Oops

So it's 9:00 on a Tuesday night. You're sitting on your living room sofa, computer in front of you, DVR playing last week's Top Chef, getting ready to write the rankings.

Next thing you know, you're waking up, it's about 4:30 Wednesday morning, you're still on the sofa, and nothing's written. Which I guess is my way of telling you that this accidental hiatus was brought to you courtesy of sleep deprivation.

It's a lame, lame excuse, but it's the only one I've got. I'm really sorry, folks. Wasn't on purpose. No more waiting until Tuesday night.

Postmortem tonight as usual.

Comments

[Naomi]

I'm going to be a brat now. Waaah!!!!!!! But I've got my coffee all ready and the kids are quiet. I want my Power Rankings!

Ok, got that out of my system ;-)

Totally understand, Dom :-)

[Independent George]

If you also dreamed that you were a contestant and showed up to the TC kitchen in your underwear while forgetting to bring your knives, you'd have hit the trifecta.

[John Coctostan]

You will die in the heat of a thousand suns for neglecting your unpaid position as a reality cooking show rankings maven.

[JJ]

Okay, I guess I'll have to do my own.

1. Angelo
2. Tiffany
3. Kelly
4. Ed
5. Kevin (both versions)
6. Amanda
7. Alex

Somehow, I have a feeling that Alex will survive another challenge or two but this doesn't keep me from placing him at the bottom. Although I disprove of the way he was treated last week (especially by the losing team who tried to throw him under the bus when their hides were on the line), I remain underwhelmed, when not creeped-out, by him. As for Amanda: I'm not one of those who thinks she has a shot at going to the finals. Her hit and miss skills will do her in sooner than later, as will Alex. I'd also be okay with Kevin (all versions, good and bad) being eliminated. His temperamental outbursts are a bit much.

[nomnomnom]

Tonight looks like a QF which is a total rip-off of chopped. Maybe they throw in a twist towards the end, but the whole mystery box thing is just sad. Looks like they get fish, some hominy from a can, and perhaps a mixed bunch of herbs.

A second box which appears to be quite heavy is later brought in. Who knows. One thing that is very different this year is the contestants are getting a huge amount of time to do quickfires. Like 90 minutes sometimes.

EC looks single chef single plate in the CIA. Maybe an MG twist with WD judging. Tough to call a departure this week. These chefs all have won a single plate EC except Amanda so far (right?), I can't recall if Kelly has taken a single plate challenge. Tend to think it's a coin flip between Kelly and Amanda with Amanda going home. Conspiracy voices in my head tend to make me think Alex is safe much like Robin? last year.

BTW has anyone sent out a search party for Ripert yet? I thought he was a judge this season?

[ally]

1. Angelo - continues to produce and Bruni would want to taste more of his food.
2. Tiffany - consistently good, although not stellar this week.
3. Kevin - I think Kenny going home will either throw him or bring out his best, and I'm going with the latter. I just don't like putting either Ed or Kelly here.
4. Ed - his dish won, he's improving, no major missteps lately.
5. Kelly - she is constantly being criticized for lack of flavor, and is justifying it by saying her food is "subtle". The only time she went for more flavor she completely failed with a huge salty steak.
6. Alex - I think the group assessment of him is worse than his actual performance. He won the previous elimination, so that's better than
7. Amanda - who consistently makes one good component of her dish and botches the execution.

[SteveNJ]

Uh nomnomnom,
Top Chef used the mystery basket in the opening episode of season 2, long before Chopped existed.

[Nikki L]

I really like ally's rankings. The top two and bottom two seem very clear so I won't delve into those. I think Kevin and Ed have started to get their footing and start turning out more top dishes than bottom dishes (yet both have the ability to tank at any minute as well) which puts them ahead of Kelly who has been on a slow and gradual slide all season.

[Steve F.]

Ok...here goes...

1. Angelo
2. Tiffany
3. Ed
4. Alex (remember that he's only been in the bottom once; usually tanks only in the QFs)
5. Kelly
6. Kevin
7. Amanda

[Bart]

Dom: Getting 8 hours of sleep every single night is the best way to combat long-term sleep deprivation. It'll also boost your mood/productivity!

Let that be a lesson to college students out there who are reading this and think they'll be "okay" pulling all-nighters.

My rankings:

1. Angelo
2. Tiffany
3. Kevin
4. Kelly
5. Ed
6. Alex
7. Amanda

[Independent George]

I get most of my sleeping done on conference calls.

