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

[goldenticket]

I'm just wondering how long Mark is going to continue to skate by unnoticed. He hasn't done much of anything, but I guess he's been lucky enough to stay below the radar even if his team is on the chopping block. Zoi hadn't impressed me much, so didn't mind seeing her go. This bunch is definitely a lot less inspiring/interesting than previous seasons - I'm not 'feeling' any of them! Bring back Tony B. as guest-judge - we need something to liven things up!

[zoramargolis]

If they had chosen to do a soup, they probably would have been criticized by the judges for "only doing a soup", even though the judges hinted otherwise. Damned if you do...

Not if you doll it up enough--like sunchoke soup with garlic flan and morel mushrooms, or something like that.

[MelGold]

Not if you doll it up enough--like sunchoke soup with garlic flan and morel mushrooms, or something like that.

YUM...do you have a recipe for that, Zora? (wait...is it really 8:41?! - shit, need to eat something).

[Dave Pressley]

Not if you doll it up enough--like sunchoke soup with garlic flan and morel mushrooms, or something like that.

Uh...that does sound extremely awesome (it seriously just made me hungry by reading it), but even still, a pureed soup with a flan and sauteed mushrooms done by 3 chefs in 3 hours may have been heading down the "what did they do with all that time?" path of criticism by the judges. We'll never know, I guess.

[Pool Boy]

I have no tears for Zoi, as I never thought she should be there anyway. But I was really hoping for Nikki or Ryan or Spike to get the axe. Oh well. And sous vide a salmon?I can't even imagine that. But I knew they wouldn't send home any of the guys on that team...yet.

Contrary to other opinion, I think it's starting to get interesting. Still 3 people are dead weight, true, but then the gloves will have to come off.

And say NO to team elimination challenges! Bah!

[blakegwinn]

I am really getting tired of the catering challenges. I don't seem to remember the other seasons having this many catering gigs and I think that is part of the reason none of us have seen anything inspiring. They haven't really been able to just make a dish and not worry about storing, travelling, keeping warm etc. But I do think there isn't a whole lot of imagination in most of the competitors regarding the themes. With the animal dishes, element dishes and movie dishes it seems like most of them just picked a recipe out and then found a way to justify it.

[Pool Boy]

I am really getting tired of the catering challenges. I don't seem to remember the other seasons having this many catering gigs and I think that is part of the reason none of us have seen anything inspiring. They haven't really been able to just make a dish and not worry about storing, travelling, keeping warm etc. But I do think there isn't a whole lot of imagination in most of the competitors regarding the themes. With the animal dishes, element dishes and movie dishes it seems like most of them just picked a recipe out and then found a way to justify it.

I agree. I hate team events, and especially the ones more like catering. Not all restaurants do catering, and you don't need to know how to cater to be a successful 'top' chef. Bah!

[Poivrot Farci]

NYTimes on TV kitchen potty mouth.

Cursing is awesome on grade school playgrounds, the Merchant Marine and edited for television “Casino” but in a profession that voluntarily coddles the nurturing fundamentals of human existence, disciplined professionals use genital flavored expletives sparingly and deliberately, especially in front of television cameras and reporters. All other brutes swear for macho Tourette’s flair and compensate undersized restraint by slamming pots, pans and doors. The world’s finer kitchens are generally run under strict protocol of proper presentation, reserved demeanor and silence. Pop-culture be damned; profanity has little contemporary social merit other than to shock prudes and make poopie-heads below the fray giggle.

Mr. Chang’s New Yorker monologue is a boorish opus fit for bikers slinging latenight hash at Denny’s. Legitimate badass chef Alain Dutournier or Inspector Harry Callahan use quietly scorching rhetoric and imposing presence to launch cooks’ & crooks’ testicles into their lungs, like pinballs. As for Mr. Ramsay, his unparliamentary TV-doofus inspired scoldings are the gilded threshold of 5-7 for aggravated assault within a remarkably unpretentious and entertaining shit-show.

[Pool Boy]

Interesting. I am frankly a bit surprised Mark managed to squeak through given the gaffes in his cooking and presentation, but I am glad he did. He deserves to last until the they are down to 6 or 7 I think. And Nikki squeaked through again, too. No surprise there, but also no surprise she was back at the bottom. I hope she or Spike get the axe next episode.

