Top Chef Chicago

[TL]

Are you kidding me??  Are we still on Marcel?  Ilan was the biggest dick of that season - hands down.
He was a friggin' child.
(And the amount of saffron he used was way out of line.)

I did see this weeks tonight, though.  It's always a tough call who to axe first, but I probably would've gone with the "piccata" guy.

[Andy]

yeah.  how could a guy who worked in restaurants all his life not know what picatta is?

I don't know why, I just didn't like marcel.  and I loved hung.  I usual root for the heel, I just didn't like marcel.

[TL]

I feel you - I'm not sayin' I'm "pro-Marcel," but the way those jerks started treating him - talk about Lord of the Flies!  Ilan proved himself, time and again, to be such an immature little wanker that no matter how good his cookin' wound up being, I could never get behind him.  You know what the most important ingredient in any dish is?  Love.
 

[Andy]

this is the only show I get this fired up about.  i'm actually excited.

[argyle]

Andrew needs to stop using a spatula to portion out his coke.  Go get a project-appropriate tool, man:  one of those little spoons.

re: Ilan, it's interesting how he has completely fallen out of the Bravo universe. It doesn't seem like he's invited back to those special events, or if he is, he's declining them. 

New York magazine had a big article about the generally high failure rate of the winners of the Bravo shows, and Tom C. was quoted as saying the chefs in the Marcel-Ilan season had a really low overall talent level.  Marcel was annoying, but Ilan was a stereotypical NYC hipster asshole who didn't have enough self-awareness to know how stupid and petty he seemed, even after the pre-finale break. His face needs some serious fist therapy. 

[erika]

I agree that the Piccata was a complete mess, but you can't serve salty food and her shrimp scampi didn't even have tasty sauce on it!

And for the record, I'm also a fan of GG even though he put mashed potatoes in a souffle. Even I know better than that! I hope he sticks around for a while. I like his Mr. Clean look and all the tattoos.

[Martin]

Come on, guys! Comments on last night's episode?

It killed me that Cokeboy Andrew won. Also, I almost couldn't tell him apart from Spike this week.

GG kept it low - bet he's going home soon.

Dale is still a world-class jerk, even if he was right about the 'shrooms.

"They looked like something a bear would produce, not eat!" (Who fed her that line?)

[Andy]

I haven't seen last nights show yet, but I'm rooting for Andrew.

I told you I like the heel.

[erika]

Andrew is an ASS.

Also, am I the only person who has no desire to eat any kind of FOAM on my food? Foam is for beer... maybe a root beer float... but last night someone took delicious creamy goat cheese and turned it into "goat cheese foam".

I hope Richard gets the boot. Guy gets on my nerves. His food needs to TASTE good and not just be creative. I find his way of cooking pretentious. Eucalyptus and chicken doesn't sound like a good combination to me.

But maybe I just have no sense of adventure.

[Martin]

Re: Richard - I hear you. What is this, science class? But I think he'll go far. Someone needs to bash some sense in him, 's all. (GG)

[Sarah]

Okay, you got me hooked.  Thoughts, in no particular order:

What was with all the peaches during the quick-fire round?  Maybe they were just gorgeous that day, but it made for a lot of repetition.

Andrew is a jerk, but I think a lot of it is nervousness and insecurity.  I prefer him to many of the others, especially Richard, whom I cannot stand.  All those gadgets!  The whining when his fellow molecular gastronomist didn't vote for him in the quick-fire round!  His stupid food!  The way he combines incongruous elements for the sake of novelty reminds of the worst days of nouvelle cuisine.  I mean, come on:  eucalyptus and chicken?  (And that vapor business last week was just too pretentious for words.)  He also said he was preparing legs when he was clearly braising wings.  Probably just a slip of the tongue, but it annoyed me.

Dale's irascibility sort of entertains me, but he is a bit of a prick.  Still, Nikki seemed to be bossy, and I think she bullied Dale and Spike into letting those mushrooms through. But I mean, really?  No one thought to taste the damn things after the cheese was added?  All of 'em deserve serious demerits for that.

Valerie was an idiot for thinking she could make blinis ahead of time, as was Stephanie for mixing up her crab salad too early  These are basic mistakes that I wouldn't make. 

I thought the show itself faltered near the end.  First they haul the two worst teams in and rake them over the coals for the three bad dishes.  Then they call 'em back in again, rehash the dishes' flaws, and finally give someone the boot.  It seemed like they'd come up short contentwise and had to pad it out.  Sloppy.

I'm looking forward to next week.

[Omar]

Compared to someone like Marcel from s2, Richard's molecular gastronomy is pretty restrained.  The vapor and eucalyptus were certainly unnecessary flourishes, but I approve of that little smoker and, at this point, an immersion circulator for sous vide is a pretty standard technique.  I seem to recall reading a lot of advance buzz on various Web outlets about the talent level of this season, but after two episodes nobody has been particularly impressive.  Also, there are clearly too many contestants.  I think "Memo" Trevino has received about 4 minutes of screen time so far.

GG will be gone next week, but he will quickly find work as a line cook at Trump's GG-themed casino in AC.  I wish Merle was on this season instead.  I'd love to see him singe his Hitler mustache on an errant flambé.

[Sarah]

I think GG should have his own diner.  It would be a very nice diner that served real food, and he would be the lovable tattooed hulk that the waitresses (all wearing old-fashioned waitress outfits) would good-naturedly rib.  He'd give food to the homeless and perhaps get in trouble with the health board at some point for adopting a cat and surreptitiously feeding it scraps in the kitchen.  All the Top Chef contestants would go there for comfort food after they're kicked off the show, and when Andrew is going through one of his periodic crashes, GG will feed him the right stuff to take the edge off (I don't know what that might be--perhaps banana splits or the like).

[Dorvid Barnas]

I felt bad when Valerie got kicked off but I think it was just because she reminded me of Rachel Dratch.

[erika]

They should have done the Debbie Downer noise when she started cooking the blinis ahead of time.