I love Top Chef and all I can say is what city will be next?

Tom, Your blog id spont on. As an off prem caterering owner with a CIA educated chef, I know food ---but then there's FOOD!! thanks so much for your insight, i am currently persuing a Masters of Gastronomy at BU...one day I maY be the next Dana Cowin---critiquing ur Craft restaurant fin all its abulosity Thanks for your blog. Cant wait until I write on your cusine. Chris M

I love this show - my husband and I record it and watch together every week. I have loved the DC season - great prizes given, interesting challenges, and fascinating people and places. I am cheering for Ed! Thanks for a great season.

I always look forward to your blog, and thank you for clarifying the reason Kelly went home. I think we were all surprised it wasn't Angelo due to the editing of comments. At the beginning of the show I wasn't an Angelo fan, but I am now rooting for him, as he is genuinely passionate and creative with his food. I also wanted to say that I don't think your judging is easy, and I believe that it takes much more time than the editing of the show suggests. The viewers can't taste the food or see what is cut in the editing room. Thank you for bringing us an hour of entertainment each week!

I hope Atlanta is next! Over the past couple of years we've seen a lot of great chefs come out of Atlanta to compete on the show and I think we deserve the next season of Top Chef!

I must this has been an exciting season especially the CIA episode and the NASA one! The guest stars have been truly dazzling! The twists and turns have been awesome although I disagree with giving immunity this close to the end, but I was happy to see Ed get it. At first. After his needling of Angelo my opinion of him has certainly dropped...I still think he's gonna win and of the choices who made it to the end I have to pick him (I had been rooting for Tiff) but I would like to see him be a bit nicer, a bit more gracious.

Chef, it was said that Angelo's soup was too salty, was Kelly's dishes so problematic that Angelo's dishes on a whole out shined Kelly's? I was just courious becuase the judges seem to get really annoyed when a dish is under/under seasoned.

Chef, it was said that Angelo's soup was too salty, was Kelly's dishes so problematic that Angelo's dishes on a whole out shined Kelly's? I was just courious becuase the judges seem to get really annoyed when a dish is under/under seasoned.

i was rooting for tifany and was very disappointed when she was eliminated. i think at that point in the game it is all about splitting hairs, and not whose dish was horrible, but whose dish was better. keep up the good work. love the show!

This was the most entertaining of all the season's final four. I really didn't know who would stay or go except for Ed. I also think it was hard on the chefs. They had the long flight, the heat, the language and the unique food. I was laughing when they had to taste all the foods since they were not labled in English - yet that made it more time consuming. All the chefs cooked great dishes in spite of all the obstacles. Bravo Final Four Chefs!

Tom: Would you consider the possibility of changing the way Top Chef eliminates the contestants?.

As some viewers have said before, this is "Top Chef" not "Top Dish". If you use the same system as in Master's show, it looks much more fair to us, viewers.

The editing Tom is another thing that needs to be improved. Your viewers are not interested in personal drama. The drama we want to see is about food. Portraying one of the Chefs as a thief and ruining his real life reputation is wrong and that belongs to one of the Housewive's plots that Andy Cohen loves so much. Not here. This is a classy show.

Would you please consider it?. We all want you Top Chef to keep being one of the rarest shows with class and professionalism.

I, too, am a huge Tiffany fan! However, I knew she was doomed when they played Judge Tom commenting on her success. It has been evident since the first show that his money is Angelo. He praised Kenny and other chefs tremendously, then kept choosing Angelo as the winner. The other chefs even discussed how this was possible. Angelo should've gone home for using frozen pastry shells, but... he's Angelo and he's Tom's favorite. Tiffany was a threat to Angelo's success. Shame on Bravo and Coliccio. Go ED!

Tiffany should still be there but Bravo and Colicchio want their golden child, Angelo to win. The fix is in. Just play back the tape... Tom tells Tiffany that she's coming on strong; her mussells and veggies mysteriously freeze due to a refridgeration issue, and she's out. Why wasn't Angelo given the boot when he used frozen pastry shells, or prepared crappy food... the others were. It's as plane as the nose on your face... Angelo will win and Tiffany was a threat. In light of this, all I have to say is... GO ED!

