Sep/090
PR: The Models Never Know Best
Previously on Project Runway - The contestants were paired up to create a beachwear/surfer inspired outfit. This seemed too easy, and half way through the challenge they were told to make a second garment that takes the idea of their beachwear and make it avant garde. For the first time ever, the leader of the winning team, Mitchell, wasn't made the winner because Ra'mon did 95% of the work. Ra'mon won and Mitchell was out in a Project Runway first.
This week, Heidi tells the designers that Tim Gunn is waiting in the workroom with a group of women who know exactly what they want. The designers are fearful it may be bridezillas or teenagers who need prom dresses, but it ends up being their models. Tim explains that the models have been invited to a very important industry event. The designers must create garments based
on the wishes of their models while keeping their style infused into the outfit. Some girls are specific in their requests, but most are open to what the designers want. They also learn that this is their first one day challenge.
Irina gets a critique from Tim
With this kind of interaction, the bond between the models and designers is solidified. It doesn't look like there will be much model switching from here on in, but you never know what may come. Its this kind of challenge that can become tricky because there are so few limitations. Create a beautiful dress for a skinny model. The options are endless, which can be daunting. If you can't do well in this challenge, you should be worried about how you will perform in the more difficult tasks ahead. This is the designers chance to shine.
The outfits overall were pretty hot and most were remarkably suited to their particular models look while still retaining the designers essence. Let's take a look at the top three:
Althea Harper's design
Epperson's design
Carol Hannah's design
Althea's design won and I totally agreed. It was more than just a simple dress. She created a three piece power suit that was stylized and sexy. Considering the time constraint, its amazing that she was able to pull off creating three separate pieces. I was also really feeling Epperson's. It had a lot of intricate layers carefully placed on difficult stretch fabric. It was certainly attention getting and it matched his model's personality/look extremely well. I understood Carol Hannah's design, the juxtaposition of hard and soft, I just didn't particularly care for it. I think mayhaps it was the proportion that didn't aesthetically appeal to me. The judges liked it though and that's all that matters.
On to the losers...
designs by: Johnny Sakalis, Logan Neitzel, and Qristyl Frazier
All in all, these dresses weren't hideous, but compared to the others and in regards to the intended event, they failed. Johnny's was mostly boring and flat. I thought the only thing good about it was the color but that's not enough. Logan's design actually fit his model's vibe extremely well, but unfortunately her style is a bit 50's, a bit gothic, and a bit bright. He did a great job of creating the dress for her, it just wasn't very good. His lacework was lumpy and too thickly layered. Qristyl had started another dress but Tim referred to it as messy and I couldn't have agreed more. She started a new dress from scratch, but it was safe, boring and aged her model a few years. The simple black dress is not what you want to get noticed in a crowd. Qristyl got auf'd and that was that.
My picks had a particularly good week.
Althea won, Epperson was in the top three and Gordana floated in the middle as usual. I'm worried about her... she better step up her game.
Sep/090
Gleeful but Skeptical
Glee has been one of the most anticipated and talked about TV premieres of the fall season. Fox has put forth a mammoth of an advertising campaign in hopes of getting a cash cow on their hands. I think the network is trying to pinch off some of the teens that are obsessed with the Disney Channel shows like High School Musical, Hannah Montana and those Jonas Bros.
The show revolves around a glee club that was once the talk of the school... in the 90's that is. Nowadays, the cheer squad known as The Cheerios reigns supreme. A young, hip teacher takes over leadership of the glee club in hopes of returning it to its days of grandeur.
The core group of the glee club are amusing but at times border on stereotypes such as the solo obsessed girl, the fashion obsessed gay, the sassy black girl and the wheelchair kid. Did I mention the football player that needs to express himself? Yes, its all a touch campy, but it is a glee club after all.
The teacher, Mr. Schuester, is torn in two directions. He wants to teach high school and glee club while his wife wants to start a family, buy a brand new home and she wouldn't mind him starting a more profitable profession. Just as he is about to leave the high school behind, a guidance counselor helps him out by reminding him of what he once loved about the glee club and how important it was to him. Meanwhile, the Cheerio's coach is feeling threatened by another club trying to take any of the spotlight or school's budget.
