Rai

I would hope Nicole is glad that Top Chef is giving Sara support to pump like normal working moms should, and in the meantime, she's getting to build her family thanks to Top Chef's support as well. Sara's need to keep her milk going does mean she can't take a break from some kind of pump or feeding. So far, Nicole's come across as someone who's fairly sensible, and as someone who would know that Sara's needs are different from her own and not a commentary on how she'll become a parent. I commend Top Chef for showing the different ways in which these women are building their families. It's a good reflection back to viewers who all may be growing their families in any number of ways as well. Anyway, boooo, Dale being back. I'm happy to have a villain, and he's going to be as close as we can get until Buddha spirals out, I guess. That flashback to his first season! No one will ever accuse Canadians of being nice and polite after that. I've enjoyed Tom so far, but his hogging the budget at the most expensive food counter ever was definitely uncool, and like Buddha, he sure doesn't take criticism well. I don't mind a cheftestant going over their own personal budget and getting help from someone who didn't use all their money when it's an individual challenge. For a team challenge, everyone should get an equal budget and pool by consensus if they both want to. If you hog the budget, you better cook something that is gangbusters. (Eddie on the Kentucky season may have sunk his team by hogging the budget, but at least his dish was good!) I will dream of Fortum and Mason until I die, I guess. What a beautiful place. I've been to Harrod's, but even that couldn't compare! Also, when I think of English picnics, I think of cold meats, bread, cheeses, ale, and savory pies. I think Buddha had a point with canapes, even if I'm enjoying rooting against him. (I mean, why not? He's going to do well if not win, so it's harmless.) If Gabri had finessed his more toward a canape style, for example, that would've been helpful for him and his team. Lastly, the love song of Ali and Amar is charming. I'm reasonably sure I caught Ali calling Amar "habibi," which is a term of endearment. So cute! I hope someday they're not on the chopping block against each other. **looks at promo for next week** UH OH.

Tom's a big fan of asserting oneself, so I don't think he'd have an issue with Begona. I don't either! It's a competition, and I didn't find anything untoward about it. She said what she was going to do, so that they all knew what she had in mind. Given she compromised with Charbel to her detriment, it's no surprise to me she decided not to repeat that mistake. After all, what Tom really cares about most in LCK is who gives him the best bite.

To clarify, I think cheftestant Tom is a strong player. That's why I'm surprised when he said he'd never won any challenge before -- ever! It made it sound like he hadn't won any on his original German season as well as this one. It's why I'm also surprised that he got cast, but there's generally great TV in the finalist who never won anything, especially if they're also good on camera. Which he is. I guess it could be like Bryan Voltaggio never winning a Quickfire despite the fact that he's one of the best technical chefs ever to compete. The Fall of Buddha would be VERY compelling to watch -- and would wreck everyone's fantasy leagues as well.

I very much believe Padma has a cadre of handlers. Actually, it's a little surprising if Tom and Gail don't have them, but then they weren't an international supermodel in a previous life, so it may be less important to them. Either way, it's TV. Most stars would have them, I'd think.

Rooting for Begona. Poor May!

