PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING!!!
There's a lot of sneaky intel out there, especially this season, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion, but if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself... thanks!
Hokay... lots of ground to cover this week. Where to start?
The quickfire. Kind of a throwaway, and as many have pointed out, a disappointing waste of Hung. Though, to be fair, we've said that about a number of guest judges over the years. As questionable product challenges go, I thought this wasn't too bad. It certainly beat both the gas station and the vending machine. There was some scary looking stuff in that box, but there were a few items that looked perfectly usable. As mentioned last week, I'm more bothered by the fifteen minute limit than the ingredients. Either/or, okay, but putting the two together was just setting the chefs up for failure, and I'm frustrated by challenges where they don't at least have the opportunity to shine. All things considered, though, they managed fairly well.
The elimination was awesome, and while there's been much gnashing of teeth over how the contestants handled it, for the most part I didn't mind their approach one bit. The simplicity of the dishes is being touted as the final nail in the coffin of a substandard season. Whether or not this crowd is one of the weaker ones is still, I think, an open question. But I take issue with those who consider the simple, straightforward approaches taken here as evidence of such. Anybody who's been reading this blog knows I'm big on creativity. If anything, I place too much importance on the chefs' ability to innovate and surprise. And yet, for this particular challenge, I was pleased that we got some very stripped-down, basic dishes, even if they didn't all execute as well as they should have. You have the freshest possible ingredients, and you're serving family style to the farmers who grew and bred them surrounded by the farm where they ply their trade. What time could possibly be more appropriate to ditch the pretension and cook some straightforward, honest, comforting food that does as little to distract from the ingredients' natural flavors as possible? In this particular case, I'm firmly of the belief that going ultra-simple wasn't indicative of a lack of skill, but rather of good judgment.
And while we're on the subject of how this season's crowd stacks up, I think it's still too early to be passing final judgment. But I'll take this opportunity to remind folks of a few things. First, we're coming off of a really exceptional season in season four. That's a tough, tough yardstick to be measured against. But even so, Blais and Stephanie were not as invincible as people seem to remember. I also frequently hear references to the fantastic finish in season three with Hung, Dale and Casey all bringing serious game. What those people forget is that there was a SHARP dropoff after those three (well, and Tre), and that Casey and Dale both came on very strong in the last 5-6 weeks. For the first half of the season, it looked like Hung and Tre and a bunch of schlubs. In season two, Ilan won. Need I go on? Point being, I think the fact that season four was so top-heavy and that we're so close on its tail -- just a few months, really -- has painted all "previous seasons" a shade of rose that may not be warranted. This may yet prove to be one of the weaker seasons, but as far as I'm concerned, the jury's out and it's not the given that some seem to feel it is.
As for the controversy du jour, I suppose it's about time that people started getting emotional, but that emotion seems to be obfuscating some basic facts, and I think whatever side of the fence you fall on, if you look at it dispassionately I think you have to acknowledge that a solid case could be built for either Ariane or Leah's departure. With that in mind, here's the episode eight fact police:
- We absolutely do not know that Ariane was shoved into the lamb role. We have a pretty good idea that her teammates (willfully or obliviously) left her to twist in the wind, but the few quotes we get on the show actually seem to imply that the lamb was a mantle she seized, not one she was saddled with. Hosea stated that he was "okay with" Ariane handling the lamb, since she had won with it before, and while it was at JT and she could have been intentionally misleading the judges, Leah stated that "Ariane took the lamb." That sounds like what you say when somebody offers/insists on doing the lamb, not what you say when you push somebody into doing it. We don't know for sure, but don't assume she was shoved into this role under protest.
- Though Leah did step in to help with the tying, Ariane was already more than halfway finished at that point. At the moment Leah takes over the tying (and while it's possible she did so earlier, we never even see Ariane request help as she claims she did), two roasts are completely tied and ready, one is halfway done, and the fourth is already rolled and ready to be tied. And we're led to believe that time was running short. One could certainly argue that Leah should have completely undone Ariane's work and started over from scratch, but I think you have to first consider the possibility that there wasn't time and she had to make do with the time she had, and second that the butchering may have been so poor that no level of tying skill was going to save it. Point being, claiming that "Leah tied the roast" is a gross oversimplification.
- Let us not forget, tying aside, that it was Ariane who butchered the meat (in more ways than one), and Ariane who buried it under an overly aggressive rub. Though the tying received a lot of attention, it was as much about those other elements as well.
- Though it appears they were surprised by the inclusion of both a leg of lamb and a whole baby lamb, and though Ariane has stated after the fact that she had significant misgivings about working with both, we have no indication that she expressed them to her teammates at the time, nor that she wasn't totally on board with how they finally decided to handle it.
