I've waited for a while to post this because I wanted to see if maybe some time would cool things off and make me feel better about things... But no matter how much time has passed, this episode stings.

I come from a lower middle-class background in Munger Place (old east Dallas), went to public schools in Texas, and am a doctoral student of history in New York City. I'm proud of the city I grew up in--Highland Park, by the way, is its own town and NOT Dallas--and the amazing diversity of food and people one can find in the state of Texas. (The state is the size of France with a diversity of cultural legacies from native America, the United States, Germany, Nigeria, and France, to name a few, leading me to wonder why the producers of Top Chef didn't feel that any Texan region was worthy of an entire season on its own.) That said, although it has been thirteen years since I've lived in Dallas, I still dread the moment when I meet north easterners who, upon finding out that I'm from Dallas, rudely ask me about whether or not my hair is naturally blonde or whether or not I carry a concealed handgun. People from elite, white-bred northeastern neighborhoods and posh academic backgrounds ask me if I'm used to seeing so many minorities. It's so insulting that it's embarrassing.

But this episode was more than just embarrassing. It was humiliating. When I think about the fact that I encouraged my friends to watch an episode set in my home town... I expected for Top Chef to, as it usually does, highlight the positive or surprising aspects of an area. I wasn't expecting to see the worst possible stereotypes of Texas in general (survivalist food? really?) and Dallas, in particular. After working for years to get my friends to respect my background and that natural blonde hair and a Texan accent CAN coexist with intelligence and liberal political views... I did more than just cringe at this episode. I wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear. I knew I wasn't just imagining things when a friend of mine sympathetically told me, "you've lived in New York long enough, you don't HAVE to tell people you're from Texas."

Look, I get it. Texas stereotypes exist for a reason and heaven knows Rick Perry hasn't been doing much for us lately. But this just seemed... cheap. It's rare that TV can make me actually feel bad. This did.

Happy New Year everyone! I agree with a lot of the posts. I did NOT like the door-to-door cook-off. As a single mom of 3 the opulence of these couples was over the top. Two of my boys have, or are cooks. My 19 yr old has been following me in my teachings. I have been in the restaurant business since 1972. I hope they never have to cook for people like this. At least in the restaurants they work for it is a set menu. Not a crazy whim that some reality type couple desire. PLEASE do not feature a program like this again. After dinner we hang out together and watch the show and discuss what we would do. Let the chefs determine how they will cook a meal, and not a silver spoon group of people.
Thanks for the fun, and may it continue!

It was not Tom's grumpiness but the tone in his voice that was the most surprising to me. He sounded oddly high-pitched, as though he had just been stuck with a large needle. Pleased to hear that this isn't going to continue.

Tom has a brother! And he gives him a rash about cooking. Love it! Love the show. Hope your back heals better than ever.

I have been a fan of Top Chef since Season 1, but I have to say that this episode was the worst amongst all. To watch the talented Top Chef contestants cook for spoiled rich brats was an insult to their talent and one of the worst ideas for a show I have ever seen you guys come up with. I credit the chefs for doing a good job and I hope the producers of Top Chef have better ideas in the future.

I have been a fan of Top Chef since Season 1, but I have to say that this episode was the worst amongst all. To watch the talented Top Chef contestants cook for spoiled rich brats was an insult to their talent and one of the worst ideas for a show I have ever seen you guys come up with. I credit the chefs for doing a good job and I hope the producers of Top Chef have better ideas in the future.

I thought Gail's plunging neckline was the star of the show!

First time responder.

I hate to disagree with you but in Italy they do serve Spaghetti Vongole with parmesan cheese. I had it twice this past April in two different restaurants in the south. I didn't ask for it, it was brought to the table and offered. We have disagreed on this point many times...I will continue to bring my own cheese for Christmas Eve. :-)

As for the episode and Dallas, I'll bet that those kitchens were never previously used. Having lived there, I remember many discussions about show kitchens.

m

Look, I love this show, but mixing it with the Real Housewives (and their goofy-ass husbands) was an insult to me. I want great competition and great ideas (by the way the Iron Chef Challenge has had some very good ideas) but I don't want some smarmy group of little rich kids slathering the TV with their view on food. The two don't mix. It's not appealing. Pick a different setting or I'll just pick another show. I'm glad to hear you got your back treated; very painful stuff. All the best...

Horse meat is now legal in the U.S. Congress said so. WIll you use horsemeat in a future series of Top Chef? With Gordon Brown as a judge?

My favorite comment of the night came from Chuy, who said that he would have kicked those pompous, brainless, classless, tasteless, and I would guess d***less (the men) people out of his restaurant. I would do the same.

Being from Texas..I liked the Dallas episode better than the San Antonio. I thought the first TC episode was awful this season. And, those housewives paled in the same room w/ Padma.

