Season vs. Season

[PinkSprinkles]

The one time I remember clearly thinking that something was up with judges table was Tiffany Derry's elimination in TC: DC. It was top five and she fell into the bottom for the first time the entire season and they eliminated her over Kevin, who had sucked pretty much the entire season (one win at that point, and it was his fifth trip to the bottom). 

[Wings]

There are 2 women judges and Tom plus the guest judge which can be either.  I really do see them judging the food.  

[Totale]

The one time I remember clearly thinking that something was up with judges table was Tiffany Derry's elimination in TC: DC. It was top five and she fell into the bottom for the first time the entire season and they eliminated her over Kevin, who had sucked pretty much the entire season (one win at that point, and it was his fifth trip to the bottom). 

 

My most WTF judging moment was when Collichio pretty clearly took Puck aside and pressured him to change his vote so his boy Isabella stayed over Antonia. And I thought that was at least partially a gendered incident at the time.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Totale

[Wings]

My most WTF judging moment was when Collichio pretty clearly took Puck aside and pressured him to change his vote so his boy Isabella stayed over Antonia. And I thought that was at least partially a gendered incident at the time.

 

 

In the article Toms says-

 

Will fans be up in arms over this controversy? "People are going to get pissed off about everything," Colicchio says. "It doesn't matter. In the end, I thought we had a great finale. The food was really good. It all worked out."

 

 

I hate the attitude that fan's becoming angry over something that is clearly tampering doesn't matter because "people are going get pissed over everything."  Unfortunately this is true.  Read any message board, twitter and FB.   Way too many viewers/fans love to complain and become outraged over the smallest things so when something truly bad happens we are dismissed.  I get it. 

 

The second episode thread (this season) is loaded with vitriol about Mei  and she was on camera less than 5 minutes.  There is no forum to give level headed genuine feedback.  And that is a shame. 

Edited October 26, 2014 by wings707

[weixiaobao]

Top Chef is sexist??? part 2 (season 5 to 7)

part 3- the rise of female chefs (season 8 to 9)

part 4- when female demolish their Competitors (season 10 to 11)

 

Season 5- this season did gave us a bunch of memorable female casts compare to past season.  I supposed this is true at least for me.  Ariane Duarte stumble early on and then prove herself for the next few episodes only to be eliminated by the team up of Hosea and Leah.  But she really did screw up in that episode.  I supposed I would like that she survive a few more episodes to see how the dynamic play out.  She is by no meant a Robin Leventhal (season 6).  But then again who know, season 6 is notorious tough while season 5 is one of the weaker season.  Radhika Desai is an interesting chef.  Her record is pretty worthy in that season.  I supposed she was a finalist material until she is undone by restaurant wars.  Which is no foul play really consider the number of great contenders that went home during restaurant wars.

 

Then we got Jamie Lauren, who was a rather competent chef but not necessarily infallible.  By the time she went home, she was technically the second best chef to Stefan only because Carla is just picking up steam.  The last two had the opposite storyline, Leah Cohen who had a strong start then falling off the radar and start to appear on the bottom more often.  Maybe Hosea knew exactly what he is doing by cheating with Leah.  By the time she was eliminated, we were sort of done with her anyhow.  In contrast, Carla Hall was sort of like season 6 Robin.  She was pretty much bottom of pretty much every ranking.  This is partly because she didn’t shine that much early on.  But more so because of the weirdness side to her, the same sort of weirdness that she almost eliminated herself in season 8 by wasting way too much time decorating a table.  But when Carla pick up steams, she picked up steams and impressed some very famous chefs with her refine French techniques (rather than her homey soulful food).  This is kinda like Hung except Carla doesn’t do this on purpose.  She doesn’t really play the game but rather try her best days in and days out.  The finale of season 5 had 4 guys (Jeff, Fabio, Hosea, and Stefan) to one woman, so the odd of a guy win isn’t necessary out of the blue.  We all knew Carla bombed the finale by listening to Casey.  And the title was down to between Stefan and Hosea.  In the end Hosea won it, and this I supposed really play into the credential of Top Chef.  They really are non bias in their judging.  Stefan dominated the whole season long.  While Hosea just suck and suck and suck.  One of the two elimination wins that Hosea had was when everybody was collectively bad.  Even his winning dish was meh and not “winning material” except it happened to be better than everyone else.  The other winning dish was in a team challenge, and they didn’t even aired that he win that challenge.  It is just Thanksgiving food and not even notable enough for them to give the time to say he won.  And his last win, a quickfire win was over a non cooking challenge (naming ingredients from sauces or something).  If they had to pick a “white man” to win, it was so obvious that they could have pick Stefan and Stefan did cook the best dish of the night.  But they didn’t.  Tom was underwhelmed with season 5, and said the winner (Hosea) would place 5th in season 6 below even Jen Carrol.  But really, what the hell did Hosea cook all season outside of the finale to rank even 5th in season 6?  At best he is just about mid pack because season 6 had quite many chefs with great resume that were eliminated early on.

