'Top Chef': The Breakup
The couple is kaput. Jen and Lover Girl have been separated and are now a non-factor/problem, despite the show's efforts to set up that dynamic. Boo-hoo for the producers.
The Quickfire is my least favorite of the season, and the cutting of it for us viewers makes it even more so. The cheftestants have to identify ingredients. (Hey, the best they ever did on this one was when the contestants themselves spoofed it by holding a junk-food challenge on their own time with the likes of BBQ sauce and sugar cereal. Now THAT was funny. Distinguishing between soy sauces--NOT.)
We are told from the get-go that Antonia thinks she's great at this one and...Antonia wins! Should we have just tuned in eight minutes late? The Quickfire is like a non-issue. Maybe because, um, they aren't cooking?
And while I'm wearing Len's Crotchety Pants from Dancing With the Stars" from Tuesday night, let's just say: I'm also growing tired of the group cook-offs. This time, there isn't any individual cook-off in the Quickfire, and the chefs are still made to draw knives and team up for the challenge. Convenient, yes, when there are multiple contestants left, but it's time on this show to give viewers some more individuality. I don't want to see how they play nice on a team. At this point, I want to see what Dale does to justify his preening; I want to see if Stephanie hyperventilates when left on her own, etc. But no dice.
The challenge: to create a first course based around the theme of earth, water, fire and air.
I think I'd fling myself off a building to get fire on that one--hello, spice box!--and, shockingly, the fire brigade wins with a shrimp dish that didn't care if it burned the judges' tongues off.
Fire is Dale, Stephanie (who is racking up wins! you go, XX-chromosome representing girlfriend, even if you still scream "Mouse" in not a Mickey way everytime you are on screen) and Lisa, who gets the overall win for cooking some bacon in a special bake-off method that means it doesn't create a mountain of grease but is still yummy. This annoys Dale, who thinks Lisa didn't do much, but if Lisa would like to move into my kitchen and wake me up with perfectly cooked bacon on a regular basis, I'd be thrilled. And, let's face it, putting bacon on seafood is a pretty sure-fire thing. I'm just surprised it wasn't scallops under that fat-a-thon.
The other three teams are Air. (Oooh! Let's do duck!) Water (fish, natch). And Earth...which had me hoping for a mud pie with Gummy worms poking out, but, sadly, resulted in some beef carpaccio with lame adornments.
Who loses? Earth, though there is a distinct sense on my part that the non-scaled salmon of the Water team is more problematic, and the judges shy away from roasting that team--who are the other ones in the bottom two--because the man responsible for the bad fish knifework was Richard O'The Glad Wrap and they don't actually want to ax him this early.
(Let's pause briefly for the Nikki update, a.k.a., the analysis of the total idiot player who really needs to not get her butt carried by either homemade pasta or her teammates: she is on Air and stays out of the hot seat this week, but she also does her hair in a distinctly '50s way -- very distracting).
So Earth is imploding, and it's all about Zoi, Antonia and Spike. Antonia has immunity, so that leaves Hat Boy and Lover Girl. Lover Girl gets spiked, and back in the kitchen, girlfriend Jen is heartbroken. Will Jen be able to go on? Tune in next week...
-- JENNIFER FREY
By Jennifer Frey |
April 10, 2008; 8:50 AM ET
Top Chef
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Posted by: M Street | April 10, 2008 10:05 AM
I completely agree that the salmon scale fiasco was a much greater sin than under seasoning of the beef dish... scales. scales on a fish. I mean yuck.
Richard should have been a goner--and he knew it. The little tear he wiped so gingerly from hi eye, was a tear of self-pity, and of relief that he was spared.
Posted by: Sam | April 10, 2008 12:53 PM
Well Spike has skated past disaster twice now. And the other time he was totally responsible for the ill-chosen Vietnamese lousy spring roll - so why weenie out on this one and blame Antonia for steamrollering him on choice of dish (which she actually didn't - and yes, she's right - the tape revealed).
I happen to make a pretty good butternut squash soup myself - and you can add chestnut dumplings - so perhaps Spike ought to have followed his instincts - but I suspect the Vietnamese disaster was the real reason he didn't.
Overall the women seemed to have behaved more professionally and maturely. It's one thing for Lisa to cuss at every single THING - her angst wasn't really directed at any particular PERSON. It's a another thing for Dale to own his immature bitterness and lash straight out at her.
I just wanted to say "Oh, go tell your Mother!"
Posted by: Jean | April 11, 2008 10:36 AM
Was it just me or was the final argument scene at the end of this episode the worst editing you've ever seen in your life? I had no idea who was arguing with who and why. At first it was Antonia and Spike and then Jen got involved because her hack of a girlfriend was sent home instead of Spike and his arsenal of stupid hats and then there was a side argument between Dale and Lisa because Dale's pissed that Lisa cooked bacon and won a trip to Italy. All of this culminates in Jen punting a folding chair across the waiting area. It appeared to me as if the producers had footage that they thought was too good to not use but had no idea how to use it. For a show that I love, Top Chef is going to have to do something new if it intends to keep me as a viewer.
Posted by: Patrick | April 11, 2008 5:11 PM
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I called it last week. It was clear that Zoi couldn't handle the pressure. Spike will be next if he doesn't show some improvement. Two next-to-last finishes for him, so he's on thin ice.
Richard and Andrew need to show some creativity. At this point, they are falling back on their comfort zone areas (salmon and faux caviar tapioca pearls, again??) instead of doing anything different.