TOP CHEF Season 9 Begins

[filkertom]

Haven't yet watched the episode, just downloaded it -- but man oh man. Texas-sized. Twenty-nine chefs in three groups, competing to be in the base sixteen, who will zip hither and yon across the Lone Star State in search of those jobs Rick Perry's talking about -- no wait, in search of good food. Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons are joined by Hugh Acheson and Emeril effing Lagasse. Grand prize cash: $125,000, which implies to me that they're going to have even more prizes along the way than they have the past few seasons.

Feel free to chat about it here, and I'll join you later.

ETA: First, I corrected the spelling of Hugh Acheson's name. *blush*

Second, MAN OH MAN did I hate Tyler from the first time we saw him. Arrogant twit. His being booted before he'd even finished butchering (in the literal sense) his hunk o' pig was immensely satisfying.

Third, I definitely like some of these people. We'll have to see how they do, but I'm already rooting for the big man, Chris, from Carolina, and the two buddies from Chicago. In any case, a lot of good vibes.

Fourth, I love Emeril. And he's so different here than on his TV show -- it's like he's frickin' Khrushchev, a thick fireplug of a man you do not want to piss off. And then he opens his mouth and he's a gentle soft-spoken guy, which is wonderful and speaks well of him, but he is possibly more intimidating than Colicchio, which I think in this instance is all to the good. He is first and foremost a chef, a very good one, and he's not gonna cut them slack.

Fifth, I like this "on the bubble" concept, at least for entering this competition. One little mistake not being enough to eliminate you completely strikes me as a good thing. On the other hand, the chef who wasn't paying attention to the time and didn't even have her rabbit on the plate... too bad, so sad.

Thoughts?

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

As usual, it's kind of hard to tell who's who and what's what in Ep 1. Some observations: the first chef eliminated was definitely a case of justice, and one I rooted for just such a humiliating exit. There seem to be a lot of chefs who know each other, and a number who have apprenticed or worked under serious "name" chefs, including a bunch of folks who were on Top Chef Masters.

So far, interesting; I wish they'd made ep 1 90 minutes and cleared all three groups (and ancillary business) so that ep 2 could get right into the horse race. That said, this looks like it's going to be fun.

Also, OT: Last weekend was the first ep of the new season of Next Iron Chef (Masters edition). Justice was served there, too, and now I have nobody to root against :-)

[claibornem.livejournal.com]

Just want to say what a great blog you got here!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

*blush* D'awwww. Tanks!