Greetings TCFL. We are still blogging from the in-laws this week. Even with them wrangling the toddler and helping with the newborn, I'm still posting right under the wire on a Thursday. It's comforting to know that my high school and college procrastination is still alive and well.
Let's start at the end this week: As we all know... the theme of this season has been how alarmingly wrong I've been on pretty much every prediction and opinion. So it comes as no surprise that just a week after proclaiming how much I like Malarkey, it's just the following week that he is eliminated under... weird circumstances. The more I think about what happened with the service staff not sending Malarkey's plates to the VIP table, the more of a big deal it becomes in my head.
This episode was two things: 1. Our introduction to Champagne Padma (we'll get to her later), and 2. A very long love letter to Michael's Santa Monica. It's crazy that they are celebrating this renowned restaurant and these very prominent alumni chefs, only for the service staff to make a fuck up that I don't think I've ever seen on Top Chef before. As someone who loves to split and share dishes with Mrs. Commish (back when restaurants were a thing in our lives), splitting a dish is not the same eating experience as having something to yourself. And who is to say that Malarkey wouldn't have made a note during his presentation to "please enjoy as a duo, separately" had he not been flustered. Gail made sure to repeat that this had nothing to do with how he was judged, but is that really true?
Meanwhile, Gregory is reeling. He's been in the bottom of the Elimination in back-to-back weeks. He's making rookie-ish mistakes like under-seasoning and forgetting components. Should Gregory have been eliminated instead?
Let's start at the end this week: As we all know... the theme of this season has been how alarmingly wrong I've been on pretty much every prediction and opinion. So it comes as no surprise that just a week after proclaiming how much I like Malarkey, it's just the following week that he is eliminated under... weird circumstances. The more I think about what happened with the service staff not sending Malarkey's plates to the VIP table, the more of a big deal it becomes in my head.
This episode was two things: 1. Our introduction to Champagne Padma (we'll get to her later), and 2. A very long love letter to Michael's Santa Monica. It's crazy that they are celebrating this renowned restaurant and these very prominent alumni chefs, only for the service staff to make a fuck up that I don't think I've ever seen on Top Chef before. As someone who loves to split and share dishes with Mrs. Commish (back when restaurants were a thing in our lives), splitting a dish is not the same eating experience as having something to yourself. And who is to say that Malarkey wouldn't have made a note during his presentation to "please enjoy as a duo, separately" had he not been flustered. Gail made sure to repeat that this had nothing to do with how he was judged, but is that really true?
Meanwhile, Gregory is reeling. He's been in the bottom of the Elimination in back-to-back weeks. He's making rookie-ish mistakes like under-seasoning and forgetting components. Should Gregory have been eliminated instead?
On to some lighter fare. I thought that my favorite version of Padma is the one on Netflix, walking on top of her counter tops and cooking for Dave Chang (seriously, watch Ugly Delicious).
I had even reserved a spot for Hulu Padma, doing her part to fill the Bourdain-sized hole in my heart.
But no. Champagne Padma is undefeated, and always will be. My only issue with Champagne Padma and maybe-slightly-buzzed Waxman is that they were so inebriated, that they let Kevin go with his too-tall meatballs. He should have been disqualified.
A couple of Random Thoughts:
- The episode started as usual with the chefs entering the Top Chef kitchen for the Quickfire. But the transition they used to end Last Chance Kitchen was much cooler:
- I felt bad for Nilou getting kicked to a secondary table. She's been a lot of fun on What Would Tom Do.
- As always, you can find the Scoreboard here.
- Lastly, since we are now heading to Italy (and because I finally found a poll generator that I like), I have to ask:
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