Glad to see Ryan go. No loss there. 3 different things to eat, some of which are hard to handle while standing and walking around? I have never tailgated, but anyone could see the folly of that decision...

[dinwiddie]

As my father was fond of saying, profanity is the sign of an inadiquate vocabulary.

[Andelman]

I was glad to see Ryan go. The dude was a complete knob and seemed a bit too cocky about his cooking skills. He was also a self-proclaimed "metrosexual" that likes to go dancing instead of sports. Give me a break. I think the key to winning this competion is a fine balance between good cooking and knowing what your audience wants. Do you think Chicago Bears fans want a poached pear at a tailgate? Dumb ass.

[Dave Pressley]

Interesting. I am frankly a bit surprised Mark managed to squeak through given the gaffes in his cooking and presentation, but I am glad he did. He deserves to last until the they are down to 6 or 7 I think. And Nikki squeaked through again, too. No surprise there, but also no surprise she was back at the bottom. I hope she or Spike get the axe next episode.

Glad to see Ryan go. No loss there. 3 different things to eat, some of which are hard to handle while standing and walking around? I have never tailgated, but anyone could see the folly of that decision...

I wonder if Mark was given a pass just simply because he was the only one to choose the charcoal grill?

Nikki, in my opinion, should have gone. In the first season, the judges flipped out when a group of chefs chose to use premade cake mix--what's the difference when Nikki used premade sausage links for her sandwich? It seemed like she just cooked onions and peppers (and a few shrimp) and toasted bread. At least Ryan was trying to cook--but I agree that his food certainly wasn't "tailgater" food and seemed like it really missed the mark.

No matter. She won't last another week.

[cajcaj]

I agree that Ryan deserved to go home - he didn't think about it from a tailgate perspective at all. Can we also agree that Nikki needs to go next?? I can't remember one positive thing she's cooked, even the pasta she makes from scratch which seems to be her pride and joy hasn't been great.

[Andelman]

Nikki, in my opinion, should have gone. In the first season, the judges flipped out when a group of chefs chose to use premade cake mix--what's the difference when Nikki used premade sausage links for her sandwich? It seemed like she just cooked onions and peppers (and a few shrimp) and toasted bread. At least Ryan was trying to cook--but I agree that his food certainly wasn't "tailgater" food and seemed like it really missed the mark.

I agree. I thought she SHOULD have been the one to go home, but her personality didn't bother me as much as Ryan. We all know that she will be gone soon, but seeing the look on Ryan's face as he got booted was good enough for me.

But seriously, cooking premade sausage on a gas grill and adding peppers and onions. Totally weak. Shaggy could have done that....

[synaesthesia]

I agree. I thought she SHOULD have been the one to go home, but her personality didn't bother me as much as Ryan. We all know that she will be gone soon, but seeing the look on Ryan's face as he got booted was good enough for me.

But seriously, cooking premade sausage on a gas grill and adding peppers and onions. Totally weak. Shaggy could have done that....

Yeah. I remember they made that whole big deal when Sam from season 2 did not COOK anything. Same should apply for Nikki.

[Dave Pressley]

But seriously, cooking premade sausage on a gas grill and adding peppers and onions. Totally weak. Shaggy could have done that....

But yet, still too technical for someone with a pastry background to pull off. Ouch.

[Andelman]

But yet, still too technical for someone with a pastry background to pull off. Ouch.

Touche.

[Pool Boy]

Nikki needs to go next. Then Spike. They both suck and Nikki's survival to this point has been nothing short of a miracle.

Then it gets interesting.

And next week it looks like a pastry/baking battle (which I think is a great idea, have they ever done such a battle?) which could provide unexpected results.

[zoramargolis]

Kind of a shock that Stephanie ended up in the bottom pair--but they weren't about to boot her, since she is looking like she's good enough to end up in the finals. So Jen had to go, even there were more deserving candidates to be ousted. And Spike got to make his butternut squash soup, after all. It was more appropriate for this challenge than the previous one anyway. But this time, two people spent an hour and a half making soup, with some vanilla creme fraiche--how hard is that-- and there wasn't a peep from the judges about doing something that lacked complexity. At least they didn't win with it.

[squidsdc]

Kind of a shock that Stephanie ended up in the bottom pair--but they weren't about to boot her, since she is looking like she's good enough to end up in the finals. So Jen had to go, even there were more deserving candidates to be ousted. And Spike got to make his butternut squash soup, after all. It was more appropriate for this challenge than the previous one anyway. But this time, two people spent an hour and a half making soup, with some vanilla creme fraiche--how hard is that-- and there wasn't a peep from the judges about doing something that lacked complexity. At least they didn't win with it.

