View All PostsHugh Acheson
My Idol Has a Last Name -- It's M-E-Y-E-R
Hugh Acheson lauds this week's guest judge, Danny Meyer.
Jan 9The tall man is still a champion in Last Chance Kitchen. If you don’t watch LCK, you should. It’s a fun 12 minutes or so.
John Tesar is gone but not easily forgotten. He is now carefully tending to his favorite flat-bottomed risotto pot, plotting a burger chain, and building a nefarious weapon that will make all the pickles in the world his and only his.
Not everyone is always happy to see John go though. Stefan misses his morning smoking buddy, but everyone else is ebullient. Josie is all excited about all Asians this morning. It’s either headbands, football, or Asians -- the days just revolve around the topics with that one.
Wolfgang Puck is in the house.
Ginger QF. They are cooking redheads. Stefan tells us the basics of ginger, and it really does sound like he’s reading from the Finnish/German translation of the Wikipedia page. Canada Dry ginger ale is stacked high in this challenge, but I don’t think you have to use it. Ginger is pretty versatile in the kitchen, but this challenge is a new one for me. They could make anything. I would probably make a shaved beef salad with ginger/citrus vinaigrette, pickled ginger, and crisp rice. Or a bourbon and ginger to drink and just quietly nestle under the table and hope that no one would notice. I do that sometimes.
Meanwhile, Micah is being a p---y about the time constraint. The real test to whether you are a p---y is starting off the chat with,“I am not a p---y, BUT….” It’s like losing a swim race and sayin’, “I am not a sore loser, but is this a Olympic-approved pool? Cause I can only race well in those.”
This is a speedy showdown, so remember what I’ve told you in the past: finding your bearings and getting a plan, 5 mins; cooking, at least ten minutes; two minutes to plate up. See, already you’re out of time. Sheldon is swearing at his Chinese fast food because he saw that once at the food court at the mall. He’s also feeling the pressure of Josie making this a race-related day.
Oh please, don't get more serious. In fact, after rewriting "Must get more serious." five or six more times it can merge into "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy". If you get more serious, those of us with ADD will have only Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters to follow. And they make funny sounds, too.
I feel bad for Josie. She apparently thinks her personality is stronger than her cooking skills...
Josie's laugh, her personality, and just her delusional personality is offensive to any people. She is worse than Betty from season 2.
Not your best effort, Hugh, but maybe you're getting a little tired. Love you - buck up. Hated Brooke's "un-kosher" concept; and I think Gail covered that well enough in her blog. Micah's concept and dish were uninspired and fell flat - deservedly. Josh had a pretty decent idea - for a change - but the final decision did not match the comments made earlier as the dish was tasted (last minute editing when so many results were poor?). Kristen is - bar none - the most innovative chef of this season. Hope she goes the the distance. We all know it is not just about talent. Lizzie and Brooke have talent, but may not yet be far along enough in their skill development to make TC. Stefan is entertaining, but is (at best) a mid-level chef who thinks he knows all he needs to know. He provides entertainment, up to a point, and I might enjoy eating at one of his restaurants. He will never be a Top Chef. BTW, I really, really like Sheldon. He has inspiration and commitment; but seems to sometimes be overcome in the moment. Be strong, buddy!
OMGosh! Hugh, you are the Simon Cowell of Top Chef, and I mean that in all positive ways. Hot as hell, snarky, witty, knowledgeable.... I could go on and on. I've never read this blog before, but after reading this entry, I'm hooked. I'm gonna go back and read the old posts, too. Keep up the great work!
Hugh Acheson, please narrate my workday, just for like 2 hours.
What a shame Micah messed up on the challenge concept. Josie has barely made it this far; she's extremely lucky there was another dish worse than hers every time she's on the bottom. This season she hasn't even cooked up to the level she did during her season. It's like she isn't even taking it seriously-she seems more interested in fooling around and trying to be a reality "personality". I hope her stay is soon over. And I'm more than sick of Josh gloating over John's loss. Josh, you haven't exactly been setting the world on fire so far this season so put your focus where it should be.
TChefAddict2012 I would have like to see Miicah stay too.
I love that Kristen hope she wins!
shysharon I think Kristen may be one of the more brilliant, but more modest chefs ever. She just accomplishes it all without anger, angst or second-guessing herself so that you might not notice it, but for her brilliant talent and ever increasing bank account. And this from someone who loved the angry brother and the angst-y Dick.
Why oh why is Josie still there? She is consistently on the bottom.
