Top Chef

[jlh]

Well, here we FUCKING GO AGAIN. What the HELL, people? Tom really faked me out, too. I had misgivings when Jamie was saying that she didn't really like that kind of food.

Forgot to say: I love me some Eric Ripert. He's so cute, and so positive, and so adorable, and then also a fucking amazing hard core chef. Remember when they dressed him up as Santa? I really loved his sniff and sneer, because he was able to be helpful, and his critique was so interesting.

I'm really looking forward to Jacques Pepin in his little bow tie next week.

I love that Carla has the French training in her background, esp her ability to use that technique to make entirely different food. She could be pulling a Casey here, coming on strong at the very end. It's great because she's a good counterbalance in the kitchen with Stefan, and she's also worked out how to hold her own against him. She was really adorable with Ripert, too, over those sardines.

Okay, new poll, or really, same poll, new day.
[Poll #1343885]

Comments

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

GODDAMMIT LEAH

CHRIST ON A BICYCLE

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Meg said last week that she was voting for Leah to stay because Leah irritates her so therefore she'd be there until the end. All I can say is, god, I hope not.

I'm a fan of Christ on a cracker myself; the alliteration really sells it.

[dreamerren.livejournal.com]

I'm SO annoyed...because I actually think it's really wrong that Jamie went, especially since she could stand there and tell them what she did wrong. Isn't that a sign of better chef than someone who just had NO CLUE?

I honestly cannot stand Leah and the judges keep saving her and it annoys me. A lot.

Grr.

In other news, I greatly enjoy Carla. And at least Stefan can cook.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

According to the judges' blogs, Jamie's dish was damn near inedible. I think Tom was in there pitching for her, but in the end they convinced him that hers was the poorer dish.

Leah is so annoying! sistermagpie keeps putting her in the top three on the logic that because she's annoying, she will stick around forever, like Lisa last year.

Stefan is growing on me. At least he has a personality and isn't a complete asshole; he's just arrogant, and I know that I personally don't respond well to arrogance.

[oneangryrabbit.livejournal.com]

I really like this duplicate a great chef's dish challenge because it tends to reveal who has real skill and experience without anyone getting screwed by team dynamics or other stupid crap. Carla has surprised me as I'd initially dismissed her as a doomed flake and I'm really glad she survived. Breaking out her French training this far in does feel like the moment when the team realizes they're in trouble and finally decide to form Voltron because those spirit guides just weren't working out.

Of course, I'm still rooting for Stefan for the win.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

HA I love your Carla analogy!

The one thing I like about teams is who emerges as a leader; that's where Jeff started to impress me, and I do think the top chef should be a good leader, or willing to lead.

Anyway, I love that Carla was so stealthy about the French training and that she' clearly uses it as a tool to do what she wants to do, which is very different. I like the replicate the dish challenges too—as soon as Ripert invited them to his restaurant I knew that's what they would be doing. It's a very "cheffy" challenge.

Now that Jamie and Jeff are out, I'm not seeing anyone who can really challenge Stefan. That said, he might have the Hung problem of not putting enough of himself into his food. We get where he's from, but not who he is. I couldn't really tell you what his own style of cooking really is; he just keeps quoting a lot of European classics. Incredibly skillfully and successfully, yes. But Hung was able to figure that out, and I'd bet that Stefan can, too.

Carla may be able to pull out a great menu, and she's always very good at executing her own food (especially now that she's more confident) but I'm not sure that she can pull out something good enough to beat Stefan. Fabio and Leah both have execution problems, and I'm not really sure about Hosea, because he can be very inconsistent.

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

I could not believe, could not believe they kept Leah over Jamie. When Tom asked, I don't remember the exact words, but when he asked, "Do we keep a chef who knows exactly what she did wrong and how she should've fixed it, or the one who doesn't even have the capacity to pay attention and figure out what went into the dish in the first place?" I thought it was a slam dunk against Leah.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The blogs on bravo make it clear that her dish was pretty inedible, but I was also faked out by Tom's comments. I think he wanted to keep her and lose Leah, and the others were like, but we couldn't even eat Jamie's dish, and so Tom had to sadly agree and let her go.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'm still in shock over not losing her this week when she had a whole "I just gave up" theme going. Meanwhile Jamie's mistake seemed more like a really elementary thing that just happens sometimes, that she could have fixed with a little more time.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Leah sucks. I love how you keep voting for her because you don't like her.