I totally agree about Stephanie and Jen. But as for Spike, the judges did mention when they were tasting the soup the layers of flavor they detected and how good it was. So by complex do you mean visually and number of ingredients or how difficult it is to prepare? Don't forget that without the use of any motorized equipment, they had more steps to get to the final product than just putting the ingredients in a blender. I do agree that Dale and Richard should've won, but I also don't think complexity is always necessary for the challenges. The fact that they made "soup" doesn't deserve the put down, I believe. Time constraints keep discussions edited out, as does seeing the entire prep and ingredients of the dishes.

[jiveturk21]

Over the years on this show, I have felt that they really do look at the current challenge at hand and get rid of the person that does the worst, it is not really a cumulative thing (which I appreciate). In the situation last night, when both Stephanie and Jen put out a clunker, and they couldn't determine who sucked worse on that dish, Jen had to go because Stephanie had been kicking butt all season.

Still, after all these weeks, I am not really drawn to any of the chefs. Some I like more than others and some I think will be there in the end, but I feel more like it is season two all over again, no one that really piques my interest.

[zoramargolis]

I totally agree about Stephanie and Jen. But as for Spike, the judges did mention when they were tasting the soup the layers of flavor they detected and how good it was. So by complex do you mean visually and number of ingredients or how difficult it is to prepare? Don't forget that without the use of any motorized equipment, they had more steps to get to the final product than just putting the ingredients in a blender. I do agree that Dale and Richard should've won, but I also don't think complexity is always necessary for the challenges. The fact that they made "soup" doesn't deserve the put down, I believe. Time constraints keep discussions edited out, as does seeing the entire prep and ingredients of the dishes.

Earlier in this thread, someone commented on the Earth-Air-Water-Fire challenge that if Spike's team had made soup they would have been dinged for doing something too easy with their time. I remember in a previous season, Carlos got booted off for making a salad (ironically, that was with butternut squash, too). I remember Tom Colicchio asking him, in amazement--you spent two hours making butternut squash salad?? I don't doubt the soup was delicious, but this was two guys working on one soup, for a total of three man-hours. I think they could have made something interesting to go with the soup like a soup-and- sandwich kind of thing, or something crisp to get dunked in the soup, or made a little flan to go in the soup instead of vanilla creme fraiche.

[monavano]

My beef with this episode was the judging. I agree about which teams were at the bottom, but the criteria for kicking Jen off was all wrong. Antonia and Lisa didn't meet the challenge, plain and simple.

Antonia and Lisa rode their high horses in WF and looked down their noses at Polish sausage. Come on! They should have been loving the fact that "drunk people" called out drunken Polish sausage. Kielbasa and beer? Hello? What a gimme. Or, let's see:

Cassoulet

Beer braised mussels with smoked kielbasa

Choucroute

Humble food is food of the people, and Lisa couldn't stop running her mouth, disdainfully calling Polish sausage "bar food"-in a city full of Polish people. Classy. She spews insults, blames others, and uses very convenient thinking- because she lacks imagination and the ability to improvise. How ironic.

[Dave Pressley]

My beef with this episode was the judging. I agree about which teams were at the bottom, but the criteria for kicking Jen off was all wrong. Antonia and Lisa didn't meet the challenge, plain and simple.

Antonia and Lisa rode their high horses in WF and looked down their noses at Polish sausage. Come on! They should have been loving the fact that "drunk people" called out drunken Polish sausage. Kielbasa and beer? Hello? What a gimme. Or, let's see:

Cassoulet

Beer braised mussels with smoked kielbasa

Choucroute

Humble food is food of the people, and Lisa couldn't stop running her mouth, disdainfully calling Polish sausage "bar food"-in a city full of Polish people. Classy. She spews insults, blames others, and uses very convenient thinking- because she lacks imagination and the ability to improvise. How ironic.

Well said and I couldn't agree more.

I think the main reason Lisa & Antonia should have lost was that they didn't use the main ingredient. They were assigned Polish sausage and served fish and chorizo! How does that not put them at the bottom automatically? Maybe the asparagus/orange plate didn't taste the best, but the judges certainly weren't disgusted by it and the rules of the challenge were followed.

