Top Chef 8/15

[Blarg]

Yeah. They're just very different tasks. Almost opposites in some ways. Chefs are notoriously foul-mouthed, high-strung, druggies, "artistes," etc. Sounds like exactly the wrong traits for a frontman.

[BTirish]

Tre, Hung, C.J., and Casey seem to be the likely top 4 to me, but the comment from the preview for next week has me wondering. It would really suck if either Tre or Hung were eliminated now.

[dankhank]

i don't think hung is nearly mature enough to win top chef. his chances went to near zero percent when he nearly broke down crying trying to explain his difficulties with joey during the frozen pasta challenge. leadership qualities clearly become more important than technical cooking chops in the finals, for these judges. just look at last season.

howie and sara are both due to be eliminated any episode now.

i can't figure out how good a chef brian is yet. he takes risks and (iirc) has had some standout dishes. he might really shine in the late challenges when the chefs can do their own thing and use awesome ingredients.

tre and casey seem all around solid and are probably co-favorites right now. dale and cj both seem more talented than either of them but are more prone to screwups or personality flaws (cj). i find it very hard to predict the winner of this season.

[BTirish]

Well, it seems like there are enough people that at least like Hung that he won't be stuck with the scenario where the more talented chef has two assistants who hate his guts. Hung has done well whenever he has worked on his own, and poorly when he has been in an ambiguous or subordinate role; I haven't seen anything that demonstrates for sure that he won't be able to perform when he's clearly the one in charge.

You might be right about Brian. And yeah, I have no clue how this thing is going to finish up.

[Mcbrag]

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Well, it seems like there are enough people that at least like Hung that he won't be stuck with the scenario where the more talented chef has two assistants who hate his guts.

[/ QUOTE ]


Yeah, that was terrible last year. I almost thought they were going to purposely sabotage Marcel. They had to have left a ton of stuff on the editing room floor last year for the entire cast to just blow up on Marcel over and over again to what appeared on camera to be trivial matters. It seems to me like they tried to start the season by making Hung the new Marcel, but I don't think Hung is nearly as abrasive around others. Hung is just as confident in his cooking abilities as Marcel, but he works better with others. It's a mistake to think Hung can't work with others because of how bad he and Joey did. Anybody who had been paired with Joey would have been in trouble. Just like anyone on Howie's team is in trouble. Bull-headedness plus the inability to listen to others is a recipe for disaster. Plus he seems to be pretty slow as well.

[Mcbrag]

Also, I hated that they didn't eliminate anyone this week. If there is a week that nobody should be eliminated it is week 1. Or if they are going to postpone the elimination they should eliminate 2 next week.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well, it seems like there are enough people that at least like Hung that he won't be stuck with the scenario where the more talented chef has two assistants who hate his guts.

[/ QUOTE ]


Yeah, that was terrible last year. I almost thought they were going to purposely sabotage Marcel. They had to have left a ton of stuff on the editing room floor last year for the entire cast to just blow up on Marcel over and over again to what appeared on camera to be trivial matters. It seems to me like they tried to start the season by making Hung the new Marcel, but I don't think Hung is nearly as abrasive around others. Hung is just as confident in his cooking abilities as Marcel, but he works better with others. It's a mistake to think Hung can't work with others because of how bad he and Joey did. Anybody who had been paired with Joey would have been in trouble. Just like anyone on Howie's team is in trouble. Bull-headedness plus the inability to listen to others is a recipe for disaster. Plus he seems to be pretty slow as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wondered what got left on the editing room floor with Marcel too. He seemed very badly treated by his competition, and I was thinking in the end it was pretty much a given that his helpers would sabotage him.

[ElSapo]

I will say that the competition seems more open, the chefs more mature and overall more talented. I think there are a couple of people remaining who I can't envision winning, but after that it's pretty wide open.

Second season, it was always going to be one of three people. First season, in retrospect (always easy to say), it could only have ended one way.

But this seems wide open, and it just seems like the producers responded to complaints that Season 2 was more about drama than food. I'm still not a fan of some of the challenges and so on, but the people competing seem mature and professional, with far less infighting and drama.

I actually think Howie is a good example of this -- I'm not really a fan of his but I do respect the attitute he takes with the judges. He defends, respectfully, the food that he puts out. He's certainly not a people person, but he does seem to stick to his guns and mean what he says.

Season 1 will always be hard to top however, because it was such a great mix of quality cooking and drama.

[Dids]

slamdunk,

I was very confused for a minute when I saw your postings on egullet. Did you actually pay to post there?

Sapo,

I think Howie tends to tank himself with his headstrong defense. I mean, yay for standing behind your work, but when often times what you're doing is saying "yes, I made [censored] food INTENTIONALLY" that's not a good thing.

(I hate Howie, but I bet I would love his cooking)

[bernie]

What a bitch. Way, way too much airtime on Brian's sweating. It was good to see her get lambasted in the comments.

Not to mention, who the hell cares what she has to say anyways. So she writes for NY magazine(or whatever it is). If I was that magazine I'm not sure I'd be really proud having her on the staff after reading her blog.

b