Bravo's Top Chef Season 2

[KristiB50]

Starts October 18th.

You can see the bio's of the contestants HERE

It looks like they chose a lot of the same types of personalities. good looking guy, vegan chef....etc

I really liked the show last year. It's much better than Hells Kitchen. I also think Padma will be a much better host than Katie Joel.

Edited because I had the wrong start date.

Edited October 8, 2006 by KristiB50 (log)

[Tess]

Oh, cool. I was just pining for that show while reading the (very good) recaps at Television Without Pity.

I wonder how Lee Ann from last season is doing. I loved her.

[chefadamg]

This looks like it's going to be great. I liked last years show but thought the quality of the contestants was a bit week. There are some "high flyers" in this group...some really top of the line chefs. Check out thier bios, pretty impressive.

[MichBill]

The start time of 11:00 PM Eastern is not exactly prime time, although it looks like it starts at 10 PM after that. I thought that last season this was one of the better reality cooking shows. Looking forward to this season.

[orangeman747]

Ahhh! I'm so excited for the new season. I'm catering the night it starts, so I had to make sure that it was over before the show starts! Yeah, I think that it will be a good season! good contestants? does anyone know if any of the contestants from last season have egullet accounts?....

[BryanZ]

Just like I started the Stephen Aspirino fan club last season. I hereby proclaim the formation of the Marcel Vigneron fan club.

Cooks at The Mansion, into MG, young, and has both a sweet name and goofy hair. My kind of guy.

[KristiB50]

Looks like Sam Talbot is trying to balance his good looks and a culinary career.

[Christopher Haatuft]

May this be Katie Joel`s new career? http://www.dn.no/webtv/?flid=743

[brooklyncook]

The "long version" of the Top Chef 2 commercial was on during Project Runway earlier this week, and my friends and I went through it with shouts of "good bye" and "you're gone already."

Of course, no idea how dead-on we are, but the personality "blips" we were given were so reminiscent of Top Chef 1 competitors who got the axe...oy.

Who was the one woman who referenced her looks as to why she'd win? ARE YOU KIDDING? Hi, you're on television. They will edit your footage so you look like an ass.

Thanks for helping them.

[fiftydollars]

May this be Katie Joel`s new career? http://www.dn.no/webtv/?flid=743

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What would be her last career?

[tetsujustin]

Just like I started the Stephen Aspirino fan club last season.  I hereby proclaim the formation of the Marcel Vigneron fan club.

Cooks at The Mansion, into MG, young, and has both a sweet name and goofy hair.  My kind of guy.

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Interesting. He was my fellow (sorta like a TA) in one of the restaurants when I was working the restaurants at CIA.

All I can remember was that he was always really intense sounding. That and he didn't have the hair back then.

Edited October 14, 2006 by tetsujustin (log)

[Segue]

Bourdain and Ripert to be guest judges as well...hmmm...

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/cl-ca-laksh...=cl-tv-features

""Top Chef," from the producers of the zeitgeist fashion competition "Project Runway," premiered last spring and was the top-rated cable food show among young adults. As with "Runway," its popularity was fueled by the contestants' raw ambition along with the inevitable kitchen drama that ensued as they raced to out-cook one another.

This season, which kicks off Wednesday, the producers brought in prominent chefs such as "Kitchen Confidential" author Anthony Bourdain and Le Bernardin's Eric Ripert as guest judges. The presence of culinary superstars helped ease Lakshmi's doubts about wading into the reality television genre"

[BryanZ]

If only Bourdain had met Stephen last season. I dream about encounters like that.

[Segue]

If only Bourdain had met Stephen last season.  I dream about encounters like that.

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Oh man...I would have paid money to see that!

Chateau corkscrew....$109.00

Bottle of 2001 Cod d'Estournel....$200.00

Bourdain-style butt reamings....Priceless!

[KatieLoeb]

If only Bourdain had met Stephen last season.  I dream about encounters like that.

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Oh man...I would have paid money to see that!

Chateau corkscrew....$109.00

Bottle of 2001 Cod d'Estournel....$200.00

Bourdain-style butt reamings....Priceless!

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Oh yeah. That had the potential to be one of those, "Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy" moments. I'd have loved to have Bourdain show Stephen up for the pompous ass that he is.

Does anyone know what Stephen is doing now? Last I heard he'd been blackballed on the east coast for making such an ass of himself on the program.

[Grub]

Elia Aboumrad's bio starts off with "Elia is a Latin firecracker..." Nice.

