Top Chef - S7E13 Power Rankings

And it is thus that we reach the final Power Rankings of season seven.

...

Is that applause for the Power Rankings, or because the season's almost over?

Okay, okay, we'll save that discussion for the season postmortem next week. In the meantime, if I may be so bold as to ask, what the heck is up with you people? We finally have some fantastic food and the discussion turns to the genesis of Angelo's insecurity, Kelly's cameraworthiness and the finer points of New England douchebaggery? Singapore! Street food! Piles of exotic ingredients labeled in foreign languages!

*sigh*... I guess it just goes to show that the crowd is really ready for this season to be over.

Personally, this is the kind of episode that makes me want to cry. Not having anything at all to do with the cooking competition, I just want an hour in the hawker market. It would make my year. And some pretty awesome-looking food resulted. But we'll save the details for the actual rankings.

Final Power Rankings of season seven... go!

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 Ed Quickfires 3 4 3 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 3 6 2 No-doubter here, right? Ed's now the winner of the last two and four of the lsat six challenges. He looks comfortable and cocky and ready to waltz right through to the win. And he gets one of the strongest judge reactions I think I've ever seen for a dish, last season included. The chili banana fritters aren't rocket science. They're essentially plain old banana fritters with the addition of red curry and sesame seeds, but sometimes that's all it takes. I think you have to consider Ed the favorite going into the finale no matter who his sous chef is.

2 Angelo Quickfires 4 7 1 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 2 4 2 Angelo, on the other hand, just looks lost all over again. And we're led to believe that we may be losing HIM this week through no fault of his own. As mentioned earlier, however, I don't trust the elves' editing for a moment. This is clearly a wait-and-see event. And it would be a shame to lose him because though he continually seems to be teetering on the precipice, he's making great food. The lamb tartare was exceedingly simple -- some tapioca, shallots and cilantro, rambutan pickled in lime juice, oil flavored with fenugreek, coriander, white pepper and cumin -- but it was seductive, to use food vocabulary more suited to Angelo's milieu. Sadly, there's no recipe for his other elimination dish, but I also love his quickfire if for no other reason than the fact that he used frog. One of things I always find curious (read: annoying) is that when traveling in southern China, frog is everywhere. I eat it there all the time and love it. But how often have you seen frog on a Chinese menu in the States? A shame. At any rate, though he finished the regular season strong, there's just no way he's number one heading into the finale. The elves took the chefs to Singapore, and Ed took Angelo to school. 'Nuff said.

3 Kevin Quickfires 1 5 4 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 1 4 5 Kevin is right in the hunt, though. While I'd be a little disappointed to see him win because he hasn't built up the same body of work over the course of the season that Angelo and Ed have, his peaks have been good enough to take this thing home if he has a good day. And if more of Singapore sneaks into the finale, he's handling the Asian ingredients with aplomb. While I'm in the camp that's a little surprised he didn't at least give himself a passing familiarity with the wok, his strategy of focusing on flavors is serving him well. And in the end, that's probably more important. Don't write him off. He could surprise.

4 Kelly Quickfires 2 3 5 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 2 4 4 Well, I'm disappointed, though not surprised, that Kelly didn't make the finale. I wanted her to have one more shot to make *her* food, because I'm betting it would have surprised a lot of people. But we'll never know. To her credit, Tom was very complimentary towards her dishes both on screen and in his blog. It sounds like she didn't go home because she didn't cook good food, but rather because the other three simply cooked better food. Which is exactly the way you want to go out. How nice is it that both eliminations leading up to the finale were largely error-free and the result of a choice between winning dishes rather than a choice between losing dishes? This crew really came on strong at the end.

So that's it. One more dinner. Biggest question is how many people are cooking. Here's hoping for a minimum of the twisty-turny. I'm not holding my breath.

Discuss!

Comments

[Naomi]

Many, many thanks, Dom! I'd like to echo what so many others have said - this blog adds so much to my enjoyment of the show.

[rab01]

I wholly agree with your rankings, no question. Top Chef has an interesting pattern, however, regarding the pen-ultimate episode. The winner of the next-to-last episode almost never wins the competition. Marcel, Dale, Richard, Carla and Bryan all won the second-to-last episode but missed out on the top prize. As far as I can tell, Harold was the only person to win both parts of the finale and the format back then was radically different.

