The new Top Chef Seattle (contains spoilers)

[Jenise]

Just watched episode one. Interesting elimination contest. I'd say Emeril was actually the toughest of the four judges, and Wolfgang Puck by far the easiest. Only one of the omelets prepared for Wolfie had restaurant quality appearance and the four that didn't had serious issues, but he passed four of the five cooks anyway. Where all five of the soups presented to Emeril were artful and considerate, but I think he only passed two. Or maybe it was three, but he could have passed all five based on what I saw and heard--the losing soups had no serious flaws where some passing omelets certainly did.

Carrie, have you watched yet? I have two serious crushes already.

Loved the episode.

agree Wolfgang definitely seemed to be the easiest of the four judges. That thought came to mind when he was walking around giving 'hints' on what they should do and prepare for him. I would agree that Emeril appeared to be the toughest, which surprised me slightly as I expected Tom to be the toughest of the group since he's been involved with the show from the beginning. Not only that, but that he had them working a true service in the restaurant.

Very excited that Hugh is in as a judge for the season and not just one that makes regular appearances. His critiques are always among my favorites.

[Jenise]

Very excited that Hugh is in as a judge for the season and not just one that makes regular appearances. His critiques are always among my favorites.

Me, too. I adore his sense of humor! And I'm still loving his book, "A New Turn In The South".

Sounds good - unfortunately, we don't get it up here, just as you don't get all our Food Network Canada stuff down there.

Very excited that Hugh is in as a judge for the season and not just one that makes regular appearances. His critiques are always among my favorites.

Me, too. I adore his sense of humor! And I'm still loving his book, "A New Turn In The South".

Me three! Talk about crushes. Unibrow and all!

Okay, so I have been holding off opening this thread until I got to watch. I figured it would be On Demand and went to watch it last night but no luck. I recorded it at 10am this morning and just finished watching.

Agree with you and Daisy completely. Emeril was by far the toughest...I thought for sure that soup with all the seafood and chorizo would have made it. It looked and sounded great to me. Also thought he liked the cauliflour soup well enough. Guess not. Wolfgang Puck's group was by far the worst. Blindfolded, we all could make better looking omelets than any of those! They were all covering them up with additional ingredients because they couldn't even get them out of the pan without sticking. HAS ANYONE HEARD OF BUTTER??? Hello? The Asian girl's omelet looked and sounded horrendous but she made it through okay. How about Rao's ex wife. What a hot mess she is! Honey, go get a few more collagen injections. On to the salads, nothing to write home about on any of them in my opinion. Pretty lame for esteemed chefs. My take on this season is that the judges or producers actually made up their minds on who would pack their knives and who would move on during the pre-screening process and not these "quick fires."

Okay, Jenise who are your crushes? Please don't tell me the Belgian Knight. There was only one who appealed to me...the Asian/German guy who traveled all over. I can't remember any names at this point. Finally, what is with all the handle bar mustaches? Oh pleeezze no....

Should be an interesting season! Looks like a lot of crazy on-location stuff. Helicopters, sled dogs, yikes!

[Jenise]

Okay, so I have been holding off opening this thread until I got to watch. I figured it would be On Demand and went to watch it last night but no luck. I recorded it at 10am this morning and just finished watching.

Agree with you and Daisy completely. Emeril was by far the toughest...I thought for sure that soup with all the seafood and chorizo would have made it. It looked and sounded great to me. Also thought he liked the cauliflour soup well enough. Guess not. Wolfgang Puck's group was by far the worst. Blindfolded, we all could make better looking omelets than any of those! They were all covering them up with additional ingredients because they couldn't even get them out of the pan without sticking. HAS ANYONE HEARD OF BUTTER??? Hello? The Asian girl's omelet looked and sounded horrendous but she made it through okay. How about Rao's ex wife. What a hot mess she is! Honey, go get a few more collagen injections. On to the salads, nothing to write home about on any of them in my opinion. Pretty lame for esteemed chefs. My take on this season is that the judges or producers actually made up their minds on who would pack their knives and who would move on during the pre-screening process and not these "quick fires."

Okay, Jenise who are your crushes? Please don't tell me the Belgian Knight. There was only one who appealed to me...the Asian/German guy who traveled all over. I can't remember any names at this point. Finally, what is with all the handle bar mustaches? Oh pleeezze no....

Should be an interesting season! Looks like a lot of crazy on-location stuff. Helicopters, sled dogs, yikes!

Rao's ex--wasn't she awful? At one point she's on camera speaking after they show her in the kitchen, and her lips are twice the size they were. I played it back to show Bob. I predict she'll be one of the first to go--or at least, I hope so.

Re the Belgian, um, yes! He's tall, he's gorgeous and he has an accent. That's three of my favorite things! And the moustaches: is there any bigger turnoff than a handlebar? They always scream insecurity to me, though I can't put my finger on exactly why.

Should be a fun season. They all end up getting on a cruise ship to Juneau for the finale!