 

Season 6- To say a female should have win season 6, meaning that there was a female contestant that can outshine the volt bros and Kevin G.  If the question was phrase as such then we don’t have to discuss about other female contestants outside of Jen Carrol.  And to her credit, Jen did lead the pack early on and is one of the toughest female contestants to date.  But by midseason, she started to have confident issues and fell into the bottoms more often.  We kinda have an idea of this when during her famous meltdown in season 8 episode 2.  We sort of having an idea that this must have started in her home and something to do with her dad, I guess.  At this time in season 6, it was clear that she was a distance 4th.  And up course, she didn’t make it to the last challenge.  Since there are only 3 men left standing, it was obvious the winner was going to be a man.  A white man, I may added.  So very sexist.

 

Season 7- To be honest, I didn’t really watch season 7.  It was clear that they want a black Top Chef winner so badly and included 5 out of the 17 contestants are blacks (7 minorities overall).  I think this kind of debunk the whole racist myth because the season sucks due to this.  The inclusion of the minorities for minorities sake because Obama was the president just doesn’t work out.  Outside Tiffany (whose attitude was grating to me in season 8), who else is actually likeable among the other black contestants?  Kenny Gilbert and his whole I am the biggest dog (or beast) in the kitchen is annoying as hell.  If you want to include more minorities, then include a Carla Hall, or Tre Wilcox, or Nina Compton , or Gregory Gourdet (season 12).  Even for other seasons, there are black contestants that eliminated early on are way more likeable than the cast of season 7 (Season 6 Ron Duprat was funny, Season 9 Nyesha Arrington and Keith Rhodes as examples).  Even when Kevin Sbraga won, people was confused whether he is black or latino.  Why??  Because race should not be matter in the kitchen, diversity should not be just for the sake of diversity.  Diversity with a purpose maybe better.  If there is a minority that is qualified or have an interesting point of view in food, then sure.  But geez.  So let talk about the 2 chefs that actually worth talking about.  Tiffany Derry who was never on the bottom until they eliminated her.  Tiffany Derry was a good cook.  I have read some reviews on season 7, and even when she was at the top of the food chain, they don’t think she have much of a culinary voice.  And what I saw in season 8 kinda confirmed that.  If she had won season 7, I guess I don’t mind consider I don’t really care for season 7.  And I supposed she can be comparable to the weaker Top Chef winners like Hosea or Ilan.  This is what skillet doux had to say about the dish that eliminated her.

 

“But looking at her elimination dish, it isn't hard to understand why. Seared halibut over rice, some sautéed vegetables and a canned Thai curry that's punched up with some fresh aromatics really shouldn't cut it at this stage. It's one of those dishes that looks sort of Thai without actually being Thai, which is a problem when the plain old actual Thai dish would have been better. It may still have been a perfectly tasty dish, but it's not hard to see how it came up short against this crowd.”

 

So I could assume there is no foul play here since skillet doux knew more about food than I am.  Compare to Tiffany Derry, Kelly Liken had a way better resume which include two time James Beard semifinalist.  Of course, this is something that Richard Blais bragged about post Top Chef.  But Kelly Liken is already an accomplish chef going into Top Chef season 7.  Kelly Liken distinguished herself early on whereas Tiffany projected up to the apex around mid season.  Kelly Liken didn’t make it to the last challenge.  By all meant Angelo and Ed had dominated the first half and the latter half of season 7 (respectively) (while Tiffany Derry dominated the middle part), while Kevin S did spent the entire break honing his skill.  So I am not surprise that Kelly Liken came up short (see Mike Isabella as an example).  When it came down to the finale, it was between 3 men, so that is the story.  But to be honest, do you really want Tiffany as a winner??  It is already bad that we have some really weak winners already, but I don’t want to add to that list really.

