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Episode Recap: Chicago Reunion
The reunion specials are always a bit of a smorgasbord of amusing memories, insight and gossip. Here are some tidbits worth tasting.
Fan Favorite: Stephanie not only was the first female Top Chef but also the first to win both titles. Way to go, girlfriend!
Bromance was all around: Ted called Spike and Mark in the bubble bath "man soup." Richard had fun watching Dale moisturize his nipples. Andrew and Spike named their team "Vanilla Love."
Gossip: What were the internet rumors surrounding Jennifer and Zoi? Are they past their relationship bumps? Mark got married. Richard opened a restaurant called Home and appeared via satellite while waiting for his baby girl to be born.
Nicknames: Because more chefs were eliminated when teamed with Antonia, she was dubbed the "Black Hammer." The stew room was referred to as the "fifth level of hell" and not only because of the heat.
Outtakes:
• Without the stress of the competition, the chefs were much more relaxed and jovial leaving much of the swearing for a montage. How funny was Dale when he said his mother told her church friends that he swore because he was on television.
• Eyes glazing over as Ryan described his dishes
• Gail falling asleep at the Judges' Table
• Andrew doesn't have ADD (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). He just zips around with positive energy and occasionally growls.
Memorable Quotes:
• Andrew: “I’m a little chef!”
• Mark: "I think Tom doesn't like me…”
• Rocco DiSpirito: "It's not only his gnocchi that were dense."
• T-shirt sporting the season's favorite expression(<x><x>attributed to Andrew): "I have a culinary b*ner."
Here are a few of my thoughts.
Burning Question: So Lisa never did uncover the mystery burner-turner-upper, did she?
Controversial Challenge (at least on this blog): The Common Threads episode where the chefs had to shop at Whole Foods and create dinner for a family of four on a $10 budget.
Worthwhile Places to Remember (in Chicago, online, and in your town): mealstogether.com, Meals on Wheels Chicago, Common Threads, shop for locally grown foods at Green City Market
New Foods (what I learned): Ras al hanout is a combination of Moroccan spices; Halo-Halo is a shaved ice and milk mixture; Sous vide is the technique of cooking ingredients in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch (don’t use salmon!)
Interesting Foods (created during challenges): wasabi-white chocolate sauce; banana guacamole, maple miso-glazed bacon, peanut mashed potatoes, "perplexed tofu".
Questionable Foods: Peanut butter tomato sauce, mushrooms stuffed with blueberries
Problematic Foods: Rice, butternut squash soup, caramel sauce (used successfully by Lisa and Stephanie with braised short ribs, used disastrously by Dale with scallops.)
Guest Judges: The following guest chefs worked well with the judges and would entice me to eat at their restaurants: José Andrés, Rick Tramonto, pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini.
What were the highlights that you would add to this list?
Thanks to everyone who regularly read this blog, took part in the discussion, provided insight and shared recipes. It was a blast checking in with you the last 15 weeks and I'll keep an eye out for you on the other message boards. Until next time, bon appétit!
For more tasty treats about Top Chef, dig into our Online Video Guide.
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Jun 19, 2008 12:34 AM
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But this was the first season that I have watched Top Chef. And I loved every minute of it. I don't know why I didn't watch the previous seasons in the first place. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm glad that Stephanie won viewers favorite....I was hoping Antonia would of won it, but either way Im still happy that she won. I would love to eat at one of her resteraunts. That duck breast and spring roll that she made in episode one still has my mouth watering. And speaking of Antonia I always thought that she was bad luck, with whomever she teamed with.
I still think "Culinary B*ner" is something that I don't want to hear the person cooking my food to say. Its gross. But I wouldn't mind the wearing the t-shirts.
I think another questionable food is Richard's Bacon Ice Cream. And congraluations to him on his baby.
So when is the next season of Top Chef starts?
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Jun 19, 2008 4:13 AM
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I didn't vote for fan favorite, so I was unaware that Stephanie was even eligible to win it. I guess it makes sense that she could, but I had been thinking more along the lines of Survivor, where they give money to the fan favorite...other than the winner of Survivor.
Therefore, I was really surprised when Stephanie got it. I would have voted for Stephanie, but I was rooting for Antonia.
