Top Chef - S7E3 Power Rankings

Note to self: When Waxman comes over for dinner, serve him asparagus.

Maybe they should just all serve asparagus. It might put the judges in a better mood. The big question this week seems to be whether these guys are any good, and while I'm still in the "give it time" camp, they're not making a great showing for themselves.

Take the pie challenge. Look, I know pastry freaks out a lot of chefs. I'm pretty damn confident in the kitchen and I understand that trepidation. It feels constrictive, like you're being asked to cook with one hand behind your back (and we've already seen how well that worked out). But that said, there were some pretty sorry looking excuses for pies put forth in this episode. Of course, if I call out the chefs, I have to call out the judges as well. Your grandma can make a pie, Johnny? Of course she can, Johnny, she's done it 700 times! That's what grandmothers do. They have a handful of recipes that they can make better than anybody because they don't have to think on the fly and improvise and adjust and constantly revise their menus. They have the luxury of spending their entire lengthy lives making that peach pie and refining and refining and refining it until they can do it in their sleep. If you think that any chef ought to be able to make a simple pie, fine. That's reasonable. But the grandmother comment is hyperbole. And Gail, you're seriously going to ask the guy about his grandmother's spuma? He just finished telling you that he wanted to honor her recipe AND give it a few of his own twists. We all know who decided that celery spuma with banana cream pie was a good idea. There's no need to browbeat the guy.

Then there's the grilling challenge. It's been suggested that these dishes weren't nearly as interesting as previous grill challenges, and I'm going to... um... challenge that assertion. Setting aside the Precambrian Era (before season four) for which I have no notes, a quick glance shows the tailgating grill challenge in season four and the ranch cookout in season six as the closest analogues to this one. Last season's dishes were more interesting. But first, remember that you're comparing to season six, which is like watching a mob movie and proclaiming that it's no Goodfellas. And second, recall that last season, they didn't know it was a cookout. The dishes they prepared were all over the map because they weren't tailoring their prep to cooking over fire outdoors, so naturally the food was more diverse and more interesting. Then, there's the tailgate cookout from season four. The winner was Dale Talde's Tandoori ribs with a potato salad that included raisins, mango and turmeric. Okay, that's interesting enough. Your other two top dishes were Antonia's watered-down jerk chicken with grilled pineapple and banana, and Stephanie's plain Jane (but no doubt tasty) pork tenderloin with potato bacon salad and rosemary vinaigrette. Point being, your season four all-stars weren't exactly bringing shock and awe to the grill challenge, either. But all of this said, it wasn't the most impressive showing. I still have faith that the second half of this season is going to be as compelling as any, but these guys are going to need to get it in gear like I suspect they can.

And with that, I'm going to jump right into the rankings. I apologize, I'm traveling and can't devote the usual 6+ hours to combing through all of the recipes and watching every little video clip I can find, so consider this the Top Chef Power Rankings, Shoot From The Hip Edition. Frankly, aside from a few at the top and a couple at the bottom, you might as well throw all of the names into a hat anyway. Reeeeeally hoping we get some clarity this week.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Angelo Quickfires 2 2 0 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 1 2 0 No wins, but another top appearance for Angelo and he still has triple the wins of the nearest competition, so this is kind of a no-brainer. Though I'll admit I don't quite see what the big deal is with his Vietnamese lettuce wraps. It was a good choice and I'm sure he executed it well, but it's nothing novel or exciting. His curried sweet potato crumble looked kind of neat, but it didn't receive any love, perhaps because he chose to ignore the challenge and not make a pie. That'll bite you in the ass at some point, Angelo. What I did like to see -- even if it doesn't really have any significant bearing on the competition -- was what seemed like some genuine good guy moments, especially considering that he's been taking a beating from the crowd in the personality department. Yeah, he's got kind of a weird smarminess at times and he uses the word "sexy" to describe his food waaaaaay too much (and the front page of his website is something I wish I could unsee). But there he was, poking his head in the oven and looking out for Tracy, and after joining the pile-on-Amanda, he swallowed that pride and didn't hesitate to do a full 180 and give her full marks for a great dish. Let's not cast him as the villain just yet, hmmm?

