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The Chefs/Cheftestants of Top Chef

Veruca Assault

By Veruca Assault
in Top Chef

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Bastet

Bastet

One of them works with Isabella

 

If they harbor 9 to 5-style fantasies of doing in the boss, that's who I'll root for.

 

Otherwise, there may be some guilt by association going on.

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Lisin

Lisin

Oh my god... Blaise is a judge. We will never hear the end of how magnificent he is.

You bite your tongue! He is magnificent! Or at least that's what I heard. From him... Wait what? I'm confused. 

 

I'm really happy to have some more DC chefs too! Whee! New season! Sorry. I got a little excited. 

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Bella

Bella

I don't mind Mike I. when he's not on TV. He has some good restaurants and is apparently a very good businessman. The DC area press finds him to be a good interview subject as well. So if one of his people is on the show, that's great. Maybe they can do well and go out and open some good restaurants as well.

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Wings

Wings

Adding to the firsts for the series, the stakes are higher than ever as Top Chef introduces sudden death Quickfire challenges that will occur without warning throughout the season and a revamped judges table that puts every chef on the spot.

 

This sounds interesting.  

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Wings

Wings

Sad news from Angelo Sosa, season 7. His restaurant of 2 years has closed. And, I'm not sure when or why, but he's no longer engaged. He now has a cat. :)

This was his second engagement to a "mail order bride".... I wish he could find a nice local girl.

http://vegas.eater.com/archives/2014/08/29/angelo-sosas-poppy-den-shutters-at-tivoli-village.php

 

 

Interesting he has tried mail order brides twice.  Very odd.  He is a nice looking man so my guess is that he is looking for a subservient partner, maybe?  

 

If his food was anything like the decor in his restaurant I get why it closed!  Hideous!  

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Wings

Wings

About 40% of the male chefs I know have wives from other countries. Mostly Asian, a few Russian. The last girl Angelo was engaged to is still in Las Vegas, I guess she got what she wanted from him....a ticket here.

 

 

Interesting about foreign wives.  I believe that may be the primary agenda of mail order brides.   A ticket and green card!  

 

Blaise.  What got me the most was his comment when Stephanie won.  He said I choked, implying had he not made his mistake he would have won.  Not necessarily true at all.  

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Happytobehere

Happytobehere

Interesting he has tried mail order brides twice.  Very odd.  He is a nice looking man so my guess is that he is looking for a subservient partner, maybe?  

 

If his food was anything like the decor in his restaurant I get why it closed!  Hideous!

I always thought Angelo's issues centered around societal expectations and parental pleasing. I never thought mail order bride for subservient reasons. With him, I always thought beard.

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Bella

Bella

So Blais is joining the ranks of "chefs who maybe once upon a time used to cook and/or run restaurants but barely do so anymore because they're too busy being TV personalities and are turning into the culinary equivalent of the Kardashians." Got it.

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Julia

Julia

(edited)

Yeah, but, sadly, it's the Food Network. They've deliberately dumbed down everything there (Iron Chef: Munchy Battle! First Responders Kick Bobby Flay's Ass! Somebody's Not-in-New-York Kitchen! Alton and Guy *starring in* Interchangeable Pointless Food Contests!) to the point where a Blais show could be a step up. 

Edited by Julia
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Bella

Bella

Yeah, but, sadly, it's the Food Network. They've deliberately dumbed down everything there (Iron Chef: Munchy Battle! First Responders Kick Bobby Flay's Ass! Somebody's Not-in-New-York Kitchen! Alton and Guy *starring in* Interchangeable Pointless Food Contests!) to the point where a Blais show could be a step up. 

 

Chopped: Sob Story All-Stars! Unvetted, Boring, and/or Offensive Food Network Star!  Cupcakes, Junk Food, and Chain Restaurant Menu Pointless Recreation Contests!

 

Antonia is an occasional judge on Cut Throat Kitchen, but is anyone else a crossover from Top Chef to FN? Or is Blais going for supremacy here?