Edited October 26, 2014 by weixiaobao

[cooksdelight]

I've been watching season 5 today, seeing some things I missed. Arianne got thrown under the bus and run over twice. Leah and Hosea became my two least favorite players for the way they just stood there and didn't own up to the fact of their own shortcomings. And I do mean they are players. I do not for the life of me understand how Hosea won, with Stefan winning challenges right and left. I don't know how Leah made it as far as she did, unless production was hoping for full blown makeout sex with her and Hosea. I guess I hate that they judge one final meal, and don't look at the entire season of wins, and how many times Hosea was in the bottom with his girl toy.

After watching this, I think I despise Hosea more than any other chef in this series.

[wallflower75]

After a break to go on vacation (where I got the opportunity to try out the Little Goat in Chicago), I finished season 7 yesterday.  While my outrage at Kevin's win over Angelo and Ed has diminished with time and seeing far more egregious winners like Hosea, I still don't feel that he was season 7's true "Top Chef."  If I remember right, Kevin only won one challenge throughout the entire season before taking the crown, as opposed to Angelo and Ed who had won several.  (Hell, even Nicholas won more challenges in New Orleans.)  In fact, if it weren't for his unexpected win, the only thing I would remember Kevin for is his blowup at Alex in the stew room after Restaurant Wars.  I think Kevin, like Hosea before him, had a great night when Angelo and Ed only had "good" nights.  It again enforces my frustration that the show crowns a winner based on one night and not on an entire season.  I realize the idea is that a true "Top Chef" overcomes nerves and performs at his/her best when the stakes are highest, but honestly?  If we were in a real world setting, which would matter more--one brilliant night or being consistently great night after night?

 

So it's on to the All Stars rewatch, where I'm already annoyed by Blais saying that his season is best remembered because he lost.  Argh.

Edited November 4, 2014 by wallflower75

[eleanorofaquitaine]

IIRC, Kevin was actually hitting his stride during the latter challenges. I mean, I agree with you that overall, I think that both Ed and Angelo are better chefs.  But at the very least, I don't remember Kevin as being a jerk, and I think that there might have been more consistency with Kevin (as in, his food tended to always be good but not great) that there wasn't with someone like Hosea.

[turbogirlnyc]

I've been watching season 5 today, seeing some things I missed. Arianne got thrown under the bus and run over twice. Leah and Hosea became my two least favorite players for the way they just stood there and didn't own up to the fact of their own shortcomings. And I do mean they are players. I do not for the life of me understand how Hosea won, with Stefan winning challenges right and left. I don't know how Leah made it as far as she did, unless production was hoping for full blown makeout sex with her and Hosea. I guess I hate that they judge one final meal, and don't look at the entire season of wins, and how many times Hosea was in the bottom with his girl toy.

After watching this, I think I despise Hosea more than any other chef in this series.

 

I watched the rerun on Esquire yesterday and feel the exact same way.

[Bella]

Here's my "unpopular opinion" on Leah: I really wanted to eat her food. It sounded so good to me! Sleep with Hosea, don't sleep with Hosea, whatever, her food really appealed to me. Her recent NYC restaurant got meh reviews, however, and I don't recall if it's still in business.

 

But if I won the lottery and learned she was making a living as a personal chef, I'd hire her to cook dinner for me at least once a week.

[Julia]

Here's my "unpopular opinion" on Leah: I really wanted to eat her food. It sounded so good to me! Sleep with Hosea, don't sleep with Hosea, whatever, her food really appealed to me. Her recent NYC restaurant got meh reviews, however, and I don't recall if it's still in business.

 

But if I won the lottery and learned she was making a living as a personal chef, I'd hire her to cook dinner for me at least once a week.

 

Pig and Khao is still open, last I heard, but she's in a big lawsuit with her investors over mismanagement.

 

Exaggerated girliness in professional women gives me hives (which I recognize is a prejudice of mine over individual style). Still, if she cooks anything without pork in it, I'd eat it.

[AriAu]

After watching this, I think I despise Hosea more than any other chef in this series.

 

Somehow I have trouble hating him. If not for the rule that they judge the finale on its own merits without considering past performance, he doesn't win and it isn't close, but that is not his fault. Basically, he seemed like a nice enough, sorta harmless guy who fooled around with another cheftestant. He benefited by preparing well for the finale, as did Kevin Sbraga and Mike Isabella (in All Stars), all of whom performed much better in the finale then they did all season-Mike worked with Voltaggio and Kevin had the good fortune of having Michael V as his sous chef.

My hatred has always leaned towards the assholes like Spike and Isabella and Marcel etc...

