Top Chef Seattle

I hadn't realized this was on already and just watched the first episode. Looks like normal top chef goodness, other then the fact they have my two least favorite chefs ever there. Especially Hugh, I just cant stand him.

Anyone else watching this?

Hugh is my favorite! His blog posts for each episode are required reading. I was also pleased to see him send annoying full-of-herself lady home right out of the gate.

It will be interesting to see if they use Hugh, Emeril, and Wolfgang throughout the season. I always like it when they have chefs on the judges panel.

I met Hugh at the Food and Wine Festival here in Atlanta last year, and have eaten at Empire State South (his restaurant where they did the salad challenge) a few times. Really nice guy, down to earth and not too full of himself, and a great chef too.

I'm gonna miss tracking the chef rankings on Guybrush's blog but other than that it looks like the season is off to a strong start. The field looks competitive and the returning chefs are certainly going to keep the overall skill-level high.

Not sure if I like the former contestants coming back thing or not, but that may have a lot to do with how much I dislike Stephan. Also on Hugh I guess its just his completely stupid sense of humor and the jokes that just arent funny at all that make me dislike seeing him on TV. "Do you wear a suit of armor when you cook...." Really?

Of course it was stupid and silly, but that is just his humor. I appreciate that he is not so full of himself and actually gives good feedback. Like Ben said, his blog should be required reading along with Toms.

As for the season it looks to be interesting. I was a little shocked to hear that CJ did a stage at Noma and then royally pooched his dish. I thought he or Stephan was going to go home over the guy they sent, but that is just me. I also disagree about bringing three back, it is almost like the producers feel that they were not good enough to compete on the "second chance" season but still liked them. I hate listen to Stephan bitch about how he won his season, and that it was stolen from him. I also really dislike that loud spanish lady, I am waiting for her to go home soon.

And that's the second episode where last week's winner ends up going home. Man, that squab looked horrible.

I like the chef who won the first last chance kitchen, if she make it through all the weird challenges there and get to the finale where they just get to cook what they want how they want she will win it I think. But she doesn't seem to do well with short time limit challenges so that will make it hard for her to get there.

Last chance kitchen is really stacked against her going all the way simply because she left the show so early. If last season is anything to go by she has to win 10 or more individual challenges just to get back to the main competition. Even if she's better than all the other chefs sent to Last Chance Kitchen, which is unlikely in itself, she only has to slip up once to get sent home. She has to win every single time, and the odds are very much against her.

Oh I completely agree it would be very hard, but IF she can make it I would fear her if I was the other contestants in the finale

She's clearly a very talented chef, though. They mentioned that she has a Michelin Star, and many of the chefs still in the competition clearly considered her to be a tough rival to beat. So who knows? There are a number of talented chefs on the show this season, though, so she's going to have a long haul to get there.

One thing also about last chance kitchen you dont have to deal with all the drama and other BS that is in the main competition that can wear people down.

Well, that was quite the beat-down. I'm really surprised that John and Josh didn't go home for the grits and pork. It sounded awful.

Well, the judge's table discussion made it sound like they were all awful with a three-way split on four judges. And seriously, a fucking burger with pickles, and they couldn't even get the burger right. John and Josh might have failed equally miserably but atleast they aimed higher.

I'm not sure that they did aim higher. A piece of pan-seared meat on top of grits is about as original as breakfast at Denny's. There was no garnish, no creative twist, and practically no highlighting of their main ingredient (the truffle popcorn, which they just used to season the grits--badly, apparently). On top of that, both elements (grits, pork) were prepared poorly. Tom said that it reminded him of something that might be prepared by a home cook... who doesn't like to cook. Ouch.

The burger was also prepared poorly, but it was at least a little bit creative to serve it on a crumpet. A bad idea, maybe--crumpets are, as Hugh pointed out, designed to absorb butter, and are therefor an iffy choice for a juicy burger unless you enjoy soggy buns. Still, original. Deep frying the pickles was also a potentially interesting idea, even if they then ruined it by putting them inside the bun, where the batter just steamed and got soggy and fell off. Gail thought the fried pickles might have been good if they had served them on the side, and then perhaps used non-fried pickles to make a relish for the burger.

