Top Chef Episode 3 Fillin and Grillin
I'm a huge top chef fan, and I normally cover the top chefs episodes, I had to steal cable for a few days just to watch the second episode(shhhh, don't tell anyone) until the cable company was able to hook up our cable and even this 3rd episode was hard to watch based on time and pressures, and not having anything unpacked.
But I managed to do it. I'd like to say that the top 4 from last year were very steady,
This season it is a little tougher to tell. We have Angelo as a front runner, who may or may not have thrown the elmination challenge on the second episode. Was he laissez-faire after winning elimination or was he delibaretely trying to to sabotage,
I'm not sure, editing left a lot to be desired. and his camaraderie with Tracey made me like him more. I think he could be the Stephan of the season. He is putting out consistent dish after dish. but he really has to prove to me he's more than just a food cock tease, and he is doing that, little by little.
Why shouldn't Kenny be hot on his heals? I'd like to say camaraderie, yet Angelo just doesn't seem to like Kenny. He's scared, its the only thing I could think of. Angelo is turning out great dishes, and so is Kenny, and regardless of who is better, Angelo is actiing more scared and I'm not sure why. With all of Angelo's confidence you would think he would pay no mind.
That said Kenny delivered this weeks winning Quick Fire and having good results on his pork tenderloin. He sticks in my number two spot. My number three is still Kelly. That may surprise you, It's just that she is very consistent, and she knows how to get the work done without whining and complaining, without getting frazzled or stressed, and that is going to come in handy later on in the competition as more and more people go.
Kelly has been in this kind of atmosphere before, She's been on Iron Chef America, though not winning she did an amazing job. What is annoying is that Arnold just can't seem to let it go. He's constantly complaining about her, and I don't see much reason why he is, in the Lunch food challenge she claimed she made her dish, and maybe she did go a little overboard claiming it, or that is how the editing made it look, but she knows in competitions such as this, it's important to work with the team and stand out for your own dish. They ended up winning the challenge and still Arnold persistently complains about her the whole episode later. So it is interesting to me that we have 2 A versus K groups. - Angelo versus Kenny and Arnold versus Kelly and it's also interesting to me that they are both ending up in the top 4 this week.
Arnold won the Elimination Challenge this week. Maybe now he's shut up and quit complaining. He even complained about not being a grill cook and not knowing how to use charcoal, lucky for him he was able to pick it up and turn out a great dish. To his credit he's been doing well, he was in Kelly's team for the win, and the quick fire sandwich he made with Kelly, which looked more to be his idea as called out in the top. The first episode he bought a Orchid and Whole foods and I was wondering what he did with it, maybe a garnish, we never really got to see his dish, because there were so many people that some of the good dishes didn't get shown, just talked about. Some are putting him 3rd over Kelly because Kelly had a bland bison burger for the challenge but she still managed to stay out of the bottom and if Arnold's wining is any indication of how he handles stress, there is a lot of potential for a slip up especially in next weeks episode where 2 people go home.
And here is where the line blurs for me. who should go 5th. Alex because he won the first elimination challenge. Amanda for her awesome ribs and bouncing back into the top, or Ed for finally pulling a top spot in the EC? There really isn't much separating the middle of the pack.
So I just stuck with Alex, he was on the bottom of the quick fire this week, but he wasn't on the bottom of the elimination challenge and to his credit is the only other one left who has won an EC. My worry is that he peaked early with his borsht win and won't ever get back to that quality and originality that won him the first EC. But unlike others who are running hot and cold he seems to be just lukewarming it along.
and speaking of running hot and cold my choice for 6th is the epitome of it. Ed, he over complicates things, recent example is his pie, your grandma wouldn't have put celery spuma on it. come on, sometimes simple is better. He did get a top mention for the elimination challenge and in the episode before that narrowly missed a quick fire win. He's just so hot and cold. I'm nervous for him going into a double elimination challenge.
