Top Chef - S7E9 Postmortem

There it is... routinely one of the best episodes every season.

First off, I'm not shocked by Kenny's ouster, though it could be only because I accidentally saw the result before I saw the show, so there was no JT surprise for me. I definitely don't buy that he was jobbed, whether or not I agree with sending him home rather than Amanda (I'm more interested than usual in the judges' blogs this week). But while all of these other things -- FOH, organization, leadership, etc. -- are important, they've still always treated it primarily as a food competition, so I think it's a little hard to claim that somebody who botched two dishes got screwed.

You know what else? I don't feel the competition is lessened by his departure. Not because I don't think he was a strong contender, but because this incredibly evenly-matched field means that excellence can come from anywhere at any time. At this point, I'm not especially invested in seeing anybody in particular make the finale. I'm just very, very curious to see how it all shakes out.

Don't want to dwell on it too much, but I share others' disgust with the pile-on that's happening with Alex. His own team taking the food out of his hands is weak, but understandable. The blue team lashing out at him, however, just struck me as horribly classless. Almost all of your dishes had significant problems. Take responsibility for that.

Lots to break down this week. Hopefully the supplementary materials will add a little more daylight.

Comments

[Independent George]

Oh my God, they killed Kenny!!!

Sorry. Analysis later. I've just been dying to say that.

[Bart]

Wow.

WOW.

Did NOT see that coming.

I bet you Tom's blog will say that Kenny went home for the cheese dish (makes me think of Dale Talde and his disaster - what was it, peanut butter scallops or something equally ridiculous?).

But, Kenny DEFINITELY had his kitchen much more organized than the other kitchen. Then again, if your kitchen is that organized, and all you need to do is cook - even then, you can't successfully pull off your dishes, that's a bit worrying, no? That doesn't bode well for Amanda. At least Kenny was distracted by organizing the restaurant.

Still in shock - I really thought Amanda was going home.

Frank Bruni was a good guest judge, I thought. Perhaps a little harsh, but we expected that. And was it any surprise that Nancy Pelosi chose the blue team? ;-)

What else? Good Kevin showed up this episode. Tiffany got major props. Ed should get a nice bump in the ratings. But Kenny gone? Ouch. This is worse than losing Dale Talde.

[DebbyT]

I have no words

[gdis]

Two observations:

I really hated the way the other team threw Alex under the bus; yeah they want to win and yeah he didn't do a whole lot. However, he was on the best team and did do prep work and was all over the wait staff. That was cheap on their part.

Kenny really has been off and on. "The beast is gone"? Seriously? He was never the beast in my opinion. Obviously Angelo is #1 again after this week - he ran a kitchen (non Asian!) that put out a good menu and he had good food. The guy knows what he's doing. By far the most interesting food wise.

[potty mouth princess]

Who called Kenny as the Out during RW WEEKS ago? I owe that poster a few rounds of drinks.

Falls in with a long line of better level chefs whose downfall has been in this spot: the aforementioned Dale Talde and, of course, Tre Wilcox.

[Independent George]

Ok, right after I leave a comment about the importance of organization and planning, the team that plans & organizes their restaurant best flops because they forgot how to cook. Typical.

I really hated the piling on towards Alex. I feel like he was set up to be the sacrificial lamb - they stuck him in the FOH even though his biggest weakness is organization, knowing it would weaken the team effort as a whole, precisely so he could take the heat for it. I feel like they also denied him a dish partly so they could say he did nothing if they were on the bottom. It's to their credit that they still placed on top, but I thought the whole thing was terribly unfair.

I feel that Kenny really got hurt by placing in the middle the last few weeks. The common theme in all those dishes was that he put too much on the plate and needed to self-edit; but because he was in the middle, he never heard any of that. He would have been better off placing in the bottom just so he could get some feedback. Not knowing what was wrong, he decided to ramp it up instead of settling down.

[Independent George]

The irony of the 'Executive Chef Curse' in this instance is that Kenny actually thrived in the role. He just screwed up his dishes.

[Alvin]

I always thought Kenny was a bit overrated...but this was too early for him to go. However...I can't justify anyone else on that team leaving.

I mean...they despised that cheese dish. And his other dish didn't really help matters. So I think that combination weighed more than his handling of the kitchen and Amanda's botching of the beef.

Bruni is awesome. Hamburger helper...hehe.

[Steve F.]

Very sad for Kenny. As we weren't there, obviously we wonder how the judges could choose him over Amanda. Kenny at least held the kitchen together, but then he let Kelly and Amanda serve mediocre or worse food. And then he cooked one horrible and one mediocre dish himself. Kelly compensated with the ganache and her command of the FOH. So it must have been between Kenny and Amanda. Would've given Kenny the benefit of the doubt. But, oh well.

Surprised that since Kenny went home, the real "Beast", Angelo, did not win. He raked everyone over the coals to make sure everything was as good as it could be. That was an achievement under the circumstances - a heavy load.

Alex got a bum rap for not cooking. He prepped and "conceived" his dish. That was all that was required, right? "Conceiving" a dish? He couldn't cook it since he was FOH.

[Bill]

Thought they made the right choice. I would have been surprised if it was someone else.
I also don't like the way they pile on Alex.

[Sarah C.]

While I really thought they were going to can Amanda, I'm not at all shocked or saddened that Kenny is gone. He killed it in the mise en place challenge, but really has put forth a really poor showing ever since. He's been on the bottom a lot, the judges constantly note that his dishes are overworked and need editing but Kenny never seemed to get the message. I get that people loved him because he's a big cuddly robe-wearing teddy bear, but his talent turned out to be overrated.

I agree with gdis that it was poor form for Team 2121 to throw Alex under the bus like that. He was on the winning team! They're not going to cut him! Get over it! The judges just sat there and told you your food was bad...show some accountability.

That being said, Alex is cooking on borrowed time here on Top Chef. I totally get the frustration of his teammates given that he was tasked with butchering proteins which had to then be redone because he screwed it up. Did anyone doubt that he would screw up FOTH too? He managed to be douchey and awkward all at the same time. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was just getting the villain edit, but now I'm convinced that he's just a train wreck.

[Anon man]

@potty, I believe that is nomnomnom. He might be unbearable until next week. But, when you're right, you're right. Dom also gets props for noting that he was waiting for the call out at JT with "why 94509 ingredients in that ______". Kenny's food sounded bad. So, probably the right call. But, I thought he was a legit challenger with Angelo, both in food and ego, so now the season got a little less interesting. Hamburger helper? Dagger.

Cooked cheese: We'll call it the Jen Biestly and Kenny curse.

Pelosi was about as interesting as the other Pol judges. Nice things about both dishes, and a gentle negative. But, really, no worse than any other non-chef judge.

The Alex didn't cook thing might have seemed untoward, but I saw it as the last gasp of some contenders (Good Kevin, Kelly, Kenny) who knew one was going home. Best way to dodge a bullet is get someone else in front of you. Bruni's take was right: Team wins, you're safe; them the rules.

Heading out for the SoCal homeland for two weeks, so I'll probably miss much of the banter over next week's episode. Catch you guys for the round of 6.

[Steve F.]

Kenny's ego was not checked, as we thought he had done so the past few weeks. He was overconfident. And finally, worse yet, he got it into his head that others were at fault, not his cooking, for his showing.

[Naomi]

Wow! Very surprised!

