127 replies to this topic

[TWoP Nikita]

Early morning Quickfire at Pike Place Market; rare ingredients in the Elimination Challenge; an unexpected judges table shocks the cheftestants.

This thread will open at 11:01pm EST on December 5th.

[Lopethina]

I suppose it doesn't matter now that he's gone, but CJ's overly familiar banter with the judges during both the Quickfire and the EC was grating. Know your role!

[SueR]

And especially throwing other contestants under the bus...for what reason? The judges aren't going to change their minds. I'm so glad he lost. He is way too arrogant for his own good.

[WaltersHair]

What was with the flash camera pan to super close up of each cheftestant at the Judge's table?

CJ went out like a super diva and Tyler was a gentleman.

Glad Stefan broke the birthday curse.

[Joan21]

What an unpleasant episode. So many chefs hating each other and having no fun cooking; CJ morphing from a nice guy to a dick; the shop owners from the special ingredients having their products trashed on national television; and way too much Tom and Hugh grinning at how awesome they are at ripping people.
ETA: The Top Chef Cruise sounds horrific.

Edited by Joan21, Dec 5, 2012 @ 11:30 PM.

[Nell Huxleigh]

I thought the artisans were jerks - it will taste different after cooked another way. Maybe your favoritist part of cardamom wasn't present but they couldn't just serve back what they'd been given. Pickles and cheese curds aren't exactly impressive and rose water jelly sounds like something from between my gram's toes. And the chefs had two hours and were working in pairs, which almost guarantees failure.

[allyone]

I thought the artisans were fine. It seemed to me by the level of embarrassment and apology from Padma and Tom that the dishes that were prepared were pretty substandard. I'm not sure I've ever seen them apologize to guests before or take the win off the table. It must have been pretty awful. The simple fact that CJ prepared a burger to showcase a pickle was pretty ridiculous. I just feel bad that Tyler went down with him, because Tyler's idea sounded a lot better.

And I love Hugh for taking CJ down after CJ showed himself to be a special kind of asshole by coming back on his way out of the room to try to throw another team under the bus.

[TiffanyNichelle]

Poor Tyler. I felt awful for him because CJ screwed them. He should have fought harder to get his dish made instead of doing that burger.

I agree that CJ is just way too familiar with the judges. No one else would have stopped to complain about the dessert. I think that moment is what sealed it for him going home.

Tom being so angry was awesome. I'm glad they didn't give anyone any of the money.

[Jaen the Glad]

It seemed to be the problem with almost every team that they were so afraid to butt heads that everyone acted against their better judgment and, as Tom said, "nobody fought for the food." That's why all the results were awful. Too much concentration went to avoiding conflict.

CJ's Tom imitation was too funny, as was Tom's reaction. But CJ's nasty parting sabotage was no laugh. He really deserved Hugh's smackdown. Hugh seemed to be in an unusually savage mood. The food was that bad, huh.

[Quilt Fairy]

I still can't get a handle on calling a ground pork patty a 'burger'. And that was all on CJ, it sounded like Tyler had a really interesting idea for, you know, actually incorporating the pickle into the dish.

So Tom can hold back a prize on the fly and he can also kick off 2 people instead of one on the fly? Interesting.

If the QF was in the morning and the EC was lunch, I don't understand why they made everyone wait overnight for JT.

I wish some other channel would buy this show so I could take Bravo off my favorite channels list. I can't stand Andy Cohen. I also hate the jingle in that damn Prius commercial they play 20 times every episode.

[SunShine Gal]

I liked CJ in his season, but his failings, bad explanations, and cockiness really chipped away at his likeability. I don't want to say I completely dislike him now. He needs his humility back. The person I feel sorry for most this episode is Tyler. He was looking up to CJ and thinking CJ had the experience and knew better. Tyler was taken down by CJ's lack of creativity. Burger with a pickle? Seriously? I'm gonna say it...
this is Top Chef... not Top Big Mac. AND, it was a horrible looking burger!

I'm glad that Tom was mad and told the chefs that he was taking the 10K off the table since no one won.