The songs are mostly fitting. The writers have seemed to make it a point to show that these are not fantasy musical numbers. They are auditions, performances, rehearsals, etc. I'm afraid that they have written themselves into a corner with this plot device. Already, by the end of the second episode, a character asks to rehearse in the auditorium because she can't at home. Next thing you know, there are lighting cues, back up singers and the whole shebang. It seemed contrived, and I am concerned that as the show progresses it is going to get worse.
I am convinced that the break out star is going to be Jayma Mays who plays the dirt fearful guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury. Just look at her, she is cute as a button. Her character is in love with the married lead, Mr. Schuester and she is being pursued by the gym teacher. I find myself craving for her when she isn't on screen. I love her big eyes; they make me smile. My favorite moment of her so far is when she individually buffed each of her grapes before eating them. She has me glued to the show for sure.
I think its a safe bet that the show will be around for another season. Fox has invested a lot of money into it, it can't cost that much to produce with the lack of big names and Fox likes performance shows like American Idol. I can see them using Glee in conjunction with American Idol to foster their new talents even more.
Sep/090
One Bite To Save Your Life
Previously on Top Chef: The chefs prepared what was essentially a large buffet. Preeti "I can't shuck a clam" Mistry was sent packing her knives. It was a pretty boring episode. The challenge was that they were at an air force base using canned food and large industrial kitchen machines. This week however, was awesome.
Kevin's winning quickfire dish
The Quickfire was as high stakes as it gets. The winner gets immunity and the loser goes home. To top it off, they are cooking for one of the greatest chefs working today, Daniel Boulud and cooking one of the most difficult ingredients - snails. They are worked into a tizzy. I wouldn't even know where to begin, but apparently Kevin did, because his Escargot Fricasse with Mushrooms, Brussels Sprouts and Candied Bacon Jam wowed Tom and Boulud.
It seemed to me unfair to do an elimination quickfire with such a crazy ingredient, but the bottom 3 get one last saving grace. They each must quickly create an amuse bouche with anything that is in the kitchen. As Tom puts it, "One bite to save your life and keep you in the competition." Robin makes an Avocado Soup with Yuzu, Green Apple, Mustard Relish and Crab. Jesse makes Tuna Tartare with Sorrel, Gooseberries, Fried Quail Egg and Fried Bread. Ashley makes Foie Gras with Pineapple, Tarragon and Ramps. After considering, Tom sends Jesse packing. It had been coming for a while. She was in the bottom of almost every challenge she participated in. It seemed to me that she wasn't a bad chef, just out skilled by the others. She makes her exit and we move right on the the Elimination Challenge.
Each of the chefs except Kevin take turns pulling knives. Half have classic French sauces written on them and the others have traditional French proteins. They must now pair up to create dishes together. They will be serving a table full of the most known and respected French chefs around right now: Hubert Keller, Daniel Boulud, Jean Joho, Laurent Tourondel and the man voted Chef of the Century - Joel Robuchon. Because he won the quickfire, Kevin is not only immune, but gets to join the chefs at their table and eat with them. You could feel the other chefs dying inside when they heard that news.
The pairings begin. Some are obvious such as Laurine's Lobster with Eli's Sauce Americain and Hector's Steak with Ash's Au Poivre sauce. The rest resulted from who wanted to work together and who nobody else wanted to work with, mainly Ron's Frog Legs and Robin's Meuniere sauce.
Winning Dish
The pair of pairs that beat out everyone else were Michael I. & Byan's Warm Cured Trout with Deconstructed Bearnaise and Michael V. & Jennifer's Rabbit Chasseur with Mustard Noodle and Shiso. They judges were incredibly impressed with this group. The win ended up going to Bryan for the perfectly cooked Trout and his idea for the deconstructed Bearnaise.
The bottom feeders this week were Ashley & Mattin's Seared Poussin and Ravioli with Sauce Veloute and Green Asparagus along with Hector and Ash's Chateaubriand, Sauce Au Poivre with Confit De Pommes and Spinach.
Losing dish
I really thought Mattin was going to be sent home. He is French and trained in French cuisine but couldn't deliver. He had to make a veloute sauce, which is basically a velvety smooth sauce. Compared to other dishes, that was one of the easier sauces to make. But alas, the judges spared him. Instead, the first man sent packing this season was Hector. He had to cook beef, and he couldn't do that well. Its a simple thing really but the meet was unevenly cooked and badly cut.