I'm trying to decide how I'd keep score. Kenny does something wrong (2 bad dishes) and something right (ran a good kitchen). Amanda had only one thing to do and she did it poorly - no good to balance it. With that thinking, Amanda goes home. BUT, Kenny made two bad dishes. One bad dish and you could say someone had an off night. Two bad dishes...I don't know.

And I have to disagree with this:

This is worse than losing Dale Talde

Kenny talked a big game but, in my opinion, he didn't produce food that was consistently as good as Dale's.

[LynnO]

Great episode -- so much drama! Yes, Alex is the worst chef left (and an ass to waiters!) but this only buys him another week or so. He'll get his dues. And if Kenny did such a poor job with TWO dishes, he deserves to go home. A bit early for a middle-of-the-packer, but hopefully one of the stronger chefs will prevail. I don't really have a favorite this season, but it's been fun to watch. So wasn't it hilarious that Alex's dish had a pea puree?!?! Though did Angelo or Ed recommend it -- maybe as a dig?

[bryanD]

Zoiks! A fast post-game posting!
That means I'm upping my (timely albeit used) commentary up, too.
(Sorry for being gauche! But no one else is even touching what needs a real throttling:)
------------------------------namely (slightly edited):
I am hoping against hope that Top Chef has not just Jumped the Shark.

The editing (leading-on) contained in this RW episode was (in over-emotional teevee parlance) borderline criminal. What we saw is Not what we got.

When the ending is not illumined by what has been portrayed, then the entire construct must be questioned by Serious People.

NEVERTHELESS! I must cling to native Optimism in the face of an otherwise barren teevee schedule, and await with bated breath the expert appraisal of Dom du Skilletdoux, who I imagine is pissed.
-------------------the end.

Addenda: 1) Kenny got screwed. No two ways about it.

2) The "throw the jew Alex down the well" BS is becoming pathological. Even a pro-Palestinian USMC pinko grunt like me is getting worn out by the feral spectacle of it. Is this season being monitored by some university sociology department? Homeland Security? B'ah!

[ally]

I also thought Amanda was going home. Shocking. There have been many Kenny doubters, and I was not the person who predicted Kenny was going home during RW but ...

S7E6 power rankings, Ally sez...

"One problem I'm having with Kenny is that its important that the cheftestants take criticism on board and address issues that the judges have with their food. He's been lucky in the sense that he's been on the bottom and heard the criticism that he has too much going on with his dishes. Unfortunately, he seems to be too egotistical to re-think this approach and simplify a little. That's why I think he has the biggest potential to flame out and soon. But now that I've said that, I've just anti-jinxed him and he'll probably win the whole thing ;)"

My take-home message? I jinxed my anti-jinx!

[Scott]

surprise surprise, another restaurant wars, another upset. alex really didn't complete a dish and I'm surprised the fairies didn't call him out on it. It's getting perplexing as to why the rules are never enforced on this show as to "build drama." Also, This is akin to Tre going home.

[garik16]

Don't forget, Alex really screwed up with salting the fish early in the quickfire too.

[Esther]

I particularly hated the elves this week. I'm not sure what purpose vilifying Alex so thoroughly served; it certainly doesn't make me want to tune in next week to watch him even more. While I can imagine how his abrasive personality could be biasing the chefs' opinions, he did seem to make a lot of legitimately terrible mistakes, and that's just not fun to watch.

I disagree with the comments that criticize EVOO's decision to put him out front. It's not throwing him under the bus; it's putting your team's greatest liability in a position where he can't do too much harm. And that's exactly what happened: despite the poorer FOH on their side, they won, because the food was better. The alternative would be to trust Alex with the quality of their food, and I can understand why they didn't want to do that.

Tiffany continues to be the only truly likable person left. Angelo continues to be consistently not bad. Amanda continues to show her cooking inexperience. Kenny leaves well after I stopped rooting for him. Blah.

[bfish]

Although the "Mission" team lost in RW last year, and tonight "EVOO" won, wasn't Laurine in a similar situation to Alex? She prepped a lamb dish that Kevin cooked and it was considered a failure. Both she and Alex were FOH. I don't remember if Laurine contributed another dish. Sure, the red team tonight probably did a lot more with Alex's dish than Kevin did with Laurine's dish (wink, wink) but I don't think the situation was remarkably different, so the indignation expressed by Kenny and Kevin tonight seemed disproportionate considering past RW history. Help me out here, TC fans, if I'm remembering wrong!

No issues with Frank Bruni as judge for me. He's getting trashed on another forum. I enjoyed his reviews in the NYT and especially the excerpts from his book. More judges like him and fewer like Art Smith is fine by me!

[Lon]

Amanda clearly thought she was going home.

Dom's comments about Kenny in the rankings this week were right on. Tonight's episode was the culmination of Kenny doing lesa and less with more and more.

One thing my writing teacher stressed over and over was that a successful story was not what was included, but what was edited out. KISS principle. I think the same can be true for food.

Simple food well prepared or rescontructed with a novel viewpoint should always outperform "busy" food or ill-prepared food.

Ed finally pulling out a win just confirms comments from many in previous weeks' posts. The field is so even, anyone can win, and anyone can lose. Even Tiffany, who blew everyone else out of the water last week, stumbled a bit this week.

Are we ready to start talking finalists yet? Not me. I think just about anyone can go up or down next week.

[Daniel]

Tonight's episode really illustrated for me some of the misconceptions of what constitutes a functional team vs. a dysfunctional team.

We had one team that consistently through the episode got along beautifully and was well organized. This seemed like an extremely functional team.

We had another team that was disorganized, angry, and rife with tension. This seemed like an extremely dysfunctional team.

Now, barring F.O.T.H. performance, at judges' table, it turned out that things were exactly the opposite. The functional team was dysfunctional, the dysfunctional team functional.

Part of the reason for this apparent 'switch' was the editing, of course - we were led to believe that one team was doing great while the other was doing poorly...but I think it goes deeper than that, and in ways that we've seen before. Kenny's team looked functional because they weren't arguing, and they seemed organized - and yes, those can both be important attributes of a well-functioning team.

And yet...no one told Kenny his beets were overworked or that his cheese dish was disgusting - and I find it very difficult to believe that none of his teammates felt that way; No one advised Amanda on how to properly cut her beef; No one criticized Kelly on the flavors of her soup - the team might have gotten along, but that doesn't mean they were functioning well, or functioning as a team.

Angelo's team might have been disorganized, they might have been unpleasant, but they were also checking each others' work: Alex's butchering was fixed. Alex's dish was completed, and completed with care; And while Tiffany might have messed up her crudo, she couldn't have messed it up very much since the judges didn't mention it to her. The team dynamic might have been horrific, but based on their output, they did, in fact, function well as a team.

We've seen this in prior seasons as well, and it certainly isn't limited to the show. One of the greatest potential advantages to a team exercise is the ability to get timely and incisive criticism...yet this advantage is often lost when team members are more concerned with a pleasant process than a proper outcome.

[Joe S]

Arghhhhhh my horse is out of the race!!!

[bfish]

Daniel, I think your comments about the team dynamics and how they affected the outcome are right on! Too much group-think and not enough atmosphere that engenders free exchange of ideas, including criticism, is a killer to a successful product or project. Thank you!

