Top Chef Power Rankings

Top Chef - Season 8 Postmortem

I guess we can dispense with the spoiler warning for this one!

Now THAT'S a finale worthy of Top Chef All-Stars.

Two chefs, toe to toe, both of them bringing their best, making it hard on the judges. How fantastic to see a Top Chef named not because somebody else stumbled, but because both were great and one was just a little bit greater?

For me, the whole thing was made even better because at the risk of actually flying my flag here, while I can think of maybe a couple of people I'd have been as happy to see win the title, there's nobody I would have enjoyed more. Huge, huge congrats to Richard. Now hurry up and open that restaurant!

And big congrats to Mike as well, who absolutely brought it. He maintained the focus and skill that came with him to the finals, but with this dinner, it felt like we were getting him again. He made sure Richard earned every bit of it.

Getting back to the show itself, can I express my hope that the elves will simply adopt this as their regular finale format? Maybe not... maybe they only felt they could do it this season because the rest of the chefs would be strong enough to give the finalists the support they'd need. If the six chefs selected weren't as talented as they are, this just as easily could have been a total train wreck. But on the whole, I love it. This IS what being a chef is about. Or at least it's as close as one could reasonably expect to simulate under the circumstances. It felt like a final exam, and my worry that it might seem too far divorced from the character of the show up until that point turned out to be completely unfounded.

And thank you, Spike, for some of the best comic relief in the history of the show.

It's amazing how the finale can color the whole season. But I was already in the camp that has really enjoyed All-Stars. Sixteen episodes is a long haul, especially when there isn't that lengthy courtship of getting to know everybody. And while there were certainly down moments and lulls, this season brought some pretty phenomenal highs:

• Remake the dish that eliminated you
• Jenn's gone?!?!?!
• Invading some of NYC's top restaurants
• Pulling fish out of the ocean and then cooking it
• Justo and working magic with fish scraps
• Crocadiles [sic] and Koala Bears
• "Too busy eating"
• The Muppets
• The Ellis Island Love-In
• Mike Isabella v2.2
• One bite cook-off to the death
• Maybe, just maybe the best finale in the history of the show

And lots of others I'm forgetting. For me, there has been a season or two that I found more compelling from a food standpoint. And there has been a season or two that I've found more compelling from a personality/television standpoint. But I thought season eight was a pretty freaking excellent balance of the two. I'd just like to make one request for next season:

Please, Bravo, please... give me my recipes back.

And with that, I'm going to close the book on season eight, though this thread will obviously remain open and I'm sure will remain active for at least the next couple of weeks. Plus, I've updated the offseason button on the right menu to start coming here rather than the season seven postmortem. Though I'm not going to do power rankings for Masters (ho, buddy, do I need a break), I'll keep adding postmortem threads every week so everybody has a place to discuss.

Thanks again, all, for making this a fun place to hang out and discuss the show. Thanks to everybody involved with the show who took the time to stop by and jump in. And thanks to the elves as well... as much as we like to beat you up from time to time, there's a reason we're still watching and still talking. Keep it up, guys. As usual, I've already written way too much, so I'll just say it's been a blast as usual, and I'll see you all... well... next week, I guess :-)

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E15 Power Rankings

We're keeping it short and sweet this week.

I get the sense that this season's finale is just in time. Not that it hasn't been a great season. Personally, I've really, really enjoyed All-Stars. But we've discussed everything to death and we're ready for resolution. Plus, including the preseason, this would be the 16th Power Rankings I've done this season and let's just say that the commenters aren't the only ones who are getting a little burned out. Which isn't at all a commentary on the upcoming finale, about which I'm totally pumped. But we'll get to that.

Quickfire, ho hum. Frustratingly gimmicky, but this is a tune I've been singing for a while now, so I'm not going to subject you to it again.

The elimination could have been a train wreck if not for the "twist," which is exactly what I think many of us were expecting. There would have been no justice in one of the final three being eliminated on a bad draw, so sending the two bottom dishes to a cook-off for the last spot was both fair and compelling from a TV standpoint. One interesting note. I was bothered less by the structure of the challenge, and more by the bad fish that Antonia ended up with. Though I can't say for certain, we weren't shown any shopping and it sure seemed like that kitchen was stocked. If -- and I stress if -- that's the case, I think over the past few episodes, we've been watching the real impact of the loss of Lee Anne. The challenges have, I think, pretty much been up to snuff. And while we know she wielded some influence over their design, I'm sure that came primarily from the producers with her input. But malfunctioning kitchen equipment and rotten ingredients? I don't see that happening on Lee Anne's watch. This is an awful lot of spectulation. Perhaps even irresponsible speculation. But I wonder.

