Top Chef Masters - S2E1 Postmortem

Oh, of course we're going to talk Top Chef Masters!

Now that we're out west, depending on how the schedules work out, I might be watching most of these on a bit of a delay. But no reason that should hold up the rest of you. I may jump in a couple of hours late from time to time, but I'll be sure to have the postmortem thread up by the time the episode stops airing on the East Coast.

I'll weigh in later tonight. In the meantime, jump in!

UPDATE : Now that's what we love about Masters... that the elves dispense with the gimmicks and just let outstanding chefs do their thing.

Wait, which season are we watching, again?

Ehhhhh, it's one episode. Nothing to see here. Plus, Bravo has apparently added extended Critics' Table discussion to the website, so I'm pretty much prepared to forgive anything tonight (even if, in typical Bravo fashion, the link to the video is currently broken... along with the Rate the Plate images... and Jay Rayner's blog).

Actually, I got my wish. I was rooting for Mantuano and Feniger at the start (for mostly non-culinary reasons), even if it hurt to watch Jerry Traunfeld get hosed.

Always fun to see somebody gripe about a teammate, only to later be overshadowed by him. One episode in, and Govind Armstrong is already the Michael Chiarello of season two. Except for the making it past the first round part.

As usual, Jay Rayner wins the episode, with a snarky comment about, god forbid, using taste to determine which food he likes best when the others start getting a little too concerned with the dish's first date propriety.

And as has already been pointed out, brilliant move to keep Keller's silhouette. Brilliant.

Discuss!

UPDATE II : Just wanted to point this out up top, because I sure can't figure it out. There are 22 contestants. We just saw an episode featuring six, where two advance. And the graphic shows eight in the Champions Round. How the heck is that supposed to work?

Comments

[Dan V.]

Well, it's a start I guess!

That grilled duck breast looked absolutely delicious in HD.

[jh]

I loved that TCM kept Hubert's flowing mane as the silhouette for the champion's round.

[Joe S]

^---I was about to say the same thing jh, haha.

[KA]

Is there not a new format this year - two move on? Did not really like the team aspect when the team moves as a unit moves on. Also was it not the case last year that the quickfire stars were added to the elimination stars to determine the winner? Did not like that this was eliminated.

[Skillet Doux]

KA... true on both counts, and agreed on both counts.

Though at least for this episode, I'm having a hard time feeling bad about their gas station dishes being swept under the carpet when it came time for final scoring.

[Skillet Doux]

Actually, thinking about it, I do kind of like that two chefs advance. Makes it difficult for somebody who could smoke most of the competition to be eliminated in the first round because of an unlucky matchup.

Of course, having them advance as a team not only negated that benefit, but actually made the luck of the draw problem even worse, so... yeah. I'll be curious to see how they handle the rest.

Incidentally, there are 22 contestants, we saw six in this episode, and the graphic leads us to believe that there are eight spots in the second round. How does that work, precisely?

[timothy]

Maybe two eliminated first rounders get invited back in some kind of wild card type thing (making 24 contestants six at a time for four rounds). Or maybe they do three rounds of six, taking two at a time. And then do some different permutation with those who competed last year. Not really sure. Those are just guesses. Anyway it is fun to have the show back and it is fun to have TC related discussion back on Skillet Doux.

[Gilmore]

Missed most of quick fire. Not sure why the scores did not carry over, especially since the teams stayed the same. Would it have affected the outcome?

Six returning chefs will probably go head to head as they would have an advantage over the new chefs. That leaves 10 new chefs 10 for rest. Who knows.

I would like to see at least one show where there is no mention of the president.

I really like Jay Rayner. Was Oselin hitting on him?

[Gilmore]

Ooops.

Oseland.

[TxGriff]

To be fair, other than Art Smith last season, this is the only time the president has been discussed...I think. Plus, it bothered me a lot less when Mantuano brought it up.

I kind of see the validity in separating the quick fire scores from the EC scored because the two are separate during TC, and they now have different prizes for each. Plus, didn't Moonen almost make a comeback last season against Chiarello because he scored really well in the EC, but his quick fire score held him back? Maybe they are trying to eliminate a similar situation. Anyways, not sure I like that format, but I kind of see what they are going for if the format has changed.

[Lon]

Too bad you don't have Direct TV. At least in the Pacific Northwest, Direct TV shows it at the same time as the East Coast feed, so I was watching TC Masters at 8 pm PDT last night.

I think it's only the cable systems that delay and/or play around with the schedules.

[Skillet Doux]

Lon... Actually, we DO have DirecTV :-)

We don't get it on a delay. It's just that this time of year, it's on at 7:00 here, and we don't have the kids in bed until 8:30 or 9:00.

[Esther]

Agreed with both your comments on the two-person victory, Dom. I was very excited at first, because it seemed to correct for the first-season phenomenon of excellent chefs having a brief stay (cf. Wylie Dufresne). Even a forced-pairing Quickfire was tolerable. But to have forced random pairings for the actual challenge, such that you added a random handicap to the good chefs (and a random advantage to the poor ones)? Boo.

Of course, I'm also a bit bitter that Sortun and Traunfeld lost, for different reasons; I was rooting for them initially anyway, and their food looked the most interesting to me -- both rounds, I would've chosen what they made off a menu, and it all looked executed really well.

Despite all that frustration, though, it's so good for TCM to be back. I just love how much really good food gets produced by everyone; it's an utter delight for the food-porn addict in me. So glad to see that you'll be keeping track of this season, too!

[Lon]

Just finished reading judges blogs on TC Masters page. Lots of good comments, especially Jay Rayner's.

One other note: after the mild-mannered approaches we saw on TC Masters Season 1, do you suppose the Elves are purposely promoting differences or do we have a more out-spoken group of chefs? Will be interesting to see.

Glad Top Chef is back in some form because I missed the comments, etc on this site. Sounds like they started filming the new season of Top Chef itself in Washington D.C. this week. Have not heard when TC Pastry show with Gail hosting will shoot. I do remember something about June, but haven't heard anything for some months.

[nomnom]

I think the 22 chef thing is a little confusing as well. It's almost as if a couple pulled out at the last minute. It's obvious that the re-tread round has 6 so that leaves 10 people to go over the next two weeks. Maybe it's 2 from 5 the next two weeks until the re-treads get going?

[SorchaRei]

I would prefer that they not pair people up. With only one round of prelims, it seems unfair that an entire pair be at risk if one of them does really well but the other has a glitch. It also forces the chefs to figure out how to match their styles instead of being able to play to their strengths.

Still, it was great to see the Critics Table back -- love me some Jay.

[rab01]

I have this weird feeling that they will give some of the teamed-up chefs a second chance to qualify for the Finals but I still can't get the numbers to work out. Aargh, minor math mysteries drive me nuts.

I love getting Jay back but I am becoming obsessed with how they go easier on these guys than they do on the "ordinary" contestants. According to Wiki, the original gas station challenge only allowed 20 minutes to cook but they got 45 minutes (for 2 chefs) this time. I like the lower amount of tricks for the main challenges but not for the quickfires where they re-use old challeges. For those, the constraints should be the same or else it's subtly undermining the original constestants.

[aaalex]

rab01: i kind of agree with you, but the focus on masters is more insistently on the food. i mean, the balance is more towards the food than the personalities. if one of the regular cheftestants had been as bitchy as govind armstrong was, we'd have seen a lot more of the bitchiness as well as some of the other chefs' reactions to the bitching: more time for bitching, less for food. on the whole, i prefer the mix on masters, though rick moonen's ratso rizzo imitation ("i'm talkin' heah") in the previews suggests the mix isn't quite stable.