Last night’s Top Chef bored me in the beginning, irritated me in the middle and entertained me in the end. I think the irritation in the middle however ruined the episode overall for me.
The boring comes into play with the Quickfire Challenge where the folks are tasked with creating an “out of this world” potato dish. While I appreciate the variety of potatoes that were made available the challenge itself seemed rather blah. I was once again shocked at how new contestants appear oblivious to past seasons as Ash tried to use the ice cream maker. No matter what season the Top Chef kitchen ice cream maker always seems to fail its user. Ash was in luck though as his sweet potato “custard” came out with a nice consistency that the judges deemed to be of high quality. Jennifer took him top prize again and she’s clearly this season’s Stefan. Question is, can she continue to grow as a chef throughout or will she plateau in the final stages. The only real excitement in the challenge came as Preeti used Ashley’s gnocchi water to cook her asparagus. Ashley quickly schooled her but apparently not enough for Jen who further foreshadowed an eventual kitchen blow up.
While the Quickfire was boring, the Elimination challenge was downright annoying. I’m so tired of these military themed challenges on reality shows. It provides an hour-long ad for the armed forces and requires the contestants to stick their noses up Uncle Sam’s ass. Furthermore, while last week’s challenge was centered on an exclusionary institution (marriage) this week’s challenge was based around an institution that is exclusionary and fosters hate crimes against the LGBT community. Could someone please grow a backbone and talk some smack? I’m so sick of soldiers making comments like “I wish I could get this in Iraq.” Hey guess what, you volunteered to serve so if you get second-class food look in the mirror for someone to blame! It’s not even that I hate the military but there is no need for this kind of mindless worship especially when there are other groups you could center these challenges around. How about Project Runway designs clothes for some women at a battered women’s shelter? How about Top Chef cooks for a homeless shelter? How about Design Star refurbishes a historical home that’s been run down? By the time Preeti declared that “9/11 inspired me to be a chef” I was about ready fly my toy X-Wing into my TV and create a 9/11 in my living room.
Thankfully judges table pulled me back from the abyss. The strong dishes were pretty clear and predictable given the chefs. Yukon Cornelius and Eli made very tasty looking bbq pork. Brother Michael did a great pork dish as well and deserved the win just for thinking of braising the slab bacon that was the base of his lettuce taco. On the bottom though there were three equally valid contenders. Non-brother Michael thought he was safe since he cooked with brother Michael but since this was an individual challenge and he cooked a non-Greek Greek salad his ass was on the line. Boy was he not happy about that as he rocked back and forth like a guilty child. Preeti and Laurine however made sure he was safe by choosing to make a pasta salad. I can't ever remember seeing a pasta salad on Top Chef; much less one that looks like it was made from a Simply Salad box. Preeti refused to take responsibility for a sub par dish and argued with the judges for a second week in a row. Laurine forgot she was on Top Chef but at least she didn’t pick a fight, so she was safe in the end after taking a serious verbal lashing from Tom. Preeti wandered off into the sunset mumbling about being misunderstood. Meanwhile, Jesse and Ron pondered why there were still there. Never fear guys next week looks like a double elimination.
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Please, don't hate the player, hate the game. Why in the bloody H are we still at war? I thought chica last week was over the top on her soap box but all I could wonder this week was why no one was getting lit up over these people shipping off to war zones where they (I) have no idea what/why they are fighting. I mean yeah, the miltary has some serious problems but at the end of the day lots of people serve because it is a job that provides for your family, gives you health care benefits and enables you to pursue higher education. In other words, it allows poor, working class people to try to achieve what the NYC prep kids view as their birth right. So I say, let them eat cake (or dry, peanut butter bread pudding as might be the case!)
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