NoClu

WOW, I 'm into this show...

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef

Brothers, Hotheads, great cooks, Vegas....

I'm happy.

Discuss.

wharvey

An interesting twist... having brothers on the same show.... that should get fireworks going at some point...

I had a tough time making the connection between some of the vices and the actual dishes....

Lufthomie

The Vices challenge was rather weak, the chef from Haiti had no clue was the challenge was about.

What about the quickfire at the start, the one chef Preeti couldn't open a clam and killed her teams chances from the start. On that team, why wouldnt somebody step up and shuck the clams?

I like Top Chef, lets see how the season unfolds.

colpuck

That quickfire was brilliant. I doubt the people on preeti's team will last, if they can't work on a team.

As far as the challenge goes it was a great start, not too complex and not too simple. Most of the early challenges last season were soooo bad and made me wonder about the shows staying power. As long as the producers don't take the vegas too far it should be good.

Wolfgang Puck was also brilliant, one of the best guest judges.

NoClu

I really enjoyed the show. I'm fairly amused that someone who would try out for the show (be accepted for the show) wouldn't have at least some idea of how to open a clam. Also, no-one on the team could accurately describe how to do so? Ugh.

I thought the challenge was good, but they should have made more of sticking to the "vice" and the connection to the food.

Lots of Burbon drinkers there...I'd fit in. Surprised no one created Magic Mushrooms...

Lufthomie

This show tries to introduce certain challenges for the contestants.
One episode they cooked for the Chicago Police Academy.
Another they got children involved.

I would like to see TC involve a school for the blind or to be PC visually impaired.
I had a friend who has passed but and was blind since his teens.

We talked about his condition and how he had to rely on his other senses to help him compensate for his lack of vision. I remember one year when he and I were directors at a youth summer camp. Early one day a forest ranger had come to our camp and told the staff of a mountain lion that had been spotted near our vicinity.

That evening 3 of us went for a walk in the woods, as my friend was holding on to me, he mentioned that my heart rate was up by feeling my wrist. It was true. I was freaked out about the mt lion walking around in the dark but he knew.

I would love TC to make an episode involving the blind to see how they could involve them and get they're take on what they were tasting.

ILuvParis

How about having the brains in the two minute meeting to say, "I've never opened a clam before." It's not like she drew a knife and had to do it.

Speaking of racks, Padma seemed to be serving up a healthy portion.

Mike Isabella appears to be an arrogant jerk, though it looks as though he may get knocked down a peg next week.

jakuda

As always editing plays a huge role how the contestants are perceived. Mike Isabella is sure shaping up to be one of the "villains" of this season.

I'm amazed at the talent and work experience of the contestants this season. Right now I'm rooting for my hometown contestant Mattin and Jennifer C (having been the sous chef at Ripert's Le Bernadin means she's got serious chops). Michael Voltaggio also seems interesting. His sous chef in LA is/was Marcel from season 2.

I'm also looking forward to the episode they teased at the end where the challenge seems to take place at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Robuchon himself is there along with Boulud and Keller.

beekeeper05

I have to agree that Mike Isabella is a clown, an arrogant clown. Really Mike? Really? Are you really going to go there about the 'no offense but a woman should not win' or something like that in the quickfire.

I do not like his tone and his arrogance..... at all.

milepig

Bizarre episode last night. All the whining about how it wasn't right to make them cook for a bridal couple because "everyone can't get married". I would think that anyone in the food industry is going to be cooking for all kinds of married and to-be-married couples in their career, since a large percentage of the population falls into that category. Grow up.

But, I'm glad Eve is gone, she seemed like a hack. Now if we could get rid of the one with the really annoying lip piercing...... Which reminds me. Are chefs, as a group, more prone to body art than the general population, or is this just the profile Top Chef is looking for.

PokerHammy

Ha! How right was Jenn C: "concentrate on 1 dish!" Too bad the whiny gay woman didn't listen to her. You'd think these chefs would've caught all the previous episodes and try to not repeat the past errors.

The women said it themselves, the men as a whole this season are stronger. The only female chef I'm rooting for is Jenn C - she already displayed her training in precision and clean cooking a la Le Bernadin. For the guys the V. brothers. I'll get a chance to dine at Volt in MD next month, but I think Bryan would still be away filming though.

This season's chefs are much luckier: they've already given away $15K in two episodes! What did they give the last few seasons...2 r/t tickets, some pots and pans - whoopeedoo.

I predicted within the first few minutes of the first episode, or hoped, that the first person to go would be the chef with the huge earrings WITHIN the ears - I could not look at her at all and I guess the judges probably felt the same and found an excuse to cut her off early.

tonypct

Agree. ^ ^ What is she going to do in her restaurant, provide each diner with a questionaire upon arrival so she knows every diner's political and religious beliefs, so that she doesn't have to serve those who she disagrees with?

BTW, I like Gail Simmons as a judge. She seems to be fair and consistent with her feedback.

ILuvParis

More of the same last night, though didn't I hear him say something like some people get over him very quickly?

Seems like it on these reality shows, anyway. I have a friend who is short, stocky, dark and well inked. He is a pasty chef. He came to visit us in Hawaii. We went to Waimea Canyon and he took off his shirt, climbed up on a rock and posed like a Maori warrior. He told us he is auditioning for a reality show in LA this month.

jcwoman

I agree. Eve had a really annoying "accent" so I was glad to see her go. On the other hand, her vacant bovine stare at the judge's table always made me giggle. And I try not to judge people on their body art but some piercings are just gross. I can't figure out why yet, but those lip piercings that chick has are really ugly (by contrast I've seen some people with nasal piercings that actually are pretty - something about the positioning?)

TMOliver

I don't know that I've ever enjoyed an episode of the show any more than the last one...budding stars (mostly in their own eyes) called upon to cook for a sample of the sort of folks who actually pay for dinner themselves.

I'm not sure what the challenge proved, although the viewer emerges with the impression that men cook better for women, than do women for men - commercially, at least. The men's team did seem to adapt to regimentation and coordination a little better, although perhaps the viewer impression that sexual orientation was less an issue among the men had to do with editing.

The comments by the announced lesbian were offensive and as blatantly sexist as those of a chauvinist wife-beating male. Not only would she be likely to go broke running a restaurant, she would grow broke gracelessly.

Tattoos are fine, as long as not overly visible in a chef's jacket, but lip piercings or black nail polish - or almost any nail polish - tend to diminish one's visible credibility as a chef.

Did any of the judges comment on the brisket? A great dish of low repute among those for whom food is cuisine, not lunch or dinner, the one fleeting image was pretty unattractive, revealing a lack of careful trimming prior to cooking or before serving. I regularly eat in roadside joints which serve barbecued brisket on butcher paper with naught but onions, pickles, light bread and a bowl drippings sauce - no utensils - yet trim brisket artfully as a matter of course.

I expect we'll have some anger, bitterness and a loud confrontation or two in the weeks ahead. I'd wish that the two brothers would stick around for a while. Competing with each other, they've formulated a set of "rules" for the game. For them, playing harder replaces spite and anger (at least at this point). I suspect that a number of the other contestants have far less ability to comprehend that they are competing for the camera and the judges, not for their own self-gratification.