Josie can be the next to go. I'm not liking her smug face this time around either. She was okay in her season, but she seems to think she's entitled to something, too. She thinks she's that good so BRING IT! Stop whining and COOK!

I like Hugh's wit. When CJ asked why the dessert wasn't in the bottom, Hugh came back quick telling CJ "and your burger was even worse!" Someone had to say it and Hugh was right there. I also laughed at his line about Stefan's rose water jelly cabbage dish making him feel like he was eating someone's grandmother.

The judges table was interesting in that Hugh, Padma, and Tom, all had differing opinions on what was the worst dish. Most of the time the judges all agree. CJ can feel a little less wounded that Padma liked his burger better than the other two teams. If we believe the editing, Gail won't be getting any Christmas cards from him.

Edited by SunShine Gal, Dec 6, 2012 @ 1:47 AM.

[WickedTuna]

I don't like team challenges but I do get a chuckle out of watching them pair up on their own. Too bad Tyler didn't run away as fast as he could from CJ. He's grown on me and I hated seeing CJ drag him down.

I thought those were really tough ingredients to try and highlight.

So Tom can hold back a prize on the fly and he can also kick off 2 people instead of one on the fly? Interesting.

If the QF was in the morning and the EC was lunch, I don't understand why they made everyone wait overnight for JT.

I was wondering about both of those. If Tom can change those things can he take away immunity too? I thought maybe waiting overnight could have been a scheduling conflict.

Did Josh really say he's pretty likable? That was hilarious.

[buttersister]

Thank you for getting CJ off my TV, Gail.
And thanks for the massively uncomfortable dining scenario, Show. Some of the product producers looked like they didn't know where to put their WTF? face when they tasted their ingredients' dishes.

I'll assume Tom had a word with Bravo producers before lowering the boom on this crew. The word must have been "blecch" along with, "if you don't think I'm right, you eat some of this crap."

[whee whee piggy]

I just noticed that Josh had cauliflower ears tonight. A wrestler? And for all his blowharding, John seems to be a pussy, since he wouldn't stand up to Josh's passive-aggressive crap. Ironically, since John is obviously one of TCO, Josh gets saved for being on the team with him.

That burger looked hideous on that pale disc of a crumpet. Be gone, CJ, be gone.

I thought for sure the female chef whose name I don't know was gone for sure because suddenly we were seeing her wedding pictures. Oh, and the other woman I have no idea who she is, when we saw the pics of her kid. Were they the same woman? Obviously still too many cheftestants.

I also find it disgusting that Stefan and the good female chef remaining (Just realized all the women remaining suck, with maybe some hope for the SA woman) smoke. No wonder Stefan couldn't tell his food was too sweet. His palate's fried.

Tom's hoodie was an odd fashion choice. But incredibly sexy.

[Ginandtonic]

I also find it disgusting that Stefan and the good female chef remaining (Just realized all the women remaining suck, with maybe some hope for the SA woman) smoke. No wonder Stefan couldn't tell his food was too sweet. His palate's fried.

I think 90% of people who work in kitchens smoke, at least that's the impression I get from watching cooking competition shows, especially ones like this show or Hell's Kitchen that also show the contestants in their living space.

[Kali12]

I also find it disgusting that Stefan and the good female chef remaining (Just realized all the women remaining suck, with maybe some hope for the SA woman) smoke. No wonder Stefan couldn't tell his food was too sweet. His palate's fried.

ITA. It never stops surprising me how many chefs smoke.

Surprising that Tom would leave a tie breaker up to Gail, I would have thought he'd just get his way, as usual (imo, especially after Antonia was robbed when Tom made Puck switch his vote for F2--that's what I got out of it anyway). Glad CJ's gone. Sorry he'll have a chance to come back. I loved Hugh and Tom not taking his b.s. Because Tom might say, "you could have served a simple, but perfectly roasted chicken" but he would never say, "You could have featured that perfect pickle in a perfect hamburger"--not to mention, the hamburger was disgusting. A soggy crumpet...yuck. And, at the last minute, putting a pickle on it just like everyone always does. Wow. Original.

What were they thinking? So glad Hugh shot him down after the "sabotage the dessert" effort.