Also, another little aside, I see Tom taking criticism in some corners for being spice-averse, but let's note for the record that he was definitely not the only one at the table who was bothered by the potency of Antonia's dish.

On with the rankings!

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Richard Quickfires 3 8 2 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 4 8 1 If Mike had pulled off another win, I would have given him number one going into the finale, but Richard won the penultimate elimination challenge, and did so convincingly. By all accounts, it was the unanimous favorite, a perfect balance of his modern technique and the classic flavors that Puck requested. This is Richard at his best, using modernist technique for good rather than evil (he usually does), putting his indelible stamp on the food while ensuring it's fabulously delicious. If he does it one more time, I think he takes home the title.

2 Mike Quickfires 3 6 5 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 2 6 3 Which isn't to say that Mike isn't just as capable of bringing it home. If they're both at their best, my guess is Richard has the edge, but with the exception of this week's fried chicken, Mike has been nearly flawless in the finals. Just the tiniest slip from Richard, and Mike will be right there to pick up the ball. And who knows... this new and improved season eight finals Mike v2.2 might be able to win it outright. It still seems like we got a brand new chef out of the blue, but that chef's been killing it and I see no reason to think that won't continue. Point being, this should be a battle.

3 Antonia Quickfires 2 5 3 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 2 7 6 Well, that's a bummer. Especially since it was by a razor-thin margin. Not only was it a 4-3 vote at JT, but it sounds like Puck flip-flopped at one point. I'll say it again, I would have rather seen Antonia in the finale, partly because unlike Mike, she's still doing the food for which we've come to know her. It would feel more like the culmination of a season long (two seasons long, actually!) battle, rather than the surprise matchup we're getting. Plus, she just seems like a swell gal who's been an awful lot of fun to watch. But I don't think anybody will dispute that she got a fair shake and came up just short. You don't have to watch her exit videos to know that hurts.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE SIXTEEN SPOILERS AHEAD

Okay, I'm really jazzed about this finale. Mmmaybe a touch nervous, but it sounds like there's potential for it to be extremely, extremely cool. For those who haven't watched the previews, they're dispensing with the traditional "cook the best meal of your life," and are replacing it with what appears to be a two-man verison of Restaurant Wars, with eliminated contestants used to round out the kitchen. Even the selection process sounds neat... a blind tasting of dishes prepared by all of the eliminated contestants rather than the standard schoolyard format. In some ways, it hearkens back to the old season one debate... what is a Top Chef? Leadership and reputation and the ability to manage... to truly "chef"... are going to come into play more than they have in most of the finales. I really like the direction the previews set up, and I'm anxious to see if it lives up to potential.

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E15 Postmortem

Never been so happy to see the Top Chef Twist Envelope™.

Exactly what I was hoping it would be. Wish granted. I'm okay with somebody moving on with a challenge like that. But not going home. A fine finish.

Well, result excepted. But that's a matter of personal preference, and not in any way an indictment of the process that got them there.

Very much looking forward to the finale. If you'd told me a month ago, I would have been supremely annoyed. But I want to see the food, and Mike's been bringing it, so I'm happy to have him here.

One more Power Rankings coming shortly... Discuss!

UPDATE : Hokay, folks... after a brief cooling-off period, comments are back on. I don't want to get into setting rules and regulations or anything like that, nor do I think it's necessary. But perhaps a quick reminder that I'd like to keep this mostly topical, related to the show and, above all, civil is in order. I don't mind a little chatter. I love that this is a a real little community, and I want you to feel like you can put your feet up. And it isn't ALL about the food. Personalities are a part of the show, of course. But lengthy tangents or getting all TMZ on the contestants is pushing it a bit, I think. Last night was a first, and I've no doubt it'll prove to be a grand exception. Sorry for the shutdown, and thanks as always for making this a fun place to hang out!

Top Chef - S8E14 Power Rankings

As usual, there's a lot of sneaky intel out there, but I'm endeavoring to keep this blog a spoiler-free zone. This isn't just for the readers, but for me, too -- I don't want to know what happens! As such, anything that's already been broadcast or has been posted on the official Bravo site is fair game for discussion. I will, for example, discuss the preview of next week's show at the end of the post. But if you've heard rumors that one chef has been hosting a lot of dinner parties, or that another chef was spotted boarding a plane to an exotic locale, please keep them to yourself.

So I almost had an extra special surprise this week. Remember when Mike said...

"To make pasta from scratch in an hour is pretty much almost unheard of."

