Top Chef Chicago

[Martin]

What's the name of that gal who never ceases to go on and on about how mac & cheese, lasagna and every other goddamn kind of pasta is "just her thing", "where she's from", etc? We get it, you're Italian! Pasta is awesome! How about you start making something else for a change?!

I don't like her is what I'm saying

[Laurie]

Nikki or Nicki. Maybe she should stick with pasta, because those stuffed mushroom caps she made looked and apparently tasted vile.

[erika]

My prediction for the final four:

Richard (blah)
Dale
Andrew
Stephanie

[Sarah]

Exactly what I'm thinking, erika.  I'd much rather Dale or Stephanie win than either of the other two, but they won't.  As Omar predicted at the start, Richard will win.  And it'll probably come down to a face-off between him and Andrew.

Didn't everyone just love Andrew's suggestion that his group impersonate Oompa-Loompas when they served their dish?  So clever, n'est-ce pas?

[Omar]

Speaking of Richard, has anyone seen the Iron Chef America episode where he lost to Batali in a chickpea battle?  I heard Dick got trounced.

[Laurie]

Regarding Andrew: I DON'T GET IT! How can a meth head possibly hold his hands steady enough to sauce a plate properly?

It's a mystery!

[Sarah]

I believe meth heads are known for their focus as long as they're not jonesing.

[erika]

I also keep thinking about that quail egg roll and how much I want to chomp on it.

Greg watches with me and is horrified how the chef's food is picked apart, even though he realizes that's the point of the show. He says the judges are "mean" and he would never be able to make them feel so small for something silly like not putting enough salt in a dish or for shitty presentation. (He also eats sandwiches from 7-11 on a regular basis and has, on multiple occasions, tried to serve me chicken without ANY type of seasoning on it for dinner. So he has no pallette whatsoever.)

But Sarah, he had the same response to Manuel being kicked off. He was sad because Manuel "seemed like a gentleman of good character" and he felt bad for the guy.

I told him it's all in the game...

My poor sensitive boyfriend. Aw.

[Martin]

I don't get Andrew either. To further confuse me: in the first two episodes (the first one in particular) he came across as an insane coke/meth/ADHD head who was also a nutcase childish blowhard. Now, he's on the winning teams? He's working with people? He's not picking fights? He gets along with the others? They don't shank him? What's going on here? I think maybe in the first episode he was coming down from a final binge rush, and now he's worked himself almost clean. Top Chef is his detox.

One more thing: I laughed when Mr. Pedestrian himself, Richard Roeper, said that thing about "well, I don't agree with all these experts - I love it!".

[Laurie]

I kind of like Roeper, even if I don't agree with him 80% of the time.

I was also sad to see Manuel go. He was so nice and respectful in his farewells to his fellow contestants and in his goodbye interview! What a sweetheart.

Next week: Bitchery! Snakery! Hiss! Hiss!

[Andy]

it might just be that I'm hungry, but the dishes from this weeks show looked terrific.

[Sarah]

1.  Anyone but Richard would have been kicked for not scaling the salmon properly.  That said, I'm not sorry to see Zoe go.

2.  People swear too much.  And since Bravo bleeps out cursing, it's even more distracting.  Besides, it's lazy.

3.  I don't want to see faux caviar again.

[Omar]

2.  People swear too much.  And since Bravo bleeps out cursing, it's even more distracting.  Besides, it's lazy.

Colicchio agrees.

[ughwhy]

That fight at the end of this week's episode was completely incomprehensible with all the bleeping and the quick editing. One of the few times I actually wanted a talking head to explain what the hell was going on.

I'm getting sucked into the Elizabeth Berkley dance show. Dancers are so accustomed to taking abuse & choreographers are so used to dishing it out--the stuff that gets said at judging is completely astonishing. Plus Jerry Mitchell doing his best Tim Gunn.

[Miss]

Richard Blais will win this.

That's my first impression, as well.

I agree that the Piccata was a complete mess, but you can't serve salty food and her shrimp scampi didn't even have tasty sauce on it!

And for the record, I'm also a fan of GG even though he put mashed potatoes in a souffle. Even I know better than that! I hope he sticks around for a while. I like his Mr. Clean look and all the tattoos.

As soon as she said what her shrimp sauce was, I said, "Ewww." aloud. Just didn't seem to work together at all. I can't remember what it was now. I too was a fan of GG, but knew he had to go early. He cooked bad homestyle type food, which isn't necessarily bad to normal people.. But those judges are BRUTAL. He just couldn't last.

As for Andrew - he gave me a bad first impression, but I actually like him now. He reminds me of annoying people I know that I can only handle sparingly, but are still nice / funny people. Also, when responding to any of the chefs (not contestants) comments about his food, he seems really genuine. You can tell when he's genuinely disappointed, when he makes a mistake he handles it well. And even better, you can tell when he's sincerely grateful by something they said about his food. I like that.

Erika - NO FOAM. I don't get it.

As for Zoi - It was about time she went home. wasn't it like four near eliminations in a row or something?