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I’m sitting here, in front of my computer, trying to figure out how to quantify what I’m feeling after watching this episode of Top Chef, and then it comes to me.  I feel as if I just wasted the last hour of my life sitting in front of the television when I could have been sleeping.  Tonight was the “restaurant wars” episode and as in the previous two seasons it was a flop, with no one being selected as the winning team.  (I take that back, I think that there was a winner in season 1.)  These contestants come into the series knowing full well that if they make it pretty far into the competition then they are going to be faced with this challenge.  It doesn’t seem as if anyone was really ready for it tonight.

The quickfire challenge had the contestants creating a new gourmet burger based on the Red Robin menu.  Hello, here we go, yet another shameless sponsor ploy on the part of the producers.  I guess it makes sense to them, having the restaurant chain not only pay for advertising time this evening but most likely also paying for the privilege of being a part of the quickfire challenge.  This episode marked the turning point where the winner no longer gets immunity from elimination.  CJ wins the challenge but is told he will get a nice reward for winning (even if it wasn’t immunity) – he has the chance to select his team for the restaurant war.  He selects Tre, Casey and Brian, which left Howie, Sara, Hung and Dale on the other team.  I thought that team was a train wreck waiting to happen, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well they got along.  I think that cooler heads and maturity prevailed, with the chefs realizing that if they did not work well together they would lose, and that means one of them would be going home.

Team CJ called their place Restaurant April.  It’s a scary thought when you have to put restaurant in the name of your place so people know it’s a restaurant.  The other team called their restaurant The Garage.  A pretty cool name if you ask me, but it screams for cutting edge type food.  Now I fully admit to having a very limited knowledge of food and culinary arts.  Heck, a fancy restaurant to me is one where you don’t carry your own tray to the table.  What they served didn’t seem too cutting edge to me.  (I guess I’d be looking for the type of food Marcel prepared in season 2.) 

The judges have major problems with both teams.  Brian kind of went spastic in the front of the house for Restaurant April, really getting flustered to the point where Casey had to come out of the kitchen to serve a course to the judges.  Dale was just really off with his selections for the décor.  I knew as soon as he and Hung picked out the scented candles that it was a really big mistake.  I love to go into a restaurant and smell the food.  The judges also had problems with the food served by each team, not every dish but overall the judges were disappointed.

Padma calls in Brian and Dale to what appears to be an elimination decision, when they are told both teams are getting a do over – a chance to open again the next night while correcting their mistakes.  If this is the case then why even show tonight’s episode?  Colicchio says in the preview for next week that what they are judging is the performance from the second night of the restaurant, not both days.  So why even have tonight?  The chefs in season 1 and 2 didn’t get a do over? 

I guess we should have known that there wasn’t going to be an elimination tonight when I saw the promos for their live webcast after the show.  The chefs on there are Sara N. and Joey.  Don’t they usually interview the eliminated chef? 

[tags]top chef, television, bravo, tv, reality, food, topchef, reality tv, top-chef, cooking, chef[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Top Chef.