Top Chef

Have you guys been following along with her cancer story? Can't really remember anything like this happening to a contestant before...it's so sad, but heartwarming to see stuff like this.

I was kinda wondering if she had to leave the show for that reason cause it didn't seem like her food was that bad.

I love it. Maybe I'm giving Top Chef and the Top Chef audience too much credit (I don't think I am), but from the beginning I felt like Bravo knows we are all in on the joke. They have to do product placement to make money, why even try to be slick about it? Just throw that shit out there, zoom in on that car logo, talk about the navigation system, whatever. It makes me laugh, particularly when they overdub audio with something that was clearly recorded in a sound booth after the show was shot.



i know it is lame to repost one of my old jokes, but the top chef reference is my favorite part of the Bonnaroo 2018 press release (pretty sure you caught it when I originally posted it):

i'm only 15 minutes into last night's episode, but it's driving me insane that bruce is going full giada on his pronunciation of panna cotta.

Spoilers for this week's episode:

Carrie is honestly so inspirational. If she can make it to the top 4 of Top Chef with toast and the bare minimum, then I can achieve my goals too!

Claudette was the woooooorst! So glad she is gone for good. I wish Tanya laid into her.

24? damn he was a lil' baby. such a weirdo, i always loved watching him.

the padma'less Top Chef always feels wrong to me. ain't top chef without Padma and Tom, at a minimum, but you also need Gail to complete the trinity.

some very sad top chef news:
Top Chef Contestant Fatima Ali’s Cancer Has Returned
"Shortly after Top Chef season 15 started, contestant and eventual fan favorite Fatima Ali announced that she had been diagnosed with the rare bone and soft-tissue Ewing’s sarcoma. After starting chemotherapy last fall and having her tumor removed in January, Ali was declared cancer-free in February, returned to cooking in April, and completed her chemo in August. Then last month, the 29-year-old chef was told that her cancer had returned, this time to her femur and left hip, and that she had only a year left to live."

No one was gonna let me know the new season started this week???

great first episode! already i think we have a more talented group of chefs than we did last season, who on the whole i found underwhelming. i don't even remember who won last season tbh.

tons of killer dishes i would love to have tried.

early favorites include Eric Adjepong, because I just like him, and Kelsey Clark (she's from Dothan, right up the road from me, always gotta root for my southerners).

i'm uneasy about the change in restaurant wars from two team to three. i always like having it come up the same time every season. i guess it will be cool to see three restaurants, but i like to have a lot of the fat trimmed before we get to that part.

Oh my God. I just googled the winner of 15 and, no spoilers, they were so unremarkable that I'd totally forgotten them.

I do feel a little better that I just combined seasons 14 and 15 in my mind. I almost made a comment about how Mustache Joe should've won instead of Brooke.

Regardless, make that pannacotta.

when i read in an interview before the season started that restaurant wars would be three restaurants instead of two i was excited but then i was bummed because this fun bit was "spoiled" for me.

despite knowing exactly when restaurant wars usually is (eight remaining contestants) i still always forget every season until they announce it on the episode and then i get all excited.

well between reading that interview and watching last week's episode i completely forgot about the interview, so i was SUPER excited when they said restaurant wars. benefits of a shitty memory!

but then i was bummed again since it was a to be continued. great episode regardless, excited for tomorrow.

as an aside, i think eddie money is being way too hard on himself about the price of the lamb. it was a team decision to do lamb and they should have decided together if it was going to be too expensive. wasn't his fault. having said that i don't think anyone on his team threw eddie under the bus, it's more just him beating himself up over it. at least it resulted in a great nickname.

finally it was great seeing Nina last night (who will always be the true winner of top chef new orleans to me). I think this is the first time she's been on the show since her season. I always wondered if she was bitter over losing to Nicholas. Like I'm sure Nicholas is a great chef, and I know I'm not there tasting the food, but that season he consistently underseasoned his food, including in the finale. Underseasoned food is the second worst sin only to under/over cooking.