Top Chef

[LurkerNan]

Nobody yet. It's down to Tiffany and Harold. Dave was ousted last night with no good reason at all.

[Deleted]

I hope Harold will win.
In my area Bravo is a hit or miss station, it will go dark at a moment notice.

[maxell1313]

littleediebeale said:

Ugh. So pissed am I. But last night I realized that Dave Martin lives in Long Beach, CA, which happens to be where I live. So now I have to search out where he's working and go tell him he got robbed personally. And eat some of his yummy cooking.

If you find him, tell him I adore him!

Dave totally came in second last night and Bravo can spin whatever shit they want to support their version of the "truth"–but there's no way they were ever going to let "someone like" Dave be in the finals. His "pedigree" was apparently not snobbish enough for Tom C—a guy who basically operates an upscale version of Subway. Dick. I hope they ax him from S2.

The show was total bullshit last night. ARGH!!! Harold—you better win it dude and leave old helium pumpkin head to stew in her overly salted juices.

I can't agree with all this more than if I'd written it myself. Dave was SCREWED. Major, big time, repeatedly. Tiffani didn't win a single thing and should have been ousted. Oh, but why follow rules? Those are so arbitrary! I was screaming (well...in my head) at the TV last night. What a load of crap!!

I have some serious hate going on.

Harold, you'd better win this whole thing!

Dave, you rule!

[maxell1313]

Ooh, a friend of mine found this...a blog LeeAnn was keeping in regards to the show. Bravo really is being run by monkeys:

LINK

The Wedding Challenge:
I am incredibly pissed, still at Tom, and at Gail, for labeling me as "overly ambitious". The challenge was to "wow" the Scotts with a wedding menu. I did just that, without any knowledge of the task that lay ahead. Both of them should know that I am not only smart enough, but competent enough to understand what exactly it takes to cater a 100 person party with 7 plus courses in 16 hours with no sleep. MENU WOULD HAVE BEEN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. I actually create custom menus on a daily basis as part of my job. We were set up for failure from the start ("I'd like to do something different, and do 100 little boxed cakes with messages of love and luck....") BS. All of it. What is NOT shown, is the fact that we were given only 5 minutes to create a shopping list. I did not have the time to create my own ingredient list, or recipes, or directions. Anyone who has worked with me in the kitchen in the past, knows that I am meticulous about creating food orders and mis en place lists, especially with time constraints. Again, editting is part of the whole process I guess. "Why didn't Lee Anne taste all of the dishes???" ....Because the day before, production called a house doctor to come visit Lee Anne and give her heavy meds and a penicillin shot in the ass because she had strep throat.....(I did taste...sort of...) "Why didn't Lee Anne take charge of Stephen and everyone else in the kitchen???" ....Because she was too busy cooking, and do you really want to yell at the people who are also staying up with you for close to 40 hpurs without shut eye??? believe you me....I can manage and run a staff of chimpanzees if I needed to. The point was that due not only to time constraints, but out of sheer respect, I encouraged my fellow Top Chefs to take it and run with it after I had a brief 1 minute review of my ideas and flavor profiles for each wedding dish. Some chose to ignore my advice or vision, due to their own fragile egos. So as far as wedding challenges go, I am still hedging on the fact I will never have to cater another 16 hour overnighter again. There. You know, throughout the time I was there, I never complained about the challenges presented to us, with the exception of this one. Forgive me all, for this last drunken rant...

The Napa Challenge:
Hi everybody! Thanks for writing me at work. I will actually copy and paste an email I recently wrote in response, because it will clearly state my frame of mind on that last day in Napa...(I hope you don't mind Paula...)

Thank you for your email Paula. Again, I think at the end of that episode I was so incensed to be on the chopping block with her. We were all worn out, but at the same time, Dave, Harold and I were especially tired of hearing her selfrighteous BS (she actually yelled at one on the production assistants the morning of the challenge because they didn't iron her chef jacket....as a very wrinkled Dave, Harold and myself watched from the couch.). I let my personal feelings get in the way of the fact that I just plain lost the challenge to the other three. At the judges' table in that heightened emotional state it was hard to focus on anything but our differences as personalities in the kitchen (I had literally hit my breaking point with her that day). So I come off as a sore loser, but hey, it's water under the bridge, and I have made my peace with all of it. Besides, Bravo has to scrape her off the ceiling next week in the reunion show. I am happily back at my job, it's been an interesting day. Friends and coworkers have sent me flowers and lots of lovely emails. Those who know me a little bit better bought me a bottle of really nice bourbon. I am actually relieved the episode has aired so people can stop saying, "We know you're gonna win." That really stunk, hearing that every day. But life is good. Please tell your lovely daughter to keep cooking and friendships are more valuable than money on any given day. Thank you so much for your support, and feel free to stay in touch. I am meeting up with Harold in an hour for drinks...

