Top Chef - Season Two

[sk8ingmom]

I was glad in front of the judges Marcel said what he said about people not liking him and that it should be based on the food, not personalities.

I think some of it is about personality. A chef, like any good boss, needs to be able to lead a team and earn the respect of the people who work for him/her. When it came down to choosing the Top Chef last season, it seemed like Harold & Tiffani were very close in terms of food, but Harold was the obvious winner because people wanted to work with him and for him. Marcel needs to grow up - it is not a world of one.

Betty's soup looked gross. I like the idea of the soup, I like the idea of not serving it with utensils - that says sloth. But why, why, why didn't she strain it & why did she serve it in crystal?? Some sorta fancy ceramic mug would have been better IMO.

 

[letterdavidman]

Yes, it was a supersized episode last night (75 minutes). Spoilers, if you haven't seen it yet:
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The winner of both the Quickfire and the Eliminations challenge was Michael!And he deserved it too!

Betty got the boot! But, in all honesty, after seeing last night's episode, I wish they would have told Ilan to pack his knives and go. I know they all find Marcel to be a pest, but last night was ridiculously brutal. I didn't think that Marcel truly snapped at Betty. The cheftestants were quickly told to hold up on service when they thought they could go out with the course and he just quickly said, "Hold up." If it had come out of anybody else's mouth than Marcel's no one would have thought anything of it. And then Ilan mocked Marcel's dish to the entire dinner party they were serving. Completely unprofessional. Marcel's dessert looked much more appealing than Ilan's did. Sam also had an ugly angry meltdown directed at Marcel when they were food shopping.

There's way too much drama this season. I'd rather see more cooking and less back stabbing.

Yeah, Ilan's a total tool, and this is coming from someone who used to actually like the guy.

For the record: Is Marcel more than a tad on the arrogant side? Yes. Is he revealing himself to be more than a little one-dimensional in his cooking (unlike season one's scandalously underrated Stephen, who Marcel gets compared to quite often), what with all of his foams and gelees? Again, yes. And are the reactions of his fellow competitors (for the most part) wildly over-the-top examples of the ill effects of groupthink and mob mentality, doing nothing so much as all but forcing Marcel to alienate himself from the group even more noticeably? Pathetically, once again, yes.

 

[letterdavidman]

From Chef Tom's blog:

"Which leads me to my final thought: Now that we’re down to only seven chefs, the tension and stress levels are rising. This is to be expected, but it seems to be playing out especially in the group’s growing antagonism towards Marcel. Marcel is the kind of guy who has probably pissed people off his whole life -- dating back to the playground -- without really understanding why or how. Faced with people’s negative reactions he lashes back in even more annoying ways, creating a cycle. Under ordinary circumstances, the others may have been willing to brush off Marcel’s irritating behavior, but with little sleep and mounting pressure, they’re regressing instead into a group of petty sixth-graders. This reached a head for me when I saw the group decide not to serve his dish during the dinner party (Elia was the lone dissenter in this). I replayed the episode to see what Marcel had done to spark this little mob mentality, and realized he hadn’t done much, other than speak forcefully. Obviously, the group was primed to be angry with him over the slightest infraction. I wanted to see some leadership -- someone who would step up and say, 'Marcel may be the most annoying guy in the world, but the show must go on. Let’s put our heads down and get this meal over with.' Imagine if a restaurant line came to a screeching halt every time some cook pissed off another? Trust me; it would be the end of restaurant dining as we know it."

(http://www.bravotv.com/blog/tomcolicchio/2007/01/marcel_vs_the_mob_1.php?page=5)


And, from Gail Simmons's blog:

"We can judge only on what we actually see, taste and know to be true for ourselves, which I strongly believe is the fairest approach. After seeing this past week’s challenges, however, and the way Marcel was treated by his fellow contestants, I cannot help wishing their behavior in the kitchen played a bigger role in certain decisions.

I understand Marcel can come across as affected and arrogant; granted, I have never had to work alongside him in a confined space. But there are few things less appropriate or acceptable in my books than picking on someone’s private life and insulting their work in order to make yours look better, let alone ganging up on someone when they ask for your help. I was truly disappointed by many of our contestants this week and almost embarrassed for them too. "

(http://www.bravotv.com/blog/gailsimmons/2007/01/the_eighth_deadly_sin.php)

 

[Figment22]

Of course, the way the show was edited probably had a lot to do with that.

I think that the editing was much better last season. I have constant issues with the editing.

And, I'm starting to believe that Marcel is still in the competition much more for the drama value than for his culinary skills. Michael, too, although he really showed himself to be quite versatile last night. I still have to believe that the two of them will be the next to go and that the final four will be Sam, Cliff, Ilan and Elia, although after his tactics last night, I hope Ilan goes home before Hawaii. (At least Sam went right after Marcel, not sniping behind his back. It still was unprofessional though.)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

A chef, like any good boss, needs to be able to lead a team and earn the respect of the people who work for him/her. When it came down to choosing the Top Chef last season, it seemed like Harold & Tiffani were very close in terms of food, but Harold was the obvious winner because people wanted to work with him and for him. Marcel needs to grow up - it is not a world of one.

