Top Chef: Mamma Mia, There She Goes . . .
. . . oh, how much we'll miss her."
Hey, folks! Been a while! But since we only post our thoughts on Bravo's Top Chef on the day a new one's coming out, this review is anything but fresh. Hopefully it'll help you recall what's going on on the show and help to re-establish the narrative.
So, no reason to bury the lead here: Mia went home. Mia--the spunky, outspoken firecracker who made a bunch of good-looking comfort food with ridiculous names ("Mamma Mia's this, Mamma Mia's that"), really sort of went nutso in this episode.
In fact, this episode was very uncomfortable for to watch a few reasons. Train wreckish. Made for ok TV, but still. Some less-than-careful bleeping by TC's production team ensured that the audience got a pretty clear earful when Mia told Cliff to "stop swinging his dick around," for instance. And she played the "I used to sell crack/live on the streets/work in a coalmine/whatever" card quite a bit.
Which is her right. Still, we can't claim we enjoyed her meltdown and self-removal from the show, even if it did allow Elia, our fave, to remain when she likely would've been given the boot.
Another thing that made this uncomfortable was the overt product shilling for Bailey's Irish Cream, which was instrumental to the Quickfire (immunity) Challenge.
So, some hotshot mixologist was the guest judge, and the contestants had to make a "delicious" drink out of Bailey's. Ugh. In our mind, this is the boozy equivalent of trying to make something from a vending machine, like they did a few episodes ago. I mean, Bailey's is a liqueur, already has a distinctive flavor, includes cream . . . to us, the spectrum of possibilities seems fairly limited. Even so, there were some great entries -- Cliff, king of the quickfire, wins again with his Original Bailey's, Rum, Vodka, Vanilla Bean Accompanied with Grilled Beef, Creme Fraiche Fondue, Nutmeg & Chocolate". Mia and Betty both used citrus, which didn't turn out great for them.
Onto the big challenge: cater an L.A. cocktail party. Two teams: Elia led Cliff, Mikey, and Mia, while Sam led Marcel, Betty, and Ilan. The former team tried to do just a handful of dishes, but do them very well -- the latter team got a baker's dozen out. That's the point of catering a cocktail party -- lots of interesting choices, something always filling the tray. Elia's team loses.
Mia had protested the strategy, mostly driven by Cliff (who had nothing to lose) and Elia, of only doing a few dishes. Mikey sort of treaded water in this one, though he did manage to use his superpower of culinary cliche to create a surf & turf item (twice-baked potato; steak sandwich . . . he's a good candidate for the Legion of Substitute Heroes, we tells ya).
The winning team is happy, though Marcel flubs on the side of ego, as always, and claims that Sam didn't really lead them to victory. Hah. Anyways, Sam gets some sweet knives as a prize.
As alluded to above, the losing team's conference with the judges is pretty contentious. Mia is red-hot pissed at Cliff, makes the aforementioned comment about swinging his junk around, says she protested the strategy, etc. From the questions and, later, comments the judges are making, it appears Elia's the one that's going to go -- she was the team leader, after all.
BUT . . . a little interjection, here: We thought that Top Chef was not an "Any Given Sunday" type contest. In other words, we thought past victories were taken into account in some regard when the chopping block is nigh. We like Mikey, but dude has done nothing to stand out; he's basically improved from sucking to treading water. And here's Elia, who's won the big challange, not just TWICE, but the last two in a row! And she took a chance by leading the team. You telling us that Elia would have gone home? We say bulls***, Top Chef.
But Mamma Mia, suffering from burnout and possibly a little (undeserved!) insecurity, falls on the sword. She sees the writing on the wall, and thinks that Elia leaving would be unfair.
Can't call her classy, as her exit was uncomfortable and mercurial, but it was still a nice thing to do, and shows she has conviction of character.
Tune in tonight for the first new episode in a while!