TOP CHEF Spoilers

[filkertom]

Holy shit.

I did not expect Dale to go home before Lisa. And, bluntly, if Lisa or Spike does not Lisa go home next Lisa week, I'll be Lisa amazed. They've been Lisa dodging bullets all over the Lisa place. And everybody saying goodbye to Dale except Lisa was very telling. Coulda been editing. Coulda been the real thing. There are people on this show you just know will become lifelong friends, e.g., Joey and Howie from Season 3. Not Lisa and Dale.

Their menu also seemed... overly challenging. Not merely from a cooking standpoint, which is where they fell down, but too challenging for the diners. Butterscotch miso scallops!? With spicy eggplant and pickled long beans? That's not a clash of flavors, that's a street fight.

So. I predict a Final Four of Antonia, Richard, Stephanie, and Spike. And then I think either Antonia or Richard will take it all.

Oh, and, Stephanie is frickin' adorable. I mean, like, major lust adorable. Love the hair, love the smile. And the rest ain't too damn shabby either. Even if brown isn't her color. Just sayin'.

Tony Bourdain and Ted Allen rule.

The preview for next week, with the shot of all of the remaining contestants holding hands in solidarity at Judges' Table, reminds me all over again why I love this show.

Thoughts?

Comments

[jss]

Dale's got the cooking chops Lisa doesn't, but he's got some serious anger-management issues that've become apparent in the last couple of weeks. I'm not as shocked as I think the editors wanted that it was him, not Lisa, who got the axe this week; in "Restaurant Wars" it's typically the executive chef of the losing team that gets aufed sent home, after all.

I agree with your Final Four, though from what I've seen I think I like Stephanie's food better than Antonia's. Antonia didn't impress me in the beginning, but I think she's begun to find her own confidence and it's improved her cooking as a result. Stephanie did impress me in the beginning, and other than the occasional mis-step (like the peanut butter and tomato in "Common Threads," though to be fair people who've taste-tested the recipe don't hate it the way Padma et al. did) she's been pretty consistent.

Looking at the winning/best/worst numbers:

• Antonia — 3 quickfire solo win, 1 quickfire team win, 5 elimination high, 1 elimination win
• Lisa — 4 elimination low, 1 elimination high, 1 elimination win
• Richard — 2 quickfire solo win, 1 quickfire team win, 2 elimination high, 3 elimination win (including 1 he gave to Stephanie)
• Spike — 1 quickfire solo win, 5 elimination low, 1 elimination high
• Stephanie — 1 quickfire team win, 3 elimination low, 4 elimination high, 4 elimination win (including 1 she got from Richard)

(Source.) Based on the numbers, one could argue that Spike should be next to go, as he's been on the chopping block more often than Lisa. As much as I dislike Lisa's personality (though she seemed less annoying in some of her one-on-one interviews this week), I suspect Spike's next to go too.

Similarly, Stephanie's been on top (elimination high/win) much more often than Antonia (8 to 6) with more wins (3 or 4, modulo Richard, to 1), so I think she'd beat Antonia; though to be fair, now that Antonia's found her confidence she's doing much better than earlier in the competition (both are high-or-win in 3 of the last 4 challenges, and Antonia's got 3 quickfire wins (1 team) in that time where Stephanie's only got the 1 (team) there.

I've been very much impressed by Stephanie and Richard throughout the competition and Antonia's growing on me. If the producers change things up and go to a Final Three those would be my picks (sorry, Spike).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Complete agreement re: Stephanie and Antonia. Steph has been pretty consistently good, and Antonia has grown visibly more confident every show. Of the final five -- bluntly, of the final eight -- they, along with Richard, have the right attitude to be a top chef. I literally cannot picture Spike or Lisa in that role.

[jss]

We are in vehement agreement. The only reason I'd go with Antonia or Richard over Stephanie is that Stephanie's been more erratic than either, with similar numbers of elimination wins and highs but more elimination lows.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't LISA know, any of them could LISA mess up and be sent home LISA next week.

Bourdain rocks.. best comments: Baby food and wood shavings.

The differences in menus and execution between the two teams was astounding. RICHARD is my man, though Steph is coming on strong.

Dale

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, up to a point, Dale was doing OK, especially when he worked with Richard Blais. Remember "tofu perplexed" and "Willie Wonka"? They were good as a team. It seems that just in the past few episodes, he turned into Marques de Torquemada or something.

I still have problems with Spike. He just rubs me the wrong way. And as far as prediction for "Top Chef," I agree that it should be Antonia or Richard. But then again, last season, Hung took it, and that was a major injustice. But maybe justice is perverted - according to a "where are they now?" article on MSNBC, he's working at a glatt kosher restaurant in New York, which should severely limit him.

Re: Dale

[rsmit212.livejournal.com]

The reason Hung took it last year is that his flavors worked. All the time. He's arrogant and not very personable, but a damn fine chef. Spike doesn't qualify. If it hadn't been for others making bigger mistakes, this alone would have pushed him out.

Haven't seen this week yet, but I'll miss Dale. His flavor profiles worked, but he fails on execution sometimes.

Re: Dale

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The other thing about Hung is that he listened and learned. At the beginning of the season, he seemed to revel in the notion of being that season's asshole, possibly because Season Two was filled with assholes, only some of whom paid the price. (One can make a case, I think, that S2's winner Ilan, and Marcel, first runner-up, were two of the biggest assholes, if not the most blatant.)