[cooksdelight]

Speaking of Hosea, he's finally getting a restaurant open

http://www.zagat.com/b/denver/first-look-blackbelly-market-opens-in-boulder-next-week

[Lura]

Of all the winners in all of the seasons, and in all of the contestants in all of the seasons, my least favorite was Hosea.  Ilan came in a close second, but Hosea had it won.  It wasn't just the thing with Leah, although I thought that was an odd mismatch.  It was just his attitude, I guess.  My least favorite woman was Tiffani.  My favorites were Carla, Stephanie, and ... gee, how soon we forget!  I liked Han very much, as well as Stephan, Fabio, and this season's Greg (so far).

 

I just remembered the Isaac Mizrahi challenge!  He struck me as such a dork, but I nearly died laughing over him when watching on re-runs.  Everybody tried so hard to be artistic, and watching the guys was hysterical.  Then, Mizrahi breezed by, selecting the plates that spoke to him!  Incidentally, perhaps as a concession to American spellers, he is now spelling his first name Americanized, at least on his shoes.  And speaking of Isaac, did anyone catch him judging on "Iron Chef"?  Classic Isaac.  It was his first time as a judge, and his comments were so simplistic.  In the end, he wound up gesticulating wildly and talking with his mouth full ... and sprayed saliva all over Karine Bakoum's face and torso!  Sorry for the off-topic, but the devil made me include it!

 

ETA: Thanks for the link, cooksdelight.  Despite my feelings about Hosea, his restaurant looks and sounds inviting.  All except for the box car floors ... BLECH!  Who knows what those floors have seen?  From the looks of them, plenty!

Edited November 5, 2014 by Lura

[wallflower75]

IIRC, Kevin was actually hitting his stride during the latter challenges. I mean, I agree with you that overall, I think that both Ed and Angelo are better chefs.  But at the very least, I don't remember Kevin as being a jerk, and I think that there might have been more consistency with Kevin (as in, his food tended to always be good but not great) that there wasn't with someone like Hosea.

 

I don't want to give the wrong impression--I don't think Kevin was a jerk.  In the pressure cooker of the competition, I understood Kevin's frustration with Alex by that point--whether Alex stole the pea puree in the earlier challenge or not, I think a lot of them (possibly everyone but Amanda) thought he did.  Then Alex was saved in Restaurant Wars only by the grace of being on the winning team, while a chef who had done more during the challenge (in this case, Kenny) was eliminated.  I totally got it.

 

While I remain unconvinced of Kevin as the Top Chef of season 7, I do think part of that could be the way the show was edited.  While both were disappointed, as far as I know neither Ed nor Angelo has ever insinuated that Kevin didn't deserve to win.

 

And back to season 8, where we just had the double elimination of Dale and Stephen.  Stephen commented after his elimination that "Season 1's Stephen would've killed this challenge, but I haven't been cooking as much lately" or something like that.  Which leads me to wonder: if he's not doing as much cooking lately, why bring him back at all?  You already had one of the "villains" from season 1 with Tiffani, so why not bring someone back who would make better competition than Stephen if you want a true "All Stars" season?

[stillshimpy]

While my outrage at Kevin's win over Angelo and Ed has diminished with time and seeing far more egregious winners like Hosea, I still don't feel that he was season 7's true "Top Chef."  If I remember right, Kevin only won one challenge throughout the entire season before taking the crown, as opposed to Angelo and Ed who had won several.

 

The only truly fun thing, for me, in that finale was the look of complete and utter astonishment on Kevin's face when his name was announced.  It practically made the whole season worthwhile, because whereas every now and then a jerk like Hosea will middle-of-the-road it to an unappealing win and then be defensive about it for the rest of all time; Kevin was floored and you could just see how damned surprised he was.  He wasn't and presumably isn't a chef with an over-inflated sense of his talent.  He seemed to bloody well know that it came down to a stroke of luck as much as anything, with Angelo being felled like a tree by some stomach virus and Ed just faltering.  

 

The look on Kevin's face made me so pleased for him, because it practically came with a thought bubble "Really?!? ZOMG!  Picked a good to have a good day! KA CHING! WOOOOOOO!"  Humility tends to look good on everyone. 

[AriAu]

Wikipedia has great charts from all the seasons showing wins, losses, :"high" (up for the win),"low" (up for elimination) or "in".

