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Top Chef: Boston

huiray

By huiray
in Food Media & Arts

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Jaymes

Jaymes

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I found Kerriann's (sp?) whining about missing her kids to be something of an excuse for her poor performing.

Me, too. Everybody's got a story, if they're looking for an excuse. So buck up and get on with it and stop whining. I agree that was most unappealing.

My heart always goes out to the people who get emotional about this or that beloved relative who has died.

Missing your kids?

Not so much.

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I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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gfweb

gfweb

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Me, too. Everybody's got a story, if they're looking for an excuse. So buck up and get on with it and stop whining. I agree that was most unappealing.

My heart always goes out to the people who get emotional about this or that beloved relative who has died.

Missing your kids?

Not so much.

 

Oh please, KerriA, grow up.

 

A recurring theme on TC seems to be how immature so many of the cheftesticles are. Is this reflective of the industry or do the Elves look for babies?

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Jaymes

Jaymes

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Oh please, KerriA, grow up.

 

A recurring theme on TC seems to be how immature so many of the cheftesticles are. Is this reflective of the industry or do the Elves look for babies?

Don't know about babies, but definitely think they look for one or two arrogant jerks to provide tension and drama.

I suspect the fact that Aaron is such an obvious asshat came across in his audition video and that's one of the reasons they chose him.

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I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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huiray

huiray

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I've been reading other bulletin boards and forums dishing about Top Chef and one thing that posters there pointed out was that James WASN'T off-kilter when he made hummus/that bean paste as part of his QF offering.  In Michigan, where he comes from and where he works, hummus IS a common bar food.  Lots of people (including recappers of the episode) also pointed out that he fell prey to the old trap of stifling his own instincts in favor of "team spirit" when he acquiesced to the women on his team insisting on a seafood theme rather than sticking to his gut feeling of a meat dish instead.  Of course, he didn't properly execute the dish he ended up with - but his heart was not in it anyway.

 

BTW, here's the successor forum (the link is to the Top Chef section), kind-of, in a way, to an infamous now-dead forum.

 

Not least because many of the members of that dead forum ended up in that other one.  The dead forum was, of course, TWoP.

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huiray

huiray

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OK, Aaron is gone.  Too bad, IMO.

 

I regret that Keriann was on the winning team.  Her dish was pretty bad and blasted by the judges that mattered.  If she had been on the losing team it might have been her that was sent packing.  Now THAT would have been sweet.

 

Katsuji is downright obnoxious in my books.  Gregory says he is 95% hilarious.  Sorry, I don't find anything he spews out in his verbal diarrhea to be the least bit funny.  Rather, much of it is both obnoxious and malicious.  I think both Aaron and Doug pegged him correctly.

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gfweb

gfweb

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The Elves manage TC like a AAA baseball team.

 

There are the real prospects eg Gregory and Mei, and the "organization players" eg Kerriann and Aaron who are just there to round out the team and will eventually get cut.

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Brown Hornet

Brown Hornet

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I keep wondering if maybe LCK happened, and they will surprise us with it at the end when they tell the finalists...

 

They've announced that LCK will start after episode 8.

 

I'm surprised at the animus towards Katsuji.  He just talks and jokes a lot -- sometimes it's funny sometimes not.  I think it's telling that the only contestants that are really bothered by him are the bottom feeders like Aaron and Keriann. 

 

Hopefully Keriann will follow Aaron's exit, but I doubt we'll be so lucky.  Aaron's exit interview was bizarre to me -- it was almost like he viewed himself as breaking down some barrier against chefs who were not "formally" trained at cooking school.  Uh, Aaron have you heard of Thomas Keller? For that matter, I don't think Tom Colicchio went to cooking school either.

 

I'm not looking forward to next week's cooking over an open fire challenge, but maybe it will surprise me.

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huiray

huiray

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I'm surprised at the animus towards Katsuji.  He just talks and jokes a lot -- sometimes it's funny sometimes not.  I think it's telling that the only contestants that are really bothered by him are the bottom feeders like Aaron and Keriann.

 

I suppose then that you consider Doug Adams to be a bottom feeder?  If so I would strongly disagree.

 

Katsuji is simply not funny to me.  The best that can be said for him, from my point of view, is that he is like a frat boy joker.  In my  books, that is not a compliment.  As I said above, a lot of what he says and how he behaves I find obnoxious and/or malicious.  His "talking a lot" is also precisely one of the problems, let alone the sometimes-malicious nature of his verbal diarrhea. His "poking, poking, poking" at other people is NOT funny.  Just.shut.up.  That would help a lot.  What also comes to mind is the standard response of bullies when challenged - "What, can't you take a joke?" - that somehow evokes what Katsuji reminds me of.  That some cheftestants think him hilarious is telling, to me, in how they think of themselves as well.

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Shalmanese

Shalmanese

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I suppose then that you consider Doug Adams to be a bottom feeder?  If so I would strongly disagree.

You may not like Katsuji but I don't think it's fair at all to imply Doug Adams has any animus towards Katsuji. From the show, his quote was "It's like having a brother. Man, I love you but I want to punch your face" which seems pretty affectionate to me.

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PS: I am a guy.

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huiray

huiray

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You may not like Katsuji but I don't think it's fair at all to imply Doug Adams has any animus towards Katsuji. From the show, his quote was "It's like having a brother. Man, I love you but I want to punch your face" which seems pretty affectionate to me.

 

That is "affectionate"? Wow.