Hm. I don't usually get into the "Cook stuff for people who could buy and sell restaurants with their pocket change" episodes because these people don't really need it or appreciate it. Sure, everyone's beating up on these housewives because they were particularly stupid (OMG panna cotta jiggled!), but even smart insanely-rich people of seasons past were annoying at best.

It probably just gets to me because these people have so much privilege that genuflecting before them in a reality show about the actual skill of generally low-paid workers makes it seem like the message for viewers is that no matter how well they do in life, they best one can do is some permutation of kneeling down and... well, this is a family site and I won't say it. But the short version is that I like the episodes where the chefs cook for under-privileged youth better.

All that aside, what's the point of having guests like these real housewives if their opinion counts for nothing? One of them said she loved the salmon, there seemed to be general agreement about the cupcake. Perhaps these people are boors who know nothing about real cuisine like Tom and Padma do (la-di-da), but if that's true then the chefs shouldn't be cooking for them.

Hope you have recovered well from your surgery. I thought you were cranky because of the vapid company of the Dallas "real housewives" and husbands.
I was looking forward to seeing Hugh Acheson. I hope he is not going to be
like Bourdain-advertised as a regular judge and only shows up a few times.

Tom,

I have always liked you and after this episode I like you even more! I loved the sarcastic comments passed at people, who may have been great hosts and hostesses but you can read right through them. They seem so fake and pretentious, why just because they have money? Give me a break! I knew something was wrong because you did not seem to be too comfortable. I know what it's like to have pain so I can understand what you were going through. I'm glad you had the surgery and I hope you are doing well, I'm also glad that it was that and nothing to do with the show. I love your show, I look forward to it every week. I hope the show has continued success. I wish you and the rest of the cast as well as your families a wonderful Holiday season and a very happy and most of all HEALTHY New Year 2012!!

So...let me get this straight. Chris' own client goes on record saying that the cupcake 'is one of the best I've ever had', and you still put him in the bottom? Right. Makes perfect sense. If there is NO accounting whatsoever for the clients' satisfaction and opinions, why even bother including them in the tasting?! The judging on this show is just ridiculous.

For the future, bravo should separate the housewives show from top chef, many of us are fascinated by the skills and creativity that it takes to get to be a chef at this level let alone at a masters level. To mix housewives type personalities or use this show as a ploy to introduce a new housewives show is an insult to us who have a disdain for these people. Let's have top chef stick to food and keep the housewives of dallas out of the show and all future episodes.

Hmmm, I suspect a "Real Housewives of Texas" show in development. Just saw a clip for the Nate Berkus show on NBC (sister network) and the guest was the brunette party planner from Texas. If this is true, it explains a lot about why the women were caricatures (wouldn't be Housewives otherwise). I think Bravo is dropping New Jersey housewives and will replace it with a housewives show set in Texas. You heard it here first.

Living with pain is very exhausting, and I thought I sensed a bit of weariness in you that evening. I hope your surgery went well and you are feeling better.

I Love Top Chef. I have learned so much from watching the show, and have found a renewed interest in food and cooking. Thank You for that.

I too, have found this season to be a little less exciting than ones in the past, but I don't understand why someone would consider not watching the show anymore because of a bad episode. I plan to Loyally watch until the show no longer exists...which is hopefully a very long time from now.

Tom, I didn't know where else to post this...but, with this episode's quickfire and being just an everyday American, it got me thinking - it would be very interesting to see an entire season of Top Chef based on everyday American ingredients or "survival kits." I know Cheftestants have a much better palate than these ingredients; however, I was impressed with Lindsey's win and think it would really even show us out there who don't cook that you can do a lot with so little!

About chefs and desserts...

True, many chefs are not good at, or fond of, making desserts. I am in culinary school, and we have just one class on baking, and even that is not all desserts.

Thinking desserts is a whole different "animal". When composing, say, an entree plate, you think "protein, starch, veg" and the balance there, matching seasonings. Desserts tend to be an all in one, or an item and a sauce, made of ingredients you don't often use in savory cooking in the same way.

And baking is a different creature. Things need to be measured and in the right proportion, and deviating can have disastrous results, as can substituting ingredients. Regular cooking is much more forgiving, and done by taste and doneness. Oversimplifying, but when you bake a cake, you put it together, put it in the oven, and cross your fingers that when you take it out later on, it did what it was supposed to do.

All that being said...

This is Top Chef. And they make desserts on Top Chef. And the contestants know this before they get there, if they have watched the show. Perhaps they were hoping that when the dice were rolled, they would not be the one having to make a dessert.

It's very sweet of you to blame your back but I don't think anyone is buying it. These are the sort of Texans who cheer at an execution or the suggestion of seceding from the Union, think the problem with our country is that low wage earners aren't paying enough taxes and join their idiot governor to pray for rain. There are a lot of great folks in Texas but you are statistically unlikely to find them among the lower upper classes living in the McMansions of suburban Dallas.