He's also a complainer and comes off at least in his confessionals as a not so happy kind of guy. He's a little bit of a stick in the mud. Maybe he's just using his confessionals to rant, or blow off steam, but the editing this episode made him sound like Eeyore. Also does anyone else think this cast is way too serious and way to paranoid. I thought that when Andrea asked Tracey what pie she was making, Poor Tracey had no idea yet, so she say "I don't know?" and Andrea took it as if she was secretly not telling her when in fact Tracey had no clue. This is why rankings seem hard to me this year, paranoia, running hot and cold, complaining all the time, these are things that can contribute to an early exit, despite your cooking skills, background and experience. This is also the reason I think their is going to be an upset this Wednesday, with the double elimination,
I honestly don't believe Kevin deserves to be 7th but because he was on the bottom of the EC I just couldn't rationalize any higher. He has been doing well thus far. I want to talk about what went wrong with his food this episode. Gail hit it spot on when she said "Are your friends and family chefs?" "Well you are, so you need to escalate the food and bring it to a new level'. An example of that would be Alex's Borscht. Also I think people get confused when it comes to Latin cuisine. I live in central Florida, where a lot of Puerto Rican call home. A friend of mines mother is Puerto Rican we enjoy her home cooking, but Puerto Rican food isn't as spicy as Mexican or Cuban. They really are meat and potatoes kind of people, switch out the potatoes with rice and beans. Puerto Rican rice and beans is not spicy, its not bland but its not spicy, Pinto beans, rice, olives, capers, tomato sauce. They grill their meat simply, they don't over complicate their dishes. I think the judges have rarely if ever had home style Puerto Rican food, I'm willing to bet that most have had Puerto Rican cuisine from restaurants , so their ideas and experiences of the food is different. This is where Kevin failed to pull out the chef in him and remember that his experiences and theirs aren't matching up, and he must take the home style meal and turn it into something more original.
Lynn is my dark horse call. She's been laying in the middle, getting some praise, here and there. She's a culinary teacher and she's out to prove that the old addage of "Those that can - do. Those that can not - teach" She's quiet and focused. She hasn't made much noise but I think she'll stick around long enough for us to get to know her more. It's wonderful to have someone who isn't a drama queen, or whining, making excuses, or being difficult. Keep on trucking Lynn. Maybe she'll end up pulling a Robin without the excessive talking and drama. It's still too soon to tell but if there is a dark horse in this competition I'm betting it will be her.
Now lets head on over to the drama that is Amanda coming in at 9th. Most believed she should have gone home for serving boring bland Sherry Chicken to the kids. I didn't think it was the sherry itself, the alcohol does cook out, but the idea of it just didn't go with the challenge, nor did the price of the dish. She stayed based on Jacqueline sugar content in her pudding and was able to coming screaming up the chain with her ribs and asparagus which stole Waxman's heart. I wonder if it was only Waxman judging if she would have won. He seemed more excited about her dish, but then there is editing to consider. I brought Amanda up from the bottom to 9th because she deserved it. However she still has a lot to prove. We got some back store on her, She was involved in pills, went to rehab, etc. So I can see why she has built up this tough exterior. I think she feels like she does have a lot to prove, not only to everyone but to herself. Her prison rules comment got me laughing even though she is still the bitch of the season I felt like I got to know her a little bit better.
Andrea I put number 10. I had her higher but she's another silent one and she exhibited some paranoia this last episode. She has yet to be called out on top or bottom, although they have said some nice things about her. Is she going to continue to just be in the middle until hope there is always someone worse than her? I want to put her higher but the fact that she is so in the middle means to me she isn't pushing it hard enough. Sometimes a failure is good because you are pushing yourself, and she seems fine just to exisit. She's got to start really competing and getting in there, or the judges might be saying "Who's Andrea?".
So with that we move into the bottom tier. I found it hard to figure out who should get the top bottom spot so I gave it to Tiffany.
She rocked the dessert on last weeks school kids lunch challenge, but her sockeye salmon was bland for the elimination challenges. She didn't land in the bottom but I'm concern she doesn't have enough gusto for the competition. The only good press she received that I remember was the dessert for the lunches. Can she stand on her own or does she only work well in a team effort?