[Kathy from Austin]

Three thoughts: 1. Should have been Alex. I have lost any respect for him and it makes me re-think Peagate. I get that the judges don't get into what happened behind the curtain, and I knew when they did not bring the "winning" team out again that the dye had been cast, but come on!
2. Are you kidding me?? Amanda should have gone home rather than Kenny. Kenny kept that operation running smoothly and is deserving of respect for the entire operation. 3. Kenny outsmarted himself. Again. He seems to understand food, but felt the need to overproduce when simple flavors would have won the day.

Aaaargh!!!!

[garik16]

Check out Tom Colichio's twitter account. He claims at least three contestants saw Alex MAKE the pea puree, not steal it.

[Kathy from Austin]

P.S. Why is religion (Judaism) even brought up in this conversation? This blog is about FOOD and tangentially Top Chef. No one to my knowledge even brought up that particular Briar Patch, BryanD, with all due respect. Let's leave that kettle of fish unopened, just as we would Nancy Pelosi's appearance. Per Dom's request.

[Daniel]

Bryan: Agree with Kathy - at one point this episode, Alex's Star of David was shown. It was probably pretty prominent to those of us who are Jewish, and perhaps noticeable on some level even to those who aren't.

Alex is sloppy. Alex is a little awkward. Alex looks a little bit like a horrified ostrich. Alex is unreliable as a chef, and his teammates are irritated as hell by that. Alex was also an utter douche to the waitstaff. But I don't think the viewing public could give a crap whether or not Alex is Jewish, and I can't imagine any of his fellow chefs do either.

So let's fix your 2):

"The "throw Alex down the well" BS is becoming pathological."

Agreed :)

In terms of fixing your 1)...well,

Kenny put out a mediocre dish (the beets), a horrific dish (the cheese), and failed as EC (as pleasant a kitchen as he might have run, it was a failing kitchen). So I'm not sure how he got screwed. He had a lousy day, but that's not him getting screwed. And while he's most certainly a far better chef than Amanda, he wasn't a better chef today. Doing more only helps if you do one of them successfully, and unfortunately, his low (the cheese) was lower than her low (the beef). It sucks that he went home before she did, but honestly, how on earth could the judges have legitimately decided differently?

[Steve F.]

garik16: Check out Tom Colichio's twitter account. He claims at least three contestants saw Alex MAKE the pea puree, not steal it.

Thanks for pointing it out. So now we can be sure that Alex did not steal Ed's puree. Yes, the elves love casting Alex as a bad guy. Me, I just think that it's cool to have someone around with a lot of personality. Aside from Tiffany, the others would put me to sleep.

[dach]

Amanda dish was not all bad. Her sauce was very good (as usual). The problem was overdone meat, with at least one customer return. She knew she was struggling with the wood grill, and working with grass fed beef.

Alex got piled on by the house. Not sure why his prep was so problem, does he not do any prep, has never done protein prep?. .

[timothy]

Props to nomnomnom. He called the loser and the winner. The man knows his Restaurant Wars. I was impressed by Angelo this week. When the group mugged Alex and he sputtered back a response, Angelo said, "You don't have to justify yourself," which I inferred to mean, "You were on the winning team. You did the jobs we asked you to do. That's fine." I thought that was a good approach and it made me see Angelo as a force of Top Chef goodness.

[Kathy from Austin]

Dach: Alex's prep produced nothing but problems. It had to all be repaired: fish with bones and scales (he later claimed that in fact was his badge of honor). In point of fact, Tiffiny as we witnessed had to get scales and bones from the fish prior to serving; he cut the lamb improperly and required Angelo's help; his choice in frozen lamb to begin with was a detriment; where does it end? Every step of the way the other chefs had to step in to correct his errors. At that point, his job was prep work which he performed poorly, to say the least. At his singular task he failed miserably. Name a high point, please. Front of house, perhaps??

[Skillet Doux]

Kathy...

If I may be so bold as to speak for Dach, I don't think (s)he was suggesting that Alex's prep wasn't a problem, but rather wondering why a chef in his position was having so much trouble.

[Kathy from Austin]

Yes, of course and I remain respectful of those who have a much greater understanding of cooking and chefery than myself. But my questions still remains: how could Alex have left his team so woefully unprepared??

[tdub]

Kenny upset and Alex pile-on aside, I wanted to note that Frank Bruni was exactly the judge Toby Young should have been. Sure, Bruni was vicious, but it was in a way that painted a precise picture of his experience. Hamburger helper? Wow, that cut through the bone, but what a visceral image of the beet salad. Great shoes, bad suit? Way harsh, but the analogy was perfect. I wouldn't mind a repeat showing.

[dach]

@Dom and Kathy,
Yes. That's what I was trying to say in too few words.

Here's my expanded view on the Alex pile-on:
I now see why Ed keeps bashing Alex basic skills. I absolutely agree Alex is surprisingly incompetent in butchering meats/fish, and probably other prep. But those things I don't do either, I have fishmonger and butcher do it. So on the job he must have others doing all the butchering, which isn't a crime. And he was a bit rough with waitstaff. Even though it looked bad on TV edit, I wasn't too bothered by how he treated waitstaff, I think he just treated them like the executive chef of a busy kitchen, who has to be demanding and decisive, and sometimes *beep* captain of the ship in stormy water. And he was clearly not comfortable being tasked with FOH duties, and knew his team would throw him under if they where at the bottom.

As to Blue teams accusations, Alex was doing something in the kitchen (pea puree perhaps?) leading to Angelo almost blowing a fuse. So even if Alex did nothing well, he must have met the minimum requirements of creating a dish. We know Alex can conceive successful dishes, so it is quite a stretch and insulting for 2121 to assert Alex did not even come up with the recipe ... I mean, he only has one EC bottom and he is an executive chef of a large restaurant (referring to Dom's pre-season bios).

I'm disappointed the episode really heavy on Alex and cut out the restaurant planning, food logistics, menu conception, like why did team kenny decide on dessert course, which really hurt them, when team ed just went with 4 main dishes, 2 appetizers -- one of which was a fish that looked like another entree. They pretty much ignored 3 course menu standard of appetizer, entree, dessert and got away with it.

[JJH2]

The one thing I can't understand is why EVOO (um, gross. Way to Ray Ray) served two fish dishes as their main courses. That seems like a major restaurant misstep to me. Some people just don't like fish, or don't want to eat it on any given day. At least "21 21" had a meat dish, even if it was anemic looking and overcooked.

I was feeling kind of bad for Alex at the beginning because the other chefs were really hating on him, and then I stopped feeling bad for him when he was so brusque with the staff, and then I went right back to feeling bad for him when the 21 21 team went at him guns blazing both at Judge's Table AND back in the stew room. That was just so unnecessary and nasty. Why do it? It's bad enough you try to knife him in front of the judges, which is pretty classless. But what do you gain by going back into the stew room and being nasty to his face, especially in such an aggressive manner? It really made like everyone on 21 21 less, especially Kevin who was ridiculous.

Based on his cooking, Kenny seemed like the obvious and fair choice to go. Based on how he did solely as an executive chef, I'm not so sure, because his team was pretty well organized, even if their cooking wasn't up to snuff. I actually didn't think his goat cheese dish looked disgusting, but it was universally panned. I would have liked to have tried it.

[garik16]

@Kathy and Daniel, To bryan's defense, "Throw the Jew down the well" is a Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) Song. You can find it on Youtube.

Pretty sure that's what he's referencing with that comment.