- Though Ariane has gone so far as to say she was "brainwash[ed]" in the aftermath, and despite the fact that it appears Leah was the first to float the roulade idea (though, to be fair to Leah, that was when they thought they'd be shopping at Whole Foods), as far as we can tell the decision to break down, tenderize and roll the lamb was a team decision. Nobody -- Ariane included -- has said that she objected and was overruled.
To be clear, many of these claims may very well be true. The point is that we just don't know. Given what we DO know, I think you can absolutely argue that Ariane deserved to go for screwing up the meat, or that Leah deserved to go for her role in the tying and general lack of enthusiasm, or that Hosea deserved to go for sitting on the sidelines despite appearing to be the most capable butcher on the team. I have my opinions on the subject and I'll share them below. But these arguments that Ariane shouldn't be faulted because she was forced to do something she wasn't comfortable with, or that the tying was the biggest problem and that was all Leah, or that this terrible decision to pound and roll the lamb wasn't on her shoulders -- given what we know, I just don't see how those arguments hold water. That's emotion talking, not evidence.
But enough about lambgate for the moment. On to the rankings:
The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.
| 1 |
Stefan |
|
Quickfires |
2 |
4 |
1 |
| Last Week: 2 |
|
Eliminations |
2 |
4 |
0 |
Stefan had himself a Jim Dandy of a week. First, he manages to pull something that looks fairly edible out of the pantry and win the quickfire, then despite having immunity he goes on to produce half his team's dishes and nails them both. The guy did some beautiful looking roasted chicken, plus a full-on chicken consommé (raft and everything) with ravioli. That's a lot to do in three hours, and though the decision to serve soup was a dumb one, people loved his food. I struggled with giving him the top spot. I really did. Jamie's style still feels, on a gut level, more like a winning style to me than Stefan's. But he's coming off another double win and Jamie continues to be inconsistent when out of her comfort zone. Plus, taking a look back, the guy hasn't been on the bottom of anything since episode two's quickfire. Put that all together and, for this week at least, I have to narrowly give him the number one spot. I'd very much like to see somebody a little more creative on top of the pile, but unless Jeff or Radhika catch fire, this is going to be a see-saw battle between Stefan and Jamie.
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| 2 |
Jamie |
|
Quickfires |
0 |
4 |
2 |
| Last Week: 1 |
|
Eliminations |
2 |
5 |
2 |
I'd like to be able to say that it was her lack of effort in the quickfire, or the fact that one of the farmers said her chicken was a little dry, or Stefan's strong performance that got me to knock her off the perch, but the truth is that I did it because she mispronounced bruschetta. Twice. Two different ways. In all seriousness, though, it was tough to knock her down after a very good elimination. The chicken looked great and was a wonderful way of bringing the protein and produce together. Plus, am I the only one who thinks her salads have an incredible visual quality? My hunch is that also translates into a great texture (I might be able to find out for myself next week -- more later). But at any rate, what (actually) cinched the drop was my growing concern over her reluctance to embrace the challenges she doesn't enjoy. I'd like to think she's smart enough to know when she can get away with coasting and when she can't, and when she's off she isn't completely phoning it in a la Leah, but there are going to be a bunch more goofy challenges before the finals, and though I think she looks the strongest when on, she's driving a little too close to the cliff's edge at times.
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| 3 |
Jeff |
|
Quickfires |
0 |
3 |
1 |
| Last Week: 4 |
|
Eliminations |
0 |
2 |
1 |
A bump up may seem odd after an inconsistent week, but that's just how this season has been, I guess. Jeff is Mr. Refinement in a season that features a lot of simple, restrained chefs and a number of creative but sometimes clumsy chefs. Refinement is what makes great fine dining, and it's what can really make you stand out in a crowd. The problem with cooking in a very refined style is that if you're not careful, it can be easy to lose the soul of the food. Like any other, it's a tool to be used or abused. In the hands of somebody like Thomas Keller, a high level of refinement serves to isolate, intensify and clearly articulate flavors. But in the hands of a lesser chef, refinement can become more about process than oomph. With Jeff, I see great recipes and sometimes lukewarm responses and I have to wonder if that's what's going on here at times. He's displayed a level of refinement that nobody else can match and he's done it very successfully, which is why I still feel he has the most breakout potential of the remaining chefs. But sometimes, it seems like the parts don't all add up for the judges. Many want to lay this at Tom's feet, suggesting that he wants simple and hearty and doesn't like it when his food is too cute. But while there's some truth to that, I think it's less a matter of being anti-refinement and more a matter of insisting that an edgy approach have a clear purpose. Blais was last season's Mr. Refinement, and Tom had no problem whatsoever falling all over himself to praise some of those dishes. Yes, he dinged Jeff for going refined rather than rustic this episode, but consider the context (though I do think he was being overly dogmatic in complaining that Jeff chose to use green tomatoes rather than ripe ones). More likely, at the risk of being redundant, I think Jeff just needs a little focus. The closer we get to the end, the more the character of the competition drifts towards his strengths. If he can meet it halfway, he'll be right there at the end.
