Top Chef: Season 2

With the food, you just have to take the judge's word. What fun is that? Still I'll probably watch it.

Harold makes an awesome, formidable judge! They should make him a permanent addition.

I am very much in favor of Elia Aboumrad, her name has both "boom" and "rad" in it. Plus: foxy.

DAMM IT IS COLD SHOWER TIME FOR ME

Things definitely seemed to blur by in this episode for me, but of course episode 1s always have a lot of ground to cover. Didn't get too much of a bead on anybody, although the one dude with the Wolverine hair seems to be trying WAY too hard to be this season's Stephen.

Thought the victory seemed well-earned - I LOVED the presentation of that dish, the dense packing of textures that feel very much part of a whole. No spilling out all over the plate for that guy. I also like the "mystery crate" challenge, although it really amounts to just a normal weird-ingredient challenge. Having never had frog legs or chicken livers I was ill-equipped to really imagine any of the food, sadly. The flambe dishes, especially the shrimp ones, were definitely mouthwatering - bullshit that we didn't get to see them all!

Yes.

And the rap.

Other than that, 100% douchebag and I hope he chokes on his own foam.

In a small restaurant group like a kitchen or wait-staff, there's always that one person that everyone hates, who brings it on him/herself. This time it's Marcel.

maybe just avoid him and cook and not freak out on him in public places (Sam) or talk shit about his dish while presenting one's own (Ilan)? weirdly, nobody did seem to hate Betty (the blonde woman), even though she hated Marcel like it was her job.

I really disliked Marcel at the beginning of the season, but the other contestants make him look like an angel.

"these greens are worthless."

and the winner:

"it tastes like...HOTEL FOOD"

OK! That's my rant for the day.

I still was kind of surprised it wasn't Sam though, I sort of expected him to be set up for the win from the beginning. Ilan turned into a whiny bitch towards the end.

People hate him because he's a big fucking cock.

good episode

I was surprised everyone seemed to have trouble on the quickfire, seemed pretty basic to me

I was pretty convinced that Dale was going home. Damn you, Bravo editors.

I lolled at Hung at judge's table, so shameless

TOM: Hung, I am concerned we don't see enough of you in your food. You have technical skills but we'd like to see more soul.
PADMA: Why should each of you be Top Chef?
HUNG: Because I cook with my SOUL, I pour my HEART AND SOUL into every dish, my mom, my grandma, my grandma's grandma, my uncle's cousin's sister, my neice, my first cousin's nephew, al contribute to my HIGHLY SOULFUL COOKING.

i haven't seen the episode yet, but this "we don't see enough of you in your food" sounds like serious bullshit

the "Hung cooks with no soul thing" has been a reoccurring theme though, hasn’t it?
i don't really get this. they keep saying that he has technical skills. i see that what he puts out there looks nice. I’ve never heard anyone say that the food he puts out didn't taste good. does he not season aggressively enough or something?

so why shouldn't he or the scriptwriter give them some back?

i think they mean he's asian, actually

Dale was the only one they seemed to like leading up to Judge's Table. I thought it was obvious he was going to win. Seemed like they basically drew straws for the other three, though.

Hung is a dipshit. "All the cowboys are just gonna want barbecue" - you're in Aspen, dumbass, they're all crazy rich ranchers.

Hung is like a kitchen automaton. Except for the cereal quickfire, dude basically plates up something that's technically proficient, but that appears to be about it.

What I think they're missing, though, is that Hung's soul is the technique.

when will somebody invent taste-o-vision?

the dude is the most inventive in the group. when they say show me your soul, they're complaining about his giving them relatively straightforward dishes. never mind that that's what the challenges keep calling for.

yeah I think they suspect he is playing it safe

but when he tried to do weird stuff he got ripped for it (probably rightly so, cauliflower ice cream looked nasty)

Hung's stuff always kind of seems like more like it's going to be good based on science and practice rather than gut feeling or willingness to gamble on something that might be great or might suck.

He's been playing it safe and they want some Marcel-esque innovation. Or Tom want him to make spring rolls and a nice bowl of Pho.

I would like to see Tom braise his racing cap with a nice hen-of-the-woods mushroom

"Soul" just means "comforting flavors", as Bourdain pointed out in his blog entry. Hung says "refined" but he means "austere", or "elevated". He is less interested in pleasing the audience, more interested in food for food's sake.

