Top Chef: Week 3.
I’ll hide this behind a jump so you can read it or not…
I call this The Week O’ Hatin’.
Oh, Hung. I hate you now. You’re a jerk, you make a mess, and then you could care less. You suck. Also, “my monkey could do that”? Dude, you have a monkey? Screw Top Chef, I’d be home teaching that monkey tricks. Monkeys rule!
I hate every single chef who sneered at the traditional American foods. Really, just fuck you — especially Casey. You’re from Texas; you’re telling me no one in your family has ever eaten/served one of those foods? Fuck you.
I feel kind of bad for Howie. He’s just so into it, to the point that he doesn’t want to connect with any one. It’s not ‘Nam, buddy! It’s okay to make friends with the people around you.
Again, Hung: you’re kind of a boob for turning the oven off and then blaming someone else.
Micah kind of lost me with this episode. You know, you’re on an American show: try not to offend all the Americans with the “yuck” and the “I know you like ketchup” cracks.
Plus, when she said she started her career by leaving Italy with $400, a suitcase, and her kid, I was… kind of horrified. It’s one thing to do that when you’re single and free and the world is your oyster, but you’re dragging your kid along? With just $400 and a suitcase? Jesus.
Lia is my new favorite, although lentils… eesh. I hate lentils and I think most people agree with me. Still, she won me over with her “I guess I didn’t understand how complex franks and beans could be” remark.
Howie’s apple slaw/salad and Dale’s dumplings both sound like the best things anyone’s made so far.
In the end, I was a little sad to see Micah go. She could have been a pretty great chef, but she was just… a flake, really.
Well, what about you guys? Thoughts? New favorites?
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June 28th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Evidently Hung is this season’s Marcel, which for me equals automatic haaaaaate.
CJ is shaping up to be a snarkier version of Sam, my favorite from last year. I love his blasé attitude about the one ball thing.
I would climb him like a ladder. Seriously, every few minutes I turn to Tim and say “that guy is so fucking tall!!! Mmph!!”
June 28th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I can’t seem to rally behind anyone this season. I find myself turning the channel at commercial and never bothering to turn back - getting caught up in something truly excellent like Murder, She Wrote.
sigh
My biggest problem with the show, though, is the show itself. I hate Padma, I hate the judges (so needlessly mean it actually makes my skin crawl) and I really am not digging the Marcelesque Hung.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:54 am
Kristen, once again your comments are spot on. Just when I didn’t think it was possible for Casey to be any more abrasive… My assessment of Camille last week applies this week to Lia, with her complexity comment. I agree with you on the monkey thing, although I keep thinking of Dane Cook when I think of trainng monkeys. Maybe Howie just refuses to be drawn into camaraderie with fatuous asses like Hung and Casey?
June 29th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Ok, so I went away and came back and read my last comment and thought, Holy shit! Could that have been any more stream-of-consciousness? But then somehow I posted the comment anyway, before I could comment on Sarah’s and Alyce’s comments, because I obviously have nothing else to do on a Thursday night…
Sarah: Sure, Marcel was a complete dick, but you gotta admit, some of his molecular gastronomy was at least intriguing – tomato foam?
Alyce: I think perhaps you are responding to episode editing, rather than the contestants themselves, who seem to me every bit as skilled as their predecessors. With regards to the judges comments: Tom Colicchio feels his job is to give an “honest, unflinching” appraisal of these young chefs’ skills, in order to determine who gets 100K chance to become one of the world’s (or at least the country’s) best chef. The restaurant business can be pretty brutal and I don’t think sugar coating the judges opinions would serve anyone well, from the chefs to the sponsors to the network to the audience.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I started out hating Marcel, too, but eventually I got sick of seeing him as everyone’s whipping boy, and eventually I grew to enjoy his you know what, this is who I am, and I’m not changing attitude.
I don’t really think that’s going to happen with Hung, though. He just seems like a jackass.
Also, I agree with Jay: the judges won’t do anyone any favors by being anything less than brutally honest. Colicchio has said (I think on his Top Chef blog) he’s not there to be anyone’s friend or mentor. He’s a judge and that’s what he does.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Thank you for your frank comment. :-)
What I hate is the empathy that the honest and often brutal judging brings out in me. I feel so badly for them. I also cringe at the hilarious Curb Your enthusiasm because those situations are just so mean/awful/utterly avoidable if you do the decent thing.
I agree that it’s their job. And that the contestants are better chefs for it. And that it’s a realistic view of what they’re in for in the restaurant world. But it still makes me uncomfortable.
June 29th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
You know, I actually stopped watching the last season of ‘Top Chef’ for just that reason: I just couldn’t deal with the meanness any longer, although in that case it was the other chefs, not the judges.
October 14th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I still can’t believe Hung won. I love the show, but am losing faith, this next season will hopefully be better.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Hung is a clone and stephanie was ssoooooooooooooooo predictable
August 5th, 2008 at 4:35 am
uhh yeah that being said ….. the commercials are making me never say google again