Season vs. Season

[chiaros]

Well, I pulled out my CDs of Season 6 and just watched episode 1.  Many of the dishes looked wonderful - and that was just the 1st episode. Yes, there were the clunkers, of course.  The person who got sent home as PPYKAG#1? Jennifer "Jen" Zavala, for her clunky bad seitan-stuffed poblano as, supposedly, a chile relleno representing her "hot temper". I had forgotten about her entirely until I rewatched this episode. Hmm, she reminded me of a certain...someone...in the current season 15 --- Jen Zavala declared how she took risks, made great food, used seitan like she has had zillions of times before (yet declared in the "waiting room" that she did something that no-one else had done before") and she is mad as hell but this is so good for you, disputed everything the judges (including Wolfgang Puck) said, declared she wanted to "make a grand entrance" and make something the judges wouldn't forget and griped that instead the judges wanted to forget it and so on and so forth. 

[Special K]

10 hours ago, chiaros said:

Well, I pulled out my CDs of Season 6 and just watched episode 1.  Many of the dishes looked wonderful - and that was just the 1st episode. Yes, there were the clunkers, of course.  The person who got sent home as PPYKAG#1? Jennifer "Jen" Zavala, for her clunky bad seitan-stuffed poblano as, supposedly, a chile relleno representing her "hot temper".

Was she the one with giant grotesque gauges in her ears!?  I remember thinking "I'm not going to be able to watch this show until she is eliminated."  Don't mean to offend, but I had an extreme physical reaction to those gauges.  And not a good one.

[chiaros]

45 minutes ago, Special K said:

Was she the one with giant grotesque gauges in her ears!?  I remember thinking "I'm not going to be able to watch this show until she is eliminated."  Don't mean to offend, but I had an extreme physical reaction to those gauges.  And not a good one.

Yes. They were pretty big and pretty distracting.  I think I've seen bigger ones only on Nature Shows about Amazonian tribes.

Anyway, I just finished episode 3 of season 6 (Thunderbirds). The judges were nitpicking and out of touch with the folks for whom the meal was served. But that has always been a FEATURE of this Reality Teevee Show. Even Gail Simmons, who is widely thought of as a level-headed "judge", showed some bad vibes as she persisted in her critiques to the folks on the bottom that it was a "competition" notwithstanding whatever their "mission" was, which in this case was to serve food to service members who might appreciate that food. The judges hated the pasta salad and Mike I.'s shrimp salad. Y'know, maybe ordinary folks might appreciate a cool, somewhat neutral "salad" amidst the other highly-seasoned dishes - but that mattered not to the "judges".

[Special K]

56 minutes ago, chiaros said:

Yes. They were pretty big and pretty distracting.  I think I've seen bigger ones only on Nature Shows about Amazonian tribes.

Anyway, I just finished episode 3 of season 6 (Thunderbirds). The judges were nitpicking and out of touch with the folks for whom the meal was served. But that has always been a FEATURE of this Reality Teevee Show. Even Gail Simmons, who is widely thought of as a level-headed "judge", showed some bad vibes as she persisted in her critiques to the folks on the bottom that it was a "competition" notwithstanding whatever their "mission" was, which in this case was to serve food to service members who might appreciate that food. The judges hated the pasta salad and Mike I.'s shrimp salad. Y'know, maybe ordinary folks might appreciate a cool, somewhat neutral "salad" amidst the other highly-seasoned dishes - but that mattered not to the "judges".

Thanks.

Yes, it's kind of like on Project Runway, when they have "real" women as clients, and a designer gives his or her client exactly what she wants, but the judges don't think it's "fashion."

[chiaros]

22 hours ago, Special K said:

Thanks.

Yes, it's kind of like on Project Runway, when they have "real" women as clients, and a designer gives his or her client exactly what she wants, but the judges don't think it's "fashion."

Heh.  Just like Tom Colicchio & Co. thinks YOU NEED MORE SALT, when others think it is salty enough already.**

** Including quite a number of current and former cheftestants themselves; let alone more ordinary folks who dine at restaurants or, heaven forbid, cook for themselves.

Edited February 7, 2018 by chiaros

[chiaros]

In rewatching Season 6 it is again clear how much Robin was disliked by all the other chefs, with even the mellow Kevin Gillespie commenting at the least on how she irritated everyone else...and implying that she was not beyond his "irritation meter" either. She (Robin) simply WOULD. NOT. SHUT. UP.

 

In this regard, to me she also called to mind Shirley Chung, in both of her seasons - she was entirely prone to Verbal Diarrhea...but in her case I thought she inserted a lot of simpering and blatant sucking-up to the judges especially to Tom Colicchio, which Robin Leventhal – in contrast – did NOT do.