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| 4 |
Radhika |
|
Quickfires |
2 |
2 |
2 |
| Last Week: 3 |
|
Eliminations |
0 |
3 |
0 |
Not a good week for Radhika. She was called out on the quickfire, though Hung seemed more troubled by her effort than her results. And in the elimination, she all but disappeared, though we have no indication her dish was anything shy of delicious. While I'd like to drop her a little further, I'm not really sure who else deserves to be at number four. Many say she's inconsistent. Other than Stefan, who isn't? So I'm forced to revisit her successes and failures. When she succeeds, she does so by surprising and delighting the judges. When she fails, it's by doing too little or just missing. Her successes and potential speak more to me than her failures, and so she hangs on at number four.
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| 5 |
Leah |
|
Quickfires |
2 |
3 |
2 |
| Last Week: 5 |
|
Eliminations |
0 |
2 |
1 |
This is the one that I've no doubt will make some heads explode. First, to get it out of the way, she was just terrible this week and though I think the judges made the right call, I couldn't have complained one bit if she got the boot. It's worth mentioning, however, that the comments about her dessert appear to have gotten the heavy edit. When Dan Barber makes the crack about "tray tables down, here comes the dessert", it's edited to make it appear that he's referring to the cake's flavor, but I'm not convinced he wasn't simply referring to its appearance. Don't worry, I'm with everybody else. I can't stand her right now, and the imminent face sucking isn't helping her prospects. But setting annoyance aside, in some ways she's like Radhika, just with higher peaks and lower valleys. She's the only person other than Jeff who's shown a really high level of refinement, and a couple of her dishes are among those I'd most like to try. But while I thought she was going to bust out and really bring it, I'm starting to think she's going in the other direction. That said, because of those flashes, I can't bring myself to put her below Hosea or Fabio. The fact that she's either clingy or catatonic 98% of the time is getting frustrating. She's capable of more, and I want to see it.
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| 6 |
Hosea |
|
Quickfires |
1 |
5 |
0 |
| Last Week: 7 |
|
Eliminations |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Hosea actually did a pretty nice job with the quickfire, making a little ode to processed food that still looked like it had some character and texture. Diced spam, fried onions and pork rinds are, indeed, not only an interesting way to spice up pea soup, but an almost admirable one given the circumstances. For the elimination, he does nice things with vegetables. The guy's been fairly consistent, but I'm just not getting any wow from him whatsoever. He won the benefit elimination, but that seemed more a function of his ribbons and the weakness of the others than the strength of his dish. The guy's capable, and I think he'll actually stick around longer than some of the people above him, but I just don't see him having what it takes to make a splash in the finals. For that reason, I keep him below a couple of his less consistent compatriots.
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| 7 |
Fabio |
|
Quickfires |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| Last Week: 8 |
|
Eliminations |
1 |
3 |
0 |
A lot of folks seem shocked that I have Fabio so low, and to them, I say you drank the Kool-Aid. I defended this in the comments last week, and I do so again. You have to go back to episode three -- episode three! -- for a dish that was praised by the judges without significant reservations. Seriously, count them back with me:
- Sausage ravioli with overpowering pesto.
- Slightly doctored mac 'n cheese.
- Great ravioli with mediocre, undercooked lamb.
- Oat and grain bar with mediocre cream.
- TGI Friday's style (Lee Anne's words) crab cake with chipotle mayo.
- Uninspiring and sloppy duck and polenta.
- Mushy, flat blue corn encrusted bass with corn puree.
- Sesame crusted ahi that's competent, but 20 years too late.
- Brûléed banana with an espresso milkshake.
- And finally, an interesting pumpkin spin on tiramisu.
This is the guy who many consider one of the real contenders? I love him. He's hysterical. I hope he sticks around to the end. But it's like people decided after episode two or three that he was one of the big guns and then completely stopped watching him. The last time we saw a good dish out of him was before Thanksgiving.
