californiabeerandpizza's Profile
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #14 - 02/08/12 (Spoilers)
I think Paul is going to have to bring it to win. Any of the remaining chefs is capable of coming up with a knock out dish. I think they've had some time to prepare so who knows what they've been doing. Look at last season; clearly Mike I used his time wisely, I don't think anyone saw that coming. And clearly Antonia didn't show up with her game face on. One loss and your out means anyone can get knocked out. No reason to get pissed, just the nature of the competition. I once suggested they should keep a cumulative score throughout the competition (up until the final 4) and was roundly criticized for the idea so I think people really like this single elimination system. But you have to accept the most consistent chef may not always win.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #14 - 02/08/12 (Spoilers)
You never know, it looked like Blais, Angelo and Stefan had it in the bag going into the finals too. It only takes one mistake or one amazing dish by someone else.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #14 - 02/08/12 (Spoilers)
+1
Also, I think it seems Tom has been favoring her because she has been cooking well. Was he favoring Nayesha when she was on her streak? I don't think Bev being there has anything to do with drama, Tom wouldn't play it that way. In my opinion Paul & Bev's cooking is a level above everyone else's. It took Bev quite a while to get comfortable with the competition aspect but at this point it won't surprise me if she wins.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #14 - 02/08/12 (Spoilers)
Very happy for Bev and Paul, I hope they continue to do well. I don't know about the degree of difficulty in regards to wok cooking but Tom was impressed and that's good enough for me. Bev's cooking has been impressive to me all along but I'm partial to her style of cooking. Given the opportunity I would choose to eat food cooked by Paul or Bev over the rest of the pack. Well, I would add Grayson because I think the eating would be huge fun.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #13 - 02/01/12 (Spoilers)
Remember, she had to carry them in her hand while riding a bike. The little extra room for the egg yolk to roll around may have been intentional. They didn't look that huge on the plate they showed. If the judges hadn't said anything about it I wouldn't have had any thoughts about the breasts being excessively large.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #13 - 02/01/12 (Spoilers)
Definitely a shark jumping episode, probably worst ever in my opinion. The one was plus was the comic relief with the Pee Wee/Padma chemistry.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
+1 on a French/Italian season (I would add Spain too).
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
In my original reply I was kidding but having been obsessed with endurance events for a couple of decades I've read widely on sports nutrition and there are numerous opinions on the topic and they all seem to have a mountain of research to back up their claims.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
Unless they plan to get those kids moving with a few miles around the track every day, then they may want to carbo load a bit.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
People seem to suggest that her cooking is basic, kind of stereotype midwestern but looking through her recipes I was a little surprised by how impressive the dishes looked. I didn't remember seeing most of them on the show.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
Your ideas sound great but I think Grayson did pretty good too:
http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/chicken-salad-sandwich-with-arugula-pickled-red-onion-feta-watermelon-salad-with-pumpkin-seeds
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
Looking through the recipes I think some of us may have been underestimating Grayson. She has put out some very nice looking and interesting dishes. I think her technique may be more refined than she has been getting credit for.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
Weren't they instructed to make a healthier version of the traditional item they chose? Granted, "healthier" means a lot of different things to people so they should have defined it better. What's in a "traditional" meatball that would make it less healthy than the veal/lamb meatball? Was it simply the fat content of ground beef vs. veal/lamb? It just seems strange to me to think of someone saying, "I'm going to start making healthier choices so now I'm going to make my meatballs with veal & lamb instead of ground beef."
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
I'll concede the point on the healthy meatball, you've convinced me. I tend to scoff at the notion of chicken or turkey being better for you than beef to begin with so I didn't really see where any of the dishes were all that much healthier than their traditional counterparts.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #12 - 01/25/12 (Spoilers)
I also questioned the "healthy alternative" on Lindsay's meatball. Just goes to show how good Paul is that he actually embraced the challenge and still won.
I stand behind the chicken salad choice. How well they pulled it off was for the judges to decide but I would definitely get psyched if I thought I was being served an interesting or upscale chicken salad sandwich. I think there is a lot of room to be creative there.
Layover L.A.
I thought it was good, better than the No Reservations L.A. Plenty of awesome food porn, not too much focus on the stereotypes and he actually seemed to be having a good time on the Dead Celebrities tour (which is typically the type of feature that seems to make him miserable).
One small complaint is that the L.A. craft beer scene has grown quite a bit the past couple of years and I think a few minutes (or more) on that topic would have been interesting.
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
"Compare her record to Paul's. That's why I don't think she's a great chef."
You can say that about every other chef too. Paul is the only one with impressive stats.
Duck Legs
Does anyone know if any of the shops at the L.A. Farmer's Market sells duck legs?
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
I was looking for Grayson's Peach Salad recipe on the Bravo site and found it interesting looking through the recipes. Going through chef by chef I got the sense that everyone stays pretty close to their comfort zone. No one is all over the globe. So I'm not sure the case can be made that anyone is exhibiting a huge range. Don't the judges want to see the chef's vision in their dishes? That would be pretty difficult to do if you're all over the map so I don't know that "range" is something they should even strive for.
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
"Nyesha was unfortunate enough to only be there for the awful competitions in groups they had early on. And each time, her flavors were very highly praised, even when her group's efforts weren't. And she's demonstrated serious chops in LCK."
That's a bit of an exaggeration that the statistics don't back up. LCK is a completely different ballgame.
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
I still don't get the huge respect for Nyesha. While she was in the competition she did practically nothing, zero wins. I thought Bev did pretty well week in and week out. Her misses were never horrible (as in every dish from Moto Chris prior to this week) and she had some very well received plates. She looks extremely focused in the kitchen and appears to have awesome knife skills so in my opinion she has shown an impressive consistency. A lot of the criticism seems to be that she only cooks Asian. Nyesha seemed put off that she was given "Asian" ingredients, as though they were substandard. How many of the chefs only cook European or North American?
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
Very happy for Bev. I don't know how much of it is editing but she seems very talented and humble while most of the other chefs seem like egotistical jerks who aren't as nearly talented as they think they are. I'm a little tired of the "I deserve it and I want to win," comment. Doesn't every contestant want to win and why is any contestant more deserving than another? I've been thinking throughout this season that this group is probably better than they're getting credit for but I don't remember a previous season in which some of the contestants had such an inflated (and what seems to me false) sense of superiority over others.
Top Chef - Texas - Last Chance Kitchen (spoilers)
Nyesha has done well since she was eliminated but I don't get why she is held in such high regard. While she was in the competition she had zero wins and in her 4 elimination challenges prior to being eliminated she was on a losing team, a low finish, a middle finish, and a high finish. I'm just curious what people saw from her that they found so impressive.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #10 - 01/11/12 (Spoilers)
Have we seen anyone go out of their comfort zone? The range of challenges have been so narrow it's been difficult for any of them to show their range. Remember the challenge (from the N.Y. season I think) when the chefs had to cook for the French masters? I'd love to see something like that with this group. But thus far it seems everything other than Restaurant Wars has been Texas themed.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #10 - 01/11/12 (Spoilers)
Wasn't that quickfire win for vienna sausages & saltines? I can't think of anything else she's made, although having prom queen on her resume is impressive.
Top Chef Texas - Ep. #10 - 01/11/12 (Spoilers)
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I don't think it's fair to say that Bev is not a team player, she just gets very focused on what she's doing. If I was on a team with her my strategy would be to ask her what she wants to do, send her into her zone to do it, and be confident that her dish is going to be done well. In my opinion Bev and Paul are putting out the most interesting food.