I just finished watching some of the videos. The food was very interesting - yet in Singapore -- how would you ever know how to cook it? I give the chefs an A plus for pulling it off. How about Angelo being sick? Not sure I would want to eat food prepared by someone who is sick. It looks like he ended up cooking. I hope no one else got sick from his cooking.

OliveAnne FloridaFan

Born in Singapore to a Singaporean mom and American dad, living in the US has only created more appreciation for my country's food. The main influences of Malay, Chinese and Indian make a unique rojak society (a Singaporean hawker version of a very mixed salad). The cuisine is so accessible, yet developed and markedly complex. One tidbit tho: while the whole Chinese language bit caused cultural clash which makes challenges more interesting, English is our most common of the four national languages, as I'm sure the Bravo team and chefs learned while actually being in Singapore. So, with Singapore being so cosmopolitan in modern terms, Bravo should seriously consider doing an entire season in Singapore-chefs wouldn't necessarily be confined to Asian cooking, and all those ingredients such as foie gras/rabbit etc can be found, as Ilan's comment in one of the online vids mentioned (noting Singapore as being a relatively rich place). I'm only reiterating a point I heard on various blogs btw. Cheers!

Tom's effusive praise aside, I just don't believe this season can stand up to last season in terms of drama or interest, nor do I believe this season's final three would be any competition for last season's 5 or 6 strongest. I look forward to Michael Voltaggio schooling this underwhelming bunch next week, and hope they do a better job of casting next season.

I wanted to let you know I thought that the choice of Singapore was the worst I have seen yet. I was very disappointed in TC. Not only is the country filthy but the food is most unappealing. What would possess to pick this country to host TC? I cannot remember when the last time someone said to me 'lets go to Singapore- they have great food there" or 'geez I'm hungry for some Singapore Duck.' TC let me down and now i wonder about your ability to entertain me as a viewer. You should re consider next time the majority of your audience and tune things up a bit when you make a decision about where to bring TC. Signed very disappointed in chicago

Wow Tom. Your cuttlefish dish sounds great. It sounds like a dish I would like to try. I must say that this episode was one of my favorites. I felt that the chefs were a little rude to each other at the beginning, but then worked together and brought out what appeared to be really good dishes. While I still would have liked to have seen Tiffany still in the running(she and Ed were fun to watch together) I am hoping that either Kenny or Ed take the title. I feel that Angelo may be a very qualified chef, but find him a little cocky. My favorite is Ed. His personality seems to go with expertise in food. May the better chef prevail. (I hope it is Ed). Can't wait to see which state or city you will be going to next.

Is no one curious about the very end? When Padma came back and said they needed to see everyone again and seemed very annoyed with Ed. I went back and watched it again and Ed had pocketed some sauce from the hotel room that he said he was going to use on his dish. Then the judges were all commenting on the flavoring in his dish. Since he had immunity he won't probably be out, but I bet he loses the win.

I love the show. I don't care if Ed won immunity or not, he still won the challenge for the night. That shows that he didn't even need the immunity. He kept going for the win even though he was safe. So many of the other chefs that had immunity throughout this season sort of sat on their "laurels" so to speak and just breezed thru because they were safe. I would love to see him win because of his underdog status. I don't think he is being ungracious to Angelo, I think he is finally just giving back what he has taken for this whole season. Angelo thinks he has it in the bag because they are in singapore and he is mistakenly over confident. You can't underestimate any of your competition.

When did Tom give us answers on why Kelly went home? It isn't even mentioned in the blog above. This season most of the time Tom's blog is about his own personal experiences. I really don't care what you fix for your dinner parties. Give us real info on how you rate the dishes. Be an advocate and don't just say things that are ambiguous.

Liked the final four in Singapore - it was food I'd love to try. Good for Ed to not rest on his....and come up with excellent dishes. This was the most interesting challenge and the carping stopped. By the way, I loved Chef Trek: Richard and Carla made the places and the food a great combo. They are two of my all time fvorite chefs - Thanks!

Tom, Thanks for the shot of Angelo and Kevin in the next episode minutes before getting rid of Kelly. I also loved your smugness with Angelo on his NASA dish and so happy that he won.