Kevin only had 1 win (other than finale) and 5 lows. which is the largest number of lows and for any winner. Hosea and Nick had 4 lows each and Nick had 3 wins while Hosea had 2 (in each case not counting the finale). The clearest standout was Paul Qui in Texas with 8 wins and only one low, but Kristen had 4 wins and no lows before she was eliminated and then returned through LCK. FWIW, Stephanie had 4 wins and 3 lows, Michael V had 3 wins and 1 low (his brother never had a low and that season had the toughest competition at the top with both Volts, Kevin and Jen, all of whom piled up wins and highs)), Blais had 4 wins and 1 low in All Star, while Hung only had 1 win and 3 lows.

[wallflower75]

Wikipedia has great charts from all the seasons showing wins, losses, :"high" (up for the win),"low" (up for elimination) or "in".

Kevin only had 1 win (other than finale) and 5 lows. which is the largest number of lows and for any winner. Hosea and Nick had 4 lows each and Nick had 3 wins while Hosea had 2 (in each case not counting the finale). The clearest standout was Paul Qui in Texas with 8 wins and only one low, but Kristen had 4 wins and no lows before she was eliminated and then returned through LCK. FWIW, Stephanie had 4 wins and 3 lows, Michael V had 3 wins and 1 low (his brother never had a low and that season had the toughest competition at the top with both Volts, Kevin and Jen, all of whom piled up wins and highs)), Blais had 4 wins and 1 low in All Star, while Hung only had 1 win and 3 lows.

 

Hmmm...so ranking the Top Chef winners this way, Kevin really is at the bottom--along with, of all people, Hung.  Interesting.

 

Sometimes, I wonder if my frustration at Nicholas winning last year was because of the whole debacle where he had immunity and Stephanie went home when he was clearly the reason his team lost.  I wonder if I would be so outraged if one of the judges (was it Wolfgang?) hadn't suggested that he should fall on his sword and give up immunity and he refused to do so.  Or if I hadn't gotten tired of his constant bashing of Carlos--although I don't recall especially liking Carlos, either. 

 

Meanwhile, back at the season 8 rewatch, I now remember why I didn't care for Jamie.  I'm not going to say that she wimped out when she cut her finger and needed stitches--everyone's pain tolerance is different--but it seemed to me that she didn't think there was anything wrong about not plating her dish in the Advantage Chef challenge because she wasn't happy with it.  More like she knew if her team lost that she would definitely be going home and wanted to avoid it as much as possible.  And what was up with everyone letting Angelo mess with their dishes in that challenge?  I'd have smacked him upside the head and told him to get his hands off my dish before he lost them.

[AriAu]

Sometimes, I wonder if my frustration at Nicholas winning last year was because of the whole debacle where he had immunity and Stephanie went home when he was clearly the reason his team lost.

 

Also, if you look at the chart, you'll see that he came limping into the finale, having been on the chopping block in 3 of the last 4 episodes before they headed to Maui, and he never really stood out before then other than being the final chef at one of the great restaurants in America, Le Bec Fin. .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_(season_11)

Plus, he was kinda whinny and there was the immunity-gate-FWIW, I think he had no obligation to fall on his sword since  it is a game and played earned that protection.

[cooksdelight]

I wonder if I would be so outraged if one of the judges (was it Wolfgang?) hadn't suggested that he should fall on his sword and give up immunity and he refused to do so

I think it was Jacques Pepin, who didn't really understand how the rules of Top Chef work.

[weixiaobao]

Ranking based on wiki and or the format of the challenge is unfair.  For example, as I pointed out one of Hosea so called win is when everyone was collectively did bad.  His dish happed to be the best out of suckfest and wouldn't have win like say any of the episode in season 12 so far.  Another win wasn't even important enough to announce in the episode (the thanksgiving episode).  Micheal V for example wasn't on "high" in the first episode of season 6, while most of the judge praised his dish so much.  If you didn't watch the episode, you would think he rank 5th in that episode.  But that wasn't true.  The reason is the format of the episode.  People were divided into group and only the winner of that group can be listed as high.  Kevin G was in the same group as Micheal V. and also had the winning dish of the evening.  While other people was in much much weaker group.  So Micheal V could have the 2nd best dish of the evening. 

 

Or the classic Nick, Stephanie, and Shirley episode where Stephanie was eliminated eventhough she cook a great dish and co-cook the best dish of the evening.  If you don't have the back story, then those data is flawed.  Also you have to consider, the lows as well as the highs.  Just by number alone, Hung is not the bottom 2 of the winners.  His stats are way better than Hosea.