...and then Antonia chimed by using the word "feat" in reference to their attempt? Yeah, that didn't sit well with me. I thought to myself, "Heck, I make fresh pasta from time to time, and it isn't that difficult to do it quickly." So I decided I'd set up the Flipcam, bust out the timer, and give it a whirl. But I decided to up the ante. Mike used a food processor, stand mixer and pasta extruder. I would use none of the above. Just an electric pasta roller and my hands. 60 minutes later, my kitchen looked like somebody had planted an explosive device in a ten-pound bag of flour. But there's no video posted for two reasons. First, something was really, really screwy with the sound, rendering it basically unwatchable. And second, I only got 40 plates done... because I made too much pasta. To make the kneading manageable, I split the work into two batches. When it came down to the wire, I only had time to roll out and cut about a fifth of the dough I had made. But even from 20% of my dough, I got 40 plates. So if I'd made half as much dough and not wasted the time on the second batch, I would've had enough time to roll out one full batch and get my 100 plates.

The lessons are twofold. First, Mike exaggerates when it comes to his own accomplishments. Which I'm sure surprises precisely nobody. Second, fresh pasta takes some practice, but it isn't the epic undertaking it's made out to be, which was the more important point of the exercise. Sorry there's no video to prove it.

Frankly, what I was far more impressed by was Richard's one hour Bolognese. When I make a big pot of Bolognese, it's on the stove for at least 12-14 hours. Now, it doesn't need to take that long, and even the way I do it would take a lot less time if I weren't making such a huge batch of it. But bringing the sauce along very, very slowly kind of comes with the territory when you're talking Bolognese. I consider it possible -- even probable -- that if I were to taste Richard's sauce, I'd consider it delicious but not a Ragu alla Bolognese. But I don't know. There could be magic in that pressure cooker.

I suppose I don't have anything particularly intelligent to say about the elimination challenge, though Top Chef's version of diving for conch kind of reminded me of Easter egg hunting with a two-year-old ("Good job! You 'found' one!"). And with beach facilities, what could have been an epic mess actually seems to have turned out quite well.

Some movement this week!

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Richard Quickfires 3 8 2 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 3 7 1 Watching Richard coming up just short challenge after challenge would be funny if I didn't actually feel for the guy. But even though I'm sure he disagrees, I thought he looked great this week. Pressure cooker one-hour Bolognese? If it even remotely resembles what I'd recognize as a Bolognese, that's a feat. And though vegetable "noodles" is by no means his innovation, doing them well enough to fool Colicchio into thinking it's actually pasta -- while cooking on a beach, no less -- is pretty freaking remarkable. It's been a long season of near misses... which is, I'm sure, a large part of the reason Richard's tied up in knots. It's not as though he feels his first shot at the title was characterized by the term "near miss" or anything. But near misses or no, it's been a long season of consistent excellence from Richard, and he's in the number one spot.

2 Mike Quickfires 2 5 5 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 2 6 2 But did anybody think Mike would be breathing down his neck, even three episodes ago? Mike's made such an incredibly strong showing in the first two seasons of the finals that I feel compelled to bump him past Antonia. As mentioned, the dude came PREPARED. And even if he exaggerates his pasta exploits, there's no getting around the fact that he's won both eliminations in the finals, and that Tom just declared his Banana Leaf Wrapped Grouper, Braised Pineapple and Conch Vinaigrette one of the best dishes of the season. Mike's transformation is just so odd though. We've seen chefs reenergized and prepared coming out of the break, but I'm trying to remember, have we ever had a finalist who showed up looking like a completely different chef? Just for kicks, I went back to look at all of Mike's dishes across two seasons that were solo efforts, and weren't largely dictated by the challenge (restrictive preselected ingredients, specific dish assignment, etc.): Olive Oil Poached Halibut with Wood-Roasted Eggplant Puree Scallop Crudo with Avocado Puree and Corn Nuts Arctic Char, Smoky Caper Sauce and Car Car Orange Potato Risotto with King Crab and Mascarpone Greek Salad with Cucumbers, Chickpeas, Olives and Poached Shrimp Sautéed Escargot over Potato Garlic Puree, Onion and Ouzo Broth, Lemon, Fava Bean Pork Gyro with Apple and Fennel Tzatziki Cucumber Yogurt Soup / Rack of Lamb Kabob Style Stuffed Pork Shoulder Skillet Asparagus with Six-Minute Egg and Green Romesco Arctic Char Tartare with Kalamata Olive Puree, Preserved Lemons and Harissa Sausage and Peppers, Mushrooms and Cheese, Warm Fruit Salad Whole Roasted Leeks with Onion Jus, Baby Carrot Puree and Fingerling Potatoes Bucatini with Bacon Lobster Carbonara Warm Sockeye Salmon, Eggplant Marinated Tomatoes and Pickled Peach Paella Stuffing Slow-Cooked Chicken with Pepper and Chorizo Stew, Pickled Onions Pan-Roasted Branzino with Black Olives & Caper Stew Pan-Roasted [Fish] Belly, Confit Cheeks, Charred Collar & Tomato Sauce Braised Pork Belly, Octopus with White Beans Slow-Cooked Lamb Chop, Cauliflower Puree, Turmeric & Honey Carrot Puree, Roasted Eggplant & Egg Yolk Spiced Lamb Kabobs with Mint & Chili, Feta Cheese Fondue Spicy Coconut Soup with Mushrooms, Scallions & Lime Fried Chicken Oysters with Mustard Gravy and Oyster Liquor Grit-Crusted Gulf Shrimp, Sour Cream & Chive Potatoes with Pork & Lobster Sauce Seriously, is there any indication that he might suddenly start busting out the kind of dishes he has over the past two episodes? Is turmeric in his S8 Restaurant Wars lamb dish and a coconut soup he made at Target the only hints that he'd do anything other than Southern European? I want to get out ahead of this a bit because if he wins, you know there will be howls that he must be cooking somebody else's food. And I think no matter how odd it seems, you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. But it seems pretty clear that he isn't shooting from the hip here. We've seen what he does when he shoots from the hip. Broken record, I know, but Mike came to the finals prepared

