Top Chef – The Final Three

Did you watch Top Chef last night? It’s finally down to the final three, yes, three this season. And Dale is one of the them, which is kind of surprising as he’s had an inconsistent showing all along. But apparently he pulled through when cooking elk and his huckleberry sauce won the judges over. Go figure.

Sadly there’s no Bourdain blog this week, Tom’s taken it back over and I’m having some withdrawl. Where’s the “I don’t give a crap attitude” and straight talk from Bourdain? Ah well. Tom’s blog gives a decent run-down of what the dishes were really like, and why Brian had to go [I think he overstayed his welcome anyway].

Poor Hung. Did I vilify him last week? I apologize. I was caught up in the media manipulation of him; they’ve made him the villain and I bought it. Darn you Top Chef producers. His first generation immigrant story is heart-string-tugging and bravo for him and his family for living the American dream. Seriously. However, from all TV accounts, which we know are skewed and edited, it seems his cooking is technically gorgeous but soulless. Still when he doesn’t win the show I think he will have many many job offers. [Amuse Biatch has some further funny scoop on the Hung-ster.]

I still think Casey's going to pull through and win it all. I think Dale won’t be able to be consistent, and Hung will trip up on being perfect but emotionally cold.

Comments

Weatherboy said…
Bourdain's blog is now up... And he is, as usual, spot on.

I agree - Casey could/should be the winner.

Hung, I simply don't like. Notwithstanding his backstory, he can't seem to take criticism and consistently... skirts around the truth. Take last night - the one on one interview in the match saw him decrying the boringness of the elimination challenge; yet when questioned about it by Tom he claimed to love the challenge.

Dale I like (especially since he's a Chicago boy) but he just isn't consistent enough. I also thought his back story was more compelling than Hung's, to be honest.
Weatherboy said…
...and I just realized, after reading Ted Allen blog, that I've actually eaten Dale's food. In the episode he talked about being the chef at a restaurant that closed down and Ted said he used to be the chef at Trio in Evanston (also spawn Grant Achatz, who's Alinea we ate at last week - faaantastic, btw). Anyway, we ate at Trio twice in the year before it shut and it was terrific. Dale really can cook!
Allergic Girl® said…
ooh wonder what happened with bourdain's blog, why it was late? but thanks for letting me know it's now up.

and yeah truth is editing can turn anyone into a hero or a villain and i realize i dont know any of these people for "real". it's fun TV but it's not the totality of who any one of them are...

[go casey though!]

thanks weatherboy and welcome!
jennifer said…
My sense is Casey is the most consistently good as a cook and the most even keel as a person and therefore the most capable of owning her own restaurant/being the face of Top Chef/doing publicity tours, etc.

But I can't help but want Dale to win. I just think it would be cool for the down-on-his-luck mohawked gay dark horse to claim the prize.

Whoever wins this season, it will be so much less boring than the last two swoony-handsome-hetero-male-central-casting Top Chefs.
Allergic Girl® said…
gay dark horse indeed, i just dont think he has the chops to be consistent.

but you're right any of those three, would be better than the previous hetero hot shots...

has anyone been to first season winner [i think] harold's perilla?

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