Top Chef Finale 1/31

[Dids]

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Betty, btw, is still horrible and useless in the kitchen.


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yea, which is why ilan chose her as a sous-chef with $100,000 on the line. please stop pretending that you know what you're talking about.

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Did you not see the parts where she was [censored] up and Ilan had to yell at her (like Marcel did, but somehow she didn't cry) to put her in check?

Sorry I dissed your mom though duder.

[Narcileptico]

yea, cause ilan didn't have 2 months of working around her to base his decision off of or anything....

listen, just because you're a fat tub of lard doesn't mean that you know everything about being a chef.

[Patton4]

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yea, cause ilan didn't have 2 months of working around her to base his decision off of or anything....

listen, just because you're a fat tub of lard doesn't mean that you know everything about being a chef.

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Dude... is Ilan now a member of 2+2?

[El Diablo]

All,

I think the salad course as one of five in this competition was not just worthy of hurting his score, but a just plain bizarre decision. I mean, he could easily have kept a salad course that utilized his gimmick but maybe make it a small bed of salad w/ something tasty alongside or on top. I dunno, was weird. I find it hard to argue with the decision based on the judging criteria set forth. However, I think it would be better if next year they created a finale where someone like Ilan couldn't lean so heavily on existing experience.

[disjunction]

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Meh.

I watched this after a pretty [censored] night (trip report will follow) but I thought this was lame.

Ilan did the same stuff he always does, which is stuff he didn't make up. Marcel kinda [censored] himself/got [censored]. I haven't read the blogs yet, so that should be interesting.

I think the person who came out the worst was still Elia, she just looks more and more like an idiot and a brat every time she's on TV.

Betty, btw, is still horrible and useless in the kitchen.

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I think it's clear what Elia is. She's The Talent, like Jimmy on "That Thing You Do". Almost with traces of Aspberger's but not quite. She's just very intense about what she does and doesn't understand people or other perspectives. Usually people like this are dudes. It doesn't make her a bad person though. I like people like that (when they're not driving me nuts), because they have an endearing quality that if they think something is right, they do it.

I think the Betty "screwup" was very very minor. It was just presentation, they would have found a way to do it. He raised his voice because he needed immediate reaction.

Watching this show I have no idea what makes a good chef. I have no idea what constitutes novel and not. I read the blogs. Do ingredients change everything? It seems like we're saying Ilan cooked the same old stuff, with different ingredients. Is that enough? When you're cooking the "best meal of your life" for bigshots, I don't see a problem with working 75-80% with stuff you know, and making minor tweaks. Taking risks has it's downside, as Marcel showed.

Obviously Sam could have done the best of both worlds.

[cbloom]

It's very disappointing that Ilan can get away with just recycling his Spanish standards throughout the whole season and wind up winning. Of course he can execute things he's done hundreds of times. Also, Elia and Ilan just seemed like total weenies once again.

I don't get Marcel picking Mikey. It's not like he's such a great talent you need to "steal" him from Ilan, he's messed up in the line before, and he doesn't really like Marcel and he's totally irresponsible. Seems like Frank would've been a better choice, even though Mia/Betty/Frank all pretty much suck even at basic prep.

[cbloom]

Oh, also pretty lame of Sam & Mikey to not support him more in front of the judges. Who cares if you like the guy, it's your team, support your damn team. Also seems like the salad dish could have lost it for him. Very uninteresting, when the balls failed he should've improvised something to spice it up.

[Dids]

I think he picked Mikey because Mikey is a line cook who's used to following directions and in theory would just shut up and work.

Frank's speach about how he wanted to "learn" Marcel something would make him in instant dq in my mind.

Mia might have been a better choice, but I don't think Mike's a bad one.

I hope for season three they move away from this bit. Too much potential for retarded stuff.

[Aloysius]

I don't like Ilan either... but if I had to choose between Marcel and Ilan's meals for the eating... Ilan's not close. Then again, I'm not familiar enough with Spanish cuisine / influences to know how much he recycled the tradition. But some of Ilan's dishes looked outstanding to me (especially the "Surf & Turf"). Perhaps if this were a "think out of the box be creative" chef competition Marcel destroys Ilan, but Ilan has consistently produced food I'd prefer to eat and looks much tastier.

The whole finale was a bit of a letdown, especially with the spectre of Sam hanging over the whole thing and his actual presence as a constant reminder. Would've been great to see him in the finale.

-Al

[cbloom]

Ilan's dishes definitely looked tasty. In the blog they mention a lot how Ilan's stuff was cooked just right. In the video clips on the show it looks like Elia's doing most of the cooking, which would make it no surprise that everything was cooked right since Elia's technique was the best of anyone on the show.