[Polybus]

Okay, I'd like to say at this point that I'm really starting to get tired of the phrase "threw him/her under the bus." What an image that conjurs up. One chef grabbing another just as a speeding bus approaches the kitchen and then hurling them under the wheels and laughing maniacally all the way. Why don't we just substitute the phrase, "plunged an icepick in his/her forehead!" ? It's at least as humane. How about "kicked him/her in the..." Wait, that won't work. Sorry. I'm going nuts here without the power rankings. ;D

[timothy]

I like that this comment thread is both about sleeping and eating. Two of my favorite things. I am about to start graduate school in five days after a 25 year absence from the student side of the classroom. I wonder if I will have those evenings of sitting down on the couch to get work done at 9 pm and waking up at 4:30 with the work undone. I hope not. I am not glad this happened to you, Skillet Doux, but I will say it encourages me to know I am not the only one who does things like that. No worries. No harm. Of course I would like to know what the official SD ranking is this week. It seems like a tough one. How do you sort out Kevin, Kelly, and Ed? For me those are the difficult placements. We'll see tonight I suppose...

[gilmore]

The competition is so tightly clustered this season that this creates enough drama.

The editing is making me not want to watch the entire show - see the challenge, fast forward through most of it, hear the judges.

Even the reviled Alex has only one bottom three in the eliminations. He is not good at quick fires, but holds his own with the challenges. The editing is killing his post-Top Chef career. Who would want to work with him? Who would want him doing demos? He did not steal the peas - but the editing never cleared him. He is being trashed by his competitors, yet keeps producing.

I think he will be in top 4 and the editing has made him out to be a monster.

1. Angelo
2. Tiffany
3 - 7. toss up

[Joe S]

I am hoping Kevin channels alpha male Kenny, winning the rest of the competition.

[Skillet Doux]

Oh, I can get eight hours of sleep a night, Bart. But guess which activity would be first on the chopping block to make that happen :-)

[gilmore]

I would be interested in Ted Allen's (the real one) take on TC using a Chopped-like challenge. From the sounds of the box nomnomnom described, they needed to add something like gummy bears or a snickers bar to the mix.

[bryanD]

"It's a lame, lame excuse, but it's the only one I've got"--skilletdoux

No excuses necessary. Top Chef sh!t the bed last week which is Last Night in tv time. The dookie remains; we all stand just looking at it. (It's not like Top Chef is a baby anymore! This is full-size poop! I'll get the shovel.)

How to rationalize Amanda being rewarded for wallowing in her own crapulence by failing to present a single dish from her very own Zen Station? Despite modern time piece technology, Amanda presented leather. Despite nice oak fuel, Amanda's steaks were "unsavory". Well, I can explain her first problem: she doesn't know how to bank a fire--a lost art, maybe---but even so, wood wastage should have been the only sin there. By the time the judges were served her cooking times should have been noted and corrected and, if necessary, chalked on the nearest brick. What a dummy.
The only way I can rationalize Kenny's fate is that the producers have decided that Top Chef should be ruled by the laws that games of chance are ruled by: the losing player that wagers the most loses the most. I find that invalid in a supposed skills test.

So painful, but moving on: A prayer.
Please let Angelo's use of store-bought pie dough be from the Quick Fire round! Selah!

Angelo
Kelly
Ed
Kevin
Tiffany (I'm rooting for her. Really. I am.)
Alex
Amanda (Kenny was no placeholder. I rest my case.)

[nomnomnom]

Did the S2 Mystery box have the same stuff for every chef in it? It appears that the boxes are all the same (maybe).

They also bring out a second box in this one. That's a damn near carbon copy of chopped from what I recall. From as hard as the guy is straining to carry it the thing must have some fluid containers in it. Either that or he needs to hit the gym...

[rab01]

I think there were 2 variants of th S2 mystery box - 1 for each cooking shift - because there were too many chefs to all fit in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure that the mystery box from last Season's finale was the same for each contestant.

Chopped does one mystery box per dish just like Top Chef has done.

[timothy]

Season 2, episode 1: They were split into teams and each individual on that team was given one box. Box for team 1 included snails, peanuts, potatoes, artichokes, some other thing I have forgotten. Box for team 2 included chicken liver, frogs legs, corn flakes, peanut butter, some other thing I have forgotten. Top Chef does not seem to be ripping off Chopped. Besides, the mystery box game is actually an old one. I remember playing a version of it with my sister and her friends when I was about ten years old.

[foodiewannabe]

Not for nothin but here goes - also think 1-4 will make to the semis/finals.
1. Angelo - experienced, versatile, strong flavors
2. Ed - experienced, getting his groove on
3. Kevin - with some hesitancy, but think he is a good chef and perhaps had been a little intimitated by Kenny - not on purpose - believe they are buds, would like to see him in top 4.
4. Tiffany - has done some good things - nailed Ethopian QF - impressed me because she had to rely on her instincts and sense of flavor.
5. Kelly - smart chef - a little timid with flavor and that's a big problem in Top Chef competition.
6&7 or 7&6 Alex & Amands - I am totally ferklempt. Still remember Alex's deconstructed borscht and EC win (not getting into the controversy) and Amanda, albeit the most inexperienced of those remaining has had her moments of at least, reasonable success.
I would be okay with any of my top 4 taking the title.