He's good, wait he's bad, wait no he's good again, wait no he's bad. Tim is teetering a lot and with a double elimination he could fail victim to his down slide. He's shown he is a good chef, but is he good with competitions. Some people just aren't good at them, whether they work slower, need time to think more. One person from last season was Brian V. He didn't always do well on the quick fires because he needed more time to think deeply and develop his ideas, where as his quick on his feet thinking brother would just run with it. Brian always did better on the EC's because it allowed him more time to process what he was doing. Both great chefs, just arriving with solutions differently. But Tim is finding himself at the bottom of the EC's. I think he took on too much one piece of perfectly cooked pork would have done the job.
Second to the last at number 13th I put Tamesha, she's also frying under the radar but not as well as Andrea or Lynn because I've only head negatives out of the judges mouths about her food, yet she manages to escape elimination. They said her food was overcooked. She seems to have problems with execution and this is why I put her here. Not much else to say about her other than she wanted to run away together with guest judge and pastry chef Johnny. So who do I think may get the boot, or atleast one of the boots. Stephen.
I had high hopes for this guy. On paper he should be able to hack these competitions but he's failing short every single time. The good news is that they liked his pie for the quick file, missing the win to Kenny by a fraction. The bad news is that the guy looks haggard already and we aren't even half way through the season. Is he not getting enough sleep? Is he downing pills and booze nightly? He's starting to look as bad as Linsday Lohan. Perhaps it is just stress and the competition getting to him. He should know how incredibly hard it is to get that much bacon to crips up on a grill without messing up the fish it is wrapped in. For not being a rookie he sure is making some rookie mistakes.
I am sad to see Tracey go, she delivered some much needed comedy to the cast. She maintained a positive attitude on this challenge even though she knew that her food wasn't up to par. She did know it, she didn't want anyone else. She's young and I think not exactly knowing what to do when something goes wrong. She tried to fix it. Had she had cased her sausage and done what she had originally planned I still think she would have gone home based on flavor. She fell victim to letting the challenge use her. She went back to a comfort favorite of hers that she could not escalate and transform into a dish worthy of the culinary judges. I think she gained a lot of experience and growth that she can take with her. I'm still going to miss her antics.
Quote of the week goes to Guest judge and pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini - "I think it’s kind of a cop-out to say you’re not a pastry chef. My grandmother’s not a pastry chef either, and she can make a pie.”
Any guesses on if this double elimination is going to cause an upset, could one of the middle tier, or even top their fall victim?
But I managed to do it. I'd like to say that the top 4 from last year were very steady,
This season it is a little tougher to tell. We have Angelo as a front runner, who may or may not have thrown the elmination challenge on the second episode. Was he laissez-faire after winning elimination or was he delibaretely trying to to sabotage,
I'm not sure, editing left a lot to be desired. and his camaraderie with Tracey made me like him more. I think he could be the Stephan of the season. He is putting out consistent dish after dish. but he really has to prove to me he's more than just a food cock tease, and he is doing that, little by little.
Why shouldn't Kenny be hot on his heals? I'd like to say camaraderie, yet Angelo just doesn't seem to like Kenny. He's scared, its the only thing I could think of. Angelo is turning out great dishes, and so is Kenny, and regardless of who is better, Angelo is actiing more scared and I'm not sure why. With all of Angelo's confidence you would think he would pay no mind.
That said Kenny delivered this weeks winning Quick Fire and having good results on his pork tenderloin. He sticks in my number two spot. My number three is still Kelly. That may surprise you, It's just that she is very consistent, and she knows how to get the work done without whining and complaining, without getting frazzled or stressed, and that is going to come in handy later on in the competition as more and more people go.
Kelly has been in this kind of atmosphere before, She's been on Iron Chef America, though not winning she did an amazing job. What is annoying is that Arnold just can't seem to let it go. He's constantly complaining about her, and I don't see much reason why he is, in the Lunch food challenge she claimed she made her dish, and maybe she did go a little overboard claiming it, or that is how the editing made it look, but she knows in competitions such as this, it's important to work with the team and stand out for your own dish. They ended up winning the challenge and still Arnold persistently complains about her the whole episode later. So it is interesting to me that we have 2 A versus K groups. - Angelo versus Kenny and Arnold versus Kelly and it's also interesting to me that they are both ending up in the top 4 this week.