In any event, the impression I got from reading the blogs was that all three of those dishes were so bad that any of them could have conceivably gone home. It was a tough challenge to pick the worst one, which is why the judges were split.

Anyone else just underwhelmed this year by the entire season so far? I can't put my finger on why but I am just not as interested this year as I have been in the past. Maybe its just burn out as they seem to have some type of top chef show on all the time now.

Perhaps - this year there's little I'm seeing in the way of food that seems exciting. It's like the bulk of the chefs they've picked are determined to stay in it by being utterly pedestrian with their dishes and sticking to that "middle of the pack" mentality.

That said, I adore Kristin and am rooting for her. Baking cakes using nothing but aluminum foil was awesome.

I dunno, I've been liking it. There are some strong chefs in the mix, and there's been plenty of creative food, that one awful episode aside. Squid stuffed with lamb (for example) doesn't seem all that pedestrian to me. I wish they'd put a bit more focus on the winners' dishes, though. This week they edited out all the judges' comments on the dishes in the winners' circle.

So that was a completely unexpected outcome. I'm going to guess that they got a lot of angry emails over that elimination. I'm not entirely sure that I agree with it myself, even understanding that the judges do not get to see the kitchen footage when they are making their decision, and Kristin steadfastly refused to throw Josie under the bus. I get that they made the decision based on Kristin claiming responsibility for all the food leaving the kitchen, but should they have? If they want to make Restaurant Wars a challenge in which only the lead chef from each team can be eliminated, on the grounds that the buck stops with them as the leader of their respective kitchen, then fine. Say that up front, and be consistent. But that's not how the challenge has ever worked. Each chef is supposed to be responsible for their own dish. In the past I've seen them eliminate the lead chef when their restaurant had fundamental problems that ultimately traced back to their lack of leadership skills, and that's fine. But this wasn't about a bunch of high-level problems with the restaurant, it was really about one dish--Josie's dish--and Josie should have been eliminated for it. The way I see it, it doesn't really matter that Josie abdicated her responsibility to Kristin and Kristin went along with it. The judges should not have allowed Josie to do that. Otherwise what's to stop any chef on the team from saying "Well, I wasn't in charge, so you can't eliminate me!" Okay, the dish didn't have enough bouillabaisse because Kristin told Josie not to put much on. Josie could have said "Look, I know this is your restaurant, but this is my dish, and I think it needs more." In the past, they have eliminated chefs for letting other chefs push them around like that, with Tom telling them "Hey, if you don't have the confidence to stand up for your food, then you probably don't belong here." But here, for some reason, they let Kristin take the fall. Even though the dish also had other problems, like the fact that the fish wasn't cooked properly.

I will say that it's the first time that I have ever seen Tom admit on his blog that he would have made a different decision if he had seen the kitchen footage prior to judging. Josie, man. What a fuckup. I hope she's the next to be eliminated.

At least Kristin won in Last Chance Kitchen, knocking off seven-time winner C.J. I hope she makes it back in, because she's one of the three chefs I had pegged to be in the final (along with either Sheldon or Brooke).

Kristin was robbed, but I'm sad to see her knock CJ out because he's a good chef who did one crappy dish because he was too meta. He was trying to out think the judges instead of making good food with his crappy hamburger.

So two good chefs are in last chance kitchen and Josie is still stinking the place up.

My wife is convinced that the producers kept Josie on the show despite the judges in order to make for more drama.

I would have been sad to see either of them go home, but at the end of the day (er, season), there can be only one. Josie has way overstayed her welcome, though. She's been sort of coasting up until now, but it's gotten down to the best chefs at this point, and I just can't see her hanging on much longer.

