Top Chef - Should Jennifer have been sent home?
I was outraged last night while watching the final minutes of this week's episode! Antonia and Lisa couldn't even bother themselves to follow the rules of the challenge. Their plate focused on Chilean sea bass, a garnish of Mexican chorizo, greyish looking slim, and a smattering of tequila sauce.
Does all of that really showcase the words Polish sausage, drunken, and magenta? I think not!
Obviously you know where I stand on this issue, but I would like to hear other opinions.
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15 Comments:
No. The show is inconsistent.
evilchefmom at 11:42PM on 04/24/08
Okay, now that I'm over my anger a little bit, I'll write a little more. I wanted to post this question for awhile now. The judging is way too inconsistent for my taste. One show it's about taste, other shows it's about following the rules, other shows it's about the judges, some shows it's about the 'clients' you're cooking for. I'm really to the point where I don't want to watch anymore.
evilchefmom at 1:03AM on 04/25/08
Well, one of those girls probably needed to go. That dish wasn't even just playfully naughty or sexy - it was really nasty and in extremely poor taste ( on so many levels)...
frederika at 1:23AM on 04/25/08
I think Antonia should be gone. I don't see good food from her. And Lisa is just plain cranky. I agree that the judging is completely inconsistent, but I kind of have to watch it every week...
bitchincamero at 9:59AM on 04/25/08
No. The fact that Jennifer is gone, and Nikki -- yet again -- has survived another week, gives the show absolutely no credibility at all. It's so obvious that Nikki has lucked out WAY too many times. She has no business being there at this point.
And, while I'm at it, Spike should have gone home instead of Zoi, too. imo, he's vile. But, that's only my opinion, and not an answer to the question posed -- I just had to say it.
evilchefmom is absolutely correct when she says the show's judging is "inconsistent", at best.
Brownie at 10:01AM on 04/25/08
I think that the judges already have the top chef picked, and just going thru the motions, the scales on the fish is inexcusable he should've been booted hands down I don't care what his back ground is, chilian bass and polish sausage.....gone!! and then they sent Jen home WTF!! the judges need to sit back and reevaluate and determine is this a cooking show or a popularity contest....if the latter is the case than they're on the right track!!
Markbb at 10:45AM on 04/25/08
i agree 100% with you guys, this is the worst top chef i have seen. i think that richard will win because its so clear that they are crazy about him. spike and niki should have left weeks ago. i haven't seen a dish on there yet that i would eat. oh' and what is up with ryan, he's so weird. he has such a complex.
jobug_tincher at 10:55AM on 04/25/08
Lisa should have gone. Her arrogance is astounding. "I don't cook with beer." "I would never serve Polish Sausage." Well the challenge was to make a drunken polish sausage dish...they probably had the best shot of winning because sausage and beer pair so nicely together. I was hoping they would have kicked both Lisa and Antonia off because they avoided the challenge completely.
Though I wasn't too sad to see Jennifer go.
EatWisconsin at 12:16PM on 04/25/08
I am really surprised that no one has mentioned the fact that Ryan, who is at least a fairly competent chef, was sent home for a dish that did not fit the theme of a tailgate, while Mark, who is a really nice guy, but managed to disgust the judges with his unhygenic activity, was able to pass by. Now, I can easily forgive someone for not making the dish that was appropriate for a setting, over, say, a person who was double-dipping their spooins in a soup while serving a crowd. That is simply inexcusable for a chef, in my opinion.
As for Jen, I think that I have to admit that I wanted her to stay around. But like she even said, she has been in the middle a lot. Other than that quickfire, she hasn't relaly "dazzled." Now, is that because she is constantly put with other "middle" chefs who are not dazzling? Or is it something else? Who knows.
And yes, I love Richard and his ability, but as @markbb noted, scales a your fish is jsut not right. He's a great chef, but that needs some drastic improvement.