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| 8 |
Carla |
|
Quickfires |
0 |
2 |
1 |
| Last Week: 9 |
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Eliminations |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Which is why I almost put him below even Carla. Carla's been getting a lot of support from the masses lately, and rightfully so. She's proven she's no hack. But realistically, what has she shown us? That she does some very good conventional comfort food and makes a mean tart crust. If I told you that going into the season, would you have guessed she'd have made it this far? Would you have even thought about putting her in the finals? I like Carla a lot, not least of which because she's one of the few who are acting like adults. And I'd love to eat her food. But I'm down on her for the same reason I was down on Ariane. She's yet to make a single dish that I could see the judges tasting in the finals and giving her the title. Not one. She says she doesn't wow us with "pizzazz". And it's true, you don't have to have pizzazz to win Top Chef, but your food does have to be interesting, and hers isn't especially. Plus, it isn't as though she hasn't had a nose for trouble. Still, this crowd is gaffe-prone enough that she could be around for a few weeks yet if she avoids screwing up for a while. I'd consider it a treat if Hootie stuck around for a bit. But I think she's the most likely to screw up, and the least likely to shine. That pretty much clinches the bottom spot for her.
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| 9 |
Ariane |
|
Quickfires |
1 |
2 |
1 |
| Last Week: 6 |
|
Eliminations |
3 |
4 |
3 |
While you can make the case that Leah was just as elimination-worthy, I just don't get the howling over Ariane's ouster. It's as though those who have been defending her -- quite legitimately at times -- are now doing it as a matter of reflex rather than real consideration. Maybe she was shoved into a role she wasn't comfortable with. Maybe she asked for help and didn't get it. Maybe she was dealt a less than desirable hand by having to manage two types of lamb. Maybe Leah and Hosea weren't listening to her and drove some of the bad decisions. Maybe maybe maybe. But here's what we know for sure:
- She did a terrible job of butchering the lamb.
- She did a terrible job of tying what lamb she did tie.
- She straight-up admitted to the judges that she couldn't handle such a core skill.
- I discovered the bullet point tag this week.
- She buried the lamb's flavor with an overpowering rub.
- She did all of this for a challenge that was explicitly about making the best possible use of some wonderfully fresh lamb
I can see how somebody might feel that Leah was marginally more worthy of elimination, but how can anybody argue that Ariane didn't deserve to go home? Add to this the fact that one of her more irritating "teamwork" habits came roaring back this week. Anybody remember back in episode two when she passed her overly sweet meringue around, then insisted that if she went home it was all her teammates' fault because they didn't say it was bad? Yes, a good teammate will taste and make suggestions, but for cryin' out loud, take responsibility for your own work. Actually, it was in the course of trying to defend herself that I think Ariane made the strongest argument for her elimination when she said, "I did the best I could with what I knew." What she was trying to say was that she gave it her best effort and that counts for something. What she was really saying was that she did her best this week and was still lousy. "A" for effort, but we're not rewarding effort here. If we were, instead of Harold, Ilan, Stephanie and Hung, our last four winners would have been Lee Anne, Marcel, Andrew and... Hung. Heck, I can get in there and try as hard as everybody else. Doesn't mean I should win. In any case, at first I was relieved that her midseason ouster would save us from more intense debates over whether or not she belongs later on. Now, I'm starting to think that the circumstances of her exit will turn her into one of those Top Chef folk icons who's remembered as being a much stronger contestant than she was, and whose elimination will be regarded as one of the great Top Chef miscarriages of justice. Nobody who watched that episode has a favorable impression of Leah right now. But let's be honest about Ariane's central role and level of culpability in the failure of the lamb. Even in the sequester house, when asked who was most likely to walk through the door that week, the consensus was Carla or Ariane. The other chefs knew she wasn't going deep. So when we're watching season nine and somebody says, "This is the worst elimination since Ariane," link them back here and remind them that she did a perfectly good job of earning that axe.
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EPISODE NINE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Here's hoping that the craziness of Restaurant Wars means that we'll be spared the Hosea & Leah Show for at least one week. (Incidentally, I love those who believe Ariane was eliminated so they could maintain the "romance"... does anybody know ANYBODY who actually wants to watch those two?!?) Since the winners of the quickfire are the team leaders, it should be fun to see how many contestants intentionally throw the quickfire to avoid that magnifying glass. Actually, I'm thinking this season might be a good time to take that leadership mantle, and here's why. The fact that we have a hardcore restaurateur for the guest judge makes this a little more interesting and a lot more scary. These chefs are mostly back of house folk. Of course they understand what makes for a good restaurant experience, but they're buried in the food. Previous seasons, you could make great food and they'd overlook some service gaffes. But here's video of Star, itemizing all of the little things he looks for in a good restaurant experience that have nothing at all to do with the food. Conventional wisdom is that the executive chefs / team leaders are most likely to fall on their swords. But I wonder if the front of house people aren't going to suffer unusually intense scrutiny this time around. I'd hate to see a chef eliminated for issues completely unrelated to the menu and cooking, but I've got a nagging feeling it might happen. Of course, it looks like Radhika and Leah end up as our team leaders, and rallying the troops doesn't exactly seem like either's forte, so perhaps the conventional wisdom wins out. We'll see.
Discuss!
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