My theory is that the person who wins the penultimate episode has too often cooked his or her absolute best the day before making it really hard to further top themselves the next day .... It'll be interesting to see if history repeats itself.

[nomnomnom]

There's no previews at all like normal. This makes me think he rallies and they want some suspense to the whole thing. It's really hard to edit a preview leaving out 33% of the contestants, but it could be done.

Then again it seems like he got the bug (or whatever) in the market. He was really struggling with the sous the night of the EC, and they shoot him up with something the next day sometime in the afternoon. If that's an anti-B then he's out of commission for at least another 24 hours.

I don't know how long they will put up the whole production staff in a hotel like that. I have to think they shoot the entire last episode all in one day. That's typically how it's managed I think.

Maybe Hung and Tiffany team up just to have a 3rd wheel, or they just punt the 3rd contestant altogether.

[Bart]

You know what? I'm going to predict that Kevin is going to win this thing.

If Angelo is sick and Ed has Ilan as a sous chef, Kevin basically has the advantage over both contestants. Throw a Voltaggio in the mix and you got yourself potential for the dark horse candidate to win the race.

I'd actually be happy with that, because he's a fellow Jersey boy. I'm not rooting for anyone in particular, and I think they're all deserving of the title. I can't wait!

[ally]

Regarding Tom being complimentary of Kelly - I've had the impression for a while that Tom has been more careful to praise the chefs, on camera and in his blog, more so than in previous seasons. Its as if he has adopted a more big-picture view of the show and its impact on the contestants and their livelihoods. Or maybe I just missed this attitude in the past? He does seem to be using the show (and his blog) more now to promote his point of view regarding social issues and cooking (not at all a bad thing imo).

[Anon Man]

@Ally, I think Tom has generally been pretty complimentary of previous chefss. He whacks bad dishes pretty hard, but I think last season he commented something like "This doesn't mean so and so isn't a bad chef, but some people just don't fare well in these types of competitions." And, in this instance, I think he is being pretty genuine by saying that the dish was good, but the others were better.

[aaalex]

dominic: the reaction to ed's banana fritters wasn't as ecstatic as the reaction to, say, kevin's bacon jam. (with ripert asking if it had been an old family recipe and tom going right out to copy it.) or, even more, to last year's restaurant wars winning meal which toby young called one of the best meals he'd EVER eaten. but more importantly, the reactions, this year, have to be taken in context. a great dish among this group of chefs isn't like a great dish among last year's crop. no comparison. and, what's more, this week we had the usual judges - tom, gail, padma - reacting to food outside their usual range. i really wonder how "great" these dishes were, because the one judge who knows the food - k. seetoh - was so unfailingly enthusiastic, his reactions seemed forced to me. (did he say anything insightfully negative?) i've got real sympathy for you, dominic, because i can feel you want to be positive about this season. but, as i mentioned a few weeks ago, this is the first year in seven in which i can remember you expressing something like exasperation at these chefs' lack of imagination (during your CIA commentary). personally, i don't care who wins this season. there may be parity among the chefs this year but, for me, it's a parity among mediocrities. i'm really looking forward to "just desserts", to season eight's "traveling losers redemption show", but this year can't finish fast enough where i'm concerned.

[Polybus]

Thanks for the Power Rankings, Dom! As usual, I truly appreicate your insites into the food and its preparation. I cannot think of a single instance where a television show has been so enhanced by a blog. I also appreciate reading everyone's posts. Thanks and I hope we have an enjoyable conclusion to this season!

[aaalex]

hmmm ... having just read tom's blog, i'm even more skeptical. tom mentioning that they were looking for food that took its inspiration from the flavours of the region made me think of a kind of banal tourism. food COMES from somewhere. it evolves and has integrity. when tom criticized one of the chefs this year for insulting italian cooking, he was criticizing her for being inauthentic, for failing to respect the tradition. ok, fair enough. but did these chefs respect the cooking of singapore? if tom's cuisine was echt singaporean, would he have been so enthusiastic about the dishes he was served last week? or did the dishes please because what was wanted was, basically, americanized versions of singaporean cuisine? is tom easier on vulgarized singaporean food than he would be on vulgarized italian-american? i can't help feeling there was a kind of condescension behind tom's commentary, and i wonder just how "asian" the chefs' food tasted.