[gdis]

I agree with the comments on the disorganized vs organized. Angelo was an a**h***, but he made the kitchen produce winning dishes. That's what's needed to make sure they're successful. Think back to last year's when the Volt brothers put out the "most successful restaurant wars ever." They were yelling at each other and at Robin. They did what was needed to win. I'm sure Alex did the bare minimum, which is frustrating, but he did the bare minimum. I also agree that Angelo handled the situation well by saying "you don't have to explain yourself" - I think that was a classy way to handle it (of course it's easy to be classy when you win). Kenny claims he's "the beast." If that were true he would have been all over the bad dishes - he put out 2 bad dishes and allowed other bad dishes to go out. I think his talents have been in question quite a bit recently, and although I'd rather see Amanda go, I think Angelo/Ed/Tiffany/Kelly going would have been far more disappointing and detrimental to the season.

[Independent George]

I think Daniel's commentary is exactly right. It also seems consistent with prior iterations of RW.

S3: Bickering between Hung & Howie didn't matter as the team got the job done; Tre's team got along, but put out lousy food.

S4: The winning team behaved professionally throughout, but I distinctly remember Antonia asking a surprised Richard to re-rinse his clams because they were gritty. Clearly she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and Richard wasn't averse to constructive feedback.

S5: I honestly don't remember much, except that Radhika specifically avoided picking Steffan even though he was strong because she didn't want the conflict.

S6: Kevin, Jennifer, Laurine, & MikeI got along so well that nobody spoke up to voice objections to their poor planning. Meanwhile, MikeV was annoying the crap out of everybody, but constructively, and got a good effort out of the team.

[Glen]

I'm usually just a lurker (albeit a very frequent one), but I had to jump in today to add my 2¢- Kenny 100% deserved to go home.

I liked him a lot from episode 1, but the shine wore off more and more each episode. As other people here have said before, when you're constantly stating you're the Alpha Dog, chances are you're really not.

If it wasn't last night, it would have been soon enough, he's just not capable of hearing criticism and making adjustments. Almost every time he didn't win, or had a dish criticized, he was always "shocked", or "blown away", because he "knew the flavors were there". Yeah, too many flavors Kenny.

How many previous chefs have been sent home because they foolishly defended a dish to the death even though 4 experts were sitting there telling them the problems with it?

[Anon Man]

Sigh. Flight delayed...

Evooo. What an awful, awful name. They should have all been tossed for that idea on general principle. "Olives" might have been better, but I think that's a Todd English place. Also, as Bruni touched on: Why come out and say "Welcome to ____, we serve ________ food." Why not say "Welcome to _______, what do you want?" and wait for them to ask why the name.

[Bill]

Kenny = two (not just bad) horrible dishes
Amanda = slightly overdone steak with a praiseworthy sauce. Based on the steak they showed I suspect a lot of people would want it cooked exactly like that.
Kelly = terrible soup but did well at foh
That fact that his team didn't commit mutiny and everyone did their jobs isn't enough to save him in my opinion.
Also; Tom tweeted last night that three of the chefs said they saw Alex making the pea puree.

[Independent George]

I'm not especially fond of Frank Bruni, either his written work or last night's appearance. A lot of restaurant critics remind me of a lot of sports reporters - people fundamentally envious of the 'stars' that they cover, and feel a pathological need to take them down a notch (at least, when they're not kissing ass to gain access and bask in reflected glory). He's not as bad as Toby Young, but I always got the sense he cared more about asserting his own importance than he did about communicating information to the public.

[Danny]

I predicted this in my comments on the Power Rankings this week. Bottom line is that Kenny was convinced that he knew best and didn't listen to what the judges kept telling him.....too much stuff on the plate. As I wrote a few days ago, it doesn't matter if you think the judges are right or wrong. If you hear the same comments from the judges several times then it behooves you to listen to them and react to what they are saying.

What Kenny's team did to Alex - they knew he wasn't going to be eliminated - was disgraceful. It was pointless trashing and if his own team did not call Alex out at the JT, what the heck is the other team doing criticizing? I swear, if Alex and Robin opened a restaurant together I'd be there opening night.

[chrish]

Angelo's defense of Alex may have been self-interested as well. If Alex's failure to "conceive" (or whatever) a dish was a violation, then the fault does not necessarily fall on Alex if he was not really allowed to conceive a dish. You could debate whether he should have spoken up more (this is all assuming he failed to conceive a dish), but you could also debate whether the others, especially Angelo, were equally or more at fault for not giving him an opportunity. It's at least an open question of who should have gone home if that was a violation.

The episode does suggest that Alex's horrendous prep skills and state of disorganization is probably a huge factor in his poor quickfire performances.

[Susan]

My two cents, Kenny has skated out of the bottom a couple of times already. He has been repeatedly critiqued for too much on the plate; but as I read some comments I got the feeling I may be remembering the judges table chat and not what he heard. But I could swear he had direct comments on that at least once, when he was in the bottom.
I find without tasting it, you have to go on what they say. Stephen wasn't a surprise last week, and Alex's time will come. But Kenny had that leading contender vibe, but lots of it was out of his mouth and not in the wins per se.

I agree, the finalists seem like a wide open field. Kevin could get it together, heck, Alex could surprise me. Who knows?!

[jon wash]

Where was Tom's customary walk through the kitchen? Was this omitted on purpose?

[rab01]

I have a personal aversion to anything more than tiny accents of goat cheese so as soon as I heard that Kenny had chosen goat cheese I could not see how that could possibly taste good ...

I was not bothered by 2121's attack on Alex. They had worked well together and were happy with their collective performance. Attacking Alex was at least better than savaging each other. It wasn't likely to save them but it was worth a shot.

But two thing really bothered me: (1) Restaurant wars normally gets more than an hour -- once it was even 2 full episodes. Cramming it all into just an hour didn't let the events breathe. (2) They didn't request comment cards from the diners (or didn't show it) and I do wonder whether the "VIP" table at EVOO got better food than everyone else. From what little we saw, it looked like EVOO's kitchen was adjusting for Alex's timing screw-ups throughout the night and seemed to put the judges ahead of other orders that came in first ...

[ally]

rab01 - you would have to be insane not to expedite the judges' table orders.

Posters here have made project runway analogies before, and this reminds me of judges there questioning the "taste level" of the contestants when they come up with a tacky outfit. As one of the diners said - Kenny's cheese dish was a cheese stick on strawberries. Plus it was huge. Even if a taste of it was nice (I can't remember anyone commenting on the taste), the dish itself was, um, tacky.

[ally]

p.s. I would like to add an "amen" to Daniel's astute functional vs dysfunctional analysis. Thanks for that post.

[JJ]

"I was not bothered by 2121's attack on Alex. They had worked well together and were happy with their collective performance. Attacking Alex was at least better than savaging each other. It wasn't likely to save them but it was worth a shot"

Really? The classy way to deal with it would have been to accept that, however well they worked together as a team, the food just didn't quite work. That way you learn from your mistakes and move forward. Instead, they decided to lash out at a member of the winning team. It was classless and ugly. One of the most cringe-inducing things I've ever seen on the show.

"But two thing really bothered me: (1) Restaurant wars normally gets more than an hour -- once it was even 2 full episodes. Cramming it all into just an hour didn't let the events breathe"

Last year there may have been a "supersized" episode with an extra fifteen minutes, but there has never been a two-part Restaurant Wars episode. You are thinking of the season when they judges basically claimed both teams lost and asked them to do it over again.

[vizoroo]

Has anyone from the winning team ever been eliminated?