My picks are flat out kicking ass. Bryan performed well last week and won the challenge this week making him the first contestant with two elimination challenge wins. Jennifer won the quickfire last week and 
was chosen by the group to lead them in the challenge and she did awesomely. This week she was in the top group for the elimination challenge. Kevin was in the top group last week and won the quickfire this week. I would predict that it will be my picks plus the two Michaels in the final five.
It was a really exciting episode this week. It felt good getting rid of two chefs. It gets better when more of the dead weight chefs get cut and the really good chefs get super competitive.
Sep/090
Weeds’ Highs and Lows
Like smoking a good bowl, joint, bong or blunt, this season of weeds had its odd, freaky moments, its states of confusion and offered some moments of hilarity. I've complained before that this season has been all over the place. It totally has, but it appears they have reinvigorated the show once again. The finale aired last week and definitely set the show going in two very different directions. 
Nancy Botwin has left her drug dealing ways behind, but she wonders if her involvement had negatively impacted on her kids' lives. This has been a question pondered for weeks, but her new husband put her down because he thought his daughter was perfect because he sent her away to boarding school in Europe to make her a better person. It appeared that way until she was nearly gang raped while high on heroine and then was vomiting from withdrawals and half her body was numb. Nancy felt slightly vindicated that she was just as messed up as most teenagers. But in the final moments of the show, as Nancy was having an altercation with her husband's political advisor and supreme bitch, Shane comes out of nowhere and hits her with a croquet mallet. Her bleeding body was floating upside down in a pool as the closing credits began. I guess nobody's kids are perfect.
The second plot parallels the season one finale. 
Celia is now starting her own weed dealing business and amasses her team just as Nancy did at the end of the first season. This brings together the characters that were flopping around with nothing to do and brings the show back to its focus. I guess if Nancy isn't selling weed somebody has got to. While it is a reboot of sorts, it is completely different as well. I am excited by this a lot. I think this has potential to be hysterically awesome. But my poor Andy proposed to Alanis Morisette the abortion doctor and ends the season with an extreme protester pointing a crossbow at the happy couple as Andy runs away.
All in all, my enthusiasm is renewed, but at the same time I don't want this show to be an exciting first and last episode with an odd hazy middle ground. There are too many shows like that. Its cheap and annoying.
And on an awesome and unexpected note, my favorite song from my new favorite band was in the scene when Andy proposed. I didn't think a band named Starfucker would get any commercial gigs, but soon after this aired, I also heard the song in a commercial for Target. Go figure. Check out the song and its incredibly trippy video here:
Sep/090
Melrose Returns
Here it comes, the onslaught of new shows. I'm giving a shot to as many of them as I can. Here is one of the first to premiere of the new season: Melrose Place. If it is an indicator of what's to come this season... yikes. 
I felt my brain cells screaming with pain as they shriveled up. The good thing about the show is the format, which allows for people to come and go. They can add characters just as easily as they can make them move away. I hope after the pilot episode was tested they decide to add a few to the mix and maybe get rid of some as well. Right now, the majority of the characters seem either cliche or bizarre. From left to right we have a med student forced to pay her bills and ends up swallowing her pride and accepting cash for nookie from a guy she liked anyway, a chef and possible killer, the new bright eyed girl in town (played horribly by Ashlee Simpson-Wentz), Michael from the original show's son who happens to be an art thief (!!!!!), the blonde slut (The new Heather Locklear?), the aspiring filmmaker and his reluctant fiance. They felt the need to start the 
show off with a murder mystery involving one of the original show's craziest bitches, Sydney. I think she'll appear in future episodes in flashback segments, and I hope she does. She hasn't changed a bit. It's like they froze her in her apartment and just thawed her out again for the new show. I wish they hadn't killed her because she was ten times more interesting than any of the other denizens of Melrose Place. I give each show three episodes, so they have two more to make me interested, but I am not there so far. It doesn't have the pizazz the the original had. When it came out, it was so fresh and exciting. This new show feels generic and just a use of the format and recognizable name to pass off a sub par show. I also watched 90210 right before to see what was going on since I bailed halfway through last season. I should have stuck to my first instinct and never watched again. So dreadful.
If you want to give Melrose a shot, you can catch it Tuesdays at 9 on the CW.