Absolutely. But a good boss also needs to work with each member of their team on their level, not just yell at and exclude one of them because they're annoying. In that respect, some of the others need to grow up, too, not just Marcel, IMO. I would have had a lot more respect for the bunch of them if they'd tried to "work with" Marcel a little more on a professional level, like a real leader would have had to (maybe they did, but we haven't seen it). I see Betty as the ringleader here. The team dislike of Marcel started with her, moved on to Frank, and infected the rest of the team. Granted, they're under a lot of pressure. But in real life, who isn't?

I don't see Micheal as a leader, even though I like him. He's not assertive enough; a bit too much of the laid back "dude" mentality, LOL. Nor Elia, after the last episode, she failed as a leader (I do think she has potential down the road, though; she's very young and inexperienced as a leader yet). Sam, and Ilan, yes, though I thought Ilan's cherry comment last night hit below the belt (ie immature/snarky) - no pun intended . My money on best leader is probably Cliff. Yes, he got into it last time with Mia (who wouldn't; she was "expert" at everything, ie "I'm a Barbequeologist" ), but I think out of who we have left, he'd make the best leader. JMO, of course. If I had to work under someone as my leader, I think I'd pick Cliff, with Sam in second.

 

[RUDisney]

I was glad to see Betty go. I'd also have been glad to see Marcel go.

Maybe the other chefs are ganging up on Marcel, but a Top Chef has to be able to lead others and Marcel is the type of guy that would be hard pressed to find people who'd want to follow him, let alone respect him.

Betty's error in service and preparation were big no-no's. As for the judges commenting on her combinations of ingredients, I kept thinking that is how wonderful things are made. If no one combined weird things, how would we ever know what COULD be? Granted, hers probably didn't taste good, so you also run the risk of failing when you do this, too.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm missing Mikey.

 

[TheDoctor]

Mikey went about as far as he could. He was a little above his heads.

Next week's episode looks good. I wonder who is ask to leave and why. It appears that things got out of hand and I bet it was on the Marcel bashing front. The contestants are letting their dislike for Marcel get in the way of the contest.

 

[MareQ]

My guess is Ilan goes - he's too sullen and immature.

Personally though I am hoping it's Marcel - LMAO! I just cannot STAND him.

I hope Elia wins - it seems like she would benefit the most out of this. She's so shy and unsure of herself yet seems to be SOO talented that I think this woudl ne a huge boost of confidence for her.

 

[gradtchr]

I so wish that Marcel would leave. I thought his time was up on the show where Betty got the boot because of all the camera time he was getting.

 

[leafette]

What do you think the "scandal" is that happens this week? There is some speculation that there is some head shaving trick on Marcel that goes wrong.
Someone appears to be punished for it.

Sorry, but the werewolf has to go!

 

[smilingmouse]

I'm also curious about who will be asked to leave any why. I agree that it prob. has something to do with Marcel and a prank-gone-wrong. I hope Elia wins!

 

[3princesses4us]

I have never looked forward to an episode so much this season. I'm guessing based on the preview that the guys pull a prank on Marcel and it gets someone (probably Ilan) eliminated. But what has me curious is what they apparently look like. Padma's face is priceless.

ETA: DH guessed that it probably has to do with head shaving too!

 

[leafette]

I'm also curious about who will be asked to leave any why. I agree that it prob. has something to do with Marcel and a prank-gone-wrong. I hope Elia wins!

Go Elia. Girl power! However, DD (7) loves Sam and thinks he's cute.

 

[TheDoctor]

Sam has not been very professional with regards to Marcel. It will probably be either Sam or Ilian who is eliminated if the elimination is based on a prank gone bad. Marcel is annoying but this is a competition and he has some talent. Instead of getting personal, the contestants should focus on the contest and not the contestants.

I really though that it was unprofessional for Ilian to ask Elia to throw the contest and then dump on Marcel. The show rules state that the producers have input as to who is eliminated. The producers are aware of the unprofessional behavior of the contestants toward Marcel and I bet that the judges know what is going on. Last week one of the judges asked Ilian why he dissed Marcel's dish to the diners.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Here we go... Everybody ready?

 

[Mad4Mickey]

ok so here I am thinking that it is wierd that they are replaying the season again . So is this a repeat or is this the same Chefs that they brought back ?? Please say it is just repeats cause I will be so mad if I missed everything .

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OMG

 

[Mad4Mickey]

Pea come back you didnt tell me anything COME BACK ( fading out as she calls after teh Pea)

 

[sorcerormickey]

OMG is right!!!