Am I ever going to like any of the remaining people enough to care if they win? So far, it's not happening.

[BuddhaBelly]

Why Tyler? Why? The people I like keep dropping like flies and all the assholes are left.

[Zzingerific]

Again the editors caught CJ in a, well, not exactly lie. Tyler did have an idea other than the burger, which CJ nixed. When CJ was alone, he tried to pretend that he was cooking down to Tyler's level by going with the burger. Please, CJ.

[RowingPains]

I think these chefs are afraid to be seen fighting or something. It bothered me that the SA woman acquiesced to the red head's idea because her fish would've been better and in my opinion she is a superior chef. I'm glad she didn't go home for that dessert.

[arc]

And I love Hugh for taking CJ down after CJ showed himself to be a special kind of asshole by coming back on his way out of the room to try to throw another team under the bus.

And on top of that, in his talking head he also tried to insinuate that it was Tyler's fault when he whined about going out on a team challenge. Yeah, a challenge where he led the concept and during service he was totally happy with what his team was serving. What an ass.

[Mrs Bee]

That was brutal. Just brutal. I think that some of the chefs are so concerned over looking like asses (after some of the previous year's cheftestants) that, as Tom said, no one fought for the food, or their own concept. I get that some of the ingredients were a bit odd, but really, no one thought to make Indian or middle eastern insipred food with the cardamom bitters or curry chocolate, or turkish inspired food with rosewater jelly? Cheese curds might not sound inspiring, but as a midwestern gal, I can tell you that I have ahd some incredible deep fried cheese curds. Too easy? OK, make elevated Mac and Cheese, or a take on grilled cheese sandwiches. Spicy pickles, what Tyler wanted to do sounded interesting at least. Too bad he paid the price.

Unfortunately, until the herd is thinned, challenges are done in groups, or pairs mostly. This allows for better chefs to be taken down by their partner or group.

[auntlada]

I just noticed that Josh had cauliflower ears tonight. A wrestler?

Yes.

[berenjena]

I think time had something to do with this weeks food.

Two hours. Think about it. If a team starts arguing, they are done for also.

So far bringing back the cheftestants has only made for drama and has not improved the quality of competition. I think a veteran has been in bottom every episode. Also, we see multiple talking heads of the 3. Stephan has always given good head ;) but the other two not so much. We don't get a chance to know the original Seattle cast because of this "twist" in the game.

[redfin4]

So glad CJ is finally gone. His sucking up to the judges, his behind-their-back chef bashing, his JT backstabbing & his unexplainable arrogance were already ridiculous. And then in this episode he sinks even lower with his childish Middle School taunts about his partner's appearance. Unbelievable.

Also kind of unbelievable that Brooke would assume that "He'll be back". Really? I mean, was she just being 'nice' of did she really think that CJ could beat all of them in the remaining Last Chance Kitchen challenges? It would be really surprising if any of the chefs had been fooled into thinking CJ was a better chef than any of them.

The unfortunate part of this episode was Tyler was taken out as collateral damage. His Chowder with a Pickle Fritter sounded more like a Top Chef caliber dish than CJs pathetic-looking burger. His confidence seemed to be growing and had he been in 1 or 2 more good challenges, I think he may have stood up more for his own ideas.

One good thing to come out of this was Tyler seemed to have gotten as much as he could out of the brief time he was on and he left with a good experience. Tyler's super classy exit further highlighted how far from classy CJ is. I hope Tyler lasts longer than that jerk.

I'm no fan of Team Challenges that eliminate the whole team, but I gotta say - I was super worried about this elimination. More than I have been about an elimination in a long time.

I was worried for John, who had been doing backflips trying to play nice.
I was worried for Stefan and The Dreaded Birthday Curse.
And I was worried for Tyler who got saddled with the worst possible partner.

Not saying I want them to do this again, but it was nice to be so hooked on a TC ending again.

[MeeMaw]

Did anyone else find this episode to be short on content and heavy on ads? Down here in Texas, there was a lengthy promo for the new film Les Miserables. It went on for so long that I thought I had accidentally changed the channel and was no longer watching Top Chef.

