Top Chef Recap

It only took me about half the season, but I've finally gotten caught up with Top Chef which is easily one of the most entertaining shows on television. How can you argue with food, crazy challenges, food, drama, and food? That's right. You can't.

Anyway, I figured I would offer up my thoughts about the week's past episode and keep it up through the end of the season because I know that everyone is curious about my Top Chef analysis. Two things to keep in mind: first, my favorite chef by far is Tiffany. She just seems like she's having fun and, most importantly, she's a really good (and really smart) chef. Second, I've said this before, but I'm pretty sure Padma has close to zero clue how to cook. She's basically hosting this show because she's hot. Can you believe that?! Outrageous.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to this week's episode...

"Covert Cuisine"

The highlight of this week? That douche Alex finally got eliminated. I couldn't stand that fool. Remember at the end of last week's Restaurant Wars episode when his team won but he basically did nothing? And the things that he did try to do (i.e. cut meat and filet fish) he failed at so his teammates had to fix all his work? And he was a complete ass to the wait staff? And then Kenny and Kevin ripped into him during the judging saying that it should be him going home? So yeah. I'm pretty glad he's gone.

But the truth is that every season, there's a guy like Alex -- that guy who is clearly not as good as everyone else and who has a bad personality so no one likes him, but he manages to hang around deep into the show. It freaking drives me crazy, but thankfully "that guy" has never won the competition.

On a more positive note, my homegirl Tiffany won both CIA-themed quickfire and elimination challenges. Yessss! She's been on a roll lately and looking more and more like the chef to beat. But I always worry about contestants on reality shows who keep winning challenge after challenge leading up to the finale. A lot of times they lose steam, can't quite get back on track, and eventually fail to win the whole thing. I call this "Mychael Knight Syndrome." For those who do not know, Mychael Knight was a contestant on Season 3 of Project Runway. He was a fan favorite and was winning a lot of the challenges leading up to the finale of the show and basically looked like the front-runner. However, he started to come undone in the last few weeks, made some questionable decisions, never fully recovered, and ended up finishing in fourth.

Reality show competitions are like sports. You have to peak at the right time. Who cares if the Cavs won 66 regular season games in 2008-2009? Or if the Mariners won 116 regular season games in 2001? The Cavs lost in the Eastern Conference finals and the Mariners lost in the ALCS. Neither team came through when it mattered most.

(Also, I realize I just made a reference to Project Runway followed by a reference to professional sports. You might be confused as to what the hell kind of blog this exactly is. So am I, my friends. So am I.)

Anyway, we're down to six chefs! It's getting real. Stay tuned...

P.S. Since we're talking about TV, two quick things...

1) I watched the Parks and Rec "Hunting Trip" episode and heard one of the funniest lines ever: Tom Haverford asking how mad Ron Swanson is that someone shot him, "On a scale of one to Chris Brown, how pissed is he?"

2) Friday Night Lights season four came to an end a couple weeks ago. All I can say (again) is that FNL is seriously one of the best shows out there right now. How are more people not watching it?!?! Only one season left! Nooooo!

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!