Arnold won the Elimination Challenge this week. Maybe now he's shut up and quit complaining. He even complained about not being a grill cook and not knowing how to use charcoal, lucky for him he was able to pick it up and turn out a great dish. To his credit he's been doing well, he was in Kelly's team for the win, and the quick fire sandwich he made with Kelly, which looked more to be his idea as called out in the top. The first episode he bought a Orchid and Whole foods and I was wondering what he did with it, maybe a garnish, we never really got to see his dish, because there were so many people that some of the good dishes didn't get shown, just talked about. Some are putting him 3rd over Kelly because Kelly had a bland bison burger for the challenge but she still managed to stay out of the bottom and if Arnold's wining is any indication of how he handles stress, there is a lot of potential for a slip up especially in next weeks episode where 2 people go home.
And here is where the line blurs for me. who should go 5th. Alex because he won the first elimination challenge. Amanda for her awesome ribs and bouncing back into the top, or Ed for finally pulling a top spot in the EC? There really isn't much separating the middle of the pack.
So I just stuck with Alex, he was on the bottom of the quick fire this week, but he wasn't on the bottom of the elimination challenge and to his credit is the only other one left who has won an EC. My worry is that he peaked early with his borsht win and won't ever get back to that quality and originality that won him the first EC. But unlike others who are running hot and cold he seems to be just lukewarming it along.
and speaking of running hot and cold my choice for 6th is the epitome of it. Ed, he over complicates things, recent example is his pie, your grandma wouldn't have put celery spuma on it. come on, sometimes simple is better. He did get a top mention for the elimination challenge and in the episode before that narrowly missed a quick fire win. He's just so hot and cold. I'm nervous for him going into a double elimination challenge.
He's also a complainer and comes off at least in his confessionals as a not so happy kind of guy. He's a little bit of a stick in the mud. Maybe he's just using his confessionals to rant, or blow off steam, but the editing this episode made him sound like Eeyore. Also does anyone else think this cast is way too serious and way to paranoid. I thought that when Andrea asked Tracey what pie she was making, Poor Tracey had no idea yet, so she say "I don't know?" and Andrea took it as if she was secretly not telling her when in fact Tracey had no clue. This is why rankings seem hard to me this year, paranoia, running hot and cold, complaining all the time, these are things that can contribute to an early exit, despite your cooking skills, background and experience. This is also the reason I think their is going to be an upset this Wednesday, with the double elimination,
I honestly don't believe Kevin deserves to be 7th but because he was on the bottom of the EC I just couldn't rationalize any higher. He has been doing well thus far. I want to talk about what went wrong with his food this episode. Gail hit it spot on when she said "Are your friends and family chefs?" "Well you are, so you need to escalate the food and bring it to a new level'. An example of that would be Alex's Borscht. Also I think people get confused when it comes to Latin cuisine. I live in central Florida, where a lot of Puerto Rican call home. A friend of mines mother is Puerto Rican we enjoy her home cooking, but Puerto Rican food isn't as spicy as Mexican or Cuban. They really are meat and potatoes kind of people, switch out the potatoes with rice and beans. Puerto Rican rice and beans is not spicy, its not bland but its not spicy, Pinto beans, rice, olives, capers, tomato sauce. They grill their meat simply, they don't over complicate their dishes. I think the judges have rarely if ever had home style Puerto Rican food, I'm willing to bet that most have had Puerto Rican cuisine from restaurants , so their ideas and experiences of the food is different. This is where Kevin failed to pull out the chef in him and remember that his experiences and theirs aren't matching up, and he must take the home style meal and turn it into something more original.
Lynn is my dark horse call. She's been laying in the middle, getting some praise, here and there. She's a culinary teacher and she's out to prove that the old addage of "Those that can - do. Those that can not - teach" She's quiet and focused. She hasn't made much noise but I think she'll stick around long enough for us to get to know her more. It's wonderful to have someone who isn't a drama queen, or whining, making excuses, or being difficult. Keep on trucking Lynn. Maybe she'll end up pulling a Robin without the excessive talking and drama. It's still too soon to tell but if there is a dark horse in this competition I'm betting it will be her.
