Top Chef Chicago (Spoiler Thread)

[Nancyg56]

Okay - is it just me, or is Top Chef going to be awarding a consolation prize for profanity?

On the TC blogs there have been a lot of complaints about the profanity. This season there seems to be more bleeping than talking during the mini interviews.

I was sorry to see last night's elimination. So, making a gourmet meal for a tailgate is wrong but being sloppy about your work environment and licking a spoon and putting it into the soup pot is ok? Mark should have gone home last night.

I was surprised about that as well. Wasn't one Chef eliminated because he stuck a finger in his food on an earlier season? He got smart with the guest judge and was spanked.

I'm not unhappy that Ryan was sent packing but Nikki was just as bad IMO. I honestly will be glad when Spike goes, he creeps me out.

 

[Angelhalo]

I honestly will be glad when Spike goes, he creeps me out.

DH spends half the episode making fun of Spike's hats! LOL!

 

[Angelhalo]

I honestly didn't see anything wrong with double dipping the spoon and was quite frankly surprised that Tom had an issue with it. Having worked in the food industry, chefs do this ALL the time. Taste off of spoon, put spoon back in pot. I don't think I've ever worked in a kitchen where the chefs DIDN'T do that I do agree Mark needed to clean up his area, but the spoon thing just really was not a big deal. I'm glad he didn't go home.

DH and I agreed that while we're foodies, we wouldn't have wanted Ryan's food at a tailgate. Tailgates are for burgers and wings and ribs. That's the whole reason why DH and I go to tailgates. If we want fancy food, we'll skip the tailgate and go to a restaurant. I KNOW some will disagree!!! That's ok. I'm just stating MY opinion. He's had some clunkers so I wasn't surprised to see him go.

Now if they can PLEASE get rid of Nikki. Good lord, she hasn't had a good dish since the season started. She has GOT to go!!

DH and I cannot STAND Lisa. Blech. What a Debbie Downer.

 

[Todd&Copper]

Lisa is worse than a Debbie Downer. She is a Wanda Witch. Or a Brenda B-word.

 

[Angelhalo]

Lisa is worse than a Debbie Downer. She is a Wanda Witch. Or a Brenda B-word.

Bwhahahahahahahaha!

AGREED

 

[robinb]

I was sorry to see last night's elimination. So, making a gourmet meal for a tailgate is wrong but being sloppy about your work environment and licking a spoon and putting it into the soup pot is ok?

What I find confusing is that in the block party challenge one team was told at the judges table that they were NOT supposed to be "cooking for the masses" but for the judges. At the tailgate Ryan gets bumped for cooking to the judges and not the masses. Didn't both the block party and the tail gate allow the people to vote on the dishes?

I can't wait for "mushroom girl" Nikki to leave. It annoys me that she is still around when someone who has skill is knifed.

 

[RUDisney]

I honestly didn't see anything wrong with double dipping the spoon and was quite frankly surprised that Tom had an issue with it. Having worked in the food industry, chefs do this ALL the time. Taste off of spoon, put spoon back in pot. I don't think I've ever worked in a kitchen where the chefs DIDN'T do that

OK, I SO didn't want to know that. I like living in ignorant bliss when I go to restaurants.

 

[Angelhalo]

OK, I SO didn't want to know that. I like living in ignorant bliss when I go to restaurants.

 

[Todd&Copper]

What I find confusing is that in the block party challenge one team was told at the judges table that they were NOT supposed to be "cooking for the masses" but for the judges. At the tailgate Ryan gets bumped for cooking to the judges and not the masses. Didn't both the block party and the tail gate allow the people to vote on the dishes?

I can't wait for "mushroom girl" Nikki to leave. It annoys me that she is still around when someone who has skill is knifed.

I see you point completely. I sort of think Tom really wanted Ryan outta there b/c he still held a grudge over the darn picatta from ep. 1. And Ryan kind of has diarreah of the mouth. But I think if Ryan had better prepared his food they would have had a much, much tougher time justifying his knifing over Nikki. Especially if Ryan had made his dish into something more "portable". I think the judges in Block Part wanted the cheftestants to distinguish between merely preparing food they felt middle America would like (corn dogs, macaroni and cheese, pasta salad) versus elevating the common dishes at a block party (which it looked like Ryan was trying to do w/that Waldorf Salad and Dale succeeded in doing with his chicken skewers and someone else made on team blue and their BBQ))
Do you call Nikki mushroom girl b/c of the Amy Winehouse rat nest on her head? B/c I immediately thought of Zoi and her underseasoned mushrooms from last week.

Oh, and Jennifer is cooking for Zoi, you know.

