ProudMary

Well, there are Vietnamese restaurants with the name Pho King. Of course, they may just have another reason for naming the restaurant after their signature dish. 😉

There absolutely had been a post in the spoiler thread indicating that not only was Gregory's team the losing team but that Gregory himself was PYKAG'd. The second the episode ended, I headed for the spoiler thread to make a comment and that post was gone.

I'd guess they didn't name an individual winner because the $40,000 prize for winning RW was being given to the winning team per Padma's original instructions.

I have never been so anxious during LCK! Kevin Gillespie is my very favorite chef over all 17 Top Chef seasons. I absolutely want him back in the main competition. The main competition is almost going to take a back seat for me until I know if KG is back in or not! Nini's dish seemed to have very layered flavors. and looked very tasty. I was really worried there especially when Tom said that Kevin's corn wasn't warm enough. I exhaled mightily when Tom gave the win to Kevin.

Yes, this episode is supersized.

Neither restaurant has the judges seated yet? Odd.

I can understand Gregory wanting Malarkey for FOH, but the fantasy baseball player in me was yelling, "Dude, he'll still be available in the second round!" You go for an ace in Round 1.

I watched The Queen at War last night on PBS. Short (<60 mins.) documentary on how living and serving during WWII shaped Queen Elizabeth II's future life and reign. Worth a watch. I'm sure it'll be re-broadcast on PBS. It's also available to stream on the PBS website linked below. https://www.pbs.org/show/queen-war/

I liked the double service RW because no one got to hide. Every member of the team had to be either the Executive Chef or the FOH GM. It was the fairest RW across all the seasons, IMO. I loved Isaac getting the win. He's one of my all-time favorite cheftestants and the only one whose restaurant I've dined at. (Off topic: Isaac was nominated for a James Beard Award today!) Getting rid of Manbun was the icing on the cake!

Not Michele; Marcello, whom Lila had repeatedly and even violently rejected multiple times. Had those shoes been on the feet of anyone but Marcello Solara, Lila and Stefano's marriage might have had a chance, but he really did betray her right from the start.

RE: YS, S03, Ep. 21: If that's truly the way Sheldon was able to begin attending college in East Texas, you'd think that adult Sheldon would have a much more favorable retrospective opinion of his father than anything we were ever shown on TBBT. George was pretty much the main reason he was able to go! Mary might very well have kept him home until he was of legal age to make his own choice!

I didn't interpret it that Mary ran to Sheldon because she'd lost interest in Missy. Missy was raising questions about the fight that Mary and George had had the previous night that made Mary uncomfortable. Without using the word divorce, Missy was asking if her parents could work through this or not. Mary didn't have the answer to that question. When Sheldon got home, she took the opportunity to dodge Missy's question, by running to Sheldon and George. Missy's expression there was fear that her Mom and Dad might break up over her brother, the "freak" as she had called him earlier in the episode.

Now I'm curious to see the team selection process for RW next week. It can't be gym class style, because there's no way a back-and-forth selection ends up with Kevin getting the three strongest chefs still standing and Gregory the three weakest. It must be a knife draw.

Even though he went first and we hadn't seen any others pitch their concept, it was evident that Kevin's concept would be one of the two that would be picked to move on to Restaurant Wars. Not only did he have a precise vision, allowing him to answer the judge's questions with certainty and specificity, but he executed his vision deliciously with the dishes he cooked and presented. Gregory tells us that he's in the process of opening a Haitian restaurant. Judge Stephanie Izard tells the cheftestants that she's aware that many of them have opened restaurants in the past, so don't just go back to the same well again--not her exact words, but that was the gist--yet Gregory's concept is: A Haitian restaurant!

I would definitely check out a chicken restaurant called "Fluster Clucks." Do it Kevin! 😅

When Padma, Gail and Tom were on "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen immediately after this season's first episode aired, Padma was asked about which cheftestant (all-time) was her crush, amd she specifically mentioned Kevin because of his level of intelligence. "We can serve monkey ass in empty clam shell and we would still win." 😂 It was very surprising to me that neither Bryan nor Eric thought about slicing the pork the way Tom mentioned. Halve it and then cut thicker slices so larger portions of the pork would have been lacquered. There was so little of the yummy-sounding lacquer on the pork slices that most bites of the pork would have been bland. It would have made it fairly simple to highlight the lacquer. As my very favorite vegetable falls into the bitter category, I was disappointed that no one with bitter as their flavor profile chose broccoli rabe (rapini) for their dish. Bryan and Eric dressed their pork with "bitter greens" but I don't think we were ever told which greens they actually used. Anyway, broccoli rabe is more Mediterranean than West African so it wouldn't have been the best fit for that dish. It was just the first food I thought of when I heard bitter. Personal preference. Padma looked especially gorgeous in this episode!

All sixteen previous seasons are available on Hulu. I have the basic subscription only; none of the add-ons.