2 Kenny Quickfires 1 3 0 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 0 1 1 No surprises here, either. Kenny pulled down his first win with a pretty slick-looking pie (hooray for five spice!), and his elimination dish elicited a shrug from the judges, which frankly puts him in the upper echelon this week. The guy's confident, he's sound, and he's doing interesting things. Not much more to say.

3 Kelly Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 1 1 0 Kelly picked up a top mention for her dark chocolate ganache tart, and while chocolate ganache with raspberry sauce is kind of a snoozer, we'll give her some points for not screwing it up. The dish kind of screams "I'm a chef and this is the dessert I practiced for the competition," and that's fine. Better than fine, actually, since that's what we've been screaming these chefs should be doing for years. For the elimination, I'm going to defend her from Gail a bit. Characterizing baking fresh brioche, whipping up garlic aioli and roasted tomatoes, and making two salads with two vinaigrettes as something "any home cook could do easily" is a little unfair. No, this isn't technically dazzling, but let's not overreach, here. The true complaint, I think, might have been that it played that way, very safe and straightforward, and that's worthy of a little shot. But let's not pretend this was home cookery 101, because it wasn't. Especially because some other dishes actually were.

4 Arnold Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 1 2 0 Hey, a little interest! I'm still not sold on Arnold. His menus really look like a train wreck to me, and I have a hard time believing that anybody who balks at grilling is going to go all that deep. If you aren't willing to get dirty, you aren't going to survive. But that said, he's making some noise, and coupled with some weak performances near the top this week, I kind of feel like I have to give him the fourth spot. It's not a confident move, but I can't say he hasn't earned it so far.

5 Alex Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 1 0 I'm still kind of moving Alex and Kevin as a unit, and I had a hard time deciding who would be on top this time. They both had weak showings, Alex in the QF, Kevin in the elimination, and I finally decided to give Alex the nod this week, more because of Kevin than because of Alex. Though the fact that he thought egg in his pie was a good idea made me think long and hard about it. As for the eating the ass out of the pig comment, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he knows that pork butt is from the front of the pig, not the back, and that it was just a dumb joke. Because otherwise, that would be a truly shocking level of ignorance. There's just no way.

6 Kevin Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 0 1 1 Blowing a pie is bad, but that steak with beans and rice looked worse. That was a seriously denuded recipe. THIS was the dish that deserved Gail's comment about it being nothing a home cook couldn't do easily. Though to her credit, she not only went at him with both barrels, but made the point beautifully. This food is fine. You're not here to cook this kind of food. What really bothers me is that Kevin couldn't see that this wasn't going to fly. This may be a simple lesson learned, move on scenario, and I expect he'll bounce back. He's one of the ones who's shown that he can put a dish together. But if he doesn't use his head, a blind spot like that will kill him in a big hurry.

7 Andrea Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 7 Eliminations 0 0 0 Andrea's one of two chefs with no top or bottom appearances, so it's tough to know what to do with her, but I mostly like the cut of her jib so far, so we'll let her tread water. Again. Even if root beer glaze is getting a little old. Particularly if it's too sweet.

8 Ed Quickfires 0 1 1 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 1 1 Ed benefits from a strong elimination showing and his presence in the middle of the pack where even the slightest hint of a heartbeat can send you shooting to the top right now. But he's still maddeningly inconsistent. On one hand, I want to give him props for pushing the envelope with that banana cream pie with peanuts and celery spuma. At least he's taking some risks, and that "elevate, elevate, elevate" mantra is a good one to have for this show. But he might've been a little too smart for his own good here. I still think the guy has a lot of potential, but he's going to have to show more to claw back to the top.

