Top Chef

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Season 21 has started with Kristen Kish as the host.

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Kristen was fun in the first episode. I enjoyed how excited she admitted to being, but at the same time she handled the job smoothly. Not as natural as a 20 season veteran would be, but who would be?

I also think I’m going to be a big fan of the new quickfire/elimination challenge rules. It makes a lot of sense.

As for the results, I imagine a great deal of regular viewers had the same reaction I did, which was "So long David!

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I agree. I thought Kristen was a natural. Granted, she has a few other TV shows under her belt now, too. I also liked the format of this first challenge. And yes, I agree. Not going to miss David.

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Buddha’s thoughts on the episode.

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Yeah, I saw Buddha’s write up too!

He’s not wrong about showing up to Top Chef and not having practiced all sorts of things that might turn up, such as making pasta.

Buddha was perhaps a little more intense with his preparation than a normal person, but he ended up winning because of it.

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This is Top Chef, not Top Croquette! (That’s all I say until I know others have watched).

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LOL!

That went through my mind as well. Of course, it didn’t help that on PlutoTV there is a Top Chef 24/7 channel and when I stopped by to watch whatever they were showing, sure enough it was season five and that girl served a scallop for the quickfire.

I didn’t immediately recognize her, but the SECOND it flashed up her name Jamie on the screen and she said “scallop” I knew it was her.

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Just working my way slowly through the JAR site and hopefully I will attempt to post after this coming Wednesday’s episode. So far the first couple episodes are an “every chef looks the same to me” blur but I think I am getting names to faces better. I really like Kristin and also noticed that Gail seems to be a bit more “chatty” than she was before.
I really can’t express enough how much I dislike having them do outdoor venues for challenges. Two main reasons are weather control, too hot! too cold! too windy! and then…bugs! You know there are bugs in everything, lol.

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I am starting to weed out a couple of the contestants after two episodes.

Three stick out so far:

  • Amanda, who is SUPER charming and talented. I don’t know it she’s figured it out yet, but she will be great on TV if she want to go down that path.
  • Rasika - Quirky, talented, and showing that she’s very good at this game.
  • Michelle - “I’m a barbeque chef!” who also keeps nailing the challenges that have nothing to do with applying smoke to meat.

After them, I remember Dan because he’s likeable and has the horrible illness. Alisha has the good talking head interviews, especially since she looks completely different in those than she does while cooking, so I had to remember her to not be confused. Danny reminds me of the Miami Dolphin’s head coach, so I remembered him for that reason.

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I like Michelle, Rasika and Dan. And maybe the guy who said his father is an architect. Not sure yet. Amanda is my least favorite because I think she’s a bit creepy.

Tom was right to go straight to elimination. Those two women weren’t even making a serious effort to work together and it showed.

I was delighted to see Buddha at the judges’ table.

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Hey @mlp, welcome to our humble abode.

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I plan on watching this later tonight once I settle in after my day. So far I haven’t clicked with any contestant except Michelle and Rasika and Rasika’s running partner (can’t remember his name).

I can’t imagine how the challenge is going to work but I hope there was someone who “got” it and provided a good plate.

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Welcome to the JAR fluffle @mlp glad to have you here.

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I agree the top 2 and the bottom 2 were easy to pick and liked that the judges didn’t even bother bringing any of the others out there. However, it was still a disappointing showing for the rest. It’s seems only the top 2 got it right.

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I was surprised at how litte communication Alisha and Kaleena had. This was one of the challenges that I didn’t have a clue about how the cheftestants will create something for the judges.

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The little pep talk they got at the end was interesting. If there were EVER a person to be in the room when someone explains how the game part of Top Chef works, it would be Buddha.

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I didn’t hear Kristen say the line that has been previewed all season. I should go back and check because I have been waiting for it.

Tom seemed off a little this episode. I can’t tell if he was intimidated by the two guest chefs or if was embarrassed by what was put out before the two guest chefs. Or neither and I saw it wrong.

I like Charly and I hope before he is eliminated that he puts out some win worthy dishes. I think he has to get out of his own story telling way and just make some food. I make from scratch biscuits and I knew when I saw the dough that Michelle’s biscuits needed to go into the scraps pan. Biscuits are easy yet hard to do. Finicky. I don’t even remember their theme but their food had no visual appeal at all.

I had higher hopes for Amanda’s and Wisc guy’s dish. Her scallops looked so nicely browned in the frying pan I was almost slobbering. What Dan did was interesting and I loved how Amanda and he worked together to fix his dish.

Rasika and her cute as heck guy were so much fun to watch! (I cannot!! remember his name either! Too many an/anny ending names this season!) The famous chef who was telling Jamie in another season how to slice the potatoes precisely would have been so happy with these two’s precision cuts.
Too much showcasing the houses, too many commercials, not enough highlighting the chefs preparing their food. And not enough of the I hate you/You annoy me losing Chefs talking heads. It was comedy gold I tell ya!

Edited because autocorrect has been drinking since the last update on my phone.

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It’s Danny.

And yes! They were so confident with what they were doing, and so very skilled in doing it. It was a pleasure to watch them.

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Just finished watching the most recent LCK and there is no, no way to convince me that the fix hasn’t been in to

Summary

get Soo through and into the competition this entire way. Funny that neither time he was neck-and-neck with someone else, Tom just ‘couldn’t pick a winner,’ so they both continue on instead of Soo finally losing.

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Another interesting episode. I have no problem with the “team” competition when it was pretty easy to divide up the assignments. As long as somebody volunteers to do the dessert, everything else should have been relatively easy to come up with something that fits the broad assignment of “fish” or :“beef”.

Gail was funny with Dan’s dish.

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