Go Ceej!
Josie has become the Wendy Pepper of [i]Top Chef[/i]—bad, but there's always someone worse.
motherhubbard Love you, Mom. Perfect.
I believe Kristen is a really talented Chef but it was so heartwarming and wonderful to see the Chef's enjoy Sheldon's Tamarind Soup (Sinigang). This is our version of comfort food and yes, they were right not so aesthetically pleasing to the eye but so good. The thing about our cuisine is that it's hard to identify because the Philippine Cuisine has so many influences from Spain, China, Indonesia and even Arabic. If he gets Modern Filipino right, it could be BIG.
Hugh's observations are quickly becoming my favorite part of Top Chef. As for Last Chance Kitchen, I loved, loved, LOVED it last season. The look on Heather and Lindsay's faces when the victorious Bev returned ... BEST Top Chef moment of all time. This year not enjoying it simply because I don't like Josie, Stefan and CJ returning at all.
SwimCards Yes, I am still not over how nasty Heather, Lindsay and Sarah were.
juka SwimCards Here here. I savor my vitriol where the mean girls are concerned. And that is giving a bad name to mean girls everywhere.
are you freaked kidding me.. that awful josie should have gone home. omg.. how many weeks are we going to be stuck with her??? and i know from the previews alone that she screws over her team on next weeks show. send her stupid butt home.
Your comments are always spot on and funny as hell. Agree that Josie should have gone home. Really surprised after the comments by the judges on her pork. She's just grating on my psyche. Looking forward to the Wars.
drdavidgalloway I agree; I'm stunned that Josie is still there based on the judges' comments. It's not just that she's not a nice person on any level, she appears to be unable to cook anything well. The good news is that there is no way she will win TC; however, it's a shame that other, better chefs are being sent home and she's still there. Can't they put some duct tape on her mouth? LOL.
BTW, as far as last season went, from earlier comments, I did not ever feel that Lindsay was nasty or unkind. However, Bev, who LOVED to talk about herself, was as nasty as they come. She constantly bad-mouthed the other chefs, rammed in everyone's face how humble she was (all the while NOT being humble and having no clue what about the true meaning of the word). She also physically knocked a lot of people around; just not cool. There is not the slightest doubt in anyone's mind that had Tom not blind-sided the other chef in LCK and made the other chef give Bev her ingredients, Bev would never, ever have won that cook-off in LCK. Also, BEV, if you want to know the true meaning of humble, check out Kuniko. She is extremely talented, humble in every sense of the word, never physically knocked others around, a good role model. Get a clue.
BTW, Tom, as CJ has won so many LCK cook-offs, why don't you blind-side him the same way you did the chef from last season who won so many cook-offs and make him switch his ingredients with the other chef? Fairs fair dude. Otherwise, it really looks like you deliberately sabotaged that other chef when you took her ingredients away from her. You never did that to anyone else either last season or this season. Not cool.
Always enjoy Hugh's play-by-play. Last Chance Kitchen IS great fun to watch especially this year with CJ standing tall round after round. He has this down to a science now and wants to win really, really bad. Ultimately I'm picking Kristen for the title of Top Chef though. Can't believe Chef Josie is still here with her annoying signature headband and donkey laugh. And why pick her for your Restaurant Wars team when she's got serious time management issues? Someone always seems to do worse when it counts though. Micah's slabs of raw fish looked more like a dare than a dish to me, and I love Sushi. Restaurant Wars should be fun to watch, it's always great for disasters under pressure and scapegoating.
Right now I feel Josie should go home. How many weeks has Josie been on the bottom three?This season does not make sense who you are sending home and why. Right now I feel sorry for the Team who has Josie next week on Resturant Wars. Hopefully "angels" are looking out for that Team.
This was a great episode all the way up to the ending. I loved the concept of the challenge and the winners were all great. I guess Kristen just decided she was going to pick first and snagged Brooke, I think they could have done a coin toss or something because that didn't seem fair at all. Fortunately she blundered by taking Lizzie over Stefan so the teams are balanced out.
Now, the ending, was completely unjust. Why did Micah get eliminated? He had a great concept, he just couldnt get the meat that he wanted. And yeah, serving 7 different kinds of fish is pretty bizarre, but you could eat it. Josie again deserved to go home, for like the 4th time. She cooked inedible food, and made every single person wait a long time to eat inedible food. Really, really bad ending. Wow.
IM just shock with the elimination tonight Chef i dont think Kristen should not not not go home !!!!!!!!
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