One thing I'd have liked to have known was what all the chefs are doing now.
Like all the rest of you, I despised Lisa, but I thought Chef Tom's comment that he didn't know who would win fan fave but DID know who wouldn't and that would be Lisa was uncalled for.
I did really like this season and can't wait for the next. Thanks, Mario,
for a great blog. Hope you do the blog next time, too.
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Jun 19, 2008 4:24 AM
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Mario, Thanks for the great blogs on this show every week. I hope you are the one to blog it next season.
I enjoyed the show last night, but after reading your blog, I realize it could have gone further and told us what everyone was doing now. I think part of the problem is that is was taped awhile back. I know Richard's daughter was born before the finale aired.
The reason Stephanie was eligible for fan favorite is that voting started a few weeks before the last episode so no one knew at the time that she would win. While I love Stephanie, I think it would have been fairer to give the prize to the next highest vote getter or start the voting after the finale with the winner not being eligible.
If Bravo keeps to their current pattern, Top Chef will be back at the same time next year.
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Jun 19, 2008 7:27 AM
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I truly loved this season too. At first I thought they were all bone heads and had NO talent, but the chaf was removed and the wheat turned out to be super!!
I will miss my weekly dose of Chef Tom, what eye candy HE is!!
The t-shirt was brilliant and my brother is getting one for his birthday next month! He should try out for this show, not all the chefs are culinary school trained and he could do well at this!
I look forward to Project Runway next month!!
But I too, wish that they had given the $10,000 to the second runner up. Stephanie is terrific though and I don't doubt that she took all of them out for dinner AND drinks afterward!
Did you notice they barely spoke to 3 of the women? The gal that went home first said exactly one sentence!!
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Jun 19, 2008 8:56 AM
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Well sadly part of that is due to being kicked off early. It takes at least 3 or 4 episodes for people to get to know the contestants. The other part is due to the producers Magical Elves. These reunion shows often last 7 or 8 hours in filming, they ultimately make the decision about what makes the final edit and sadly the early round chefs and the ones who are less colorful or brought less drama got screwed in this instance. Ergo why the bulk of the attention, outside of Stephanie and Richard, went to Spike, Andrew, Lisa and Dale. Ryan only got some attention owing to his verboseness.
This kind of edit is not always the case. When Magical Elves edited the last project runway reunion they gave a surprising amount of attention to the frist 2 people cut from the show.
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Jun 19, 2008 9:37 AM
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Mario - thanks for putting together a great blog each and every week. The opportunity to blog about Top Chef only makes it more enjoyable to us fans! Hope your back next season!
I really wixh that Top Chef would take a few pointers from Survivor. They have the best reunion show of any of the reality shows. Each and every person gets a chance to speak! With that being said, last nights reunion was very funny. The clips of everyone, including the judges was hilarious. It seems as if things tended to get even crazier behind the scenes than they did in front of the camera.
Here is for more Ted Allen, and Tony Bourdain next season!
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Jun 19, 2008 11:14 AM
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My only gripe with the reunion is their treatment of Richard. I really had hoped they kept him on longer because HE was going to win fan favorite. First they give him a baby gift only to plug the item, then Stephanie gets fan favorite. She deserved to win, don't get me wrong, but was it really necessary to keep Richard on as long as they did? For goodness sakes, he was waiting for his wife to give birth AFTER a false labor.
Maybe it's just because Richard alternated between being my fav or my second favorite (he and Stephanie were always my top 2), but I just found it in very poor taste that given what was going on with him when the reunion was filmed that they kept him on as long as they did with no big prize or something other than a baby one piece. And to reiterate, don't give a "special surprise" only to plug the same product on the website!
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Jun 19, 2008 1:24 PM
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Be sure to watch for another Top Chef Holiday Challenge this year. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it again like they did last year.
I was highly impressed with the reunion overall. They didn't shy away from anything!
*Tom admitted that although he wasn't there, he thought that Lisa and her 2 bad dishes should have been eliminated over Dale and his one.
*Gail was outed for having fallen asleep during the final judges table for the finalé
*Lisa outed herself by saying that she was nervously approached by scared fans at a "lesbian party".