3 Antonia Quickfires 2 5 3 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 2 7 5 No sooner do I talk about how the judging seems to be shifting, and Blais is talking about demonstrating a sense of authorship and Antonia's defending the simplicity of her food. I stand by what I said earlier about what seems to be a gradual shift in judging criteria. But for the finals, it's starting to look like they're pulling back to Top Chef tradition a bit, which makes the hill a little steeper for Antonia to climb. But even so, she hasn't been completely on her game since the break, and combined with Mike's surge, I'm dropping her to number three. I'd still rather see her in the finale, but these are Power Rankings, and she's definitely trailing the others in that regard right now.

4 Tiffany Quickfires 1 2 6 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 3 9 Well... she got a win! I don't mean to be harsh. I think Tiffany's a fine chef. And I also don't think we got her best this entire season. When she went on a run last season, she really looked strong. And if she'd done more of that, I'm sure she wouldn't be the running gag she's become this season. But the fact remains that her standing greatly exceeded her performance this season, and it seems only right that she won't be around at the end. It's too bad, though. I wish we'd gotten that late-S7 Tiffany, because that run was fun to watch.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE FIFTEEN SPOILERS AHEAD

Tonight's quickfire looks to be a one pot dish including, but not limited to, canned and/or processed food. It doesn't appear to be completely restrictive, so it doesn't look to be ridiculous. But it's hard to say. I'd call it a throwaway, except that it seems as though it ends up dictating how the elimination challenge shakes out...

...and for the elimination challenge, it looks like we're revisiting S5's Last Supper, wherein the contestants had to cook for big-name chefs, making whatever they would choose for their last meal. This was a fabulous challenge last time around, but a lot of it depends on the draw. First off, Antoina gets Morimoto. Which is brutal. Between Blais and Mike, I'm not sure who gets Wolfgang Puck and who gets Michelle Bernstein. We know Mike's been tasked with fried chicken and biscuits, but does that sound like a last meal for either Bernstein or Puck? Strange. I suspect the answer may be at the 30 second mark of this video, but I'll be damned if I can make out what he's saying.

And the elves are hard at work editing the previews to look like there's some sort of shocking twist dealing with another unexpected scenario. A two-man cookoff for the second spot in the finale, perhaps? Or a total red herring. Remains to be seen.

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E14 Postmortem

Well, that was overdue. Which isn't intended to be harsh towards Tiffany, who's a fine cook, but really, when your first win of the season comes in episode 14... yeah.

The great news is that Tiffany's ouster combined with Mike's sudden excellence means it looks like we're headed for an exciting finale no matter what happens next week. I'd most like to see Richard and Antonia, but heck, I'll take Mike at this point. I do really want to look carefully at him this week, though... something's... odd...

As usual, the show's at its best when the chefs are at their best. A good episode.

Wasn't it a month ago that I said I have two more Power Rankings left? Huh...

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E13 Power Rankings

Sorry, folks... been a little tied up.

I could rant here, but I feel like it's a rant that's getting a little tired. Surprise kitchen facilities in the finals just sucks. If you're going to limit them to deep fryers and a small flattop, let them know BEFORE they do their planning and prep. But this is par for the course and isn't going to change. Amusingly, until the chefs got rattled and largely made a mess of their second chance, I actually thought that the deep fryer malfunction was a beautiful bit of karmic retribution. Try to spring surprise kitchen facilities on the chefs? Screw you, elves! We're doing it again!

