ProudMary

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!

I don't think so. Padma actually told Melissa that Kevin served them the best fried chicken. It was Kevin who used the fennel pollen. His wife told him there was fennel in the dish. In past seasons, they've had a couple of medical issues and they had medics on set. I was kind of surprised that only the chefs raced over to Lee Anne's mom and not a medic. That was scary. I felt bad for Lee Anne that she had to continue on with the challenge when she must have been very concerned about her mom. I loved Gregory working with his mom. When he was originally explaining what product he was working on, my mind went to Chow-Chow. I was glad to see Tom make the same comparison at JT (along with Italiian giardiniera and a similar French pickled dish.) At first, I also thought that his mom called him Chef but then it sounded to me that she called him the French "ch`ere" meaning dear. Would make sense as she's Haitian. Did anyone have closed captioning on?

I loved the idea of tonight's LCK being a sauce challenge only. A good sauce makes such a difference. It's nice to see it as the star of the challenge. Jen's sauce sounded much more appealing to me than Lisa's did. It's too bad it didn't reduce properly in time. One of the chefs in the gallery--I think it was Joe--said that Jen should have chosen a larger, flatter pan. That makes sense. I think had her sauce reduced properly, she would have been the winner. Lisa's sauce seemed to me like it needed editing. She really was just throwing ingredients into the pan the longer the time allotted went on. So Lisa only has to beat one more chef to get back into the competition. I remember one other season that the :LCK winner came back into the competition with quite a few challenges left to go in the main competition, but I don't think it was before Restaurant Wars. This would be a very early returning point. Perhaps fairer, considering the caliber of chefs in this All-Star season. Good LCK episode.

Jose Andres Getting Documentary From Ron Howard, Nat Geo

The entire scene with Lenu and Donato on the beach was very difficult to watch. Did she think that she was somehow getting back at Nino by allowing it? I know that we don't have separate threads for this series any longer, but I'd be interested to hear something from someone who's read Ferrante's books, about Lenu's thinking on why she chose to do this (if, in fact, this is how it occurred in the books.) While it wouldn't have been acceptable circa 1962, Lila is in desperate need of therapy and has been since she was a child. Somewhat off topic: As I type this, there is an ad here for Men's hand sewn, genuine leather shoes. 😅

We were discussing the chefs who were never specifically told to pack their knives and go; hence, Gregory, Kevin and Bryan along with Lisa, who seemed to wear it as some kind of exclusive badge, even though she clearly was not the only one of this season's chefs to make it to the final episode in their respective season. Jen Carroll is among the rest of the chefs who were eliminated prior to the season finale, although twice in her case.

You're correct. All Gregory heard was, "Mei, you are Top Chef." Also, Bryan and Kevin heard only "Michael, you are Top Chef." (I may be missing someone else who was still standing at another season's finale episode, but those are the ones that stand out in my mind.) None of them was specifically told to PYKAG. So yes, Lisa should STFU about that.

I've always liked LeeAnne but this is two weeks in a row now where she couldn't get her food plated without assistance. That's a time management issue, not a "someone else seasoned my dish" issue. The judges saw it too, because they commented on how the whole team was working to get LeeAnne's dish out, while Melissa was doing fine all by herself. Malarkey wasn't exactly a prince about her hummus though. I did like the way Bryan V. stepped up for the group to say that they had not had enough discussion about the progression of the first two courses. The teams may not have had named captains, but Bryan's leadership came through anyway. Jen was impressive to be able to recover from whatever happened with the stovetop. Her dish received good reviews even though it wasn't served the way she had originally envisioned it. Melissa's certainly on a roll! Two beautiful soups in a row. As a soup lover, I wish I could have tasted both.

Obviously, it's curated by superfans, but the Young Sheldon Wiki Fandom site is showing a total of 22 episodes for Season 3. After next Thursday's 20th episode (April 16th), it's only showing episodes 21 and 22 as airing in May, 2020, although in the Trivia section it says "The season finale will air on May 14, 2020." Unfortunately, it also says, "On March 13, 2020, the third season has suspended the production following the impact of corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic." I don't know how far along they were in filming before the pandemic hit. Perhaps we won't get the final two slated episodes.