[Skillet Doux]

Vizoroo... while I suppose they could always change something on the fly if they felt it absolutely necessary, no, the rule has always been that everybody on the winning team was safe. For all team challenges, not just restaurant wars. It's saved many a contestant who really deserved to go. But I think it's a good rule. It encourages true teamwork.

[rab01]

1) There have been supersized episodes several times for restaurant wars. I was referring to the "soft-opening" episodes where Trey was eliminated when I was talking about a double-episode. Bravo later admitted that it was always planned to be a two episode restaurant war that time. Several of the contestants basically said that Trey's team was much superior the first night and so did not improve enough elements the second night.

2) I didn't say that they shouldn't have expedited judges - I certainly would have. I am just curious as to whether the diners' experience of the two restaurants might have been markedly different from that of the judges. As for whether it would have been insane not to expedite the judge's table, that was exactly Sara's instruction during her winning stint as exec chef for RW, Season 3. "No VIP table."

[Nikki L]

I would actually really love a twist on the "winning team is safe" rule. They did it once on Project Runway - they sent home someone who did absolutely no work on a winning team.

I know many of you won't like that I compared the shows but they are similar, even if about two entirely different topics.

[timothy]

Ally- You wrote of the goat cheese: "Even if a taste of it was nice (I can't remember anyone commenting on the taste), the dish itself was, um, tacky."

I don't have the episode in front of me, but I remember Frank Bruni saying something specific and negative about the taste. That it was metallic? Sharp? I can't remember but he made me think that dish had problems other than just the size of the cheese. I have a recipe where you take a pretty good-sized slice of goat cheese, soak it in olive oil over night, roll it in bread crumbs, saute it, and serve it warm with arugula. It can work, in my opinion. Kenny just didn't pull it off.

[dach]

bruni said it tasted like soup. yuck!

[Bart]

@timonthy - the criticisms of that cheese dish were much worse. It was described as soapy and slimy

[dach]

*oops* soup = soap *darn spell check failure*

[garik16]

The closest thing to a winning team member being eliminated was Mike I being on top AND bottom during the army cooking challenge last year.

But that was a case where the teams were self-made and the Judges didn't know before calling him out on top that he had only made the thing they hated.

[Pei U Sun]

Anybody who refers to himself in the third person...and even more so in third person as "The Beast" deserves to go home

[nomnomnom]

Obviously I'm not stunned to see Kenny go. I think this was telegraphed from at least 3 episodes back and I've said as much.

The next two weeks should be just trimming the fat of Alex and Amanda then the judges have a very, very tough call from there.

It's fairly tough to rank the top 5 now. I guess Dom will finally acquiesce to give Ed some props, maybe.

Tiffany, Ed, Angelo, Kevin, Kelly, whatever is the way I'd have it now.

[timothy]

Why would you put Angelo third?

[Anita]

I wasn't surprised or disappointed to see Kenny go home. His personality was actually pretty great for television - big, bold, and brazen, yet somehow charismatic.

But I don't think he made one dish I actually wanted to eat.

Amanda has a lot of missteps, but I'm actually impressed by some of her commentary. She seems to at least have some insight that she brings to the table when she plans and cooks. I think she is too young and inexperienced to land in the top three, and I do think she was the clear second choice to go home. But Kenny's dishes just didn't look or sound appetizing, and I LOVE beets and goat cheese . . .I don't love steak, and I still would have preferred to eat Amanda's beef.

My hope is that Tiffany wins, but I think Angelo is most deserving right now - - he's still my number one.

Going out on a limb (a short one) and putting Tiffany, Angelo, and (good) Kevin as my final three. Somehow I feel like Kevin is increasingly "getting it" in terms of what he needs to do to be a contender. Ed knows how to cook - - that's for sure - - but I'm not sure he is creative. Kelly is erratic, but somehow I just have a gut feel that going forward, she's less likely to have brilliant moments than Kevin. Amanda is too inexperienced.

Just wanted to thank everyone and Dom for all their comments and blogs on this show - - it so adds to the enjoyment of watching it.

[Anon Man]

I vaguely remember one time where Tom hinted that they were going to revoke immunity for some issue. In the end - and this I do remember- he said something like "you're immune, and we're going honor that, but we wanted to call you out and make you sweat because your dish was easily the worst. Go back to the stew room." But, for the life of me, I can't remember when this was or who it was.

[JJH2]

Anon Man:

I think you might be thinking of the Season 3 episode where the cheftestants had to recreate "family favorites" and make them healthier and lower in cholesterol. Brian Malarkey won immunity in the quickfire and cooked his EC dish with lobster, and there was a whole scandal about how high lobster is in cholesterol (which it's not really, and the alleged health risks of dietary cholesterol are not particularly well established anyway). Even though he had immunity the judged called out Malarkey to the loser's table, chewed him out, and sent him back to the stew room.

[Anon Man]

@JJH@, thanks, that's exactly it. Nice memory, btw.

[JJ]

"I would actually really love a twist on the "winning team is safe" rule. They did it once on Project Runway - they sent home someone who did absolutely no work on a winning team"

This seems to miss the point though (also overlooked by the losing team). It was not a close competition in which the judges had to split hairs to decide which team won and which team lost. Kenny's team clearly lost with numerous poor dishes. The judges disliked both starters (K's salad and Kelly's watery soup), were critical of one of the main dishes (Amanda's overcooked and too thinly sliced beef), and hated the clump of cheese served as one of the deserts. Out of six dishes they really only liked two (both by Kevin). Now why, based on this, should the judges have decided to eliminate someone from the other team? And for what reason? Because members of the losing team began pointing fingers at the winning team? There was absolutely no reason for the judges to make such a decision and I'm glad it wasn't even entertained. (Might I also add here that the TC judges already did a vaguely similar kind of switcheroo during the earlier cafeteria challenge when the decided to eliminate whats-her-name [the caterer who put two tons of sugar in her desert] even though the other team was deemed worse. So the judges have shown an ability to be "flexible" with rules on occasion. Here there was no reason for it.)

If I have any complaint about the judging it was the decision to reward the win to Ed. I'm sure his dish was first-rate but Angelo was responsible for running the team, keeping Alex from wrecking too much havoc, and he deserved the win.

[Alvin]

According to TomC on his twitter account, apparently 3 chefs saw Alex make his winning pea puree. Not sure why they wouldn't have spoken up (but then again, Alex doesn't seem too friendly with any of the cheftestants).

Given that piece of info, I'm inclined to believe that Alex won that EC legitimately. Thus, I believe the treatment Alex has gotten recently is bogus. Especially from the Elves. I don't think Alex by any means is in the top 5, but I don't think he's the trash he's portrayed to be (maybe good TV?)

[Ben]

Kenny deserved to go home. Two craptastic dishes will do that. More of an issue for me was the edit. My wife and I had this the losing team called LAST week. Just didn't know who until we saw the dishes. I mean, c'mon. Just the way they were focusing so much on the red team's dysfunction was a dead giveaway. I like to call it the Professional Wrasslin' edit. Oh well. I like what Ed, Tiffany, and "Good" Kevin are doing right now. If we get them at the end I wouldn't be unhappy.

[Allison]

I think that this was a close Restaurant Wars & not the way I necessarily hoped it would end. But it's a really even field.

But (since I study teams) I agree with Daniel & thank Independent George for specific examples. Well said.

Did not like the balance of edits on food. Time might have been a constraint, but still. And EVOO - yuk!

[Steve F.]

I don't think Dom wants us to beat this to death....but re: Alex's cooking...