[cheezepowder]

I can't believe Lisa recycled the fried wonton idea that Stephanie had in the other challenge for her dessert quickfire. I agree that Lisa hasn't shown much creativity.

[Pool Boy]

My beef with this episode was the judging. I agree about which teams were at the bottom, but the criteria for kicking Jen off was all wrong. Antonia and Lisa didn't meet the challenge, plain and simple.

Antonia and Lisa rode their high horses in WF and looked down their noses at Polish sausage. Come on! They should have been loving the fact that "drunk people" called out drunken Polish sausage. Kielbasa and beer? Hello? What a gimme. Or, let's see:

Cassoulet

Beer braised mussels with smoked kielbasa

Choucroute

Humble food is food of the people, and Lisa couldn't stop running her mouth, disdainfully calling Polish sausage "bar food"-in a city full of Polish people. Classy. She spews insults, blames others, and uses very convenient thinking- because she lacks imagination and the ability to improvise. How ironic.

Well, I think Jen was robbed. The other team should have been the bottom of the barrel and Lisa should have gone home. They avoided the central ingredient and called that improvising... Well, a better take that my wife mentioned was make a play on using the words 'polish' and 'sausage' separately. Maybe do a knish stuffed with (any kind of) sausage. Or some other Polish inspired food (sauerkraut perhaps) and play with sausage as something else. Hell, if you didn't want to braise sausage in beer, braise it in wine. I make a kick as braised in wine sausage dish and I'm just me, not a Top Chef contender.

That said, if they picked the Jen/Stephanie team, it was clear Jen had to go since Stephanie has indeed kicked butt all season.

And I can't believe that Nikki and Spike managed to get through for another week. Maybe one of them will get the axe next week. I can hope!

[lackadaisi]

That said, if they picked the Jen/Stephanie team, it was clear Jen had to go since Stephanie has indeed kicked butt all season.

Also, wasn't Jen in charge of the crappy crouton thing?

[Al Dente]

make a play on using the words 'polish' and 'sausage'

my work here is done

[zoramargolis]

Well, a better take that my wife mentioned was make a play on using the words 'polish' and 'sausage' separately. Maybe do a knish stuffed with (any kind of) sausage. Or some other Polish inspired food (sauerkraut perhaps) and play with sausage as something else.

I thought that the team that got "depressed" as their feeling word missed an opportunity--instead of using the obvious interpretation--sad, which they didn't really address-- they could have made "de-pressed" chicken or duck, cooked under a brick.

[blakegwinn]

I am getting so tired of the "beneath me" rants. It seems that someone (usually that Debbie Downer chick who is always pissed off) is drawing this "line in the sand" every week. It's such an obvious over-compensation for lack of creativity or skills. if you pulled the top ten chefs in the world and told them they were doing a tailgate or something I feel like they would not only enjoy the creative challenge but actually get a little competitive. Do you think if Michael Jordan is walking by some pickup game at the park and the people playing start talking trash he walks by because the game is "beneath him"? I doubt it. By all accounts if someone challenges him to thumb wrestling he will sit down and beat you ten times all while degrading you for having the audacity to test him.

I feel like a truly good chef would have a little bit of that spirit in them as well if faced with these types of challenges. "Oh I am cooking for a bunch of football fans at a tailgate party and they want polish sausage? Bring it on. I am going to knock their f***ing socks off!"

Who do they think they are anyway? I have seen a lot of their dishes by now it isn't like the ones making these comments are Guy Savoy or anything. I think a few of elitist chefs need to get knocked off their high horses. Where is a shot-chugging gun-toting multi-millionaire senator when you need one?

[zoramargolis]

I am getting so tired of the "beneath me" rants. It seems that someone (usually that Debbie Downer chick who is always pissed off) is drawing this "line in the sand" every week. It's such an obvious over-compensation for lack of creativity or skills. if you pulled the top ten chefs in the world and told them they were doing a tailgate or something I feel like they would not only enjoy the creative challenge but actually get a little competitive. Do you think if Michael Jordan is walking by some pickup game at the park and the people playing start talking trash he walks by because the game is "beneath him"? I doubt it. By all accounts if someone challenges him to thumb wrestling he will sit down and beat you ten times all while degrading you for having the audacity to test him.

