I have really liked Kristin as a host. I don’t even really miss Padma and I love Padma.
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It could also have been that another contestant dropped out for medical reasons at the last second, or had some personal emergency. If that’s the case, I suspect Soo was actually the 17th contestant, and not the 16th, and the show always intended him to blaze through LCK and go into the TC contest the way he did.
I noticed on every cut since LCK existed, Tom tells the contestant that they have a chance to come back, and he’ll see them there. Dave didn’t have that said to him on camera, and that makes me think that he wasn’t offered the chance to go to LCK. Or the show decided they were over his remarks, and waved bye-bye to him. Whatever Dave says about not being offered to go to LCK, I think there’s a lot more to it than he’ll ever admit. It could be that the show only left in Dave’s two lame jokes jabbing at Tom, and there were a lot more ‘jokes’ that weren’t shown, or he said even worse things during the competition.
After the TC winner for Portland was erased from the TC universe, I don’t think the show is going to risk another scandal like that, and simply waved bye-bye to Dave.
I can’t wait for tonight’s episode, Restaurant Wars. I wonder how they’ll do it with 9 contestants?
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Random catch up thoughts:
I liked last week’s sausage episode. I remember a time when Tom would have been “you didn’t make the sausage?” so I am wondering about that relaxing of his standards. I was kind of bummed that Lauren(?) got dinged for her spices being to strong in the chorizo she made. Wondering if it would have been perfect if there had been time for the flavors to meld and settle. Chorizo seems like that needs to happen.
Loved Dan’s quick fire twenty minute curveball “I should give up” talking head immediately becoming “maybe I will stick around” after the prize money turned out to be big.
I am also confused about the restaurant wars. My theory is there will be an elimination at the start. Or LCK will send someone out and it will be a ten person match, five on each team.
Also randomly, I dislike that Milk Bar baker because she is the reason for the naked cake trend that in my opinion, ruined many a wedding.
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Turns out they just let the winner choose which team to go to, and that was that. The whole thing with “we can eliminate two people at any point” seems to be pretty true to how they presented it to us. If they find two people one week who deserve to go, then that’ll be the week. If not, then they’ll just keep rolling with one more than expected.
As far as I was concerned, they got the right person to send home after Restaurant Wars. At least the way it was edited, it was a logical elimination.
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I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet so that is good to know ahead. They really are changing things up this season. The back of my brain is thinking though that this happened before? Maybe not the extra person but the choosing which kitchen you wanted to be in?
I kind of think I do want to go in not spoilered this time. I am going to just check the thread later tonight when I get around to watching and hope there is a post or posts here to interact with.
Wow
What part has you thinking that?
I’m curious about that, too. 
Uneven teams seem unfair, at first, but it has been done before and the team with the most people has lost in that way. Plus, if they win (as they did here), they have to split the prize among more people at get less. And they did make more dishes.
Anyway, on to other things. I don’t think any dish was a complete stinker here, but none really wowed either, it seems. I’m thinking it was all good to really good food. Dan’s smoked walleye, and Michelle’s oyster sauce did seem to impress, though. I’m glad Michelle’s lackluster FOH didn’t do her in. I was also surprised by it. It’s like she didn’t want to interact with the judges, or other patrons, at all.
It is LCK and also that I liked this episode.
I still am unsure if we just agreed to discuss here with or without spoilers for LCK
eta not asking for a seperate thread just clarification (possibly again since my brain has been mush lately) if LCK needs to be spoilered in this thread or if this is a catchall.
I can’t put my finger on why it was chaotic for me but I think it was because of how they kept cutting back and forth between the chef’s tables and that both settings look so much alike. It was hard to tell which chef’s they were talking about while eating.
As far as food, the only thing I remember are Michelle’s and Wisconsin guy (sorry, still having trouble with all the -an/anny names). I laughed at Channel will be seafood based and Wisconsin is all I will do beets! Ha, and then it was nice in the car when they were discussing the menu and Michelle was able to get Wisconsin to realize beets were not going to work in this instance. She was so soothing when she was talking and he was so receptive and I could almost see his quiet aha! moment when he was working out his dish while driving. It just struck me as a nice little moment. If you go back and watch it you will see it better than I explained.
I don’t think this is the first time for prepared tickets but I found myself wondering why it was not a natural “of course” thing since the beginning of TC, or at least since the second episode. And also, is it just not done in cheffy places to have numbers on the table to help expedite dishes?
Kaleena has issues. I feel for her yet I think she uses her mental health to cover up a temper/a somewhat bratty personality/does not play well with others issue and I don’t think she realizes it. I wish her well because I think she is trying to navigate a lot for herself.
Soo is sooooooo laid-back. And cute. I remember nothing of his food.
I really like Amanda. And I like Lauren even though she is getting a villain edit.
eta it is driving me crazy figuring out if I need that apostrophe on the second chef in the first paragraph, ha!
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In the last couple of days, just skimming by the Food Network, I saw her on a “Beat Bobby Flay” episode and a “Chopped” episode.
Not sure how many of our other folks have made the rounds on competitive cooking shows prior to Top Chef, but for sure Kaleena has done so.
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The old double elimination episode. We’re at the point in the season where people get sent home for just not being as good as the others, so I’m not shocked by what happened in this one. It felt to me that while they had a top three and a bottom three, that it was more like 4 they liked and 4 that were just okay.
I don’t think the 2 eliminated had horrible dishes either, but maybe they were both equally "bad " (i.e. not as good as the others) and would have been difficult to pick one? (Or maybe, the structure of upcoming challenged made would make it harder with more people so they figured now or never?)
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I really enjoyed Michelle! I would hope that when they gather together a future All-Star group, that they seriously consider bringing her back again. Just a really nice combination of talent and personality!
And I think it was Gail who nailed it when she for all intents and purposes said, “this one should have been right up her alley, and instead she went with something that was completely not her.”
People who win Top Chef tend to not worry about things like “I don’t want to be predictable” and just bang out great food that always represents them.
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Anyone watch last night?
I did! I’m totally okay with the elimination.
For what it’s worth, 23 out of 26 correct on the blind tasting was incredible. He didn’t say he caught on to the alphabet theme, but that would explain an awful lot if he did.
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Watched it On Demand today. Why was Gail wearing a negligee to dinner?
I was fine with Manny going, too. And as he said - he served raw fish* so of course he should be eliminated.
*and not purposely like sushi
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Thank goodness that they eventually hit a couple excellent dishes at the end there. They were serving up a pretty uninspiring meal though the first six.