Also, I had a question: Has anyone noticed that in the episodes where they bring together the prior seasons to cook, they are now giving Tiffany a lot more credit and showing her in a kinder light, as opposed to how the portrayed her initially? I think that that is somewhat unfair. If she had come off this way in the original show, I think that she would have had a lot more support. She's a great chef, and it looks like she really got the short end of the stick on that season. Or is that just me?
Traveller at 3:07PM on 04/25/08
There were several comments at the end of the episode about having to give more than 110% and the need to always be on your game.
It was very obvious from the comments made at the dining table, that while they found the double entendres to be humorous, the dish produced by Jennifer & Stephanie simply wasn't that good. The judges table at the end declared it the worst tasting dish of the evening. They were not on their game technically.
The judgemental side of me really wanted to see Lisa go home....her attitude (causing another blog to refer to her as a sour turd), hissy fit & eventual refusal to use polish sausage really annoyed me. It was arrogant, stupid (because of some great possibilities) & almost cheating. I say almost, because the surrealistic nature of the contest allows for some license in my mind.
What is unique to a contest like Top Chef is that every episode is its own game that has to have a winner & a loser. It was unfortunate that Jennifer & Stephanie made some strategic planning or technical errors that caused them to be off their game and produce the worst dish. Had the manage a trois, tasted good, Lisa would have been sent packing! In the end it came down to the quality of the dish....right or wrong.
One last comment.....After they criticized Nikki in the tailgate episode for not making her own sausage, it is even more amazing that Lisa/Antonia didn't run with the polish sausage.
2qrs at 3:38PM on 04/25/08
Does anyone remember a blog by Colicchio during last year's season where wrote of how they make their decisions?
I remember something like that because there seemed to be inconsistencies in whether they would judge by how well you followed rules or just how it tasted with no regard to rules of the challenge.
IMHO this is a game and if you don't follow the fundamental rules of the game you should be disqualified...just like Ryan, he was sent home because he didn't make tailgate food and the others did though not very well.
Carosone at 4:08PM on 04/25/08
Antonio should have gone way before and yet she escaped the chop again. As did Nikki.
Not following the rules was in the judges minds a minor technicality???
B.S.! If I were Jennifer I would have said my thank yous to the judges and then said I have learned a lot from this challenge - I wish I would have used green beans and apples instead of oranges and asparagus...
Oh and Colicchio's arrogance is getting really annoying.
bodaciousgirl at 8:07PM on 04/25/08
BTW all this Polish Sausage talk made us want some for tonight.
So I ran out just now.
When I got home my husband asked me what kind of fish I bought.
(Insert knee slap here)
bodaciousgirl at 8:52PM on 04/25/08
Antonia or Lisa should have gone. Yes, Jen and Stephanie's dish didn't look great, but they at least followed the guidelines of the challenge, which the former viewed with contempt and ignored.
@traveller - I agree with you on both the Ryan and Tiffani issue. Ryan is best friends of a friend of mine and while I've never met him, I have a couple of friends who have and who adore him. I've been hearing about the guy for years. By all accounts he's a nice, funny sincere guy who loves to cook and is a little bit arrogant in the way a chef can be (and who was not fired from Daniel's kitchen) The editing monkeys play pretty hard on this show. After what I saw they did with Ryan (save his food choices for the tailgating part, which were terrible, and I can totally see him being sent home over it), I have no problem believing it was possible they did the same with Tiffany. If you say jerky things you say jerky things. But a lot depends on what they choose to show or not, the order they're showing it in and the context.
chisai at 11:15AM on 04/26/08
I didn't mind seeing Jen go. I thought it was more unfair when her girlfriend was sent home.
I'm tend to be a stickler for rules (probably because I'm a teacher), so I felt strongly that the group that didn't use the polish sausage should have lost. But wasn't it Stephanie and Antonia who were dead-set against using polish sausage? Am I mixing up my episodes?
Nikki amazes me! She seems completely mediocre, except for her home made pasta. She ought to be cooking at the Olive Garden or something in my opinion.
puppymomma at 12:34PM on 04/27/08