Top Chef (plus Masters, Just Desserts)

What an awful, awful format for the finale. Between that and the fact that I got spoiled on Facebook, I ended up tuning out for the second half.

I didn't mind the format but if they're going to do that again they may as well drop all pretense and announce this is an audition for Iron Chef America or Next Iron Chef. No point in being coy.

Is it weird that as thrilled as I am for Kristin I'm equally as sad for Brooke? This is the first TC in a long time where I genuinely liked both chefs and wish they could both have won. And I'd eat at their restaurants any day.

Is it weird that as thrilled as I am for Kristin I'm equally as sad for Brooke?

No they were both really cute last night, like when Kristin asked Brooke to save her a tasting of her second (winning) dish. I'm still really glad Kristin won, her food is apparently as delicious as it is beautiful. I also liked that Brooke admitted winning the finale was important because she didn't want to think she won a ton in the final stretch only because Kristin wasn't there.

The format was a little goofy, but I appreciated the real time judging, but not even Iron Chef has them go dish by dish/round by round. They both looked exhausted.

Terrible format! When you're 55 minutes in, it's obvious there's no time for a fifth course. I hope they never do that again. (I guess Tom agreed that it sucked and said they probably wouldn't.)

It was SO obvious that Kristin won and I think it's crazy that they weren't allowed to serve all 5 dishes. Even on Iron Chef, they eat all the courses before making a decision.

Even more than that, I thought the editing and storytelling decisions were super weird. No drama in picking the teams (how on earth did Kristin end up w/3 of the most recent contestants and not Stefan) and the strange recaps of both of their "journeys" as well as a plug for what the other Top Chefs are doing now? So weird. I watch the show because I like to see the cooking process and they robbed us of that in the finale.

According to Kristen they flipped a coin, Brooke won, got to pick her first two choices one of which was Stefan and then Kristen picked Sheldon and Lizzie. Later they were told they could pick another sous chefs and Kristen picked Josh. Kristen also stated that she wouldn't have picked Stefan because he is distracting. I think Brooke picked her team because she knew them all, they were all LA chefs and I remember when CJ got eliminated she was shocked and mentioned to Stefan that she was sure he would be back because he was so talented.

I had DVR'd the show so I didn't actually pay attention to the time but the format was fairly boring and the lighting and production was just crappy. Kristen's dad was adorable and he has some beautiful kids!

Aw, I love that she's humble/wise enough to know she still has a lot to learn before opening up her own place, and will save most of her money and go back to work to keep learning from Barbara Lynch.

Okay, this has little to do with cooking, but it took me over an hour to watch this week's episode, without commercials, because I was zaprudering every interaction at the engagement party. Curtis seemed SO UNCOMFORTABLE having his personal life on camera. Also, I was confused and ended up having to wikipedia because the show set up this whole narrative through friend interviews that Curtis was finally settling down when he already has a kid with his fiancee and they have been together for years. That seems pretty settled to me.

08.30.2013I've really been enjoying this season, which is refreshing because over the last year or so, I just haven't been as caught up in either Top Chef or TC Masters as I used to be. I'm rooting for David Burke, Bryan V., and Sang Yoon at this point even though I was very taken aback by Yoon's overbearing, screechy demeanor during Restaurant Wars.

I thought Bryan Voltaggio was a goner for sure with that one -- technically proficient but total misfire with what kids like?  Ouch. 

I have been trying to watch a few episodes I missed of Battle of the Sous Chefs for the last twenty minutes, and what with jerky video, and trying different browsers to get rid of the jerky video, and browser bugs, and their freaking video player not letting you immediately skip to earlier episodes when you enter the video playback area, I have seen that effing unskippable French-ified Lexus ad like seven times.  Dear Bravo: Please let YouTube host your stupid videos, they know how to do this kind of thing, and you suck at it.

Have you checked On Demand? That is how I watch the Battle of the Sous and Padma's Picks (which I also really liked), because Bravos videos are such crap, the clips are under TC:Masters And TC respectively. I even downloaded their freaking iPad app hoping it would be better but it also sucks!

Sang and Doug's bromance is my favorite thing about this season. Sang: The most romantic thing I have done was punch Doug in the thigh.

Also, that kid's comment about how there was no way Doug was going to win with his eggplant jello cracked me up.

Good tip!  Comcast's On Demand UI sucks so hard I tend to avoid it at all costs, but they do seem to have most of the episodes.  Cool.

It seemed Bryan definitely got the harshest criticism, so it's weird that he wasn't eliminated. However, I used to notice in earlier seasons of TCM (or maybe of regular TC) that whoever got the harshest critique seemed to get spared, and it got to the point where I could often predict who WOULDN'T be booted that way.

I'm really glad Doug's doing well and people are liking him. I'm just gonna say, he's the awesome chef I mentioned in the Stars I Like thread a couple of years ago who successfully sued the local shelter to prevent them from putting down a dog he wanted to adopt. He's an really neat guy.

And his food is delicious!

Because Bravo can't resist spoiling their own show the wrong Battle of the sous chefs was put On Demand and so the final three were revealed to be

Spoiler:

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I am so glad Justin got bounced last night. Such a douche and hadn't really backed up a single moment of arrogance. Having sad that I did laugh when they said his dish was bland bland bland, it tastes of nothing but GARLIC. Hee, I guess they meant the only remote flavor present was garlic not just pureed garlic.

Surprised Nina faceplanted with that corn addition, I'm thinking either her or Steph wouldn't have been there if Carrie didn't have immunity. I like all the chefs left pretty much, with Shirley, Carrie, Nick, and Nina being the strongest I think.

Huh. OK, so my conspiracy theory on the winner is Bravo wants to save Nina for a future all-stars "OMG REVENGE" season, since she has a more interesting personality than Nick. I know they claim they can't base it on past performance but that was ouch for her.