I don't know, there was something so oddly antiseptic about this episode. Something weirdly ominous. Disappointing on many levels. Gonna move on, here.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Richard Quickfires 3 8 1 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 3 7 1 Berating himself in the corner notwithstanding, a pair of solid dishes and a bad week by Antonia put Richard back on top. Though there were some minor flaws in execution, his Roasted Lamb Loin & Malted Braised Leg with Pickled Turnip & Mustard sounds like another fabulous and well-conceived dish. I confess, I wouldn't have anticipated at the beginning of the season that Richard would become the polarizing figure that he seems to have become. I personally find his headspace both understandable and oddly endearing. I know people like that. But I can understand how some people are getting sick of it. If he wins, I'm sure he'll enjoy it. I just wish he could enjoy the journey, because that sure doesn't seem to be the case.

2 Antonia Quickfires 1 4 3 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 2 7 5 An off week for Antonia, losing a "whose dish we hated least" face-off in the quickfire, and making a dish rather uncharacteristic of her in the elimination. But that's just it. The entire episode was uncharacteristic of her. And unlike other contestants who you could see falling into a self-doubt tailspin, Antonia has always come across as mentally durable. In season four, she had an off episode, but didn't get the chance to continue any further. Here, she does, and I suspect she'll get it together quickly.

3 Mike Quickfires 2 5 4 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 1 5 2 Though Mike taking shots at people for playing it safe is truly ripe, there's no denying that somebody came prepared. Both in terms of food and headspace. One of the things I find most interesting about Mike's winning dish, though I don't think it came through in the show, is that it was a very Caribbean dish. Well, not the dish, but many of the flavors (I realize the Bahamas, geographically speaking, aren't technically part of the Caribbean, but...). Mace, ginger, allspice, turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, yams, rum, cardamom... this is not Greek and Italian. Which says that he's been doing his homework. I'm not moving him past Antonia partly because it's just one episode, and partly because Gail basically states outright that he won among a diminished field, but if he's put together a strong finale menu and can nail it, he's setting himself up for an upset.

4 Tiffany Quickfires 0 1 6 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 3 8 In some ways, it really has been a remarkable run for Tiffany. Through thirteen episodes, she's been on the chopping block even more than Lisa. But that win over Kevin should remind us that she can cook a mean dish, just not with the kind of flash or consistency that can get her out of the basement with this crowd. But we're so close to the finish line now, better start preparing mentally for Tiffany in the finale, beacuse it could very well happen.

5 Carla Quickfires 1 3 5 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 3 6 5 Ah, what a bummer. Carla would have added a lot to the finale in a lot of ways. And I really would have enjoyed that slice of humble pie from Television Blend (no, because somebody didn't win that does not prove they couldn't have, it just means they didn't). And it's especially painful to watch somebody go down like that. But at least it was a no-doubter and controversy free. Nobody's disputing that somebody else has to screw up pretty badly to save you when you serve raw pork. But the good news is that if there's one competitor in the history of the show who can let a late-season loss be nothing but a positive experience, it's Carla. She's a swell contestant of the highest order, and her exit is our loss.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE FOURTEEN SPOILERS AHEAD

Another quickfire that would be infuriating if it wasn't a quickfire. 100 plates in an hour is rough. But again, it's a quickfire. And in teams, oddly enough.

The elimination involves beaches and conch and snorkeling. The conch is a gimmick, and that's fine. It doesn't appear that it's going to have any impact on the cooking. And the product looks unimpeachable. So long as the facilities are adequate, it could be a very good challenge. Expect Richard to be VERY prepared for conch.

Now, the big question... how many episodes are left? Some listings have indicated two, and a three person finale would be in line with previous seasons. But in Gail's blog interview, she mentions three more episodes. Did she misspeak? Is it a two-person finale? Is there another non-elimination? Very strange.

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E13 Postmortem

Ugh.

Uuughhghghhghhgh.

It's not just that Carla went down. I mean, there are other departures that would hurt as much right now. But not like that. And even beyond Carla, it was like an entire episode of suckitude.

I know everybody's telling Matthew to give Carla a hug. And she deserves it. But she's already had some time. Something tells me Matthew's the one who needs the hug.

Will to live fading. Can't write. Maybe tomorrow.

Top Chef - S8E12 Power Rankings

(This banner makes me feel sooooooo much better... hated that old one since the first day I used it.)

Well, heck, that was a pretty swell episode.