*They discussed all the cursing, and Tom really quieted the room with his comments wondering if that is how they want people to see them. Awesome.
*They asked Zoi and Jennifer if they have broken up. How lame of them to not come clean either way. The fact that they didn't say they were together, and the way Jennifer leaned waaay away from Zoi when it was brought up leads me to think that they did call it quits.
*Andrew was clued in to the suspicions of viewers that he imbibes in more than just healthy food.
*They told us how Antonia was known as the "black hammer." I'm waiting for people to complain that it's racist. Why not the "death hammer" or some other term? I found the whole thing funny though, regardless of any potential insensitivity.
I'm glad that they didn't give the "fan favorite" to the next highest vote winner instead of Stephanie since she won the title, but Stephanie was VERY well liked by the fans, the other chefs, and the judges, so she deserved it as much as anyone else.
I was surprised that Tom said that many felt that it was Richard's title to lose. Stephanie won just as many if not more than Richard, she just did it in a less "flashy" manner. I also was surprised that he took that dig at Lisa by saying that he knew she wouldn't win. As much as I didn't like Lisa, that comment was unnecessary, and I wonder why he said it.
I might see myself getting one of those culinary b*n#r shirts for my step-brother who is a cook, but I can't see myself wearing one out in public or when cooking out on the grill.
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Jun 19, 2008 1:44 PM
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It's rather interesting to look up the wikipedia page for season 4 of Top Chef. They breakdown the wins for both eliminations and quickfires. The former is done in a crossferencing table.
Looking at it it does show Richard as the most consistent contestant this year. Stephanie was in the favored group more often but she was also in the low group more often as well. You also factor in the fact Richard during the Chicago part of the show did extremely well in the quickfire and was often in judges fave group while Stephanie was often in the bottom. It does make some sense that Richard's experimental tricks would come off better in quickfires where there's less time to think about them.
The table shows that Lisa did rather well for the first 6 episodes and only starting landing in the least favored group after that. Spike was rather solid to weak throughout the whole competition having only 1 genuiniely good showing during the big challenges. So it would be understandable how his devious manueverings would stand out more for their lack of effectiveness. And both Dale and Antonio's showings were erractic having both really great results and lousy ones. So it's not too suprising based on the chart results how they didn't make it to the final three.
It is was also nice to see the majority of the chefs actually did well with most of them getting in the favored group. Even Ryan who only did adaquate overall had a good round in the quickfire.
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Jun 19, 2008 2:30 PM
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Is it just me, or is Gail definitely into Andrew?
When the host pointed it out, her face got REALLY red and she started acting like a high school girl with a crush.
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Jun 19, 2008 8:03 PM
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In Season Three, wasn't Padma smitten with CJ?
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Jun 20, 2008 10:36 AM
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Well, in Gail's defense, I blush very easily when put on the spot about anything whether it's true or not so maybe she has the same problem. I never noticed her behaving differently with him so I can't say whether she had a crush or not but I don't think her blushing when asked about it is proof either way.
I was happy Stephanie won both the title and the fan favorite. She was definitely my favorite of the season for her even temperament and the way she did a great job pretty much every week, without being totally full of herself. She's just very likeable. Richard was my 2nd favorite so I was sorry to see him do poorly in the finale but I thought Stephanie deserved the win.
Poor Lisa, she really is a miserable person. Even in the reunion show when the pressure was off, she still didn't have much of a sense of humor. I would have hoped that after watching herself and how she came across that she would try to work on being a better person but apparently not. Why would anyone want to go through life being so negative and unpleasant?
I'm glad they didn't focus much time on the 1st people to get voted off. I barely remembered them when I saw them on the reunion show so I really didn't care what they had to say. Had they not been on at all I wouldn't have even noticed they were missing.
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Jun 20, 2008 12:48 PM
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dolphinwmn ~ Your comment was 100% spot on!!
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Jun 20, 2008 8:15 PM
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I think Lisa "outed" herself before the reunion show. I recall her talking about the girlfriend she lives with who has a child. I think that was during the episode where the children assisted in the cooking.
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Jun 20, 2008 11:14 PM
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