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Top Chef Chicago Season 4
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: apskip on June 12, 2008, 07:35:37 AM ---I was surpised to see that Lisa had won elimination challenges twice and a Quickfire once.
--- End quote ---
I am surprised as well! My only impression of her has been standing with her belligerent attitude, arms crossed at the judges table. How many times was she also in the loser category? I think at least 5 if not 6.
I also believe we will hear about Richard in the future, he is very talented.
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: Duffer on June 12, 2008, 02:40:59 PM ---Yea! Congrats Stephanie
--- End quote ---
Welcome to RFF Duffer!
:welcome: :welcome: :welcome:
apskip:
Here's something interesting, an interview of Stephanie by her home-town Chicago Tribune:
Stephanie Interview
apskip:
It's time for the Top Chef4 Reunion special hosted by Andy Cohen. Last year Cohen's material (questions prepared by the writing staff) was pretty weak, so I am hoping for improvement. Fortunately, there is some. Everyone gets a chance to be heard except Nimma, Nikki, Erik and Manuel. Part of that may be their reserved personalities in comparison to the more high profile chefs. Videos were shown to support certain lines of questioning and prove what chefs actually said in the heat of the moment. Richard is the only chef not actually there.
Andy asked Stephanie what it was like when Padma announced that she was the winner. Her answer was blah.
Andy asked the judges what they thought of Richard's choking comment in the Finale. Tom said that it was consistent with Richard. I think Gail said that he
was being honest and forthcoming about how he felt then.
Tom asked Stephanie if she would rather be known as the winner of Top Chef4 or the first female Top Chef. She said Top Chef4 winner.
Video clips captured what Andy called "romances" between Mark and Spike, between Richard and Dale, and between Andrew and Spike. Commentary was from Andrew that "what you see is what you get."
Mark announced that he had gotten married 3 weeks ago and will be staying longer in the U.S. than originally planned.
Andy asked Jen and Zoi what it was like to compete against each other. Both said that it was a handicap and either would have done better alone. He followed up with a question on whether Inernet reports that they have broken up are correct. They refused comment, so probably those reports are right.
Antonia accused Spike of trying to psych people out. Incidentally, I originally was thinking of her as my fan favorite but a somewhat nasty side of her came out in this hour.
Dale and 6 other chefs report that thye are still having nightmares associated with Top Chef4.
Ryan was caught on film highlights explaining how a bad dish really wasn't. He was shown numerous times being verbose, particualrly on his vision of the underlying food principles.
The curse of unexpected bad performance was passed from Casey in TC3 to Antonia in TC4 (although I can make a splendid case for Richard).
There were outtakes of the stew room(the holding area after intially judging to just before the final elimination announcement). Sometimes this took as long as 8 hours.
In one video of judging from the Finale, Gail is asleep when caught on camera.
Mark's famous line of "Tom doesn't like me" was shown along with Tom's response that this was not true.
Andy asked about controverisal judges decisions. One example was how Richard's not cleaned off scales only ruined his dish for one or two people while Zoi's bad mushrooms were bad for everyone.
Lisa's negativity was shown in several different ways. In one, Anthony Bourdain nailed it perfectly when he said that she was not inclined to accept any criticism frorm the Judges Table or anywhere else.
The issue of throwing people "under the bus" came up. Lisa was shown doing it to Andrew. She admitted that this was stupid and unnecessary behavior. Continuing on, Andrew states that being is chef is being an entertainer. Lisa reponded with his being hyper all the type. Andrew admits to being ADD.
Andy notes that Gail seems to be pretty interested in Spike.
Dale to Lisa: "you get to bitch and whine anytime you feel like it."
Richard called in from Atlanta where his wife was about to give birth. He has opened a restaurant Home in Atlanta. His molecular gastronomy and hi-tech gadgets and special ingredients were the most interesting part of several episodes. Andy asked him what happened in the Finale. Richard admitted that he drove himself too hard and did not relax, causing him to overthink things(exactly what Anthony Bourdain said).
Fan favorite was about to be announced. Andy had tried to stir up interest in several chefs but of course it was already too late to vote. Tom stated that it could be anyone except Lisa, who had no chance of being fan favorite. Then Andy stopped the mindlessness by stating that Stephanie had also won the $10,000 prize for fan favorite. She claimed to have some borderline behavior during the episodes, but i did not notice anything significant.
Tom stated that this was the best overall season for Top Chef chef skills.
Several chefs volunteered comments on pithy aphorisms to live by in a restaurant kitchen:
Erik- run the other way and later practice your plating skills.
Stephanie - pay attention to the rules
Richard- if you are having fun, let it show and later have fun
Lisa - deal with the pressure as best you can
TexasLady:
Excellent recap as always, and I enjoy your comments as well. We weren't able to watch the reunion last night and this will make it more interesting when I do get to view it.
I had to laugh about the comment that Lisa wouldn't be the fan favorite, I know she certainly wasn't my favorite although it seems that she can deliver nice dishes. Richard would have been my choice, wish I had been able to vote.
I also thought it was a big mistake to have two contestants in a relationship, it was bound to cause problems with the other chefs and it certainly did. Zoi seemed to be the stronger of the two, it would have served her better if she hadn't been distracted by wanting revenge. I hope TC learns from this and doesn't make this mistake again.
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