Rao's ex--wasn't she awful? At one point she's on camera speaking after they show her in the kitchen, and her lips are twice the size they were. I played it back to show Bob. I predict she'll be one of the first to go--or at least, I hope so.

Re the Belgian, um, yes! He's tall, he's gorgeous and he has an accent. That's three of my favorite things! And the moustaches: is there any bigger turnoff than a handlebar? They always scream insecurity to me, though I can't put my finger on exactly why.

Should be a fun season. They all end up getting on a cruise ship to Juneau for the finale!

I think Rao's ex is there solely for the drama factor. I hope she's gone soon. Really bugs me.
The Belgian, yes, I guess I can see it on the physical level, but he's so full of himself. Who's your other crush?
Agree about the handbars, and really any other "affectatious" facial hair.
Can't wait for next week!

[Jenise]

I think Rao's ex is there solely for the drama factor. I hope she's gone soon. Really bugs me.
The Belgian, yes, I guess I can see it on the physical level, but he's so full of himself. Who's your other crush?
Agree about the handbars, and really any other "affectatious" facial hair.
Can't wait for next week!

I'd hate to think they'd pass a bimbo just for drama, but have to admit we shouldn't rule that out. It's TV, after all. Might explain why Wolfie passed so many--in order to let her through, he had to take the other three also-rans. Too, he might have been the last to conduct his little test, and therefore it was incumbent on him to pass four in order to get to the magic number of contestants desired.

My other crush was, and this is past tense now, Micah, the dark guy in Tom's group. I liked his confidence. But as I went to type the words yesterday, I thought back to those earrings, which I hate (not earrings on men in general, just the permanent ear-stretching type Micah wears) and which typically come with other things I hate, like extensive tattooing, and decided I better back-pedal on him.

The Belgian didn't come off as full of himself to me. The "knight" thing could sound like that if he'd bragged on it, but Hugh brought it up and I can just imagine how the cast coaches suggested that it be highlighted. After all, again, it's TV.

Jenise, did you watch this week's Space Needle episode? Let me know and we can discuss.

[Jenise]

No! I've temporarily relocated to southeast Washington with my sick cat who is getting treatment at the outstanding vet teaching hospital here, and I don't get the Bravo channel in my little apartment. . We're going home for the long holiday weekend, so ill catch up then. Good one?

No! I've temporarily relocated to southeast Washington with my sick cat who is getting treatment at the outstanding vet teaching hospital here, and I don't get the Bravo channel in my little apartment. . We're going home for the long holiday weekend, so ill catch up then. Good one?

Oh no, is it Tammie Faye? Hope the kitty gets better soon.

[Jenise]

Yup, the Tamster. This is expected, it wa just however expected to start ten weeks earlier. She had one complication after another, though, so we were much delayed. Not one thing has gone right for this poor cat, and none of the issues were predictable. Like this week--she has to have anesthesia for her daily treatment, and this hospital uses this this state of the art spends stuff that no other hospital on the west coast has. They go under and pop out in like the snap of a finger. Only two animals in ten years have had adverse reactions to it, and both were dogs. Guess who was the first cat?? My god she was sick--and of course it's so rare that I had to overcome the initial suspicion of bad parenting on the part of the hospital, it couldn't be their precious gas.

Typical--every time we think we're out of the woods, were wrong. She's handling it better than I am, I think.

Yup, the Tamster. This is expected, it wa just however expected to start ten weeks earlier. She had one complication after another, though, so we were much delayed. Not one thing has gone right for this poor cat, and none of the issues were predictable. Like this week--she has to have anesthesia for her daily treatment, and this hospital uses this this state of the art spends stuff that no other hospital on the west coast has. They go under and pop out in like the snap of a finger. Only two animals in ten years have had adverse reactions to it, and both were dogs. Guess who was the third? My god she was sick--and of course it's so rare that I had to overcome the initial suspicion of bad parenting, it couldn't be their precious gas.

Typical--every time we think we're out of the woods, were wrong. She's handling it better than I am, I think.

Poor baby. You are the best Kitty Mama. No worries there. You, Bob and the Tamster will be in my thoughts. Keep us posted.

Carrie - I watched it and interested to know what you think, but will hold off on commenting until Jenise has had a chance to catch up.

However, on the topic of the Belgian, I totally agree with J on this one. He is definitely among my favorites.

[Jenise]

CarriE, I know you'd do everything I'm doing given the same options.

Today's fun: showed up at the hospital for Tam's treatment only to discover that the magnetron in the linear accelerator is somehow fried. The repairman is being flown in and hopefully can fix it today. I'm nervous, as one of Tammy's last treatment delays was a breakdown for which the replacement part got lost in hurricane sandy. So now were wither back here after hours at 8:00 tonight or we won't be home as early in December as we thought.

I hope it's tonight, and that they test it on a chicken first.

[Jenise]

Okay, I've seen it now; let's talk.