9 Amanda Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 14 Eliminations 0 1 1 Speaking of clawing... attitude or tenacity, take your pick. They're both apropos. I was afraid of this. We'd heard she might have some actual skill, and now she's going to be a crazy wildcard the rest of the way out. I just know it. This week, she could flame out of the quickfire or win the elimination, and neither would surprise me. I'll just react accordingly. For now, we'll give her a solid bump for the strong showing, but not too much because... you know... she nearly bit it last week.

10 Lynne Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 9 Eliminations 0 1 0 Lynne's just hanging around, and despite her protestations, she's making the kind of solid, unexciting food you expect from a cooking instructor. Her trajectory is starting to look pretty clear, hanging around while others screw up around her. But slow and steady doesn't win this race... it just gets you past the midpoint of the season.

11 Tiffany Quickfires 0 0 1 Last Week: 11 Eliminations 0 1 0 I want to believe that Tiffany has something to show, but this week wasn't doing it. I'm not sure how a glaze with tamarind, balsamic, cinnamon, habanero and star anise has no flavor, but I'm inclined to believe Waxman. She was also one of the contestants to use what Tom described as some truly awful tomatoes, that any chef should have had the good sense to leave in the kitchen. I dunno. More data needed.

12 Tamesha Quickfires 0 0 0 Last Week: 12 Eliminations 0 0 0 Wait, is Tamesha still here? I thought she snuck out the back midway through the first episode. Cripes, there's nothing to go on here. I mean, seriously, I've got nothing. Her steak was fine. Unless it wasn't quite fine. Depends on which judge you ask at which second, actually. But it definitely wasn't good and it definitely wasn't bad, which is pretty much what the response to her has been for three episodes now. Do me a favor, Tamesha. Next episode, put, like, seven habaneros in your dish just so we can be sure they're actually tasting your food.

13 Timothy Quickfires 0 1 0 Last Week: 10 Eliminations 0 0 2 Timothy probably doesn't deserve this, but man, the guy just can't stay out of trouble. He's been on the block more than anybody not named Stephen, and there comes a point where you kind of have to stop making excuses for the guy. It's like he has enough skill to make tasty food, but only has enough of an attention span to do it for half of his dish. There's always been enough good to save him, but how many more times can he show up on the bottom before the judges lose patience and start to wonder why he can't put together a complete dish? This entire paragraph is probably one bottom appearance premature, but what can I say... it's the Shoot From The Hip Edition and a double elimination opens the door for somebody like him to make an early exit.

14 Stephen Quickfires 0 1 2 Last Week: 15 Eliminations 0 0 2 Okay, Stephen cracks me up. Mostly because the poor dude just looks like he desperately needs sleep, and I can soooo relate. He's totally helpless out there. And when he almost snatches a moment of greatness out of thin air, it's right back to overcooking sea bass and undercooking bacon and having no idea why he's on the bottom. He obviously has some talent, but damned if he can do a thing with it. He hasn't checked out. It's that he never checked in to begin with. Somebody get this man a pillow.

15 Tracey Quickfires 1 1 1 Last Week: 13 Eliminations 0 0 1 And yet, Stephen managed to snooze his way to the second-worst spot this week, edged out of elimination by Tracey, who just never got it going. I decided that I'm sad to see her go, even if I didn't get a sense that her food was going to be all that interesting, even at its best. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a classy exit, and this was a classy one.

No discussion of the upcoming episode this week... a little short on time. With apologies, there they are. Do me a favor folks. Muster up whatever juju you have and try to get us an episode that really shows off what these guys can do this week. I need a little help, and I'm not above soliciting mystical/spiritual/divine intervention to get it.

Discuss!

Comments

[Bart]

And Gail, you're seriously going to ask the guy about his grandmother's spuma?

Aww, Dom, I thought Gail was just having fun and teasing him! I don't think she was being serious or snarky, I think she was just playing around.