Please edit this when you get the chance. I'd really like to know ahead of time who that third cheftestant is who makes the final five. ☺

I'm through Seasons 10, 11 and 12 now. Season 10 (Seattle): It was nice watching S10's RW knowing that Kristen Kish's Top Chef story ultimately had a happy ending, because this loss was painful to watch. I have to commend her as a leader for taking responsibility for the team's failure, but watching JT again it was apparent that Tom didn't want to send her home but Padma wasn't givng in. Josie was such a screw-up; she should never have still been there for RW. As for the winning team, I've always liked Sheldon Simeon and hope to someday get to sample his cuisine so it was not surprising that he led his team to victory as Executive Chef. As for their FOH manager, I have never been a Stefan Richter-hater. I've always found him entertaining, but wow, was he obnoxious here, especially to the judges! Season 11 (New Orleans): Looking back, I'd always thought of Nick Elmi as one of the weaker TC winners, and of course, the whole immunity thing is a big negative, but he sure did kill it as Executive Chef for his RW team. On the other side was the disaster of a team with Justin Devillier as Exec. Chef and the unpleasant Sara Johannes handling FOH. I had enjoyed Justin my first time watching S11--I know most didn't--and on re-watch I agree with the judges telling Sara to PYKAG. It was a mix of both FOH and the kitchen that doomed the team, but Sara's incompetence in not properly training the servers really did have a negative effect on the kitchen. I had some professional help guiding my decision during the re-watch, because in the middle of the episode, my son who's a Sous Chef got home from work, saw the disaster that was unfolding on the screen and sat down to watch and hilariously comment. That made it more amusing for me. 🙂 I'm pretty sure I'm going to re-watch this whole season because since it originally aired in 2013-14, I've actually had the opportunity to visit New Orleans and I'd like to watch the whole season unfold now that I now a little something about the city. Season 12 (Boston): I was definitely looking forward to this one because Doug Adams is probably my overall favorite TC cheftestant. (Kevin Gillespie is right up there for me too. Go Kevin; bring home the S17 win!) Watching Doug run things perfectly as Executive Chef was a delight. I had forgotten that Melissa King (also currently doing very well on S17 All Stars) was part of the winning team, not to mention Mei Lin who ultimately won the season! That was some line-up. Are there any other Top Chef fans doing this curated binge???

I wasn't quite sure where to put this, but I'm curious if anyone else is doing the Primetimer-suggested Top Chef Curated Binge-Watch? There are threads for many different television shows in the new Curated Binges Forum and the one for Top Chef is "All the Restauarnt Wars." I'm through Season 11 (New Orleans) on my RW binge-watch and I'm really enjoying it. Here's a link to the Top Chef thread in that forum. Curated Binges>Top Chef: All the Restaurant Wars

I was thoroughly enjoying my binge through Restaurant Wars, Seasons 5, 6, 7, and 8 but then I came to the nightmare that was Season 9, Top Chef: Texas. Perhaps I spoke too soon when yesterday I called Dale Talde my least favorite cheftestant ever because it'd have to be a tie with that pinnacle of awfulness, Sarah Grueneberg. I had forgotten how much I truly detested her. Rude, haughty, arrogant and bossy is definitely not a good look, no matter how good a chef you might be. She made me hate the entire season and of course, she was good enough that she was there right through the finale. Ugh! 🤮 Beverly may have been her favorite target, but in Restaurant Wars, she was horrid to everyone. I know she's a James Beard award-winning chef, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to work in her kitchen. Doing this mini-binge has made me want to go back and watch some entire seasons over again. That will never happen with Season 9.

Classic, yet timely.

I would like to thank @j5cochran and @deaja for doing the investigative leg work of finding the specific episodes, respectively, for Lord John Marbury and for Ainsley Hayes, because when I first read this thread last night, they were the first two side characters whose episodes I decided I wanted to binge watch! As soon as I finish my curated binge of Top Chef's "Restaurant Wars" episodes, I'll take a swing at my favorite side characters from The West Wing. 🙂 Love this idea!

First let me say that this is the best idea ever! I have been a Top Chef viewer since Season 1, Episode 1 and have watched every episode of every season since. I've always wanted to do a re-watch, but it seemed SO overwhelming especially as we're now in the SEVENTEENTH season! This is such a great way to sample just a little bit from each season by watching only the most iconic recurring episode of the series. So far, I have re-watched the first five episodes on the list. That puts me through S4's RW as S3 had a two-part RW. Going all the way back to S1 and S2 is like time-travel. The first thing that makes you go "Whoa!" is that half of the team is at the market or at the restaurant supply warehouse and they're using flip phones to send photos to the other half of the team. It really makes you realize just how long Top Chef has been around. 🙂 The jump in the caliber of chefs that TC was able to draw between S1/S2 and then S3 was monumental. Perhaps not all the way down the roster, but certainly by the time of Restaurant Wars being down to Top 6 or Top 8. I'm glad that they don't have the cheftestants of more recent seasons do so much of the design/decor work as they used to. That's not what viewers wanted to see. We wanted to see food! As @BlackberryJam above mentioned, getting the opportunity to once again see Hung from S3 break down those chickens in like 2 minutes flat was definitely a highlight. IMO, that may just be the most iconic single segment of the entire series. What a joy to watch! S4's Wedding Wars episode reminded me of exactly why I've always considered Dale Talde to be my least favorite cheftestant EVER to appear on TC. I know that when he returned years later, he had mellowed--I seem to recall that he was in therapy for anger management issues--but wow, he was insufferable in this episode. That's also saying something when you consider that it was Lisa Fernandes' initial appearance too. I'm off to watch RW, S5...

All I know is that I have been craving a good steak since watching Tom cook that beauty! I managed to find a single cryovac-packed NY Strip buried in my freezer, which will be my Sunday dinner. ☺ I do wish I could have tasted Tom's, sauce or no sauce. We talk about chefs who are now accustomed to being entrepreneurs/restauranteurs rather than working chefs. Tom certainly hasn't lost his touch!