I mean, really, you get one of the worst most pointless challenges in Top Chef history, you have lame and cruel antics at Judges' Table (really, Elves, just stop), and it still manages to be arguably the best of the season. At the intersection of great cooking and great television lie the best Top Chef episodes, and this was one of them.

Not everybody's happy about the non-elimination, of course, but I love it. It just felt right, even before the judges started deliberating. It's been suggested that it's the judges' job to name a worst dish and this was somehow dereliction of duty, but really... we've now had 107 episodes of Top Chef. They couldn't have a hung jury just once in there somewhere?

Speaking of which, the assumption seems to be that nobody at JT could name a worst dish. But am I the only one who wonders if it wasn't actually a hung jury? We know from previous blogs and interviews that Judges' Table works on consensus. They argue and argue and argue until they agree about who should go. Or, as we've been told, when in rare circumstances they're unable to reach consensus, three who agree can overrule the fourth. But while we haven't really seen any direct evidence to suggest it, has anybody considered the possibility that they reached individual decisions, but were deadlocked? Even if the show was all sunshine and happiness, extended JT shows they certainly weren't lacking for criticisms, nitpicky though they may have been. I just wonder -- and I stress wonder -- if this wasn't less of a kumbaya moment and more of a Twelve Angry Men moment. Just a thought.

And what the heck, let's throw out another possibility that occurred to me. Here's a chunk of Tom's talk at JT:

"But, you know, again, I don't think we knocked anything for being cold, and just about every dish was cold. So I have a hard time-- because that's why [Richard's sauce] congealed, because the dish got cold. And there was such a long, long-- it was cold outside, and there was a long travel-- it was a long trip between the kitchen and the front, so that's-- I have a hard time with, with that."

Is he stopping himself from saying that he has a hard time judging the dishes when they weren't served hot? If, due to the setup, every dish was served cold and it was beyond the contestants' control, might the judges have thought it impaired their judging ability enough that it made an elimination inappropriate? Again, just a thought. Point being, I wouldn't completely dismiss the possibility that there were some other perfectly reasonable dynamics at work here.

The other thing I find so fascinating about this episode is that it further illustrates what I think is a clear shift in judging criteria. I've touched on it earlier this season, but the judges just seem more willing to accept simpler dishes, perfectly executed than they have been in seasons past. It used to be that got you two thirds of the way through the season, and then you had to turn on some heavy creativity to push through to the finish. But contestants have been scoring with some very, very traditional flavors, and to some degree I feel like the old rules have gone out the window. Maybe it's just the food this field has been making, I don't know, but has anybody been criticized for taking the easy route when it comes to degree of difficulty this season? Has anybody been criticized for making something predictable? It really does feel like they've come to a place where it isn't about creativity, and it isn't about expressing a mature, personal style, but rather it's taste rules all, full stop. I don't mean to suggest that's necessarily good or bad. But I'm more and more convinced that it's different.

You'll note that I based the stat count for this week's EC on the order in which people were sent on or held at JT. The point, and I think it's a very good one, has been made that it really wasn't clear that the last two standing were the bottom, or that Mike was on top. Whether that reflected a true ranking or was simply a dramatic ploy is unknown. But it seems probable to me that it wasn't completely arbitrary, and these numbers are sometimes judgment calls anyway, so that's how I'm going to score it. Also, we'd already reached the point of the season where I struggle for new things to say about the contestants, but we've had nearly TWO full seasons with these guys rather than the customary one, we've tacked on another episode, and we didn't even get rid of anybody since the last one. So forgive me if some of this is a little redundant.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

Top

Bottom

1 Antonia Quickfires 1 4 2 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 2 7 4 Weeeeeeeell, maybe not entirely redundant. Yeah, it's time. Two things put Antonia over the top for me this week. First was that, if you give her credit for last week's technical (but entirely legitimate) disqualification, she's been on top of nine straight challenges. My notes start in season four, and the closest I can find to that is a streak of six from Kevin Gillespie. I mean, this is really remarkable on its own, but then add to that the fact that we just saw a challenge where the last five standing in the all-star season were supposedly all kicking ass at the same time, and she walked away with the win. If those two things in tandem don't merit the top spot, I'm not sure what does. And if you want the rankings to be a little more predictive, the shift in judging that I mentioned above only works in Antonia's favor. I couldn't deny her the top spot this week even if I wanted to.

2 Richard Quickfires 3 7 1 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 3 6 1 Which isn't to say that Richard is far behind. We haven't seen Tom's bowled over look a whole lot this season, but that was it. That was the kind of giddy, energized response that the Voltaggi and Pork Jesus were able to coax out of him. As some have pointed out, Richard seems to be his own worst enemy at this point, but if he makes a few more dishes like that, this should be a very exciting finals. (Sea beans over braised short ribs? Really? Wow.)

