Rai

I'm generally game for whatever Top Chef wants to do, but I literally did not understand how this challenge worked. If they'd given any examples of successful dishes, that would've been really helpful just to have a frame of reference. I just was lost, and the chefs largely seemed to be as well. I will say though I love that Savannah had her moment of redemption, even though I'd certainly be wary of mustard greens in a dessert. But go with your chaotic pastries, girl. I will never steam creme fraiche though, I'll tell you what. Poor Rasika. I really didn't expect her to crash so hard and so early. But also, she's 25? She's gonna be okay. I already have forgotten who won though, so this season continues to be flattened in a weird way. I do agree Laura just looked tuned out and not fully connecting that she had the dark chocolate Dan was yelling about. She didn't have any issue with him grabbing it off her station. I don't have a problem with Kaleena or Amanda. I don't don't have a problem with Kristin's outfit. I don't even care chefs lick their fingers after eating something with their hands. I am here for the hot power bottoms, and it makes me laugh they've turned it into a rallying cry. Michelle, Danny, Dan, and Soo now seem to be the frontrunners with Rasika out. Hoping for a strong LCK run from Rasika! It'd be fun to see her and Soo have to face off at some point! THE SHADE 🤣

He's certainly been better than the first chefs eliminated so far because they were the chefs not cut out for this competition. I think that does naturally favor him. We'll see how he performs! But I admit even if he wins, it won't bother me unless I become really attached to someone else by the finale. So far, no danger of me getting very invested in anyone, alas.

Is Soo competing in LCK before he's been in the competition really any less fair than when they've had former contestants come back from other seasons to compete? Lee Anne and Brother Luck both got into the competition again (and didn't last long, so Soo may also have a short reign), and Jen Carroll, Marcel, Kwame, and Carrie Baird have all gotten a chance to get into the show -- heavy hitters all around. I just don't understand why Soo being favored to enter the show is bad. Instead of vets trying to re-enter, it's a new chef trying to enter, but there's not a lot of difference otherwise to me.

For the record, I think Laura did two things, so she racked up a big bill with the alcohol because she also did a spin on the brandy alexander in addition to her cake of many leches. Obviously, she still should've budgeted better or dropped the drink plan, but it wasn't just the dessert that sent her bill up.

It sounded like Manny's definitely wasn't rendered enough. Kevin's looked pretty and the description was great, so a bummer he messed that up. I think yes, the real supper club had schnitzel, but it is funny that immediately became katsu. Well, whatever works. Amanda's did sound fantastic. And agreed, @Bastet, I'd really like to know more about Laura's story there. Sounds potentially wild!

In the second (?) episode maybe, there was some yelling at Laura for making a mess and not cleaning it up, and in this episode, she talked about being independent at a young age and really needing to take care of herself first. I'm vaguely curious if this means this is destined to become a larger issue later on. Restaurant Wars would certainly be a place where something like that could blow up. I think Rasika and Michelle should've arm wrestled or drawn knives or something to get what they wanted, but I don't have a huge issue with it. I don't have a problem with Rasika playing to win. I love W. Kamau Bell, so my big critique is there wasn't enough of him. Two of my favorite shows in one! (And his guest appearance for the Parts Unknown: Kenya episode was really good. That whole episode is so great, albeit very sad in context of Bourdain's passing.) The Quickfire history behind chef Carson Gulley was really cool, and I wish we could've seen an actual clip of his and his wife's cooking show. I don't know why both chicken chefs went with katsu, but okay. I don't know how the power bottoms could both mangle beef, but okay. The dinner overall sounded nice and comforting. But I admit nothing's standing out in my memory. I'm looking forward to seeing if anyone gets salty with the outcome of Last Chance Kitchen though. Season 21: Needs More Salt?

I mean, this sounds similar to season 15 when both Lee Anne and Claudia got in/back in to the competition.

