seeing as this show is broadcast on Bravo.....yes it was necessary.

Are you trying to tell me Marcel and Hung are not coincidences?

Aww thanks for the vote of confidence Skinny but I'm not skilled enough yet to be on that show.



My Internet and cable at home were out so I was out of the loop for about a month.

Thankfully I just watched a marathon of all of the episode I missed. Damn I was sad to see Lia go, I thought she had talent and was a decent person which is far from what Joey is. I was glad to see him go. WTf was up with all of the crying in his exit interview? Dude it's a TV show not life or death.

Good to have you back, MG.

Surprised they left all that footage of Joey in there--I almost felt sorry for him. Howie has to go soon...or Hung.

This show has solidified a point driven home by my time in South Florida...in general, New Yorkers suck big time.

Glad Dale made it another week. Nice win for him last night.

WTF is up with the inconsistent prizes for the big winners? I would be pissed if I got a crappy cookbook when other people get trips to NY or Italy.

i had a girl crush on sarah. i'm sort of sad she is gone, along with my other girl crush, lia.

i want cj to stomp on everyone though.

You sent a "Midnight Snack" text in for him, didn't you?

i dont even know what that is.

i could write a humourous missed connection, though.

They had a "Who do you want to have a midnight snack with?" poll last night during the commercial breaks.

ohhhh. i had to catch the rerun at midnight. he's so handsome, though. s rsly. and really funny. he wins!

TV.

Too bad Howie's emerged as the villain, because he deserved to get bounced.

I think the only thing that kept him around last night is that the judges favored his competitive edge. But he really sucked big time last night on many levels.

We thought they might have ditched both of them.

But didn't he also win free eats at any of that chain's restaurants worldwide?


I keep expecting one of two things to happen: a) either Howie wises up and becomes human, or b] someone on his team gives him an overdue reality check/smackdown. I guess it's easy to be a Thursday morning QB but they've all seen it week after week--even the judges are telegraphing that's what should happen. I wish one of them would take a risk during the challenge. It's not like Howie's a brilliant chef or a consistent winner.

I think I totally would've had I not been watching a rerun.

Howie seriously needs some Botox. Whattup with that bald-cap line across his forehead?

they would never get rid of howie, since he is doing so well. even though he seems to only be able to make pork dishes, they turn out great. i knew sarah was gone from the beginning when dale was all "sarah is my new best friend" thats the mark of death, shes out of there.

Right, the same thing happened w/ Lia. I'm hoping that Howie is someone's new bitch next week.

I can't understand the appeal of this show.

It's like Hell's Kitchen but they focus on, you know, cooking and all.

It's fun to see what people come up with for the challenges.

my team: cj
your team: howie

Exactly!

Actually I have no idea--normally I can't stomach lame "human drama." But I'm drawn to this show. What redeems it [& Project Runway] is that they attempt & often do succeed in creating something of superior quality--which I certainly couldn't do without a cookbook and several more hours (or not at all, if it came to designing & sewing garments).

This is what makes all the Bravo shows work so well for me. I have no interest in fashion, but I love watching Project Runway to see the creative process at work under pressure, and to see the wonderful ideas people come up with. Same thing for Top Chef, but with the added bonus that I love cooking.

Hell's Kitchen takes marginal chefs and makes a reality show out of the main guy's asshole personality and the contestants' issues (although this season, with the fat emotionally handicapped guy and the midget they've gone overboard). Top Chef is truly about cooking, and the judges are really just observers. So there's not that much contestant drama as you would expect (or maybe want) from a reality show, but the contestants are of such high quality and the challenges executed so well that the show is legit - as far as reality shows go.

Kinda like (IMO) the difference between American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. AI is crap (glorious crap, but still crap), and SYTYCD, despite being the exact same format, has contestants nearly all of whom are professional quality and thus the show has a certain credibility. Again, on the continuum of reality shows, so it's all relative.

hell's kitchen is trash, but that josh contestant was uber hot. so i watch it. top chef is far superior, i think thats just a given.

I like Hell's Kitchen because it is satisfying to see idiots that deserve to be ridiculed and yelled actually get what's coming to them.

Heh, I didn't realize there really is a show called Hell's Kitchen...I thought PH was joking.