Edited November 6, 2014 by weixiaobao

[wallflower75]

It's the "An Offer They Can't Refuse" episode, and, wow.  I never thought there was a dumber challenge than the most recent elimination challenge in Boston, where the winners were chosen based on how well they made their dishes sound.  Never mind that pesky taste factor, how does it sound?  But that quickfire with the fashion designer...really?  Okay, so it's important that food look good--we get it.  But you still have to be able to eat it!  Were any of those dishes edible?  And if so, would you really have wanted to eat them?

 

And the other thing that pissed me off about this episode--the attitude Fabio, Mike, and Richard had about Antonia winning.  Fabio: "It's not an Italian dish."  Mike: "It's just mussels.  What's hard about that?"  Richard:  *pout pout pout because God forbid I'm not acknowledged as the best evah!*  Get over yourself, boys.  A bunch of people who have a lot of experience with Italian food all agreed her dish was the best of the night.  None of them qualified it by saying, "But it's not Italian, it was easy to make, and what the hell was she thinking, making a great dish when she should be bowing down to the greatness that as Richard."

Edited November 8, 2014 by wallflower75

[Lillybee]

Watching Season 8 all stars and am amazed that Tiffany did not get sent home for her awful melon dish, I thought that it was the worst of the night followed closely by Fabio's. At least Steven turned down his arrogance and made a very graceful exit. I liked him this season.

[wallflower75]

I finally struggled through the end of All-Stars--watching the inevitable crowning of the All-Mighty Blais was tougher than it was the first time around, when I didn't know what I know now.  I'm glad I'm done with it if for no other reason than I don't have to listen to Mike Isabella's laugh anymore.  Argh.

 

So I've now started on season 9, and in the first episode, I'm reminded how funny I found Chris Jones!  The second he paraphrased Dazed and Confused by saying, "Fry, little peanuts!  Fry!"  I was laughing.  In a season which is best remembered for the Mean Girls and Beverly, you have to find fun where you can.  It's why I liked Grayson so much--you never knew what would come out of her mouth.

[turbogirlnyc]

I finally struggled through the end of All-Stars--watching the inevitable crowning of the All-Mighty Blais was tougher than it was the first time around, when I didn't know what I know now.  I'm glad I'm done with it if for no other reason than I don't have to listen to Mike Isabella's laugh anymore.  Argh.

 

So I've now started on season 9, and in the first episode, I'm reminded how funny I found Chris Jones!  The second he paraphrased Dazed and Confused by saying, "Fry, little peanuts!  Fry!"  I was laughing.  In a season which is best remembered for the Mean Girls and Beverly, you have to find fun where you can.  It's why I liked Grayson so much--you never knew what would come out of her mouth.

The thing I will always love most about season 9 is a comment Chris Jones makes in the Charlize Theron episode.

[cooksdelight]

Chris' hairdo kept me fascinated. Will it or won't it fall apart?

[wallflower75]

Chris' hairdo kept me fascinated. Will it or won't it fall apart?

 

Yes!  A truly unforgettable hairdo!

 

Just finished the "Quinceanera" episode, which showed the inkling of what to expect from the Mean Girls, although Keith really should've known better than to buy pre-cooked shrimp.  But it also brought back how annoying I found Beverly.  I hate to admit this, but I rolled my eyes at the piece of paper she taped to her mirror with her mantra of being named Top Chef--I know, it's all about envisioning your goals and getting there, and all that positive talk.  But there's what you do in private and then there's putting that on a mirror in a room she shared with others.  How do you suppose they felt having to stare at that every time they looked in the mirror?  And then at the grocery store, her announcement that she needed attention right away because she had the most important dish?  Ugh.  Being annoying doesn't excuse the Mean Girls' behavior, but I can imagine how living with Beverly got tiring after a (short) while.

[Julia]

Yes!  A truly unforgettable hairdo!

 

Just finished the "Quinceanera" episode, which showed the inkling of what to expect from the Mean Girls, although Keith really should've known better than to buy pre-cooked shrimp.  But it also brought back how annoying I found Beverly.  I hate to admit this, but I rolled my eyes at the piece of paper she taped to her mirror with her mantra of being named Top Chef--I know, it's all about envisioning your goals and getting there, and all that positive talk.  But there's what you do in private and then there's putting that on a mirror in a room she shared with others.  How do you suppose they felt having to stare at that every time they looked in the mirror?  And then at the grocery store, her announcement that she needed attention right away because she had the most important dish?  Ugh.  Being annoying doesn't excuse the Mean Girls' behavior, but I can imagine how living with Beverly got tiring after a (short) while.

