And a good thought it is. Also looks like the wet-behind-the-ears kidlets have also been eliminated. What, 25-26 lowest aged contestant? Compared to some of the really young'uns we've seen, they actually are a little "little bit" seasoned!

Jazzie
PS.....just had a random thought.....now onder we all love the TC boards so much....with a food show, well, we can go OT without going OT....if you get my meaning!

Hi there Liz....my name is Jazzie and I'm a TC addict! Pull up a chair, grab a drink, and join us on the porch!
*smile*

Corned beef and cabbage.....that would have been ME! You know, I like this idea so much, I may even try it! Can get good rye flour and cut it into the dough for taste....oh....ummmmm!
Jazzie
PS: Am still trying to figure out a way to mail out some of my soda bread to a few friends or so. Am thinking of wrapping it in wax paper then putting it in a cookie tin. Think it would work? (not OT....it's food related!!!!)
*Grin*
The Baking Boddhisatva of Frequent Napping

Well folks....it's been fun, but need to go nite nite. I may be in and out tomorrow and over the weekend.....so.....keep the porch reasonably clean, last one out get the lights, and don't wake up the sleeping Jazzie (even if I snore!)

I seem to remember that very early in TC1 Tiffani announced that she wasn't on the show to make friends but to take home the $100,000.

Oversalting is a fatal sin. Emilly Sprissler of TC2 was sent home for oversalting her surf n turf.

Dale is of Filipino ancestry while Hung is Vietnamese - not close in appearance. Dale does appear to be very talented and very serious about this competition. Hung was talented and obnoxious but he knew how to play the game - go for broke in the quickfire and did not overextend himself in the elimination challenge. Hung saved the best for the finale.

George Santayana, "There is nothing to which men , while they have food and drink, cannot reconcile themselves."

My crush is on Ryan,...I also remember reading in his bio how he fed a lot of homeless people for free...Tall, handsom, big, sensitive, and he can cook...I'm in love(ok lust)...

How K. G....I so love it...I now have my OWN Diva...

But on the cute guy thing FUGETTABOUTIT... ...

And Rocco's MINE...

And I think I am ENTITLED to a bow of the head at "Your Gayness"...

I think "manicotti" is the proper term here...

Imagine him controlling the "Fiery charriot"...(despite the Iccaras icon on his shirt)...

Yeah, HE'S this seasons "Hung"(probably not)...

Oh my I have the "vapours"...

When I was commin' up the only um "cheese" I knew was "Velveeta"...eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww(although it's great in a GCS)...

I can't handle Feta, it just smells like "barf"...even more than "Parm"...

And I do cook with "Parm"...NOT the "saw dust" in the green can...But the ''real'' thing...

Actually my lack of knowledge of cheese in some ways hampers my ability t' cook...because I(as a kid-ok now too)hated the texture and taste of "Velveeta" raw...I'm kinda afraid of most cheese...Raw...I like most cheese hot...

I think that if Nimma would have cooked her flan in small ramekins or something similar, it might have worked and she might not have gone home. When cooking a flan or custard you need to cook it in a low 300-325 degree oven and it takes about an hour (use a water bath as well). What she did is try to cook her flan in a 6" hotel pan. In effect, the custard in that size pan (how ever absurd it would be to use a big pan even in production cooking) would probably take an outrageous amount of eggs and milk and that means way more than an hour of cook time (the whole challenge was only 90 minutes). Time management is the key to success in any kitchen. A good analogy is cooking poultry. It takes more time to cook a 20 lb turkey than a 2 lb chicken. Make the flan in a small dish (you only need 3 or 4 portions), not enough to feed an army!!

Just my $.02

You make total sense and I agree with you about the flan but I think the salty shrimp did Nimma in,not her runny flan.

Parmesan is one hard cheese to grate on my old fashioned metal grater. But a little goes a long way, tastewise.
It makes pasta a meal.

Provolone is a softer cheese that is great melted as an alternative to mozzarella.

Feta is very salty, and like everything Greek, is an acquired taste.
It's delish in spinach pizza or spinach pie.. spanakopita! You can buy these already made at a Greek deli! It will change your mind about Feta!

Steve-0, Nimma did mis-judge the method for cooking her flan, but no matter how her cauliflower flan or her shrimp scampi turned out, she was DOOMED. Certain to be eliminated the moment she made a comment about how maybe the plastic wrap wasn't as tight, or didn't seal as tight as she's used to or expected.

If you go on Top Chef and say anything that might be seen as disparaging something from The Glad Family of Products, the Glad Family of Lawyers and PR People will see to it that you're eliminated. :-) (Not serious, but it really was the first thing that came to my mind when she blamed the plastic wrap... OK my dear, you're the one going home tonight...)

Wouldn't that be something? I suppose she would be WAY too much for the Food Network. Dunno why Bravo doesn't recruit her. I'll bet that she would be a HUGE success. Maybe Bourdain could get her a show on the Travel Channel?

Too cute! Have a hug and a smooch for that one!

