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[Baconsammy]

WTF is wrong with Stefan this season

They should have sent both Josie and Stefon home. Making bad airline food during a friend chicken competition? Get out. All the people they brought back from the old shows have been pretty crappy with the exception of CJ in LCK. I love how they edited the show. They showed Stefon mocking Josh's take on sushi in a quickfire that Stefon won, and then showed Josh mocking Stefon's take on fried chicken in an elimination challenge that Josh then won. One change from this episode that the show should adopt is giving the judges lots of wine. Loved how funny and honest they were.

Josie was finally sent home this episode, goes to LCK, get's whooped by Kristen... revenge complete!

Josie will be back after the public votes #josie.

Spoiler

This will never happen.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

They should have sent both Josie and Stefon home. Making bad airline food during a friend chicken competition? Get out. All the people they brought back from the old shows have been pretty crappy with the exception of CJ in LCK. I love how they edited the show. They showed Stefon mocking Josh's take on sushi in a quickfire that Stefon won, and then showed Josh mocking Stefon's take on fried chicken in an elimination challenge that Josh then won. One change from this episode that the show should adopt is giving the judges lots of wine. Loved how funny and honest they were.

I also love that David Chang was the nice one
lofllll

 

[Baconsammy]

I also love that David Chang was the nice one
lofllll

Haha. Something I wish they would do (maybe they have it online and I missed it?) is show us the part where they make the actual decision on who is going home. They edit it out for suspense etc, but I'd really like to have seen the full conversation on why Josie over Stefon/Brooke, and why Kristen over Josie. Also as much as I hated Padme's comments about Kristen in the last episode, is how much I loved her comments about Stefon this time. "What a bullshitter!"

Not sure if it was linked before, but here's Tom's blog on the whole Kristen/Josie fiasco. Long story short, if he had seen what we saw on TV, Josie's ass would have been gone.

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

Haha. Something I wish they would do (maybe they have it online and I missed it?) is show us the part where they make the actual decision on who is going home. They edit it out for suspense etc, but I'd really like to have seen the full conversation on why Josie over Stefon/Brooke, and why Kristen over Josie. Also as much as I hated Padme's comments about Kristen in the last episode, is how much I loved her comments about Stefon this time. "What a bullshitter!"

I think they were frustrated with Josie giving the same excuses, which Tom alluded to. Brooke is competent, and overall, they felt it was time for Josie to go.

 

[Patryn]

WTF is wrong with Stefan this season

Padma really freaking hates Stefan. I started noticing it last week. I think even this week she was pissed that it was Josie and not Stefan going home based on her face before and during the announcing of the cut.

Also: What happened to the Stefan who dominated his season? He really should have won that year, but this year he's sucking pretty bad.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Padma really freaking hates Stefan. I started noticing it last week. I think even this week she was pissed that it was Josie and not Stefan going home based on her face before and during the announcing of the cut.

Also: What happened to the Stefan who dominated his season? He really should have won that year, but this year he's sucking pretty bad.

My guess?

He watched Top Chef All Stars and just assumed that he would cruise to victory like Richard did and got lazy. His lazy approach to the entire competition is very apparent this season imo.

 

[Cat Party]

Justice was served. Everyone who is left is alright by me.

 

[Wafflecakes]

Justice was served. Everyone who is left is alright by me.

I still have a great deal of distaste for mustache guy. He can go.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Josie is more obnoxious in the simple sense..

Josh is completely unlikable to me though. In a way that's almost worse than Josie's personality. He's smarmy as hell and he's one of these "bacon durrr" types.

 

[Cat Party]

I still have a great deal of distaste for mustache guy. He can go.

I'm indifferent. But I think he and Stefan won't make it to the finale.

 

[Patryn]

At this point, I think Sheldon and Kristen (if she makes it back) have to be the front-runners.

 

[Wafflecakes]

I'm indifferent. But I think he and Stefan won't make it to the finale.

That would make my day lol

Brooke/Sheldon/Kristen has been my dream finale for weeks now and its looking VERY good at this point (I am just assuming Kristen wins LCK).

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Yeah Brooke/Sheldon/Kristen have been my 3 favorites as well.

I did feel like having a Fried Chicken challenge so late in the show was ridiculous as the main elimination challenge.

A challenge your average line chef at a diner could win isn't really what I'm looking for on Top Chef.