It just makes me sad because it just seems blatantly obvious that Josie is not going to win Top Chef, whereas I actually felt that Kristen stood a solid chance. Even getting to the finale without winning tends to help a young chef make a name for themselves. I feel like the judges dropped the ball on trying to get at the heart of what really had happened, and reading Tom's blog pretty well confirms that even he thinks that may have happened. It irks me because in the "Watch What Happens Live" segment after the show they had Kristen on the phone and Padme in the studio and when asked if she wishes she had defended herself differently Kristen said no and Padme said it wouldn't have mattered and the judges had pretty well figured out what had gone on anyways. Reading Tom's blog now makes me think that's kinda bullshit though.

Yeah, Tom flat-out said that he would have made a different decision if he'd known what had really gone on in the kitchen. Hugh was pretty critical of Josie's professionalism (or lack thereof) in his blog, and Gail said that she voted to kick Josie and disagreed with the decision to eliminate Kristin. So I think it was close, and Tom switching his vote probably would have changed the outcome.

Re: chances of winning, I totally agree. I understand that a good chef can have a bad day and get eliminated, but when it's this close between a chef that is obviously talented and a chef that is obviously out of their league, I think it's perfectly acceptable for the judges to incorporate "body of work" into their decision. Kristen was pretty clearly headed for the finale, and Josie doesn't stand a chance. Do we really think she's going to outlast Sheldon? Or Brooke? Even Josh is a stronger chef than she is.

It was disappointing, but not unexpected. Has there even been a restaurant wars where the leader of the losing team wasn't eliminated? I was more annoyed that Josie wasn't kicked off last week, honestly.

I wonder if Josie set a record for the most times on the bottom without going home. It sure seems like she would have by now.

I don't know if it's a record, but she has the worst track record of any of the contestants this season, by a lot. And that's including all the chefs that have been eliminated. Zero wins, four times in the middle, and six times in the losers' circle. Yikes.

My only big issue with the Judges is not in the decision they made with the information they had, but not really digging hard enough or even asking the other two what went on. Josie clearly has an issue with not getting her work done in a timely manner.

On the other hand, coming from a kitchen where I have had cooks under me (and students) I would still place a lot of Josie's mistakes at Kristen's feet. She knew what kind of cook Josie was, and she picked Josie over Stephan (I told Erin at that point she probably just lost the challenge), and did not stay on top of her making sure the dish was being prepared in a timely manner. All of those issues lead up to a poorly made and plated dish. To be clear, I am in the Josie needs to go, but I can see the judges view with their information pretty easily and Kristen did take all blame. She pretty much asked for be sent home but she is right in that she can walk with her head high and be proud she kept to the high road.

I am guessing Josie is going to be the next to go and I hope she gets killed by Kristen. I hated to see CJ go, I was looking forward to seeing Sheldon, Stephan, Kristen and/or CJ in the end.

I guess my concern is that this is still Top Chef. Josie, in theory, is competing to display that she is a better chef in every sense of that word than the other competitors, whether that be in her creativity, execution, logistics, leadership, or professionalism. It blows my mind that in Restaurant Wars the executive of each restaurant becomes de facto responsible for any and all failings in their restaurant - especially given that unlike a true executive chef I doubt they could actually "fire" one of the other Cheftestants. I would easily imagine that if it were an actual restaurant Kristin would have fired Josie the night before for not having gotten done the things she had said she would and would have replaced her course with something that could have been executed properly in the time remaining - or just gone with a 4-course menu since she already was doing two dishes herself anyways.

She clearly did not like the way the Bouliabasse had turned out and it was not what she had intended to serve in her restaurant - a true executive could have 86'd it but I don't think they get to just decide to not serve a dish prepared by another contestant even if they know the dish is fubar. That to me is the bullshit of what happened.

She did 86 the gel or foam or whatever that was supposed to be part of it. How many times have we heard the judges say, "How could you have served that?" I thought it was pretty clear that Kristin didn't think either the gel/foam or the broth were up to standards, so she nixed one of them, and only put the minimal amount of the other on the plate.

