View All PostsHugh Acheson
The Bart Knight Falls
Hugh Acheson recognizes the roller derby challenges obvious, er, challenges.
Dec 26, 2012Back to the kitchen. Oyster challenge is on the go using the Sammish Bay oysters from Taylor Shellfish. Half the presentations will be cold and the other half will be hot. Brooke wants some gas money for her car that she has parked in the bedroom of the condo. Micah wants to impress Emeril, by claiming that he is Moses and Emeril is God. Both get struck by lightning.
What is that floating in the fryer when Micah is talking? Is that a piece of the Pacific Trash Vortex? Google that people, the safety of planet Earth depends on it.
Tesar wants to win by showing respect for the New Orleans institution that is Drago’s. I am always thinking that the last thing you want is for people to compare your creation with a revered icon of the food world, cause you’ll probably lose. We’ll see what happens. He’s foaming though, and Drago’s don’t speak foam.
Josie is doing a Spanish Rockin’ Rockefeller. Lizzie is doing oysters with carrots or currants. I can’t quite decipher her accent, but it looks like currants. Stefan is smoking oysters which he will later hand-feed to Kristen. Sheldon is eyeing the smoking machine and internally wondering what other culinary inventions have been based on weed-smoking technology.
Josie interlude: “This tree right here? You don’t want to bark up.”
Shellpieces abound in the tasting. Emeril calls out three bottoms: Bart, Tesar and Josie. Lizzie, Micah, and Brooke are tops. When given a choice, make sure you make cold oysters for Emeril. Micah wins and takes that coin. He will take care of his kids with the money. I look at Micah and see a really honest, good guy, trying to play it cool a little too hard. Just be yourself, young Jedi. You good people.
Roller derby fun. Teams are formed. Awkward jokey lines with the roller derby monikers. This recurs throughout the show. Bart/Josie, Brooke/Tesar, Lizzie/Micah, Josh/ Sheldon and the Axis of Evil, Stefan/Kristen are our teams and they get to go watch some blood sport. They all get drunk, but Josie gets particularly pickled. The stress of the competition goes back to the condo and they all get fighting. Tesar tucks Josie in for the night but, no no no, that girl ain’t sleeping. She’s all riled up and takes it straight to Micah. Things get all weird and Micah is blasphemed. Panties are all bunched on all sides. Sleep, people, sleep. This type of behavior only makes Stefan stronger. But the tree statement is a keeper.
So going to miss smart Bart. He was goofy and embraced it. Watching will be far less fun. Do have one question though, I really have to wonder about the apparent 'lack' of seasoning comments this year. Since we don't eat the food don't know if there is no Salt & Pepper (or other herbs?) or just not enough. I'm from the US & lived in Canada for 3 years. Every time I cameo home I found everything everywhere was over salted. I hope Tom & the other judges palates haven t gotten used to that. By example making a beautiful steak does require S & P but how much I'm sure varies from person to person. Maybes it'd be fun to have a quick fire with Salt 'N Pepa and have it about seasoning?
First of all, I would like to thank Top Chef for bringing cooking back to the show! And for mostly sidelining the bad behavior. I do believe that Top Chef Texas will long be remembered as the lowest point in the show's history (even if the eventual winner was one of the best ever). And now wackadoodle calls (so far) at judgment table. And it's great to have Stefan back -- I love his upfront personality and he's very sexy.
You are such a jerk, nobody cares what you think and why they have you on the show at all is beyond my comprehension!!!
tommy1 I would thank you not to speak for all of us. That's the true mark of a jerk.
tommy1
I think he's very witty.
tommy1 OMG, I love Hugh! I love all the judges, to be honest, but Hugh is my favorite. Having worked in restaurants for the past decade, I'm a fan of the show knowing the sort of background that isn't truly exposed on the show--how restaurants actually work which can't be replicated in these crazy challenges, not even the regular "make a restaurant for us" challenge, because, you know, pop-ups assembled in a day don't count--and Hugh feels like the person that best represents the real-life / real-world aspect of how restaurants work. He has the sort of cynicism that comes with dealing with the craziness of hectic restaurant work and just generally unbalanced people (who would want to work in a kitchen--all those hours with little reward?!? CRAZIES), and he says the things that I'm often thinking about these people. Maybe I'll move to ATL and get a job at his place. I'm more than qualified, Hugh. (I'm FOH, though)
:)
Josie "may be getting on some people's nerves?" I'd have left her in that mud acre; planted there like the tree she is. She should make a new sweatband with the word "Bark" on it.
Curse of curses: "I've made [destined-to-fail-dish] hundreds of times.
Word to the chefs [belated]: do not stand next to Josie when it's time to pick teams if you want to avoid being on the same team as her. Restaurant Wars are coming.
Hugh, I wish you would make a Top Chef video on how to properly prepare grits.
Questions:
Is Stefan Finnish or Finnicky?