In twenty seasons of Top Chef, I've finally hit a milestone: I have a total crush on Ali. (Closest before this season was with Sheldon who may be the sweetest guy ever to compete, but Ali is really attractive on top of being a sweetie. I'm shallow. It's cool.) I really don't know much about the intricacies of Middle Eastern cuisine, so both he and Charbel are great educators here. And it seems even if the dishes are ones familiar to me, their levels of technique and execution really elevate the hell out of their food. Amar is so much jollier this season than he was on his first tour of duty. Perhaps the lack of someone like Phillip helps. I still think he might be middle of the pack, but his dish did sound fantastic. I think the biggest surprise for me was that Tom never won ANY challenge in his original season! He clearly knows how to cook (well, savory, anyway), and his personality is terrific, so I get why they'd want him on the show, but considering the level of talent on this season, it's actually wild he's part of this cast. I was rooting for Gabri, and it was nice to see some depth behind his goofiness, painful as it was. I don't know why he keeps skating by though. Really hoping Begona stomps it hard in LCK because she was cut way too soon, IMO. I would've been very okay with chopping Buddha. It would've thrown such an upset into the competition! But Gabri is probably not long for this world. I will enjoy him while he's still here. If anyone would like a good read that traces the relationship between the various foods of Africa and the American south, I'd like to recommend The Cooking Gene, by Michael Twitty. It's short but dense, and very fascinating as Twitty traces his ancestry through food as well as his family's history of enslavement and migration. (Not necessarily a cheery read, I grant you.) The comparison between Victoire's dish and Hoppin' John is probably pretty apt! I love Victoire, and also I haven't heard a solid "Food saved me" story in a while. I can't really make fun of it though since she's truly lived through some stuff. I hope her hot streak sustains itself.

I feel most chefs on this show do that. Being inspired by the ingredients is a common cooking philosophy expressed in fine dining and especially on Top Chef where they don't have access to recipes. If anything, when cheftestants say they're going to make something that's a signature technique or recipe for themselves, that's been depicted as more likely to fail rather than succeed on this show.

I was terrified that Begonia getting so much airtime meant she was about to exit. Whew! I mean, no offense, Luciana. You seem great too! It's going to be hard to lose anyone, of course. Begonia's one of my faves, that's all. I enjoyed hearing more about Victoire's backstory. Seven languages! And only speaking English for four months! I took Spanish from elementary all the way through college and never got any degree of fluency (my accent is pretty good in Spain though). I was pretty terrified for her endangering her health to that degree though. That whole "play with pain" kitchen mentality still goes hard, I see. I actually love fresh peas and thought Gabri's idea to combine them with mint was smart in a classical way. Begonia's dish looked amazing. I don't love the specific English dish of mushy peas, but raw ones? I'm very okay with. No one made a dish I wouldn't eat though. Talented crew. The cookie judge made me laugh he was so campy. He seemed mortally offended by Tom's offering to the point that it looked like he was biting back pure rage. Maybe he wasn't! But it was still really funny to watch. Another fun episode down!

Plus, when it's a team challenge, there are way fewer dishes being judged. You can't hide in the middle. You certainly shouldn't aim for it.

I can fully see Padma being like ABSOLUTELY NOT when it came to a pub crawl. But it's nice to frame it as it gives the chefs time with Tom and Gail that they don't normally have. 😃

Dale literally said he wanted to play it safe when they were deliberating between which dish to pick and kept advocating for keeping it simple when they were menu planning. Not a read, just a fact. The tension between them was palpable, and their frustration with each other was very clear, and the form of compromising each of them thought they were doing was resulting in a weak dish. For me though, Dale's strategy more strongly damaged their overall output, and he couldn't pull off the technique that the judges valued the most. The other common wisdom on this show is that if you're going to do a simple, classic approach, you have to nail it perfectly. Otherwise, the errors are glaring. And so it was with Dale's fry.