He's horrible at QFs. But with time to mull his creations (ECs), he has bottomed only once...the rest of the time he has been passable or better (one win, two top placements).

Yes, the other chefs are scared to work with him - probably because his cooking style is "crazy." But, seriously, is he that bad?

Message to Dom: Btw, as of this episode Tiffany has placed five times in the top in the ECs. You had her at five going into this episode.

[Steve F.]

Btw, this episode rocked! This is why we watch Restaurant Wars. Disasters turn into marvels. Sure hands produce disasters. Drama. Unexpected twists. Feel bad for Kenny. But he just doesn't get it. He was just interviewed saying that Alex should have gone instead of him.

As EC, he allowed subpar food to be served. Yes, he held it all together. But, ultimately, he was responsible for the overall operation and product. Angelo knew that. That is why he rode everyone so hard. Also, read Gail Simmons' review of Alex's performance. It was not as bad as it appeared on the episode.

[Skillet Doux]

"Message to Dom: Btw, as of this episode Tiffany has placed five times in the top in the ECs. You had her at five going into this episode."

I gave top EC rankings to everybody who won out of the room service challenge on the first round. My count is my own and doesn't always match up with the official record. But thanks for the heads-up!

[dach]

This season is turning out to be quite exciting because of how closely matched the remaining chefs are. Angelo and Tiffany remain in the lead, but they are not running away from the pack. On any given week everyone left is capable of putting out food that can beat their's. Amanda is holding #7 and last spot, but has shown she is legitimately capable of top 3 work -- I am reminded of her picnic ribs where Angelo had the revelation that Amanda can make good food. Everyone else is jostling and battling tooth and nail.

I only started watching last season. So I am wondering, how strong is Amanda compared to other season #7 chef by this stage in the season (after RW)? Amanda is clearly a better fine dining chef than Robin, who was the weakest chef left at this time in season 6.

[mncharm]

"I wasn't surprised or disappointed to see Kenny go home. His personality was actually pretty great for television - big, bold, and brazen, yet somehow charismatic."

I think this is dead on. He certainly deserved to go home with his performance this week; I don't think there's any doubt about it. Two bad dishes on the losing team pretty much seals it. That said, I enjoyed his personality on the show -- yeah, the alpha male thing was a little over done, but he seemed pleasant enough, particularly compared to Angelo's smarmy alpha dog efforts.

Not particularly classy to call out Alex in the manner that they did, but there is a point to be made. Not that the judges made the wrong decision -- can't send someone home from the losing team -- but I can see why they felt it wasn't fair. And I have no doubt that Alex's personality opened the door to the attack; he proved that by the way he treated his servers.

As for the food...I cannot believe how even these contestants are. Pretty amazing.

[Polybus]

I have just a couple of quick comments.

JJ, I don't think that it was a slam dunk for the Red Team. Yes, they had better dishes, but they also had a few unsuccessful ones and their FOH was terrible - one of the worst. I was certain that Red Team would win, but I do believe that it was closer than most people think. Of course, when Tom posts his blog, he'll probably reveal that I'm wrong!

My thoughts on Alex: he screwed up on the QF and his team could see where things were going. I don't blame them at all for watching his performance during RW and making corrections. In addition, I thought the way that he treated his wait staff was abominable and you could see that had an effect on their service. Obviously, I have no sympathy for Alex. On this show, you may feel free to dig your own grave - Alex was using both hands and throwing dirt on his team while he was at it. He was just lucky that his team outcooked the other.

By the way, Happy Friday the 13th to everyone! :-)

[Jake]

I am personally surprised at how many people are "shocked" that Kenny was eliminated. Just based on the judges' comments, both of his dishes had major issues. Amanda's at least had good sauce, and Kelly did some good things, too. Glen pointed out above what I think has been a running theme -- Kenny disagreeing with judges' critiques of his food. Even if you think they're wrong (and let's face it, they're probably not all wrong all the time), they're the judges and you win by playing to them. Swallow your pride and accept constructive criticism, or at least tell yourself you're just trying to please the judges to win.

I also think it's a little funny that people want to give Kenny credit for being EC, when his team put out the weaker menu (by far, it seems). Isn't that on him? Daniel made some great points above about the styles of both teams in the kitchen -- maybe Angelo's team looked more busy because they were actually correcting all of their problems (Alex's butchering, both of proteins and dinner orders, for example). Maybe Kenny's team looked mellow because they weren't finding and fixing problems. That's on Kenny, isn't it?

I wanted to amplify JJH2 and Anon Man who both pointed out what a terrible name EVOO is for a restaurant. They almost always have dumb names, though.

I agree with a lot of the comments about the piling on Alex, to some degree, but let's not overplay it. JJ said it was one of the most cringe-inducing moments on the show, which I don't agree with at all. They were attacking his work, not him as a person (Robin, others), or even physically attacking him (Marcel). This pales in comparison and something like it happens pretty much every season. I'm even willing to give Kenny a pass on this if it was a last-ditch effort to keep himself in the game (if so it was smart). I don't get why Kevin was so upset though as he should have known he was the only one on his team who was totally safe.

I also don't think Alex's team threw him under the bus. It's clear that they all think he's the weakest link, and based on his prep skills, they seem to be right. So why not minimize his contributions to give yourself the best chance of winning? That's what they did, and it worked. I think that was smart of them. If they'd tanked to try to get him eliminated, that would have been shady, but they were trying to win.

At this point I don't understand how people don't think Angelo is the clear front-runner, and even if you don't like him, he handled the Alex incident with class (as timothy pointed out above), and tried to deescalate the situation. He ran a tight ship in the kitchen and they put out a pretty solid menu. He rarely slips up and even if he hasn't been winning everything like at the beginning, how many times has he been in danger? Who else can you say that about?

[PerryMB]

From Gails blog

"He may have messed up butchering the lamb and scaling the fish. He may have not been able to follow through with creating and executing an entire dish. BUT! At Restaurant EVOO that evening, Alex served as a fine enough host, albeit a nervous one. The Roasted Lamb Chop with English Pea Puree, Smoked Bacon & Parmesan we were served, which we were told not just by Alex himself, but also by the rest of his team, that he prepared was cooked well and tasted of fresh, complementary flavors."

Gail seem to think Alex did a decend job as front of house.

[Bart]

If you want a hilarious read, check out Tom's blog, which is finally up.

I think he finally got frustrated with all of the criticism in the comments section of his blog and blew a gasket:

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-7/blogs/tom-colicchio/we-killed-kenny-we-re-bastards

[Steve F.]

PEA-GATE RESOLVED!

From Colicchio's blog:

"By the way, I’ve been in touch with some of the contestants, who have confirmed that that they did in fact witness Alex making the pea puree. He bought the peas and blanched them but had not yet decided what to do with them the day before. The next day, he made the pea puree. When asked why he didn’t defend himself in the episode, Alex answered, 'Why should I defend myself against something I didn’t do?'"

I'm sure we'll get confirmation of this during the reunion show.

To the conspiracy theorists:

Yes, you guys are fun, and maybe even right sometimes. But seriously, we have seen Colicchio and company judge this show with integrity for seven seasons. We may not agree based on what we see on TV but they were there.

Both Tom and Gail's blogs confirm that there were no questions that Kenny's two dishes were clearly the worse of his team's menu, and he let Kelly and Amanda serve subpar food. The point of the competition is to serve good food while dealing with the adverse circumstances of opening a new restaurant. Kenny's leadership left the judges disappointed with most of his team's dishes.

