Top Chef

[shipperx]

I figured that Dale would be toast because Top Chef loves to have at least one "shocking" elimination every round. But, that said, how in the effing HELL is Lisa still there? Huh? Bourdain had her number right from the start and yet there she stands with that mulish expression and bad attitude. And then there's Spike. Who sucks. Who has always sucked. It's been obvious for weeks that Richard and Dale are the best of the current crop and yet two of the most useless ones are still around. I didn't even like Dale. He was an ass. But, come on! Seriously, that's just messed up.

Top Chef likes to piss people off with this sort of thing.

Comments

[kellyhk.livejournal.com]

Why Spike Sucks, by KellyHK

1. Takes a cool name and shits all over it.
2. Plays Top Chef as though he is on Survivor.
3. Looks far too much like Kevin Federline for my tastes.
4. Has lame hats (see #3)

But I agree, Lisa has absolutely got to go. She is made of fail and is a total suck on the soul.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

1. Takes a cool name and shits all over it.

So true.

And, yes, TC's Lisa is made of suck. If she makes it to the finale I'll be seriously irked.

[swsa.livejournal.com]

I've been so pissed off at these last two episodes. Both have Lisa blaming others for her inability to make rice, throwing people under the bus, and then acting like THEY'RE the crazy ones when they get pissed off at her for it. I hate, hate, hate that she's been rewarded for this behavior for two weeks in a row. I think both Andrew and Dale cooked circles around her.

[sourisvho.livejournal.com]

They seem to like to ax the losing head chef in Restaurant Wars. Especially if it's shocking. (I'm still kinda bitter about Tre.) I think Dale is a good chef, albeit an asshole, but he deserved to go sheerly for the existence of butterscotch scallops. I love butterscotch. I love scallops. But the concept of them together gives me the dry heaves.

If the final 3 isn't Stephanie, Richard and Antonia, there is no justice. Is this the first time a group has had a truly successful restaurant with no real negatives said about them? And it seemed like they had even less time than normal. How the heck did Stephanie accomplish two fab dishes AND do front of house?

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I'll just ditto what you 2 said cause...can't make long comments tonight. BAD INTERNET.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced that Dale deserved to make it to the finals. He never cooked anything but Asian.

To me a great chef breaks out of his comfort zone in competitions, something Stephanie, Richard and Antonia have done again and again. They also handle pressure gracefully and have true leadership skills. That's why I consider them the top three.

Dale has never broken out of his comfort zone, handles pressure like a dickwad and has the leadership skills of an autistic flea. I'm almost half convinced that he sabotaged Lisa's rice last challenge out of spite, and in this particular challenge the head chef should have nixed the sticky rice off the menu entirely as soon as they realized that they couldn't buy the correct type. A good head chef would have known that another type of rice wouldn't do what they wanted it to do and improvised at the store.

Does Dale have talent? Hell yes. He's also extremely young (what, 20?) and has time to develop the nonculinary yet essential skills he's lacking in order to be a great chef.

(I was roomates with an executive chef for almost 3 years, can you tell?)

Honestly I was split 50/50 between Dale and Lisa during judging, but ultimately in a competition called Restaurant Wars the head chef, like the captain of a ship, takes ultimate responsibility. I *do* think that Lisa or Spike will be the next one to go next week, though. Lisa lucked out that Tom wasn't there and won't carry the memory of her "sticky rice" and laksa debacle but Padma will and you're right Spike *is* a playa and will probably wiggle his way into the top 4 (barring massive FU by the top three chefs) but then he'll still be the bottom of that particular barrel.

This is my first season of Top Chef, though, so I have no idea what the finals consist of.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Seriously! Any other outcome makes me ill at tht thought of it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I know. I didn't much care for Andrew, either. But it's been clear for a painfully long time that both Spike and Lisa suck in every conceivable manner. On a show like this, one can get away with being an asshole if one is talented. These two don't have talent to compensate for the personality disorders.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I know that Top Chef says they judge per ep and it isn't cumlative. My issue with Lisa is that she has sucked repeatedly. This isn't the first time she's ruined a rice dish. This isn't the first time she's majorly screwed up a challenge. For that reason, I'm most ticked at her still being there. Dale deserved to be in the bottom three last night, but thus far I don't think Lisa (or Spike) have shown that they still deserve to even be in the competition.

And I also think TC is trying to duplicate the outrage caused when the elimiinated Tre last season (Tre was also a top contender that got kicked out before some deeply sucky people were kicked out. And Tre actually had a good personality in addition to talent). It's irksome to see them deliberately get rid of someone they know has more talent rather than off someone they know sucks.

I wasn't rooting for Dale to win the thing, though.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I know that Top Chef says they judge per ep and it isn't cumlative.

Yeah. I never buy that. IMO if they *really* judge per ep instead of cumulative they'd have different judges each competition. It's human nature to subconsciously hold past performances against competitors and I doubt anyone could completely ignore their inner expectations while judging.

My issue with Lisa is that she has sucked repeatedly. This isn't the first time she's ruined a rice dish.

I agree that Lisa doesn't deserve to still be there, and I think the look on her face as Dale left shows that she knows it as well, but technically that dish was ruined the moment Dale suggested the substitute rice and she can't be held totally responsible for it. He also was responsible for her adding the pastry cream which turned it into pablum.

The only thing she was solely responsible for ruining was the laksa, which she did like a champion (if there can be champions of losing, that is).

For that reason, I'm most ticked at her still being there. Dale deserved to be in the bottom three last night, but thus far I don't think Lisa (or Spike) have shown that they still deserve to even be in the competition.

I agree there, I just think that there are only 3 chefs who truly deserve to be in the finals, and it really doesn't matter which schlub manages to crawl their way into that fourth slot since they don't have a snowball's chance of winning.

I just haven't considered Dale a top contender for weeks because of his one note cooking and his total lack of nonculinary skills that are essential to being a head chef.