Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Despite the schtick, I actually agreed with what Toby had to say. Melissa has been bland since day one. Carla did add a protien because she was insecure with her base dish, she admitted that herself. And Eugene is experimental beyond his abilities. So I liked Toby because he was able to go in and instantly and accurately read these chefs from one dish. That, to me, shows skills that quite honestly Gail seems to be lacking.

As for some of the other characters mentioned, I find Padma stiff & disturbing, and Carla just works my last nerve. She is too cheesy and that hootie hoo is just ridiculous. Go ahead, go to your NY grocery store and try that.

Toby seemed to get some coaching to adjust from what he thought the producers wanted to some actual food criticism. I think we'll see less WMD type lines in the future. (I hope, we have enough of the stereotypical snarky British judge on other shows.)

The judging during the quick fire was pointless - the French chef only used the word "interesting" or said nothing. From Toby's comments on his blog on the TC site, it seemed the producers paired them because of Toby's harsh criticism of Novelli on a UK cooking show and the subsequent banning of Toby from all of Novelli's restaurants.

As for the eliminated, the judges got it right. Raw fish tacos on a cooking show? Melissa seemed like a fodder chef that had stayed longer than expected as did Euguene, who is too inexperienced.

This season's chefs couldn't hold a spatula to the best chefs of seasons past. Richard or Stephanie from last season would blow every one of these chefs out of the water.

@pupster - Ahhh ha! Someone else noticed Fabio's pronunciation of Tom's last name! I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Everyone I wanted to get kicked off has now been kicked off, except maybe Ariane; I'm sorry, I'm still annoyed she won with watermelon-feta-cheese salad. :P

And Jamie got a win! Hurray! So even if she does go I'll be okay with that. I think it would have been very disappointing if she'd been eliminated before that happened.

Now I need to check the Bravo site for Stefan's red cabbage recipe. It looked reeeeally goooood.

You all should check out the griping that he's doing on his own Wikipedia article...

So glad I'm not the only one who noticed that Eugene was stealing the daikon recipe from Morimoto's cookbook. He totally deserved to go home; you can't hack someone else's recipe and then turn around and declare that you're being sent home being "too creative". Loser.

I have to agree that Carla's wail for Gail was serious funny! Eugene must have Morimoto's book from 2 summers ago wherein there is a recipe for daikon fettucine. Original? Methinks not. Lastly, I wonder if Toby's snarks would be even half as funny if an American was spewing them. Ta.

What was funny to me is how hard Bravo seemed to be working to make Toby Young sound like he knew something about food. His credentials are minimal and his comments on the show were inane. I'm shocked that this blog had anything nice to say about Toby on last night's episode, I'm seriously bummed out. I'm worried that we're watching Top Chef jump the shark as they attempt to be American Idol or The Bachelor. Why have they been showing 30 second "romance" clips in the middle of each episode? Am I the only one who's noticed that?

I love Jamie's and Jeff's food ... but I love to WATCH Fabio and Carla! The bridal shower episode? Fabio had me rolling ... I think Carla deserved to stay food-wise (from what I could tell through the TV) but I think her and Fabio will stay on a while regardless for their TV appeal. Jeff is boring and not much fun to watch, even if he's one of the best chefs.

I thought the challenge was one of the best because the chefs were allowed to cook what they wanted, instead of the usual jumping through hoops to create something amazing in less than ideal situations.

I thought the right people were sent home.

As for the new judge, so far, I find him unnecessary.
I suppose his snarky reputation is Bravo's attempt to make "better tv." *sigh* For future episodes, I hope he sounds less like a catty bi-atch and more like someone with a serious appreciation of food.

Don't get me started on the product placement...the challenges that require the chefs to use a particular product seem riduculous and overly contrived at times.

I did notice that about Toby. Towards the end of the episode he seemed to tone down his comments. I don't like him. I'll say that. But I've felt very lukewarm about this entire season. It seems to be edited strangely. Like at the judge's table Carla looked like she said something to Melissa and Eugene that was cut out. I like her, though, and I thought it was right to keep her on.

@bessfour - Man vs. Food is good though--a good substitute, no need to apologize.

I began to get REALLY HUNGRY once I saw the bread pudding--looked great!

I always toast my bread, put a layer of PB (usually extra crunchy) on one slice of toast, a layer of jelly on the other (being toasted prevents soggy bread...and gives it extra crunch) and then slap them together....I eat it whichever way the sandwich should land in my hand!