Okay, now with my feeble mind, I only really remember the latest one that I watched last night (this week's turkey episode.) Hope you have watched that one too, because there is a lot to discuss there!

First off, I don't understand why they brought Stefan and the other two previous cheftestants back. Do you? Seems kind of unfair to the others IMO.
Okay, so during the Thanksgiving episode, I was going crazy. How does Josie (the veteran cooking the turkeys) serve almost raw turkey? Has she never heard of a meat thermometer? Has she never used a foil tent to keep the top from getting too brown? WTH? All she kept saying was that it was too close to the heat in the oven and was getting too brown. Completely flummoxed by this one. Absolutely inexcusable and she was so lucky she had quickfire immunity. Raw, unseasoned potatoes by Kuniko also are inexcusable, so I think they made the right decision there. I don't really understand how these supposedly super-talented chefs--who in this episode only had ONE dish to prepare and FIVE hours in which to make it--can make such basic mistakes. Undercooking, overcooking, forgetting to season, etc. Aren't they tasting as they go?

I really wanted to taste Tom's stuffing with the pancetta and foie gras. My gosh that looked and sounded wonderful.
I'm actually starting to enjoy watching Carla now. Yes, she is a crazy loon, but pretty darned entertaining. The best line of the show was when she berated Stefan about being sexist in the kitchen and he said, "This is why I left Europe...European women!"

Oh, and Micah, I know your crush is done there, but I'm starting to develop one now, I think.

Okay your turn! Hope I didn't spoil anything for you.

[Jenise]

Nothing spoiled, I've seen both.

Back to the Space Needle episode: I actually thought it was pretty boring. Either they didn't have a lot to work with or this batch isn't all that creative as the vague descriptor "with seasonal vegetables" was attached to most of their dishes. Which brings up a problem about the emphasis on proteins, which is even more glaring in the final results: Kuniko won for her ling cod, and darling Jeffrey went home for overcooking halibut and if it hadn't been him it would have been Stefan for the same crime. There's a message in there for the survival of all future cheftestants: in group contests, never take the protein. Sure it gets the glory but it's also the fastest ticket home.

Re the Thanksgiving episode: interesting that Tom's team swept the votes. And I'm with you, that stuffing with pancetta and foie gras sounded amazing. So did Carla's soup, I have to admit, even though it seemed a rather gratuitous element for a Thanksgiving feast. Loved how dumbfounded all the other chefs were that she won. I agree about Kuniko's potatoes, they weren't just undercooked, they were apparently fairly flavorless so that's two strikes. But how unfair that Kuniko had to go when her dish was only the second worst. Hard to understand that Josie f---ed up so bad, and apparently from her banter back in the kitchen she had no idea her turkey was raw in the middle, she was still hoping it wasn't too badly overcooked! Surely they had thermometers. I'm surprised how often any of them answer "no" to "didn't you taste it?"

Michah's cool, glad he's growing on you.

Agree the Space Needle episode was pretty boring. That's probably why I couldn't remember it!

How is The Tamster, by the way?

[Jenise]

She's doing all right, thanks for asking. Her treatments are now two weeks down, two to go. The long weekend couldn't have come at a better time. She's pretty happy about being home for a few days; and come to think of it, I don't mind it either!

While I agree with you Carrie that Carla was becoming entertaining to watch, I do have to say I'm happy with the way last week's Canalis episode played out. I don't know if I agree with the second elimination, however, when one chooses such a classic dish that was a 'special' item to a restaurant, you do run a very high risk of going home if you don't nail it.

While I agree with you Carrie that Carla was becoming entertaining to watch, I do have to say I'm happy with the way last week's Canalis episode played out. I don't know if I agree with the second elimination, however, when one chooses such a classic dish that was a 'special' item to a restaurant, you do run a very high risk of going home if you don't nail it.

I hear you about the second elimination, though I must say I knew before she even served it she would end up in the bottom. Even us viewers could tell it was way overdressed, right?
Want to make a comment about Stefan. I could not stand him the first time he was on Top Chef. This time, I'm finding him quite likeable. He's a little humbled, and actually pretty charming! Anyone else finding this?

I hear you about the second elimination, though I must say I knew before she even served it she would end up in the bottom. Even us viewers could tell it was way overdressed, right?

Yes, I agree the viewers could even tell it was way overdressed.

Want to make a comment about Stefan. I could not stand him the first time he was on Top Chef. This time, I'm finding him quite likeable. He's a little humbled, and actually pretty charming! Anyone else finding this?

I've always thought he had a charming side to him, they just chose to edit it differently the first time around. There are small glimpses of his charm in the first season he was on the show. I agree that he definitely is acting more humble, but I think the strong personality of John (I think that's his name) - the one from Dallas - is more prominent than Stefan's. Stefan even said it in one of his camera interviews that if everyone wants to hate him (John) that's fine because it takes the spotlight off of him. Or something along those lines.