems like a pompous ass, but he also seems to be the most with it all of the time, especially during the challenge. Very calm, not rushing around like a maniac, always in control.

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At first, everyone else hated him for being pompous and arrogant but after while people realized that Stephen was just being Stephen and really came to like him.

I really couldn't stand him during Season 1 and we did a little cheer when he got sent packing. But he really won me over during the reunion when he stood up and apologized to Candice for the way he spoke to her. He told her that she was great and that she never deserved all those things he said to her. It showed a different side to him.

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I really couldn't stand him during Season 1 and we did a little cheer when he got sent packing. But he really won me over during the reunion when he stood up and apologized to Candice for the way he spoke to her. He told her that she was great and that she never deserved all those things he said to her. It showed a different side to him.

I thought Stephen was having more of an "I love you man!" Bud moment. Like the drunk first bride in "Four Weddings and a Funeral": "I love you, and I love you too. I don't know you, but I love you" ;)

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I really couldn't stand him during Season 1 and we did a little cheer when he got sent packing. But he really won me over during the reunion when he stood up and apologized to Candice for the way he spoke to her. He told her that she was great and that she never deserved all those things he said to her. It showed a different side to him.

You know he grew on me too. I think he watched some of those episodes and saw himself going on and on about some obscure wine region or the anthropological signifigance of some root vegetable while the listeners were looking around for someone to rescue them or heard how bad he sounded trying to berate another talented chef and had an epiphany. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he just realized he is a pompous douche and is trying to get better.

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You know he grew on me too. I think he watched some of those episodes and saw himself going on and on about some obscure wine region or the anthropological signifigance of some root vegetable while the listeners were looking around for someone to rescue them or heard how bad he sounded trying to berate another talented chef and had an epiphany. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he just realized he is a pompous douche and is trying to get better.

I wonder if it was also that compared to Marcel's pompousness and immaturity, Stephen simply comes off as someone who is basically a little snotty and annoyingly erudite, but overall has some class. It was an interesting counterpoint that the two "villains" were cooking against each other, and Marcel gave Tom a ton of attitude while Stephen was calm and pleasant. Stephen still managed to outclass everyone from Season 2, except for Sam.

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I wonder if it was also that compared to Marcel's pompousness and immaturity, Stephen simply comes off as someone who is basically a little snotty and annoyingly erudite, but overall has some class. It was an interesting counterpoint that the two "villains" were cooking against each other, and Marcel gave Tom a ton of attitude while Stephen was calm and pleasant. Stephen still managed to outclass everyone from Season 2, except for Sam.

I liked how Marcel and Dave were going on and on while arguing with eachother and Harold just had to say "ENOUGH!" (or something like that) and they both shut up. It was obvious who the executive chef was among the group.

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I liked Stephen, even during Season 1. He was a holier than thou kind of guy, but you could tell he was passionate about what he was doing. I like that. Marcel is just a bit of a weird little man. I am sure he can cook, and cook well, but I think he spends too much time on the frou foru side of cooking rather than assembling a great dish with pure core flavors first and then, time permitting, add in the frou frou.

Season 3 starts tonight and it ought to be interesting.

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AS HungryProf point out, there are some serious chefs in this season. Along with the various pedigrees from Guy Savoy and Jean Georges, there's Tre Wilcox who's been nominated for a Beard award twice (in '05 and '06) as Rising Star chef. Makes the Hell's Kitchen lot seem even more miserable by comparison

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I watched the show from time to time. As with all "reality shows" the producers have a real talent for finding people with serious personality issues. And as always, I'm bad at remembering names, so I'm having trouble knowing who exactly you all are talking about.

Likes

Tall dude with heavy 5 o'clock shadow who sometimes pinned his hair back.

Tall dark-haired chick (perhaps with 5 o'clock shadow) who eventually shaved her head for some reason.

Dislikes

Douchebag wineguy with the gigantic tie knots and fondness for foams.

Most of the other women (especially that red-headed broad).

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I liked Stephen, even during Season 1. He was a holier than thou kind of guy, but you could tell he was passionate about what he was doing. I like that. Marcel is just a bit of a weird little man. I am sure he can cook, and cook well, but I think he spends too much time on the frou foru side of cooking rather than assembling a great dish with pure core flavors first and then, time permitting, add in the frou frou.

Season 3 starts tonight and it ought to be interesting.

You know what was funny, the judges' favorite dish of Marcel's in the finals was actually Sam's from start to finish.

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You know what was funny, the judges' favorite dish of Marcel's in the finals was actually Sam's from start to finish.

And in Season 1, Tiffany stood there bold faced taking credit for Dave's dessert during the finale when she went up against Harold. With her cooking chops, she should have had the humility to give him the kudos. Judging from the competition with Season 2, it appears she's grown a bit.

