Top Chef- the French Challenge

great episode last night, and a twist having someone eliminated on the Quickfire Challenge, not that much of a twist however, they had been promo-ing it all week. And another woman falls. I wont really miss her, she seemed out of her element and was constantly in the bottom. Coongrats to Winnie the Red for his quickfire win, not only did he get immunity from elimination, but he got to eat with all the guests for the elimination challenge instead of making dish. I did comment to the hubby that I felt a bit bad for him. If I had gotten on the show and could have the chance to cook for all of the chefs at the table, some of the biggest names in the culinary world, and knew I could not be eliminated I would have killed for the chance to try and impress some of this peoplewth my cooking skill. Apparently they dont use scallops in France, so no scallops that I saw. I did agree with the judges that Cartagena needed to go.





Can we get rid of the group challenges for a few weeks? there are a few people who seem to be sliding by because they have been placed with good partners. Yeah I am looking at you Ed Hardy !


Also, when I saw that they were having two brothers on the show to compete against one another I thought that it was just a gimmick, but I am pleasantly surprised that they both seem to be more than competent and I would not be surprised to see one or both of them in the finals.





next week: a Western Cowboy themed challenge



My Top 4 : Winnie the Red , Jennifer, Brother One, Brother Two

Melrose Place

so I watched Melrose Place last night and I am not impressed. You kill off Sidney in the first 5 minutes? WTF! It appears that this is going to be used as a plot device and we will have lots of flashbacks and everyone will try to figure out why she was killed. Dear Writers, great plot device, good thing that no other television series has tried that before , like on Twin Peak's and Deseperate Housewives, oh that's right it has. The "Amanda" character is not nearly bitchy enough and it appears that Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is the best actress on the show. That being said I will be giving it a few more episodes before I give up on it. The original was not very good to begin with either

Tim Gunn

I always giggle a bit when Tim Gunn says "caucus" .



That is all, Carry On

Top Chef

I am loving the new season of Top Chef, love Las Vegas, love Padma, REALLLLLLLLY love Tom. Top Chef is the best food porn on TV. The problem with any reality show is that when the show first starts, there are way too many contestants and it is hard to remember the names. I have given them nicknames to make it easier. I cant not stand Ed Hardy. He tried to "explain" what Risotto was last night to the viewers ( helpful hint, dont ask him if Risotto is rice) He looks like the type of guy who would hang out at the Bacardi/Nokia Malibu Beach house with Jon Gosselin and Michael Lohan trying to pick up on dumb college co-eds who aren't hot enough to score with Brody Jenner and his ilk. I can only guess that he wears trucker hats unironically and he has never met a mirror that he did not love. I appreciate confidence, but he almost threw a temper tantrum last night when he was in the bottom 4 chefs. He can not be eliminated fast enough. For the good news, no use of scallops, apparently the US Air Force does not use scallops, alos minimal product placement, so not a good episode for the Top Chef drinking game.

Should there be a Statute of Limitations on the Academy Awards?

My husband and I have really enjoyed watching the new show Leverage on TNT. It is kind of like Oceans 11 movie on TV every week. It is a fun popcorn type show and I would reccomend it highly. We originally started to watch it because of Gina Bellman who was the hysterical Jane on the BBC version of Coupling. The star of Leverage is Timothy Hutton, or as the ads state, "Academy Award Winner Timithy Hutton".

Now I am a pretty big pop culture junkie, but when I saw the commercial, I could not think of when Timothy Hutton won an Academy Award. I had to check on IMDB, and found that it was for Ordinary People in 1981. I understand that very few actors ever get nominated for, never mind win an Academy Award, but dont you think that after a point you should stop being billed as an "Academy Award Winner" if you have not done anything afterwards that is still Oscar Worthy? After 27 years maybe you should stop being billed as an academy award winner?

Just wondering

Rachel Zoe is back!

I am so excited by this news, the Rachel Zoe Project is coming back for a second season on Bravo! That news is so bananas! For those of you who are not familiar, Rachel is a celebrity stylist for alot of hollywood a-list starlets, she has been given a lot of credit, or perhaps blame, for some of the fashion stylings of Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan. There have also been rumors in the past that she gave them drugs in order to keep them skinny enough to wear some of the clothes.

Her long suffering husband Brad, who seems to have lost his will to live at times and her two battling assistants round out the crew. Rachel has never met a problem that she could not turn inot an end of the world drama. You the viewer get to be there for all of it, including fashion week and the awards seasons.

Rachel has her own language including "shut it down", 'killed it" and "I die" watch just one episode and you will be sure to start using at least one of her catchphrases in your daily conversations.

and now a personal note to my friend Rachel: Rachel, I love you and your show, but just two things. First, if I dont recognize someone that you are dressing on your show , it may be kind of hrad to call her a celebrity. I know that you dress big celbrities and that they wont show up on a basic cable reality show, but dont try to pawn the nobodies who will show up as celebrities. Second: If wanted to hire a celebrity stylist, would I really want someone who went out in public dressed like that?

XOXO

Rocco Di Spirito is a media whore, and Tom Colicchio is my secret crush

We live in the era of the celebrity chef, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, and the Food Network, etc. The worst has to be Rocco Dispirito. I was watching Top Chef on Wednesday and there he was again. It seems like every time that I turn on the TV, there is Rocco, commercials, Biggest Loser, Today show, Top Chef, advertisements, and he even had a really bad reality show, no not Dancing with the Stars, but his appearance on that only goes to Prove my point. Rocco go away, we dont need you anymore, you arent that interesting, at this point you are more well known for being on TV, than being an actual chef. The worst part was that as the guest judge for Top Chef, he got to give away copies of his signed cook book as prizes. Really?? It is a good thing that the winner got immunity, because if it had been just that damned cookbook... well I would have been in a room fulkl of knives, and someone would have been hurt. I love Bravo and I know that there is not a product placement opportunity that they won't agree to, ( I can almost hear Tim Gunn say "Loreal Paris Make-up Room and Tres-Seeme Hair Salon" in my sleep), but with Rocco it just bugged me some reason. The majority of the other guest judge chefs on Top Chef seem to be more about the cooking and less about the self promotion. And that is all that Rocco seems to be about.

Dear Producers of Top Chef, I love watching your show, and I am sad that my hometown bear Rich was eliminated so if you want to keep this viewer happy for the rest of the season, dont let Rocco anywhere near the "Top Chef Kitchen", and see if you can get Tom to do judges table shirtless, he is one sexy man. The shaved head, the eyes, the look he gives to the contestants. I know if that he just unbuttoned that shirt a few buttons we would see a sexy hairy chest. I know that he is married, but so am I.

so to recap, no more Rocco, lots more Tom