Monday, November 16, 2009

Recap Roundup: Top Chef Las Vegas Episode 11

And now we are five. A five that does not include Robin, self-proclaimed "mom" and apparent fan un-favorite. A straightforward episode, full of breakfast in bed and casino-themed food. But what do the bloggers think?

Cliffieland on likely motivation: "On speaker phone, Padma tells the chefs that she’s in bed with another woman. Yeah, we thought that would wake up the straight guys."

Jordan Baker on what went on after the episode was over: "I am tickled by the idea of her and Mike I having to hang out in the sequester apartment, though. It’s going to be a long last couple days before the final three or four for the both of them."

Reality Check (Baltimore Sun) on Bryan's family time: "We open with Bryan missing his son – his 22-month-old Thatcher (how'd he come up with that name?) called him by his first name. Justine thought kids didn't start doing that till they were teenagers."

Minx Eats on Robin's inspiration: "Robin is at the Bellagio, one of the rare classy joints on the strip. She is awed by the Chihuly sculpture in the lobby and vows to make something with gelatin. Sure, I see the connection too."

Eating LA on Nigella: "For the Quickfire Challenge, the chefs have to deliver breakfast in bed to saucy British chef/author Nigella Lawson. When they reveal that Gordon Ramsay named a turkey after her, my daughter falls off the couch laughing. She's legit!"

Reality TV Magazine with predictions: "Jen C is next if she can’t pull herself together but it definitely is shaping up as a brothers and Kevin final three unless one fails miserably in the next challenge."

Show Tracker (LA Times) on Eli: "Then we come to Eli, who made a caramel, apple, peanut soup with pulverized popcorn on top and raspberry. The judges look puzzled, and I see visions of sad velvet paintings dancing in their heads. Nigella is frightened and makes everyone go first. "I don't like it at all," Padma said. Toby admires Eli's gamble, but says he lost."

TV Squad on Jen's crumple: "As Tom pointed out, Jen has really come off the rails during the last three challenges, and it doesn't look like she's going to get back into the swing of things any time soon."

Speakeasy with more on Jen: "Our girl Jen Carroll, who by all means needs to take her Final Four place alongside Kevin and the Voltaggios, seems to have given up on herself. It’s apparent to Speakeasy, Andy Cohen and Tom Colicchio, who in a Tim Gunn-ish moment last night, suggested that she’d hit a wall. (Cue Jen telling Kevin, 'I’m ready to go.')"

The Kitchn on "the buck": "For us, the standout comment of the night was Eli's double mixed metaphor in reference to Robin: 'She’s oftentimes been lucky enough to be the lesser of two equals. Hopefully the buck's about to run out on that one.' We played that one back several times."

Eater NY on the young Volt: "His son's face in the picture is buried in his hands in grim seriousness as if he just remembered that the deadline passed to contact Vanguard and adjust his 401k plan back to Low Risk for this quarter. Like father like son. Why so Voltaggio? "

Meal Ticket (Philly City Paper) on Eli's Quickfire winner: "Eli does a reuben-inspired eggs benedict with 1000 Island hollandaise, which sounds like it would kill you in the tastiest way possible."

Entertainment Weekly on Robin's Quickfire mess: "I liked the idea of Robin's blintz (the goat cheese was a nice touch), but it looked like a smorgasbord on the plate. Nigella must've called it 'one-note' because it was all mixed up together. Plating was obviously a problem for time-crunched Robin, but there's no room for missteps this far into the game."

Scottsdale TV Examiner on Jennifer's weak delivery: "Jennifer presents an uninspired chunk of meat with a tiny, plastic toy sword in it to represent her inspiration of the Sword in the Stone."

Food and More (Atlanta Journal Constitution) summarizes: "Kevin: Curing salmon, thinking dolphin, all cool. Robin: A typical mess, with drooping sugar glass everywhere. Bryan: Sustainability. Eli: Blenders full of clown vomit. Mike: Lots of boneless chicken wings. Gotta get ‘em crispy. Gotta get ‘em crispy. Gotta… Jen: Uh, oh. Wild hair alert! She is freak. Ing. Out. She cannot get her boring medieval steak dish together. It has, like, toothpicks sticking in it, so it’s the Sword in the Stone, get it?"

Videogum on the Quickfire: "Who orders room service and then just tucks themselves deep into bed and waits for the food to be served to them? I love Padma (I mean, I am IN love with her) but the only person who can get away with this is Prince Akeem and whoever he takes as his bride. "

Fork in the Road (Village Voice) on the winner: "Toby praised Michael's "delicate and effeminate" cooking, and the judges awarded him a manly jug of Terlato wine and a trip to the Napa winery."

Gawker on who's left: "Inside, six chefs remained, a bunch of culinary Koreshians: Kevin the Redeemer, Eli the Pissant Devil, Jennifer the Dirty Angel, Mike the Mephistopheles, Bryan the CFO of The Afterlife and Robin The Insidious Echo."

Best Week Ever on the bleeping: "Michael yells “BLEEP! BLEEP!” within the first one second of the Quickfire, before he could have possibly done anything / seen anything / processed information and reacted to it in the form of swearing. This was by far the BLEEPest episode of the season."

Creative Loafing with more on Nigella: "Eli gave us a great background on Nigella, saying, 'She’s like a less French version of Julia Child; she’s kinda legit.' Right, Eli, because Julia Child was definitely from France and Nigella Lawson is from England (very close to France, though- close, but no cigar). I’m even confused on the logic there."

Wifely Steps on the Quickfire: "Robin’s scrambling all over the place again. She’s like Hung without focus. Michael Volt looks like he’s serving breakfast with a side dish of cussing."

Las Vegas Weekly on panna cotta: "'Child’s play.' That’s what guest judge Nigella Lawson called panna cotta on Wednesday night’s episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas right before sending Robin home for flubbing her version of the Italian dessert."

Poptimal on saying goodbye to mom: "It’s time to say good-bye to Robin. She cries during her exit interview, sad to leave but looking forward to the future. I’m sure she’s a very nice lady, but I’m just not sorry to see her go. And now I feel a little bad about it. But not so bad that I want her to stick around."

Procrastiblog on Eli's situation: "It’s pretty incredible to think Eli did not get eliminated when he served a dish that got the following reviews:
Tom: 'The dish was a failure. Texturally, it completely failed.'
Padma: 'I really didn’t like the flavors in that dish. I personally would never want to eat that again.'
Nigella: 'I’d rather eat sawdust… I had to bring every ounce of my upbringing to bear to not spitting the bit I had back into the cup.'"

Max the Girl on the power of Nigella+Padma+bed: "The funny part was watching the male cheftestants attempt to be suave in front of these be-robed Glamazons (as they rolled their tongues back in their mouths).

Limecrete on Michael vs. Robin in the Quickfire: "Michael curtly boots her out of the work area, and for all the times that I've looked down on the Robin-bashing, and all the times I've groused about Michael's attitude, he's completely in the right here. He is still being timed, and she is really in the way. She complains about how Michael's treating her, but not wanting someone wandering around in your workspace in the middle of a challenge is not rude, and she should have known better."

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