Each week is judged as if it were the only week. Tre got the boot because he deserved it for this particular week. He might be mature and talented but he can't make a bread pudding, that's for sure. He failed on two of his dishes, he couldn't motivate Casey (aka the mad chopper), he couldn't keep a handle on CJ. He actually couldn't manage CJ in the first Restowar. I don't know why he thought that letting CJ be a crap line cook would work in the second. It's like they forgot that there's $100k and a lot of cool prizes on the line. If the dream team had actually stepped up and beat the bad news bears instead of resting on their laurels, Howie would have probably gone home. Tre even said in one of the cutouts that he was going to coast through the process since they did well the first time. That's not how you win a competition.

When is the next new ep? Nothing last Wed. Is it back this Wed? Sure hope so.

yep, new episode Wednesday 10pm EDT.

Great, thanks. Anyone catch the marathon on around 9PM last night? Was able to catch a bunch of the most recent episodes.

Just found this thread and love the show.

The cancer survive and Hung are my two favorites to win.

Tonight looks like a good episode - always love it when they drag the cooks somewhere awkward...i think tonight's episode is shot on a boat.

should be cool to see Tony Bourbain back on the panel - always think he's great.

Was anyone else highly amused by Hung's smurf-village quick-fire along with his comments that the judges were just too "closed-minded" to appreciate it?

-FlyerBeek

I thought Hung's creation was pretty funny. It seemed that only Brian took the quickfire seriously last night - $10 for a "great dish" was such a curveball, loved it. reminded me of the "snack machine" challenge last year.

Hung's comment certainly wasn't surprising. He always makes a comment like that when the chef doesn't like his dish. According to Hung, he is never the problem.

I thought the quickfire last night was very entertaining. Not only was the challange weird, but everyone was acting really strange too. Like they were on something.

The guest judge was sure a jerk. I thought that when he called Howie's dish "crap", we would finally get to see Howie explode and take three people with him.

Finally caught the last episode this weekend. I agree, the guest judge was a jerk - but the regulars weren't in their finest form either. I found I liked Tony Bourdain's blog on the show better than the show itself!

Thanks! Didn't even know about it - just found it.

Great stuff, isn't it? For those who haven't seen it here's a link:
http://www.bravotv.com/blog/anthonybourdain/

In case there was any doubt that this thread is FT-related - Continental will be featured on this week's episode of Top Chef.

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=734921

Can a chef win without cooking?
 

If you read the BravoTV boards and Tony Bourdain's blog, you'll notice like I did late in the season that Malarkey's been getting by without much cooking.

Raw bar.
Ahi poke.
And some ceviche dish earlier on?

Hope he goes next. Colicchio got it right when he said that Malarkey's excitement over ahi tartare is misguided. How many times has that been on a menu and people and/or chefs call it cutting edge cuisine?

I don't think I like any of the remaining contestants. Hung is still a Napoleonic Tasmanian devil. Dale needs to stop with the bandana and mohawk. CJ, eh... as is Casey. At least she got a sweet computer out of her win.

CJ is the man!

I liked him, too. I was sorry to see him go.
I don't know why, I just don't like Casey.

She's a bit of a priss, if you ask me.

This being FT, I'm surprised nobody has commented yet about how many times the front cabin of the CO 777 was referred to as "First Class".

That's far less egregious than most of the errors of judgment in this season's Top Chef.

-FlyerBeek

Although CJ is middle of the road for me, I'll take him over Sara (Jamaican) any day. Too bad he left last night, he had lots of potential.

Was Casey the ultimate winner over Hung? They (the male judges) seemed to gush over her dish while Hung did actually take more of a chance with his fish dish. I don't know what to make of the producers attempts at showing Hung as the ultimate, selfish contestant (cleaned his area then did not help CJ). Is he really that cutthroat, is he just fending for himself since this is just a game, or is it crafty editing?

Not sure how much I like Casey, she seems so, so, uptight?

Of the remaining chefs, I hope Sara is canned next. Or Malarkey. Casey seems to be shining these past few episodes, perhaps she's coming into her game? If Dale won, I wouldn't be too mad, he's more likable than others.

Nice to see a Top Chef thread here. I am new here but a seasoned fan of Top Chef 3.

So far I also found this group to be more professional compared to Season 2

I was rooting for Tre but now that hes gone, I am thinking Dale or Sara (as Dale said they remind me of the Bad news bears) I have a soft spot for the underdogs, but nowadays Sara has been doing better so she's not such an underdog anymore.


I love this show! :)

Casey has been surprising to me - she seems to be the front runner now.

Am I the only one who gets thoroughly annoyed when the chefs refer to "marscapon" instead of mascarpone?

anyone else hoping that Sara goes home tonight?

I am still shocked CJ went home. I thought Brian should of been the one packing up his knives. I guess I really liked CJ. He was a good guy...

No. Every week, I watch hoping that Hung will get the boot. Every week, I end up disappointed.

I think Hung started out full of bravado, and after a couple weeks of low scores in both the quickfire and the challenge he's come back down to earth.

see ya sara!

She had to go. Completely worthless. I can cook better.

I was impressed with Hung. Sous-vide is quite hard and very easy to screw up (and kill with, given botulism problems (not so much with chicken, but pork)).

Yea! Dale made it to the final four! I was nervous there for a sec.....

Did anyone catch in the episode before this, when Padma woke them up and had the chefs make them breakfast? Dale made the comment that he was the chef in a brunch restaraunt that was named best brunch in Chicago.

100 points for anyone who can guess the spot he was referring to! :D

Orange?

Well, it's got to be one of these three:
Trio Atelier
La Tache
Orange

Ding Ding Ding!!!

Not only was Dale the chef of Orange, he designed the majority of the menu as well. My ex no longer owns Orange, but I believe there are now three locations-the newest is in roscoe village and serves dinner as well. I keep meaning to try it. For obvious reasons, I haven't eaten there in a long time.:eek:

OK, so that's 100 pts for magiciansampras, and I think ECOTONE should get 50 pts for coming in second.

I'll let you all know when I decide what you can redeem your points for.....:p

I've always liked Dale and Hung. I've never taken Hung's bravado very seriously. I have to admit, the more others criticize him, the more I root for him. Come on, should you really expect him to tell you how he cooked his sea bass? References to how things are "in the kitchen" don't really seem to apply here. When you're just in the kitchen you aren't competing to win.

I agree with world_citizen. CJ was a great guy. I think he is going to be the fan favorite winner.

You know, as much as I like Top Chef, it makes me uneasy that the producers have a say in who goes and who stays. I wonder exactly how much of a say. Methinks its probably a lot more than we think. And if that is the case, I'm sure they would want chefs to stay around who are somewhat controversial.

Having said that, you would think that Howie would have remained.

Just thinking out loud here.

Welcome to "reality" tv. A lot of it is contrived, not just on this show but on all the others as well. It's unfortunate, but I'm not sure we're going to see it going away anytime soon. The "contest" provides a nice foil, for sure.

the reason why they kicked off howie was because he was so incredibly obnoxious, they just couldnt stand him anymore, and because the producers knew there were no more pork challenges left, and as we all know, it was the only meat howie could cook.

sex, travel, and mirpoix

Don't forget the ubiquitous risotto!