SFist: Top Chef: The Bald Truth--It Ain't About The Food

KT

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 15:06:39 -0800

I don't want to watch the finale. I know I will but I don't want to. All signs point to Ilan winning (he just quit his job at Casa Mono this last week). Not only is he a poor excuse for a person but his cooking is BORING. He is not a top chef, he's a sous chef in a Spanish restaurant and all through this competition, he's simply been reproducing stuff he has learned there. Big whoop. Marcel, I think is talented, but way too immature and still has a lot to learn before he could be a top chef. Sam was no prize but he clearly should have won this competition. He was the all around best with his creativity, execution and leadership skills. I call BS on making this some sort of nemesis v. nemesis story instead of really basing it on the food, as they claim to do.

Rain

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:11:40 -0800

It's so ironic, once again, that during last night's episode, chef Tom made a big point about how it IS all about the food, and he doesn't care how they act in the kitchen. Which is a load of crap. I understand that they took Cliff's manhandling of Marcel as a kind of assault, and frankly, it kind of was, but they shouldn't pretend they aren't loading the finale with the two most controversial--personality-wise--players!!

Dave

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:59:26 -0800

Astro Boy is gonna win it - for some inexplicable reason, the girls find him cute. And Tom - based on his blog - was so pissed over the shaving incident that he wanted to send them all home and give Marcel the win by default. Plus, based on his blog, although its not his cup of tea, he respects Marcel's "vision" about "molecular gastronomy". I can't stand Marcel not because his is a jerk (which he is) but because he's a poser hack. The guy is just slavishly imitating what Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Catalonia and Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck in Bershire and others have been doing since the late 90s. Ferran created those "foams" a while ago - at this point, he felt so many people were copying him as to make foams a fad, so he moved onto his "airs" and other more obscure stuff. Even Marcel's little experimental test kitchen schtick he talked about is just a bald faced copy of Ferran's El Taller workshop in Barcelona.

k

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:20:05 -0800

All about the food, my arse. All about the product placement and "drama". Obnoxious and boring. Do I have to watch the final episode?

lou

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 08:12:16 -0800

The worse thing about the whole shaving incident is that they went after Marcel *before* shaving their own heads. I honestly don't care who wins at this point. Except I hate Ilan but don't hate Marcel, who is annoying. meh.

Greg

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:55:15 -0800

Season 1 had its moments. Who could forget "I'm not your bitch, bitch?" They really need to pick some better people. Althoug, according to the lovely and talented Ms. Spotswood, Marcel got brained with a beer bottle in Vegas and had to get 20 stitches. I guess he really does suck! should be fun tonight...maybe in Season 3 they'll get better judges (call off the search for the missing flagpole, there's Gail!) and some contestants that aren't so annoying. Didn'tcha just LOVE Betty and her big blonde annoyingness???

KT

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:40:18 -0800

Would you have ever thought that you would miss Tiffani? Or Stephen? They seem very classy compared to these morons. These people almost all suck. Elia is a fox, though and I think she looks better with the short hair, it emphasizes how pretty her face is more. I'm glad Cliff got kicked off and based on my impression of his food, I thought he deserved to go anyway. I thought he should have gone last week. Plus it would have scared the crap out of me to have someone dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night, holding me down and calling for people to "bring the razor" when I had no idea what was going on. Yikes!

dave

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:30:51 -0800

This episode was moronic. And Cliff should have shaved Marcel head to toe for what it got him - if AstroBoy had any class, he would have asked the judges to not toss Cliff. But he didn't, cuz he's white boy rapping twerp. And I still can't understand how a complete fox like Padma is married to Salman Rushdie - the guy looks like Jabba the Hutt. Yick.