As Hung barely made it through several challenges, he received a fair amount of criticism from the judges. At first, he shrugged it off as, "Well, that's your opinion." But he eventually caught on that their opinions were what kept him on -- or kicked him off -- the show, and he calmed down and he started taking their advice. Less showy molecular gastronomy, less chef's-knife derring-do, more actual cooking skill. And he had enough, and he won it all.

My big regret from S3 was the early and, I think, undeserved elimination of Tre. And, while the cooks are about as good this year, I think S3 was some pretty darn good TV that will take awhile to beat. The chemistry in that bunch was amazing.

Hung

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

One of the qualities of a good chef is the ability to work with others which, IIRC, is not one of Hung's capabilities. That's why I thought he should not have won.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

It's pretty clear that the judges' definition of a top chef includes not only technique, but judgment and personality. While Dale appeared to have decent cooking chops (as it were, and "appeared" because I haven't tasted his food), his personality was headed downhill over the past three or four episodes, from a bad place to begin with.

If he hadn't been executive chef, though, he might have survived. I still think he blows Spike and Lisa out of the water, foodwise.

I've been rooting for Richard (who's seemed to have it together) most of the season, but the other two ladies have been growing in my estimation for the past six or so eps. I'm with you and the others who want to see the three of them in a finale, and I can live with any of them winning. (I'm also with you on Stephanie's other appeal. Can't let that influence the rooting disproportionately, though :-)

[leathers.livejournal.com]

I only watch TC occasionally (its on right after Criminal Minds so my wife (C) grabs the remote even before the previews for next week's CM is shown) but the one thing that stood out for me is the apparent respect everyone has for Bourdain, but the lack of it for Tom Colicchio. I can't imagine any one of the contestants having an argument with Bourdain using the words "in your opinion" but I happened to hear that from Spike 2 eps ago and have heard similar confrontations in other seasons. Actually when Colicchio said he wasn't going to be around for the elimination round, I could almost see a palpable sigh of relief from the contestants.

Getting back to who's going to be in the final four, even from my own pov I would say Antonia, Richard, Spike (even though he could lose the hats immediately) and Stephanie. Lisa just seems to make me cringe every time that I see her on screen, watch her whine about being 'sabotaged' (I don't honestly see anyone trying to do that, especially with all the cameras around, it'd be caught on tape and that would get the perp canned) people make mistakes, its entirely possible that she turned the wrong burner up too high and she screwed up her own rice.

Agree with you about Stephanie and her adorableness, even though the color didn't work with her choice of dress in this episode, she still was fantastic to look at. I certainly think Spike dodged a major bullet in being the front of house this challenge, in that the majority of the attention was paid to the ones that prepared the food. I could still like to see him eliminated though it would guarantee Lisa a spot in the F4 which I don't think she deserves.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the deal with Colicchio is the contempt of familiarity; because he's not a "guest" judge, they forget that he's a damned successful chef and restauranteur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Colicchio).

And, I forgot to make that very point, about Lisa and "sabotage", in the main post. Lisa screwed up her rice two shows in a row. I don't see how she can blame anybody besides herself.

[rook543.livejournal.com]

As to sabotage, Tiffani in season 1 an also Elia in season two often cried 'sabotage' when their stuff went wrong. I remember in the blogs Tom flat out saying that there was no sabotage. Simply put, they are filming EVERYTHING and IF they had footage of someone tampering with someone elses dish, you can be sure THEY WOULD AIR IT!

Lisa is simply a whiner and has struck me as such from day one. My pic for the winner is Richard.

[violet-amy.livejournal.com]

Regarding Dale's anger, I can see cursing under your breath when something doesn't go right; but yelling at someone (with or without obscenities) is unprofessional especially when you're not the boss (*cough* Gordon Ramsay *cough*). It's a lot more effective to keep morale high than to beat somebody up because things aren't going the way you expected.

I know nobody wants to go home, but the lying was wrong. Dale picked out that rice then completely denied it. I think they should have decided on another dish rather than work with an unknown ingredient. Each type of rice has its own properties so they were basically relying on luck.

Another thing is that Spike said that they all made the decision about the decor. They looked at him like he was nuts. He said early on that he was handling all of it and I think that's what he did. So I wouldn't be surprised if he completely lied when he said the linens weren't his first choice.

One thing I'm surprised about is never hearing the judges complain about Dale only making Asian food. In past seasons they have brought that up to other contestants.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'd have to go back and look. I know it's been mentioned by the other contestants*.

*I refuse to use the made-up word "cheftestants". It's just dumb.

Chef-testants?

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Where'd that come from?

Re: Chef-testants?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if they started using it last season or this season, and if it came first on the web site or in the show (although I think the web site), but... Bravo. That's their cutesy li'l name. The word they're looking for is "contestant". Or "chef".

I *THOUGHT*

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Dale had picked out the replacement rice. Thanks for confirming it.

[vid848.livejournal.com]

I know I'm going to be off on an (kitchen) island here, but I like Lisa and never really liked Dale. Dale came off too arrogant and full of himself. Am I glad that he is gone, yes. At the same time, I always watch and have two different elimination guesses. Who I THINK should go (based on the competiton) and Who is GOING to go (based on who I think the judges will choose). I had Dale as my THINK and Lisa is my GOING. Lisa's back to back poor weeks I thought would be too much for the judges. I'm glad that it wasn't.

That said, I don't see her finishing higher than 4th. I think it is down to Stephanie and Richard (a toss-up) with Antonia with an outside shot. Spike has been very quiet and lucky but I think next week he goes home.