That the judges actually liked the broth seemed strange to me. From the start Kristin was complaining that Josie hadn't gotten her bones roasted, and that to have a depth of flavor in the broth takes time. Maybe the judges only liked the broth because there was so little of it? They never got over that, "Ooh, this tastes good" initial spoonful to find it flat and unpalatable on the third or fourth spoonful. If so, then that's to Kristin's credit.

If she had been willing to throw Josie under the bus, she could've said, "I tasted that broth and it was sub-par. The first spoonful was fine, but it didn't have a flavor profile that would stand up to the rest of the dish over time. So I made sure you only got that first taste."

Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

In his blog, Tom admits that this is the one question he wished he had asked of Kristin at the judging: "If this really were your restaurant, would you have fired Josie?"

The broth being bad wasn't the problem - it does take a while for the flavors to develop and by all accounts it did... eventually. What needs to happen is that the broth finishes, then gets strained, and then the gelatin is added and it's allowed to thicken for at least an hour or so and then can be foamed using those canisters to mix it with air and create the texture Kristen was going for. What actually happened was that Josie didn't finish the broth until a half hour before service and by that point it was too late to complete the dish the way it had been intended, so to thicken the broth in a hurry she used cream, but that doesn't quite develop the same consistency as gelatin would and didn't allow a foam to form.

Generally what foaming the broth would have done was add air such that a small amount of broth would go a long way and would create the deconstructed bouliabasse that was part of the theme of her restaurant. Just like the charcuterie course was served in the form of a soup, the bouiliabasse which would normally be more like a soup was supposed to just be the seafood with a small amount of broth on the side to hint at the flavor of the normal dish. However, without being a foam there wasn't enough straight broth served to successfully complete the dish, but with too much broth it wouldn't really have been a deconstruction and would have gone, I assume, too far towards the traditional to meet Kristen's expectations. The seafood itself being improperly cooked was all Josie though.

Thanks for that, Reldan. It wasn't clear what was happening, and that cleared it up nicely.

One thing about this season I don't like is they have 2 defeated chefs who will be coming back, one through last chance kitchen and one from some vote they have each week. At least the last chance kitchen person has to do something to get back in. You could have someone who lost in the first couple episodes come back from the vote and they will have gotten to skip everything that wears down the other chefs.

I'm pretty sure that Kristen is a shoe-in for returning through the vote if not through Last Chance Kitchen. I'm not sure I like the idea on principle, but honestly the thought that there's a way for the viewers to correct the asinine injustice of Restaurant Wars is pleasing to me.

Honestly, if they set up a challenge where the judging criteria becomes reliant upon contestants throwing each other under buses they need to rethink how either the challenge or their judging rules work.

I dont know, I think Kuniko will win the vote, as she has been on top every week so far. Which would be completely unfair to all the other contestants as where she was the weakest is in all the 'theme' stuff and strange things which is what Top Chef is.

I guess we'll see, but I'd be shocked if Kuniko won fan favorite over Kristen. Kuniko's been at the top for lack of there being any real competition for that particular title, and the details of Kristen's elimination work strongly in her favor.

I just want to add that I cannot stand Josie and want her off the show so badly. She sucks, she's a bully, she is annoying, and she can't cook

If I had to list who I wanted to go it would be Stephan first, then Josie a far far distant second. (Well after Hugh, but sadly you cant kick off judges.)

Stephan is a bit of a dick, but no more so than any other good chef out there. I don't really get Josie coming back, and her staying in so long. I was never really impressed with her from her original season, and now that things are harder it is starting to show how weak she really is as a chef.

I fully agree that Kuniko's fan favorite ride is over the second (if) Kristin looses LCK. I hope Sheldon can keep it up and make it to the end now.

I'd bet Kuniko's fan favorite ride is over already in order to keep CJ in the running.