I Refuse to Call Them Cheftestants: Week 1

I'm so happy to have Top Chef back and there is no better place than Las Vegas for this season considering the explosion of both new cuisine and celeb chefs. Of course I'll take that back after they do their 13th buffet challenge.

The worst thing about these early episodes is the obscene amount of chefs. In light of that I will only refer to the chefs by nicknames until we get a reasonable amount of chefs. I was hoping that the Quickfire would eliminate someone right off the bat. Unfortunately they did the opposite and gave someone a free pass. We'll call the gold chip winner the big coward for now because she turned down the chance to give up her undeserved immunity to win some cold hard cash. Instead the rest of the chefs competed in the classic relay race Quickfire. I'd be happier to see this if Top Chef Masters hadn't just pulled it out a couple weeks back. Anyway at least they added a twist and let the winning relay team fight it out for an additional $15,000. I liked pierced lady's dish best and was surprised to see the millionith ceviche in Top Chef history win.

I thought that the Elimination Challenge was almost too broad. The lack of restrictions or structure clearly left some chefs floundering. The minute I heard wheat gluten I knew the bland "hot tempered" chef was going home. My only hesitation came after seeing the war crimes committed against shrimp and scallops by the "only chef in Michigan". In the end though the crime against chile releno sent the anger bore home. I'm excited to see more from the Yukon Cornealius look alike as well as the cook brothers. I think we certainly have a group of talented chefs and other than Michigan I don't think there is much fat to trim.