Top Chef Seattle Season 10 - Page 2

I hang out a lot with a former Top Chef favorite who was asked to re-join this season. I kind of wish he did so I could see on TV how well he has matured as a chef.

That said, Kuniko was my dark horse favorite, her technique looked to be the STRONGEST but her lack of adapting to the Top Chef "game" showed itself rather quickly. Hopefully she can make a good last chance kitchen run.

Right now I'm my picks to win are CJ, Lizzie the South African, and Micah (despite him being sliiiightly douchey). I think I like Sheldon with his easy going nature. That John dude from Dallas is an epic asshat.

Stefan does not stand a chance, as if I remember right, Tom seems to have some personal animus against him and that's how that lame ass guy won in his season. I've only seen one ep this season, the one where they re-created the 1950s menu, and while the other judges all loved Stefan's liver Tom's comments seemed very grudging.

I'm impressed you know all their names already.

Aside from Brooke the cutie, I know no names.

Kuniko made me cringe with her predictable "I want to prove myself to my parents" narrative and her total willingness to help others, especially that John asshole, to her detriment. I was hoping she'd do well, too. I'm totally skeptical about CJ's chances of winning. He keeps talking about how much better he is, but it's not like the judges have loved his food.

Isn't CJ a vegetarian?

I don't know whether Tom dislikes Stefan or not, but I do have faith in his ability to judge fairly. Me recollection of that season (5?) was that Stefan was overall the strongest cook but that he occasionally choked spectacularly and, alas for him, one of those instances was the finale.

I cannot remember many details about that season but I'm sure you're correct on his choking in the finale. It would be the only explanation, as while I think any judge could slightly shade a close call, I too don't think Tom would pick an obviously inferior dish over an obviously inferior dish. I just remember what a one trick pony and under trained (maybe self-taught?) chef the winner was. If I remember right all he could cook properly was seafood?

OK, I refreshed my memory via Wiki. So, it wasn't that Stefan choked. It's that, they had three courses and he won one course, lost one by a hair and the other by a lot.

What was also different about that finale is that usually, the just say "cook us the best meal of your life" but this time they had a wrench. They added an extra course (which sometimes happens) but then had a little game of chance where whoever won go to choose among three proteins for his extra app AND then assign the other two. Hosea won and assiged alligator to Stefan, guessing (correctly) that Stefan had never worked with it before. That's what sunk him, in the end, and a lot of fans thought that twist was unfair.

Was Hosea and non-trained chef that mainly did seafood? If so, I have him placed in my memory.

Edit: Yup, worked for a seafood joint and apparently there are interviews where he's asked directly about being the weakest Top Chef. Seems he really disliked Stefan too and said something about winning against Stefan made it all that much better too.
Edited by Piobaire - 12/4/12 at 10:07am

i think this is shaping up to be a better season than last year. mainly because they're not in texas and don't have all those stupid texas-centric challenges. or haven't so far anyway. i thought the canlis challenge was really interesting and very on-point for modern cooking. i don't have any clear favorites yet ... personally, i like cj a lot. good guy and a good cook and i think he's matured a lot since his last time around. brooke has cooked around and has a solid reputation (probably about the same as dakota weiss and nyesha last year -- nyesha is much better looking in person than on tv, btw). i've been around stefan a bit and he's basically a guy playing a character ... i've found him to be pretty cool, though he does love to push buttons by playing the arrogant bastard. and he is a very solid, european-type cook.

Thanks for the insights, FG.

I started catching up on the season. I also didn't know they were starting the season until like the 3rd episode...pretty bad marketing on Bravo's part...i'm usually on top of these things.

I actually want to see John win it all....yay for the Sociopaths, but he seems like he knows his stuff and I just read Medium Raw recently so I'd be interested in him doing well. It looks like next week they will eliminate a whole team so I hope some of the good people won't get caught up in the crossfire. You can tell he's pretty seasoned.....him, Kristen and Stephan would be a good final.

Also interesting to watch Brooke...aside from the obvious eye candy and good upbeat attitude she has, she's always been a local under the radar type of chef out in my area in LA...so i'm cheering for her as well.

I also find Josh, the guy from OKC with the stache pretty annoying personally....just kind of a whiny guy... seems to have short man's syndrome who's probably obsessively followed John's story since he's pretty publicized in Dallas too.

Oh damn, I totally forgot about Kristen. She was my favorite from the first episode based solely on her looks. She seems to have some serious chops despite being so young too.

Is she a dyke? What's up with that hair?