Agreed on dropping Timothy near the bottom. He showed early promise, but yikes, he is seriously dropping the ball. Still, of all the contestants, he's the one who I think is most poised to make a dramatic climb in the rankings.

Then again, Tamesha could pull a Carla and ride the bottom of the rankings for the whole season until she's suddenly in the finals. You never know.

[paula]

RE: Gail--what Bart said. :)

And it seems to me that Tiffany has showed a lot better than, say, Andrea or even Ed. Then again, I don't keep notes...I'm just going on memory and a general sense here.

[KinderJ]

Re: Juju

Nobody has that kind of Juju. Gandalf drinking a Baron Samedi out of the Holy Grail doesn't have that kind of Juju. I have a few dried cock's feet wrapped in red yarn that I keep next to the remote for just such a purpose. This season rendered them shriveled and blackened.

One smelled faintly of celery spuma and greasy rice.

[Independent George]

Nobody has that kind of Juju. Gandalf drinking a Baron Samedi out of the Holy Grail doesn't have that kind of Juju. I have a few dried cock's feet wrapped in red yarn that I keep next to the remote for just such a purpose.

That... is awesome. I'm speechless.

[Independent George]

Is it really surprising that the chefs might not have realized something was wrong with the tomatoes? During prep, I can easily see them tasting everything except the tomatoes - that is, they tried out their rubs, sauces, and dressings during prep, and making adjustments accordingly, while simply assuming their tomatoes tasted like... tomatoes. When I prep a salad, I'll try out the dressing and adjust the seasoning, but I don't usually test out the individual ingredients or even sample the actual salad until it's served.

I can also imagine some of them finding the tomatoes wanting, but it being too late to change things, and having their comments edited out due to sponsorship agreements.

I normally hate the double-elimination, as it increases the likelihood that it will axe a potential contender who happened to have a bad day. The thing is, the MOP is really hard to read at this point, so I really can't say I'm very attached to any of them. I think Ed is solid, but I really haven't been wowed yet.

[JJ]

I know it's still early on in the season, but I already feel that (5) is too high for Alex. He seems as likely to me as Timothy to get ejected in the next few challenges for some lapse of judgment/taste. (4) also seems a bit high for Arnold, but this has more to do with my sense of his long-term chances than anything he's done wrong so far. (His a little too "front of the house" for me.) On the other hand, I'd probably bump Ed up a few more notches because he does seem to have the skills to go far in the competition once he gets into a groove (which appeared to be the case with the last Elimination challenge). But yeah, it's just a feeling. Otherwise it's hard to disagree with your rankings or rationales. I didn't have a good feeling about this group in the first episode, and I remain skeptical.

[Lon]

For whatever it's worth, when it came time to watch last week's episode, I really wasn't interested. Except for Angelo's very grating persona, I don't find anyone compelling me to watch either as a cook or as a personality. Hope it gets better, but maybe not.

[Naomi]

and after joining the pile-on-Amanda, he swallowed that pride and didn't hesitate to do a full 180 and give her full marks

I'm not convinced it was a 180. There was something strange in the editing of that scene. Yes, Amanda was clearly acting as if she was being jumped on, but despite Angelo's smarminess, I didn't get the sense that the questions he was asking about her dish were loaded in any way (although the other chefs participating surely may have been trying to make Amanda feel badly). He definitely annoys me, but something tells me he's actually a pretty nice guy. He seemed genuinely surprised and troubled at Kenny's actions at the previous judges' table and I think he may have just been genuinely asking Amanda about her dish. (I did think the praise of her dish got a little over the top though - was he flirting? I don't know, it was weirdish).

[dach]

I agree, from what we've been shown, we haven't been shown creativity and impeccable technique. I thought the side dishes is where there was most opportunity to embellish, be creative to let a dish stand out, but it was far more misses and duds than hits.

