The talking down to Amanda while making coleslaw for the whole hog challenge. This is her second time on Top Chef and you think you need to tell her to be careful with a mandoline?
I like Sylva as well. Maybe Amanda (who, admittedly, I donāt really like and donāt remember from her season) was dangerously close to the mandolin blade and he was concerned? Itās a stretch, but it satisfies my confirmation bias 
I kind of liked Katsuji in his season. But this season he seems to be playing a role of pot-stirrer; I find this neither funny nor endearing.
I think a final three of John, Sylva and Brooke would be must-watch TV.
1 Like
I get it. But wasnāt Amanda the one whose movements are typically frantic? 
2 Likes
Katsuji needs a Doug to work, and Tesar is not his Doug this season.
2 Likes
Yeah, heās deliberating poking the bear.
That would be an interesting finale. I have to say I was disappointed to see Tesar again when the show started, but he much better this season than his original one. So far. LOL
1 Like
I am liking Tesar a bit more this season. I do not like Emily, though she was correct in saying it was Johnās idea to give Jamie the crappy ingredients. Huge respect for Jamie and will be rooting for him in LCK. To give up immunity? Yuge. I also donāt see how chicken and peanuts were considered such bad ingredients. Classics for a thai dish. His just wasnāt very good and he fell on his own sword.
To get back to Tesar, he was being the disingenuous Tesar-dick of past seasons when he claimed it wanāt his idea to stick Jamie with the poorer ingredients.
I donāt get it when they lie about what they said when it is FILMED on a CAMERA for the world to see.
Emily has been super dislikable from the start. She seems a bit off ā¦
How in the world was the team with the only two local chefs last to complete the scavenger hunt?
3 Likes
Or African which would also have related to the pirate theme (cross-Atlantic influences). I think the problem with the chicken is that it was the breast, which is more limiting. And then he had problems with the grill? The ingredient that struck me as the biggest Zonk was the canned peas, and apparently John aced that with his gnocchi.
2 Likes
And thatās why I now re-dislike him. As @C.Hamster said - it was ON TAPE.
Unless he complete forgot sitting at the breakfast table outside essentially telling Jamie and Emily that Jamie can take the crap ingredients, while he insisted on taking only the ingredients HE wanted without any negotiation @ the treasure chests, and then had Emily do his scut work for his dish - breaking down the lobsters and taking his breadcrumbs or something out of the oven āwhile youāre over there.ā
And I agree with C.Ham - Emilyās not been that likeable from the beginning. Major chip on her shoulder.
Tesar definitely has demons that tell him to be a selfish dick. What I sense this season is he is aware of them, just not in control. He seems to be working on it and a hell of a cook, but if he doesnāt keep it in check I will let him slide to my dark side. At the moment Iām still liking himā¦sort of.
Most of them, even Emily, seem to be avoiding too much conflict and working and getting along together fairly well. Restaurant Wars will test that to the extreme. Have to say Iām enjoying this season Quite a bit.
Wow, Iām not quite sure how I feel about Jamie giving up his immunity. The thing is, for me, for a long time this show has not been about Top Chef, itās been about Top Competitor. I really really respect Jamie for his integrity, but I wonder if he fully understood what Top Chef is all about these days. Or maybe you just figure out what that is versus your values as you go through the competition. But I have total total respect for Jamie. Heās the man.
2 Likes
I think the real āwinnersā of the show realize that you donāt have to āwinā the show to allow the 15 min of fame to catapult your career. My guess is that there are more non-winners than actual winners who have made out better from the show. (Same with most of these competition reality shows.).
1 Like
Surprised at how pleased I was to see Katsuji go. He looks to needle anyone he can, kick them when theyāre down, for his own amusement. Surprised that Tesar was so bad at expediting, if not for Katsuji taking on too much and doing it poorly, he would have gone.
3 Likes
I was pleased too. I was over his antics.
At first, I thought John Tesar would be told to PYKAG. How the hell was that expediting EVER going to work? (It wasnāt.) Heās run how many restaurants - 11, he said? Iām wondering if heās run that many because he screws up so many times.
But then when I saw Katsuji being a complete jerk at JT and then even more so in the Stew Room, I was fine with either one of them going.
Tesar is still a jerk. But Katsuji was a bigger jerk. The entire team was a mess. Iām glad Casey was taken off the list for going home.
And LCK was a good win.
2 Likes
Apparently, FiOS revamped its on-demand (in the it-aināt-broke-so-letās-fix-it mode). Suddenly I can watch every episode of all 14 seasons on TC, but not a single LCK. Guess Iāll go watch it on-line.
And Iām really liking Shirley this season.
Shirley is a real perfectionist. Iād love to see her win
4 Likes
I didnāt even know that FiOS used to have LCK On Demand! Iāve always watched it online. Iāve found, however, I canāt watch it on Chrome - itāll only play the previous to LCK - over and over and over again. I have to switch over to IE.
1 Like
P.S. Iām going to say again - Iām glad Iām no longer recapping. LOL
Well you know we are all going to say that we miss your recaps desperately.
But along those lines, Iām amazed how little chatter there is about TC on here and on chowhound. In the old days, your recaps would have had hundreds of replies by now.
3 Likes