This doesn't have anything to do with Top Chef but I was curious....I just read an article about El Bulli.....Have you ever dined there and if so, what did you think of the food? The description given made it sound delish but it was hard for me to comprehend! Did Chef Adria invent molecular gastronomy(I know he hates that term) or just improve on it? Just curious....Thanks for your informative and entertaining blogs each week!

Tom please stay in U.S. Our economy needs the chefs working in our local rests etc. In these times!!! Come on you all know better. Maureen from Ma

I'm glad all the negative vibes from the past few weeks have disappeared and we can get on with the show and food. Despite all the so called "drama", I think the best chefs of this group made it to the finale, tho would have liked to see Arnold get a little farther along in the competition just to see what dishes he would have come up with and be able to enjoy his infectious humor. Angelo was my pick from the start, but I'm afraid Ed is gonna edge him out, just like Hosea did to Stephan two seasons ago. Stephan was clearly better imo, but lost and as I see it, Ed is this season's Hosea.

DC was fun(especially since I've lived there for many years), but Altanta would be a great place for next season, it's an awesome city!!

Ed was joking--he took a tiny jar of cheap jam.

Did you read all four pages of the blog? I don't mind the personal information he starts with on the first page, because he uses it to transition into commentary about the episode for the next three pages.

can't wait for the final episode! hope ange stays strong (physically and mentally) and comes thru with the win. i only see ed as the true threat. kevin's food doesn't have the level of complexity and sophistication required to be named as top chef.

Calling Singapore "filthy" and it's food "unappealing" is ignorant, as well as downright racist and offensive. Just because you are not familiar with it's cuisine does not dismiss it, it just shows how narrow-minded you are. The real kicker is you call Singapore filthy, when Singapore has the strictest littering laws in the world - It's probably a good deal cleaner than wherever you live.

No many comments this week. I guess we just aren't that interested. I agree that casting needs to be more selective. And the judging shouldn't cut the front runner -- Tiffany.

The issue with the season isn't crude racism or sexism. But cozying up to the CIA and then jaunting off to repressive Singapore is just plain bizarre. I suppose sociopolitical realism doesn't make for good TV, but do you have to *promote* feel-good cluelessness?

I think it is great that Top Chef went out of the U.S. It gives us a chance to see what the chefs are really made of.

Ummm...have you actually been watching this season? Hosea won 2 eliminations and 1 quickfire. He was "high" twice and "low" 4 times.

Ed has won 3 eliminations and 3 quickfires. He was "high" 3 times and "low" twice.

Angelo has won 2 eliminations and 4 quickfires. He was "high" twice and "low" twice.

If you count wins + highs, Ed has 9, Angelo has 8. Just because Angelo started strong, and blabs about how great he is, doesn't necessarily make it so.

But do not compare Ed to Hosea--there is no comparison there. Ed is the stronger chef, or at least the stronger competitor. I'm rooting for Ed all the way.

Did Angelo get sick from something he ate on his own? Or could someone given hi'm something to get out of the contest. Remember he is they're only threat.

Jenny May

Please. This show is just what it is - entertainment. I'm certain using CIA HQ and Singapore as locations do not promote ulterior motives.

I've been a viewer of Top Chef since the beginning and enjoyed the variety of entries. I must say very disturbed when Tiffany was eliminated. She has proven to be ONE of the BEST cooks on show and won numerous challenges, and when she gave one flaw during one challenge she was eleminated. Give yourself a HARD THOUGHT and compare to Angelo, Ed, Kelly, and Kevin. Can you say she was a less of Chef than any of these compititors, I REALLY don't think so, I really beleive the decision was based on more than being the TOP CHEF.

Ohmigosh, peeps. I adored Tiffany, too. I loved her character as much as (the appearance of) her food. But her dish was the weakest for that challenge. Period. How many times does that rule have to be re-stated?

And, Tom, what did you think of Ed planning a 2nd dish on the sly? With Tif gone, he's my fave, but that seemed a little slimy...

Lastly, I'm amazed anyone thought last season's awesomeness! could be recreated. We all knew that was a unique season. That doesn't take anything away from the current competitors, it's just the way it is. You're either a fan of the idea of the show or not.

A) I think the last few episodes have redeemed the season for the most part.

B) I think that many blog-respond comments I've read this year have been, for the most part, ridiculous and somewhat idiotic.