I will miss Kenny and Angelo's rivalry. This season needs a lot more personality.

[gdis]

I'm glad Tom finally lashed out at the criticism and was really pleased to read his blog. Without him this would not be a cooking competition - there is no way he would allow the show to go on if someone was held back from elimination because that chef kept the entertainment factor up.

Also, I like how Tom pointed out that he's been fighting against FOH. No one (except Fabio who was made for TV) really kills it. Even last year with the Volt brothers running an amazing menu, Eli did well but wasn't head over heels. Has anyone won at FOH?

One good thing (imho) about the past two restaurant wars: no more stupid decorating budget. That just distracted from the real objective: food! I bet Tom finally put his foot down on that and told the producers that it was an absurd part of the challenge.

[Stacey]

I think that's my favorite Tom blog post. It reminds me of the flack they got when Dale was sent home instead of Lisa during RW (the first season I ever watched - so I can't comment on the earlier references) and Bourdain's blog post that followed.

[ally]

Jake - I was "shocked" because the elves fooled me into thinking that Amanda was the loser, and I wrote my post immediately after watching it. I'm not shocked in retrospect. I believe many of us were surprised for this reason.

[nomnomnom]

The elves did a good bait and switch. They sold the Kenny team as the winning team right up until they did the service. Angelo's team was showed to be disorganized, and running on 3 cylinders. Of the 6 dishes by Kenny's team only one was a success. You have to admit that sort of incompetence is hard to cover up for 45 minutes.

Ultimately this may go down as the worst buttkicking in restaurant week history.

Then they did a nice fake out on the ultimate loser as well, but it appears to be mostly a coinflip. The exec. chef needs to do just one dish. Not enough time to do anything else. I think the only time EC have survived is when they did just one dish, but I'm having a hard time finding out how S4 was split up.

So the CIA is next week then a concession stand episode and then the NASA one as I feared all along. This was in the press release prior to E1. They are going to cook freeze dried space food or something to Buzz Aldrin, but often the challenges they preview like this turn out to be quickfires. If it does end up being the EC I could see this site totally melting down.

[Lon]

Wow. Just read Tom's blog. Wasn't up when I looked previously.

He was very pointed and plain about how decisions are made. You'd think after 6-plus seasons, people would understand those concepts.

Besides the comments above and in Tom's blog about Kenny's role as Executive Chef and the poor performance of his team, I think Kenny's viewpoint probably led to the blaming of Alex as a means to escape the inevitable fate of his performance and that of his team. For me, that was reason enough to can him.

I suppose its apropos since this season is set in Washington, D.C., the center of politics in the US, but the 2121 team's attack on Alex is a favorite political technique. When behind, attack with muddy negatives. As Lyndon B. Johnson is quoted as saying, "call the other guy a pig fxxxxx & let him try to deny it."

[Skippy]

Good comments Lon - I hadn't thought about how not talking about issues does not equal "functional."

I get that "your team lost - one of you is going home." However, the Alex issue is a legitamate question. I think if I had been on Judges Table I would have said, "We're sending one of you home. But we're also going to look over the Alex situation and if we find he's violated the rules, we'll send him home too."

[Dreamboat]

Many here, and on other blogs, keep talking about "rules". What rules? Where are they published? This is not baseball or football. There is no standard set or rules. From Tom's blog it seems that the only relevant "rule" is:

Anyone on the winning team is not up for elimination.

I am sure that each challenge has a set of guidelines. Note that guidelines are different than rules. Guidelines are up for interpretation by the judges. If a contestant does not follow the guidelines then I am sure that is a factor in the judging, but the biggest part of the judging is the food. I have never once in TC history seen someone sent home because they broke a perceived rule (note Betty in season 2 who added extra sugar during the diabetes challenge). Instead I have seen people sent home for poor food, or sometimes good food that was not as good as another contestant.

I cannot say I am fond of Alex, but then I do not know him. I only know what the elves have so cleverly edited and shown me on a reality TV show. IMO, Alex has gotten a very poor edit by the elves.

[Polybus]

Cliff was sent home in Season 2 for holding down Marcel when they were going to forcefully cut his hair.

[Bart]

Dreamboat - I recommend you take a quick look at the entry Tom Colicchio posted (which is linked a few comments above yours). He doesn't quite go into rules per se... but he does admit that there are several guidelines that they all tend to follow, chiefly that each contestant is judged for the most recent dish they've made, and not the dishes they've been making all season.

It's actually an illuminating entry, even though he doesn't come out and say anything that we all already didn't know/suspect. It's worth the read.

[chrish]

From Colicchio's blog:

"For any wanna-be producers out there, and for all conspiracy theorists: please realize that from a TV standpoint, getting rid of Kenny was a bad thing to do. Believe me, the show’s producers were not happy with our decision, because it brought to an abrupt end the rivalry between Kenny and Angelo. So if ever anyone still speculated that we judges make our decisions for any reasons other than the food before us, I hope this dispels those thoughts."

I'm not at all a conspiracy theorist but I do note that TomC says that the producers were not happy. I don't know whether he means that (a) he understands they weren't happy b/c he understands how the show works, (b) they told him they were happy at the time, or (c) they told him they weren't happy later on.

But it seems clear from this that he is aware of the producers' interests. His claim is that we should trust him because they got rid of someone the producers would have wanted to keep. That's great but that's different from saying they have no clear idea who the producers would want to keep, which I think some have claimed. I'm not saying they consistently know who the producers would favor, but I suspect they often do, at least this late in the season.

[dach]

But he has also clearly said many times that the judges have no inkling of the drama going on outside of JT. For example he only became aware of peapuree-gate when the episode aired.

I'm sure he knows what makes the producers happy. He's one of the producers. He must talk to the other producers and knows their likes and dislikes... just like the other producers know Tom's likes and dislikes. This is not a new show, this is season 7. But he's also stated clearly that he would quit if he's ordered to make a decision on something other than primarily the food. So I take it to mean other producers are responsible for rules infringement like hair-cutting incident.

Which only makes sense, as JT needs to be isolated from the contestants as much as possible -- other than Tom's brief kitchen walkthroughs.

[Skillet Doux]

"But he's also stated clearly that he would quit if he's ordered to make a decision on something other than primarily the food. So I take it to mean other producers are responsible for rules infringement like hair-cutting incident."

Tom has long maintained that this was the only instance of producer interference in the elimination decisions, in that he was told "no way" when he suggested that they should eliminate everybody and give the win to Marcel.

[Lon]

I, for one, am glad the "controversy" between Kenny and Angelo is ended. I would suggest if Kenny had spent more time on his food and less time attacking Angelo, Alex and others, he probably would still be on the show.

After watching 6 plus years of Top Chef, I believe loss of focus is one of the primary reasons contestants falter. I suggest that if you asked Kevin last year, Richard Blais and many other chefs who were early season or mid-season favorites, they will talk about events that caused them to lose their focus on preparing top notch food. It might be personal issues, it might be the altitude (Casey in season 3). It might be trying to get too "cute" in making the food. But whatever the reason, they lost their focus. Michael V last season kept his focus and pulled out a great win. Lisa Fernandes in Season 4 ignored all those who felt she was negative and kept on cooking, making it to the finals. Stefan in Season 5 seemed to lose his focus as the season when on. I could go on and on.