I'm still enjoying Michael Volt demonstrate the winning dishes. That's interesting. Though Arnold's winning dish looked very rustic, it must've been very tasty. The (cous cous?) side dish also looked good, if not mind blowing creative.

I'm thinking the stronger chefs by now where they stand in relation to the weaker chefs so are cooking for safe middle in ECs. Right now a strong chef is more likely to get PYKAG by going on on a limb than aiming for the boring middle. Coward's decision helped by no EC prizes for winner.

This is also a problem on Project Runway when everyone plays it safe in earlier parts of the season.

[Naomi]

Is it really surprising that the chefs might not have realized something was wrong with the tomatoes?

You make very good points about not tasting tomatoes during prep, but didn't Gail say the tomatoes were mealy? That's something you can usually see as soon as you cut one open, isn't it?

[marjorie]

Agree that Gail was just teasing Eyebrows. She was smiling, and she enunciated "your grandmother's spuma" in a cutely self-aware, ironic way.

And this concludes my Deborah-Tannen-esque close reading of Gail Simmons's linguistic subtext.

Perhaps I am dwelling on the hermaneutics of Gaildom because I too am not all that interested in the contestants or cooking so far. I'm with Dom in hoping things pick up soon!

[Bart]

Naomi - I agree. That scene where they were asking Amanda how she was cooking her ribs, Angelo seemed genuinely interested in what she was doing, and not behaving snidely. He did note that she was being clever, too. I didn't get the "oh he's being a jerk vibe" - but what do I know, I wasn't there.

[Dreamboat]

[italic]Is it really surprising that the chefs might not have realized something was wrong with the tomatoes?[/italic]

For me it is. Grocery hot-house tomatoes are notoriously disgusting. They are tasteless and mealy. I won't even attempt to buy them unless it is summer, and even then I smell them before buying. And if I am served them in a salad at a restaurant I won't eat them.

And this is Top Chef. The contestants should know that EVERYTHING on the plate must be in top condition or they may be called out for it. SO yes, I am surprised that they did not taste everything on their plate and make adjustments.

[Naomi]

Me again :-)

I just made myself a snack. It included tomatoes. While cutting them, I noticed they were deep red and juicy and I could smell them without bending close to the plate. I realized that if neither were the case (juicy or fragrant), I would have at the least bent closer to smell them before deciding to use them or not and that this is something I always do (before this conversation started) and I'm just a home cook.

[Quantavious]

You have 3 africans ranked 11-13; I see how you are, I see how it's gonna be

[KinderJ]

Tomatos are damn finicky fruit. I have a hard time thinking of another fruit with such a wide range of quality (from disgusting mush to a seriously good reason to go on living) all of which are marked as salable by supermarkets. I have sort of conflicted feelings on their failure to note the tomatos' poor quality. On the one hand, a chef should be extremely concerned with the quality of their ingredients, and you would never accept 'time pressure' as an excuse in a good eatery. On the other hand, an external examination of a tomato may not give a conclusive indicator of quality. And sometimes you just need a tomato to finish the dish. I lean in favor of the 'Don't serve sub-standard vegetables' camp, but I do have some sympathy.

[jh]

@Quantavious: Surely, you are trolling.

This season so far seems to have flavors of seasons 2 and 5, with the pettiness and uninspired food. Although last season seems like an anomaly, I'm sure the judges are wishing for that food now. I'm hoping some people will start to shine in the next few episodes.

And I'm amused that the Obi-wan nicknamed has stuck.

[Skillet Doux]

JH... he is. This is the same guy who made comments about Arnold a couple of times.

Samsun (Quantavious), you're welcome to stay if you're going to participate, otherwise I can just ban your IP and we can call it a day. Up to you.

[KinderJ]

Yeah, I was going with the 'Don't feed the trolls' approach and ignoring him. But, yeah. Troll-tastic.

