Domenicholas

I thought that Sumayah should have at least gotten a special commemoration for her duck like Paul did for his lion.

Judges: Dan, everything in your meal was amazing except for the weird texture of the tuna on your first dish. Danny, your meal was great, but your scallops needs salt, your lobsters were almost underdone, and one of your courses were hard-to-eat. Therefore, the winner is...Danny! Me: Huh?! In all seriousness, I'm happy that Danny won. I would have been happy if any of them won, although I was rooting for Savannah, and I was sad to see that Michelle's (my favorite contestant this season) decisions about the courses were a big part of why Savannah lost. Top Chef has consistently rewarded innovative chefs over ones who create simple, but well-executed food, so Danny's win fits that. I wished that the episode would have shown more of the "good, but uncreative" narrative of Dan's food like they did with Savannah's hummingbird cake rather than the "simple, but effective" narrative that tricked me at least into thinking he won. As for why the other chefs weren't picked as sous chefs...as others have pointed out, the cheftestants didn't get a lot of time to know Soo (Dan knew him from before, but already had a good working relationship with Amanda on the show), and although Laura and Kaleena are strong chefs, they're not really good team players. I understand why the finalists would rather go with people they were comfortable with (or take a risk with Manny as Danny did). Finally, I didn't mind Kristen's speech at the end. I'm pretty sure every Top Chef finale has long-winded from the host and all of the judges that are usually left on the cutting room floor, and sometimes not even that (Padma also had a long finale speech in what became her final season). This one was kept in because it's Kristen's first season as host, and she has been phenomenal imho :)

I love Ed Lee. His snark made him one of the only entertaining contestants in Season 9. I wished he would have made it to the Top Chef Olympics for his running commentary. I'm rooting for Savannah to win. I love how she was in the background for the first couple of episodes before skyrocketing to the front of the pack. I think this is Danny's to lose; he reminds me a lot of Buddha, even down to the pastry chef wife.

I'm sorry, Kevin. I made a joke last week about a perfectly-cooked risotto being chaotic for Top Chef, only for him to go home with risotto this week. At least it was one of the best risottos on the show.

I hate open-ended challenges like this. The definition of chaos is so arbitrary that you can make it mean whatever you want. Good thing that most chefs got decent-to-good dishes out, but if I were any of them, I would have done something completely ridiculous. For example: - Chocolate-covered turducken - Poutine-stuffed chitins - Full English Breakfast smoothie - Chicken-fried sushi - Cereal-stuffed ravioli - Rice lasagna with bacon replacing the noodles - An actually properly-cooked risotto

I don't know why, but Christy always sounds like Kate Middleton to me. And nice shout-out to poor Ian and Bingate.

I've heard somewhere (though I may be wrong) that one of the things that make British Sign Language and American Sign Language vastly different is that BSL often uses both hands to sign, but ASL (which is derived from French Sign Language), uses one hand for a lot, if not most, of its words. I liked how Paul spoke slower to Tasha and enunciated his words, which makes me assume that Tasha can read lips somewhat.

So, I'll preface this by saying that I like Buddha, I've always like Buddha, and he definitely deserved to win this season as the inarguable best chef of the season. If Top Chef was a fictional show, Buddha would be the cold perfectionist and technician who's been the frontrunner the entire competition only to be beaten by the plucky underdog in the final because, although their skills are not as refined as his, they have bomb flavors and heart. Since Top Chef is not fictional however, lo and behold, the technician that has been the frontrunner for most of the season wins it all.

I wouldn't mind one of the more personable Top Chef alums, like Gregory or Amar.

The Top Chef judges have consistently picked better-tasting dishes that don't follow the challenge over good dishes that do. It makes me wonder why chefs don't just make whatever they want and bs about how it's challenge-appropriate (e.g. this lasagna is mushroom-forward because its mushroom-shaped!) I loved how encouraging Ali was to his partner, and how Buddha described each thing for his, so I wasn't surprised that they were on the top. I was surprised that Sarah and her partner weren't higher since Sydney is Southern, so she would be familiar with Sarah's cuisine (although familiarity and ability to cook are two different things, as I can attest). Gabri reminds me so much of Dawn in her first season: manic in the kitchen, making things up as they go, giving themselves too much to do in too little time, forgetting to plate things (although Dawn did that a lot more), staying longer than more consistent contestants due to amazing flavors and, in Gabri's case, techniques. El Gato or Le Chat indeed. I was rooting for Ali to win, so I'm sad that he got kicked off. At this point, I'm rooting for Sarah (never thought I would type that), then Gabri (whom I've liked since the beginning). I really like Buddha too, but I don't like predetermined winners, and no one in this season has been predetermined like Buddha.

Wow. Imagine going to London, expecting it just to be another exotic destination, only for the Queen to die during your season. I'm glad Amar is doing so well here. I think his first season (12?) was a weak season overall, with only Kwame as a real stand-out, and even he was kicked out in the middle of that season. The only thing I remember about the winner, Jeremy, is that he taught his daughter that second place is the first loser. He hasn't appear on Top Chef since.

Apparently, if you have a VPN, you can watch the U.S. Nationals on the Olympic Channel: https://olympics.com/en/sport-events/2023-usfs-figure-skating-toyota-u-s-championships-san-jose-california/

My biggest worry for Hawayak/Baker is after Chock/Bates retire. There's always been a "wait your turn" mentality with regards to ice dancing, so H/B would logically would be America's top team afterwards. If they're not getting the love internationally, however, the U.S. may throw their political backing behind other teams like Green/Parsons, Carreira/Ponomarenko, Bratti/Somerville, or even newer teams like Brown/Brown or Zingas/Kolesnik. Ask and you shall receive

https://skatecanada.ca/2022/12/definition-of-team-updated-to-reflect-gender-diversity-across-the-podium-pathway/ Skate Canada refines the definition of "Team" for pairs and ice dance from "one man and one woman" to "two people" for domestic competitions. I think this is great for inclusively. I suspect that the immediate effect of this will be that nonbinary individuals like American Timothy LeDuc will be gendered correctly within the Canadian protocols, but I can't wait to see same-sex pairs and ice dance teams take advantage of the new rules. I also hope that this ruling catches on in other feds, especially the United States, although I know it would be an uphill battle for the ISU as a whole.

Everyone going to the Grand Prix Final: Men: Ilia Malinin, Shoma Uno, Kao Miura, Sota Yamamoto, Daniel Grassl, and Shun Sato Women: Mai Mihara, Loena Hendrickx, Kaori Sakamoto, Yelim Kim, Isabeau Levito, and Rinka Watanabe Pairs: Miura/Kihara, Knierim/Frazier, Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps, Chan/Howe, Ghilardi/Ambrosini, and Conti/Macii Ice Dance: Gilles/Poirier, Guignard/Fabbri, Fournier Beadry/Sorensen, Chock/Bates, Fear/Gibson, and Hawayak/Baker