[Steve F.]

Average of Readers' Rankings:

1. Angelo

2.7 Tiffany
3.4 Ed

3.9 Kelly
3.9 Kevin

5.5 Alex
6.2 Amanda

[Juli]

@ Timothy I went back after 22 years and I was so glad I did. I gave up most of my tv and all of my recreational reading. Top Chef and TC Masters were the only shows I kept; Dom's was the only blog I read. (my family would also tell you my cooking was a casualty of going back to school)...and no, I seldom got more than 6 hours per night. Tough but worth it.
Top three for the finals:
Angelo
Tiffany
Kelly
...but I wouldn't bet against Kevin or Ed as a spoiler

[vizoroo]

I must admit when the rankings weren't up last night I was afraid there might have been a flare up of health problems. Glad I was wrong.

Keep everybody healthy and get some rest after you post this week's rankings. :-}

[doktarr]

I disagree with those who think Amanda deserved to go home over Kenny. While I would have liked to see Kenny go on, it seemed clear that his screw-up of that cheese plate was worse than Amanda's overcooked meat. And whatever positive credit he gets for his leadership is overshadowed by the fact that his second dish was pretty bad, too. Kenny probably sticks around if they had liked either of his dishes, but they didn't.

While I found Kevin and Kenny's rant about Alex to be in poor taste, I mostly just thought it was dumb. It was clear that Alex had SOME role in the dish, so it wasn't really possible for him to go home. They were wasting their time arguing about it. On the other hand, Tiffany/Ed/Angelo were clearly "playing the game" there - if their team had lost, they would all probably blame Alex for his lack of contributions.

[timothy]

@juli: Glad to hear that your venture back to school was rewarding and satisfying. I am hoping for the same result. And yes, I do imagine I'll cut back on a lot of recreational and semi-recreational activities. I have been cooking complicated (for me) things lately like pies and torts because I know that as of this Monday, I won't have the chance to spend much time in the kitchen.

[Steve F.]

An hour to go...

Sadly, last season's cast only makes this season's look anemic, not just in talent but also because of our ability to distinguish where most of the remaining contestants are in the race.

Angelo's plain good and solid, even if his number of wins don't quite reflect it. Tiffany is generally good and solid as well. Ed is solid but unexciting. Kelly has good moments but has faults that have reared up often in recent episodes. Alex tanks the QFs, amazed in two ECs, and is generally otherwise unremarkable but passable/solid. Kevin has had an incredible run lately - but not enough that we don't worry he'll flamed out, as he had many times before. Amanda doesn't have the technical skills the others have but can produce good food.

Except for Angelo and perhaps Tiffany, the eliminations will probably come down to chance - each chef's inspiration and comfort zone with each challenge. Maddening.

[altoids]

@ Steve F:

That is awesome - those rankings match my gut feelings exactly. Thanks for doing that.

[bryanD]

"I disagree with those who think Amanda deserved to go home over Kenny. While I would have liked to see Kenny go on, it seemed clear that his screw-up of that cheese plate was worse than Amanda's overcooked meat."---doktarr

That cheese plate was abominable, true. (Peee-U!)
BUT!(!!!) Amanda could not even manage her single assignment: to cook a piece of primo beef over hardwood...probably oak (which is the ULTIMATE beef-friendly flavor enhancer) despite a 2-hour snapping-in period on that grill before the judges even arrived. The judges said Amanda's beef was (in so many words) atrocious.

"And whatever positive credit he gets for his leadership is overshadowed by the fact that his second dish was pretty bad, too."---doktarr

I hate beets! However, the diss on Kenny's beet dish was rather diffuse. I intuit (via somewhat foggy written statements from Tom et al) that the judges were mainly offended at the Beet Council Cookbook 1955 appearance and concept of the dish rather than how it tasted.

"Kenny probably sticks around if they had liked either of his dishes, but they didn't."---doktarr

Amanda failed at the one and only dish she was given. Cooking meat is Cooking 101...and I'm not even a cook...that is to say, on any given Sunday cook-out at my house, Amanda would be handed the Mind the Rolls in the Oven assignment. I, even I!, will handle the meat! (Did I mention that I'm not a "cook?")

One more thing: the "jus justification" per Amanda.
Jus is not a course.
Unlike creating basting liquid (or "meatloaf"), jus does indeed "just come" (a Jack Lemon/Odd Couple allusion_ sorry); just add water/liquid, remove fat, season to taste. The essence is emanated. Were it not, Amanda would have screwed it up.

To end on an Up note, let's hope Amanda goes home this week rather than screwing up exponentially the ever more important weeks to come by being the clear joker in the deck.