Top Chef Season 5

[gfweb]

and blue trout

[Dryden]

bluefoot mushrooms

[hungryCAT]

My biggest surprise of this round was that they couldn't come up with something more interesting for "something blue".

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My biggest surprise was that Fabio (I think it was he) proudly stated to the

ladies that "green and yellow make blue". And they all "Oooohed and

Aaaaaahed" with glee. No, dear, it is blue and yellow (2 primary colors)

that make green (a secondary color).

[chappie]

That's the mark of a true salesman and showman.

[I_call_the_duck]

Yeah, that "green and yellow make blue" was definitely a WTF moment, but I think Fabio knew it was b-s, because he said something like, "they totally bought it." Hey, if a cute Italian man told me I was beautiful and the next thing that comes out of his mouth was "I have a bridge to sell you", I'd be out a lot of money but the proud owner of a very useless piece of paper.

edited because sometimes things make more sense in my head.

Edited December 17, 2008 by I_call_the_duck (log)

[chappie]

Trifecta Predictions:

Next three eliminated (each group boxed trifecta style, no order):

[Melissa, Carla, Gene]

The next three after that:

[Ariane, Hosea, Leah]

Then:

[Jeff, Radhika (my dark horse), Jamie]

Leaving the Fabio/Stefan showdown.

[chappie]

Oh, no, Hosea-it-ain't so!

Are you kidding me, Top Chef? A zoomed-in cheesy promo of his cellphone? I'm pretty certain they don't come with that huge sticker on the back blaring "T-MOBILE SIDEKICK LX," Nor do we need a freaking five-second closeup of his texting device. Ridiculous!

[chappie]

Hahahah -- I loved Fabio's "When I was a-seex, I was evil."

Side note: Isn't cooking a bunch of things seperately and assembling them into one final dish kind of defeating the purpose of a "one-pot meal?"

Ed: Watching the Quickfire judging, almost none of these were actually one-pot meals whatsoever!

Edited December 18, 2008 by chappie (log)

[Chris Hennes]

What time of year was this episode filmed? It seems so... awkward. "Happy Holidays!! <snicker><chortle>" This AIDS group got to have a Christmas party in, what, the middle of summer? Wonderful.

[chappie]

That's what I was wondering! Tom was telling the chefs they were getting a Christmas gift of no eliminations -- and I'm pretty certain it wasn't filmed last Christmas.

Again, a kind of sleazy touch.

Eugene should've been gone.

[robert40]

Oh, no, Hosea-it-ain't so!

Are you kidding me, Top Chef? A zoomed-in cheesy promo of his cellphone? I'm pretty certain they don't come with that huge sticker on the back blaring "T-MOBILE SIDEKICK LX," Nor do we need a freaking five-second closeup of his texting device. Ridiculous!

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And under the circumstances it was pretty tasteless.

[chappie]

The guest judge, actress whoever, even plays a role in this fake Christmas spectacle, dribbling some cliche: "The great thing about this time of year" pablum. And then the chefs make a "Merry Christmas!" toast.

Huh? This was filmed in mid-summer last I checked. This is a low blow for Top Chef.

[KristiB50]

ITA on the one pot meals. Paella is a one pot meal. Arianne did not cook that steak and pureed cauliflower together.

They also tried to do 12 days of Christmas with 11 chefs. No four birds a calling. Dumb.

Anyone else think the open fridge door was staged by the producers for drama?

[Kevin72]

I thought for sure Ariane was going to get ripped a new one for the "grilled" tenderloin for a one-pot meal. No one got called out on it.

The xmas stuff was cheesy but didn't bother me. Didn't they do it one season where it was shot over Christmas or Thanksgiving and just aired a few weeks later?

Interesting to speculate who would've gone home. Jamie's dish seemed pretty egregious but Gene is in an attitude downward spiral and didn't do himself any favors at the judges' table. He seems to have his his ceiling: he keeps doing ceviche/sushi time and time again.

I'm such a sap because I liked that they all pitched in together and the "reward" was no one going home. As I read on another board, somewhere Hung was scoffing.

**Next week's preview spoilers:**

I like that it looks like they're doing a reset: cook whatever you want. Gets everyone back on the same page after the subpar showing. But they should probably send more than one person home if they're given a challenge like that and still whizz it.

