You guys are making me hang out on Reddit for my Top Chef talk! I found this there.
This is an good interview, less of a rehash than most of the previous ones.
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Wow! No way! 
Early spoilers!
"Bailey, on Calgary ants tasting kinda like lemon: āYou know whatās also kinda like lemon? Lemon.ā ā¦and I think she added āand they donāt crawl around in your mouthā.
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Haha, Iām with Bailey on that one.
I love that everyone cooked what they wanted, and the meal really did look spectacular - ants and all. As much as you hate seeing someone go out on a good dish, it certainly is better than going out on bad dish too. I did find it interesting that the article presumes that they asked the producers if they could not eliminate anyone (as theyāve done on occasion) and got rejected by the producers. Isnāt Tom one of the producers? Did he or someone put the kibosh on that idea?
That location though was really incredibly beautiful. With that view, the sunset, I would even break my usual rule of not dining outside to enjoy that.
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I wondered if it was some AI generated effect for a minute!
āEliminating Massimo just before this seasonās Milan trip follows the general pattern of the last few years of Top Chef: eschewing obvious entertainment value to die on the hill of arcane cooking technicalities. Come on! Massimo is such great television! And what happened to that Tristen/Massimo conflict you spent three episodes trying to gin up?ā
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I have to sayā¦ā¦I really ended up liking Massimo. Iām on team Tristan for the title.
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Yeah, at this point I am Team Tristan or Cesar. Massisimo irritated, but Bailey irritated more. I would root for Shuai, but Iām not entirely convinced his āaccidentallyā dumping another contestantās prep was an accident. Just vibes.
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I tend to think it was a very careless accident, but indeed it was irresponsible for him not to ask before being sure of what he was trashing.
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Go Team Shaui
I couldnāt read any of the links that were recaps so I went on Reddit and people were very upset about who had to pack their knives and go. I kind of agree that they probably didnāt want an all male final and picked accordingly, but the person that was kicked off probably has a food network career ahead of him. There seems to be a group of tv savvy chefs that rotate around on shows and Iām assuming have pretty lucrative careers. Iāve watched 24x24 Last chef standing and two seasons of tournament of Champions this month and itās amazing how much overlap there is with the same chefs going from show to show.
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That guy who won 24-In-24 was airing on three shows at once!
Sorry the links didnāt work for you; I found some of them on Reddit! Wild stuff , or maybe wild folks there!
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Your links were great itās just that vulture wouldnāt let me read the recap since I had used up my views for the month and although I like Mancini recaps Iām just not ready to pay for another substack.
I didnāt know the guy who won 24x24 and was rooting for the guy who came in second place.
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Look: Any conversation had in this thread is going to be a spoiler. I donāt go here until Iām caught up. I go here to talk about whatās happened. So no blurring nor do I even know how to compose a discussion of what happened and what I think even if I blurred names. So consider yourself warned.
I feel for Bailey. The entire episode seemed geared to point out how much this show requires a narrative to drive the cooking choices, and barring that, how much a BIG PERSONALITY is rewarded in its place.
I mean, she had neither, and the episodeās choice to lean into that seemed to play a big role in her loserās edit misdirect. Yes she was wavering but she also had to have had some kind of plan or thinking about why and how she was bringing things together. She just didnāt have a āand this is how my dish tells a story of my identity and/or lifeā line. So that seemed to be left out so another narrative could be created.
Ironically, that makes me miss Massimo who was pretty good at pointing out that good food didnāt need a narrative (the anti-Tristan who is so much narrative it almost makes me uncomfortable, as much as I enjoy him and would love to try the food).
(I knew Cesar would be safe based on the edit which didnāt do much at all, despite the elves having only 5 contestants to work with.)
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Iām likely alone in this, but Iām not interested in eating any of the food iāve seen Cesar put out.
Except that in this episode, he introduced his dish with a whole dramatic spiel.
Kristen was really crying when she told him PYKAG
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Because she knew it was the wrong decision.
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Because heās a big and enjoyable personality and you just want to see him no matter what he cooks?
Thatās one way to put it.
And honestly I donāt care what any of the cheftestants cook. I donāt get to taste or eat it, so what does it matter to me.
Itās a show (literally and figuratively), and Iām here for it. The food? Thatās just a vehicle for the show.
Is it? I wonder if thatās what makes it seem different from the UK stuff like Great British Menu and Master Chef Professional. Iāve never been able to put my finger on it but I realize there is a lot more camera time spent on individual cooking.
