Top Chef
 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who's completely obsessed with this show. I saw every episode last season and I've watched Harold win about five times now :D

Anyway, the new season starts tonight at 11pm EST on Bravo. I am looking forward to it much more than LOST (only because I can't stand the commercial breaks during LOST. Every five minutes? What the hell guys? :mad: ). I'm curious if they'll manage to replicate the drama from last season's show.

If you haven't seen Top Chef, then you need to. All of last season's episodes are on iTunes. Watch tonight and get sucked in. Sooo much better than Project Runway :D

They have a new host too. I don't remember her name, but I guess I'm the only person who didn't think Billy Joel's wife (also forgot her name) was that bad.

Good thing I have tivo, 11pm is a little late. I'm so glad it's back though, I watched Hell's Kitchen over the summer as a replacement, and it was boring and no one had any skill.

I am obsessed with Bravo shows. I was ridiculously into Showdog Moms and Dads. Seriously, I had a Wednesday night thing with one of my good guy friends. Every Wednesday we watched it.
Now my boyfriend and I are obsessed with Top Chef. I am a Food Network addict so that's probably why I love Top Chef so much. I want to go to Culinary school for fun!
It was Katie who was Billy Joel's wife right? She was hot :D

Blasphemer!

Seriously, Top Chef is good. I love the classic recaps of the first season on televisionwithoutpity.com - they're hilarious! I can't look at Katie Lee anymore without thinking 'Katie Leebot'. They replaced her this year as host; the new host is Padma Lakshmi, Salman Rushdie's wife.

I need to start going to that website :) I can't get into Project Runway the way I can Top Chef. I just have a thing for cooking shows I guess :D

I soo wish LeAnne (that's her name, right?) would have won. Her or Dave! I loved Dave.

And Katie Lee Joel was annoying. I didn't really mind her being the host, but I wish she had been more lively. She seriously talked monotone...like a robot! lol

What moron decided to premiere Top Chef at 11 PM on a Wednesday? Those of us in the real world are sleeping by then!

Okay, I predict that Betty will win this season and Marcel will be the new Steven. Also I'm so glad Harold was a guest judge :) <3 Harold!

Marcel is definitely the new Steven. He even wore a shirt and tie under his Top Chef coat!

Bravo needs better fact checkers for their website. For Frank it lists, "Today, he is the executive chef at Heat, an Asian Fusion restaurant in the Gaslight district of San Diego." It's the GasLAMP! Yes, a lamp is a light but it's not the same word!

Even his hair was similar. At least he's not a pretentious sommilier. That would have taken it for me. Did I spell sommilier right? Sommelier? I think that looks better.

I LOVE this show too!! I loved last season, and I was sooo glad that Harold won!!
Every time I watch this show it inspires to cook and it made me want to go to culinary school too!!
All of the food always looks sooo yummy :)

watched it last night, seems like a good series.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who must watch this! I need something now that Project Runway is over!

I really want to watch this, but it comes on so late. :mad: Guess I'll have to record it.

Last season they reran it quite a bit. It'll normally be on Wednesday's at 10pm. Last year they always would, at least, run the previous weeks episode at 9pm.

I watch it too. It's my filler for Project Runway as well. :p

I didn't even know this show was on last season, but they did the ad's for it during Project Runway so I decide to take a look, since I too am a Food Network junkie. I LOVE this show!! My husband was watching tv with me when I decided to turn is on and he loves it too. I think Betty is going to win, but I also like Sam. Marcel annoys me too!!

I really don't like Betty after the last episode. I felt like they should have booted her even if she was on the winning team. Michael is good for laughs but if he really has any talent he should start to show it. Marcel hasn't bugged me too much yet. He's not nearly as schmarmy as Stephen was in season one. Sam and Carlos need to stay around as long as possible because I love to look at them. I'm on the fence about Ilan. I want to like him but I suspect he's shady. Frank is from SD so I'm rooting for him! I noticed they updated his profile. He's working at a different restaurant now. Mia is great. She's really nice and has talent. I worry she'll end up like Lisa in season one, being the mom and knifed before her time.

I actually really like Betty, and I think the fact that she quickly fessed up about changing the recipe showed that she wasn't trying to be shady.

I also like Sam, Cliff, and Carlos.

The fact that she was the only one that did not understand the rules makes me not like her so much.

I seriously think I am a top chef, so I LOVE this show. I love Cliff and Sam. I just want to run my fingers thru Sam's hair. I'm so feeling that little girl who wanted to marry the hot diabetic.

Is it possible for them to have a judge that isn't completely monotone?

Billy Joel's wife was bad enough last season......but now that new one is just as bad.

Betty was the only one who admitted to not understanding the rules. When they panned the kitchen, Betty's team wasn't the one with "squeeze bottles" laying around.

I think Betty will win this season. I really think she was being honest about the rules. To be honest, her interpretation of the rules was mine as well.
I want Michael to go. He's a giant stoner-he even has the stoner giggle. And Marcel is totally smarmy, not to the level of Stephen, but it's up there. Also, bacon/avocado ice cream? eeeeuwww.

Your right, it was the other team with the squeeze bottles. What I thought was crappy was while Sam spoke up about the cheating, but didn't give any names, and then admitted to the contestants that he did it, it was Mia who laid everyone out to dry and didn't say one peep to her fellow competitors. If your going to tattle on your competitors you might as well have the balls to admit it!!

Agreed, Kansas!

I didnt know she Katie was replaced. IT has her listed on our Theta national website that she is anchor!

Okay, what's everyone thinking? I'm pissed about Marcel.

