So I was asked to dedicate some time to Top Chef. As many of you know, I am a huge Top Chef fan. At its base, I think its the best reality show on TV cause it serves to measure something and at it seemed, for the most part, to revolve more around specific contestants performances, rather than their personalities, or drama quotients, or how pretty they were.
Let me preface this by saying that I haven't seen the Finale yet. I had other commitments last night and therefore will be viewing the Finale later tonight. That being said, I am almost 100% confident in saying that I believe Carla will win it.
Anyways, I enjoyed this season a decent amount, but I feel early on that it took a turn for the worst in terms of the grading criteria and who was being put through each week. And it comes down to "Producers have final say in all decisions." Which means no matter what the judges believe and have to say, at the end, the producers eliminate who they believe is not doing the most for the show, usually with ratings. In the past, it was a minor issue, but this season I feel like it got bad. And you could often see it with the lame reasoning the judges were issuing for why they were sending chefs home.
It started most notably with Radhika. She was sent home at the end of the Restaurant Wars episodes for not being good enough in the front of house. This is a show about Top Chefs, and their food. She won the Quickfire for having the best dish, and then by all accounts, the two teams were quite close in terms of their food. Well Radhika is sent home for not being an attentive enough host, which really is not her forte...which is why she is a chef. She was too busy worrying about the actual food preparation and serving. Meanwhile, on the other side, Leah had no control over her kitchen and her actual dish was complete crap. But her team came out on top, probably because there was some queer burgeoning love affair with her and Hosea. So why did Radhika get kicked off? Well I believe its cause she minded her own business and just cooked, she wasn't dynamic enough.
Leah is another great example of a mediocre chef who made it far in the competition for reasons other than her food. Week after week, she made lame dishes and kept sliding right through inexplicably. I mean, she won a competition with a NY strip with an simple salad. I mean honestly? I make that meal twice a week and I am no chef. But then again, from the second week on, they were playing up the little romance between her and Hosea, so you knew she wasn't going anywhere.
My personal favorite, Jeff, I feel got the shaft cause, much like Radhika, he was too low key. He was soft-spoken and very non-confrontational. But he made brilliant creative food, which then was chastised for being "too much". And the fact that in the episode he was eliminate, he and his opponent made similar dishes, ceviches, and hers was warm, while a ceviche is by definition cold, but he still lost was ridiculous. I just viewed it as an opportunity for them to eliminate him in favor of more dynamic and outspoken characters. I mean, I believe it was a bottom 3 of Fabio, Stefan, and Jeff. In that situation, Jeff had no chance.
Fabio is an interesting situation. Obviously a hilarious and likeable character, I believe he got away with some lesser dishes early on because of the overall draw of his character. As the show progressed, I really think he gained some steam, but when it came to the creation of the final 3, he just didn't factor as prominently into the storyline as the rest of the 3.
So now we have our final 3, Stefan, Hosea, and Carla. Before addressing them, I just remembered the judging criteria that has bothered me the most. So the judges say that it is all what have you done for me lately. It comes down to that episodes dish and what the contestants did. Their prior success doesn't factor in. While I think that is garbage, it is acceptable as long as its consistent. However, I don't think it was.
Stefan. Undeniably the strongest chef by far through to the last 4-5 contestants. But as of late, his dishes were a bit uninspired and frankly at the bottom of the pile. However, 1) he is very incendiary and creates plenty of drama and 2) he was a good chef thus far. So I feel like he is slipping by based on the strength of past performances as a result of #1. If he was judged primarily on what was done that episode like plenty of other contestants, we wouldn't be seeing him in the final 3.
Hosea. I have no damn clue how he has made it here to the final. He got by pretty far because of his situation with Leah. And I feel like now he is still around cause dude is constantly bitching about Stefan for one reason or another. If you look at his food, its been all meh. I mean, I can't recall a single uber standout dish. The man is a seafood chef at a seafood restaurant but each fish dish he has done, has worked out poorly and been frankly disappointing. I mean, I had nothing against him, but I got tired of seeing people like Fabio and Jeff go home while Hosea slides by with another 3rd place dish. And now all he does is gripe about Stefan constantly, so he has run his course. Go home and break up with your gf so you can be with your lover, horse face Leah.
Now we come to my projected winner, Carla. She was annoyed the hell out of me the entire show. Sure, she has had some funny moments, but for the most part, she is over the top and just really starts to get on my nerve with her hysterics. I feel like she would be a good contestant on the Real World. But you could see early on that she was a producer favorite based on the number of appearances and foreshadowing of her victories. I will give credit where credit is due and say that she has been very good with her food the last episode or two. But the problem I have with her is the simplicity of what she does. Granted I am not eating it, but she never seems to wow me. Her best dishes have been where she is replicating someone else's dish or putting her own touch on something else. Just "adding the love" if you will. However, her quirkiness and her story about coming from non cooking background, and her husband and son, etc.. struck a chord with some people and the producers and that will propel her.
Who do I think should win? I dont like him especially, but I would have to say Stefan. He has been exceptional in quickfire and elimination challenges and his foot is clever and very technically well done. But I think his unlikability will hurt him in the end. Who knows. But mark it down, Carla for the win.
So I was going through CDs I have and I realized I hadn't listened to Tell All Your Friends by Taking Back Sunday. Now when most people think of older TBS, they think of Cute Without the E or You're So Last Summer. Both awesome songs, but instead, let me offer to you You Know How I Do. Its the first track off the CD and I can remember putting it into my CD player in my car, Junior year of HS, and it just blowing my mind. 7 years later, this CD is still in my top 3 of all time and never gets old. Just bloody brilliant. Oh and if you can handle it, check out the B side from that disc, The Ballad of Sal Villanueva. Not a very well known song, but amazing for jumping off couches and moshing with people in a basment...not that I would know....
"We won't stand for hazy eyes any more, we won't stand for..."
JW
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