Aug/090
Labor of Love
This week's episode of Project Runway was popping at the seams... literally. After a few seasons with the lovely host Heidi Klum being pregnant, they wait til she isn't preggers to do a maternity outfit competition. 
To guest judge this one the very pregnant Rebecca Romijn greets the judges. The one thing she mentions is that despite being pregnant, she still enjoys her shape. She doesn't want a flowing dress covering her bulge, she still wants a beautiful silhouette and something nicely tailored.
The designers are off and running with their ideas being a bit all over the place. Most have never designed an outfit for a pregnant woman, so they are in new terrain. The women have the advantage off the bat, especially since some of them had been pregnant before. Its clear that a man is going home this week and if I had to bet on it, a woman is going to win.
Filling in for Michael Kors this week is fashion designer Monique Lhuillier. It is fitting, because now there is a panel of judges consisting of four women who had at one point been pregnant and know exactly what kind of clothes they would have liked during that time. The fashion show begins and we see looks ranging from casual and simple to more elegant and tailored. When we get to the top and bottom group, we are left with three men and three women. Shockingly, the women were the top three. Let's take a look:
1st place: Shirin, 2nd: Althea, 3rd: Lousie
It is a bit hard to see in the photos, but Shirin's design had really beautiful stitching around the belly, kind of showcasing it but not drawing too much attention to it. There was some draping at the top, but it didn't muddle the silhouette. It was wearable and quite attractive. She even made a jacket to go with the outfit with a killer patterned silk lining that made the whole ensemble pop. Althea's navy cocktail dress was slimming and elegant. You could definitely see a pregnant celebrity rocking that outfit on any red carpet and making the best dressed lists. Louise's dress wasn't my cup of tea. It was a bit too nightgowny and red sating makes me cringe. However, it was beautifully detailed, excellently constructed and well thought out.
And now... the losers:
Losing designs: Ra'mon, Mitchell and Malvin
Ra'mon made a dress that looked like a bowling ball bag. He was going for something interesting with a play on depth and proportion, but the array of shades of purple and the shoddy construction put him in the bottom three. He had nothing to worry about next to the other two messes though. Mitchell can't sew to save his life. The judges like the idea of the outfit, but his execution was excruciatingly bad. It seemed like he was going for teen pregnancy chic to me, but the delivery was just dreadful. He said he was happy just to have a model with clothes on this week. Yah, great accomplishment. Somehow, he wasn't eliminated. Poor Malvin was. He was such a conceptual designer and couldn't mesh that concept with a ready to wear look. Drawing inspiration from a mother hen, he fashioned the belly as an egg and added a feather detail to the neckline. It was a tad bizarre and it didn't go over well with the judges. But I am going to miss seeing what he would have made for the coming weeks. The conceptual designers on the show never actually win, but are really interesting to watch.
Models of the Runway was dreadful, but I can't seem to turn away from it. One of the girls got a callback for a commercial and the others are jealous. Nobody wants to work with Mitchell because he sucks and he is a 'model switcher.' Other than that it was a bunch of girls sitting around with nothing to do. At least give them a challenge or something, make it a little entertaining!
Let's check up on my picks:
Althea Harper, Epperson, Gordana Gehlhausen
All three are holding strong. Althea was in the top three, but Epperson and Gordana were barely shown at all. I am nervous for next week because they are in teams of two and Epperson looks like he was paired with Qristyl and they were not getting a long. Uh oh.
Aug/090
Top Chef Vegas Gets Rolling
Ironically, this week's episode of Top Chef Las Vegas shared a lot of similarities to this week's Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsey's cooking competition show on Fox. Both shows started off with a challenge involving a roll of dice.
Top Chef's roll was for how many ingredients your dish had to use with salt, pepper and oil being a freebie. Each chef rolled two dice at a genuine craps table to determine. The lowest was a three and the highest was a ten. (For those curious: Hell's Kitchen was a multi-sided die with letters of the alphabet on the different sides. Each teammate would roll and pick an ingredient starting with whichever letter they rolled. Working together, they had to create 1 dish with the 5 ingredients.)
The winning dish came from one of the bros, Michael, who rolled an eight. The producers jumped for joy as his brother, Bryan, was in the bottom group of the quickfire. Let the sibling rivalry begin! Michael made a unique "Roll With It" Gazpacho Frozen with Liquid Nitrogen. You can watch him cook it here.
