Top Chef Canada - General Discussion

[staphdude]

Good lord those judges are assholes. If you want people to follow the challenge then don't rave about a Moroccan sausage with Harissa that is meant to be from BELGIUM! 

Mark McKewan has always rubbed me the wrong way but damn that bitchy food blogger can't be gone from my TV soon enough. She was terribly rude to Todd last week and she has yet to do anything redeeming this week.

[Canada]

The judges have been kind of bitchy so far.  I'm not impressed with the critic guy with the double-barrelled surname this week.  Kind of a dick. 

[LakeGal]

I am always happy to see Susur Lee. 

[AntManBee]

So glad that TCC is back!  I've always enjoyed the Canadian version of Top Chef and seeing some of my favorites return makes it all the better.  I am a bit bummed that neither Lisa or Thea are hosting.  Is the new host well known in Canada?  

I was also hoping for more cheftestants from season 3 and 4.  I kept waiting for Danny Smiles and Jonathan from 3, and Rich from 4.   I also would've tried to cast Rob instead of Todd from season 1 ... and maybe not have cast Elizabeth.  They were an easy first two offings.   

[Fex]

I would have liked to know more about each of the mother sauces, and how they are made.

All the food in the sauce challenge looked fantastic, and a lot of the food in the elimination challenge did too! I've never eaten sheep's head, but if Jesse was making it, I would try it!

[Canada]

So glad that Team Happy won the challenge.  I would have done the same as Nicole in picking my team... who wants to work with a bunch of miserable people?  I want to work with happy people, who enjoy their craft, and who know how to have fun! 

I predicted Jonathan or Curtis would go home, because they just complicate everything and throw the entire contents of the kitchen into every dish.  Not surprised it was Jonathan.  I am surprised, however, by how badly Trevor and, to a lesser extent, Connie are doing.  They were my early favourites, but at this rate, I can't see them winning.

Top 3 right now, for me, is Dustin, Nicole, and Dennis.

[Ciarrai]

Damnit Trevor, get it together! His food is so amazing at his restaurants and he's better than this.

[Fex]

On 4/17/2017 at 10:50 PM, Ciarrai said:

Damnit Trevor, get it together! His food is so amazing at his restaurants and he's better than this.

Yes, what is going on with him? I'm guessing he narrowly missed the bottom three last night. His dish had nothing to do with Toronto, and he didn't even try to sell his tenuous connection when he introduced the dish.

Interesting that the top three included two pies. I would love to try Connie's pie. That looked so so good.

Surprised that Andrea was in neither the top nor bottom, given her talking head about her grudge against Lynn Crawford! Top Chef Canada is refreshingly immune to at least some reality show tropes, I guess.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

Did I understand judge Mark correctly? $150 for a Tomahawk steak in a restaurant? Not even if I won the lottery.

[Canada]

I can't imagine any food being good enough to pay $150 for it. 

Not sorry to see Trista go.  She bugged in her original season and she bugged in this one too.  Dennis' attitude was so much better than hers in the brunch challenge.  What a stank attitude she had.

Trevor continues to be shite.  So disappointing.  I really wanted him to win his original season and I was hoping he would win this season.  Not even close right now.

I did find it entertaining when Curtis told Trista not to complicate her food when giving advice on Vancouver food.  Really, Curtis?  From the guy who overcomplicates everything??  That did make me laugh.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

I also won't miss Trista and "stank" is exactly the attitude I got from her as well.

Food blogger judge from Vancouver continues to annoy me. "You got Vancouver, the best. Where's the Asian foods?" Because, you know, Vancouver equals Asian. Maybe if you're Asian, but not for everyone. Food bloggers are such a hugely overrated being. I've been eating all my life, but I don't claim to be an expert at preparing food. i don't see the value in some blogger as a judge.

[Fex]

To be fair, it was the Asian flavours she was missing, not the Asian food. Trista had included a bunch of Asian ingredients (miso, mirin, soya maybe?) but the judges couldn't taste them.

Still, just because she had a point in this case, doesn't make her not annoying! I don't actually remember her outside of this moment, lol.

[Canada]

It annoys me when people think Vancouver food = Asian, like there's nothing else.  Vancouver has a huge variety of foods and restaurants, not just Asian.  It seems to tie in to this idea that Toronto is the best food place and Vancouver is some third rate place that just has sushi.  (Although, the sushi is excellent!!)

Agreed that the stupid critic continues to annoy and he can go away any time!  He's not exactly making his newspaper (National Post?) look good.

[Fex]

Likewise, I notice on tv that Halifax = seafood. I have often heard newcomers/visitors to Hali complain that they thought there would be cheap seafood, and there is not. It all gets exported! Really, Halifax = donairs....

