Top Chef Finale 1/31

[disjunction]

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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

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Aloysius,

What did you think of Chef Tom's explanation in this weeks blog for not picking Sam? He said that the final rounds are the equivalent of playoffs, and the score starts 0-0. Or something like that.

cbloom, Marcel picked Mikey because Sam told him to, and Sam has a way of speaking which makes you very confident in what he is saying (kind of why he should have won). His slam on Marcel was probably retaliation for Marcel not giving him credit in front of the judges 8 weeks ago when Sam led the winning team. So you reap what you sow, I don't quite blame him for that. However, there is no way he ever should have volunteered for Marcel if he did not plan on having his back.

[cbloom]

Yeah, I definitely agree Sam lost the semi-final fair and square, I don't understand why there's controversy over that. Yeah, he deserved it based on overall performance, but he lost the semi-final so he's out. And it wasn't just the "nothing was cooked", his dishes just weren't anything amazing in the semi-final.

[BWebb]

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Yeah, I definitely agree Sam lost the semi-final fair and square, I don't understand why there's controversy over that. Yeah, he deserved it based on overall performance, but he lost the semi-final so he's out. And it wasn't just the "nothing was cooked", his dishes just weren't anything amazing in the semi-final.

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I just watched this episode last night. What I don't is if the decision was so close and so tough for the judges, as it was made out to be, why couldn't they go on past experiences? Sam was clearly the most well-rounded of all the chefs there and preformed the most consistently. I don't see why they can't weigh that in their decision when it is close.

[bernie]

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The judges blogs explain it pretty well. I thought Marcel too. The blogs really help show the whole story.

b

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Link?

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Here ya go

b

[jalapenoguy]

anyone who hasn't read the blogs, the shows staff relized that marcels group hadn't packed up the fish, gave each team an extra 5 minutes that morning and they still missed it. Amazing with so much on the line Marcel wouldn't be double checking stuff.

[Ron Burgundy]

I think the salad course sealed Marcel's fate much more than forgetting the fish. As Tom said in his blog, this is supposed to be the best meal you've ever made, and you made a boring salad? Then the isomalt gimmick was just totally wrong, even if had been able to do it. The goal of getting vinagrette onto a salad is to get it evenly distibuted. If all the vinagrette is hovering above the greens in a synthetic sugar bubble, what happens after you break it open? It's just going to make a puddle in the middle.

Marcel is so eager to use innovative techniques and do really impressive things, but he does them without thinking about how those techniques are going to create good food.

[Hoya]

Here are Anthony Bourdain's comments on the show, which were both funny and insightful:

http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/01/guest_blogging_.html

[StevieG]

If I had a choice tomorrow between going to Ilan's to eat, or Marcel's, I would pick Marcel, just to see what he was doing.

Since they looked very even in the finale, I would use that test.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
Here are Anthony Bourdain's comments on the show, which were both funny and insightful:

http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/01/guest_blogging_.html

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By far, the best guest judge I saw. He wasn't insulting to anyone and didn't come across as pompous at all.

b

[ScottieK]

[ QUOTE ]
Here are Anthony Bourdain's comments on the show, which were both funny and insightful:

http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/01/guest_blogging_.html

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Nice, entertaining read. When he puts Marcel in the same mold as a Stephen-like educator and not really a chef, then maybe Ilan deserved to win. Like Tom said in the post-show show after Sam got eliminated, hey, the objectively best team in baseball doesn't always win the World Series.

ScottieK