3 Carla Quickfires 1 3 4 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 3 6 4 I will say that if not for the uncertainty surrounding the EC dishes' relative merits, I might again consider flipping Mike and Carla. But for lack of a clear bottom, I need to take at face value that the dishes were nearly equally awesome, and we'll just say that Carla seems to have purged the demons that plagued her in the previous episode. Nice to see her solidify her position going into the finals. And nice to finally put a face to Matthew as well!

4 Mike Quickfires 2 4 4 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 0 4 2 Anybody else starting to wonder if Mikey might actually make a go of it in the finals? That's an awful lot of praise over the past couple of episodes, and now he has a chance to reload and throw everything he has at two or three episodes. I don't think he's the best chef here, but as we've been discussing, this is a game, and he's played it pretty well. Now he has a seat at the finals table, and he just might do something with it.

5 Tiffany Quickfires 0 0 6 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 3 7 Wow. Talk about picking the perfect time to bring your best. Tiffany's been limping through the entire season, and at the precise moment when anything other than a Grade A top notch dish would have sent her home, she found it. I think you have to give her at best an outside chance at making the finale. But then again, as we've been saying, she's one of the two who have been running back-to-back seasons, and she's running on fumes. Might a little time off before the finals allow her to come back with the kind of run she showed in the second half of last season? Seems unlikely, but you have to wonder if she might come back from the break a different chef.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE THIRTEEN SPOILERS AHEAD

So what the heck happens now?

It looks like we're getting three more episodes. So is it a straight single elimination, single elimination, three chef finale? You'd think so, but there are also hints towards another non-elimination... sort of... maybe. Bottom line, at this point it's anyone's guess.

I doubt the quickfire is going to be much more than an exhibition. Sure, some cash will be handed out and perhaps some advantage will be conferred upon the winner, but I doubt it's anything more than an opportunity to bring back more old faces. And I'm particularly excited to see Stephanie because, let's face it, she's kind of awesome.

The elimination looks pretty straightforward, cooking upscale food for Bahamian royalty. Just the kind of thing we like to see in the finals.

Here come the new hairdos... discuss!

Top Chef - S8E12 Postmortem

Perfect.

As they were leaving the table, my exact thought was, "Send them all."

What a great episode. So great was it to see all five chefs cooking from the heart and bringing everything they had that the elves couldn't even screw it up with one of the stupidest quickfires in the history of the show and some really shameful head-faking at Judges' Table.

Put me in the camp that thinks this was the right call. Sooo much I want to write about. Thoughts on the contestants, thoughts on what I bet happened at JT... but I'm going to save it for the rankings.

Great episode.

Discuss!

Top Chef - S8E11 Power Rankings

Hard to believe I only have two more of these things to do.

As mentioned last week, I've never watched Paula Deen. I only know her by reputation. And while a little showy, I figure anybody who gets that excited about sucking shrimp heads can't be all bad. A fun quickfire, and too bad it was marred by oyster controversy and Antonia's error.

I actually don't mind the catering challenges, so long as the chefs have room to breathe creatively, which was certainly the case here. I'd prefer more manageable numbers, which may have contributed to Dale's ouster, but I don't groan about high-end catering challenges like some. It certainly didn't keep some of the chefs from coming up with compelling food.

Okay, then... let's make this week official. Not much excitement this week. Dale goes home, and everybody else moves up.

The power rankings are not purely a prediction of who is most likely to win, or an assessment of last episode's dishes, or a reflection of the contestants' historical performance, but rather a nebulous amalgam of all three, combined with a little bit of gut feeling, to provide a relative measure of current awesomeness.

Wins

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1 Richard Quickfires 3 6 1 Last Week: 2 Eliminations 3 6 1 Dale's exit and a strong week put Richard back in the driver's seat, though he still has some close competition. His quickfire was a textbook example of why it's so frustrating to see non-traditional techniques dismissed out of hand. Sure, everybody wants to poke fun at yet another use of liquid nitrogen. But he used it as a tool to create something unusual and delicious that couldn't have been achieved by traditional means. MG is great as long as it isn't gratuitous, and this wasn't.