[Bart]

Quantavious - Yes, because the cheftestant ranked at #2 is painfully Caucasian. But go on. You were saying?

[KinderJ]

@ Bart- Just had Jon Stewart popping into my head. 'Go oooooon". Funny.

[bfish]

I agree with Dreamboat and Naomi -- I won't eat those gassed (or whatever they do to them) tasteless tomatoes when served them in a restaurant, or someone's home, except the minimum required to be polite in the latter case. And we certainly don't buy them. For a price, some decent tomatoes can be acquired out of season, but mostly we just treat them as a seasonal vegetable (oops I mean FRUIT). On this issue, I am on Gail's side (and think as well that the celery spuma comment was at worst kidding on the square, not an out-and-out dig).

I doubt that I will ever not enjoy Top Chef, but it is vexing this season to not pick up on someone right away to root for. Maybe I'll be able to get into Angelo since the ace chefs from seasons past have pulled me in quickly (main example being Hung)-- but his BS last week in the school lunch EC belied his earlier claim to try to win every challenge.

Please ban the troll if he/she doesn't straighten up; this blog has too many smart and opinionated, yet respectful, commenters to let someone butt in with unfounded and clearly baiting entries. Not a stoner, but "it harshes the buzz" is an apt description of how I react.

[Dan_boston]

I feel very comfortable with the top 3; everyone else is subject to change. Hopefully the pettiness will continue to die down and we'll get to see some interesting motp jockeying.

[Anon Man]

A solid review of the current status. I have become fascinated with Arnold, because of the contrary views of his little culinary empire and him as a chef, so I looked up his restaurants. Dom was right on, the "House of Yum" place looks disgusting, but the Chah Cha place looks interesting enough, if not just another "global small plates" venue. I'm still not sure if I should take him seriously after that opening "I prepared for the show by getting a facial" comment. The reviews from the Nashville crowd are very mixed, but I can't tell if that's the clientele or the food.

On a somewhat related note of a recurring theme here, I have noticed that Fox is doing a home cook version of Hell's Kitchen (sort of). Dom, where were you? I would even give that a try, although I don't think I have the variety of dishes needed to win. But I could certainly make something more appetizing than the beer cheese soup video on the Fox website. I say we start another "draft Dom" movement.

[rf]

So I live about 5 blocks from two of arnold's restaurants and have sampled both of those menus (PM and Cha Cha). First off, they are located in the middle of a college town (Belmont not Vanderbilt), and i would classify them as a little on the high end for the college scene but definitely not fine dining. The food in both is quite good but the scene is both is great. I would be surprised if he could win this competition based on previous seasons and just as surprised if he doesn't make it to the final 5 or 6.

[Anon Man]

@Rf, thanks. Many of the reviews are of the "this place is too expensive and just puts on some fancy ingredients so they can charge $17 for an appetizer" variety. The college town locale might be part of that.

[nomnomnom]

The Voltaggio segments where he explains the dishes is the best presented version of that to date. Highly recommended.

Teams for the EC if you watch the preview:

Amanda/Steven
Angelo/Tamesha
Arnold/Lynne
Alex/Ed
Tim/Tiffany
Andrea/Kelly
Kevin/Kenny

It appears that some teams have to do more dishes if their first one does not meet standards. First breakfast, then lunch, and I guess dinner?

The huge smoothie thing that apparently the Kelly team is making looks horrible. The Lynne tortilla casserole thing looks equally vile.

It's unclear what, if any advantage winning the QF would bring.

[nomnomnom]

I think I need to quit watching all the previews with such a keen eye. If they do in fact kill off two from the same team then there is no doubt which team it is. If the pairs get broken up for the second round then it's somewhat wide open.

[Polybus]

bfish: I doubt that I will ever not enjoy Top Chef

I agree. The structure of the show, the nature of the contest, and the subject matter are all very inviting. The personalities of the judges and contestants keep the show lively, whether the competition level is high or not. During the first few years, there were some aspects that I didn't care for, but time has mellowed me and I find that I even enjoy the second season (which for a while I thought would sink the whole show).