Despite the change in hosts, Top Chef has become (pun intended) comfort food viewing for me, so I rarely get excited one way or the other, I just like being soothed by it. These chefs are saying interesting things and making interesting dishes in my mind, but I admit they are all kinda blending together into one stew that's solid, just not mind-blowing. But that's what I watch X-Men 97 for (which, until last week, was also solid but not mind-blowing). ANYWAY. I did laugh at the DAMANDA promo, and also Manny and Kevin calling themselves the Power Bottoms. I'm sad I can't make Manny my imaginary boyfriend now, but I'll still keep cheering for him! Rasika is on quite the roll though. The one surprise I did have was the losing team being cut that quickly, even before congratulating the winners. I gasped! I knew who was going home, and still, I wasn't expecting it to happen that fast. It was not a great team-up though, and I did feel badly for the both of them. For the record, I think a mushroom/goat cheese savory play on cheesecake has potential to be awesome (especially if the crust had been something like a dark rye), but the execution had to sing, and Kaleena's did not. I'm also surprised no one did something compressed. Like, it would've been very literal, but with Buddha as one of the judges, literal would've been fine. (Never forget this was a man who made a figure eight out of mousse to represent a female pilot flying.) Some sort of composed salad with a compressed pickle and a yolk to be cut into and released all over the plate? Or someone doing a compressed component on their dish, and someone else doing one of those whole yolks raviolos? I expect this season will struggle a little to find its footing in the overall Top Chef canon given it follows the amazing global All-Stars season and the departure of Padma. But I'm still in it to see someone (quite possibly Rasika) win it!

That is a helpful breakdown even when we differ in our assessments! Alisha and Savannah are the ones who have been confusing me the most, for sure. Also, once Kaleena said it, I finally remember seeing her win her Chopped tournament. I don't think a former Chopped contestant has gone on to win Top Chef, but there's definitely a Chopped to Top Chef pipeline, so she might stick around for a while.

I looked it up. Marcel's season was 18 years ago. **walks into the sea** He really did seem much more low-key in this episode, and I enjoyed them focusing on the food. Considering how unpopular he was on both his seasons, I'm going to assume Kristin/Production decided to just sidestep over the bad memories, which meant they could only really look forward. I didn't know he worked for Jose Andres though, that's pretty rad. And it makes sense he'd work with Andres if he was into molecular gastronomy and had already gotten on the wrong side of Wylie Dufresne. I've already forgotten who will be on next week, but I'm sure they'll be delightful too.

@bravofan27 I was specifically told there would be no math.

I had nothing against Kenny, but in his short time here, he basically said, "I hate this" about every single challenge. Sir, have you seen the show? Do you not understand what you're in for? Come on. Get in the game. Twerk it! (Best slip of the tongue ever.) Very glad Manny survived because he's my favorite. I would normally say that a former Top Chef contestant would have some kind of advantage, but Top Chef France seems specifically counter to Top Chef Original Recipe in ways that work against Kevin, IMO. I recall the French contestant from last season noting that even their quickfires were 90 minutes minimum. So I think Kevin might continue to struggle in this format. (Also, Claudette did Top Chef Mexico and had the privilege to be eliminated twice from her TC: Colorado season, so really, no guarantee of being better prepared, I think.) I love Michelle and don't mind that she thinks of herself as a Pit Master. That's actually a pretty huge thing to be, especially for a woman. I think the difference between what she normally does and what she's doing here is passing the fine dining, refined dishes test, and I do see that as somewhat surprising for her, but also a huge validation of "cook your food." Getting closer to remembering which young female chef is who, but still not 100 percent. Sorry, gals. I'm part of the problem!

Had a boring date yesterday. Should've known it wasn't going to be a success when he ordered the Miller High Life. Champagne of bad dates, amirite 😀

The mystery deepens! If he did opt out, I would feel like my theory was supported. But Tom's and David's accounts seem pretty contradictory.