2 Antonia Quickfires 1 3 2 Last Week: 3 Eliminations 1 6 4 Antonia continues to outplay the stats, with another winning dish that doesn't show up on the scoreboard. Both her fried avocado and shrimp and her crab cake were mostly straightforward from a flavor standpoint, but again, she's doing more to elevate her dishes than she was in season four. And if you work under the assumption that plating a second quickfire dish wouldn't have kept her out of the top, she's a DQ short of seven straight top appearances, which is a truly remarkable streak. And she's looked so confident along the way, seeming to toss of top dishes almost effortlessly. At this point, I'd consider losing her as much of a disappointment as losing Richard.

3 Carla Quickfires 0 2 4 Last Week: 4 Eliminations 3 6 3 We've seen strong competitors stumble into the finals before, and this season it's Carla's turn. With Mike having a good week, a drop below him almost seems warranted, but generally speaking I'll value some highs and lows over consistently shooting for the middle. If she can hang in there for one more week, I expect Carla will be well-prepared for the finals. So we won't beat her up any more than I'm sure she's already beaten up herself.

4 Mike Quickfires 2 4 3 Last Week: 5 Eliminations 0 3 2 Chefs steal. Borrow, honor, amend, adjust, personalize, riff on, whatever. Like any art, truly original ideas are very few and very far between, and the best ones propagate. Jean-Georges Vongerichten isn't collecting royalties for every molten chocolate cake out there (nor would he want his name on most of them). But to me, there's a difference between seeing something on another chef's menu and doing your take on it, and ganking a very distinctive idea that was just shown to you that morning and using it in a competition against the guy you just lifted it from before he even has a chance to get it out of his notebook. That's sleazy in any context, culinary or otherwise. Of course Mike had to execute it, and though I joked about wondering whose stat column should get the win, I wouldn't take it away from him even if we knew for a fact that he wouldn't have won without the idea. And it didn't figure into his ranking. But it's still really, really low.

5 Tiffany Quickfires 0 0 5 Last Week: 6 Eliminations 0 3 6 The fact that Tiffany's still here, winless, has started up talk again of how some sort of cumulative scoring would make Top Chef a better show. Of course, that's not going to happen. I just can't imagine that the elves would ever consider a complete retooling of the format they've followed for eight seasons now. But let's pretend for a moment that they'd entertain the idea. Speaking only for myself, while I'm open to the idea, I don't think I've seen a compelling case that it would make for a better show. For starters, there's the notion that it would be a truer test of who really is a "Top Chef". But what is a "Top Chef" anyway? Ask ten fans to define it in detail and you'll most likely get ten different answers. Chefs don't exist on a continuum whereupon each can be accurately and objectively scored one above the other, even if shows like this attempt to build a framework to do so. Subjective tastes, disparate styles, varying abilities... if they each cooked us ten dishes and we could then look at their cumulative work and pick a winner, it would still be a highly subjective process. So by changing the judging criteria, I don't think you're necessarily more likely to reward a better chef, just a different kind of chef. And the same could be said of any number of changes you could make to the format. Yeah, it sucks when somebody goes home early. But the judges get enough grief for their decisions without at least being able to fall back on simply calling the best and worst dishes of the day as they see them. Would some of the alternatives I've seen proposed create a finale that's more likely to involve chefs I'd like to see there? Probably. But I'm not convinced that that wouldn't be at the expense of however many episodes it takes to get there. In the end, as some have said, it's a game. Which isn't meant to belittle it. But if you take a group of chefs and put them on Iron Chef, then send them to the Bocuse d'Or, then put them on Top Chef, you might very well end up with three different winners. Top Chef isn't Iron Chef, and it isn't the Bocuse d'Or. It's its own competition with its own emphases, and I don't think its goal should necessarily be to reward an ideal that isn't even clearly defined. It's good television. I'd argue that the occasional untimely departure is part of what makes it good television. And as long as the chefs are given enough freedom and resources to turn out some great food, I'm of the opinion that "don't make the worst dish today or you go home" is as good a judging system as any other. End of rant.

6 Dale Quickfires 4 5 3 Last Week: 1 Eliminations 3 6 3 And I say all of this as somebody who is a big Dale fan and really wanted to see him in the finale. But as I've said before, I'm glad the judges stuck to their guns and sent the worst dish home. I'm just sad that dish was Dale's. Frankly, I'm going to miss the competitive fire as much as I'm going to miss the food. He wanted to win, badly, and wasn't afraid to say it and act like it. But while I think the rest of season eight will miss that energy, I'm glad we had it for as long as we did.

WARNING : MINOR EPISODE TWELVE SPOILERS AHEAD

The quickfire looks like a total throwaway that's barely a step up from the infamous vending machine challenge. The less said about it the better. And the previews aren't showing us much of anything about the elimination, except that the chefs have a real kitchen to work with, which is good.

I'm assuming we're following the usual format... one more elimination to the finals!

Discuss!