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Julia

Julia

(edited)

Susan Feniger, Brian Malarkey, Marcel, Elizabeth Falkner and Fabio are competing with a bunch of TFN retreads on an upcoming Cutthroat Kitchen tournament for charity. Jonathan Waxman was on with Marc Forgione's dad on Iron Chef that one time. Spike, Marcel, and Elizabeth Falkner were all contestants on Next Iron Chef: Making Fetch Happen for Alex Guarnaschelli (she claims they constantly beg her to be on Top Chef but it isn't as classy as Iron Chef). 

Edited by Julia
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roamyn

roamyn

I didn't recognize Blaise when I saw him for a commercial for 'The Hungry Games'.

But I sure recognized that complainy voice.

Cooksdelight, my guess is Carla doesn't have a financial backer. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a goo restaurant. Ex. If you estimate it's going to take $100k, then you need to have $200k available. I'm sure she's not making enough that her salary on The Chew would be sufficient. Maybe she couldn't get a small business loan?

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biakbiak

biakbiak

But an equally valid question is why doesn't she have a financial backer. I mean she is popular, on a tv show, and works with two successful restaurateurs. I am not suggesting that Mario or Michael should back her but they have connections, hell Carla probably does to.

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Julia

Julia

But an equally valid question is why doesn't she have a financial backer. I mean she is popular, on a tv show, and works with two successful restaurateurs. I am not suggesting that Mario or Michael should back her but they have connections, hell Carla probably does to.

 

Michael's restaurant in New York ended badly, and I wouldn't want to be in business with Joe Bastianich. And really, even if Mario's business partner weren't a gross pig, so much goes wrong with restaurants, and it would be hard to work with somone after your business with them went south.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

(edited)

As I said, I wasn't suggesting either of them go into business with her, just that they are well connected and have the connections with other financial backers. 

 

Chefs with much lower profiles (often none) and less connections get financial backers everyday. I am not suggesting it's easy just that it is done all the time, so it seems weird that someone who has a platform like Carla, Mario and Michael mention their restaurants nearly every show, where she has an opportunity to talk about the restaurant on national tv everyday.

Edited by biakbiak
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Totale

Totale

I posted earlier about Carla Hall having a Kickstarter campaign to open a new restaurant. The backlash I'm seeing is high. So many people are wondering why she's asking for money when she's on a successful TV show.

 

Slightly off-topic, but I saw similar reactions on another board to Neil Young using Kickstarter to raise funds for his glorified iPod (although that campaign was successful).  I think a lot of people feel the Kickstarter paradigm was intended for people who have a great idea and really have no other conceivable way of getting it off the ground.  When they see it being taken over by those who the 99% rightly see as impossibly rich people (she's on TV every day!) to beg for funding for their done-already ideas (another restaurant? another iPod?) it doesn't feel right.

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Quilt Fairy

Quilt Fairy

I have watched a sudden death elimination before on this show but for the life of me, I am drawing a blank on what it actually involves.

The only one I recall was a Quickfire where the losing chef was eliminated on the spot. Since the Quickfires are usually judged by only one person, that might cause some controversy. Tom judged the one they had a few seasons ago.

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Lamb18

Lamb18

I have watched a sudden death elimination before on this show but for the life of me, I am drawing a blank on what it actually involves.

There were sudden death eliminations two or three seasons ago in the first episode.  I can't remember all the details, but Tom sent chefs home if he thought they were prepping the food all wrong.  There was this young guy, Tyler Stone??, calling himself a celebrity chef with a cookbook out which was something his mom made by photocopying at the office (or something like that) who was hacking up his meat pretty badly and Tom sent him home on the spot.  He was amazed that someone of his stellar quality could go home so soon and even more amazed that no one else realized he was such a superstar. But I think this episode had head to head contests with the losers going home.

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cooksdelight

cooksdelight

who was hacking up his meat pretty badly and Tom sent him home on the spot.

That was the Texas season. In Seattle, they sent several home until they got the final cast they wanted. I think in both seasons they had to earn their jackets, so there were multiple eliminations.