As to rules or guidelines or whatever we want to call them, I know there are some because the food producer (or whatever we want to title the person like Lee Ann Wong) who sets up the challenges does go over the guidelines for each performance with the contestants. I either read that someplace or heard it discussed on one of the early shows. I'm sure the chefs were told that a member of the losing team would go home. There was no way the judges knew at judging time how much work Alex had or had not done on actually preparing a dish.

We need to always keep in mind that the actual filming was done months ago (sometime in April I believe). Judges are seeing the "behind the scenes" stuff now just like we are. Maybe their decision MIGHT have been different if they had seen how Alex cooked that night (or didn't cook), but they did not.

The haircutting incident was a clear example of violation of the Show Rules which says no personal harm against another person. Next time Bravo announces it is recruiting for a Top Chef cast, download their application. I believe there is a set of overall rules applicants must agree with to be considered.

I'm not sure we'll ever get the full story about the haircutting incident or some of the other controversial events of seven seasons of Top Chef such as Peagate this year. The cloak of secrecy with which producers shroud the show prevents that from happening and that's okay with me. Probably prevents more hard feelings and law suits.

As Tom C and others have said repeatedly, it's all about the food, how it looks and how it tastes; mostly how it tastes. Everything else is pretty unimportant.

[dach]

Considering last season RW, where Kevin/Jen/MikeI/Laurine lost, I conclude executive chef is not part of the RW challenge, so it does not count for squat in JT.

It does not count for or against a competitor how they do as executive chef, because it is entirely internal team decision who is and what role their "executive chef" plays. So JT ignores how poorly (Jennifer last season) or how supposedly well (Kenny) performed as executive chef. Actually Jennifer/Kevin team did poorly, lacked planning because no one took on the role of executive chef, not because Jen was a poor executive chef. It was considered "Jennifer's team" only because she picked the members, so fans speculated due to leadership and planning failures where on Jen, and she should pykag. But Laurine was knocked for poor FoH, even though much of that was caused by kitchen problems out of her control. And ultimately it was Laurine's lamb dish, poorly cooked by Kevin that got her eliminated. Jennifer failing as team captain and "executive chef" did not count against her in judging.

Fast forward to this season. Kenny and Angelo appoint themselves executive chef ... even though neither picked their teams. Angelo supposedly has a dysfunctional kitchen and team. Kenny runs a tight ship. All that is irrelevant to the judges. Only what comes out of the kitchen, with some consideration for service.

Both seasons are consistent in how JT weighs the role of executive chef and leadership, which is it doesn't. It's all about the food.

[jse91]

I have been out of the Top Chef loop this season until this week [a move and a new job]. I finally caught up this week - and wow, this season is a clunker! Hardly anyone worth rooting for and some very unpleasant people. I have loved a double elimination - just send Kenny and Alex home. I found it hard to believe that Kenny could actually be less likable than he was at the start with all his "alpha male, beast, leader" absurdities - which Tom call his one person PR campaign. For anyone who thinks that his efficient exec chef showing was a reason for him to stay I will refer you to my favorite line from Tom's blog: "So while Kenny may have run a tight ship, it was a sinking ship". That pretty much says it all.

Glad to be in the loop again and especially happy to able to read skillet doux again.

[gdis]

I disagree that Kenny ran a tight ship compared to Angelo. Sure there was arguing in Angelo's kitchen, but the food was good. Based on the editing and one hour of tv time, Kenny only appeared to run a tight ship because everyone got along - that doesn't mean the food is good and the kitchen was run well. I agree with whomever first mentioned that the smart thing would be to have the executive chef do one dish and then the others do two. If Kenny was a true leader (as Angelo appeared to be), those dishes would have been adjusted during the prep time and he would have flat out told someone they were bad (of course, his own two dishes were terrible which didn't help). All the losing team showed was that they lacked the courage to call each other out on glaring mistakes. The judges did the right thing - ignore the politics and get rid of the chef who had the greatest contribution to the downfall of the losing team.

[PerryMB]

Was Kenny capable of determining if the food by the other chefs were good enough to be served?

Kenny couldn’t understand why the judges didn’t like his dishes. I doubt he would have been able to assist his teammates with their dishes.

[paula]

Hey, peeps. Checking in late because I just got back from my honeymoon. :)

I have only two things to add to this discussion:

1) I'm officially scared of nomnomnom now. Fess up: You're a current contestant, aren't you? Anyway, nice work on the predictions.
2) The one thing that got on my nerves about Frank Bruni: His absurd comment bashing FOTH by saying "my water glass was almost half empty." Are you freakin' kidding me? You realize that means your water glass was more than half full, right?

[Skillet Doux]

Congrats, Paula... hope it was tasty :-)

[matthew]

Let me say right up front, I was hoping to see Kenny do well, but have no problem with his elimination this week.

In response to PerryMB...the same could be said about Kelly. I specifically recall her tasting Kenny's cheese course and saying, "Mmmm. That's good." I don't know if it is being polite, gamesmanship, or just being in the throws of the competition that prevents one chef in RW from saying to another, "Blech. That's nasty." That sure seemed to be the unanimous reaction of the judges to Kenny's cheese dish.

Speaking of that cheese dish. What the Hell? The cheese was the size of a discus. If if it weren't based on taste, why wouldn't anyone else in the team suggest Kenny pare down the size of the cheese? As for the salad, I actually like a lot of bits in my salad. It adds some interesting layers. However, I can understand how somethings just don't meld well with others.

Like some others, I had long tired of the Kenny/Angelo feud. It was sophomoric and annoying. I don't know if this is quite analogous, but people seem to have the same contempt for Alex as chefs did toward Ariane on Season 5. I think Ariane showed she has some chops once she got past the jitters. Had that butchering not gone wrong, I think she would have been around longer. I am much more interested in judging on the merits. I am intrigued by [some of] the cooking in Iron Chef, but I'm mostly interested in the presentation and judging. I couldn't care less about behind-the-scenes drama. I think the producers need to realize that there enough people that will watch, and support, the show without it becoming Hell's Kitchen with better talent.

[Daniel]

I've been checking out the Top Chef blogs a bit this past week.

I'm still resentful as hell that the editors created such a faux controversy over the Peas. I'm mollified that Tom finally unequivocally put it to rest on his blog. I'm mortified at the levels of abject stupidity, petulance, and willful rationalization going on in the comment threads over there.

I knew the level of discourse on this blog was objectively high, but I had no idea how high it was relative to the general level over there. Thank you all for making this such a rewarding conversation to take part in.

[Daniel]

just to make it clear, I'm referring to the comments on the Top Chef blogs, not the blog entries themselves, which are excellent.

[gdis]

Daniel -

I completely agree with you. I can't even read the comment sections anymore on bravotv.com. The best comment was when someone claimed they were "absolutely certain Alex stole the pea puree." This was well after Tom established that peagate was a hoax! There was one chain wishing that this didn't become "another stereotypical reality show" while wishing that Kenny was kept on to keep the level of cooking higher. Is Kenny's family logging onto that website or something?

[Bart]

Oh they're horrible, those comments. They make my blood boil. It's pretty clear they don't actually read Tom's blog. I imagine some of these conspiracy minded posters are the same folks who are convinced that we never landed on the moon, or that aliens built the pyramids, or buy into some of the current wild conspiracies that are making the rounds these days.

[Cousin Sam]

my personal favorite from the TC blog comments:

"THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING, TOM!"

because of course, Top Chef's purpose should be teaching morality lessons to the children. oy vey.