Just watched the latest episode last night. Man, CJ looked awful during the interviews! You could tell they interviewed him the morning after the all-nighter, but damn, he looked baked. He was slurring words, had bloodshot eyes, and his hair was a mess. At first I thought he stayed out partying too long, until they ended up having to cook that night.

I would think Howie has to be damned near perfect from here on out (or someone has to completely fall on their ass, like serve undercooked chicken or something) for him to stay much longer. He seems to have some talent, but man, what a...New Yorker.

Loved Hung losing the quickfire. Cauliflower foam on ice cream? Are you kidding me? And then, as usual, playing it off with an insult about how "common people" only like berries on their ice cream. Even Marcel wasn't this arrogant and out of touch with reality.

he kinda reminds me of the guy from Spoon....Britt or whatever his name is.

didnt marcel one time make an avocado and bacon ice cream and then say he only lost because the tasters for that particular challenge were camp children who didnt have developed palates?

I don't recall - I only saw the last half or so of that season, and all of these shows run together anyway - but I will happily stand corrected and proclaim that Marcel and Hung are equally arrogant horses' asses.

Howie definitely should've gone home this week instead of Sara. The judges described his Cubano as 'a wad of dough,' and even the drunk person said it wasn't authentic. Whereas a drunk person said Sara's sliders were the best, and the only negative from the judges was that they didn't have enough seasoning.

PS--and I can't believe everyone fell for the "we're giving you the night off." Haven't they watched the show before? Their reactions surprised me.

Her other negative was the milkshake - which she argued with Howie about. Not sure if she put the ice in like he cautioned her not to do, but the way they edited it last night it felt like they were setting Howie up as right about that as further justification for them sending Sara home.

At the end, I always read that part about "the final decision on who is voted off is done in conjunction with Bravo" because after an episode like that, it is relevant. Howie's simply better drama, and Sara is Dale's straight (and largely invisible) GF.

That was a huge Sara negative as well. Casey was bitchy about it too, but didn't go so far as saying she was "demoralized" about it. Tom especially jumped all over that.

why the fuck couldn't they have just bounced Brian last night....i'm seriously sick of that guy.

if i have to hear him mention one more time about how he's from the Pacific NW and really into seafood, i'm gonna lop off a nut.

go dale


now for fun
lol

Yeah, seriously. I don't like this guy anymore.

A couple of our friends met Dale a few nights ago...Sounds like he was a really nice dude.

We'll watch last night's episode tonight...too late for the wife to stay up.

I have this same problem.

What time does it come on there--9pm or 10pm? It's 10 here...not too late for me, but I wish they'd run it at 9 anyway.

edit: So I was hoping they'd let Howie go but really, I guess their choices were Tre, CJ, or Dale--none of whom should be cut this early in the competition.

Comes on at 9.

10 for me in KY. With school back in and the wife getting up early with the kids, she's knocked out by 10, 10:15 tops. So we just record it and watch later. I basically got DVR last February for her when she found out Lost had moved to 10pm.

No chef should be kicked off this show for not being good at front-of-house.

Exactly. Thus Tre & CJ's heads deservedly on the block, but both of them are contenders for the finals so this stalling tactic was the only way out, it seems.

Well, that was weak. What they really should have done was said, "We didn't want to send anyone home tonight, but the other 7 contestants threw Howie under the bus, so Howie, pack your knives."

They did this once last season. They'll probably make up for it with a double hit job next week. Should be worth seeing.

Honestly, I would have run Dale simply for the scented candles thing. Even a clueless moron would know that you don't put scented anything in a dining area. That guy just nailed the door shut on his chances to win. Even if he does well, his decorating style just lost him any realistic chance of winning.

Similar to that Jen chick from Hell's Kitchen - early on in the competition, she made the unbelievable decision to try to "rescue" some pasta she threw away from the garbage. And somehow she made it to the top 3. But really, that sealed her fate - no way they are going to hand a restaurant to a chef who recycles food from the garbage. I still can't believe she did that.

yeah it's gonna be interesting to see who takes the critisismsmssms and how well they work to correct them. cooks can be a hardheaded bunch.

That was awesome, wasn't it? I howled with glee when she tried to pull that one off.

Dale proves that not all gay men, even if they are young and "with it," have good taste.