Top Chef All Stars: LA

Yeah, Malarkey is a jerk, for sure. I'm more annoyed that they give him so much air time. He's NOT. THAT. INTERESTING!
I don't remember Malarkey being such an ****** on his original season. Yeesh.

He's this season's "Lisa", since she toned things down. :rolleyes: For some reason this show seems to think they have to add some created drama every season and have an ******* on each season. :sad2:


And I'm a fan of so many chefs on the show, I'd love to see more of Melissa, Kevin, Bryan, Eric, Gregory...most of them, for sure!

This is why I and so many people LOVE The Great British Baking Show, so much. :love: It's just pure cooking - or in their case, baking. No created dramatic personalities and conflicts between chefs. The chefs are interesting enough on their own being real people.
 
Love the LCK recaps. I’m too lazy to watch it. :)
I try my best.

He's this season's "Lisa", since she toned things down. :rolleyes: For some reason this show seems to think they have to add some created drama every season and have an ******* on each season. :sad2:
Yeah that's why they had Tesar and Katsuji on the fans vs favourites season. Except they weren't all that terrible.
 
OTOH I'm now rewatching Lisa's first season. She was always a miserable person. I don't think she cracked a smile once.
 

Episode 6, "Get Your Phil"
Quickfire: Create a dish using a non-AP flour
- Most of the chefs don't seem to have an issue with this challenge
- Malarkey being the exception. He somehow ended up with coconut flour, and was unable to make a donut in time
- But hey, he showed that he could make ice cream.
- Good for him, I guess. Call me when he manages to make a fish ice cream a la Iron Chef Sakai
- Nini makes a rice flour crepe. I've had that before (at an Orlando Vietnamese restaurant once featured on DDD. It was great)
- Karen makes falafels out of chickpea flour
- Bottom two are the Briyans. Voltaggio had a good looking dish, but it didn't showcase the flour
- Winner is Gregory (of course). No immunity, but he wins $5000

Elimination: Team up with another chef to create a dish based on two of the five senses, as determined via knife pull
- The dish must be harmonious and is to honour the 100th season of the LA Philharmonic
- It's a double elimination, which worries Nini since she got the boot in a double elimination last season.
- Teams are: Nini/Karen, Stephanie/Gregory, Volt/Eric, Kevin/Melissa and... Malarkey/Lee Anne.
- Yikes on that last team
- The chefs meet the lead conductor, who I keep forgetting the name of so I call him "Gargamel". Sorry man!
- Most of the teams seem to be in sync with what they want to do, except for - you guessed it - Malarkey and Lee Anne.
- Volt wants to really showcase some of the African flavours Eric brings to the table.
- The dishes are served, and everything actually looks pretty good.
- I automatically assume that Gregory, Stephanie, Kevin and Melissa will be on top, because it's Gregory, Kevin and Melissa, who have won every challenge thus far.
- Seems like Volt, Eric, Nini and Karen will be on the bottom based on the feedback.
- And indeed, the winning dish is Kevin and Melissa.
- My bottom two are also correct. Pretty sure Nini and Karen are getting eliminated, because no way Tom dumps Volt this early.
- Eliminated:
Nini and Karen. But wait! Last Chance Kitchen and the play-in match is up... on the website.

btw, freeze frame of next week's show shows an arm tattoo that looks like Nini's, BUT that could be some simple trickery there, because Nini has a big ask knife bag, and that was not the case here.
 
Thanks again for a great recap Starvenger! I somehow managed to fall asleep right at the end of the elimination challenge. Then I remembered this thread and was excited to see you had already posted an update! Now I don't have to wonder about who got sent home. Thanks again!
 
I get so irritated with shows like this. I know it’s about the individual challenges, but it just seems so unfair when people who consistently perform get sent home, while others who consistently UNDER perform continue to skirt around elimination.
 
/
True, but in this challenge it seems like everyone did well and it came down to little things. So to be eliminated here, you could hold your head high knowing that you did well and were simply outcooked.
 
As PP mentioned before they always have to make a villain out of someone. Yes, Malarkey is it ... but his comments make it easy. He still reads phony to me, something I don't feel the show is creating. My take is he has had success after Top Chef, and it has gone to his head. Quit showboating and cook!

And yes, Lisa was never friendly on her original season. Ms Scowl Face. However, this season she hasn't bothered me. Either she has softened in real life, or now that she knows the ropes, the tough girl shield was lifted. I was happy to see her actually laugh on LCK!!

Well, he did! Malarkey cooked, but Leann restrained him. She put the hammer down and they made an incredible dish.