Trista definitely immediately jumped on Asian food when she drew Vancouver. I always think of pizza, because we had good pizza the one time I was there - that's reasonable, right ;) ? I think Vancouver has a reputation for fantastic food, based on the fact that chefs and restaurants referenced on TV are always from there. But in real life, people just talk about the sushi. Now I'm interested - what other great food should Vancouver be known for?

[Ciarrai]

7 hours ago, Fex said:

Likewise, I notice on tv that Halifax = seafood. I have often heard newcomers/visitors to Hali complain that they thought there would be cheap seafood, and there is not. It all gets exported! Really, Halifax = donairs....

Trista definitely immediately jumped on Asian food when she drew Vancouver. I always think of pizza, because we had good pizza the one time I was there - that's reasonable, right ;) ? I think Vancouver has a reputation for fantastic food, based on the fact that chefs and restaurants referenced on TV are always from there. But in real life, people just talk about the sushi. Now I'm interested - what other great food should Vancouver be known for?

We also have amazing Indian food. You can pretty much find anything here though; name a cuisine and we pretty much have it.

I hate Follow Me Foodie. You're a blogger, step off.

[SirOsisOfLiver]

My first thought would have been smoked Pacific salmon. Sushi? Where I come from, we have another name for raw fish. We call it "bait".

[hula-la]

18 hours ago, Ciarrai said:

We also have amazing Indian food. You can pretty much find anything here though; name a cuisine and we pretty much have it.

I hate Follow Me Foodie. You're a blogger, step off.

It's interesting, as I've followed her on Twitter for quite some time. For someone who has so many followers, I notice very little interaction with her Tweets (very few re-tweets, likes, or replies).  Maybe she's not as well known as they claim that she is.  Also, I totally agree with your Indian food comment!

[Fex]

Thanks for the info! Now I want to go to Vancouver for some Indian food.

1 hour ago, hula-la said:

It's interesting, as I've followed her on Twitter for quite some time. For someone who has so many followers, I notice very little interaction with her Tweets (very few re-tweets, likes, or replies).  Maybe she's not as well known as they claim that she is.  Also, I totally agree with your Indian food comment!

That is strange! Maybe they had a hard time finding someone to do the show.

I will admit, the host has grown on me a bit (Eden? yes, Eden). I liked how excited she was to try the food at one point in the episode. I think it was the first service in the elimination challenge.

[Canada]

Indian, definitely worth checking out.  And I've been to some amazing Greek restaurants in Vancouver.  The Dockside on Granville Island made what was possibly the most delicious meal I've ever eaten.  And the pizza is really good too!  If you're going to do Asian, you have to try Banana Leaf on West Broadway; some of the tastiest food I've ever eaten, but very popular so make a reservation. 

[Canada]

Wow, the arrogance in Andrea and her team when they lost Retail Wars was off the charts!!  Andrea went from being a favourite of mine to being my most-disliked contestant.  They were just so certain they were going to win and totally looked down on Curtis' team.  I was worried that Dennis was going to get offed, but I'm glad he got to stay.

[Fex]

That's true! And her dislike of Nicole did not come off well, either. At least Andrea got to plug her line of products before she was eliminated, lol!

[SirOsisOfLiver]

Reality show staple: The one who says they've "got this" because they have so much experience is always the one to go. It's done so often, it's not even a surprise any more. Nothing bores me more on TV than amateurish, predictable editing.

[kitten59]

Yeah, see ya Andrea! Nicole's win made it extra sweet. The look on Andrea's face when the other team was called in first had me rolling!

[Christina]

Why bother to say that it was the closest call he has ever made as a judge on this show, when all the comments about Andrea were that her food wasn't good? She was the only one without a positive comment about something, so it was clear she was leaving. 

I enjoyed Restaurant Wars being replaced with Retail Wars. There wasn't anything I wanted to eat, however. Nothing looked or sounded good to me, except maybe Nicole's cake. I love carrot cake but didn't think it looked all that great. 

[AntManBee]

1 hour ago, Christina said:

Why bother to say that it was the closest call he has ever made as a judge on this show, when all the comments about Andrea were that her food wasn't good? She was the only one without a positive comment about something, so it was clear she was leaving. 

I enjoyed Restaurant Wars being replaced with Retail Wars. There wasn't anything I wanted to eat, however. Nothing looked or sounded good to me, except maybe Nicole's cake. I love carrot cake but didn't think it looked all that great. 

I agree! Andrea was the clear elimination, though I suspect producers/Mark/somebody thought she was a contender for the finals.  She did make a good cocky villian, but her two bad dishes, and being leader made it clear she was out.

I also love that they one upped restaurant wars!  Even if nothing looked that great, and I doubt that this is the future of high end cooking, throwing cheftestants off their toes is always fun.  This is much more enjoyable than the half all stars season of Top Chef a few months ago.  