I'm going to stick up for May. Dale was determined to play it safe regardless of getting fish and chips or the scotch egg, and that's usually a Top Chef recipe for disaster, pun intended. Frankly, since everyone harped on the crunch being the biggest factor for both dishes, I think his concept of a fish cake for fish and chips would've bombed too. I don't eat seafood, so I don't know how big of a deal crunch is to a crab cake, say, but a fish cake seems to miss what the judges wanted from fish and chips. Although we didn't see May specifically say "deconstruction" when she and Dale were trying to plan their dish, she was clearly talking about deconstructing the dish, and Dale would have to be pretty dense not to hear that. An ale reduction sauce? That sounded awesome! She was really getting in the spirit of the challenge, but he just wasn't willing to get into it. Insisting instead that they make a scotch egg in the regular way with Thai flavors felt very reductive to what May could bring to the table. And he messed up the fry on the egg. Which is apparently what sent them packing. I was totally rooting for him in the first two episodes because I liked him on Wall of Chefs, but his approach to both May and the challenge turned me off him completely. Watching them in their interviews both on this episode and in LCK, it's very clear they're mad at each other and blaming each other, and probably it's both their faults in some sort of way. Based solely on what I saw on camera though, my bias leans much more strongly in favor of May. My final straw was during LCK when Dale interviewed he should've taken a stronger leadership role. My dude, it was a team challenge, and your partner was someone who in the previous episode won the quickfire and nearly won the main challenge. It takes way more integrity and confidence if you respect what she's saying and be open to what she's bringing to the table. And playing it safe is one of Tom's biggest bugaboos. In contrast, although Buddha can be pretty micromanaging (as we learned in his season), he still treated Luciana like a team partner to her face and fixed what he felt he needed to fix without causing too huge of a blowup. I've never fully warmed up to him, but he handled his obstacles with communication far more productively and gracefully than Dale did. It's okay to have some friction if it does push the team into a stronger dish. Amar and Ali probably could've benefited from some of that! Dale missed the point of the challenge and probably would've been a pain on fish and chips too. Loving Begona, Gabri despite his chaos, Ali, Tom, and Sara is surprising me with her level of cookery. She actually worked in fine dining NYC restaurants, so I know she can do it, but she really seems to have leveled up since the Kentucky season. Also Nicole is completely correct about needing to heat up the cooking vessels before pouring in the yorkshire pudding batter, but god, if she said "yorkies" one more time -- those poor pups!

There have definitely been instances where other cheftestants have donated their leftover funds to help a chef buy what he wanted. This happened on Top Chef Masters several times. The rationale given was always "I want to win because they could cook their best." It's a choice made by each individual cheftestant and how they want to budget, and no one ever seems to mind. For the grace of god go them and their shopping, etc.

Wouldn't be surprised if it's that too!

I assume that it's in reference to saline breast implants since the rest of her name is "EsTitties." It's both "Selena's titties" and "Saline titties" going on there.

Oh, right! I'm now even more convinced it was Yakura.

Her first season was season 2 though, and he was a judge on season 3. Otherwise, I'd sign off on this pick right away. My guess is Mike Yakura. He was on season 1 as well, but he didn't make any more appearances after 2, IIRC.

Amar is also a chef from Top Chef Original Recipe. That said, Sara grew on me during the Kentucky season even though it was largely forgettable, and a Dawn who always plated her food would've indeed been a stronger contender in her season. Think how good her good must be for her to keep surviving throughout the whole season with that kind of setback. I don't think she'll win though. Nice to see the first Top Chef Canada guy who I've seen on the Canadian Wall of Chefs show. I'm intrigued as to what he's got up his sleeve besides all his tattoos. There's also a really quiet guy from Top Chef MENA who I'm intrigued by -- I should learn his name. I'm mainly intrigued because I think he's kinda cute, but hopefully he'll bring it too. It's fun recognizing chefs I've seen on Chef's Table for the upcoming guests, and it's fun seeing London too. I'm very excited about the international aspect. I really want to see all these international Top Chef shows now! I was shocked a chef didn't devein his shrimp properly, and really, no surprises he was the first one kicked off. Let that be a warning wake-up to Gabri especially (who I want to root for). By the vein of his shrimps, y'all.

Speaking as someone with a naturally curvy build, I generally have to choose between looking dumpy or inappropriate in business wear, so unfortunately, erring on the side of caution is probably best. Especially for a second-grade teacher. Plus, petite women with curves are even harder to dress with the right balance (as my mom has bemoaned her whole life). I find Janine's dressing some of the more realistic parts of the show. Quinta Brunson, however, has been killing it on the red carpet, so it's nice to see that contrast out in the "real" world!

