Top Chef, S9E8.

Notes from the episode where we see that Heather is indeed like a detuned radio…

* The conversations in the car were a little odd, but if Heather wants John Besh, she may have to fight Chris C. for him.

* Quickfire: I’m not a big fan of these mid-challenge twists. What are we measuring here? It feels like we’re just trying to create more drama. They could have just taken three tweets up front and said: Do a bacon hash with one ingredient added by a competing chef. Is that any less compelling to watch?

* Why not do something crazy with bacon in this challenge? I can’t get over the chefs here who looked at the bacon traditionally. You know the nine other chefs are likely to think traditionally, and you have to figure there will be some changes as the challenge goes along.

* Is sriracha an ingredient, or just a condiment? I don’t know, but this is hilarious anyway. I didn’t think this was such a dick move on the face of it – I think you could get away with using a small amount, just enough to produce some heat, without letting it overpower the dish. Maple syrup, which Lindsay gave Chris C. in return, seems much more likely to assert its presence in unwanted ways. (And I say that as someone who will, when your back is turned, drink maple syrup out of the bottle.)

* Chris J. used twitter as the verb instead of tweet. He fails the Internet.

* Quickfire results: Loved the idea of Sarah’s burrata stuffed squash blossom (and so did Hugh), but I was surprised to see it was among the worst dishes. Beverly is in the top three, so the editors show Heather’s face, of course. And Paul is so clearly ahead of the rest of the pack it’s not even funny. He’s cooking on another level. This thing has to be his to lose right now.

* So I had a brief, mostly facetious Twitter conversation with Hugh Acheson last night about whether Grayson is pretty, or just “Top Chef pretty.” One thing that I keep noticing is that she looks very different in the confessionals than she does in the cooking clips – like she’s put on weight since the show. I also noticed that Sarah looked much prettier in the older photos where she had longer hair. This stuff really doesn’t matter, but I keep noticing it.

* On Patti Labelle: I don’t care what song you sing, if you sing like that, you have my attention.

* Elimination challenge: Cook a dish inspired by the person who inspired you to cook. Granted, I’m not a professional chef, but I’d have a hard time with this because I wasn’t really inspired by someone’s cooking, but simply by the need for one of us to cook when I was in grad school, and with my wife exhausted every day from teaching preschool, shouldn’t it be me? I don’t cook the kind of food my mom cooked when I was growing up, and while my professional pastry-chef cousin has been a huge help to me when I’ve had cooking questions, I first learned to cook from outside sources like Good Eats and Joy of Cooking.

* Quick thoughts on the dishes: Chris J.’s steak looked blue (as in too rare) on my TV, and really dude, A1 sauce as an ingredient? … Heather’s spaetzle looked awesome, but the fear of the pressure cooker despite the different protein seemed out of nowhere. Loved Patti delivering the snark on her dish … I worried Sarah’s sausage-stuffed cabbage was too simple, but it did sound amazing (and obviously was), plus once you read the recipe you can see how complex it really is with sausage wrapped in kale wrapped in cabbage … Paul didn’t get in the top three but I still feel like he’s way ahead of everyone else with his skills and his vision … Beverly was surprisingly elegant here with her Korean short rib, so regardless of what Heather says, it seems clear the Bevster can make Asian work for her … Chris C. claiming he was “hoping the judges wouldn’t notice” makes me think he’s never watched the show. They always notice. Anyway, he’s starting to remind me of Kenny the “Preppin’ Weapon,” who could clearly cook but came up with these convoluted dishes where he sank a good idea under three more elements … Edward’s bibimbap without the stone bowl was genius in its presentation, in the contrarian move of going vegetarian, and in incorporating a ton of umami-packed elements on top of the crispy rice. Absolutely going to try that at home … Grayson apologized for her dish! Weak. Anyway, you can’t waste meat in front of Tom, and the dish seemed horribly dated … Ty-Lor, who also has apparently never watched Top Chef before, fried chicken tenders in duck fat. He had me at “fried in duck fat.” Anyone else notice a lot of peaches in dishes this season? Was it a bumper peach crop in Texas? … Lindsay’s trout spanakopita seemed clever, although I’m not a big roe fan; looking at the recipe now I can see why the butter sauce would have overwhelmed the dish, which wasn’t clear to me from watching the show.

* I’m sure Tom comparing Heather to Beverly at judges’ table was just a coincidence.

* Anyway, good riddance to bad rubbish with this elimination. I can’t help but think there was a racial component to Heather’s bullying of Beverly, and I think we’ll see some smartassery from Heather when Beverly shows up in Last Chance Kitchen. Speaking of LCK, great to see Nyesha start fulfilling my prediction that she’ll hold that jacket for a while, and to see her articulate her dislike for Heather and carry it out by executing a dessert for the win.