 

[Honu]

Tom did say that Ryan's food wasn't good, on top of what he thought was too fancy. In SF you would see food like that on gameday though. They don't call 49er fans the wine & cheese crowd for nothing. The food must not have been good though, because double dipping and serving up grocery store brats with virtually nothing else, should have gone.

 

[Angelhalo]

Do you call Nikki mushroom girl b/c of the Amy Winehouse rat nest on her head?

I thought it was because of the disgusting mushrooms that she made in episode 2 or 3 I can't remember what episode that was.

 

[Nancyg56]

Oh, and Jennifer is cooking for Zoi, you know.

I know . She said it once.....now stop. Oh no,we have to hear over and over that she is cooking for "her girl". For better or worse, she got into this thing and had to know that one of them would go before the other, and that she may not agree with the decision. Her whining got old fast.

 

[robinb]

I
Do you call Nikki mushroom girl b/c of the Amy Winehouse rat nest on her head? B/c I immediately thought of Zoi and her underseasoned mushrooms from last week.

No ... I called her "mushroom girl" because she was responsible for the bear-turd mushrooms in the zoo challenge. I didn't know her name a couple of weeks ago and just called her "mushroom girl".

Oh, and Jennifer is cooking for Zoi, you know.

Really? How did I miss that?

 

[BratTink]

I'm happy that Mark staying so I can look at his arms for one more week I thought he was getting the loser's edit.
I bet part of the reason Ryan was let go is because he's annoying and apparently loooong-winded.
I think Nikki will be gone soon as she has not done well at all.

 

[RUDisney]

Oh, and Jen is doing this for Zoi now.

Who's Zoi? jk

 

[BratTink]

Do you read the blogs on Bravo? They are very enlightening and informative and fun to read.

 

[Todd&Copper]

I do, but I usually don't get around to them until Friday or Saturday. Was there anything particularly enlightening about why Ryan was booted and/or why Nikki was saved?

 

[BratTink]

Because Ryan's food was just bad.

 

[NYBlue1]

I dont know about you guys but I'm getting sick of the excuse "I'm not compromising ME, MY food, its my soul blah blah"

The first I heard somebody say that I was like, ok thats cool, now it seems to the universal excuse for not executing the instructions of the challenge, thats ridiculous to make for a tailgate party, and not even well.

I think he thought he was going to get points for executing a fine dining meal at a tailgate, that sure blew up.

 

[Todd&Copper]

Because Ryan's food was just bad.

OK, I answered my own question b/c I thought this was totally vague.

Gail Simmon's Blog:

Ryan was sent home this week because at the most basic level he could not adjust his “light” West Coast approach to the Midwestern sports arena.
No mention of Nikki or Mark's food (just that Mark was very, very messy).


Ted's Blog (he wasn't there, right?):

You don’t cook the same thing people always get when tailgating (Nikki). You don’t cook complex, hard-to-handle haute cuisine because you dislike sports and picnicking (Ryan). . . .You take chances, and go balls-to-the-wall for flavor, as Mark tried to do by using real charcoal (only you do it, well, better).

Since he wasn't actually there to taste, he cannot really address who was worse; I guess he gets a pass.

LeAnn's Blog:

Ryan is Brian Malarkey reincarnated and the used car salesman act can’t sell the awkward bone in chicken thigh over the dry bread salad with the undercooked poached pear with crème fraiche and boozy syrup. . . .
While Mark’s soup had very good shellfish flavor, and was hot and creamy, the texture was very unrefined and would have been better as a fine puree with precision cut vegetables and seafood folded in. His chowder had absolutely no cognizance with the yakitori skewer also. Plus his station was indeed disgusting. I know this because I had to clean up after him after the challenge.
The sausage and peppers just made me angry 1. Because she used store-made sausage. And 2. Because it was the most unimaginative dish she could possibly think of. . . . And then she ran out of garnish for the sausage for the judges. There’s really no excuse for that, period.
Ryan, on the other hand, suffers from café-itis. Having worked at a sandwich and soup shop back in San Fran, his cooking choices throughout the competition have been good, but not terribly inspired or appropriate. The point is to use the grill. To make the pear relevant at all maybe he should’ve grilled it instead. It all reminded me of that terrible Waldorf salad, which was like a bad 1950s housewife version. Not to say that he isn’t a talented chef, but we’ve got some super talented competitors this season and his style could not hold up over time.

No other blogs were up yet for this episode.

Who has said his food was "just bad" (as opposed to Nikki's and/or Mark's) ? Was it in Padma's Vlog (I refuse to watch them b/c I can't stand her drunken/stoner slurring)?