I wonder what kind of nativist asshole Heather works for. Sarah, who was just condescending, rude and abusive and not actively racist, made a big point of trying to repair her image after it was all over. Heather doubled down. And, you know, try as she will, it flat out was racist, unless she can make a case that the gnocchi, spanish octopus, tostadas, poutine, charcuterie, and merguez on her menu are somehow classic "american" food (although you know what's classic "american" food? Whatever the fuck the wooly mammoths ate. Because the rest of us, Chef Heather, are immigrants, you miserable ignorant oaf).

Edited November 22, 2014 by Julia

[Lillybee]

I found the PeeWee episode fairly annoying maybe because I find PeeWee very annoying and not funny. I thought that the whole premise of this episode was terrible.

[Lillybee]

Chris' hairdo kept me fascinated. Will it or won't it fall apart?

When my son played goalkeeper in his soccer games, he wore his hair like that. I think that for him and perhaps Chris, it was a bit of channeling the samurai warrior.

[Lamb18]

I am trying to remember Chris. What I remember this season most for, besides Beverly, is the physical activity unrelated to cooking, such as riding bikes, which I believe was on the Pewee Herman episode.

[wallflower75]

I am trying to remember Chris. What I remember this season most for, besides Beverly, is the physical activity unrelated to cooking, such as riding bikes, which I believe was on the Pewee Herman episode.

 

Yeah, that happened during the Pee Wee episode.  I'm not there yet, and I'm not looking forward to it.

 

I just finished the "Game On" double elimination episode, and if you needed proof that Heather was an idiot (in addition to being a witch), this was it.  She's blasting Beverly at Judges' Table for what she did (or did not) do in the previous challenge, when she's Beverly's partner in a challenge where they could both go home!!  Idiot, idiot, idiot.

 

I found it interesting that when Sarah broke down after this challenge, Beverly was the one who tried to give her comfort by telling her it was okay to cry.  It's at moments like this that I feel bad for finding Beverly annoying.

 

[Lillybee]

OMG, Lucky me, I just finished watching Season 1, Katie Lee "Joel" was the host and my goodness she was awful.  If she didn't have the last name of Joel, I don't think that she wouldn't have gotten the job. It seemed that she was reading off cue cards during the entire season and didn't have an original thought in her head.

[Maverick]

Unfortunately she can get work without the Joel name since she's currently all over Food Network.

[biakbiak]

Every time I rewatch Texas, I am reminded once again how much I loathed Bev. I wouldn't have been as mean to her as Heather and Sarah but I would not have been able to deal with her.

Edited December 1, 2014 by biakbiak

[Julia]

Unfortunately she can get work without the Joel name since she's currently all over Food Network.

The Food Network has tried to make fetch happen with far more tenuous connections to relevance than a Hamptons grass widow who rode her brief marriage and the time it bought her on Top Chef into a cookbook.

[Lamb18]

I watched the finale of season 9 yesterday. Sara was better-looking than I remember her, but yeah, she and Heather illustrate the "mean girls" definition.  I understand Tyler was irritating because he wouldn't just follow instructions but wanted to change things up (at least that's how it looked), but it looked like he worked on the dessert quite a bit and that was the judges' favorite part of Sara's meal.  I think he worked with the white chocolate, which Padma really liked.

 

I am so glad Paul won!

[ChelseaNH]

I thought Katie Lee Joel's cookbook came out before her stint as host.  Because it gave her foodie "credentials."

[Julia]

I don't think so. She was on Top Chef in 2006, and her first cookbook (which she was still married for) was in 2008, I think. She also got the contract for the second one while she was still married. 

 

More power to sister for finding something productive to do, but I don't think she was doing it for herself. I'd be more likely to believe that she got her spot by getting Food Network personalities invited to the good parties.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Julia

[JTMacc99]

Ranking based on wiki and or the format of the challenge is unfair.  For example, as I pointed out one of Hosea so called win is when everyone was collectively did bad.  His dish happed to be the best out of suckfest and wouldn't have win like say any of the episode in season 12 so far.  Another win wasn't even important enough to announce in the episode (the thanksgiving episode).  Micheal V for example wasn't on "high" in the first episode of season 6, while most of the judge praised his dish so much.  If you didn't watch the episode, you would think he rank 5th in that episode.  But that wasn't true.  The reason is the format of the episode.  People were divided into group and only the winner of that group can be listed as high.  Kevin G was in the same group as Micheal V. and also had the winning dish of the evening.  While other people was in much much weaker group.  So Micheal V could have the 2nd best dish of the evening.