But looking at the food that Casey trots out, I don't really see a huge difference in terms of the kinds of food the two of them create. They're both purveyors of overly ornate haute cuisine, but Hung falls back on his technique as a crutch, and Casey falls back on flavor. Ultimately, the judges are almost always going to pick "delicious with mediocre technique" over "superb technique with okay flavor". That's why Dave did well in Season 1.

That said, I think that Hung is going to blow everyone away next week. I don't like Casey's chance of winning with the "soul" of her beloved pan-asian cuisine (just like her grandmother used to make!) when compared to Hung's inarguable pho cred.

As always, Dale will be around to provide amusing play-by-play for the folks at home.

"Soul" just means "comforting flavors", as Bourdain pointed out in his blog entry.

so it really is racist

Someone should have informed Colicchio that there are no elk in Texas. Or, really, any native large game. Even our deer are basically overgrown German Shepherds.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/elk/

The only native Elk in Texas were in the southern part of the Guadalupe Mountains and belonged to the species Cervus merriami, which has been extinct since the early 1900s.

Now, five small herds of wild Elk live in Texas, in the Guadalupe Mountains, Glass Mountains, Wylie Mountains, Davis Mountains, and Eagle Mountains. Many others are kept on ranches all over the state.

I like Casey's chance of winning based on the stated desire to have a female Top Chef this season. Hung's the Omarosa of the season, not good odds for him. Flighty charismatic gay dude in third place seems like a casting choice winner, glad to see they kept that.

Wanted to make some sort of pho/faux cred joke, but.. meh.

don't you mean feh?

Hung's the Omarosa of the season

low blow! he ain't that bad

He's as close as they come, and every reality competition needs a villain ("bitchy" often suffices, as no one really reaches Omarosa levels). Top Chef had that red-headed chick, Marcel, and now Hung. All runners-up.

i don't really think of Hung as that bad of a guy. he's cocky maybe but besides that the other contestants got along with him pretty well. as for the people you mentioned above there were plenty of people that straight up hated them

if this season had a villain it was Howie

Ah good point, though it only came out on group challenges (when it might have been a cover for his limited abilities). He didn't have the arrogance that makes a true reality TV villain you love to hate.

Haha, what a cool twist having celeb chefs act as sous chefs.

Wow, it seems like Casey totally bombed.

I thought Dale was going to win.

I did to, but Tom really hated his lobster. I mean, when you look at the whole season, Hung never really did a bad dish, just some boring and safe ones, whereas Dale really had some doozies. Once Hung said "I'm doing a classic chocolate cake to show how versatile I am" I was like "HAVEN'T YOU LEARNED ANYTHING!?!?!?"

I thought it might have been Dale for a moment, but Hung was so much more consistent over the whole series. Dale had fits of brilliance but had a bunch of weird fuckups along the way.

The "live" segment (in quotes cause I'm on Pacific time) was funny because Casey didn't seem stressed at all - she knew she wasn't going to win and didn't have to worry about a thing.

Hung is so calculated. I guess that makes him unlikeable to some people but I just love it. Glad he won, even though Dale and Casey would have been fine choices.

The celebrity sous chef idea was very very cool.

http://www.tvgasm.com/shows/images/topchef/season3/hungexcited.jpg

don't have musch to add, it was a solid finale

oh how about when Hung said to Rocco, "I was reading on Anthony Bourdain's blog .... "

that was a little too meta for me.

but where did AB say anything about how Hung and Rocco should have a face off? Does Rocco have impressive knife skills?

RC: I have to agree. Women’s food is, for the most part, more accessible, it’s easier to understand, it’s friendlier, it’s more comforting, and it doesn’t get bogged down in all these nutty freaking trends.
SJ: I find there’s a lot of technique in male food.

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/39595/?ftr-promo

Holiday Special

i'll watch this

it wuz good

i want to make the salted butternut pudding recipe

you saw it already?

i came home to find it tivoed last night?

Deluxe TimeMachineTivo
i want one

tre wuz robbed again.

oh sry didnt mean to spoil it for you.

Item! Top Chef finalist Dale is dating Jack from Project Runway 4.

eew

i don't like jack's face.