Hell's Kitchen always offers a prize for the winner of the challenge as incentive. Top Chef did it last week and continued last night as well, giving the winner $15,000 in what they call a 'High Stakes Quickfire.' They haven't made it clear if this is a random occurrence or if its a permanent thing, but like I said last week: I hope it continues. Chefs don't make a lot of money for one thing and it will plant seeds of jealousy if someone keeps winning. I want some drama.
The elimination challenge took a page right out of Gordon Ramsey's book: battle of the sexes. Every season of Hell's Kitchen starts with the men fighting against the woman, but it is not something that they usually do on Top Chef. The chefs found out they will be catering bachelor and bachelorette parties. The men will cook for the bride's friends and the women will cook for the groom's posse. To complicate matters, they have to create canapes that pair well with one of three shots offered at the party.
Bryan, Hector, Eli and Michael
I'm not going to keep you in suspense... the men won... overwhelmingly. They were cocky, but had the goods to back it up. 
The top four men pictured above were commended by the judges, particularly the normally stern Tom Colicchio. Guest judge Todd English had to make a decision about the winner. He made it clear that it was between the two brothers. In a nice juxtaposition to the beginning of the episode, Bryan took the win. Michael may have won the money, but Bryan got the judges attention which is far more valuable.
Bryan's dish was a unique take on guacamole and chips in the form of a Sweet and Sour Macaroon filled with Guacamole, Corn Chips and Corn Puree. It think it looks perfectly delicious and in proportion to the size of the shot.
The bottom four women summoned to the judges table were by far the weakest of the team with the exception of one: Ashley.
Jesse, Eve, Preeti and Ashley
Ashley decided that they had enough time to do an extra dish, so she took it upon herself to make it. And of course, she attempted something of the dessert persuasion, which wasn't very good. Most of the judges liked her first dish a lot, but the second one got her sent to Judges' Table. I hope she learned her lesson.
Preeti's dish wasn't bad, just the shiso leaf used was wilting in the sun, so she was safe as well. Jesse was in trouble. She had been in the bottom of the elimination challenge last week and in the bottom for this week's quickfire. But thoroughly clueless Eve had to get gone.
She looked confused and out of her league. Her Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche with Smokey Tomato Salsa and Popcorn was not liked by any of the judges. She used shrimp last week which lead to her being in the bottom four, so why not use shrimp again, right? There was even a shot of Jennifer having to warn Eve to watch her knife, as it was inches from Jen's face. And she had a really annoying voice. Adios!
Let's see how my picks are doing:
Bryan, Jennifer and Kevin
Bryan recovered from his Quickfire flop to outshine everyone else at the Elimination Challenge and win. Jennifer was a solid rock on her team and warned Ashley to stick to one dish even though she was ignored. She's sassy too, I like her. Kevin got the highest roll at the Quickfire, but did a good job incorporating all of the ingredients. His dish was enjoyed by the judges, but he wasn't in the top group. All three doing OK so far, let's see how it goes.
Aug/090
Dating Show Killer
Ryan Jenkins - Suspected Killer
I'll admit it, I watch all of those terrible VH1 dating shows and their spin offs. They are so bad that they flip the scale around and become brilliant. On right now is Megan Wants A Millionaire. Megan is quite a gal. She was on Rock of Love a few years back which led to her being on my guilty pleasure show I love Money and then Charm School. She's blonde and likes men with money, so they created a show for her originally titled Trophy Wife.
It's creepy. All the guys have to have a net worth of over a million bucks. They are a all a bit odd. One of the guys, Ryan, seemed actually a bit normal. He was Canadian and seemed like a clean cut guy. He even uttered the alluring phrase 'No pre-nup' to Megan. She nearly had an orgasm and has kept him around since.
Well, news broke today that he is the main suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. He allegedly killed her and then chopped her up to stuff her in a suitcase after he removed her teeth and fingers! He dumped the body in a dumpster near the hotel he was staying in in San Diego and fled north. Hoping that the missing teeth and fingers would buy him enough time, he made his way to Washington and then is believed to have taken a boat further north and crossed the Canadian border on foot.
And he seemed like one of the normal ones.
News also broke that he had also been a contestant on an upcoming season of VH1's I Love Money. And he won! Before fleeing after killing his ex-wife, he begged the producers to give him the prize money even though the show wouldn't be airing for months.