I think the chefs were a little confused by this challenge, but some fun dishes came out of it all the same. That pretzel dessert must have been some dish because it's wild that won. Slowly getting to know the chefs! Still love Manny. He's such a cheerleader for the other chefs, and I love that. Michelle too! I like Amanda a lot as well -- maybe it's the (D&D) game recognizing (D&D) game going on there, but to make a palate cleanser interesting is pretty good work. Gail being all "I know we were crapping on the concept, but whoa" was pretty funny. I think Kevin with an accent is cute, but Manny is cuter, so it's okay if la France doesn't viva very long on the show. The dude who made the pave potatoes is clearly a talented chef, but I wish when he was getting all that praise, he'd shared some of the credit with his team for giving him the inspiration and helping hands. The reverence to Miller High Life does make me laugh, but I'm a snob, so don't mind me. My closest encounter was accidentally getting sprayed with some when a friend was attempting to recreate a Miller High Life mimosa he'd had at a brunch spot. That stuff can fizz! I generally know everyone's name by the time they're two episodes in, so it does bug me a bit that I can't place everyone yet. Some of the younger female chefs especially are blurring together for me, and I don't know why. Still, solid challenges so far, but I hope next episode allows them to solo cook, not be teams or in-group head-to-heads.

Another enjoyable little diversion! I like the raw footage feel, and I like that Kristin is finding ways to get Stephanie in there. Stephanie's hat makes me laugh. What's notable about Amar's appearance is how comfortable he and Kristin seem to be together. It's interesting to me that this little reality show has grown up enough that the kids are taking over the family business as it were. I've long heard about the camaraderie of the kitchen. It's funny that this day and age has created the camaraderie of the kitchen reality show. I would happily sample everything they made on this episode!

Oh, interesting. If David the Hat didn't show up, my guess is Soo was meant to be an alternate for the main show, and this was the adjustment they made. Maybe I'm talking out of my (much prettier) hat! But that's the theory I'm going to muse about.

I found Kristin's chopping of Hat Guy no colder than how Padma did it, particularly in the earlier seasons. There was a time -- many a time -- when Padma was criticized for being too aloof, too robotic, too unkind, whatever, and she really had to push herself to sound more expressive. I liked Padma a lot and as someone who is also reserved and monotoned, I felt for her on those grounds. But I think there may be some rosy hindsight in comparing Kristin to Padma. And I thought Kristin was pretty straightforward, not cold. I do think she's got room to grow though in how she interacts with both the chefs and the judges.

I watched it by virtue of being too lazy to grab my remote. It was cute, although it was helped by the presence of the two Stephanies, both of whom have been longtime faves of mine. They're really leaning into this peel back the curtain kind of mood with it, which I think suits Kristin's personality pretty well. She seems a little ill at ease with pretending everything is actually real at all times, so this might be her way of getting that discomfort out. They talk about their time on the show and what it's like to look back on it now, which I think will be fun for the hardcore Top Chef nerds (myself included). I'll probably be fine not picking up the remote next week too!

It was very weird not hearing Padma's overly rehearsed tones doing the opening narration, but then things settled in for me. Kristin has a hugely relatable quality going for her and the cheftestants, so I hope she continues to tap into that as she grows into the role. I also enjoyed the Dish with Kish aftershow more than I expected, although part of that was because she had the two Stephanies as her guests. Also, she is really tall, wow. (Or Tom is really short. Or both!) Speaking of Tom, I actually cackled in delight when that dude shaded Tom's hats, and the editors then gave a montage of said haberdashery. Hats have become your thing, Tom, but MAYBE some of them shouldn't be. Also, I'm bummed they left out his most tragic hat moment, the slouched beanie of Portland. Anyway, it was probably unwise to mock the head judge's style, and I think we got all the entertainment value we needed from him, but I laughed all the same. By Colorado ex-pat law, I have to root for Manny, and I'm so glad he's made it easy for me to do so right away. His soup looked AMAZING. Would eat. I also liked the lady who won the pasta challenge, and I'm rooting for you to turn it around, Kaleena Bliss! The dude with the giant beard also intrigues me a little. My only real critique is that it was odd to do pasta first, then soup, then chicken. I automatically think about it as a progressive thing, so I'd have thought the soup course should've gone first. It's not a flaw, just an upset of my expectations. After the glittering heights of London and the All-Stars, this feels like a return to slipping on comfy shoes as television watching. That's what Top Chef started to feel like in season 12, and I'm glad it can keep on rolling.

