Thursday, August 27, 2009

Reactions to Top Chef Las Vegas Episode Two

Only two weeks in and the Vegas puns keep on coming. This week's Quickfire was determined by a roll of the dice - the chefs' rolls determined the number of ingredients in their dishes. The dice must've been loaded, though, since eight seemed to be the magic number. The producers tried to play up the sibling rivalry angle this week, when Chef Michael Voltaggio won the Quickfire with his nitrogen-enhanced gazpacho, but his brother, Bryan, and his undercooked black cod, landed in the bottom four. The adorable Voltaggios don't seem to be playing along with the narrative, though, saying job interviewy things like, "There's a rivalry, but it makes us both do better." Yawn.

The Elimination challenge showed us another aspect of Vegas life: the bachelor/bachelorette party and Shots, Shots, Shots! It was boys vs. girls in a competition to pair hors d'oeuvres with drinks that usually require nothing more than a lime wedge and some Senor Frogs beads.

Here's what happened: the girls got overconfident, broke all the unwritten rules, forgot that their real audience was the judges, including Todd English (who appeared outrageously low key after last week's Wolfgang Puck show) and Eve went home. The boys pulled out some super cool sounding dishes, and Bryan won, making it the all-Voltaggio episode. Plus they went swimming. Ashley didn't like the challenge, but made at least one great dish. Jennifer C. got cranky because she didn't get to make any boys cry and Eve almost accidentally cut her. Hector, apparently, still has balls. Jesse cried (again). Mike I's edit wasn't quite as bad as last week, but he might have been wearing an Ed Hardy shirt at one point (paging Jon Gosselin). And Padma wore a romper.

So what did you think about the chefs' choices, both sartorial and culinary? Will the Voltaggio boys continue to love each other? Is the food better than ever before? Will the swimming ever stop? Please leave a comment with your thoughts....

2 comments:

Tina said...

"The girls got overconfident"? Really?! I thought they exuded uncertainty and insecurity throughout. (When they praised their own efforts, it seemed more like pep talk to keep up morale and not genuine swagger.) And you know what? They were right, IMO, to feel they were on the losing team. The men gave us innovation and (apparently, from what the judges said) good tasting food. The women as a team were seriously underwhelming. On the other hand, I definitely feel for Jennifer. Not only was the men vs women thing contrived, but it also meant she was going to be on the losing team. At this point, Jen seems to be the only serious female candidate. Meanwhile, a number of the men have been impressive.

LauraK said...

The brothers are great - bringing the drama!

I can't look at the chef with the pierced lip.

It did seem like the women were outmatched by the men.

There are still too many chefs for me to care much about any of them.