Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Top Chef: Texas week 8 power rankings

It's hardly surprising that reality tv editing can fudge facts sometimes, but Top Chef really pulled a switcheroo on everyone tonight. Ads for this season's Restaurant Wars episode focused on the ladies' team butchering service and being catty towards each other, and the episode itself hardly shied away from the internal conflicts. The men's team had a much more successful service (though not perfect, this is Restaurant Wars after all) and the agreement seemed seemed to be that it went well enough and the dishes just needed to be worked on a little more. At Judge's Table, however, the women took home the win for their superior food while Tom seemed ready to send all of the guys home. I don't mind selective editing, but this felt like I was being lied to.

1. Paul At the top by default. As uninspiring as his performance was, there's no reason anyone else is noticeably better.
2. Grayson Cooked some solid dishes without getting involved in drama.
3. Sarah The only reason she didn't torpedo the women's team was because Lindsay was just as bitchy as she was, and both were using Bev as a whipping girl.
4. Beverly Doesn't work well with others (see her earlier clash with Heather). Is this the beginning of a redemption arc or a momentary blip?
5. Lindsay Her cooking isn't attracting anyone's attention but as a Mean Girl... watch out!
6. Edward Meh.
7. Chris Double meh.

PYKAG'd: Ty-Lor. No chef of the night was demonstrably the worst, but he had it coming.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Top Chef: Texas week 7 power rankings

You know how bad things are for the current crop of cheftestants? I had to construct this list from the bottom up.

1. Paul There's a noticeable drop-off in quality between Paul and the other seven chefs. But let's be honest, Paul isn't even as head-and-shoulders above the pack as Angelo was in Top Chef: DC.
2. Sarah Due to the current season's predilection for group/team challenges, there are only two remaining chefs with solo Elimination Challenge wins. Paul is one; Sarah is the other.
3. Grayson Ranks higher than Edward due to a Quickfire win. Otherwise they have identical records.
4. Edward See above.
5. Lindsay Has managed to avoid elimination since the first episode, but this week was the first where she was eligible for an Elimination Challenge win. Not sure what to expect out of her going forward.
6. Beverly Not terrible, just erratic, so it's possible she could become a dark horse condtender a la Carla in Top Chef: New York.
7. Ty-Lor Ty-Lor is certainly a capable chef. However, this week he had immunity, deliberately sought to make amends for his poor performance in the steak challenge (which I believe he would have been PYKAG'd for if he hadn't fallen on his sword sufficiently), and ended up cooking poorly anyway.
8. Chris J. Did you know that Chris works at Moto? Because he works at Moto. He cooks the Moto way. Moto.

PYKAG'd: Chris C. Farewell, Malibu.
Next week: Restaurant Wars, which seems to have lost its original luster in my mind. Judging from the previews, the cheftestants find ample ways to screw up service again despite Restaurant Wars being the one thing other than the finale that they all look forward to. You'd think by know they'd all know going into the competition that they have to know a couple dessert recipes, and how not to screw up Restaurant Wars. Speaking of favorite challenges: when do we get the mise en place relay Quickfire?