VH1 is shocked and have decided to no longer air Megan Wants a Millionaire or the upcoming season of I Love Money.
Aug/090
Project Runway: In or Out?
The Reigning Queens of Project Runway
The sixth season of Emmy nominated Project Runway premiered last night. For those who don't know, this took a hell of a long time to finally get on the air. It was actually filmed almost a year ago, starting in Sept. 2008. The Weinstein Company, the producers of the show, struck a deal with Lifetime to move the show to their channel and produce five seasons. Bravo's parent company, NBC Universal was not too pleased and immediately filed an injunction which they were granted. It bared Lifetime from showing or promoting Project Runway.
For months, nobody knew what was going to happen. The entire season had been filmed, the final collections had anonymously been shown at NY Fashion Week in Feb. 2009 and a winner had been chosen. But still, the show couldn't air. In the meantime, Bravo created a designer knock off of a TV show as fast as they could. It was interesting, but it didn't have the zest that Runway had. Finally, Weinstein Co. agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to NBC Universal and the show was able to air. What strikes me is what the poor designers have had to go through. Especially the winner and the others that have done well. They want their prizes, the publicity and the attention that comes from getting your clothes shown on television.
I expected there to be a lot of changes with the move to Lifetime. But I realized Lifetime snatched up the show because they liked what they already saw and wanted more of it. They did make two big changes. The first was a change in location. Goodbye New York, hello Los Angeles. The second change we will discuss later. First, the challenge.
L.A. is the land of Hollywood and award shows, so the contestants are asked to make dresses worthy of the hottest red carpets. Lucky bitches. The first challenges of the show have included making a garment from items purchased at a supermarket, with items stripped from their apartments, and made only from the clothes they were wearing at that moment. Making a red carpet dress should be instinctual to a designer, right?
The results were decidedly ehhh. I will agree that the top three were quite good. Here they are:
1st place: Christopher Straub, 2nd: Ra'mon Lawrence Coleman, 3rd: Johnny Sakalis
I thought the winning dress was perfect for something like the Video Music Awards, but I agreed with the judges that the ruffle at the bottom was the wrong color; it looks like dirty white. The blue dress was really chic, especially on that particular model because she had an Angelina Jolie kind of look. The red dress looked better when it was moving and had a pretty open back, but still wasn't the best. It looks cheap to me.
The losers were horrendous. Speaking of losers, did I mention Lindsay Lohan was the guest judge? She had absolutely nothing interesting to say, but she couldn't shut her trap. On to the losers:
Losing designs: Ari Fish, Mitchell Hall, Qristyl Frazier
Yikes. One of the judges described Ari's design as a disco soccer ball and it was right on. Just atrocious, especially on a red carpet. The second last design was just as bad, but I had to root for it because the designer's name was Mitchell and it is nice hearing Tim Gunn say my name. His bad design was blamed on his model for lying about her measurements, forcing him to make something in a hurry right before the runway. Qristyl's design looked tacky. Bright colors are OK, but it just seemed like these colors didn't work.
I certainly wasn't wowed, but I am intrigued. Instead of high caliber designers of seasons past, the show has gone back to its roots a bit. They all seem greener, with a yearning to learn and try new things. Even the few older contestants are rekindling the designer inside of them and it makes me curious to know more. It is nice having designers that aren't all experts by making the show more accessible and exciting.
The second big change that I mentioned earlier is the addition of a complementary half hour show about the behind the scenes lives of the models. I love me a bitchy model show, which this promises to deliver. But it seems to be about them discussing the designers and then waiting as their fate is decided by someone else. They can try to be the best they can be, but their future isn't really in their own hands. I'm curious to see how it plays out, but am no sold yet.
But I am sold on Project Runway. I am so excited it is back. The diverse crew this year will be highly entertaining and there is nothing like Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum. They are enjoyable to watch, especially Tim as he inspects the designers garment and prods them to be more inventive. For me, this season is definitely in.
Here are my early season picks of who I think will win it all:
Althea Harper, Epperson, Gordana Gehlhausen
It's hard to pick after seeing just one design, but I am willing to give these three a shot. I like Althea's personal style and she has that fresh out of design school inspiration. Epperson worked in window displays so he knows what looks appealing. He's also rebooting his fashion career so he may have a now or never attitude. Gordana owns a dress shop so I am sure she has a lot of back-up designs at her disposal.