Jenie, you don't know me but you will have to trust me... A properly made Crab Cake is typically up at the top of every seafood lover's list of favorites. And it is absolutely an American classic. You can't go anywhere up or down the Atlantic coast without finding the local version of the Crab Cake, annual contests, bragging rights about who has the best... If you do not like crab, you won't like Crab Cakes. If you do like crab, then a well made Crab Cake is a gastro-orgasmic encounter.

Feta and honey in a pita pocket. Toast it in the oven or one of them toaster ovens. MMmmmmmmm!

I bet Cynthia has some wicked funny stories. Can you imagine her and Bourdain swapping stories? Could be a riot.
I'm with ya on the Food Network thing... Cyn would probably put a beat down on Rachel Rey so fast it'd make your head swim!

Simon, you are so right!!! And I bet the Glad Family of Lawyers is huge. I'm sure they consider it biting the hand that feeds them. Product placement is tremendously important to this show.

I came across this beautiful cheese that combines two important features for me. A good sharp cheese marbled with Guinness stout. OMG! It's visually stunning and the bite of the cheese mingling with the dark smoothness of the Guinness... ach! I'm in love.

One of my other favorites is a bit old timey but fantastic nonetheless.... Cream cheese topped with homemade hot pepper jelly. It's the perfect yin/yang on a cracker!

I thought Richard said he bought the mayonnaise when they were in Whole Foods (it certainly had a Whole Foods "365" house-brand label!), which is probably why he was reluctant to share it. And if there was mayo in the pantry, Richard wasted Bravo's money by buying more.

Besides, it's criminal that Andrew (wasn't that who it was?) had to be told how to make mayonnaise. That's a kitchen basic right up there with boiling water, and a chef who doesn't know how to make mayo shouldn't be allowed to call himself a chef.

I, too, loved Cynthia. Bravo would show a lot of class if they gave her another shot at Top Chef. She never really got the chance to compete, she had a perfectly good reason for leaving--she was not eliminated. If Food Network isn't interested there are a few more channels showing food shows--Discovery Health, Discovery Home, the Style Channel.

Exactly. They were asking Jack from PR if he is coming back next season. It would only be fair. Then again... maybe they did offer and she declined?

I don't know what the season will bring but the first episode was a very decent launch.

The Chicago Deep Dish Pizza challenge was a well-conceived quickfire, with built-in opportunities to blow it. For example, failing to roll out a fairly thin dough before baking, so it doesn't come out of the oven as a loaf of bread with pizza toppings. And opportunities for anyone to put Marmite or peaches on their pizzas, if that's how they plan to win.

I also liked the concept and structure of the "Chef's Classics" elimination. Tom's point is taken, more or less... a professional chef should know what's in the closet of American culinary classics and be able to throw together a basic version. It was nice seeing pairs go head to head, it was informative and unexpectedly thoughtful for BRAVO to let viewers witness the feedback each pair got as the judges were eating.

The winner, Stephanie, brought a real nice surprise. I've read recipes for Duck a l'Orange, I've had it at least once, never made it, I would not be tempted to order it from a restaurant menu... But if I knew that an order of Duck a l'Orange meant that lovely reconceived dish she prepared, I'd be sooooo up in duck heaven....

Some other things about TC already seem cliche and boring... the faux drama, the nonstop camera shots of The Glad Family of Products which - coincidentally I'm sure - are stored in excessive numbers where the cheftestants wait for verdicts, close-ups of whatever automobile is paying to be promoted, "last time was Red Robin - this time it's Pizzeria Uno"...

I am continually surprised at the skill sets or lack of skill sets of all the chefs. I realize not everyone is going to have the speed and knife skills of Hung, but Casey couldn't chop onions last season and Sara didn't know how powdered gelatin works. These are people who practice their craft every day.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Even I know how to make mayo, how did this jacka$$ make it on the show?

LOL! maybe we should develop a list of skills that all applicants should know and submit it to Bravo. Tell them it might make for good drama for a dingle berry to not know how to make mayonnaise but we're not impressed. Next week there will be one that doesn't know how to cook rice or shuck corn...

Whew! Made it through all the posts (okay, true disclosure: I skipped over a few). You folks are fun!! First time on TC board. My thoughts/questions:

Jenie--What is German fruit tea?

Sup--Thanks for the cheat sheet!

Someone please remind me about Cynthia. She had to leave because someone in her family was ill? Or something else? My mind ain't what I used to think it was.

I heard that much "Maryland" crab actually comes from the Gulf since the Ches. is so polluted. Anyone else hear that? Doesn't matter, though, I'll eat the cakes

I think some viewers are making a false assumption. Andrew asked if there was mayo in the pantry. Richard, who had bought his own, answered that no there was not, and suggested that Andrew just make his own. For no apparent reason, Richard then told Andrew what mayo is made from. I think we can safely assume that Andrew already knows what mayo is made from, people who've never made mayo and don't even cook know what it's made from.

