Top Chef All Stars - Page 29

That said, all's fair in love, war, and reality TV competitions. If Blais didn't want anyone to copy his recipes, he shouldn't have shared them so freely.

Two wrong eliminations in a row...when's Tiffany getting out???

Richard is my favorite, and hopefully he's going to win it all!

I just watched the episode and......you're right. Unfortunately, when I was watching for the first time I was also on my laptop reading a very important website called styleforum.net and misheard.

Don't forget things are cut a certain way. So it may seem that they are getting wrong, when they are not.

i finally caught up on the dvr. i thought dale should have gone. making a bad dish is one thing (all 3 of them did that), but making a bad dish that has bad fundamentals is another. uncooked potatoes will send you home every time. and you could tell on the show, he was just in the weeds and lost it. everyone i've talked to about the show says you can't understand how much pressure in such a short period of time affects you. that's why i think blais and antonia have a good shot this year ... both seem to have really cool heads and put out consistently good (if not great) food. isabella certainly pulled off a dick move. the whole dish was predicated on a pun and a presentation (chicken "oyster" in an oyster shell) and both of those he stole. there wasn't much to the dish other than that. he can joke about it if it makes him feel better, but that's a real reality show move ... something most of the others have avoided.

glad to see dale gone can't wait for that ass "mikey" to be next. blaise probably the best chef left but i wouldn't rule out karla

Angelo and Dale were my two favourites at the beginning of the season. With them out, I am on the Blaise and Antonia wagon.

karla often cracks under pressure.

[quote=sonick;4169874Blaise and Antonia wagon.[/QUOTE]

One of them win it all.

As long as Professor Richard doesn't set his magical food lab on fire in a test tube explosion, he'll win. He's one of the two or three most creative people to ever be on the show. The other people left are mostly there because they've used good judgment about what was within their ability to execute. They're just not on his level.

His training and technique are on a very, very high level. I have not eaten or worked with all the contestants, but I know that maybe Hung is on a similar technical level, as were some of the people on the season with the Voltaggio brothers. He's certainly one of the best to have been on the show and is probably the one that should win.

However, if given full license, Carla might might do well too because she's demonstrated excellent flavor profiles and perfect execution. She's not as good at being creative on the fly but given the opportunity to cook her way she's extremely good at what she does.

I think Harold that won season 1 is up there with the best of them. I'm curious if you think Marcel can see that he is not on the same level as Blais, or he's just not introspective enough?

I don't remember Harold all that well. It's been a long time, but I seem to picture him as the seasoned kitchen veteran. I don't really remember him blowing people away with creativity, but he seemed like a technically sound chef who was extremely well organized and knowledgeable about which flavors work and which don't. The talent on the first season was probably a bit lower than the later seasons from what I've read. I think Michael V. was probably the most talented and creative of all of them. But Richard's black ice cream was one of the few things on the show that made me go "Shit. This guy's good."

i think one of the things that is becoming clear this season, and which sfield alluded to in his post, is that there is a difference between being technically creative and cooking good food. this is not to suggest that technically creative chefs can't cook good food, but only that technical creativity is not a substitute for having a firm handle on flavor. in the end, what matters most is whether something tastes good (carla and antonia), not whether it took double back-flips to get there (blais, marcel, etc.).

True - but if the food is essentially good first, the back flips can enable you to differentiate yourself by making good food that nobody else there could make. I liken it to my comparison of Moto vs. Alinea. Kantu is playing with chemicals and some food comes out. Achatz is making something that tastes good, and then playing with it to make sure you know you are eating something you probably couldn't get somewhere else.