OTW, they're in Ha'waii and had to make traditional luau food like poi and I can't remember what else. Did you see the episode?

If Marcel wins, I'll never watch Top Chef again. At least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that he's ruined his career.

I honestly think Ilan is going to win. Marcel would have been eliminated episode before last if Cliff hadn't put him in a head lock and tried to shave his head.

Marcel is a piece of shit and should be thrown off a mountain.

I almost peed myself laughing when I heard he made tomato foam. WTF dude? He needs his head shaved, that hairstyle is the worst I have ever seen apart from a mullet.

I feel bad for the little shit. And from reading the judges' blogs on Bravo's site, Cliff was the worst dish and would almost certainly have gone home anyway.

WTF was up with the whole "he cheated" thing though? Seriously? They couldn't actually articulate any instance where he "chited" (I did love Elia's accent).

While I'm not sure Marcel or Ilan belong there, Ilan is so Marcel-obsessed I'd be surprised if he manages to cook without screaming "BUT YOU'RE A VIRGIN VIRGIN VIRGIN AHAHAHAHAHAHA" the whole time.

This is my first comment on this show on here, so forgive the long post as i address a number of things... :)

I've never found Marcel to be that annoying. He's a little patronizing, but not nearly as bad as Stephen was last season. Marcel actually reads my mind a lot of the time with his comments, like last night when Elia and Ilan were saying, "Some people...cheat," or to that effect. Lately, Ilan bugs me waaaay more than Marcel. I thought it was really crummy the way Ilan convinced Elia and Sam to throw Marcel under the bus before the Judge's Table, brought it up, then let Elia take all the pressure for making the accusations, which were BS anyway. Sam and Ilan have actually been just as patronizing, just aimed at Marcel, which seems to be accepted by everyone.

I'm sad Sam is gone, because I thought he was the best cook there. Still, Marcel and Ilan have been pretty consistantly good throughout, so I can accept them as the final two. In the beginning of the season, i was guessing Sam and Ilan as the final two...on this show it's pretty easy to see which chefs have real skill and which just have a few good dishes up their sleeve.

I thought last season was way better. I can't stand shows that use heavy product placement, even though i'm a PR person! Gourmet cooking with Kraft Mayonaise? It was actually kindof bad for Kraft because they kept saying that mayo isn't an ingredient commonly used in gourmet cuisine, and all the chefs were complaining about it. I'm sure Kraft loved that!

I also can't stand the way Padma talks. At least I could understand what Katie Joel was saying. Padma sounds like she has food stuffed in her cheeks when she talks. Can't they teach the hosts to open their mouth more when they talk?

It wasn't so much that he cheated as it was his conduct in the kitchen: not helping anyone, moving other people's things around, etc. etc. He is extremely unprofessional.

Frankly.....I don't think any of his food is appealing..........and he uses foam on EVERYTHING he cooks, literally.

The whole foam thing is overblown, he did maybe 5 in the whole show. Yeah, it's quite a bit, but it's not with every dish like some were claiming. Not even close.

I think his conduct only reflects how he was treated over the course of the show. Things that were done by Marcel were treated like "OMG END OF THE WORLD RUDENESS" but if Sam had said it, no big deal.

I also blame editing a LOT for us not really knowing what really went on. 2 things from the judges blogs were that on the night of the whole Cliff grabbing Marcel thing that Elia had not yet shaved her head. There's a clear shot of her laughing on the floor with her hair intact while Marcel walks by. Also, Marcel didn't tell anyone about the incident, or the fact that he slept in the bathroom all night. Production/judges didn't find out until much later and not from him.

There's nothing he's done that's deserved the level of shit they've thrown his way. Neither of their dishes thrill me on a regular basis but this show hasn't been about food for a while now.

When they run the marathon, I'll count the foam dishes. Even if it's just five, that's still too much. Be original for god's sake. My favourite comment was that it looked like cat spit.
Marcel is a smarmy little shit and he has very little respect for others working in the kitchen. Even if he wins, the show will ruin his career.

Marcel reminds both my husband and I of a character from Dragonball Z - Vejitta or however it's spelled. That hair and soul patch have got to go!

Bummed that Sam got the boot...he seems quite talented.

Yes, he uses foam a lot, but that's his signature. Most chefs have a signature technique or dish. Ilan's two dishes in the challenge last night were spanish, and many of his have been mediterranean throughout the show, and you could argue he does it because it's what he's used to...as they pointed out, he works in a Spanish restaurant.

I don't find him to be that unprofessional in the kitchen. I didn't see him move the pot last night, so maybe he did do that, but we've seen practically whole teams of people doing unprofessional things to him the whole season.

This is a cooking competition, so if it was me in his shoes and i was asked to stop preparing/cooking my high-maintenance course so I can help with other people's, I'd also say no. I'd say it nicely, but i didn't think Marcel was rude about that either a couple weeks ago on the "romantic dinner for couples" episode. In contrast, Ilan took up all but one burner on the stove preparing his dish, which was also selfish.

I just thoroughly dislike Marcel. If he's to win, they should have edited him as a more likeable character post-production. People do not like to invest their time into watching reality shows where the person they liked the least wins...

That is exactly what I said to my husband when we watched the show yesterday.

I have no interest in watching the finale now that Marcel is in it. I was hoping for Sam/Elia or Sam/Ilan. One thing I hate about Top Chef (and some other "reality" competition shows) is that the judges don't seem to take into account the chef's progress and/or past dish failures. How many times was Marcel in the bottom vs. Sam or Elia? Sam won the most quickfires and challenges combined and deserved a place in the finale. I really believe they didn't pick him because he is too much like last year's winner Harold.