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I watched Top Chef on Wednesday. Toby Young has taken over the judging duties for  judge Gail Simmons for the rest of the season. Fabio and Stefan had both known of Toby Young because he is a huge food critic in the United Kingdom. The contestants were how can we say not thrilled to learn that they were getting a new judge. The quickfire challenge was to create a good dessert without using sugar. Radhika was the winner. The elimination challenge was to create your signature dish family style for a focus group including new judge Toby Young. The contestants were divided into two groups. Group A did not do as good of a job as group B. The contestants judged each other. Toby Young said that one of the dishes tasted like cat food. He also said that the weapons of mass destruction were in one of the contestant’s bowls. The top three were Stefan, Jamie, and Ariane. Jami, amid all of her constant whining finally won an elimination challenge. The bottom thee were Carla, Eugene, and Melissa. It was a double elimination. Carla was spared and Eugene and Melissa were told to pack their knives and go. I like Toby Young so much, he adds alot to the show.

Top Chef another super sized episode on Wednesday night. It was a holiday episode. The special quickfire judge was none other than the queen of everything home related, Martha Stewart. She picked Ariane who had made filet mignon and a cauliflower puree as the winner. The chefs were to make food for an amfar Christmas benefit event. I am going to call foul on how the fridge was miraculously left open overnight. Then, Hosea miraculously found enough pork in the kitchen, give me a break.I think they wanted to make drama and did this on purpose. Ariane made six types of deviled eggs, she is lucky she had immunity. The bottom three were: Eugene, Melissa, and Jamie. The top were: Hosea, Radhika,Jeff, and I think Stefan. Hosea was declared the winner. He could not have won without the entire cast. He even told the judges that. The chefs banded together after the food in the fridge spoiled. Tom and the judges were disappointed in the overall quality of the food. No one went home,so you can bet at least two chefs will go next time at judges’ table.

This season’s Top Chef has not been that great. I mean we have not seen extraordinary food being produced from the contestants. There is not really one contestant that I think really stands out. I mean Fabio has charm and wit and has won a challenge but I do not know what we can expect from him in the future besides that. Stefan is arrogant and cocky, which annoys me to no end. Jamie also is arrogant which annoys me. I like Carla, she seems pretty cool. Hosea and Leah are all right. Leah has won two quickfire challenges. Pretty much, the rest of the chef contestants are just mediocre and are filler in the middle for the show. I think that the show’s producers are casting for looks and personality over actual talent this year. I have not seen any dishes that I have not seen before on other cooking shows. I think head chef Tom Colicchio also sees the lack of talent and overall effort this season. He wanted to be on a serious show about food but it is more about the drama than the cooking now.

I watched Top Chef on Wednesday night. This week started out with a tasting challenge for the quickfire challenge. The contestants would go head to head for three rounds. They would be tasting a food and would have to name the ingredients. It came down to Hosea and Stefan. In the end, Hosea won the quickfire challenge and was granted immunity for the elimination challenge. The elimination challenge was too cook a delicious meal for Gail Simmons’ bridal shower. The teams had to choose old,new, borrowed, or blue. There was a knife draw and then teams got into teams of three. Ariane, Jamie, and Radhika made a borrowed meal. They borrowed from Radhika’s culture and Ariane cooked a beautiful lamb. She ended up being the challenge winner and got some Calphalon stuff which really ticked off Jamie. The two failing teams were blue and new. Melissa, Leah, and Fabio were blue. They cooked chilean sea bass with a puree. The judges said it was like old people food and lacked texture. The new team was Danny, Carla, and Eugene. They did a type of deconstructed sushi and a wonton and salad. In the end, Danny was eliminated.

Last night, I watched Top Chef on Bravo. This week’s judge judge was celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirto. The quickfire challenge was a breakfast amuse bouche challenge. The top three were Jamie, Leah, and Stefan. Leah won the quickfire and got immunity for the second time. The elimination challenge was to prepare a dish that can be cooked on live television in two and a half minutes. Some of the chefs did not finish their demonstration. Some made bad choices- Leah ran out of time, Alex made a creme brulee, and Jamie served up a raw egg on her salad which is a big no no. The top three were Jeff, Ariane, and Fabio. Ariane made a beefsteak tomato, watermelon, and feta cheese salad. Jeff made a shrimp roll  with middle eastern flavors wrapped in lettuce. Fabio cooked a tuna dish with roasted carrots. The top three were to prepare their dishes and the winner would be announced on the Today Show. Kathie Lee Gifford spit out Jeff’s dish. Ariane’s dish was chosen as the winner. She got to made a dish on the Today Show today and twenty four tools from Rocco DiSpirto.  The bottom three were Alex,Melissa, and Jamie. Melissa’s dish was way too hot and spicy. She threw Alex under the bus, and in the end Alex was asked to pack his knives and go.

