I’m with Hugh<\/a> on Tim Love’s views on an essential Italian dish.<\/p>\n* Elimination challenge: Working in teams of two, cook an assigned game meat for a table of judges and chefs who specialize in cooking game. I’ve had quail and duck, but don’t think I’ve had any of the others (venison, boar, elk, squab a.k.a. pigeon). Slightly surprised there was no rabbit, but perhaps that’s not game enough?<\/p>\n
* Yeah, I’m sure that’s a total coincidence that Heather and Beverly were paired up. I understand that some drama is necessary given the format, but there’s organic drama (just from the pressure of the competition) and then there’s artificial drama (from putting the mildly racist chef with no self-awareness on a team with the emotional Asian chef). Someone pointed out on Twitter that other chefs should have stepped up to confront Heather over her bullying, but other than one attempt by Grayson, no one really did. I understand that confrontation can have its costs, but the long-term costs of doing nothing are higher \u2013 especially if you eventually have to work with her.<\/p>\n
* That said, the whole format \u2013 where the entire losing team goes home, regardless of who contributed what to the dish \u2013 sucked. Sending Nyesha home because she didn’t check on Dakota seems awfully weak, especially since we’re watching another team with one chef trying to micromanage the hell out of the other.<\/p>\n
* Also, was it just me or was there a huge disconnect between the comments about the venison during the meal and Tom’s comments at judges’ table? Tom called it \u201ca little undercooked,\u201d and one of the guest chef-diners said it was \u201ca little blue.\u201d At judges’ table, Tom said it was severely undercooked. I don’t know which was right, or if this was editing weirdness, but the inconsistency was shocking, and all of their other comments about Dakota and Nyesha’s dish were positive. Hugh wrote it was \u201cUNDERDONE\u201d in his blog, so perhaps the diners’ comments were off.<\/p>\n
* Back to Heather \u2013 this season’s official Top Chef Villain\u2122 – does she understand that Asia is a continent with maybe a hundred different cuisines? She keeps using \u201cAsian\u201d as if Asia is a small city outside Rome. Even within east Asia there are enormous differences between cuisines, and if she’s had any kind of formal culinary education, she should be aware of that. She reminds me of my grandparents’ generation, where \u201cAsian\u201d cuisine meant Chinese take-out, and sushi or pad thai were simply unheard of. Meanwhile, Beverly tells an even sadder backstory than Whitney’s, one equally deserving of praise for her ability to overcome it.<\/p>\n
* Back to Grayson again \u2013 nice to see someone finally acknowledge that abasing yourself in front of the judges doesn’t work. Stand behind your dish. Admitting failure before the judges is just inviting them to send you home.<\/p>\n
* LCK: First time this really felt necessary, since Nyesha was ousted under dubious (in my view, at least) circumstances. And it seemed like she cleaned up, despite being thrown by the use of cactus in the challenge. I think Nyesha could go on some kind of run here and make a legitimate difference whenever she’s allowed to re-enter the competition.<\/p>\n
* Final three: Still Paul and Chris C. and then a big dropoff to everyone else. I had Nyesha in the third spot, but with her out I think it’s Edward over Lindsay to round out the top three. I wouldn’t exclude Heather here just for her personality, but I think her carping over \u201cAsian\u201d cuisine says something about her limitations as a chef, and limited chefs typically don’t win on this show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recapping another episode of Top Chef: Waterworks… * Quickfire: This episode of Top Chef did not include a Quickfire, replacing it with an infomercial for some brand of tequila. * I don’t like tequila \u2013 you know my spirit of choice (great book, by the way) \u2013 although I use agave nectar every morning in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[442,306],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-top-chef","tag-tv","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2052,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/2052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}