Other things I loved:  Lidia.  Curtis offering a refund while showing up Andrea.  Mark being awkwardly charming while shilling the sponsors 10,000$ prize.  That I have no idea who might win... 

Edited May 3, 2017 by AntManBee

[Pepper the Cat]

Nicole is starting to bug me. A little too full of herself. I am ready for her to go.

some of that food looked amazing!

[PRgal]

Finally watched Sunday's episode online.  I'm surprised they used Pearson's Nobel Prize as a moment over the birth of the maple leaf flag.  #justsayin

[Canada]

I like Dennis, but dude needs to stop rolling his eyes over everything.  Such an annoying habit.  If everything makes you unhappy, why are you there??

Not sad to see Curtis go.  He overthinks everything and his arrogance in this episode was just ridiculous.

[Pepper the Cat]

Sorry to see Connie go, but her heart really wasn't in it. Potato chips for a challenge? Really Connie, you disappointed me.

[Canada]

Connie really flamed out.  She's been pretty bad from the start, which was very surprising to me.  I thought she'd win the whole season.  Chips and dip?  What did she do with her time?

Nice to see Trevor getting back to being the chef I remember from his original season.  I really want him to do well, though Nicole is impressing me more each week.  I had her pegged as an early exit this season, but as we saw in this episode, she actually learned from her first appearance.  Except for the 'talk less' part!

[Canada]

OMG, Dale.  That beard has to go.  It's awful.

Who is Rene?  I don't remember him or there even being a season 4 of TCC.

I doubt it will, but if this show ever comes back for another season, please dump the food blogger and the food critic.  Can't stand either of them and I don't want to see them on my screen anymore!

Edited May 29, 2017 by Canada

[Fex]

2 hours ago, Canada said:

OMG, Dale.  That beard has to go.  It's awful.

Who is Rene?  I don't remember him or there even being a season 4 of TCC.

I doubt it will, but if this show ever comes back for another season, please dump the food blogger and the food critic.  Can't stand either of them and I don't want to see them on my screen anymore!

Jesse was from season 4! :) Agreed about Dale's beard.

This morning, I finally caught the last two episodes. The trompe l'oeil challenge last week was such a cool concept. I wish they had all lived up to it. Especially Nicole. The elimination was interesting. They liked one of Dennis' and one of Jesse's, but neither of Nicole's, yet Jesse went home. At first I wondered if it was because she is the only woman left (and as we saw this week, they haven't had a female winner!!!!), but then I realized that the one they disliked of Jesse's got way harsher criticism than anything else. Nicole's may have had flaws, but they were edible!

No surprise on the final 3. Trevor did NOT respond well to criticism, though! I liked that the critic called him out for "standing by" his dry pork. 

[SirOsisOfLiver]

And replace Eden, please. Her voice is approaching nails-on-chalkboard levels for me.

[Ciarrai]

I'm so glad Trevor is still there. He's the only chef whose food I have actually eaten!

The blogger needs to go. I can't remember which one said it but when he presented the dishes he said "Hello chefs." My snarky comment was "Hello chefs. And blogger." I can't stand Mijune Pak.

[Canada]

The newspaper critic isn't a chef either.  Which annoys my inner snark monster!

[Fex]

No surprise on Nicole's win! I hadn't realized there had never been a female winner until last week. Given that, she was a shoo in as long as she didn't totally mess up. I really like Nicole, so I'm happy with her win, but poor Dusty didn't stand a chance...

[shok]

Why were you so sure she was a shoo in? I thought for sure Dustin was going to win so was happy that Nicole got it. I always got the feeling that that McEwan guy didn't like her.

[RTS]

Yeah, I thought McEwan consistently didn't like her.

Personally, I thought Dustin had it in the bag (especially after Nicole got Andrea as her sous chef... totally room for manipulation in the selection of sous chefs).  I thought his meal was more interesting, but of course if Nicole's food tasted better overall then that's all that should matter to the judges.  I liked both of them, so I'm wasn't unhappy with the result - they were the strongest all season.

I think maybe it's a tactical error to try new things when you're in this sort of competition.  A single misstep can result in a dish that doesn't taste as good as a dish that has been honed over years of practice.  Pretty sure Dustin's XO sauce was honed after being developed in Susur's kitchen, while all of Nicole's dishes must have been in development since her formal Italian training.

Also, I crushed SO HARD on Dustin, he just seems like an adorable person.  And he's always so transparent in his feelings - even his confession that losing hurt a lot was seriously endearing.

Edited June 5, 2017 by RTS

[Fex]

8 hours ago, shok said:

Why were you so sure she was a shoo in? I thought for sure Dustin was going to win so was happy that Nicole got it. I always got the feeling that that McEwan guy didn't like her.

