Dave is kicked off Top Chef
Last night was the first part of the Top Chef finale. The entire hour consisted of a Quickfire challenge with a twist – it was also an elimination challenge. The three finalists had to fill room service orders for three different, diverse groups of customers. The first group of customers was also a little twist – Lee Anne, Miguel and Stephen were the “high rollers” and boy, they were shall we say nit-picky with the food. Maybe we had a bit of sour grapes that they weren’t finalists? Or maybe looking to extend their 15 minutes of fame?
Harold excelled in the three challenges (even though he used prepared food for the poker challenge). Dave did really well with the challenges with one exception. The final challenge called for the chefs to prepare three dishes and Dave only prepared two. In his words he had a “brain fart” and it really was a stinker. In the end this was the reason he was kicked off the show. Tiffani might not have wowed the judges with her food, or maybe her food didn’t appeal to all of them, but she did complete the challenges as designed. In a real world situation Dave’s forgetfulness would have been bad for business.
Dave seems to be a really passionate, fun guy, but very emotional. When all was said and done his emotions and high stress level contributed to his failure in the Quickfire challenge. He mentioned that he was out of work. I certainly hope that someone picks him up quickly because any restaurant would be lucky to have him. His food seems to be the type of food that appeals to most people. Harold and Tiffani’s food looks like it is really good but I would never order it from a menu. Give me simple any day.
Now the final comes down to Harold and Tiffani, and from the brief preview of the final episode it seems that there will be more twists and turns. I hope Harold wasn’t sitting in the corner of the kitchen hitting the mini-bottles while preparing food for the final challenge. My pick for the winner is Harold, but that’s probably because he seems like a nice guy. Truly the title is up for grabs. The judges have been making their decisions on the results of that show’s challenges and not prior performance. (If that was the case Lee Anne would have been a finalist.) It will really come down to which chef performs the best that day.
[tags]top chef, television, bravo, tv, reality, food, topchef, reality tv, top-chef, cooking, chef[/tags]
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May 18th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I was actually sorry to see Dave leave the show. It was funny watching him run around all frantic like, but he also seemed like a good guy. Felt sorry that he lost his job but hopefully someone will pick him up as a chef. I really feel that Harold is going to win because he has just been great the last couple of weeks.
May 19th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Dave was robbed. Tiffani didn’t do well at ALL in that competition. The people liked Dave’s food better. Isn’t that what it’s about? Poor Dave.
May 19th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
It is really a shame that Dave didn’t complete the competition. Tom Colicchio said in his Top Chef Blog that the fact that Dave forgot the third dish, it was just too big of an error to overlook. I personally feel that Tom can not wait to give Tiffany the boot!