Top Chef

[plorentz]

Anybody else watching?

It's from the producers of Project Runway, and airs on Bravo in Project Runway's Wednesday night slot (and in reruns at virtually every other slot).

My thoughts: Tom Collichio is hot. He makes me want to be a chef just so I could have a chance of getting on this show and beholding his hotness in person on a daily basis (even if he is scolding me about my rice being too sticky, or my prickly pear and coconut soup looking like Pepto).

I think for the second season of the show, the cast more closely resembles an earlier Survivor cast - ie. big personalities, not necessarily pretty bodies, and lots of conniving. It took Project Runway three seasons to uncover any kind of really juicy cheating scandal - but Top Chef, in just four episodes, has produced two - along with an unlikely admonition to the cast that they "were all on probation."

Wouldn't it be cool, if, say, half way through the season, the entire cast was dismissed, and replaced with an entirely new one. Imagine that reunion episode!

I like the challenges a lot more this time around too. I think they have been far more practical, real world, and down to earth - a reflection of, I think, Collichio's guiding aesthetic.

I also have to say that of all the reality show blogs out there - Tom Collichio's has got to be the most exquisitely written. It's not just a recap of the show - in fact, it rarely recaps the show at all. It's more of a thematic blog, and we learn a lot about who he is as a chef, where his passions lie and how they mesh (or don't) with what's going on in the show. It's been especially good lately considering the disdain that some of the competitors have had toward the challenges, and the cast's apparent lack of ethics.

It's still kind of an underdog to Project Runway, and it's still hobbled a bit by the fact that you can't really "taste" the food. But, after awhile, you start to realize that it isn't even so much the end product that matters so much as the point of view of the chef and how they go about their challenges, the thought processed behind a particular dish and its execution. In that sense, it's always interesting to watch.

-Paul

[lambchops]

I totally loved it last season, but this season never got me hooked. I adore the Project Runway editing and for that reason like Top Chef but haven't jumped in this season. I think I'll probably get attached during some gigantic Bravo marathon some time in the future.

(BTW, I loved Harold all season last year and was pleased when he won--he so deserved it)

[kristinafh]

Anybody else watching?

My thoughts: Tom Collichio is hot. He makes me want to be a chef just so I could have a chance of getting on this show and beholding his hotness in person on a daily basis (even if he is scolding me about my rice being too sticky, or my prickly pear and coconut soup looking like Pepto).

Wouldn't it be cool, if, say, half way through the season, the entire cast was dismissed, and replaced with an entirely new one. Imagine that reunion episode!

-Paul

I have an *absolute* crush on Chef Tom. I don't know what it is about him that gets me going .

Yes! Dismiss them all. There's only like three - that I like at all. The rest are shreaking freaks

[kristinafh]

I totally loved it last season, but this season never got me hooked. I adore the Project Runway editing and for that reason like Top Chef but haven't jumped in this season. I think I'll probably get attached during some gigantic Bravo marathon some time in the future.

(BTW, I loved Harold all season last year and was pleased when he won--he so deserved it)

Shelly - I *tried* watching the first two shows - couldn't get into them. I think that last season, the chef's were more unique while this season, you can see the Harold of the group, the Steven of the group, etc...

I waited until the fifth episode and then watched them all back to back the other day. Now I'm hooked!

[thewisefool]

A Top Chef thread does not deserve two spambots.