There you have it baby! A thrilling end to a thrilling season of Top Chef. Unpredictable until the last 15 minutes, we saw twists and turns that at least I was not expecting. And we got a live reveal of the winner to finish it all up. For the finale, the chefs were at the Aspen Mountain Lodge, which costs more than $100,000 to be a member of. That's five zeros my friends. I don't know what's there, but for that much money, I'd expect naked women, bacon in my hand every time I snap my fingers and um… naked women. I mentioned that twice, didn't I? Hey, it's $100,000 — there better be a ton of naked women. Coincidentally, the winner of Top Chef gets $100,000, too. As is usually the case with the last episode, the chefs are told to make their best meal ever for the judges. They needed to come up with three courses and hand the menu to Tom. I like the handing-the-menu-to-Tom thing, as it forces the chefs to stick to their initial game plans and not go to plan C when their foam ...
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This is a great time of year for me in regards to television. I get to watch my Philadelphia Phillies inch closer to a playoff berth every night, and I just love, love, love Top Chef. Yes, that’s it. Two things make this great for me. What can I say, I’m easy to please. It’s 11:12 pm right now as I’m writing this line and I’m just realizing that this is the only night of the work week that I can actually function relatively well at this time. I attribute being awake right now to the exciting first part of the season finale of Top Chef. We begin the finale in Aspen, Colorado, with four competitors left — Brian, Casey, Dale and Hung. We also begin with the weekly rant of Hung claiming he’s much more advanced than the other three chefs. I immediately wondered if there was anyone that could really humble Hung, then of course in the next 10 minutes we see that his father is one of those people and guest judge Eric Ripert is the other. Ripert is one of t...
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Tonight was weird for me. There was no drama. There was very little comedy. The only person still left on the show that makes it edgy is Hung. And I even hate to call him "edgy" since it’s really just pure arrogance. And then, of course, there’s my favorite: men with heavy French accents. For some reason, I have many moments where my brain just doesn’t process words right away. I mean, I’ll get them sooner or later, but it might take me a moment or two to figure out what you just said. So add a heavy French accent in and you can imagine how lost I was at points. Probably as lost as those Frenchmen trying to say "Hung." Le Cirque owner, Sirio Maccioni, didn’t even bother trying to say it. (I mean, c’mon — it’s really not that difficult.) My lone comedic moment was at the very beginning when Dale commented that he’s "a big gay chef and I’m going to outcook your ass." Other than that, it wasn’t exactly ginormous excitement.The Quic...
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Ah, now this was what I missed so much last week. Forget reunions. I need Joey and Howie opening their big mouths, Sara whining and Hung being a “douche’ as CJ called him. Right from the moment Joey spoke for the first time, you knew it was going to be fun. He said if he had to “throw someone over the bus” he’d do so at this point in the game. I definitely would choose that over the more traditional throwing someone under the bus. I mean, under the bus you really have no shot at making it, but over it just gives you so many more opportunities. You could land on your feet or in a row of bushes. There could be a trampoline on the other side or maybe a river and you could just swim to the bank. If I were those chefs, I’d take that option rather than the second choice of throwing someone “over the balcony.” They probably can’t fly but I’d bet they could walk away from landing on the hood of a 2001 Honda Accord. In all seriousness though,...
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So I know some of you are wondering why a reunion episode is taking place in the middle of a season. I would have asked that myself, except I have to confess that it’s partially my fault. About two weeks ago Bravo and I had a string of text messages going back and forth. Let me show you how it went:Bravo: Wazzup, dog?Dave: Just chillin’.Bravo: So what’s the 25th look like for you, bro?Dave: Out of town. Busy. Thanx for asking. Bravo: You are awesome at this blogging thing. We’re thinking of giving you a break from all your linking for a week. Dave: Word.Bravo: How about a reunion show?Dave: In the middle of a season?Bravo: Dude, don’t question what we do. Dave: lolSo that’s how we got it, folks. And it’s true, I have nothing to link up this week, so I can actually get to bed at a normal time. Nothing wrong with that now and again. The episode itself was pure fluff. We saw a few funny and interesting moments but not a whole lot of important items. P...
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