We honestly don't know what, if anything, may have transpired between Lila and Nino. Yes, in the "previouslies", they showed us a childhood scene where Nino supposedly said he was going to marry Lila when they grew up (I don't remember that particular line from that scene, either @scrb ) but, they also re-showed the scene where Lila says, "Don't trust anything that comes out of my mouth" to Lenu. I think we have to wait and see on this.

On the spell check issue: People Magazine is no better. SC's Governor is Henry McMaster. In the article's secondary headline and again in the first paragraph, he's referred to as McCaster. Do publications employ proofreaders any more? Cameran is right to be concerned. She lives in Mount Pleasant. MP and the other Zip codes east of the Cooper River have some of the highest confirmed case numbers in the state. The Mayor of the City of Charleston itself issued a Stay-at-home order a while back. Photos of the city have it looking like a ghost town. Not so Mount Pleasant. Governor McMaster has issued many, piecemeal restrictive Executive Orders, but seems steadfast in not issuing an actual Stay-At-Home order. South Carolina is the only state east of the Mississippi River without one, even though each state's order is different. For example, Florida's Stay-At-Home order puts churches in the "essential business" category, meaning that services at the state's megachurches continue. 🙄Georgia's Governor, despite the Stay-At-Home order in place, re-opened Georgia's beaches this weekend. 🙄 This article is three days old but gives you some idea of how social distancing ISN'T working in South Carolina! https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/pictures-that-show-how-bad-the-state-of-south-carolina

This. So much. I was happy we were getting a new episode after several weeks of reruns, but when I saw Jason Alexander in the cast list, I cringed. I really don't need to see him in any more episodes. And this doesn't make me happy either. He is, by far, the weakest recurring character on the show IMO. I don't mind his new wife and I really like the chain-smoking, parish secretary. If the writers are intent on giving Pastor Jeff more air time, they'd better step up their game as far as his character goes.

And Dave. Who could forget, "I'm not your bitch, bitch!"

Padma's quote from that night on WWHL with Tom and Gail was, "He's probably richer than the three of us." 😄

Agreed. I was waiting for the winner of the "bidding" to get an advantage of some sort. I also don't know why Jamie started the time bidding at only 25 minutes, why not start high at maybe 45 minutes until they got a feel for where Tom really wanted it to be?

I LOVED this episode. Very funny right from the beginning. Mary: You never know, they could have kids your age. Sheldon: I already live with a kid my age. Not a fan. 😄 Each of Sheldon's scenes with the teachers, trying to convince them to buy the house next door, was golden. But, Missy's story was, by far, the best part of the episode. Her "definitely hot tea" woman talk with Connie was delightful, especially, "I didn't realize you had documentation." ☺️ The pure joy on Missy's face (nice job, Raegan Revord!) as she ran from the ball field to Meemaw's house was perfect! I was so glad that Marcus didn't break Missy's heart because she'd struck him out. Great episode!

I HATE the ending they gave Eliot. He lives the rest of his life never knowing what happened to his friends?!?! Margo, Josh, Alice and Fen get to build a new world; Penny, Julia and HQ (🤮) go off to form their own little family, I must have blinked twice because I don't remember seeing Kady-Is she with the hedges? But Eliot's all alone at Brakebills except for Charlton? F/U show.

I was somewhat surprised that neither Joe nor Angelo went for the oysters. 🤔

@PeterPirate Thanks so much for that info. I had seen Mark Blum's photo and knew I recognized him from somewhere other than the the roles mentioned in the article. I hadn't had time to check his IMDb page. Of course, TWW is where I remember him from. Very sad. 😢

Prediction for Nicky's wife: Sally, the girl from his past. You just know this show loves to add even more characters to the mix than we've got already.