I'm glad to see CJ gone. I don't remember him being so arrogant and abrasive during his season, and his familiarity with the judges was ridiculous. Sorry to lose Tyler. I wish him well with his cooking and his continued sobriety.

I'm ready for Josie to leave. She's completely annoying and hasn't cooked nearly well enough to outlast some of the newbies.

[Lamb18]

I felt bad for Tyler--he really lost out on being teamed up with CJ. And CJ is a horrible jerk. His arrogance is amazing. He's worse than Stefan because Stefan has some self-honesty and can laugh at himself. When Tom talked to all the contestants I was confused about how the elimination was going to work. At first I thought all were going to go (but didn't see how that would be practical), then thought there was going to be a cook-off like Iron Chef Redemption. I'm glad Kristen(?) (last week's winner) was safe. I was afraid she might be the next to go.

Too bad about Tyler. Maybe I'll vote for him.

[AriAU]

Not a lot to enjoy in this episode. People trying not to piss off other cheftestants, weird ingredients, not enough time to plan and cook with said weird ingredients, requiring them to serve on a stick (the toothpick in DC at least had a purpose), uniformily unappealing looking and then bad tasting food and people acting like assholes at judges table-what fun.
My pet peave was the concept of having to put together your own kitchen to cook-makes sense if they are out in the desert or a field, but to require it for product placement purposes is just annoying and keeps them from doing their best work.

[cooksdelight]

My heart broke for Tyler. After all he's been through with staying sober, his self-confidence in question, and he gets paired up with an ass. I wish Tom had decided that two people who were responsible for their choice of a bad dish go home instead of the way he did it.

But it is Tom's show. As head honcho/executive producer, he can do whatever he wants.

[ME Again]

Surprising that Tom would leave a tie breaker up to Gail, I would have thought he'd just get his way, as usual...

I read that scene as creative editing to create drama going into the commercial since we never heard Gail say that the burger was her least favorite - it was just made to look that way since that team went home. And Padma didn't convince me that she really thought the duck was the worst dish. They just needed each dish to get one vote going into the break.

I like Tyler and was sorry to see him go, but he bugged me a little this episode with his constant deferring to CJ. I wish he had stood up for himself a little more and had more confidence. I know CJ is such an ass that it wouldn't really have mattered, but it would have been nice for me to see.

I'm ready for Josie to leave. She's completely annoying and hasn't cooked nearly well enough to outlast some of the newbies.

Agree - but I would like to see Josh go first. I can't stand his constantly blaming other people - mainly John. He threw John under the bus both times he has been in the bottom instead of taking responsibility for his cooking. It is never his fault - he is the victim (blech).

[charmgirl]

One good thing to come out of this was Tyler seemed to have gotten as much as he could out of the brief time he was on and he left with a good experience. Tyler's super classy exit further highlighted how far from classy CJ is. I hope Tyler lasts longer than that jerk.

And you know who else was a jerk to sweet, kind, classy Tyler? Josh? What the hell was his attack on Tyler about after they went back to the apartment to await their impending doom?

I mean I get it... saying stuff like "Maybe it was meant to be" might irritate the never-say-die-or-admit-defeat crowd. But, that's how Tyler chose to deal with his probable fate.

What's it to Josh? Be ticked off in the confessional... but don't jump all over the man because he's trying cling to what makes him feel better.

I don't mind John --- but Josh I CAN NOT stand! He so sure he will win. I will take great pleasure in seeing him chopped. And is definitely not likable... well, at least to me.

And I love Hugh for taking CJ down after CJ showed himself to be a special kind of asshole by coming back on his way out of the room to try to throw another team under the bus.

Okay, so how exactly did CJ envision that in his head? Did he think the judges would say:

"You know what? You're right! The dessert really sucked. We don't know what we were thinking bringing your team in here over the dessert team. We change our minds. You guys go back into the stew room. You're safe... send the dessert chefs back in here. We'll send their sorry asses home instead. Thank you CJ for showing us the error of our ways." What an asshole!

Edited by TWoP Nikita, Dec 6, 2012 @ 11:05 AM.
removed excessive bolding