I feel like a truly good chef would have a little bit of that spirit in them as well if faced with these types of challenges. "Oh I am cooking for a bunch of football fans at a tailgate party and they want polish sausage? Bring it on. I am going to knock their f***ing socks off!"

Who do they think they are anyway? I have seen a lot of their dishes by now it isn't like the ones making these comments are Guy Savoy or anything. I think a few of elitist chefs need to get knocked off their high horses. Where is a shot-chugging gun-toting multi-millionaire senator when you need one?

I completely agree with you, except that there seems to be an expectation that these young chefs (and they are all young this season) "believe" in themselves and regard themselves as better chefs than the other competitors. Last year, Hung-- the chef with the highest opinion of himself and his "fine dining" skills-- was the winner.

[Dmnkly]

I think the main reason Lisa & Antonia should have lost was that they didn't use the main ingredient.

They did use Polish sausage. They just buried it.

• Polish sausage was listed in the recipe along with the chorizo.
  
• Ted and Tom made comments about how they "downplayed" the Polish sausage and "didn't really focus on" the main ingredient.
  
• While they're doing their prep work, you can see two different types of sausage in the hotel pan in front of Antonia.
  

They expressed an awful lot of contempt for the challenge and intentionally tried to bury the theme, so I don't know that it's much better. But for those who are hardliners about the rules, it looks like Polish sausage was on the plate.

(I was also under the impression, on first viewing, that they'd left it out completely. It's really not clear from the editing.)

[Dave Pressley]

They did use Polish sausage. They just buried it.

• Polish sausage was listed in the recipe along with the chorizo.
  
• Ted and Tom made comments about how they "downplayed" the Polish sausage and "didn't really focus on" the main ingredient.
  
• While they're doing their prep work, you can see two different types of sausage in the hotel pan in front of Antonia.
  

They expressed an awful lot of contempt for the challenge and intentionally tried to bury the theme, so I don't know that it's much better. But for those who are hardliners about the rules, it looks like Polish sausage was on the plate.

(I was also under the impression, on first viewing, that they'd left it out completely. It's really not clear from the editing.)

Oh, I didn't catch its use at all. I guess that's how much they downplayed its appearance in the dish!

[cajcaj]

They did use Polish sausage. They just buried it.

• Polish sausage was listed in the recipe along with the chorizo.
  
• Ted and Tom made comments about how they "downplayed" the Polish sausage and "didn't really focus on" the main ingredient.
  
• While they're doing their prep work, you can see two different types of sausage in the hotel pan in front of Antonia.
  

They expressed an awful lot of contempt for the challenge and intentionally tried to bury the theme, so I don't know that it's much better. But for those who are hardliners about the rules, it looks like Polish sausage was on the plate.

(I was also under the impression, on first viewing, that they'd left it out completely. It's really not clear from the editing.)

Maybe I didn't watch the episode as closely as you did, but I don't recall them ever using any Polish sausage at all. In fact several times they said they didn't want to use it so they didn't and at the end Lisa said that "if" they had used Polish sausage, the judges would have called it bar food. I think they also said that the Polish sausage was right next to the chorizo at the store and so they decided to go with chorizo instead. I really think they only used chorizo and fish.

[Dmnkly]

Maybe I didn't watch the episode as closely as you did, but I don't recall them ever using any Polish sausage at all. In fact several times they said they didn't want to use it so they didn't and at the end Lisa said that "if" they had used Polish sausage, the judges would have called it bar food. I think they also said that the Polish sausage was right next to the chorizo at the store and so they decided to go with chorizo instead. I really think they only used chorizo and fish.

Yeah, I know, it really comes across that way. My guess is the sit-down interviews with them were before they went shopping, and at the store they decided they'd better throw some in there or risk getting eliminated. There's even a clip at the store where this conversation takes place (very quickly and quietly):

Antonia: Can we really mix Polish and chorizo?

Lisa: They're very similar.

But there are a lot of other quotes that are very confusing. Like I say, the first time I watched the show, I also thought they cut the Polish completely. It was only after seeing the recipe that I dug a little bit, and in subsequent viewings, you can see where the confusion arises. But it's clear from a lot of quotes that they used both Polish and chorizo. And I've got a screenshot -- there are two different types of sausage in a hotel pan in front of Antonia while they're prepping, clear as day.

I may have... uh... even called the Halsted Whole Foods to confirm that they sell a house-made coarse Polish sausage, as the second sausage in Antonia's pan looks like a pretty coarse grind. They do.