How is Micah a Pastor's son and Kosher? Did I mis something? I get his mother may Jewish, but kosher marrying a Pastor? And staying Kosher? That's new!
Did Josie say boring isn't namecalling?
Really, you weren't watching Padma? Even I was watching Padma!
shysharon
There are Christian sects that also consider some foods "unclean", based on interpretation of New Testament text. It's not just a "jewish thing". Shellfish are scavengers, like alligators, hyenas, buzzards, catfish, and many other animals that can safely ingest bacteria dangerous to man. I have read of lobster and shrimp removing cholera from saltwater ponds.
PaulainVA I understand all that, but Christians don't call it Kosher, Jews do.
Please please, to whoever is responsible for the Top Chef blogs, please stop giving away the person who goes home in the title. This has happened at least twice this season so far. My shows are on the DVR and I don't always watch them the same day they air. The blogs come through on my RSS feed and it's no fun to find out the conclusion before I get to watch the episode. It's called a spoiler for a reason! Spoilers don't belong in the title! Thank you.
Bart was the right choice to send home, but it would have been nice not to have to hear Josie yammering on and on anymore.
Come on, getting drunk and being confrontational? Does Josie think she signed up for an MTV reality show? Her constant need to draw attention to herself has annoyed me to no end and last nights drunk temper tantrum in the house was the last straw. I look forward to the day she is booted off the show. That way the viewers can hate on proper villains like Tesar and Stefan.
Hugh—
No thanks to Finland for Jan Sibelius? Amazing composer and likely Finland's biggest claim to fame, although Stefan might feel otherwise.
motherhubbard I think the aforementioned Teemu Selanne is Finland's biggest claim to fame. Either him or Linus Torvalds.
Wow Teemu Selanne, he is way to good to be in the same sentence and Stefan.
Every season the house picks someone to trash on, and it's almost always the most gregarious of the group. Get over it guys. She's outgoing and energetic. And she's right, you all were boring at the game.
Disagree. When she put on the eyeblack, she had a game plan to be the center of attention - no matter what. So what if the other chefs were boring, there was no excuse for her acting like an idiot at game.
She should have ignored them and just had fun. But, unfortunately, that's not her way.
"This kind of behavior only makes Stefan stronger", haha, perfect.
I fell asleep right after John and Brooke were announced as the winners and didn't see who got PYKAG'd, but I was sure it would be Josie. However, I'm not surprised Bart got the axe, much as I like him.
Back in season 2, I actually liked Josie. Guess she wasn't around long enough to show all the unpleasant flaws in her personality. I now find myself begging the TV to show me her elimination already.
Wondered from the beginning why Josie was chosen to come back, maybe it was because she was one of the few willing? Can't imagine her winning a hidden cookoff between willing participants. I can totally see that with CJ and Stefan, not Josie. They could have done better. She wasn't that bad until Josh and Co. pointed out her obnoxious laugh, now everytime I hear it I am annoyed, thanks a lot Josh.
Even though CJ came across as overconfident and that was kind of irksome, and Carla was just crazy, I am totally done with Josie. Pretty sure she hasn't won anything, can't remember her winning anything in her original season, ready for her to go.
Vic2012 She did win the dumpling Quickfire, which saved her when she screwed up the turkey.
you're right, she did win the dumpling QF, which sparked the QF debate about whether or not immunity should just be cut out completely since she cooked the challenge losing dish for her team and should have definitely been sent home. motherhubbard
Vic2012 I think there was a certain feeling that Josie never got a proper chance in season 2 since she was taken down in a double elimination with her teammate—and it was only a double elimination—in the Social challenge—because things got so fouled up in the previous challenge—Camp Glucose—that no one was eliminated.
However, she's now proved—to me, anyway—that she's simply not Top Chef material.
I didn't have a chance to watch the show, and since I don't mind spoilers, and do enjoy a bit of snark after lights out, I'm here. Were the final teams on the bottom Sheldon and Josh against Bart and Josie? Alas, I am sorry Bart had to tilt against the CJ windmill.
I promise to watch this episode tomorrow on the DVR. And then I'm going to look for a mall with tempura Snickers.
Really fun episode. I feel exactly the same about Bart. I think he is a lot better chef than he showed at the roller rink. Josh is really starting to grate. If he and Josie don't go home soon, it's gonna be a long competition.
They think that yelling at a roller derby match is obnoxious? Why? If they were watching football I bet they would yell for their team. Those douche bags were out of line for getting angry be causing Josie was yelling at a sporting event
cutetay7 I've gone to many, many sporting events, and while there is nothing wrong with passionate fans, every now and then, there is that one person that is hooting and hollering in the most obnoxious way imaginable, and I just want to knock them out. Josie fit that description at the game.
I checked out the menu at Belga Café today and think I need to set aside some time to check it out. Looks wonderful, and as someone who usually suffers through oversalted food, Bart's so-called underseasoning might be just what I'm looking for.
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