[godito]

Just like I started the Stephen Aspirino fan club last season. I hereby proclaim the formation of the Marcel Vigneron fan club.

I know this kid, we were friends back at the CIA. Great cook. Always thinking of new stuff to try out, but more importatly, the guy we used to throw the frisbee with, a normal atendee to our all-day drinking and cooking fests we had on sundays, and a really cool guy. You start the fan club, then I'll buy the t-shirts

All I can remember was that he was always really intense sounding. That and he didn't have the hair back then.

Yeah, he is intense, and yeah, he HAD the hair, he cut it, I think, when he was in the fellowship (but not for long)

[Tess]

Lee Ann Wong from last season will be doing a weekly web series this time around. (The article also fills us in on what she's been doing.)

[BryanZ]

Just like I started the Stephen Aspirino fan club last season. I hereby proclaim the formation of the Marcel Vigneron fan club.

I know this kid, we were friends back at the CIA. Great cook. Always thinking of new stuff to try out, but more importatly, the guy we used to throw the frisbee with, a normal atendee to our all-day drinking and cooking fests we had on sundays, and a really cool guy. You start the fan club, then I'll buy the t-shirts

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If you design a t-shirt I'll seriously buy and wear it. You should definitely include a really condescending one-liner. Something like "You have no talent and will fail." Oh man, I loved that guy. I only hope Marcel Vigneron can keep the glory alive. Hopefully I'll be 21 by the time they start casting season 3 (only half-joking).

[KristiB50]

Lee Ann Wong from last season will be doing a weekly web series this time around. (The article also fills us in on what she's been doing.)

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Wow! She's been really successful.

Edited October 17, 2006 by KristiB50 (log)

[MissAmy]

I loved last season. I loved the contestants, I loved the challenges. The judges... eh...

This season, though, the majority of contestants just seem SO incredibly odious. The guy who says in the preview, "I'll break your knee caps," makes me want to scream. How obnoxious, hateful, and kind of scary. The girl who professes, "Why am I on Top Chef? LOOK at me!" makes me want to stab out my own eyes with a rusty spork. The other girl who's like, "I always get what I want in the kitchen," in this horrid passive agressive manipulator manner makes me ashamed to share a gender with her. Ick. What hideous people.

Judging by the previews the only one who seems even remotely tolerable is the "Insane chef" guy. But I'm afraid he'll just end up being another Stephen (who I loved in the beginning but was ready to kill by the time he got booted).

If this show becomes more about drama than food, I won't be watching.

[godito]

If you design a t-shirt I'll seriously buy and wear it. You should definitely include a really condescending one-liner. Something like "You have no talent and will fail."

How about: Skill needs no luck (that was his answer to the lucky charm question)

If I was still in the US, we would've totally had some T-shirts made to watch the show. I wonder if my friends there will anyway... I will ask them. Too bad after graduation we all went our different ways. It would be fun to get together to watch Marcel doing his thing.

[SheenaGreena]

my dvr cut off the last 2 minutes, who got eliminated?

[Jensen]

Suyai

[RMeierdirks]

Just watched first episode of Top Chef 2. It seems the producers again put in some really inexperienced people that seem out of their depth (Michael and Suyai being the Miguel and Candice). It's not quite as bad as American Idol putting tone-deaf people on national TV just to humiliate them, but it strikes me as unfair to put a line cook still in school up against exec chefs with years of experience. On the other hand, one of those exec chefs almost got cut, so who knows.

As for the new chefs, I don't have as strong an impression as I did from the first show. I had immediately hated Stephen and liked LeeAnne, Harold, Dave and even the rest all had fairly strong personalities. Either the producers were looking for similar types of people as the first show or contestants were consciously trying to fill those "roles". (e.g., Marcel being the Stephen of this group, Michael is the Miguel, etc.) They just seem a little less colorful and interesting so far.

After one episode, TV Guide slammed Padma - "her delivery falls flatter than an undercooked souffle." Well, I think she is already better than the monotone Katie. Did the editors at TVG watch any of the first season?

The challenges at least were not as unfair and unrealistic as some of the first season - the kids, the gas station, the time limit twist on the wedding. My thought for the elimination challenge was to bread the frog legs with the cornflakes, dirty rice with the chicken livers, a ratatouille with the eggplant and a satay dipping sauce with the peanut butter. No idea for the snails, but hiding the american cheese in the potatoes was probably the best option, rather than puttiing on top for an escargot melt.

Hoping it gets better. - Rich