(Hey, I've got rankings to post on Monday... nobody's going to accuse me of being less than thorough :-)

[baczkowski]

Beth and I were looking at the website for Good Stuff last week and on one of the pages he had some quote like "being top-chef isn't the most important thing, it is the journey" (not exact but it was something along those lines) We both thought this sounded like something a non-winner would say.

I think smart money is on Jimmy Neutron. Marcel made it to the finals with the same schtick and less talent. The only possible kink in that prediction is that I think when Molecular gastronomy fails it fails in a really big way. Given the way they supposedly judge, on a challenge-to-challenge basis I could see him completely bombing one challenge when some xanthum gum creation doesn't set right or something and he is left with some tasteless shapeless slime on a plate. Despite that risk I still maintain that if Marcel can make the finals, so can Jimmy.

I think he's also a slimmed down version of Ralphie May.

[Pool Boy]

my work here is done

These competition series are so edited (in such a way) that almost anyone can call who the top 3 and bottom three are going to be within the first 10-15 min of the episode. You may not be able to call who gets the win or who goes home that early, but you can surely call the top 3 and bottom 3.

I still want to see Nikki and Spike get the boot. Lisa is annoying, but maybe she's just edited that way. Who knows?

Richard and Stephanie will be in the final 3, the last spot is up for grabs...it'll probably go to Dale or Andrew.

[Andelman]

Stephanie should have gone home last night. That dish looked pretty nasty. Also, overcooked couscous? Unacceptable for someone of Top Chef caliber. She seems to make a lot of mistakes.....

Also, I wonder how much of their ingrecients for the challenge came from the "pantry". There is no way they could buy all that food for $10. I mean a jar of peanut butter at Whole foods is like $3-$4 alone....

[jiveturk21]

Stephanie should have gone home last night. That dish looked pretty nasty. Also, overcooked couscous? Unacceptable for someone of Top Chef caliber. She seems to make a lot of mistakes.....

Also, I wonder how much of their ingrecients for the challenge came from the "pantry". There is no way they could buy all that food for $10. I mean a jar of peanut butter at Whole foods is like $3-$4 alone....

I agree about the $10, something was going on there, even if only for the portion sizes. They weren't feeding a family of four, it seemed like they were feeding four kids as well as four judges, something is a bit fishy.

[zoramargolis]

I agree about the $10, something was going on there, even if only for the portion sizes. They weren't feeding a family of four, it seemed like they were feeding four kids as well as four judges, something is a bit fishy.

My guess is that the $10 was for protein, fresh veg and specialized pastas. And everyone has unlimited access to the pantry. Also, like Iron Chef America, where they make the same meal again, after the challenge hour, they probably doubled the purchase, the recipe and the time allotted. Did you see how many huge carrots Spike had on the counter ostensibly to make carrot soup for four people?

[bettyjoan]

From what I saw, it was $10 per plate. The crew at my house was confused about how the chefs were loading so much in their baskets on so small a budget, but then we rewinded the DVR and saw that they were actually trying to get their register totals to $50 or under--so $10 each for four kid plates and one for the judges to share.

The producers/editors should have been WAY more clear on that point--it was still a tough challenge, but I felt that the contestants had MUCH less to whine about once I realized how the money actually worked.

That said, watching the chefs work with the kids was about the cutest thing I've ever seen--and Chef Colicchio was one of the most precious of all.

[blakegwinn]

From what I saw, it was $10 per plate. The crew at my house was confused about how the chefs were loading so much in their baskets on so small a budget, but then we rewinded the DVR and saw that they were actually trying to get their register totals to $50 or under--so $10 each for four kid plates and one for the judges to share.

The producers/editors should have been WAY more clear on that point--it was still a tough challenge, but I felt that the contestants had MUCH less to whine about once I realized how the money actually worked.

That said, watching the chefs work with the kids was about the cutest thing I've ever seen--and Chef Colicchio was one of the most precious of all.

10 dollars per plate is not exactly "affordable" for the average family....

[zoramargolis]

From what I saw, it was $10 per plate. The crew at my house was confused about how the chefs were loading so much in their baskets on so small a budget, but then we rewinded the DVR and saw that they were actually trying to get their register totals to $50 or under--so $10 each for four kid plates and one for the judges to share.