Edited February 7, 2018 by chiaros

[chiaros]

Season 16 is slated to begin filming in May 2018.

http://www.bravotv.com/sites/nbcubravotv/files/tc16casting_application_approved.1_4_2018.pdf (see pg. 9)

Quote

Are you available to leave your family, work, and friends to go to a location to be designated by Producer for approximately four to six consecutive weeks and possibly longer or shorter (plus time for promotion and publicity), beginning sometime around May 2018 designated by Producer (all dates subject to change in Producer’s sole discretion)? (Circle one) YES NO

They haven't changed the part dealing with applicants acknowledging that they can be portrayed badly whether it is true or not (from TC 15 and seasons before):

[from Part VI section 9 (g) ] (page 16) of the pdf above:

Quote

I further understand that my appearance, depiction, and/or portrayal in and in connection with the Program or otherwise, and my actions and the actions of others displayed in and in connection with the Program or otherwise, may be disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing or of an otherwise unfavorable nature, may expose me to public ridicule, humiliation or condemnation, and may portray me in a false light.

Heh.

Edited February 10, 2018 by chiaros

[LeighLeigh]

Wow. Thank you for sharing that. This is what Brother was referring to when he said that he can't say more because he signed a waiver and an NDA.

[biakbiak]

Its basically boilerplate language for all reality show, people can still defend themselves, they just can't sue.

Edited February 10, 2018 by biakbiak

[LeighLeigh]

The contestants for Top Chef Canada season 6 were posted yesterday. The host is Eden Grinshpan. She is awesome and her Instagram is hilarious. Love her.

[LeighLeigh]

Curious if Top Chef Canada should have its own heading?

Anyway, one of the contestants for season 6, Ivana, was executive chef at one of the head judge's restaurants. Seems unfair that he is judging her here.

Ivana seems like an awesome chef. She won on Chopped Canada, but lost on Beat Bobby Flay.

(Did anyone see season 4 winner Rene win on Beat Bobby Flay? It was wonderful.)

[FormerMod-a1]

5 minutes ago, LeighLeigh said:

Curious if Top Chef Canada should have its own heading?

Top Chef Canada has its own forum.

[sharifa70]

I just watched the first couple of episodes of Top Chef Season 1 and honestly, if this had been my true introduction to the show (my first season was actually season 10) I would have watched an episode or two and never come back. Tiffani Faison and Stephen the Sommelier are absolutely horrible, I’m surprised that obnoxious Ken guy from Ireland managed to behave the way he did around a bunch of people with sharp knives and still walk out of the kitchen unscathed, and Brian is just gross. He laments Andrea’s elimination because of her “hot body” and cheers himself up with the fact that there was still “a lot of ass” among the remaining contestants. Oh - not to mention the episode 2 EC that was centered on a sexy dessert cocktail party in a sex shop. I also noticed that several of the chefs didn’t seem to be professionals anywhere near the caliber of the chefs we see today. It was only slightly less trashy than Hell’s Kitchen.

I had to tap out after 3 episodes and don’t know how I managed to get through those except by fast-forwarding some of it. It was even harder to watch because the last few seasons have been so wonderful with the drama mostly shifting to the food mishaps rather than focusing on a bunch of grown adults who can’t be civil to each other for five minutes at a time. If Padma was the driving force behind this show’s clawing itself out of the mud, I pray that the producers appreciate just how good it is compared to where it started. More Portland-Houston-London cheftestant chemistry and respect, please, and keep leaving that season 1 crap on the cutting room floor where it belongs.

Edited July 25, 2023 by sharifa70
Grammar

[Bastet]

On 7/24/2023 at 9:28 PM, sharifa70 said:

I also noticed that several of the chefs didn’t seem to be professionals anywhere near the caliber of the chefs we see today.

I spent a lot of time in bed this weekend with a cold, and watched the Restaurant Wars episodes of every season.  Watching in such a compressed time frame, it was truly striking how the caliber of cheftestants dramatically improved as the show got going and ultimately established itself.  And this is at the halfway point of the seasons, not comparing among first episodes; the weakest chefs are already gone, and there's still a huge difference in skill, creativity, etc. in the early seasons.

I also watched a bunch of the reunions they used to do after each season (I'm still working my way through those) and realized I miss them.  I love seeing the Stew Room antics and the outtakes of the judges. 

(What I really miss are the blogs the judges used to write after each episode aired, telling us what they didn't know until they saw it, explaining more about the deliberation, etc.)

Edited February 7 by Bastet