Top Chef Las Vegas

Cannot get enough of Fabio.

 

They should just give him his own show. Call it 'Top Scallop' and be done with it.
I have highly structured viewing habits. I cannot handle these kinds of disruptions.

 

I loved Fabio's comment that if they're so uncomfortable discussing these issues, the next time they're asked to do something like that, just say no. That's a pretty good piece of advice for most reality show contestants.

 

Guest judge = annoying.

Conclusion didn't match the judging (as usual) but not a surprise.

 

Eli makes food Nigella wants to spit out, he stays.
Robin doesn't make a dish a child could put out, she goes.
Umm, yeah, that doesn't make any sense either.
But the result was the right one, Robin needed to go.

 

Robin was living on borrowed time for the first episode.

 

Has Robin not been at Judge's Table in the bottom every episode this season except three (Episode One where she drew the gold chip and was immune/didn't compete; won one quickfire and got immunity; paired with Mike I. and they were in the middle, but Mike did everything)?

 

I'm sorry, my brothers and sisters, but I just can't agree with this.

There was no way Robin was going to be Top Chef, no way should should even be in the top three.

But I'm with 21: We've heard 8 million times that the judging is done on an episode-by-episode, dish-by-dish basis, and in fact, we've even lost a seemingly clear favorite or two over the seasons because of this.

On that basis, last night, those dishes, Robin's wasn't very good -- but Eli's was, apparently, awful. Nobody liked it, Nigella said she had to work to even try it. I can't really think of any even mediocre praise it got.

Eli got through on body of work -- and I can't believe I'm sitting here typing conspiracy theory thinking about Top Chef.

As an aside, I used to really like Jen -- but her continuing, and even growing, woe-is-me approach is really starting to grind on me.

 

I find Eli annoying, but when weighing his offering vs. Robin's:
Eli embraced the concept of the challenge, tried something strange and failed.
Robin couldn't include the concept of the challenge she'd developed, and the simple basis of the dish that any home cook could do, she f*cked it up.
Seems like a clear choice w/o body of work.
If I serve a salmon and broken glass sandwich, I might fail but I get points for trying something difficult.
If you serve a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and f#ck it up, you lose to me because you tried something easy and still messed it up.

 

This is cool:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef_%28season_6%29#Contestant_progress

It's fascinating to see how dominant the top group has been. Three chefs have won 10 of the 11 elimination challenges (Jennifer won the other). Bryan's never been in the bottom. The only time Kevin was up for elimination was after Restaurant Wars. And for the most part, the remaining chef who's been in the bottom most often has been the one to go.

I hope Kevin wins. He clearly has the best attitude, and he always makes food I'd like to eat.

 

Kevin cooks food Mike V. makes at home on his day off.

 

I think the telling line at judges' table last night was when Chef Tom said and I'm paraphrasing "This is where you separate the Top Chefs from the pretenders." I think that was basically summing up the reasoning for picking Robin, even though she probably didn't have the worst dish of the three. Of the final six, she was definitely the weakest.

I was worried that Jen's self-loathing attitude was going to catch up to her this week when she kept saying "Can I just go home now?" in the stew room. And the regular judges are starting to notice her confidence is shattered. She'll have to step it up to keep up with the Voltaggios and Kevin.