Now lets head on over to the drama that is Amanda coming in at 9th. Most believed she should have gone home for serving boring bland Sherry Chicken to the kids. I didn't think it was the sherry itself, the alcohol does cook out, but the idea of it just didn't go with the challenge, nor did the price of the dish. She stayed based on Jacqueline sugar content in her pudding and was able to coming screaming up the chain with her ribs and asparagus which stole Waxman's heart. I wonder if it was only Waxman judging if she would have won. He seemed more excited about her dish, but then there is editing to consider. I brought Amanda up from the bottom to 9th because she deserved it. However she still has a lot to prove. We got some back store on her, She was involved in pills, went to rehab, etc. So I can see why she has built up this tough exterior. I think she feels like she does have a lot to prove, not only to everyone but to herself. Her prison rules comment got me laughing even though she is still the bitch of the season I felt like I got to know her a little bit better.
Andrea I put number 10. I had her higher but she's another silent one and she exhibited some paranoia this last episode. She has yet to be called out on top or bottom, although they have said some nice things about her. Is she going to continue to just be in the middle until hope there is always someone worse than her? I want to put her higher but the fact that she is so in the middle means to me she isn't pushing it hard enough. Sometimes a failure is good because you are pushing yourself, and she seems fine just to exisit. She's got to start really competing and getting in there, or the judges might be saying "Who's Andrea?".
So with that we move into the bottom tier. I found it hard to figure out who should get the top bottom spot so I gave it to Tiffany.
She rocked the dessert on last weeks school kids lunch challenge, but her sockeye salmon was bland for the elimination challenges. She didn't land in the bottom but I'm concern she doesn't have enough gusto for the competition. The only good press she received that I remember was the dessert for the lunches. Can she stand on her own or does she only work well in a team effort?
He's good, wait he's bad, wait no he's good again, wait no he's bad. Tim is teetering a lot and with a double elimination he could fail victim to his down slide. He's shown he is a good chef, but is he good with competitions. Some people just aren't good at them, whether they work slower, need time to think more. One person from last season was Brian V. He didn't always do well on the quick fires because he needed more time to think deeply and develop his ideas, where as his quick on his feet thinking brother would just run with it. Brian always did better on the EC's because it allowed him more time to process what he was doing. Both great chefs, just arriving with solutions differently. But Tim is finding himself at the bottom of the EC's. I think he took on too much one piece of perfectly cooked pork would have done the job.
Second to the last at number 13th I put Tamesha, she's also frying under the radar but not as well as Andrea or Lynn because I've only head negatives out of the judges mouths about her food, yet she manages to escape elimination. They said her food was overcooked. She seems to have problems with execution and this is why I put her here. Not much else to say about her other than she wanted to run away together with guest judge and pastry chef Johnny. So who do I think may get the boot, or atleast one of the boots. Stephen.
I had high hopes for this guy. On paper he should be able to hack these competitions but he's failing short every single time. The good news is that they liked his pie for the quick file, missing the win to Kenny by a fraction. The bad news is that the guy looks haggard already and we aren't even half way through the season. Is he not getting enough sleep? Is he downing pills and booze nightly? He's starting to look as bad as Linsday Lohan. Perhaps it is just stress and the competition getting to him. He should know how incredibly hard it is to get that much bacon to crips up on a grill without messing up the fish it is wrapped in. For not being a rookie he sure is making some rookie mistakes.
I am sad to see Tracey go, she delivered some much needed comedy to the cast. She maintained a positive attitude on this challenge even though she knew that her food wasn't up to par. She did know it, she didn't want anyone else. She's young and I think not exactly knowing what to do when something goes wrong. She tried to fix it. Had she had cased her sausage and done what she had originally planned I still think she would have gone home based on flavor. She fell victim to letting the challenge use her. She went back to a comfort favorite of hers that she could not escalate and transform into a dish worthy of the culinary judges. I think she gained a lot of experience and growth that she can take with her. I'm still going to miss her antics.
Quote of the week goes to Guest judge and pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini - "I think it’s kind of a cop-out to say you’re not a pastry chef. My grandmother’s not a pastry chef either, and she can make a pie.”
Any guesses on if this double elimination is going to cause an upset, could one of the middle tier, or even top their fall victim?