[Dreamboat]

Dom, thank you for another season of Power Rankings! Thank you for the hard work, thought, and effort that you put in every week. Top Chef would not be the same without your blog!!

And I agree with you, I wished they had spent the entire hour with the hawkers. Hell, I wish they had spent 1/2 hour with he old guy who made the noodles!! I may have to take a trip to Singapore just to find those specific noodles-- yum!

At this point I am not routing for anyone. But I would not be disappointed with any of the wins either. Assuming that Angelo is well enough to be on his game, then I think any of them have a fair shot. I just hope the food from all 3 will be as good as it has been for the past 2 episodes.

[Steve F.]

Anyone have thoughts as to why Bravo deleted two of the three finale preview videos after posting them? I saw them once each but don't recall what in them would have spoiled the finale.

Btw, with 10 responses to Dom's finale rankings, I think we all feel that the finale will be not much to shout about.

[nomnomnom]

Who knows. They supposedly leaked the final winner on their website prior to the last episode, but later this was seemingly written off as a stunt. Whatever they are trying to do to build suspense and buzz this season is falling flat. Ratings are down substantially, and posts here and at the other major blogs are down to barely a trickle. I'm just ready for this season to be over really.

[bryanD]

"Its as if he has adopted a more big-picture view of the show and its impact on the contestants and their livelihoods...He does seem to be using the show (and his blog) more now to promote his point of view regarding social issues and cooking (not at all a bad thing imo)."---Ally

Good: I like Tom. Really. His cookbooks are inspirational and practical for even the casual home cook. The vegetable treatments are especially good.
And Tom's is a killer presence checking up. Since he really knows his stuff, there's zero BS to factor in onscreen.

Bad: Tom tends to smile and blow bubbles while sitting in a fudge bath on his blog. He practically dons an Alfred E. Neumann mask when things get too newsy, ie. clipper-gate, the pea puree production lark. I imagine he's under heavy obligation to not break the spell.
I get a toothpick handy before reading Bravo blogs which is seldom.

"Then again it seems like he got the bug (or whatever) in the market. He was really struggling with the sous the night of the EC, and they shoot him up with something the next day sometime in the afternoon."---nomnomnom

Angelo was already ill on Day 1? Then Angelo is faking it. (Unless on Day 2 Angelo is taken by ambulance to Intensive Care: that would be the logical progress of a "bug" that virulent. Otherwise Angelo's pathetic butt needs to shipped out.) UNLESS this is all elfin hoo-doo, in which case Go Angelo!

"Ratings are down substantially, and posts here and at the other major blogs are down to barely a trickle. I'm just ready for this season to be over really."---nomnomnom

"Other" major blogs? T.C.? This is it, buddy. Kudos, Dom.
As for this season quality? I foresaw it and honked it (D!C!)but I adjusted by episode 3. Then the producers got cute; then the judges put steady incompetence (present tense) (Amanda) above a hitting slump (Kenny), and then I went, Awww Hell!

But next season looks practically BULLET-PROOF, soap opera or not woo-hoo. 1)Tiffini 2)Marcel 3)???Blaise???

[Elise]

Dom,

Thanks for keeping up the power rankings. They've been my single favorite bit of this season. (Which is why you haven't seen me commenting much.)

I'll put my bet on Ed for the win. I've had a good vibe on him from about episode number three, and not because of any sort of fantastic cookery, but just because I like him.

[Anon Man]

@BryanD, re Next Season, I'm curious what several years have done to Marcel as a chef. When we left him, he was clearly talented, but also somewhat green. Has he grown as a chef? Has he matured (both inside and outside of the kitchen)? He seems to hit the tabloids from time to time, but food-wise not sure TC was the best thing for his development. We'll see.

[juli]

Dom,
You going to give Just Desserts a shot or are you going to take a much deserved respite? I like the idea of hearing more from you about simple flavourful cooking more if I were forced to choose between the two, but any dessert commentary from you will always be appreciated.

[nomnomnom]

@bryanD

I'm basing the timeline on the previews we've seen to date re:Angelo's "bug". I don't think it's all that uncommon for a 24hr period to cause a stomach bug, and he could have caught it on the plane trip over as well. Dude wasn't exactly acting normal the whole time.