That's not to say Andrew isn't a jackass. I think he may be. He leads my list as #1 Most Likely to Be a Jackass. But there's no reason to think he is mayonnaise-impaired. Careless about checking the pantry or the Pantry List Lee-Anne gave them all. But he knows how to make a mayo...

I love your avatar. Are those your puppies?

I'm pretty sure Andrew said he didn't know how to make mayo - I could be losing it since I was really tired the other night. Anyone hear that besides me?

River1, the Chesapeake has pollution problems, but that's not the direct reason why they're serving imported Asian crab down in the Bay region or in "DelMarVa." The Chesapeake crabs themselves aren't polluted - the problem is they're just so scarce. Folks down there have ignored decades of warnings and overharvested blue crabs. Folks down there have ignored decades of warnings and allowed widespread habitat destruction. Folks throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed haven't halted the inflow of mine runoff, agricultural fertilizers, urban, suburban, and rural waste water, septic seepage, etc... Overall, the bay is no healthier today than it was two decades ago. So crab harvests from the Chesapeake have fallen, and certainly haven't been able to keep up with demand. One can still get Chesapeake Bay blue crabs but they come at an exorbitant price.

To the best of my knowledge, however, the gap in the crab supply isn't filled by crabs imported from the Gulf region - it's filled with crabs imported from Asia. The bay area crabmen howl about that, and argue that's proof they should be able to overharvest even more severely.

Welcome aboard!

Cynthia's dad was admitted to the hospital the day she reported to TC. He encouraged her to go ahead and participate, but he continued to get worse, and she left sometime around the third episode to be with him. He died shortly afterward, and the episode was dedicated to his memory.

Cynthia's departure led to Andrea (the last chef PYKAG'd) being brought back to keep the numbers right, thereby setting the precedent for Chris's return in PR4.


Bite your tongue! (But make sure you season it with Old Bay first!) The main problem with Bay pollution is that the crabs are fewer in number and smaller, but the watermen are still (carefully) harvesting them. However, it's usually the crabcakes that get the "Maryland" designation, and that's a reference to the style of preparation rather than the source of the crabmeat.

Just ask Senator Barbara Mikulski!

According to a newspaper article by Adam Goldman

Top Chef' talent keeps getting better and better

"Richard Blais, Andrew D'Ambrosi, Dale Talde, Spike Mendelsohn and Manuel Trevino all seem to have the moxie and experience to take the title. Like their victorious predecessors, they've worked in some decent kitchens and withstood the pressure."


"Like Trevino and Mendelsohn, D'Ambrosi is doing a stint at Le Cirque 2000, a legendary spot in Manhattan that revived its reputation recently, after having lost one of its four stars in the New York Times.

Her dad was dying of cancer. She left in episode two of season one. Episode three was dedicated to the memory of her dad.

Thanks, all! So I should make sure the menu says "Maryland Blue," eh? Great--I'll look for that. Worth the $ for real, local.

Rocco's blog--I love that man for his way with . . . words

I am replying to myself because I forgot how to initiate a new message. Still being tcdoofus.

Here are my quotes from this episode. Everyone feel free to correct them or add some to the list. We will revisit the entire group at the end of the season.

Nemma
“I am not here to have fun. It’s a competition.”
“I am just here to work.”
“I let nerves get the best of me. I need to know how to zone that out. I need to know that fast.”


Erik
“I made glorified nachos. I’m not proud of it.”


Zoi & Jennifer
“We are a couple.”


Spike
“They can go home together.”


Judges

Bourdain
“Which is a better hangover dish?”

“I like sake. I like martinis. I just don’t think they should be in the same tub together.”


Rocco
“It wasn’t only his gnocchi that were dense.”


Boards

Mother Hubbard
“I need another Cynthia.”

Richard did buy the mayo. He even offered to share once Andrew started making his own mayo. Andrew picked up the offered jar and placed it back at Richard's workspace and told him he did not need it.
I don't think Andrew is long for this competition. He is an F Bomb master, I will give him that.

Where is Phillip's restaurant at? I'm thinking about flying out the Maryland way in the fall... would love to try some then!

Thanks, brill! Let me ask this now (cause I'm ignorant) ... how long does it take to get through school? I'm trying to figure out how long some of them could really have been on the line... Thanks!

Amen brother. Phillips Crabhouse is a huge importer of Asian crab. Not nearly as tasty but we'll charge you just as much.
Both the crab and oyster population have been hard hit by over production and pollution. A moratorium on crab production is long overdue.
Give me a real Chesapeake Bay crab cake any day of the week over lobster, caviar or foie gras. Yes I am Maryland Homer.

Phillips' has several locations, as well as a line of prepared foods. Here's the URL:

http://www.phillipsseafood.com/

Go for it!

I think we're all assuming he didn't know how because Richard said make it for yourself and then told him the ingredients. The dingle berry probably knew how to make it, but he just didn't want to take the time to make something that is probably a staple in his regular kitchen if there was some in the kitchen.