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I am not surprised Sandee was given the axe, what with it not even really being BBQ. But Joey and Howie have issues and will need to drastically change if they expect to last more than a week or two more.

So far, I am liking the fact that they are not asking these guys to make food out of vending machines and other bizarro experiments. Give them 'real' food challenges and let's see what happens, so more of what they have been doing please is fine with me.

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And in Season 1, Tiffany stood there bold faced taking credit for Dave's dessert during the finale when she went up against Harold. With her cooking chops, she should have had the humility to give him the kudos. Judging from the competition with Season 2, it appears she's grown a bit.

I would keep picturing Salman Rushdie (ala Lumberg sex dream sequence in Office Space) though. How could they be married?!?

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By the way was that dude Clay creepy or what? In his parting words he said something about "learning to just follow his heart" from his Dad. Not trying to be insensitive but uh.... didn't his dad's heart tell him to commit suicide? I thought that was kind of weird.

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I would keep picturing Salman Rushdie (ala Lumberg sex dream sequence in Office Space) though. How could they be married?!?

I don't know. Maybe I need to get on an Ayatollah's shit list somehow.

The Satanic Cookbook

by Al-man Dentie

I already have an idea for a dessert-- "A Trifle Too Satanic"

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By the way was that dude Clay creepy or what? In his parting words he said something about "learning to just follow his heart" from his Dad. Not trying to be insensitive but uh.... didn't his dad's heart tell him to commit suicide? I thought that was kind of weird.

I thought the same thing when Clay said that.

It would have been funny to see the guests' and judges' reactions to Sara's dish if she'd used the scotch bonnet pepper marinade, but I guess she left it off.

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I thought the same thing when Clay said that.

It would have been funny to see the guests' and judges' reactions to Sara's dish if she'd used the scotch bonnet pepper marinade, but I guess she left it off.

Sara...what to say about her. She's a cook or chef or whatever and she has no idea that Scotch Bonnets are a ridiculously hot pepper? AND, she doesn't know how to light charcoal briquets? Puh-leeze!!

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Sara...what to say about her. She's a cook or chef or whatever and she has no idea that Scotch Bonnets are a ridiculously hot pepper? AND, she doesn't know how to light charcoal briquets? Puh-leeze!!

I was thinking "jeez, I hope she doesn't rub her eyes or touch any sensitive body parts for a few days" after she chopped the peppers without gloves.

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Hot banana peppers and cubanella can look similar. Reminds me of a dish I had a long time ago. It was so painfully hot but wonderful, because it was doused with mozzerella. Take a hot banana pepper, fill with ground meat and top with marinara in a casserole dish. Cook at 350 for 40 minutes, then add tons of shredded mozzerella for another 5 minutes to melt. Pain and pleasure all at once.

Yes, be at least buzzed and drinking beer.

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Padma to Divorce Rushdie!

Goes to show you how widely read this website is... obviously she saw what I wrote!

Padma Likeshmi!!! ;)

Why was she ever married to such an older guy anyway? I'll never quite understand why that happens seemingly all too often.

Any comments on last week's ejection from the show before this week? I was almost sure it was not gonna be Mica, but instead the person who made chicken a la king, but who am I to say?

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Why was she ever married to such an older guy anyway? I'll never quite understand why that happens seemingly all too often.

Any comments on last week's ejection from the show before this week? I was almost sure it was not gonna be Mica, but instead the person who made chicken a la king, but who am I to say?

in this country, the older the groom the greater the difference in age with the bride. by the time the groom is 60, the average age of the bride is quite young by comparison, according to 20-year-old or so research by george masnick of the harvard joint center for housing studies. some younger women marry older men for the financial security so they don't have to worry about shopping at saks. some women wouldn't want to marry rushdie because of the islamic hit out on him, and that's what marianne wiggins publicly said broke up their marriage, although he was in hiding at the time.

i must have missed an episode. all i can remember is that they threw off the australian who was disdainful of american comfort food because there was a strange aftertaste to her updated meatloaf and she never divulged the secret ingredient.