[bryanD]

"Dom,
You going to give Just Desserts a shot or are you going to take a much deserved respite?"---juli

I would suggest an open thread if nothing else. It should prove a magnet for the nascent serious dessert demographic dissappointed in Food Network fondant sculpturing posing as "cake-" or dessert-making.
(Masterchef and its dessert challenges have kind of convinced me that there is potential. The egg-laying of chefs waiting for a souffle to rise/not rise, and then not fall was pretty interesting in a humorous way (or vice versa). Plus according to my readings, certain stone-faced old school French chefs declare judge Inuzzi the real deal despite his UK teddy boy affectations.

@Anon Man: Marcel passed the refining-tempering cauldron-oven of Top Chef with flying colors, which shows skill and fortitude (and in his case, viz, Ilan & Posse, remarkable resilience in extremis). NOBODY on TC has endured what Marcel went through. Even close to it. Maybe ever on reality TV. And yet Marcel almost won the whole thing by never whiffing a single dish and never being boring. (Even Marcel's friend(-mentor?), Hung whiffed at least one challenge...albeit the cereal aisle QF.
As for "growth" as a chef? All I can assume you mean is The Foams. That's minor if he makes sure The Foams are stocked with flavor. Personally, I think molecular gastronomy is Bunkum. But since MG adds work to the chef's list (as opposed to being a shortcut) I must respect the philosophy on principle (eclat).

"Dude wasn't exactly acting normal the whole time"---nomnomnom

What else is new? My favorite is turning out to be one high maintenance hysterick. And dressed as was (denim?/ thick long pants, and some kind of weird cotton-poly blend T-shirt from the 70s that turns into a bathing suit?) Jeez!!! Of course he was miserable. He was absolutely aware of every weeping pore beneath that crap! Guaranteed. But that still doesn't excuse *leaning into* it back in the air-conditioned hotel (if that's what he really does next ep). Because I don't believe he has a quick acting virus. I have been cattle-car'd across the south China Sea with hundreds of people many times fresh from living at whorehouses for the past 72 hours, or who have drank water requiring 2 iodine tablets. The weeird maladies strike late. I guess they have to fester. I have never seen a sick bay call in the first couple weeks of arriving anywhere. True. That's just my experience. It's me versus the hokus pocus production fairies. I pick me since Angelo's flaky and so is the whole narrative.

[Dreamboat]

The preview shows Angelo is starting to feel sick at the end of the last challenge. He comments that he felt he was blowing off the sous chef's because he went to bed early hoping some rest would make him feel better. The next day he tells the Dr that his head is killing him. Clearly that is not a symptom of the trots. Sounds more like the flu to me. Maybe he caught it before he left the US or on the plane. Who knows.

[Danny]

Thanks as always Dom. I agree with you - I could have spent hours watching the street vendors and hearing about their dishes. Given a choice between expensive precious morsels of food and a street vendor, the street vendor is going to be my choice every time.

I don't really view Ilan as a hindrance. There is nothing in his performances that would indicate that he would not make a good, collaborative sous chef. Hung on the other other will have to fight his ego and his natural desire to take over to be effective for his chef (as in Casey and Carla). I think that it will be an awesome finale.

Tom is clear that they are not looking for someone to accurately recreate exotic local cuisines. What would be the point? If one has experience in that cuisine and another has none then there would seem to be little point in having a contest. I look to the Ethiopian challenge where using the ingredients and flavor profiles beat out Angelo's accurately perfect Ethiopian dish. Tom seemed to say that dumping a whole lot of cumin seeds into pork and then calling it Italian was an insult.

Again, thanks for all of your hard work. Much to my surprise, MasterChef of all things has made me excited about Top Chef Just Desserts (a Bay Area chain that used to be awesome when it was not so franchized) and I do hope that you can give us your fantastic insight and thoughts about the chefs and their desserts. I rarely eat dessert but I am known among my friends as a great dessert maker so I am excited to learn new things to foist on my friends with me taking only a bite or two.

[gilmore]

Thanks Dom. You make each season more enjoyable, none more so than this year.

I agree with your rankings. I look for Ed to win.

[Duffy]

And here we are one day before the final, with not even 1/2 a page of comments to chew on as we anticipate with baited breath the outcome of tomorrow's events. Or Not!!

Persuasive evidence, what, of the lack of excitement and absence of fervor generated by this year's crop. Dom, where were the clamoring hoards for the last event at this time? Over 200 posts, wasn't it? 4 full pages?? Wow!