The judges judge do their best to judge EACH competition solely on that day's food. It's obvious that they become a bit attached to the chefs over the season and don't particularly relish sending any of them home, ESPECIALLY when they state that the margin between best and worst dish is often razor thin.

Jeez...it's just a cooking show.

Tom, Padma and Gail......love you all love you shows.....the contestants know when they have messed up...the last 6/7 chefs have been really cooking well but like you said maybe not well enough on their night of going home.....they should keep their heads up, I would eat at all of the places they cook for.....

Clearly Ed is a talented chef;so I was shocked to read the review in the NY Times of his restaurant in NYC. Was the critic especially harsh because Ed is on television? The review made it sound as if the food was ghastly. And another reviewer, the guy from The Village Voice, wrote that Five Guys makes a better burger. What gives?

My favorite episode of the season - by far. Lovely quickfire challenge to give unexpected immunity, out in the open air, with whacky ingredients. Also loved the main challenge as it seemed to have the best cooked food of the season thus far. No chef went home for a massive mistake, Kelly went home because her red curry lacked a bit of spice, and her fish in the cucumber soup wasn't filleted as precisely as the judges liked. Very minor details.

Last night (Sunday the 12th of Sept.) I watched Iron Chef America on the Food Network (not a re-run, but the actual weekly show). I noticed that Ed (from this season's Top Chef) was Iron Chef Kat Kora's sous chef. Richard Blais, from a few season's ago on Top Chef was the challenger's sous chef. This is not the first time I have seen former TC contestants on Iron Chef as sous chefs. Does anyone know the tie-in between these shows? I know they are on a different network, but it makes me wonder if the TC finalists who don't win are offered roles on Iron Chef as sous chefs. It certainly made me believe that Ed will NOT win Top Chef this season. Please reply if you have answers or have also noticed this. Thank You.

been watching all seasons, enjoy the however i'd like to see more cooking and prep techniques rather than running to the sink and scrambling for thyme. also, i am not certain that the tension created because of time constraints is valuable. what would it have hurt to allow the chefs two hours to prep for this past final challenge? just a thought. keep up the good work!

Thank you, it's always a pleasure to read your blog. Did you know that you are not supposed to bring any meat into the States? Anyhow, cant wait to see the finale.

Ed found that premix fritter dough in the Food Market by chance and it said to use banana or plantain. Then when Tom came in at the last 23min before service,complaining the chefs were only serving 1 dish each and it wasn't enough. Ed already had his packaged desert and the other 3 chefs had to make something up on the fly, from scratch, without any further shopping and planning. I didn't understand why their second dish wasn't discussed in a different way by the Judges.

Also curious what Padma was on about.

Also agree that the past couple of shows have helped dispel the "worst season ever" vibe from the show.

Would be happy to see any of the remaining three win. Ed and Angelo are charming, but Kevin's cooking doesn't let him down....

I totally agree with you on this comment. I have watched since Season 1, and have always wanted to see more of their prep and cooking process and even hear their banter during this part of the show. I would much rather see this part than the "contrived" drama that we're often presented with. Great comment!

Terrible thing dumping Tiffany. She was the more consistent chef and seemed to be heads over Kelly and should have been in the final three. She wasn't a crybaby, however, so maybe that was why? I almost stopped watching because of it. My big question -- Angelo is continually seen "double dipping" almost on every episode. This week Kevin stuck his finger in the sauce. On "Chopped", however, if anyone does this, the judges make a huge deal over it. So why the difference? Why no mention, ever? Don't they see it? Also, it's been pretty consistent that one woman makes the final four but then gets booted off. Is this too much of a trend not to notice?

I too watched the show and replayed it to make sure of what I was seeing. Both Ed and Richard were on Iron Chef Kat Kora's team.

Tom: Great show last week and an amazing location. My only gripe was that I couldn't be there to enjoy it. Looking forward to next week!

On another note, CONGRATULATIONS to you, the other hosts, and the incredible staff behind Top Chef for the Emmy win. It was long overdue and well deserved. We also got to see your beautiful wife, Lori; you two make a wonderful couple. Salute to your win and a great season.

Did anyone ever check the pea puree that Alex said he made? It sure looked like he stole it.