The producers/editors should have been WAY more clear on that point--it was still a tough challenge, but I felt that the contestants had MUCH less to whine about once I realized how the money actually worked.

The challenge was $10 for four people. But they were serving at least six portions (and probably a few more than that): four kids, one at the judge's table and another for Tom Colicchio eating separately in the kitchen. Others on the production staff and the chefs probably tasted the food as well.

[bettyjoan]

I guess my eyes deceived me, then. I could have sworn that when we froze the frames of the chefs at the WF registers, the totals were falling right around $50.

If the $10 was truly supposed to feed 4 people, it makes me REALLY wonder what they stock in that pantry.

[monavano]

The challenge was $10 for four people. But they were serving at least six portions (and probably a few more than that): four kids, one at the judge's table and another for Tom Colicchio eating separately in the kitchen. Others on the production staff and the chefs probably tasted the food as well.

Agreed and agreed. From Gail's blog:

"Cooking a meal for a family of four on a strict budget of $10 total may have been a rude awakening for our cheftestants, but is probably a realistic dinner estimate for most of the country"

If they were ringing up bills of $50, then the premise was misleading. Plus, I would think that dinner for 4 @$50 is very doable at home-$10, not so much. Particularly when you can only shop at WF, which realistically, isn't a budget store in general.

It was a shame that Dale didn't win the QF. His dish looked like a fantastic light and complete meal.

Stephanie-came very close to getting the boot-but I didn't understand the complete disgust for just the thought of tomatoes and peanut butter. Isn't that combo used in W. African cooking? I recently made groundnut stew with chicken where this combination made for an amazing dish.

Lisa-I could have turned the sound off and just watched the body language!

In the end, it was close between Mark and Stephanie. I don't think Tom disliked Mark personally (and what a third grade thing of Mark to accuse Tom of!), but I wonder if Tom tired of Mark being sloppy in his prep, conception, construction and double-dipping. He just took that big ol' spoon out of the pot, took a bite and plopped it right back into the food he was going to serve the kids from.

Is this common or accepted?

[cajcaj]

I read the blogs as well and did see several that refer again to the "total" $10 budget. Hwr, having said that, I could see where they could have given them an extrapolated budget to get the additional servings (beyond 4) - it did seem like when Chef Collichio was in the kitchen there were at least a couple extras surrounding him..

The blogs also made mention of last week's "incident" where Lisa and Antonia didn't use Plish sausage but instead chorizo. Several mentioned that Polish sausage wasn't used at all.

[Poivrot Farci]

...Top Chef caliber.

Dramatic, photogenic or chessboard demographic? Padma’s compassionate dismissal is just as contrived if not more transparent than her ex-husbands’ hairline.

Lisa is an androgynous louse to whom it would come naturally to excuse itself aloud from the breakfast table for a prodigious bowel movement and then brag about it on the way to the “make a silk purse from Glad trash bags” quickfire challenge.

Bravo’s scab writers and tired producers owe me 42 credit minutes of TV, a few profanities and scenes of the gameshow contestants smoking cigarettes, which make fat kids cool AND thin.

[JPW]

Agree the $10 is a joke. A whole Bell and Evans chicken is going to run you almost $10 by itself.

However, the thing that I found most laughable was the dismissal of the concept of serving a curry because "kids won't eat that". Umm. Padma. Didn't you grow up on curry? Haven't you spent a fair amount of your life married to a troll in a place where curry is the equivalent of a burrito in the States? If there's one thing that kids like more than pasta, it's rice. Do they really think that Americans never feed their kids things with a little heat to them?

[blakegwinn]

Do they really think that Americans never feed their kids things with a little heat to them?

Just take a look at one of my baby pictures...

[zoramargolis]

Agreed and agreed. From Gail's blog:

"Cooking a meal for a family of four on a strict budget of $10 total may have been a rude awakening for our cheftestants, but is probably a realistic dinner estimate for most of the country"

If they were ringing up bills of $50, then the premise was misleading. Plus, I would think that dinner for 4 @$50 is very doable at home-$10, not so much. Particularly when you can only shop at WF, which realistically, isn't a budget store in general.

They may well have each spent $50 at the store, but if they were meant to spend $10 to feed 4 people, they probably in fact were making enough food for 20 portions. Did you see how many huge carrots Spike had for his soup? The point I was trying to make earlier was that we saw at the minimum 6 portions served, and there were probably many more.