Top Chef: Discussion - Bravo

[QUOTE=mr.unamazing;143678]Kevin won most of the challenges.[/QUOTE] David Ortiz hit 54 home runs in 2006. Doesn't really help us now. :D It is all about your last plate (and that banana junk looked very unappetizing.) BTW: Did anyone else think it was extra cruel that Padma called out Kevin's name...and then said after an extra dramatic pause, "You will not be the next Top Chef."

That pause was almost as bad as Phil and his eyebrow!! :)

I was really hoping Kevin would win! :( I understand the judges decision to pick Michael but I really loved Kevin and I thought he was a great chef.

[QUOTE=its_galinda;144081]I was really hoping Kevin would win! :( I understand the judges decision to pick Michael but I really loved Kevin and I thought he was a great chef.[/QUOTE] It was really hard. As I said a few pages back, any one of them could have won and I would think them deserving. It all came down to that last meal and Kevin was not on his "A" game, which he had been throughout. Don't worry though, as I have a feeling this exposure is going to be huge for his career and he has probably already hooked up with a high end restaurateur to open an establishment that showcases his simple yet sophisticated cuisine.

Don't worry about Kevin he already runs a very successful restaurant. As is the same for the brothers, Jennifer, and Mike Isabell. I'm glad to see Micheal win he deserved it and was great on Conan.

[QUOTE=mr.unamazing;144139]Don't worry about Kevin he already runs a very successful restaurant. .[/QUOTE] Having a successful restaurant and having a successful restaurant in New York City (Manhattan) are two different things. I think we will see Kevin opening something in the food mecca soon.

Why? Atlanta is were he is from and other successful chefs have not had to make the commute to become successful. I think right now though he is driving the bus on his career. Which is good for him.

[QUOTE=mr.unamazing;144321]Why? Atlanta is were he is from and other successful chefs have not had to make the commute to become successful. I think right now though he is driving the bus on his career. Which is good for him.[/QUOTE] Haha.. Ok, in other news.. In this country, you make it in New York as a Chef. Sure , you don't need to do that to get a TV show...but no one will respect you until you make it...in New York. I could care less about something in Atlanta, lol. No one cares...Except in Atlanta...

As an aside, I'd like to know what Atlanta has offered to popular culture. School me.

Another great comment from Bacchus. If only that were the case though. Yes, if we were talking 10 years ago this would be exactly right but in todays day more and more chefs are grafitating to the hotel industry and this has allowed Las Vegas to become a major player in the United States cusine industry. Not to mention numerous Atlanta is killing it in the food industry with southern food being most prominently coming from here since Katrina. (sorry Dallas) Also Chicago brings out some of the best chefs that the U.S. has to over. Even my favorite chef cooks out of there Rick Bayless. Los Angeles is also a major player. Along with San Fransisco has great chefs such as Chris Constantino. Currently the only chef I want to try in New York iis Wylie Dufresne.

[QUOTE=mr.unamazing;144327]Another great comment from Bacchus. If only that were the case though. Yes, if we were talking 10 years ago this would be exactly right but in todays day more and more chefs are grafitating to the hotel industry and this has allowed Las Vegas to become a major player in the United States cusine industry. Not to mention numerous Atlanta is killing it in the food industry with southern food being most prominently coming from here since Katrina. (sorry Dallas) Also Chicago brings out some of the best chefs that the U.S. has to over. Even my favorite chef cooks out of there Rick Bayless. Los Angeles is also a major player. Along with San Fransisco has great chefs such as Chris Constantino. Currently the only chef I want to try in New York iis Wylie Dufresne.[/QUOTE] So what you are saying is, if you have a pony with a cool trick - Vegas is the place. If you want to serve sophisticated, multicultural complex cuisine, open a restaurant in The City.

No I pretty much laid out that their are other major markets that high end cuisine is being produced in other than in New York. Since you chose Las Vegas for the example I will talk about that city. Las Vegas is a tourist rich city in which people go and spend money. So with that comes hotels, and also the need for in the higher end hotels very qualified chefs. They will have a very prestiguos chef run a restaurant within the hotel. In Vegas usually there are several restaurants. As well as in the casinos there are high end food as well. It all matters as well what you are looking for. When refering to complex did you mean gastronomy?

I am somewhat excited that Bravo moved Top Chef to 9PM so there would not be a conflict of interest for me with The Real World! Once again, there is a pool of very talented Chefs, and some "entertaining" slack that needs to go. I already have a favorite (Kenny.) This season I am not going to take the bait of going for the bad guy (Angelo) as I normally do, because they seem like the most skilled available (being he is not.) Kenny knows his stuff and he is my choice for Top Chef. (This prediction, can be amended based on eliminations.)

I'm a Kenny fan too. I get the vibe from Angelo that he is going to crash and burn soon since his head seems to grow each week. With other "baddies" like Stefan it was pretty obvious that they had the talent to back up their talk and even though Angelo has won a good amount so far, it's still early and I haven't been too impressed with his dishes just viewing them on the tv. I was sad with the first episode though because they let my other early fav go right off the bat. I had bad feelings when I noticed them giving him a loser edit but I was hopeful because I liked his nice guy vibe. We need some of those to balance out all the ego floating around. I'm happy they moved it to 9 also. I'm really into Work of Art so far (I think it's the best reinvention of the Project Runway model Bravo has tried so far besides Top Chef) and it's nice to not have to stay up to 12 to watch it.

I am not really loving this season, because I feel it is leaning more to being a drama season than a cooking season. All the bickering and gamenship (sp) is really worrying me. Moreover, I only see 4 or 5 chefs right now that really appear to be talented.