I see the merits of that change. On the other hand, strong possibility that Stephanie Izard wouldn't have won her season because she rarely did great in Quickfires. Or heck, imagine Bryan Voltaggio not making it the finales because he bombed his Quickfires! Merits and flaws in both systems, I guess.

I love Ginger and think she's one of the funniest, smartest queens ever to compete, which is saying something. I just didn't think her looks were ever up to winner status. Including her final look! It's a great look, but final eleganza? I don't know. I do like her eye makeup more than Michael Morouli's though. I felt Michael Morouli was the better all-around queen because her looks were really elevated. So I sort of feel like Michael was a bit robbed. But again, I LOVE Ginger. No actual complaints! I'm sure Tomara is aloveable delight, but god,she exhausted me in the final episode. And the roast. And...well, anyway, she'll probably be back at some point, but I'm glad she was a lovely second runner-up. That eleganza look was stunning though. She can really glam it up old-school when she chooses to do so.

I'm so mad at the critique that Femmily Bronte didn't look like Kate's sister. It was the exact same face. Maybe it was the wigs? I admit, I HATED the skirt Femmily was wearing, but still. Well, it was inevitable, but I thought Kate's lipsync was strong enough for a double save. I do have to give DeDe props though. I thought Kate's actorly lipsync would be enough to save her, but DeDe pulled that aspect off and then some. I thought BeBe didn't look particularly great, and I don't know why DeDe keeps making herself forty years older than she is, but I can't deny her lipsync abilities. Wow. Also inevitable was Michael Morouli's win, and I'm not anywhere near mad about it. A solid transformation with the loveliest game makeover candidate. Geeza Minouli was authentically touching, and I loved all of this for him. I was speechless over Daphne Guinness as the guest judge. WOW! That's some star power at the table. And she looked incredible. Hated Tomara's wigs. If you're talking about hard wiglines, she and G had some of the hardest, and Tomara couldn't keep it out of her face. And there was something unresolved about the wig styling. They looked cute and had great energy, but talk about resting on pretty. Often that's Tomara for me. And just to round it out, I hated the shade of Ginger's foundation. But the outfits were very fun. Rodrigo absolutely has a baby face under that beard, he wasn't kidding. I knew Kate wouldn't win and probably wouldn't make the finals. But she's been a huge part of why this season has been so fun. Luvya, meanit!

I actually think Michael Marouli is the dark horse. I love Ginger, but I don't think her looks are on the level Ru wants. She was the clear winner of Snatch Game for me though. I know logically that Kate Butch isn't going to make it because of her looks, but Ru just does not seem to find her all that funny, and I can't figure out why. I know I'm biased because of the confessionals, but in the work room or in a challenge, I still think Kate is hilarious. Maybe it's that thing of if the first impression didn't wow Ru, nothing will.

At this stage of drag race, at least the ones with Ru as host, I generally find them cozy like slipping on old shoes or something. Kate Butch and Ginger are the confessional queens, bless them. But Ginger has definitely underwhelmed with the fashion so far. They're all interesting in their own way, and Michael Marouli keeps bringing it hard, which I honestly did not expect. Banksie is probably my favorite all-around, partly because of the Cheddar Gorgeous connection, partly because I love a smart queen. But Cara Melle is so pretty and talented, and Tomara keeps surprising me and Vicki has something going on... It's a strong group for me. I generally enjoy the UK girls the most*. They're so witty and stronger all-around performers. I just don't understand why they can't translate that to lip syncs. That's always where I get let down. I get it if people aren't feeling the spark anymore, but I'm not going to complain about a cozy hour with some fierce and funny dolls. *Of the English-speaking shows. Overall, Spain has been my favorite.