I was surprised they got on Gregory and Stephanie about the jalapeño. They seemed to enjoy it so much at the dinner. I guess they had to nitpick every detail, and heat wasn't one of the 2 components.

As for Eric and Brian's dish, I think Tom was right, the sweet wasn't equally represented by the cut of the pork. As someone who isn't a huge Voltaggio fan, I am actually changing my tune. Seeing him so uneasy really put a human touch on him I don't recall seeing before. I like the fighting spirit.

So sad to see Nini eliminated. I don't dislike Karen, but she is not one of my favorites.

I watched LCK, great episode.

Aww, Nini!! You saved your chicken curry, I thought you had it! But Karen's salsa verde Bronzino won. :( Watching Karen win, you could tell she really put everything out there. But I am still sad because I wanted my girl Nini. She can still come back ... she went back to the "toxic bad boyfriend" otherwise known as LCK. LOL
 
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As PP mentioned before they always have to make a villain out of someone. Yes, Malarkey is it ... but his comments make it easy. He still reads phony to me, something I don't feel the show is creating. My take is he has had success after Top Chef, and it has gone to his head. Quit showboating and cook!

And yes, Lisa was never friendly on her original season. Ms Scowl Face. However, this season she hasn't bothered me. Either she has softened in real life, or now that she knows the ropes, the tough girl shield was lifted. I was happy to see her actually laugh on LCK!!

Well, he did! Malarkey cooked, but Leann restrained him. She put the hammer down and they made an incredible dish.

I was surprised they got on Gregory and Stephanie about the jalapeño. They seemed to enjoy it so much at the dinner. I guess they had to nitpick every detail, and heat wasn't one of the 2 components.

As for Eric and Brian's dish, I think Tom was right, the sweet wasn't equally represented by the cut of the pork. As someone who isn't a huge Voltaggio fan, I am actually changing my tune. Seeing him so uneasy really put a human touch on him I don't recall seeing before. I like the fighting spirit.

So sad to see Nini eliminated. I don't dislike Karen, but she is not one of my favorites.

I watched LCK, great episode.

Aww, Nini!! You saved your chicken curry, I thought you had it! But Karen's salsa verde Bronzino won. :( Watching Karen win, you could tell she really put everything out there. But I am still sad because I wanted my girl Nini. She can still come back ... she went back to the "toxic bad boyfriend" otherwise known as LCK. LOL
I can't seem to find LCK here (Canada), so thanks for that update.
 
Last Chance Kitchen Ep 5: Two Friends Enter...
- I think we're supposed to read this like Bruce Buffer is doing the announcing
- We get a quick look at the end of Top Chef proper, seeing the eliminations.
- Tom reaffirms that the dish was good, but there were just some missteps leading to the elimination.
- The other eliminated chefs appear, and the still playing cheftestants disappear
- After some shenanigans, the challengers learn who they'll be competing against in an eliminator
- Top two dishes advance, worst dish is done.

- So we've got
Lisa (C, 2) vs Nini vs Karen
- Challenge is to create a sweet and sour dish
- One of the challengers is cooking a marinated steak, which they manage to burn, twice
- They end up using the deep fryer as a last resort
- The champ decides to use scallops
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- The other challenger looks at the other dishes and worries that their's might be too simple.

- Time's up, time for tasting
- Challenger 1 - Sweet and Sour Shrip with Pickled Pineapples
- Challenger 2 - Skirt Steak with caramelized onions and grilled fennel salad
- Champion - Tamarind Scallop with kaffir lime chips

- Tom likes all 3 dishes, but the winner is
Karen
- The second dish, was just a bit better in marrying the sweet and sour, and that is... to be determined in the next episode.
 
My thoughts:
I don't get all the love for Nini? :confused3 She speaks in a simpering little girl voice. But, worst of all, she BURNED 3 dishes. She can't COOK. :rolleyes: If that had been me, I would have been disqualified immediately. :rolleyes:

As for Lisa, as I said, she played the loathsome villain her first season and got a lot of airtime for that. Suddenly, she's warm and amiable this season? More likely, she realized the loathsome image hurt her restaurant as people purposely wouldn't have patronized her place. I know I wouldn't have. I would have walked out once I found out it was her place. So, now she is showing a warmer side to her. Even mentioning she's going to be teaching her baby nephew to cook, to show she actually cares about people. Nope. I still loathe her.

I kind of knew Karen would win as they gave her so much air time, talking about how Nini's cooking is so much better than hers.
 

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