jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (Top Chef Harold napping)
[personal profile] jlh
Very pleasant weekend of seeing [livejournal.com profile] honestys_easy, [livejournal.com profile] dreamerren and [livejournal.com profile] makemeabeliever for dinner on Saturday and walking down Hudson River Park with my friend W on Sunday afternoon.

David Cook fans should be sure to check out this week's The Soup, where he reveals himself to be a Joel fan, much to Ryan's chagrin. Oprah, girlfriend!

I haven't talked about this week's Top Chef yet and after watching it a few times I've noticed that while the loss was spectacular, the win was very subtle.

But first, let's explore the obvious "what if" in the episode: what if Dale had won the quick fire instead of Antonia? According to Lee Ann's blog, while it was close, the judge based it on time and Antonia beat Dale with a good margin (11 minutes to 9 in "the hole"). Still, given that Dale said he would have picked Richard and Stephanie, the other team would have been Antonia and Spike. Antonia hasn't worked well with Spike so he probably would have still have moved to FoH and concentrated on one dish. It's incredibly difficult to work out what Antonia and Lisa might have done for cuisine, but the last time they worked together they came up with a good dish that landed them in the bottom because they ignored the challenge. But it's reasonable to think that Lisa or maybe Spike would have been out, instead of Dale.

Dale also said, in the NYMag blog, that he should have let Lisa be the exec chef because it was an unmanageable team—which would have been the Spike move, definitely. But the larger issue, really, was that he wasn't able to recover from some early mishaps. As we've seen on many occasions, it's finding a fix for something going wrong that really separates the winners from the losers.

Speaking of which, let's look at the winning team. Would Spike have worked under Antonia? A real question. Richard did, easily, and Antonia was able to keep him from making a big mistake, catching the grit in the clams and ordering him to clean them again. Stephanie contributed dishes that didn't need too much last-minute fussing—and two of them, not one like Spike—and then went to her strength of FoH. And as Antonia said, while they each contributed dishes, their concept was really about being a team. Not as dramatic as the fighting on the other side, but infinitely more successful, and as I've said elsewhere, I like watching people do things well.

Date: 2008-05-26 05:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sisterpandora.livejournal.com
Wait, I'm not watching but these names are familiar... are they having an all-star type season?

Date: 2008-05-27 01:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dreamerren.livejournal.com
ILU!

That's all for now because I haven't seen Top Chef yet...just wanted to say it was awesome meeting you finally!

*big hugs*

Date: 2008-05-28 03:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] makemeabeliever.livejournal.com
YAY I finally just added you. :) It was so great to meet you - you are hilarious!

Date: 2008-05-28 03:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jlh.livejournal.com
No. Maybe it's because there was a Dale last season. There might have been a Stephanie or a Richard before, too, but Dale was a finalist last season. Maybe that's why?

Date: 2008-05-28 04:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sisterpandora.livejournal.com
Yes, that it is, and I thought there was a gal with a similar A name before too, but my mind is a hummingbird so I cannot be sure.

Date: 2008-05-29 01:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jlh.livejournal.com


But have you seen it yet? I was grading all day watching the marathon.

Date: 2008-05-29 01:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jlh.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! Added back! You are awesome yourself!

Date: 2008-05-30 06:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lilith20godrich.livejournal.com
Thank so much for pointing on The Soup - this moment was hilarious. Joel looked like he just won no less than ten million dollars, so happy and proud. And Ryan was very in this moment.

I hope you don't mind that I friended you - recently I became very intrested in Pymon and Ryan Seacrest, and your posts about this subject incredibly intresting.

And sorry about my grammar - English is not my first language, so I apologise for my mistakes.

Date: 2008-05-30 06:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lilith20godrich.livejournal.com
"And Ryan was very in this moment."

I wanted to say very funny, but missed the word.

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jlh: Chibi of me in an apron with a cocktail glass and shaker. (Default)
Clio, a vibrating mass of YES!

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