 

[Patryn]

Yeah Brooke/Sheldon/Kristen have been my 3 favorites as well.

I did feel like having a Fried Chicken challenge so late in the show was ridiculous as the main elimination challenge.

A challenge your average line chef at a diner could win isn't really what I'm looking for on Top Chef.

But isn't that a major part of the current food movement? Making simple food extremely well?

 

[Cat Party]

BTW, humiliating Brooke about the guys she didn't hire was brutal.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

But isn't that a major part of the current food movement? Making simple food extremely well?

It is, but I consider it gimmicky. It's really basic knowledge but not something every chef knows off the top of their head.

It was basically a "Do you cook fried chicken a lot?" challenge.

Hence why Josh won.

Although I'm unsure why some of the other chefs didn't at least google some really basic fried chicken tips.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Josie is more obnoxious in the simple sense..

Josh is completely unlikable to me though. In a way that's almost worse than Josie's personality. He's smarmy as hell and he's one of these "bacon durrr" types.

"Uh, I made Fried Chicken!"

Wanted him to lose so bad just cuz he's such a twat.

 

[beat]

Although I'm unsure why some of the other chefs didn't at least google some really basic fried chicken tips.

I vaguely thought access to cookbooks and internet was restricted during this competition.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

I vaguely thought access to cookbooks and internet was restricted during this competition.

Yeah maybe that's true. Do they take away their phones or something?

The average person has the internet in their pocket these days.

But that's why the challenge was so dumb to me.. they even specifically asked for simple fried chicken.

It's an easy as hell thing to make delicious that takes only a small amount of knowledge. That's what is dumb to me. Lacking that small amount of knowledge doesn't make you a bad chef any more than having that knowledge makes you a good chef.

 

[Baconsammy]

Glad I'm not the only one that dislikes Josh.

 

[beat]

Yeah maybe that's true. Do they take away their phones or something?

They can make calls to their family on camera, but I suspect their phones are taken away otherwise. If they didn't do that, then they totally would be checking recipes or calling friends for tips all the time, right?

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

he's one of these "bacon durrr" types.

The problem is with one exception, he keeps losing with it. He has much to learn from Pork Jesus, Kevin Gillespie.

Glad I'm not the only one that dislikes Josh.

I couldn't stand him for most of the season, but since John was eliminated I think he has been alright. Not sure if they are just editing the episodes so that he appears nicer (that or more likely they edited the earlier episodes in a way to play up his confrontations with John, making him come off as annoying). This last episode I actually found his interactions with Brooke to be pretty amusing. That and I actually enjoyed his comment about making fried chicken after seeing the judges reactions to Stefan giving them chicken cordon bleu.

That being said I wouldn't care if he was eliminated. I am in the group wanting to see a Brooke/Sheldon/Kristen final.

 

[toddhunter]

Glad I'm not the only one that dislikes Josh.

I don't like him either. He is Kevin from season 6 except a way worse chef and pretty much unlikeable.

 

[Divvy]

Glad I'm not the only one that dislikes Josh.

That guy is a prick. With all his complaining about John, it really seemed like he was the one to instigate their brawls.

 

[Foxy Fox 39]

I don't mind him anymore.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

He's not as bad with John not being around.

But he was just so petty and obnoxious about him it made me dislike him, a lot.

 

[J-Rod]

It seems like a lot of chefs in general have big egos.

 

[Bladenic]

Josh is definitely unlikable but I actually kind of stopped hating him ever since John went home. Josh's problem was talking mad shit but not being able to back it up at all, performing rather poorly. But the past few weeks he's been killing it, so at least he can back up his shit talking. Still, I don't want him or Stefan anywhere near the finale. I think Kristen, Brooke, and Sheldon are the strongest this season and they deserve the finale. Lizzie is awesome and not bad at all, so I wouldn't mind her in the finale either.

 

[Keen]

Happy Josie finally went home, guess they had enough of her bullshit. If Stefan doesn't step it up, he's probably gone soon unless others fuck up majorly.

Weirdly, I actually like Stefan, even if, food wise, he's nowhere near where he was on his season.


The rest...I think Brooke and Lizzie are the frontrunners. Sheldon and Josh are too inconsistent, Josh more so.