While seasons like the last, with such amazing competition, are a real delight, sometimes we have to realize that most of the contestants are still jouneymen-and-women. While it may be shortsighted not to prepare dessert recipes, study different styles or even bone up on the basics, there are just a lot of things that chefs at this level still need to learn. That's part of what makes it fun for me. I enjoy TCM just as much, but there isn't quite the drama of being thrown off the deep end and finding out if you can swim or not.

Chefs at this level, no matter how accomplished, can still suffer brain freeze or make an error in judgement, so that at any time even the best may fail. At first, I hated the fact that judging wasn't cumulative - that the best could make one mistake and be gone, but now I appreciate that aspect as part of the drama. No wonder these cooks get so nervous. It makes for great TV.

My 2 cents.

[Anon Man]

@nomnomnon, I think your assumption about it being both from the same team assumes facts not in evidence. No way the judges would let that happen given the chance that a contender gets felled by being paired with a hack.

[nomnomnom]

No, for sure that's right.

They also will all at least cook breakfast. Then some number of teams will go on to cook lunch. Whether this is still as a team or individual is to be determined.

If lets say the bottom two teams (4 chefs) (or 3?) then split up to go from there it would totally blow the preview gazing to bits.

And what if they go from 14 to 6 to 3 for "dinner"?

[nm]

To expand a bit on rf's review of Nashville restaurant reviews, Nashville doesn't have all that much of a food scene for a city its size. And you can get a bunch of "just give me some cheap food and cheap drinks" reactions,* and you can get "oh, how wonderful and different this place is, and it will add to our general foodiness!" reactions about food that would pass as ordinary in other cities. And I think that you have to discount the most enthusiastic and most disparaging reviews of Arnold's restaurants for that reason.

*Seriously, the local papers have been known to cover a chain restaurant as the weekly feature.

[Gilmore]

Re Nashville/Belmont - isn't that also an artsy part of town? They may explain more about the restaurant than Belmont being there.

I too will always love the show. I just want a better class of cook than is on Hell's Kitchen.

If they do not take the whole losing team down, I expect massive fighting at judges table, based on the season so far.

I think some good chef's are sandbagging and waiting until later to show their stuff. There are enough bad chef's to take that risk.

[KinderJ]

@Anon Man, re: "assumes facts not in evidence"- as someone who just finished clerking for a judge, I gotta tell ya- "evidence" is anything which will aid the finder of fact in reaching their decision. (Subject to state or federal rules of evidence and any applicable case law interpreting said rules.) A better formulation of that would be 'there is no evidence that...' Fact implies an objective truth, which does not really exist until the end of trial. Pedantic of me I know, but 'facts not in evidence' next to 'judge' tweaked the law student in me.

@Gilmore- I just watched an episode of Hell's kitchen. One of the guys competing is a high school lunch cook. And they are competing to be EC at Ramsey's new place in the Savoy. The banging noise you hear is the epic face palming I perform whenever I think of that show.

[Bawdy George]

A baby food QF? Baby food! I guess they didn't think the kid lunch challenges were annoying enough. Will they have a panel of babies as judges? That'll be some insightful commentary. Perhaps a future challenge will involve preparing a dish while jumping a shark.

[jh]

A baby food QF does seem like a gimmick, but I am interested to see what age group of baby food they are preparing for and what the criteria is. Are they babies that eat mush or more along the lines of chewing, and is it being judge on how palatable it is to adults? If the food consistency needs to be mush, then I will actually find this challenge quite interesting. First off, if anyone has ever tasted food that comes out of a Gerber jar, you'd be surprised at how tasteless and gross most of it is. If you don't like it, why should your baby? For me, a food is primarily based on flavor, texture, and temperature. If you're making mush, the flavor really needs to be spot on, similarly to making a really great soup. Good soups are easy to come by, but great ones are rare.