 

The "poking, poking poking" characterization of Katsuji also came from Doug, when he commented about Katsuji purposely needling people (not just Aaron) to provoke them. 

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Brown Hornet

Brown Hornet

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I suppose then that you consider Doug Adams to be a bottom feeder?  If so I would strongly disagree.

 

Not at all, I think Doug's clearly in the top 4-5.  I didn't take Doug's comments as being overly bothered by Katsuji, more slightly annoyed bemusement I think.  I can understand why Katsuji is annoying to some viewers, but his mostly lighthearted trash talk doesn't bother me.  Again, the only chef he really got ugly with was Aaron and that probably said more about Aaron than Katsuji.

 

At this point I'm just hoping for a Gregory, Mei, Doug, Adam/Melissa final.

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huiray

huiray

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TC Boston episode 6: "First Thanksgiving": some commentary here.

 

So Katsuji won with a side dish.  Of a certain derivation, of course.  A little sad to see Stacy go, but she seemed relieved to do so.  Gregory gets taken down a few pegs, good!  Otherwise, the less said about this episode the better.  "Thanksgiving" is not a universally celebrated (in the happy, happy sense) occasion. 

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huiray

huiray

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TC Boston episode 7: Restaurant Wars:  some commentary here.

 

Katsuji solidifies for me my perception of him as an obnoxious jerk and a snake.

 

Gregory slinks into the background? Whatever happened to the Gregory who piped up on his own at JT about not allowing a dish (like Aaron's) to go out - but now just lets his OWN team fall to pieces and let Kerriann's dish get "put together" if that is even the term for it?  I also recall the very first QF in episode 1 when he (Gregory) threw George under the bus.

 

ETA:  Well done, Doug.  He looks better and better with each episode.  The Grey Team also functioned so well, with Doug as EC and Adam as FOH.  Reminded me of how well the RW team last season that had Nick Elmi as EC and Travis Masar as FOH worked together.  Both were a joy to watch. Nick went on to win the whole thing, which I thought was well deserved.  I have similar hopes for this season for a particular person in the same role as well.

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Shalmanese

Shalmanese

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I actually like that this season, everyone has dropped the pretense and are fully embracing that this is a game and that you should play strategically. With restaurant wars, the safest place to be has always been the best player on the worst team. It was obvious to Gregory and Katsuji that they didn't have much of a chance of winning so they pushed their two weakest members to team leader and FOH and then quietly sat back and executed solid, blameless food.

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PS: I am a guy.

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huiray

huiray

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I actually like that this season, everyone has dropped the pretense and are fully embracing that this is a game and that you should play strategically. With restaurant wars, the safest place to be has always been the best player on the worst team. It was obvious to Gregory and Katsuji that they didn't have much of a chance of winning so they pushed their two weakest members to team leader and FOH and then quietly sat back and executed solid, blameless food.

 

Yet Gregory still *had* to pipe up (without being asked by the Judges) at JT two episodes ago saying how HE would have never allowed Aaron's dish to be made if Aaron had been on his team, blah blah.  Of course TC is a game show.  If everyone has dropped the pretense, then Gregory's piping up would count as sheer grandstanding and hypocrisy on his part.  Adam, on the other hand, in that episode told the truth - consistent with the notion of the whole thing being a game. 

 

Aaron pegged Katsuji correctly from the beginning.

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huiray

huiray

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I am very pleased that George Pagonis is back in the contest proper.  I am still of the opinion that he got shafted in episode 1.

 

Sorry, Katie, but your time was up, and George showed he can cook - both in the cook-off and in the EC.

 

Katsuji continues to be a jerk. 

 

How many times is Gregory going to cook a curry with coconut milk?

 

Doug with another well-deserved win.  Using the same "basket" as Adam, who had difficulty "getting beyond" the slight skew of Richard Blais' market basket, but which Doug was also subjected to and worked with successfully.

 

I thought Melissa was as worthy of getting the chop (yet another salad?) as Adam or Mei (RARE lamb...really RARE lamb...).  The diners liked Adam's dish - but, again, the show demonstrates that what other people other than the judges think is of no importance AT ALL.**

 

Well, LCK shows that Adam *and* Katie still have a chance.  Good for them.  Props to Rebecca for a good showing in LCK.

 

** a.k.a. "Who Wants To Cook For Tom Colicchio & Friends"

 

ETA: Oh, Padma, that was a cheap, cheap obnoxious juvenile high-school prank that you pulled.   And Tom, that was a power-play typical of bullies that you pulled.  Richard Blais was gracious in how he handled both insults.

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gfweb

gfweb

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Completely agree. Blaise showed good humor in the face of a-hole behavior.

 

But most likely it was all pre-arranged by the Elves.

 

I thought that Adam was the least cuttable of the three given the mistakes the other two made.

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Brown Hornet

Brown Hornet

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I really liked Adam, but his whining about the 2-3 "molecular" ingredients was weak.  I thought Blais picked pretty easy ingredients to work with -- shrimp, mussels, peppers, bacon, chorizo, fish -- that's almost a paella right there.  I'm rooting for him to do well in LCK.

 

I would've preferred for Melissa to be cut, at least Adam tried something outside the box although I have no idea what a flash marinated shrimp is supposed to be.  Melissa's aim low strategy isn't going to cut it much longer at this stage of the competition. 

 

Gregory and Dougie seem like the clear front runners at this point, and I wouldn't mind seeing those two and Mei in a final. 

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