Aug/090
Top Chef Vegas premieres
Let's face it, Bravo's competitive reality programming hasn't been on par lately. Top Chef New York was a huge disappointment. Top Chef Masters was a boring flop. Make Me A Supermodel was a dud. The Fashion Show wasn't received well by fans who wanted Project Runway. Project Runway is premiering tomorrow... on Lifetime that is. Something tells me that the execs at Bravo pushed a bit more money towards Top Chef Vegas in hopes of salvaging not only the franchise, but in hopes of beating their former friend and now enemy Project Runway.
From the get-go, the show flat out totes their bevy of talented chefs this year. James Beard Award nominees, Michelin star recipients, former employees of known chefs, executive chefs and a few wild cards. They also cast brothers to compete against each other; they've never had family members compete before.
The 17 contestants meet Tom and Padma in the Top Chef Kitchen. The first Quickfire Challenge is a crowd-pleaser: the ever popular mise en place relay. They are randomly divided into teams of four with a very lucky Robin (the token older woman for the season) getting the golden poker chip. This enabled her to not participate and get immunity for the week. The relay included shucking clams, peeling prawns, cleaning out lobsters and breaking down two chops.
While most did impressive jobs, one contestant, Preeti, couldn't get her team past the clams. It was a sad sight. Top Chef she is not.
Bryan, Mattin, Jennifer and Jesse kick ass
The winning foursome then competed against each other in a cook off with the ingredient they interacted with during the relay. Lucky Robin is given the choice to gamble her immunity for the potential to win some money, but she declines. The top two were a Clam Cevice with Citron Vinegar from Jennifer and Jesse's Shrimp and Grits with Polenta. Jennifer won the quickfire and was given a chip worth $15,000. It's not clear whether the monetary incentive will continue in future challenges, but it does fit with the Vegas theme. Also, it might 'inspire' chefs that might disregard the Quickfire Challenge under other circumstances, so I hope it continues.
Getting to the Elimination Challenge, we learn that they will be competing against their teammates. One of each of the groups will go to Judge's Table as a winner and one as a loser. Their theme was to create a dish around their vices. The majority cited alcohol as their vice, which seemed too easy to add whiskey or red wine to a dish. In fact there was so much booze in most of the dishes that I am pretty sure that Wolfgang Puck, the guest judge this week, was drunk. He threw one of the contestants doughnuts across the room and was boisterous as can be.
Kevin's winning dish
Besides booze-infused dishes, there was a bevy of spicy dishes for those whose vice was being hot tempered and slow poached fish for the procrastinators. There were a few clever takes on the challenge, but it seemed like an odd one to start the season with. Most just wanted to show off what they could do instead of thinking about the personification of a vice in food form. The winning dish looked pretty damned yummy in my opinion: Slow poached Arctic Char with Salsa Verde and Celery.
Losing dish... ick
The losing dish on the other hand looked like shit covered in breadcrumbs.
A Chile Relleno stuffed with Seiten. What is Seiten you may ask? It is an odd gluten meat used as a meat alternative. Its very vegan-rific. The chef, Jen, thought it would impress the judges. If she had made it taste good, maybe they would have been impressed, but they asked her to pack her knives and take that crap with her.
Who do I think will take the competition this year? Here are my picks for the final three:
Kevin Gillespie is an Atlanta based Chef with tons of experience. He's got the talent, imagination and guts to take the competition. Yes, he did win the first Elimination Challenge, but I swear I picked him before they announced the winner.
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Jennifer Carrol won the quickfire and showed the others that she is a force to be reckoned with. Out of all the women, she has the best shot of winning, in my opinion. She is a Philadelphia native and worked with Eric Ripert.
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Bryan Voltaggio is one of the brothers competing. I figure that the producers will want to keep the bros around for a while for the drama. The odds are good that one will make it to the finals and this brother seemed like the more talented chef of the two.
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All in all, a good premiere. I always like it once we get a few weeks in and the amount of chefs is pared down some. The level of chefs and production value seems to have been kicked up a notch from previous seasons, though, which has me curious. It appears Bravo is serious about getting some ratings and a leg up on other competitors out there.
