Top Chef All-Stars

Only on a season of incredibly talented chefs, Jen was made to seem weak in comparison. Put her on any other season and she waltzes into the final.

The collective resumes of the chefs of TC Season 6 were more impressive than the TC masters season 2! I mean Tom Collichio admitted it felt weird to be judging the Voltaggio brothers' food because both of them were far higher regarded critically than his food (which to be fair is commercialized dreck).

i was under the impression that other chefs really respected Collichio's food

Guys I really miss season 6. I remember when I couldn't STAND Mike at first, but now on the All Stars I'm all, "Oh Mike you lovable scamp."

I know! It's weird.

I think it helps cuz that he is the only one with jen from that season

and is it me or did most of the chefs gain like 20 lbs?

well there were some weight fluctuations in both directions tbh

the quickfire where they cook against tom might be pretty interesting

the previews for the season rest of the season looked pretty great in general

Psyched for Sesame Street!

It's interesting how most of the chefs (at least the dudes anyway) are pretty overweight, but the dessert chefs on the last show were all really thin. Maybe the stress of being a head chef promotes a lot of comfort eating and heavy drinking.

Although Richard looks like he's lost about 30 pounds.

he looked slightly unhealthy i thought

Yeah Blais is looking gaunt. Spike has bulked up.

Jamie looks like she's dropped a few pounds, too.

Maybe the stress of being a head chef promotes a lot of comfort eating and heavy drinking.

jamie is a rock star coming in with the giant aviators on

kinda wish they had brought back Kiwi Mark so that there could be more drunk bathtub lols with him & Spike.

oh well

apparently Kiwi Mark cooks in my nabe. I've eaten there once. not a very fancy place.

He always seemed more like a backpacker than a chef, like he'd just wandered onto the set & decided to hang

Some stupid ass challenges imo

this episode has been awful

i guess the challenge was slightly better since they really stuck hard to the "only meat" thing, but still

haha wow. Jen going ham at judges table.

"welcome to Jen All-Stars"

RIP

kinda don't even want to watch the rest of the season now...

booooo hooooo hooooooo, I wuz robbed, cuss cuss cuss

ugh

damn those little bits of egg must have been completely atrocious

like, vs. a horrifically salty sauce? really?

Wtf?

Jen had her nervous breakdown early this season, wow.

Bitching about the challenge was super dumb - Tom said specifically that it was meat/products only (what would have been the point of the challenge if one team just got completely hosed?!). I liked one the one chef who said with authority that T-Rex 'ate both,' which I'm pretty sure is wrong.

bourdain to chefs: learn from Omar! it's all in the Game!

http://www.bravotv.com/media/u13/top-chef-all-stars-season-8-blog-bourdain-802-omar.jpg

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-8/blogs/anthony-bourdain/all-in-the-game

lol

^^^^ The Wire spoilers

Nice straight forward challenges this episode. I was glad to see Dale win if only because he reminds me so much of an old friend mine.

*of mine.

Yeah I liked this ep. That Quickfire challenge was crazy! And I loved the Elimination Challenge, it was cool to see all the chefs try to embrace the challenge. I'm glad Dale won...in behind the giant chip on his shoulder he seems pretty likeable and dedicated.

He was just really smart. Everybody who lost lost because they were confronted by these uber-chefs and could only think the way to win was to emulate their style and do something really ambitious. Then Dale comes out and says "I can't be WD" so he does his own food reflecting on aspects of WD50. And his dish looked totally awesome.

I ate at WD50 once, pretty good...I had some kind of carbonated bourbon. A drink that wasn't bourbon mixed with soda, but carbonated bourbon.

wow, that sounds cool. Would love to eat at WD50 one day. Wiley has always been my favorite guest judge on TC.

Lol @ Bourdain saying Stephen's dished tasted like a head shop. I'm glad he's gone. I'm honestly surprised he stayed as long as he did, he truly seems completely useless in facets of chef-ing.

anyone else notice...when they came in and Stephen was like "i'm out" there was silence then other Dale was like "me too" and the place erupted in "ooooh"

hilarious.

But the food at WD50 didn't kill me. Momofuko Ssam either. Either I'm a traditionalist or I just like the real cheap ethnic stuff instead. They were definitely great, but I'd rather eat at some weird place in Flushing I guess.

yeah we ate at WD50 when we were in nyc + i wasnt really feeling it

Did you expect to go to WD50 and get a really authentic bowl of pho or something?

No. But I was expecting it to taste as good as it was interesting. And it was cool, but it didn't really blow me away. When I've been to Jean Georges, I almost passed out out of pleasure.

yeah for me it just sort of made me realise what i really enjoy at a meal

I want to eat that egg cube

anyone else notice...when they came in and Stephen was like "i'm out" there was silence then other Dale was like "me too" and the place erupted in "ooooh"

hilarious.

actual lolz

I was expecting it to taste as good as it was interesting. And it was cool, but it didn't really blow me away.

Totally agree w/ the WD-50 comments. Hard to say this with authority having only eaten there once but I feel like they put things out on the menu that are still works in progress. Some of the stuff was good-to-great but my wife said her entree was one of the worst things she's ever eaten in a restaurant (it was v. weird, some kind of fish dish with cocoa nibs in the sauce)

what's the consensus on the best season btw? this show is fucking crack for me, and I wanna DL a good season Ive never seen before

2 & 6 are the best