Warm regards,
Lee Anne

So you see, I fully understand what happened that day, which I will acknowledge at the reunion, but it still doesn't change the fact that it was me versus her at that table. We were asked why we should go to Vegas. I responded that it wasn't about the money anymore (it actually never was). it was about the honor of being named Top Chef. $100K isn't gonna change my life all that drastically (I happen to have a kick ass job). In the end it meant a whole lot more to her than anyone else, probably because she is still a waitress. (Don't get me wrong, I worked front of the house for over 10 years, believe me, it's where the money's at). So anyways, I brought up the fact that her attitude sucked, alluding to a time when she viciously attacked Candice, a culinary student, in the house while the cameras weren't on. And also how being Top Chef takes more than cooking skills. You're screwed if nobody wants to work with you. I overthought my dish and I was kicking myself for months because of it. Her dish may have eeked out mine, but the lack of originality was so obvious to me. Does anyone remember the fig stuffed gnocchi from Ted Allen's challenge? Which by the way, she did not provide a recipe for or help me with, I made those all by my lonesome. She is an incredibly talented cook. She is versatile, she understands flavors, and she is technically skilled. Please believe me, I want her to succeed in this business. We need more competent female leaders in the industry. But after seeing her at the reunion and the finale, she has not changed a bit. You can't be this crazy cutthroat person and expect everyone to be hunky dory with you after the fact, especially if you admit no wrong doing. You'll all see the Tiffani and Dave show next week. And if she fails in the restaurant business, she can always become an actress. THAT my friends, she is GREAT at.

[Deleted]

So Tiffini is even a bigger bitch than we were allowed to see?

"She had an awakening". Awakening my ass. That was the most insincere bullsh*it, she just saw bad PR.

I was wondering why the Tiffani hate was so strong on the reunion show, now I know. I bet at the final she treats the chefs helping her horribly and it will explain that even more. Oh..I forgot that won't happen because she "had an awakening!"

And what the fark is up with Tom and his love for this mean spirited crap baking pumpkin head? Is she giving him bj's in the back or something?

Sorry for the rant. I was so pissed at her being chosen and Lee Anne's blog has made me even crazier.

[kafka]

whitefalcon said:

So Tiffini is even a bigger bitch than we were allowed to see?

That's a frightening thought.

And what the fark is up with Tom and his love for this mean spirited crap baking pumpkin head? Is she giving him bj's in the back or something?

You're probably being facetious but I've always had the impression he was gay. The bio section on him makes references to a partner and I didn't get the impression he was talking about a business partner.

Sorry for the rant. I was so pissed at her being chosen and Lee Anne's blog has made me even crazier.

I felt the same way, especially at the implication that Tiffani stole her idea for a stuffed gnocci from Lee Anne in a previous challenge. If so, it's even more ridiculous for the chefs in the Napa challenge to have gone on about Tiffani's originality and inventiveness. And it's ironic given that Tiffani was so pissed at Miguel doing a similar dish to hers in the junk food/convenience store challenge.

But Lee Anne's blog may have been misleading in one way. It calls Tiffani just a waitress and I had the impression Tiffani had spent the 4-month break by working in the front of the house to get some experience in that area. It's probably just Bravo BS designed to make her look good, because I can't imagine why someone as arrogant about her cooking thinking she needs "front of the house" experience. She's hardly into being Top Sommelier like Stephen.

I read an interview Lee Anne gave the night of the the last episode (but before it had aired, so she didn't know Dave had been ousted). In it, she was very gracious.

Lee Anne Wong was in a bar in New York City, where she lives, when a group of people stood up and shouted at her.

"They told me I was robbed, that there's no way it was my turn to go," says Wong with a laugh. While she appreciated the sentiment, Wong disagrees with her supporters about whether she should have finished higher than fourth in the competition pitting culinary aces against one another for publicity and prize money.

"I was outcooked," Wong says.

Wong says, Dave deserves his place in the finals alongside Harold and Tiffani.

"Maybe his food's not as refined as theirs, but that guy knows flavors," Wong says, adding, "His food is really approachable to lots of people."
---snip---

Wong handicaps the finals this way: "Can Harold beat Tiffani? Sure. Can Tiffani beat Harold? Sure. Can Dave beat them both? Absolutely."

[maxell1313]

Just from interviews she's given, it sounds to me like Lee Anne is a total class act. The Top Chef people should be BEGGING her to either come back next season to be a judge or get her her own cooking show.

[kafka]

maxell1313 said:

Just from interviews she's given, it sounds to me like Lee Anne is a total class act. The Top Chef people should be BEGGING her to either come back next season to be a judge or get her her own cooking show.

In that interview I linked to, it seems a cooking show of her own is what she really wants and what she's trying to get after the Bravo exposure. I hope she does because I, for one, would definitely watch it. She's calm (unlike Emeril who annoys me), uber-talented, and not a condescending, patronizing B**** who would talk down to the audience. (Unlike Stephen, for example. Can you imagine what his show would be like?!)

[Deleted]

I wonder how much Dave's penchant for breaking down into tears impacted his chances to be in the final two. In the show where they cooked for the chefs, didn't one of them comment that his emotional instability was a big problem for a top chef?
I can't think of any other reason why Tiffani was chosen over him. His food was good, he was certainly better liked than she was...maybe they just didn't want to have a big, blubbering guy in the final two.

[FiggyPudding]

My guess would be a combination of foodie prejudice against relative newcomers like Dave (who switched careers later in life) and wanting drama for the finale. Bravo has to know that putting someone as hated as Tiffany in the finale will draw bigger ratings than two nice people. Plus I think judges can't help but be influenced by factors other than the actual cooking.