Top Chef: Stop the Presses
December 4, 2015 5:03 PM - Season 13, Episode 1 - Subscribe

A collection of the country's best Chefs converge in Los Angeles where they will hit the road and compete in six cities across the Golden State. To get their feet wet, the Chefs face off in a fan favorite Quickfire challenge. Then, the Chefs must make dishes that stand out for a group of top food critics and reporters in order to survive the first elimination.
posted by smackfu (15 comments total)
 
Grayson is a sour piece of fruit. She's coming off as ungrateful and very defensive.
posted by heyho at 5:45 AM on December 5, 2015


Maybe I was in a mood while I watched this, but I found this group of contestants kind of forgettable. Of course, it's only episode 1.
posted by wittgenstein at 9:25 AM on December 5, 2015


ZOMG what is with Grayson? You made crap, own it and do better next time. That attitude is gonna get you booted right quick.

For me, not so much forgettable as just too many of 'em, which is true every year. I don't know a single name yet, other than Grayson.

Messy Dude is messy. Didn't he say he was a James Beard nominee? Mind blowing.

Early fav to watch: Oklahoma Chef (I think that's where she's from. The redhead). Early favorite to win: 1st Elimination Winner (always).
posted by Frayed Knot at 10:11 AM on December 5, 2015


I wish I could get a reaction gif of the faces of the other contestants when Grayson sassed up the judges. There was faceplaming, eye rolling, freaking out, it was beautiful.
posted by tofu_crouton at 10:55 AM on December 6, 2015


Grayson definitely feels like she regrets coming back within 5 minutes of being back.

Mr "I know everyone in LA" seems like a giant douche.

Mrs "Sassy" seems like the first to take the brunt of editing-out-of-context -- I mean, I'm sure she said she was sassy, but the way they edit it as the first contestant self-bio, and the reactions (probably dug for heavily by producers in the interview room) felt overkill. I think her explanation of her personality (in the interview) was completely reasonable (that she's got no time in the kitchen for bullshit, and her real self is a happy person and she's not ashamed of that).

Messy dude seems like a total mess, to the degree that I thought he was gonna be first to go.

Boston (Cambridge) dude seemed like he had his shit together, but I could just be projecting, being a masshole myself.

All in all, a good opening. I'm looking forward to this season, looks like a lot of talented people are involved.
posted by tocts at 5:43 AM on December 7, 2015


omg Frances is so awesome. And Renee, watching her crush the quickfire after that cocky intro was amazing.

All of these people are utterly ferocious kitchen beasts who can work on a level I doubt I'll ever reach. It's fascinating watching them go.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:09 AM on December 7, 2015


Even Wesley who is the Tasmanian Devil in disguise is pretty fearsome. I feel like he's totally discombobulated by being out of his own kitchen though.

Also not super impressed with the opening--too many clips of future episodes, so you can always figure out who's not getting eliminated.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:12 AM on December 7, 2015


Oh wait scratch that. Misunderstood it.

Grayson is obviously a producer choice to either be the person everyone hates, and/or some redemption arc. Phillip is absolutely terrifying--that was a massive amount of prep in that time for the elimination. Just ridiculous. To bust that out so early is either a fast flameout or he's actually that fast.

Interesting to see so relatively few open bottles of booze in the stew room before the elimination--lots of people drinking Perrier.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:38 AM on December 7, 2015


Kanata - I agree that I love that there are so many gay people on this show. Especially because the lesbians on top Chef are real like the lesbians in my community, not the made for TV lesbians you see these days on scripted shows. This is partly a function of boh being a well known gay industry. Yay for lady chefs!
posted by palegirl at 12:23 PM on December 7, 2015 [1 favorite]


boh is in my experience more about queer women than queer men--I have yet to cook with another gay dude, and I've had all sorts of awesome lesbian and bi female colleagues.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:13 PM on December 7, 2015


I'll be watching for Phillip to do so, yes. For me, it was the "blah blah bloggers Chopped blah Cutthroat Kitchen blah blah blah." We get it. You want to be famous. Does your food taste like anything in particular? Do I want to eat it?

Also, Garrett was getting pretty persnickety as well, so I'm not sad to see him go.
posted by St. Hubbins at 12:30 PM on December 8, 2015


Phillip is trying really hard to be another Grant Achatz. And belatedly flipping through some bios, these people are already in the stratosphere--chef de cuisine for Vongerichten, FFS? First female chef on the line at Bouchon? Aaaagh.

Garrett was just horribly inconsistent. I don't know why you'd think those burnt-ass garlic chips were even remotely okay to serve, to the judges no less.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 12:41 PM on December 8, 2015


The next step up from being a great chef at someone else's restaurant is to be a great chef/owner, and a lot of the contestants seem to be at that point in their life. The messy dude who was nominated for two James Beard awards quit that restaurant last year to try to open his own place, although that didn't work out for him yet.
posted by smackfu at 1:10 PM on December 8, 2015


True. My point is that sooner or later when you're JGV's chef de cuisine, someone starts shoveling cash in your direction to open up your own place. Which is something I really love about this show. On Hell's Kitchen, there are no contestants who will ever own their own (big) place. Despite that, it's a guilty pleasure.

Top Chef, on the other hand, is really full of people who don't, in a big sense, need to be there. It's really pure competition against one's peers with the prizing being pretty secondary to "Oh you worked for Keller for 5 years? And I still kicked your ass and yours and yours."
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:14 PM on December 8, 2015


Yeah, for a lot of people it might be an attempt to get over imposter syndrome. Like even if you are a James Beard nominated regional chef, it probably feels like a lot of luck led to it, especially if you didn't open the restaurant and you feel like your city isn't a food mecca. You don't actually want to move to a big city and work at a top end place, so this is the next best thing.
posted by smackfu at 6:34 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


« Older Please Like Me: Puff Pastry Pi...   |  Grimm: Rat King... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster