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Given my current computer situation I wasn’t going to blog about this week’s episode, but the longer I thought about it the more I started to think that it might have been the best episode to date and certainly warranted some comments (and a special thanks goes to Adam R. for hooking me up with a temporary laptop until we find out what Apple has planned for their iMac line this Tuesday).

First of all, what I thought made this a great episode is precisely what some would say made it a horrific collision of commerce and art. Who are we trying to kid? Top Chef has never been one to shy away from the placement of a product, so its kind of hard to feel righteous in this instance. What I didn’t know (and have since learned) was the falling star that is Rocco DiSpirito, a name that I recognize as “chef” though whose resume I’m anything but familiar. Anthony Bourdain is blogging over at Bravo.com for the I’m-about-to-open-a-restaurant-and-don’t-have-time-for-this Tom Colicchio. In typical fashion he doesn’t mince his words. To him, DiSpirito was a once great chef who has essentially whored himself out for years shilling product, and that the idea of judging one’s ability to cook based on the preparation of frozen pasta is utterly ridiculous.

I’d have to agree. I also can’t afford to eat at a three-star restaurant and love seeing people out of their element, so in that way, this week’s episode was pitch perfect. More after the break…

After last week’s chat-fest/non-episode I’ve been dying to get back to the competition. The first thing I noticed when everyone was suited up and waiting for the preposterously-hot Padma, was what a sausage fest the show has become. Over the first five weeks, only one guy had been kicked off, and that was the neon-green Clay in the first episode. Now, the only female left on the show with any discernible personality is Casey. Sara (S-air-a) and Sara (S-ar-a) are still here but utterly forgettable and have yet to leave any notable mark on the series aside from the latter’s ability to drive Howie sweaty-mad. Early in the episode he says of her, “People like Sara don’t realize that putting a bunch of bullshit on a plate doesn’t make you a chef.” Take that Sara, you crazy Cajun.

The quickfire challenge wasn’t cooking at all but a chef-bee where each contestant has to identify a product based either on taste or sight. It was pretty compelling — especially when Hung tried to one-up everyone by naming something on sight when given the opportunity to taste it. His missed, and we all laughed. Casey won by identifying roasted red pepper and bowtie pasta. Bowtie pasta. Yeah, that’s right, the pasta whose name is its very description. Good work Casey!

The meat of the show (surprisingly void of excess meat) was the elimination challenge where everyone was paired off and asked to prepare a pasta dish that could be frozen and then reheated on a stove in under 10 minutes. This is one of those challenges, like last season’s “make something for the T.G.I. Friday’s menu” where the assignment is to create something as bland as possible, forgetting everything you ever learned in culinary school so that you can prove you’re a man of the people — even if that means serving pasta that was once frozen.

CJ (my new fav. because he’s a freakin’ giant) and Tre had this on *ahem* in the bag from the get go. They were the only team outside of maybe Casey and Dale who worked well together and they were also the only team to break down the science of a frozen meal (you have to keep the components separated, sillies!). Actually, Hung figured this out, but failed to convey it to Joey, who I used to hate, but now kind of like for his brilliantly brutish idiocy.

Speaking of brutish idiocy, you had to love Howie tearing into Sara when she tried to throw him under the bus. Howie seems to be a good chef, but is a loose cannon. He also appears to be wildly inconsistent. His love/hate relationship with Joey was certainly worthy of television praise, but it has come to an end as Joey was axed from the show (a decision that I would argue had to have been at least 60% producer-influenced. S-ar-a clearly was the weak link at the judges table, Tom even said himself that he never saw her do anything, but I wonder if the gender make-up forced their hand a little this week?). Joey’s departure, though unexpected was certainly entertaining. Who knew the guy was such a crier? My god, it was like someone shot his pony.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 3:16 am and is filed under Bravo, Top Chef. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.