However, the previews make it appear that these babies are all capable of chewing (pork tenderloin, chopped apples), so it seems almost like a rehash of the kids challenge. I miss LeAnn.

An interesting side note, flavors we were exposed to in breast milk and baby formula may influence the foods we like as adults.

http://www.parentingscience.com/flavors-in-breast-milk.html

[Anon Man]

@KinderJ, Thanks for the bar review refresher course. As a practicing lawyer for 15 years, I know that isn't a technical expression, but I was having fun there. But, you also made my larger point, that "both people on the losing team will go home" isn't a known fact a this point (but will be after the show).

The contestants on Hell's Kitchen are by and large horrid either in talent or attitude or both. Although, one of them made three desserts yesterday that all impressed Ramsay. I can't believe she didn't complain that she wasn't a pastry chef! (ducking)

[Bart]

@KinderJ - I admit it, I love Hell's Kitchen. Part of the fun of watching it is PRECISELY because they're a bunch of mooks who can barely cook.

I know it's trashy. I know it's the equivalent of eating a McDonald's chicken nugget when I could be sampling caviar atop a slab of Kobe beef, but darn it, sometimes I'm just in the mood for a McNugget!

[Gilmore]

I watch most cooking competitions (except the hideous food network cake/desert/pastry garbage) due to the creativity exhibited on the fly and under pressure. I do like chopped.

Top Chef is still the king - and hopefully, they won't drive themselves politically correct into the ditch this season.

Why do I watch Hell's Kitchen? I don't know. Limited creativity is exhibited. Mostly, they cook the same stuff - scallops, john dory, chicken, risoto and steaks - and they are still either raw or burnt. I am wondering if this is like wrestling - staged failure. Or is it a bunch of line cooks from Golden Corral who have embellished resume's?

[Bawdy George]

@jh: The Dish Network synopsis says "the chefs create baby food for Padma's newborn". If that's really the case, I has a sad.

[Nikki L]

Going back to the tomato thing - was there only one type of tomato at Whole Foods? I shop at a grocery store with a much more limited produce department and there are still always around 3-6 types of tomatoes depending on the season. I know hot house are generally cheaper but I find Roma or vine tomatoes to be worth the extra couple of bucks... I just can't imagine Whole Foods only having one type of tomato.... I just can't.

[bfish]

Thanks for the recommendations on Michael Voltaggio's recreations of the winning dishes -- you all are right, they're great! I learned some good pointers just from watching. He's a fine teacher and made me want to try, especially, Angelo's dish or something inspired by it.

Seconding Nikki's comments on the tomatoes -- when I said earlier that pricier tomato choices could offer decent flavor and texture out of season I was thinking of on-the-vine tomatoes. As a WalMart shopper, I'm about as far from Whole Foods as you can get, yet find that the vine tomatoes and Romas are a regular product there.

[Anon man]

Getting a head start on the next thread: Apparently, I am the Angel of Death. If there are any cheftestants you want me to be interested in, let me know.

[Independent George]

I usually go with Ugly tomatoes out-of-season. They're not quite as good as very fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, but they consistently have a good flavor and texture.

[PerryMB]

I find the vine ripened tomatoes at Sams Club to be very tasty 11 months of the year.

[Carolyn]

So, I had to check out Angelo's website and my first thought was - "hey, that the next Food Network Star". So sad...

[Carolyn]

Obviously I can't spell - should have said "That's the Next Food Network Star"

[seth]

This season has sucked so far. From the choice of locale, Washington DC (great city but no real culinary tradition); the contestants (none seem to have much of a creative flair); the stupid challenges(cooking for kids and babies).

Top Chef is just over thinking everything. Take a bunch of talented chefs, send them to a culinary city like New Orleans, give them ingredients based challenges but nothing too cute and let the best chef win.