top chef : discuss
i love checking my email after top chef nights- everyone gets so worked up over the show. my thoughts on last night's part one finale: i love harold. gross white v-necks and all. i'm glad tiffani is still in. i know she didn't nail her audience every time, but she showed more fine dining capability than dave did, although i really do appreciate dave's his passion. (but yes, i agree it was unfair that they cut dave even though he won more challenges than tiffani). i sort of have this thing that dave shouldn't be there anyway. it should be lee anne. hands down. (ps: have you seen stephen's website??)
that said, i have this essential dilemma with the show: i assumed the show was about celebrating chefs who work in the "fine dining" area (meaning not your standard dave nacho fare) because that seems to be how the show billed itself. but with all these guest judges who don't necessarily have a background in fine dining (phil f-ing hellmuth?) swaying votes kinda bugs me. i've started to side with harold on the whole not wanting to cook junk food and focus on fine dining thing. seems a bit snobby when it means you have to cut nice people like dave, but i love seeing creative chefs elevate food beyond the standard fare. ok, enough me- what do you think? are the top two the right top two?
[and ps: where is harold's restaurant? i want to eat there. now.]
[UPDATE: ac just called with a harold sighting. he was in the meatpacking district with the same girl from dinner. def not a single guy ;)]
Labels: miscellaneous
posted by design*sponge @ 18.5.06
18 Comments:
I think if you flopped out Tiffani for Lee Anne, it'd be a tight race. Harold already has a better sense of how to make a menu for clients than Tiffani did..
It seems that they (judges) always mention Harold's flavors as clean and pure. Tiffani is a good chef but always seems to be making excuses when her food isn't well received, even when she claims to 'get' her clients tastes... (atheletes, poker players, etc)...
And yes, it's weird to have dorky, nascar-esque/orange county chopper wannabes as judges. As was proven by the fact they dug the preprepared frozen wings. Need salt with that?
dbdtron..
Let us just all be thankful that we do not have to wake up every morning and be Stephen...
aww, i think stephen's just at the point where he hasn't hit bottom and doesn't know what it's like to be less than the best. he'll get his soon, i'm sure. but i think he's prob a decent guy underneath all the crap.
and hey, remember, harold said he was a "special dude". i loved that. ;)
d*s
True..I do believe that everyone (no matter how gross they may seem) has a decent side to them. At least I hope they do...for all our sakes...Hopefully he will find his soon so he can use his super powers for good rather than evil! :)
I haven't kept up with the show as dutifully as I would have liked but I'm still hooked-and thats rare for any TV show with me. I think Harold should win. He's shown the most talent and professionalism, and is very consistent. Plus he's cute. I love dave, but I dont think he should've made it as far as he had. Tiffani is good and has drive to boot, but I dont like her at all. Go Harold! I would start a fanclub for him if I was the celebrity stalking type.
Those Chopper judges sound like Paul Dooley in Breaking Away. He didn't want any "ini" food...
I disagree with the name of the show - Americas Top Chef. The winner of this show could hardly be crowned the Top Chef in America. The show should be called - Americas Most Decent Chef, or how about "A chef who I wouldn't mind eating a meal if they cooked it for me"
I felt disgusted when they kicked dave out. He won more challenges than tiffani, who is incredibly annoying and obnoxious...and no one liked her food too much. Dave doesn't fit the stereotype of "top chef," though that is misnomer in this case, but people were liking his food...I miss project runway soo much. I really have a problem with the judges...Boring, pretentious, no sense of humor. Can't Tim Gunn host this show too?
i knew tiffani would end up in the top 3 over lee ann and beat out dave in the pre-finale because bravo's competition shows always have to have a villian. tiffani is the wendy pepper/santino rice of top chef. if it wasn't tiffani in the end, it would have been stephen for the same reason, although i think stephen is more deserving of "top chef" status, despite his arrogance. i can't stand tiffani, her insecurities are apparent in her bravado and the shoddy way she treats people, and she seemed to learn nothing about herself from watching the show, unlike stephen, who seemed to be genuinely humbled by watching his own obnoxious behavior. anyway, i think (and hope) harold will win. in my opinion, the "top chef" needs to have good leadership skills as well as culinary talent, and harold seems to have both. plus he's just adorable. :) the host and judges, tho, ugh. i hope their cooking has more personality than they do!
oh my, stephen's website is so disturbing. and....well, disturbing about covers it.