Also saw The Taste, and found it kinda silly. Hopefully we get to see more cooking once the tryouts are done with. Whoever must've thrown an assload of money Bourdain's way for him to appear on this.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Also saw The Taste, and found it kinda silly. Hopefully we get to see more cooking once the tryouts are done with. Whoever must've thrown an assload of money Bourdain's way for him to appear on this.

I watched that as well. I hope it improves after they get through the auditions, because I wasn't that impressed with what they showed on Tuesday. It doesn't help that it looked so low budget. Also, my understanding is Bourdain is actually one of the producers of the show... so yeah.

 

[Bladenic]

The Taste is such a blatant The Voice rip-off with food. However, I did kinda enjoy it, despite the surprisingly low budget feel.

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

Watching the Taste right now. This is brutal.

But he makes food for awesomeness Tony!

And clearly the judges want to bang the contestants.

 

[Dr Prob]

Note, load the judges up with wine at every meal so they spit the hottest fire.

Haha, seriously. That was one of the more amusing dinners they have had.

Agreed. They should have a buzz on all the time. "Chicken cordon blues," "Wolfgang Cluck."

 

[BertramCooper]

This challenge was awful.

It was such a stupid, one-dimensional challenge to have so late in the season. Josh was insufferable. The judges were arrogant, snide assholes, and unusually mean-spirited.

Ugh.

 

[TurbulentTurtle]

That whole early morning scene with Josie and Lizzie was so awkwardly hilarious. Lizzie's little voice-over interview and her reactions throughout the whole thing was awesome because you could tell she didn't want to be there but wasn't about to just walk out on Josie talking about nothing.

As for the actual challenge itself, at least it wasn't a catering challenge... =\

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Tom spitting fire on Josie was moment of the season

I hope Kirsten or CJ make it back from LCK

 

[Xamdou]

Haha. Something I wish they would do (maybe they have it online and I missed it?) is show us the part where they make the actual decision on who is going home. They edit it out for suspense etc, but I'd really like to have seen the full conversation on why Josie over Stefon/Brooke, and why Kristen over Josie. Also as much as I hated Padme's comments about Kristen in the last episode, is how much I loved her comments about Stefon this time. "What a bullshitter!"

Not sure if it was linked before, but here's Tom's blog on the whole Kristen/Josie fiasco. Long story short, if he had seen what we saw on TV, Josie's ass would have been gone.

I liked the last paragraph of Tom's rw blog:

However you might feel about Josie and/or Kristen and/or the outcome of this challenge, I have two more things to say. First of all, I’ve had tweets for weeks now asking why Josie’s still here. Some even cite that she served raw turkey in one episode and demand to know why she wasn’t sent home. She had IMMUNITY. That’s the point of immunity. When you win it, you can’t be sent home in that Elimination Challenge, even if your dish is the worst dish of the challenge. This is a competition. The results are not cumulative; each challenge is judged based on what we are presented (both at the meal and at Judges’ Table) in that challenge alone. The week that Josie served raw turkey, she had immunity. This week, Kristen refused to fill us in on Josie’s insubordination… as, of course, did Josie herself. It’s frustrating to know that Kristen fell on her sword, but she did… which leads to my second point. Kristen’s assumption of responsibility and refusal to set the record straight when she could have shows a lot of character. It shows, further, that she truly understands what it means to run a restaurant kitchen and be responsible for every plate that leaves it. I commend her for that.

Tom' get's my respect for that!

 

[Divvy]

I LOOOOVE how 80% of the #savechefjosie tweets for save a chef are from Josie herself.

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

I LOOOOVE how 80% of the #savechefjosie tweets for save a chef are from Josie herself.

And the other 19% are from some account created to tweet #savechefjosie.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Sheldon should win this now.

 

[Xamdou]

Rooting for Sheldon, Kristen and Brooke for the top 3!

 

[IAmtheFMan]

BTW, humiliating Brooke about the guys she didn't hire was brutal.

That was just super classless. Plus it's not like those guys leap-frogged Brooke's career and are on Puck or even Chang's level. They could easily be contestants on the show.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Agreed. They should have a buzz on all the time. "Chicken cordon blues," "Wolfgang Cluck."

Have they ever pushed out judges table to the next day before this challenge? I wonder just how wasted they got.

 

[beat]

That was just super classless. Plus it's not like those guys leap-frogged Brooke's career and are on Puck or even Chang's level. They could easily be contestants on the show.

