Top chef, episode 7: goes well with his skin tone
Wherein sorry for laughing but that was funny
Before the final verdict, looks like a win for Dale and Richard and a slight slip by Stephanie. Nikki will avoid elimination (BOO!) and foul-mouthed Lisa goes home.
Freakin' Spike and his soup.
The team of Richard/Dale takes the victory meaning two straight elimination wins for Dale and a sweep on the night for Richard. These two guys are scary good together. With a decent Seinfeld impression, as well. Out of 14 challenges, Richard has placed in the top group 9 times and Dale has 6 top finishes in the last 8 challenges.
Oh! And it's Jennifer going home in a close call. Sounds like all the dishes were decent tonight with hers and Stephanie's falling short. For a moment I thought we'd get the shock of the series with Stephanie getting the blame and the axe. Whew, that was close. Spike and Nikki are the only ones with fewer top finishes than Jennifer. Mark's three top finishes equals Jen's, but he also has four bottom finishes.
Rankings:
New Chart
An attempt at new rankings, trying to put an emphasis on high placement. Therefore, not being judged -- being safe -- counts as a negative.
This gives us the following rankings and scores:
Disclaimer: numbers and charts are basically meaningless and do not necessarily reflect actual ability to cook. They may be a reflection of how they are being compared to each other on the show and in that regard kinda entertaining
This is interesting:
Seeger (now Home) is the kitchen Blais just took over. A Spice Market just opened in Atlanta and last I heard Nimma, first chef eliminated, is working there.
Before the final verdict, looks like a win for Dale and Richard and a slight slip by Stephanie. Nikki will avoid elimination (BOO!) and foul-mouthed Lisa goes home.
Freakin' Spike and his soup.
The team of Richard/Dale takes the victory meaning two straight elimination wins for Dale and a sweep on the night for Richard. These two guys are scary good together. With a decent Seinfeld impression, as well. Out of 14 challenges, Richard has placed in the top group 9 times and Dale has 6 top finishes in the last 8 challenges.
Oh! And it's Jennifer going home in a close call. Sounds like all the dishes were decent tonight with hers and Stephanie's falling short. For a moment I thought we'd get the shock of the series with Stephanie getting the blame and the axe. Whew, that was close. Spike and Nikki are the only ones with fewer top finishes than Jennifer. Mark's three top finishes equals Jen's, but he also has four bottom finishes.
Rankings:
- Richard
- Stephanie, tied with Dale
- Dale, tied with Stephanie
- Andrew
- Mark -- very erratic, could go at any moment
- Antonia
- Lisa
- Spike -- rocked the soup, got anything else hatboy?
- Nikki -- just overmatched, only chance of survival will be team challenges
New Chart
An attempt at new rankings, trying to put an emphasis on high placement. Therefore, not being judged -- being safe -- counts as a negative.
- win = 2
- top group = 1
- not judged = -1
- bottom group = -2
This gives us the following rankings and scores:
- Richard Blais, 6. Impressive.
- Dale Talde , -1. Of the remaining contestants, he was at the bottom after the third elimination challenge. Since then, he's moved up to second and has some space between him Stephanie.
- Stephanie Izard, -4. Her four bottom group finishes are troubling. Last night's poor finished, first time since week 2 she went scoreless, led to her being passed by Dale.
- Lisa, -6. Snooze. Hanging in there, though universal consensus is she should have been sent home for her lack of polish sausage.
- Andrew, -7. Started strong and has steadily been slumping.
- Antonia, -10. Tracking closely with Andrew.
- Mark, -11. Freefalling since week three.
- Nikki, -14. Slope = black diamond degree of difficulty.
- Spike, -16. Slope = black diamond degree of difficulty.
Disclaimer: numbers and charts are basically meaningless and do not necessarily reflect actual ability to cook. They may be a reflection of how they are being compared to each other on the show and in that regard kinda entertaining
This is interesting:
Before going toque-to-toque with 15 other contestants on Top Chef, Nikki worked for many years as a chef in Atlanta under acclaimed chef Gunther Seeger. She moved to New York and worked front of house at Public and then began a stint in management with Jean Georges’ restaurants, opening Spice Market and V Steakhouse.
Seeger (now Home) is the kitchen Blais just took over. A Spice Market just opened in Atlanta and last I heard Nimma, first chef eliminated, is working there.
posted by bill at 10:15 PM
4 Comments:
I was sorry to see Jennifer go. Taking the longer view, I would far rather have seen almost anyone else go--not including Richard or Dale, but even perhaps including Stephanie** go. Personally, I would willingly have thrown both Antonia and Lisa under the bus tonight, and especially because, in addition to their dish, they would have earned it.
I entirely disagree with changing the rules end-stream, which is what happened. Just lost a ton of respect for the process and the series, and the judge who gave permission to disregard the premise and rules and who argued for the disregarding.
I probably will follow, at least haphazardly, to the end of this season. But it basically puts into serious question whether I'll bother with the series come next season.
I pretty much despise chaotic, unapologetic after-the-fact goal-post movers. This should not be a revelation.
**Stephanie's a special case.
Yeah, seems like the judges can explain away anything. Spike probably should have gone for th spring rolls, Richard probably should have gone for fish scales, and either Antonia or Lisa should have gone for blowing off the concept.
But I don't see any way that Jen could've won, so I'm not too upset over it. On the other hand, they did a poor job justifying the decision.
Overall, I'm not that impressed with the show and doubt I'll watch the next season. Challenges are too gimmicky, editing is dishonest, not enough focus on the cooking, and the judging is unfaithful.
What's Stephanie's special case?
Top Chef Rule #1 to postpone your dismissal: cook everything with bacon.
Here's a note in a local forum:
rB didn't talk about Top Chef last night, but he did say he was approached about a new show concept. It'll be interesting to see if it works out - kinda like MythBusters with food...
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