[QUOTE=DScott;187495]I am not really loving this season, because I feel it is leaning more to being a drama season than a cooking season. All the bickering and gamenship (sp) is really worrying me. Moreover, I only see 4 or 5 chefs right now that really appear to be talented.[/QUOTE] Let's talk about it then! Who are the 4 or 5? Obviously, there are only ever 4 or 5 (and when we get to that point those 4 or 5 will have been beaten on so hardly by Gail and Colicchio that you'll think maybe there might only be 1 or 2.) Kenny has skills and so does Angelo. I think that the early running is the mirror into the season.

I feel this season is disproportionately filled with fodder. Kenny and Angelo are both good of course. Kelly is very well known and could of supposedly been a top chef master. Arnold's stuff has been loved by the judges according to their online blogs. Alex has seemed quite good and we could say that Kevin is good. 6 oops haha! It just seems even the good chefs are not secure with themselves or would rather win without cooking the best food, but by finding a way to mess up their opponent. Kevin not giving Angelo the tool he needed or Angelo making "crap" when he has immunity.

[QUOTE]Kevin not giving Angelo the tool he needed or Angelo making "crap" when he has immunity.[/QUOTE] I know what you are saying and that sucked. I am hoping the show does move past tactics over skill this week.

[QUOTE=Bacchus;187517]I know what you are saying and that sucked. I am hoping the show does move past tactics over skill this week.[/QUOTE] I just haven't found any of this season's chefs to be interesting or any of their food noteworthy. While I may not know all the technical stuff, I could have made food better than some of the crap I have seen this season or at least on par with most of the crap dished out.

Can you believe what that guy (can't remember his name-wears glasses-kind of weird) said last night if he won the $10,000 quickfire challenge? "I'd get a ****** and an eight ball"

This season is not very impressive.

As long as the ******* doesn't win, there is someone I can pull for, heh. That said, last night's episode showed that there were no stand outs and it is anyone's game. Last year's field was much more impressive.

Happy Kenny won. I'd love to try that dish. I'm not particularly big on curry, but I could be from the way that looked and the response it got from the food snobs. :D p.s. If Padma really likes something, I want to like it too, lol.

[QUOTE=Moni61;189261]Can you believe what that guy (can't remember his name-wears glasses-kind of weird) said last night if he won the $10,000 quickfire challenge? "I'd get a ****** and an eight ball"[/QUOTE] I was shocked that made into the show as well, I guess theyneeded something to standout because most of them are bland

Very disappointed that Kenny left tonight. I understand that his dishes have not been at the top of the spectrum these last few weeks, but on a show that is all about talent you would think those without said talent would not still be around filling the ranks. I personally think that when you are down to "x" chefs left, you have the "x" best chefs in the competition. Clearly that is not the case with Top Chef as there is the drama factor and they make decisions not based on the food, but on what they can sell to get the drama (with Alex.) I think it is quite clear at this point there is only one Chef that is primed for the win (via the edit presented.)

I do feel the same way but then I also look back at the past few weeks and Kenny has not been doing well. I think the only reason we think he is so wonderful is because he started so strong. Maybe his ego got in the way, or maybe he just wasn't a strong as we thought but he definitely dropped off recently. And according to the judges (and I would have to agree just based on looks and description) he had two bad dishes tonight. No matter how strong of a team leader he was he didn't produce on what should be two relatively simple dishes to execute. Plus, no matter how much less talent Alex has compared to Kenny or others, he was on the winning team and a winning team means you're safe. I also thought it was pretty childish and uncalled for to call out someone on the other team instead of just owning up to your mistakes. Kenny especially just seems like it would go in one ear and out the next when he got criticism. He always had this bewildered look like "How could you think it was anything but amazing?" and when they told him what didn't work it didn't seem to register. He was a favorite of mine from the beginning but these last few weeks he just seemed to be out of it. Over doing it, not listening and thinking he was so amazing that he was beyond criticism. Even Angelo with his giant ego would listen and take the criticism and that is why he is still here and still doing well.

I know you are right, across the board, tatertots - but I just hate it when my early season favorite goes down. I'll admit, I've been giving Kenny a lot of breaks. The hard part about this show is that we really can't fully understand an individuals performance as we can't taste the food. For that reason, sometimes the judges decision almost seems off kilter because of the editing. Last night, the editing was all about the train wreck red team, yet their food was declared much better in the end and even though I understand the "twist" they were going for, I felt the narrative was a bit murky. That said, Angelo seems like an amazing chef and I think if he continues doing what he is doing he will walk away the winner.

I just turned on the finale. With the condition Angelo is in, he really lucked out getting Hung, who is a prepping machine. If he'd have landed Ilan, he'd be a goner, lol. Actually, I feel bad for Ed in that he ended up with Ilan, the worst Top Chef winner by far...

I was really disappointed with the winner. It did seem like Kevin was doing well once he got to the finale in Asia but, and I may be remembering the season wrong, I don't recall him being that good during most of the season. I thought he was on the bottom a lot and his attitude made me really dislike him and not want to root for him. I'll look back on the records for challenges and stuff but right now he is right up there with Ilan for most disappointing Top Chef winners in both personality and skill.

Wow I'm actually surprised with who they sent home first. I for sure thought it would be Stephen by their reactions. And Spike being in the top, really? Even after they acknowledged that the main ingredient was basically invisible and unnecessary in the dish? Oh well, I'm still really excited for this season and it will be interesting to see them all work together. There are only a few that I would be disappointed seeing win so it should be a fun competition.