They hadn't had a female winner yet. Sorry, thought I said that! It seems to me reality TV shows try not to have too long a streak with just one gender or the other. I like both Nicole and Dustin, so I was happy either way. And they both seemed to put up great food in the finale.

1 hour ago, RTS said:

Also, I crushed SO HARD on Dustin, he just seems like an adorable person.  And he's always so transparent in his feelings - even his confession that losing hurt a lot was seriously endearing.

Agreed, Dustin is so incredibly likable. My sister lives around the corner from his restaurant, and I totally want to go next time I'm in Toronto.

[kitten59]

I wanted them both to win! They're both great and hugely talented, but Nicole was a whirling dervish all season. She deserved it.

What a great guy Dustin is. Adorable family, too.

[Canada]

Congrats to Nicole.  She is a deserving winner.  I figured they would want a female winner too.  But, at the start of the season, I would have said it would be Connie or Andrea.

McEwan really wanted Trevor to go through!  I'm surprised he didn't get his way.

[Christina]

On 5/29/2017 at 2:04 PM, Canada said:

I doubt it will, but if this show ever comes back for another season, please dump the food blogger and the food critic.  Can't stand either of them and I don't want to see them on my screen anymore!

On 6/2/2017 at 6:17 PM, Ciarrai said:

The blogger needs to go. I can't remember which one said it but when he presented the dishes he said "Hello chefs." My snarky comment was "Hello chefs. And blogger." I can't stand Mijune Pak.

On 6/2/2017 at 6:45 PM, Canada said:

The newspaper critic isn't a chef either.  Which annoys my inner snark monster!

I'm in the US and was spoiled on the winner a few weeks ago by my gambling addict cousin, who bets on all reality shows. If you chose the winner before the season airs, it's more money. Someone tipped off the gamblers about the winner so, like they always do, the betting was cut off. He had Trevor up until then. 

I just watched the last two episodes and would be happy with any of the final three winning. I was kind of rooting for Dustin since it would mean I could talk smack about my cousin's gambling habits, but Nicole was every bit as deserving.

The multiple quotes are because you all said it in much nicer terms than I was going to. That food blogger sounded like an idiot in her commentary, and I wondered if she had any culinary training or if she is like the Yelpers on South Park. It's nice to see that others think like me, because then I'm not just being a Negative Nancy, which I have been on most of my television watching lately.

On 5/29/2017 at 4:38 PM, SirOsisOfLiver said:

And replace Eden, please. Her voice is approaching nails-on-chalkboard levels for me.

And I have been blaming my television! There are certain women's voices that seem screechy, but the men's don't. Women like Katie Lee have always had an awful voice, but I'm noticing it more lately. Eden does not have a pleasant voice to me, either.

[argrow]

Top Chef Canada has been renewed for season 6!

[Canada]

That's good news.  I've dumped a lot of cooking shows recently for being too predictable and all about the drama.  I still find TCC enjoyable to watch.  Hopefully it stays that way!

[Ciarrai]

I about died when Dusty's French Bulldog came waddling in. Anyone with a Frenchie is tops in my book.

I still love Trevor and will continue to enjoy his food at his two restaurants. Highly recommended for anyone who visits Vancouver!

[LeighLeigh]

On April 10, 2017 at 9:05 PM, Evenshorter said:

Her name is Eden Grinshpan. Has done a lot of judging on Chopped Canada, Eden's Eats on the Cooking Channel and is a Cordon Bleu grad. I didn't know she was hosting this show, and it's the most I've ever seen her smile, she's always had a case of RBF as far as I was concerned, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Eden is awesome and naturally hysterical. Check out her Instagram. I promise you, you will want her to be your best friend.

The issue is that when reading the cue cards, she comes off as stiff. In reality, she is a natural goofball.

[LeighLeigh]

On May 29, 2017 at 4:38 PM, SirOsisOfLiver said:

And replace Eden, please. Her voice is approaching nails-on-chalkboard levels for me.

Give her a chance...I really hope (pray) that she will be better this season.

[LeighLeigh]

Top Chef Canada is back on April 8, 2017.

What are your thoughts about the new season and the new cheftestants?

[Fex]

Can't wait!! I wish there more women, and a Maritimer, but at least it's back.

[LeighLeigh]

Agreed! I noticed the lack of people from the Maritimes as well. 

I recognize Ivana from when she won Chopped Canada. She was also on Beat Bobby Flay, but lost. She used to be executive chef at one of Mark McEwan's restaurants. 

She also did a clip with the host of Chopped Canada (I forgot his name). He was touring the restaurants in his neighbourhood, and visited hers. They were very friendly and have since opened a restaurant together.

Edited March 2, 2018 by LeighLeigh