Right. When I look at the stats on wiki, I need to apply them to what was actually going on that season.

 

To me, wins in season six were WINS. Every week there was at least two or three great dishes with very few exceptions.  In some weeks, like the one you mentioned, chefs who made outstanding dishes didn't even show up on the stat sheet.  So I think you can read that season's stats and draw pretty good conclusions about who was strong that year.  If you had a bunch of wins that year, you were probably hot stuff and a worthy Top Chef competitor.

 

And there are seasons like 9 (Texas) when you can look at the grid and see Paul's line where it shows WIN in 9 of 15. I

[Lillybee]

I am binging on Season 3. I noticed that CJ was affable and could be a decent chef, but I was a bit annoyed that he made his special dish, seafood sausage three times and didn't get called out for being repetitive.

[wallflower75]

I just finished the Last Chance Kitchen where Beverly defeats Nyesha, and I find something interesting--not a single person watching that competition was rooting for Beverly.  As heavily edited as this show is, I found that very telling.  Again, it doesn't excuse the Mean Girls' behavior.  But there was clearly more to the story than we saw.

[proserpina65]

That was the worst season I have watched. The bullying of Marcel, Cliff's exit, Ilan's attitude. All of it just sucked.

While I agree that Season 2 is the absolute worst, and the whole Marcel/Cliff confrontation (which resulted in Cliff's very deserved exit - physical force is/should be absolutely off-limits) was ugly, I don't buy that Marcel was bullied.  He gave as good, and then some, as he got up until the head-shaving incident; for me, he was utterly unlikeable.   

 

There were a few eps early on in the season which were watchable, and I do still like Mikey and Sam (who should've won that season, imo), but that's about it.

[proserpina65]

Now I don't like contestants who are complete assholes, but I never once thought of Hung as being one.

 

I mostly thought Hung was a complete asshole, but I can't argue with him winning that season; he clearly was the superior chef, though I wish he hadn't found necessary to tell me that quite so much.  He does get some asshole points deducted for the Smurf village in the grocery aisle quickfire, though.  I would never have expected him to have that much whimsy.

[Julia]

He does get some asshole points deducted for the Smurf village in the grocery aisle quickfire, though.  I would never have expected him to have that much whimsy.

 

Especially the Fierce Face™ he used when he talking headed about the judges dismissing his Smurf village because they had no culinary imagination. I'm 99% sure that was a punk, and it was brilliant.

[snakenax]

 

As heavily edited as this show is, I found that very telling.  Again, it doesn't excuse the Mean Girls' behavior.  But there was clearly more to the story than we saw.

I'm not really sure there was. Nyesha was extremely popular among the other chefs and everyone was shocked when she got eliminated. Beverly was socially awkward and people regularly commented on how awkward or off putting her behavior was. I like Beverly and I was rooting for Nyesha, because IMO Nyesha deserved a real chance to win after being kacked by someone else's mistake.

[wallflower75]

I just finished the Pee Wee Herman episode, and ugh, ugh, ugh.  I've never been a Pee Wee Herman fan and the whole silliness of both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges drove me up the wall.  "These are the best pancakes I've ever had!"  Urgh.  No.  While I liked Grayson because she was entertaining, I never figured she had a chance in hell of winning.  She got farther than I thought she would, to be honest.

 

It's funny--I never noticed just how many challenges Paul won when I first watched the Texas season, but rewatching makes it all too clear that he was by far the best chef in that bunch.  No one really came close.

[Julia]

It's funny--I never noticed just how many challenges Paul won when I first watched the Texas season, but rewatching makes it all too clear that he was by far the best chef in that bunch.  No one really came close.

 

I wonder if letting the Beverly/Sarah/Heather situation fester wasn't part of the whole distracting people from Paul thing Tom was talking about, because that's all anyone remembers about that season.

[Maverick]

 I just watched the end of New Orleans.  It looked to me like everyone was leaning toward Nina but Tom was clearly on the Nick train (or maybe against Nina, or both).  He was being pretty aggressive with the other judges and lo and behold Nick wins.  I know there have been rumors about Tom strong arming the judges before (I seem to recall rumors about him taking a judge aside and getting him to flip his vote in All Stars to get Antonia eliminated over Isabella).  Given the rumors, I'm surprised how blatant they were in showing Tom's aggressive selling of Nick.

[cooksdelight]

Padma was anti-Nick too, so it might have been a case of Tom putting her in her place?