And Fabio's now my hands-down favorite to win for his "This isn't Top Scallop!" remark when it looks like Jamie will AGAIN be cooking with scallops. She's steadily morphed into the villain this year.

[Tsulli1]

Anyone else think the open fridge door was staged by the producers for drama?

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Dunno, but it certainly wasn't a good advertisement for GE Profile products either way.

[gfweb]

I think profile has an open door alarm.......

[Chris Hennes]

Did that door really get left open, or did the fridge just die because they put so much hot food in it the night before? "Left the door open" could easily be the excuse they came up with the prevent GE from looking bad. OK, my conspiracy theorizing is done now...

[gfweb]

Ariane has been getting away with hitting singles when the show calls for home runs or at least triples. She survives because everyone else is sucking.

Deviled eggs. Please. This show isn't "Top Grandmother"

[rickster]

I thought the fridge either died or someone on the production staff left it open. Helps explain why they had extra pork and duck lying around for the chefs to use, which would have been a violation of the rules in earlier challenges.

I thought they pushed the Christmas theme a little too much with some of the holiday comments, but remember they just did the Foo Fighters Thanksgiving which was obviously filmed in the summer too. Last year they did a Christmas special in Chicago which was obviously filmed with leaves on the trees.

I still think the talent level is down this season vs. the last two, maybe we will learn for sure next week.

[Chris Hennes]

I still think the talent level is down this season vs. the last two, maybe we will learn for sure next week.

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That has been my impression as well, but it's hard to tell if it's true, or if they are just being smarter about the way they compete. I still think that there are enough people cooking that you can count on at least one disaster dish per competition: if everyone is playing to not lose, maybe this is what we get. I'm looking forward to next week's competition: I hope it will help me to separate the winners from the losers in my mind. I still don't see any really clear frontrunners.

[Kevin72]

I think Stefan's still the clear frontrunner, though I'm pulling for Fab.

I was really impressed with him at the start of this episode: even though he was on one of the winning teams last ep, he knew that his dish (the terrine) was one of the worst-regarded and seemed to be taking it to heart and knowing that he had to improve. Plus, despite attempts to make him this year's Hung, he clearly cares about other people on the team. He was consoling Radhika after her duck went bad and trying to talk Gene down when he was getting wound up after judges' table.

Seems like every season there's a "they're not as good as last season" moment, but I think that there still hasn't been enough people eliminated. Once it's down to less than 10 the personalities have more time to emerge and you get clear villains and heroes.

[Tsulli1]

How do they go from Chef Grant Achatz to Ex-con Martha Stewart?

What's up with that?

I got hint of that insider-trading, corrupt, shadiness when she leaned over and winked to Ariane "From one Jersey girl to another."

[Zeemanb]

Re: "one pot" meals.....

I'm not what people would call "intelligent", but does a meal count as one-pot as long as you only use one POT, but as many pans as necessary? Just curious, because if that's the case I've been one lazy bastard when it comes to my favorite one pot dishes.......

[Pebs]

How do they go from Chef Grant Achatz to Ex-con Martha Stewart?

What's up with that?

I got hint of that insider-trading, corrupt, shadiness when she leaned over and winked to Ariane "From one Jersey girl to another."

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Whatever you want to say about Martha Stewart, (and I was no fan of hers at the time) her being sent to jail on a $240,000 trade on a tip from her broker's assistant was a complete travesty. The same SEC that sent her to jail ignored the warnings about Madoff (with the money) for years. I used to work on Wall Street and I saw more insider trading go on in an average day done by brokers that will never see the inside of a jail cell than Martha did in a lifetime. There are not too many people who can put their business life back together after jail time well enough to be invited to be a guest judge on a well watched show. She certainly earned my respect.

[Tsulli1]

Whatever you want to say about Martha Stewart, (and I was no fan of hers at the time) her being sent to jail on a $240,000 trade on a tip from her broker's assistant was a complete travesty.  The same SEC that sent her to jail ignored the warnings about Madoff (with the money) for years.  I used to work on Wall Street and I saw more insider trading go on in an average day done by brokers that will never see the inside of a jail cell than Martha did in a lifetime.  There are not too many people who can put their business life back together after jail time well enough to be invited to be a guest judge on a well watched show.  She certainly earned my respect.

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All I'm saying is...this is supposed to be Top Chef, not Top Caterer, not Top Opportunist, not Top Convict, not Top Homemaker, and certainly... not Top Scallop!