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Totale

Totale

Great Caesar's Ghost!  I hated Richard Blais on each of his prior 100 seasons on TC, I've just finished hating him on Top Chef Duels and was getting all set to hate him as a judge on Boston Top Chef, and just now I'm zapping past commercials on Food Network as you do and I see that whipped and broken puppy dog face with hipster glasses blast out at me and god damn if he hasn't somehow wrangled himself up some show over there, too.  Which I'm sorry I didn't note the name of, but I was busy looking frantically around the room for a gun to shoot my TV with, momentarily forgetting I don't own one.  Make it stop, in the name of all that is good and holy, please just make it stop.

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cooksdelight

cooksdelight

Blais has totally surpassed Ilan, in my opinion. You didn't see Ilan competing on any cooking show who'd give him the time of day, or judging Guy's Grocery Games, TC, etc. He just quietly went about his business of running restaurants and having the Knife Fight show. Which is actually pretty good, unless they bring out something really gross like an entire baby lamb. I think Ilan saw hmself on TV and toned it all way down after that. Blais can't see himself on TV enough. Isabella is just a step or two behind him.

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Julia

Julia

(edited)

Poor Angelo has fallen so far...just last week he was the bartender one night on Watch What Happens Live. Guess he's trying to work that Bravo angle to make something else happen.

I don't know much about Angelo, but Dale seems to be doing OK and he was the bartender not too long ago. I'm not sure it follows.

Full disclosure: whenever Richard makes a painfully insincere speech about the Hamlet-like dark moments in which he wonders if the judges, not understanding the brilliance of his food and the depths of his personal daring, might choose his (flashy, although less talented) opponent and pulls out the sagging crushed humility face of personal rebranding, he reminds me of a Dr Seuss character.

I still like him better than Ilan. Blais is just annoying, JMO. Ilan shouldn't have made it to the end of his season, or they should have given the prize to whoever at the restaurant he worked at invented his dishes and taught him how to cook them.

Edited by Julia
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roamyn

roamyn

(edited)

I don't know much about Angelo, but Dale seems to be doing OK and he was the bartender not too long ago. I'm not sure it follows.

I still like him better than Ilan. Blais is just annoying, JMO. Ilan shouldn't have made it to the end of his season, or they should have given the prize to whoever at the restaurant he worked at invented his dishes and taught him how to cook them.

Which Dale? I don't watch WWHL .

I do believe Ilan toned it down, but this is the guy who bought "Top Chef" license plates & a new flashy car, and drove it all over town. BEFORE the season aired. Which was why S3 finale was filmed live.

If Ilan didn't belong there, who did? No one in that season impressed me. Maybe Cliff & Josie a little.

To me Blais is more than annoying. He's very disrespectful of Stephanie, when even Lisa beat him in the finale.

Edited by roamyn
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Julia

Julia

(edited)

Which Dale? I don't watch WWHL .

Talde. He was the bartender when Padma came on to get all pissy about aufing Kristen instead of Josie, if memory serves.

 

I do believe Ilan toned it down, but this is the guy who bought "Top Chef" license plates & a new flashy car, and drove it all over town. BEFORE the season aired. Which was why S3 finale was filmed live.

If Ilan didn't belong there, who did? No one in that season impressed me. Maybe Cliff & Josie a little.

In the finale they ended up with, I would have given it to Marcel. Of the two, he was the more talented, creative immature asshole (and I think Marcel has improved since).

But then, I thought Ilan should have been eliminated for his role in the head shaving incident. I think there's a reason this franchise went from season 1, where the villain was no worse than overly aggressive and humorless, to later seasons, when the villains were Josie and Heather. I think Ilan's win was the first step down that road.

 

To me Blais is more than annoying. He's very disrespectful of Stephanie, when even Lisa beat him in the finale.

Well, Stephanie is plenty successful and gets respect, and Blais gets to be the nerd Bobby Flay. I think that's probably punishment enough for him.

Edited by Julia
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