Top Chef - Chicago

[bouhhan]

not sure if anyone here watches this...

i enjoy the series, although padma is retarded and tom colicchio's head seems to have swelled tenfold between seasons 3 and 4.

started with 16, down to 9 now i think.

the only people i can imagine winning at this point are dale, richard and stephanie, which is my guess for the final three. i'd say richard is the favorite at this point; he seems the most consistent.

my highlight of this season so far was seeing william 'fridge' perry at the bears bbq.

looks like the shit may really hit the fan next week - dale looks pretty pissed off in the preview.

[Jait]

How the fuck is Nikki still around? Mark is the sous at Public, one of the better restaurants in the nation. Nerves really count for a lot I guess.

Originally Posted by bouhhan

dale, richard and stephanie

Clearly the favorites. Although Antonia continues to surprise. It's the best group though by far in all the seasons. I think most of the people left could've won any of the other seasons. Hung and a couple chefs from S1, being possible exceptions.

Good show though. I'm addicted to it.

[Kuriin]

I love this show. I'm not a fan of Antoina though.

[Lucane Darkseraphim]

I feel that overall the chefs from this season do not compare to S3 at all. I agree that Richard, Dale, and Stephanie are the top three. Richard will likely win.

There are very few likable people in S4. The only two who I like to hear from are Mark and Spike, and they just axed Mark despite being revolted by Stephanie's peanut butter tomato crap.

They need to stop interviewing Richard. He has -zero- wit yet he thinks that he is amusing. His jokes are a guaranteed flop.

[Kuriin]

I think it's pretty obvious why they picked Mark. Mark thus far has had shitty food compared to Stephanie, and they even said it that they were surprised that the taste of the food this time was bad compared to the others.

[Ishad]

Originally Posted by Kuriin

I think it's pretty obvious why they picked Mark. Mark thus far has had shitty food compared to Stephanie, and they even said it that they were surprised that the taste of the food this time was bad compared to the others.

Yea, but last season they claimed that eliminations where based on that challenge not total performance, which is why Tre got the axe early.

[Lucane Darkseraphim]

They always claim that only the current challenge determines the loser. Stephanie should get the boot, she made a dish that was revolting. Because it also was meant for kids, I'd imagine that kids hated it even more than the adults. Also, Stephanie consistently sucks in the quickfire challenges (as far as getting 6/15 on the taste quickfire). She isn't leagues above Mark, I feel that they were right on level.

They kicked Mark because Stephanie has won two normal challenges. Keep in mind that that is what judges see. Two or three of the judges never know that she lands last place in nearly every quickfire.

The judges are very inconsistent in this season. They axed Ryan for not making tailgate food, but they kept the two bitches when they did not even use polish sausage in the polish sausage improv challenge. Tre getting the boot in S3 was sad, but at least they stuck to their guns with that one. Tre is the only person who could challenge Hung. If ever there was a time to bend the rules to keep a person who performed poorly once, it should have been to save Tre.

Yes, Nikki needs the boot. God, all she does is Italian things over and over again.

[Etoille]

YAY totally didnt know there was a thread here for this.

Richard (Blais) ALL the way. Mans a genius.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

Bah now you're going to make me admit to watching not one but two reality TV shows.

I agree that Richard and Dale are looking like they are a cut above the rest. 2 weeks ago I would have put Stephanie up there as well but she has had a rough patch. Hopefully she will get it back together. Antonia seems to be on the rise.

Richard I think is a nice guy, but a total dork. Every time I see him I want to take him down and shave his head like they tried to do to that guy in S2. Can't stand Spike. Other than his soup last week he hasn't been that impressive food-wise either. I liked Mark but I think he deserved to go home this week.

They did say that they would take past performance into account in the booting this year unlike in previous seasons which I think is better. It was retarded when Tre got sent home for basically being a bad waiter in the restaurant challenge when it's supposedly a "top chef" competition and he was easily one of the best there.

This week's elimination challenge was pretty cool. I think having a bunch of restaurant chefs do all these catering challenges is pretty lame and it's always better towards the end when their cooking is really what's being judged and not their ability to make mass quantities and keep it sitting in steamers for 3 hours. That said, it looks like next week they are all catering a wedding :P.

[Jait]

Originally Posted by Brutul Tarew Marr

They did say that they would take past performance into account in the booting this year unlike in previous seasons which I think is better. It was retarded when Tre got sent home for basically being a bad waiter in the restaurant challenge when it's supposedly a "top chef" competition and he was easily one of the best there.

Actually Tre was the Executive Chef in that challenge, that's why he got the boot. But he wasn't the team leader, that Jacobson guy pigeon-holed him and basically sold him out. That's why he got eliminated. If past performance had counted, the 7 foot tall douche would've been booted and rightly so.


As for being eliminated for being a waiter, it happened to Stephen in season 1. He made 100x3 hors d'oeuvres, which all 3 judges said was the best thing served at the Wedding. But was eliminated because technically----he didn't "cook" anything. The next challenge was wine+truffles, which he likely would've won. Instead of a Lee'Anne, Tiffany, Stephen, Harold, we got "Dave", the gay guy who makes really good hot-dogs and burritos and somehow slipped past the guy with the real resume'. Sucked. IIRC Stephen won 4 quickfires and an elimination. But Tre's elimination was an abomination. He was the only person in the competition in Hung's league.


BTW Next week they're bringing back the Wedding challenge. 14+ hours of shopping, prep, and cooking. Hopefully like season 1, they wont tell them until 6pm.

[Soygen]

One of my favorite shows. Richard will probably win, but I can't root for him due to his completely lame, lesbian haircut.

[Jabberwhacky]

Am I the only one who's turned off by this season because every single competitor is a mirror image of past contestants? I don't know all the names of S4, but Mark looks like Marcel, the asian guy looks like Hung, Stephanie looks fucking identical to one of the chicks from last season, one of the S4 guys looks like Sam from S2 (I think)...I'd do a photoshop comparison but I don't care that much. You guys must have noticed their similarities.

[Jait]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

Am I the only one who's turned off by this season because every single competitor is a mirror image of past contestants? I don't know all the names of S4, but Mark looks like Marcel, the asian guy looks like Hung, Stephanie looks fucking identical to one of the chicks from last season, one of the S4 guys looks like Sam from S2 (I think)...I'd do a photoshop comparison but I don't care that much. You guys must have noticed their similarities.

You mean that Asians look Asian, and many Lesbians look butch?

Mark looks like Sideshow Bob and is a blank-eyed white guy. Marcel was a 5 ft midget who looked like Wolverine. I'm not sure I agree at all. But I wouldn't put it past Bravo to typecast. Hence all the gay jokes with Ted Allen.

That said, look at their resume's Jabberwhacky. Le Cirque, Public, Butter, all the best restaurants in the U.S., and most of them are the Sous Chef at their respective jobs, not line cooks. So they're not picking newbies like in the past seasons where most of them were private chefs or worked for places no one had ever heard of.

[Brutul Tarew Marr]

Eh, I don't really see it. And as Jait said, it's not like they picked these guys out of 1000 people that showed up to a casting call in LA. All of them are real chefs at high end restaurants. The ones I have trouble with are Spike and Andrew. I always get them confused cause they look too much like each other.

[Jabberwhacky]

Whatever, I still say it's too coincidental to write off. I think they look really similar in those pics you just linked. These are the two chicks I was thinking of.