mugwump

Yep, the best part of Top Chef is the return of Max Silvestri's blog.

And I've actually eaten at The Lark and now wonder if my soup was blessed with some Essence of Dread (tm). Nasty 'do to be rocking in a kitchen.

kilcher

Pretty sure she's still pregnant there. She was on George Lopez the other night talking about how they had to shut down taping while she had her baby and then picked up again afterward.

DJariya

Padma had her baby in February

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/cele...irth_to_d.html

They didn't start filming DC until roughly early April.

This article from March announced it was being filmed in DC, but had not started production yet:

http://www.realityblurred.com/realit...2010_Mar_12_dc

This article from April said they started filming:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1926766

Superboy

Does anyone else think this series has already become incredibly tired? the show would be more exciting if they had at least 10-12 stellar chefs going tooth and nail against each other.

DJariya

Uhhh, that was Top Chef Masters and that season just ended. And most in this forum weren't fans of it.

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-masters

Thrush

I love Top Chef and havent watched a single episode of "Masters". The premise doesn't appeal to me at all.

Tracer Bullet

Nope. I'm still enjoying the show, as ever.

DJariya

Masters had stellar Well-known Chefs competing against each other for charity. I would say 9 times out of 10, that's already a turnoff. I simply don't care about charity based competition shows. These guys are already known in the cooking world and already own their own restaurants.

Superboy

This does look like a good season though. Definitely nowhere near as bad as Season 2, which had some of the worst food of the entire series.

Original Desmond

Don't think there's been a season where there has been two such clear favourites in Angelo and Kenny

These guys will NOT get eliminated before at least half way even if they stuff up purely from their potential.

Overall the contestants this season seem very strong, almost all are executive chefs.

Top Chef masters is great ! they are the top guys doing their stuff. It is less about the competition and more about what the very best can do.

Thrush

Hung and Tre were clear favorites from the start in season 3.

Superboy

Season 6 had 4 clear favorites right from the start. We all knew that Kevin, Jen, and the Voltaggio brothers were going to make it to the finale right from the start. It only became more apparent as the show went on; between the 4 of them, they won every single elimination challenge.

Superboy

That made Tre's elimination even harder to watch. I couldn't see Hung winning every elimination challenge, but I could see him winning the competition.

Original Desmond

That's what i like about this show, they really do given judge according to food and not to keep certain gender balances, personalities etc in the house.

In Top Chef masters, in the final stages of both series, the women have been the first to go.

The only thing the judges are guilty of is i think when it's close between 2 chefs to be eliminated, they do take into account what else the chefs have done so far, not just that particular challenge, but i have no problem with that. I dont want to see someone who has been killing it throughout go home just from one mistake unless he/she is the only one who has made mistakes that elimination challenge.

DJariya

Bump

New episode tonight:

"Outside the Lunch Box"

Interview with Tom Colicchio about the new season. Briefly mentions he thoughts of now-departed judge Toby Young.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Chef-Sea...m-1019833.aspx

BDB

Cracking Quickfire, and I liked the stresses the teams were put under with the Lunch Challenge.

And I think angelo threw the challenge.. Which is ballsy

davidh777

Aha, I noticed the difference but didn't remember why.

Oddly, my DVR still recognized my setting from last season and resumed taping.

Fist of Doom

Boring episode, except for Padma.

Original Desmond

Angelo definitely threw the challenge

Stupid have a quartet, half with immunity and half without

No way Kenny goes home for quite a while

Tracer Bullet

Angelo might have thrown the challenge, but it backfired on him, and now the judges know he's a slimeball.

LurkerDan

Which is why I am surprised Kelly Liken is a contestant. She owns her own restaurant, has received lots of accolades, and was even a contestant on Iron Chef.

DJariya

Thought this was a pretty good episode. If anything it really made the chefs think especially with only a $130 budget.

I understood where Arnold was coming from when Kelly kept saying "I I I" on everything especially since they are working as a team. But, I agree with Tom that in the end everyone has to take responsibility for their own dish and in the end she had the best one.

I knew they wouldn't vote out Kenny this early. I think the Producers and Judges already know that he and Angelo already have a heated rivalry and it's going to make good TV.

Glad that Amanda managed to hang in there. Among the female contestants, I think she's the cutest one. But, damn was that stupid or what cooking Chicken with Sherry for Middle School kids? Plus, she didn't even have a good excuse for wasting their budget on Sherry.

suziq999

I liked this ep. I liked that you could make a good meal being cheap as long as you thought about what you were doing. I thought the chick that used the sherry should have gone home - it was clear the girl who ended up doing the strawberry dessert screwed up because they spent all their money on sherry. What a dumb ass! Fruit (especially bananas and melon) is so cheap... I don't know why people didn't do more of it. You got to think outside the box.

And I don't know what the chefs were thinking with sweet potato puree, either. It looked gross to me and I LOVE sweet potatoes. I can't believe the kids even tried that dish.

davidh777

yeah, no way Kenny would have gone home already

Unusual to see the teams sniping at each other at judges' table

Thrush

Sort of sad to see whats her face go. She was funny, though not always intentionally.