[Steve F.]

I think Ed's going to win...but hard to understand why, when his food at Plein Sud has bombed with the critics.

[Daniel]

@aalex:

"[was]...tom easier on vulgarized singaporean food than he would be on vulgarized italian-american?"

I didn't agree with your whole comment, but I thought this was a very fair question to ask, and I do agree that on the surface, there can really seem to be a lack of consistency in what Tom says.

In this case though, I feel that inconsistency is relevant, because this isn't an apples-to-apples situation.

1. In the ding on Italian food, the dish he was criticizing was sold and advertised as a traditional Italian dish, therefore opening it up to fair criticism when its execution proved less than traditional. The dishes these chefs made were *not* billed as authentic Singaporean cuisine, therefore one cannot legitimately criticize them for not being authentic.

2. The Italian dish he was presenting was very simple and not only very familiar to most American diners, but one that I would argue *should* be very familiar to most American chefs. And while we could make the argument that most dishes, at some point, have a creole basis, that particular dish was about as monolithic as you can get. On the other hand, the creole nature of Singaporean food is incredibly recent, complex, and much more reasonably unfamiliar to American palates and American Chefs - therefore, I think a greater deal of latitude would be reasonable when it comes to Singapore than when it comes to Italy. And by the way - it would make me extremely happy if that started to change :).

[ally]

*makes it a full half-page of comments just for Duffy*

[DF]

Dom, come to New York. The serious Sichuan restaurants offer frog, even outside of Manhattan or Flushing's Chinatowns.

[Alvin]

I have Angelo winning, if only because the Elves do this all the time. I was almost positive Bryan won last year, and BAM ... MikeV takes it.

One thing to note, I find it concerning how often TomC defends the show and the judges' decisions in the face of rather questionable criticism. Really, Twitter? Anyone who's watched the show for more than 2 episodes know race/gender have nothing to do with any call. Why even give these complaints merits by responding to them?

Top Chef just won a freaking Emmy. No need to go down to the haters' level.

[Daniel]

@DF - I actually am coming to NYC in early November - I usually hit up the Grand Sichuan at 23rd and 9th for my non-dim sum Chinese needs - can you offer up any other compelling suggestions in either Brooklyn or Manhattan?

[Polybus]

@Danny RE Just Desserts: I well remember when I was working at One Maritime Plaza in San Francisco that when we were having a bad afternoon we would go next door to the Embarcadero Center and hit up the Just Desserts store there for some well won pastry. It WAS wonderful in its day!

[nomnomnom]

They put another preview up. I think Angelo is toast.

The Dr. came by the hotel twice. One that evening and Angelo says he vomited 4x already. And again comes in the morning to probably give something like Fergon(spelling?) an anti-b and a horse tranquilizer (ok, last thing made up).

They are cooking that day, and he looks real bad. If they are really trying to some sort of "heroic effort" edit on him then so be it. It would be an all time low for the show, but they've done lots of similar stuff over the years.

I guess this is what you get having the finals in Singapore. The risk was always there.

[rab01]

For the next season of Top Chef, I am most intrigued to see what Marcel can do when given a kitchen with actual MG ingredients -- something that the Volts and to a lesser degree Blaise had but Marcel did not. I am also looking forward to seeing the pairing of Blaise and Marcel. Can Marcel compete with Blaise or is he overmatched in his preferred genre of cooking?

As for this upcoming episode, Hung proved that he can be a more than capable and deferential sous-chef during Restaurant Wars. He's also a beast at prep and very familiar with many of the flavors and ingredients avaiable to them.

[khadijah]

Thanks for your wonderful blog!!

This is the most exciting season/finale for me because for the first time, it features food from my home!!

Hawkers! Street vendors! CHILLI FCKNGGG CRABS!!! Hainanese chicken rice, noodles, satay, pomfret, rambutans, and so on.

Its fabulous.

Their "national" dish, is adopted. Its Hainanese, and is also very popular in Malaysia and Indonesia.

I am really excited about the finale tonight! And also very homesick....

[vizoroo]

Would hate to see Angelo out of the competition due to illness. Would like to see him lose to being outcooked by Ed or Kevin. Can't help it just think he's more than a little creepy.

Dom, thanks for all your posts and rankings. This is THE BEST BLOG for TC.