Love love love Harold. What a guy. Loved that comment he made about Stephen. And I was impressed with "Reunion Stephen", he seemed a lot more fun than "Show Stephen". Was he holding a bottle of wine?!
Dave should not have been booted, although he kept saying he's not used to cooking on the fly, but isn't that what chefs are about? Hmmm....
I hope Tiffani does NOT WIN! She's slightly evil.
Top Chef is the first show that I actually got sucked into. I do hope that Harold wins. Origionally I was cheering for Stephen because he was such a prick and that was amusing.
Harold is most deff the best chef and I hope he cooks the pants off Tiffani. Ooh I can not stand her.
My feelings as simple minded as you may consider them...I enjoy watching Top Chef and I am sure that any of the top three are quite capable of providing fantastic fare for any venue, however, there is a lot to be said about the attitude exhibited by each involved. Harold, seems to be the most even tempered and able to deal with all situations (whether he likes them or not) as compared to the other two.
Although this is unrelated, I work in the healthcare industry (also catering to customers) where we have completely turned our business around in the past 5 years by eliminating the highly stressed, over the top, dominating and egotistical individuals. We have replaced them with those that are even tempered, understanding of everyones differences and those that exhibit the ability to get in touch with the situation without any undue trauma. This appears to be the way that Harold deals with day to day or minute to minute situations. This places him way ahead of Tiffany and Dave. Dave is rarely in control of his emotions and Tiffany is a just a control freak in general (once again, not to negate their ability to cook delicious food). I'm sure that they are fantastic chefs as we have seen, but could they be truly liked by all of their employees and take their business to the top? The manner in how one expresses themself has everything to do with how well their business succeeds...and how they relate to their fellow workers can make or break an industry...this I know from experience.
For me, Top Chef fizzled from the moment Stephen was given the boot... and when Tiffani was chosen over Leanne? FURY. It is simply rediculous that the final three aren't Harold, Stephen, and Leanne.
Even though Stephen was a complete a-hole, you can tell he's got talent -- you didn't even have to taste his food to know his combination of flavors were creative and daring. And I for one would love to sample his cooking. As for Leanne... she just seems like a talented, hard-working, dedicated chef who respects her profession. She was the most professional chef in the first challenge -- Hubert said he'd offer her a job on his line any day. And as somone who has eaten at Fleur de Lys, I can tell you, his restaurant is incredible. The food is wonderful, the service is first class.
As for Tiffani, I think she's a hack. She's a Salieri. Mediocre and she knows it. Thus the sabotage and ssssssnakey behavior.
Grace, THANK YOU for letting us indulge our Top Chef obsession on your design site. Just another reason your site is so special.
Go Harold!
Stephen completely redeemed himself imho on the Reunion show. His heartfelt apology to Candice won me over. The whole process seems to have been a learning experience for everyone. With the exception of Kenneth who comes off as a complete boor.
As for Tiffani, it's all about her. I wonder what color the sky is on her planet?
Was she a slim, pretty Asian girl? If so, they're still going strong as of last Monday when they were hanging at my bar. Otherwise, maybe there's a new lady in his life?
OMG!!!! harold totally won!!! now have u seen stephen's website,, it's just disgusting really,,, i mean to have said all those horrible things in his so called journal just makes me sick!!! for any one who want to go to his website and see the dumbness in it here is the page,,, www.stephenasprinio.com!!! i hope you all have a blast seeing how ridiculously the page is!!!!!!!
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