Disagree! We'll never know what got cut, but they seemed pretty competent. Also, there's a lot to learn when they bomb too. I haven't fully signed onto the complaints of how poorly edited and rushed this season is with the shorter time frame, but cutting down essential challenges is not good work.

Yeah, but it was practically just one read per queen. That's not enough!

De'Bronski, my god. What a performance. I really hope it helped him go where he needs to be. I love that Bob was paired with him. I don't know if he would've gotten up there if one of the other queens was paired with him. Bob just seems the best equipped to handle the especially sensitive performers, although they all bring special gifts to the table.

I caught the first episode of season 3 on Friday and realized I hadn't seen season 2 at all, so I caught up over the weekend. Possibly a mistake! Each episode was so heart wrenching that I probably exhausted myself emotionally. What a great show though. What's been interesting is the slow escalation of resistance and hostility toward the queens, making the protests in this first episode of season 3 a foregone conclusion. If anyone doubts how harmful the right-wing rhetoric has been, the peripheral glances we get from these episodes are very clear what an impact it's having on these communities. I'm really glad this show exists, but it hurts to watch everything start sliding backwards socially.

That reading challenge was rooooouuuugh. The only one that was as bad was drag race original recipe -- season 11. COINCIDENCE? (Probably. But still worth noting.) I said this during season 11 with the first Silky row to hoe. I said this during season 13 with Kandy Muse. And now I guess I'll say it again with this appearance of Silky -- she's more talented than people want to admit. Her personality still clearly grates on some, but she's earned her professional cred on this show multiple times, and her outfits have improved astronomically. She will never be one of my favorites, but that doesn't mean I didn't gasp in delight when I stepped off a hotel elevator during a work conference and saw her standing there for realsies (she's shorter than me too, which was a real surprise). Our paths didn't cross again, but I was thrilled to have seen her even for a second. Anyway, point is, it's really hard to let old prejudices go, and I get that. Ra'jah annoyed me WAY more on season 11, truth be told, so seeing her image so rehabbed is taking me some getting used to. But although I don't want Silky to win (team Victoria or Rita), I'll continue to defend her existence and actual skills on the show.

I was amused that Ru just dispensed with Black Peppa and Jonbers before the final lipsync because honestly if Black Peppa got to perform, it would be really hard to explain why she didn't win. "Not Your Time" seems right for her. Which is to say I hope she comes back in some future edition and slays like we know she can. Truly a Too Wong Foo unpolished queen ready to evolve. I also dislike the say something to your younger selves moment in any season, but Cheddar got me good, girl. I've been very clear that she's been my queen the whole time, and for anyone who thinks she's been too good to win, I offer Bianca Del Rio. Everything about her is just so thoughtful. There's depth to her polish. But I'm perfectly happy with Danny Beard's win because Danny is such a delight, and that wig into makeup look was truly top shelf. My only quibble is that I wish her hemline had been down to the floor. It would've been perfection. I found her hair and makeup kinda goofy for the performance, but this is the first time I've gotten to appreciate what great legs she has. Show 'em off, girl! Also, I'm a huge fan of the club kid look and era, and I like that her take is explicitly taken from that. I think Cheddar's is too, but as Alan said, I'm sure Cheddar's loaded with references I don't know. Danny drawing that line from the club kid to her and being so polished on top of it is fashion thinking. Very smart of her to call it out given the roots of Ru and Michelle. Jonbers Blonde has earned my begrudging respect, and I shouldn't be down on her given that she's clearly gone through a lot to be where she is now. But by the skin of your teeth, girl. She's evolved, but imagine if that shield was a hat. It would've elevated that look so much more. She can perform though, and she truly is game for anything. I can't hate. Lastly it was delightful to see the winners again. For all that people were disappointed that Lawrence won -- and I get why -- she truly is a polished queen with so much personality. I think she looked the best out of the winners, and she remains practical to boot. The runway of eliminated queens was lovely too -- that look from Starlet. Oh my god. Now THAT is finale eleganza!