I watched Top Chef on Wednesday November 26th on the Bravo Network. This week was Thanksgiving week on Top Chef. The quickfire challenge was first. The contestants had to draw knives. The knives had numbers on them. These were numbers that were page numbers from the Top Chef cook book. The contestants had to put a new spin on the recipes of former Top Chef contestants. They started frantically to finish,when half way through Padma Lakshmi says that she and the guest  judge want soup. Now they must turn their recipes into soups. Thy are given Swanson broth to help them make their soups. The top three in the quickfire challenge are Leah, Jamie, and Danny. Leah wins the quickfire and is given immunity for the next challenge. The contestants then get a video message from the Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighter are big fans of the show. They want the chefs to split up into two teams and cook the band and their entourage a Thanksgiving meal. Leah picks first she selects- Radhika, Stefan, Fabio, Jami, Hosea, and Melissa. The rest of the contestants are team cougar, Leah’s team is team sexy pants. Ariane cooked great turkey even though she only had microwaves and a toaster oven. Team Sexypants won for their great vegan stuffing and desserts. They got to go watch the Foo Fighters play and the other team had to do dishes and clean up. In the end, Richard was eliminated for his smores.

I watched Top Chef this week. I have to say that this season the found has not wowed me. I mean the chefs did not even impress judges Tom Collicchio, Gail Simmons and Padma Lakshmi. The quickfire was to make a new spin on the family favorite- the hot dog. Radhika won the quickfire challenge with her Indian inspired hot dog. Then the elimination challenge was announced. The chefs were to cook at Tom Collichio’s famed New York Restaurant- Craft. They were to create appetizers, entrees, and desserts. The big surprise was that the chef contestants would be cooking for the judges and all of the New York based chefs that tried out to be a contestant on this season of Top Chef but did not end up being picked by the show’s producers. These chefs were very tough on the chef conetstants. The biggest error of the evening has two nominees- Ariane and Jill. Ariane’s dessert was so sweet that judge Padma Lakshmi spit the food into her napkin. Jill made an error in using an ostrich egg and not being able to defend herself at judges table. She stuttered and drew a blank and I felt bad for her. The top three were Jamie, Carla, and Fabio. Fabio won the elimination challenge. The bottom three were Hosea, Jill, and Ariane. Surprisingly, Jill went home.

The new season of Bravo’s cooking competition reality show Top Chef has begun again. The cast is pretty diverse. There are two European chefs, a Mexican chef,an African American chef, an Indian chef, and a few homosexual chefs. The homosexual chefs call themselves team rainbow. The two European chefs Fabio and Stefan are pretty arrogant guys. They think they are literally God’s gift to culinary cuisine. This season which is the fifth season of the show takes place in the Big Apple- New York. The first task was an elimination quickfire challenge. People are not usually eliminated in a quickfire challenge but there were only sixteen chefs coats at the Top Chef kitchen and there were seventeen contestants. The quickfire started by peeling and dicing apples. Then, they moved onto various tasks and eventually Lauren was eliminated. Stefan won immunity during the quickfire and then the contestants were off to see their brand new New York apartment. It was pretty nice inside. The elimination challenge was head to head cooking for different parts of Ney York- such as China town, Russian, Italian, Greek etc. The chefs each drew a knife from the block and were paired up to go head to head against each other. Stefan won again with a type of skewer. In the bottom two were Patrick who had made gummy noodles and Ariane who had undercooked her faro. In the end, Patrick was eliminated from the competition.

Top Chef returns in November. This season will take place in New York. I am very excited that Top Chef is coming back because most reality shows on Bravo besides The Real Housewives of Atlanta are either wrapped for the season or are very boring. I love Top Chef even though I am not the fine dining kind of girl. I prefer Friendly’s, Burger King, or Domino’s. I cannot really understand why people will pay so much money for food. I mean sometimes I have gone out for Chinese food and the bill was more expensive than a week’s worth of my groceries. I really love competitive reality television shows. Top Chef is like Iron Chef America but with a lot more drama and many chefs. I loved Richard Blais from last season, that guy is such as stand up guy and overall is an incredibly talented chef. I hope this season has really good cast members. I hate when I am bored. I want drama but not too much drama. I think that this season Top Chef needs to amaze me because Iam going through good reality television show withdrawal.