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i must have missed an episode. all i can remember is that they threw off the australian who was disdainful of american comfort food because there was a strange aftertaste to her updated meatloaf and she never divulged the secret ingredient.
That was Micah - who was South African. Her meatloaf did look horribly unappetizing! Now she can go be with her daughter. I hate when they skip a week...holiday weeks full of specials and reruns are sad.
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That was Micah - who was South African. Her meatloaf did look horribly unappetizing! Now she can go be with her daughter. I hate when they skip a week...holiday weeks full of specials and reruns are sad.

okay, it's all starting to come back to me. the reinvented chicken a la king was hauled in because it didn't resemble the original recipe at all -- although you could have fooled me because i have entirely forgotten what chicken a la king is (a chicken's way of being chipped beef on toast?). however, it was apparently at least borderline edible, and micah's was terrible. viewers really have to trust the judges on what's going on with the dishes because they can only make assumptions based on what the plate looks like, and those are whisked away fairly quickly. the trick in these shows is all in the editing, which provides clues, some of them misleading, about the final outcome.

one hanging question: now that he has been called on the carpet for sticking to fish, everyone will be watching closely to see how well the chef from oceanaire in san diego is able to cook meat. (one of our sons recently worked at that restaurant, so i'll have to ask him what he knows. he also worked at the restaurant of the san diego chef who lost the round where everyone had to cook on the beach; all he would tell us was that he didn't think he was going to make it even though he was a good cook.)

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Bravo has recipies on their website, and Micah's meatloaf recipe is here. Secret ingredient of raisins? The chicken a la king recipe is here and sounds better. It could be fun to have a Top Chef party where people make the dishes from the challenge based on the recipes on Bravo's website. There must be people out there who have done that.

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Bravo has recipies on their website, and Micah's meatloaf recipe is here. Secret ingredient of raisins? The chicken a la king recipe is here and sounds better. It could be fun to have a Top Chef party where people make the dishes from the challenge based on the recipes on Bravo's website. There must be people out there who have done that.

I think she used raisins because she is South African, where bobotie, a meatloaf essentially, uses raisins. The thing is, she's quite familiar with a loaf of meat and not the deer in headlights she portrayed. Plus she spent her middle and highschool in America, so I read.

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question re episode: they bitched out the San Diego Oceanaire dude for cooking lobster because "everyone knows lobster is high cholesterol"

I just googled "lobster cholesterol" and "pork chop cholesterol" and got a page that stated the cholesterol in 3 oz of "northern lobster" = 61 MG. The pork chop page said a center cut porkchop trimmed of all visible fat yields 132 MG of cholesterol. Now it didn't say how big the serving size was, but if it was 6oz--as these things typically are-- then there's a little bit more cholesterol in 6 oz of pork chop than there is in 6 oz of lobster.

(For those who don't watch the show, I'm blathering about pork chops because the winning dish was a pork chop and the challenge was "healthy versions of family favorites")

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question re episode: they bitched out the San Diego Oceanaire dude for cooking lobster because "everyone knows lobster is high cholesterol"

I just googled "lobster cholesterol" and "pork chop cholesterol" and got a page that stated the cholesterol in 3 oz of "northern lobster" = 61 MG. The pork chop page said a center cut porkchop trimmed of all visible fat yields 132 MG of cholesterol. Now it didn't say how big the serving size was, but if it was 6oz--as these things typically are-- then there's a little bit more cholesterol in 6 oz of pork chop than there is in 6 oz of lobster.

(For those who don't watch the show, I'm blathering about pork chops because the winning dish was a pork chop and the challenge was "healthy versions of family favorites")

I've been reading lots of posts on other boards about the lobster cholesterol kerfuffle. Apparently, lobster is not a high crime with regards to cholesterol. The panel dressed down the offending chef for the sake of dressing him down? out of ignorance on the subject?. The interesting thing is, Tom C. has not blogged about this episode yet. Hmm. There was already a backlash regarding what seemed to be inconsistent rules regarding fufilling the challenges. Dave (I'm not your bitch, bitch) got eliminated for not doing 3 dishes (he did 2) while Howie (TC#3) was let through in the protien challenge, while he provided a dish sans protien. Seemingly the judges can play fast and loose with the rules as they see fit, based on thier perceptions of the individual's strengths.

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I was wondering if anyone who had seen the most recent Top Chef knew anything about the blue-ribbon adorned Chaine des Rotisseurs who were part of the tasting group on the elimination challenge.

I confess, I knew nothing about this group when I saw them. Personally, I found them to of be rather snooty.

When looking at their US website- it's kind of chintzy. The Baltimore chapter has professional members which are chain restaurants like Ruth's Chris and Mccomack and Schmidt's. And also- no group in NYC, Vegas, or LA.

Anyone know the deal about this group?

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I've been reading lots of posts on other boards about the lobster cholesterol kerfuffle. Apparently, lobster is not a high crime with regards to cholesterol.

Re: the ruckus about the lobster/cholesterol, Ted Allen acknowledges the error in his blog this week.

When watching last night's show, I thought the fourth course team was stuck no matter what they chose and would have gotten chastized if they hadn't done a dessert for the last course of a tasting menu. But after reading Lee Anne's blog where she says they explicitly weren't required to make a dessert, I can understand more the judges' criticism of why try the dessert if they couldn't pull it off. But they probably thought they could do decent desserts at the time.

I thought Casey was about to waive her immunity when she was crying about feeling guilty.

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