No? It kinda seems like the Animal guys are like a junior version of David Chang. Two restaurants, same kind of 'they're doing amazing food with a casual restaurant" buzz...

It could have come off as just teasing, but yeah in practice it did feel unnecessarily mean-spirited.

 

[element]

That was just super classless. Plus it's not like those guys leap-frogged Brooke's career and are on Puck or even Chang's level. They could easily be contestants on the show.

Animal is a pretty big deal. Friends who eat meat in LA won't shut up about the place.

 

[MisterNugNug]

Animal is a pretty big deal. Friends who eat meat in LA won't shut up about the place.

chicken liver toast 3
spicy beef tendon chip, charred onion pho dip 7
baby kale, kohlrabi, walnut, apple, goat cheese, crispy squash 7
marrow bone, chimichurri, caramelized onions 9
lettuce, beets, avocado, pita, feta, creamy sumac 11
pig tails, “buffalo style,” celery, ranch 11
local burrata, escarole, katsuobushi, green garlic, leeks, jalapeño 12
crispy pig head, salsa macho, crema, avocado 12
fried brussels sprouts, soft egg, parmesan, pancetta 12
beef heart, paprika, dill-creme fraiche, potato, pickled beets 12
melted petit basque, chorizo, grilled bread 12
pig ear, chili, lime, fried egg 12
tandoori octopus, tamarind, mango, raita 13
barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw 13
shrimp & rabbit sausage spring roll, eggplant, sprouts, green curry 14
veal brains, vadouvan, apricot puree, carrot 14
hamachi tostada, herbs, fish sauce vinaigrette, peanut 15
chicken fried sweetbreads, finger lime aioli, cumin 15
yellowtail collar, jerk spices, kohlrabi, citrus, palm sugar 16
veal tongue, west indian gherkin, steelhead roe, black mustard 16
poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar 18
chestnut agnolotti, fontina, sage butter 19
grilled quail, plum char-siu, pear, apple, yogurt, pomegranate 19
balsamic pork ribs, delicata squash, spiced pecan 19
flat iron, artichoke hash, baby leeks, truffle parmesan fondue 28
braised rabbit legs, green beans, mushrooms, potato puree, mustard jus 29

Menu looks pretty good. Sign me up for the brains, pork belly sandwich and poutine.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

Animal is a pretty big deal. Friends who eat meat in LA won't shut up about the place.

I haven't been to Animal but I went to Son of a Gun. From what I remember, it was pretty good but I couldn't really tell you specifics about the menu distinguishing from a ton of other small shareable plate places. Animal sounds good from the menu, but again despite the hot, trendy restaurants, I don't think they've surpassed Brooke, at least from what I've seen of her.

And Chang is a force unto himself. The man is a whirlwind, and everything he's doing is completely unique and amazingly exciting amd hes easily one of the best chefs in New York. I went to Ko(definitely NOT simple by any means), Ssam And the milk bar and all three were incredible for completely different reasons.

 

[Dr Prob]

Have they ever pushed out judges table to the next day before this challenge?

Feel like they must have, but it was still fun. Puck tearing apart Brooke's chicken (physically) and asking no one in particular "where are ze bones? WHERE ARE ZE FUCKING BONES?" was a highlight.

In other NeoGAF Top Chef Thread News: Glad that BertramCooper has rejoined us. The challenge may very well have been less than ideal, but "cook some fried chicken" has to be better than "revisit dishes from the previous ten seasons of Top Chef, but make them healthy because Healthy Choice is our sponsor," which is just asking for a mess.

 

[The Storyteller]

Glad I'm not the only one that dislikes Josh.

He's such an insufferable douchebag. It really said it all when Tom laughed at his obnoxious "Ah, I made fried chicken" comment.

Good to see Kristen is still in with a strong chance. Like most of you I'm hoping for a Brooke/Kristen/Sheldon final 3. But to me Sheldon makes the most interesting food out of the 3, as much as I'd like to FINALLY see another female win, I'd be very happy if he took it home.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Animal is a pretty big deal. Friends who eat meat in LA won't shut up about the place.

Menu reads good but the food is bullshit IMHO. I wanted to like the food but too much rich over the top "Bro-Food" which I tend to like but only to a certain amount. Also while I like small plates restaurants I felt it wasn't worth my money.

Especially after the foie gras ban I think their menu took a hit. Although I haven't been to Son of a Gun I heard it's better.