Tom, don't use your back surgery as an excuse- Mr Grumpy! (Kidding!) I Hope you are recovering well because we need you in all of the rest of the episodes if this one is an indication of the rest of the season.

The cool thing about this show is the fact that no matter the drama some chefs have, in the end as a viewer I am still focusing on the food and the amazing process involved (well, visually of course, taste-wise I can only rely on your critique).

But this episode, not so much. (Does anybody remember what the chefs made?)

Like you, you judge based on the dish presented to you, I, as a viewer can only see what's played before me. I don't want to be so negative about your dinner hosts because we know a lot of editing had been done. But if you were other than how you were in this episode, I think I would have thrown up!

I did notice you were grumpy, however I thought it was due to the brainless company you had to dine with. They were beyond stereotypically vane empty and just plain stupid! The best moments of the episode to me were actually those where you made sarcastic comments and made faces at the wannabes around you. I am sorry to know you were not only in painful company, but also in actual physical pain, but I can't lie, seeing you react that way to that empty new-rich people, was the redeeming point of the episode and made me smile thinking "Tom is so cool and smart, at least one person realizes how dumb and ridiculous these people are"

Hope you are feeling well, and I hope the show goes on to give you the chance to interact with more interesting, stimulating and food-knowledgeable people.

As a forty-year resident of Dallas, I can attest that most of the denizens of Highland Park are lovely, classy, genteel, sophisticated people with impeccable taste. I shall assume all those people weren't into being on reality TV, regardless of how fabulous the show might be. I'm sure these hosts are nice, respectable, decent folks, but they are better suited to far-north-Dallas McMansions, not Highland Park.

It's a terrible misrepresentation of Dallas (especially the Park Cities), and hopefully not purposeful. I do believe it's the first episode where I was unable to pay any attention to the food. Count me as shocked and embarrassed.

I absolutely love top chef, and am sure to watch every single week. I read a lot of comments about this episode making Dallas look bad, and giving off false pretenses about the people there. I would just like to say I'm from new jersey, so no one should expect sympathy from me. I mean.,, jerseylicious? real housewives of new jersey? jersey shore? there are stereotypes everywhere haha.
when I saw the episode I was thinking you looked really down, and was sincerely hoping this wasn't foreshadowing some detachment from the show. so glad that wasn't the case, which sounds bad considering the alternative was that you were in pain. love the show, best recovery wishes!!<3

Good to read the other post and find out they were not happy with the so called host. I am from Texas and this show is making Texans look stupid. Those women were nothing more than trophy wives and cook not cook them selves out of a wet paper bag. The men well what can you say? I have watched every episode of Top Chef and this one was enough to make me rethink my choice.

As a Twitter follower I knew you had an epidural to try and get through shooting the season this past summer. Hope your surgery is successful and your rehab is progressing. I'm having my own back surgery Dec 7.

I really enjoy the show, the personalities and competition, and the techniques I've picked up. In 9 season's the progressive dinner was the first show I almost turned off. While some of the contestants made some particularly glaring errors, I felt the home kitchen situations contributed to that. However, I'm not sure that even YOU could have satisfied those dim-witted palates. A party-planner that won't eat half the things on earth, and one woman that I'm betting doesn't even know where her kitchen is? When she said she wouldnt eat the Panna Cotta because it was "jiggling", I was done.

I just assumed your less than warm demeanor was the result of having to do an all day shoot with those people. Youch!

So very unfortunate that you chose to represent Dallas in this way. Where were the Dallas area guest chef judges? So many to choose from! Why would you choose the settings/hosts that you did? So embarrassed for them and you. I personally know the hosts and felt horrible for how they came off on the show. I can only imagine how much fun was had in the edit bay as editors chose to portray the hosts in the worst possible light.

Top Chef missed out on an opportunity to explore and showcase great cuisine in Dallas and Texas, so far. Instead, you have reached for cliche after cliche. Rodeos, chili, state troopers and vapid socialites. Oh yes, and let's not forget, we have South Fork to look forward to.

Hi Tom, glad you're feeling better after your back surgery. It was a very interesting show to me. The world of the private chef is so very different from a restaurant chef, but it's still a reminder that the customer is always right. I was surprised that no one commented on Ed showcasing raspberries, since the hostess of the dessert course said she didn't like them.

The money in those three houses was sort of sickening, but that's the way it is in every town. Here in north Alabama, there are many people with tons of money, but our elbows will never rub. Alas that I couldn't be one of them...

It was awesome to see John Besh! My husband is from New Orleans, and we're both big fans of Chef Besh. I didn't realize that his restaurant Luc is in San Antonio - makes me want to return to that glorious city.

What on earth was Chris C thinking with that God-awful cigar? It would have been a bad idea for a bachelor's party, forget about an elegant dinner party! Chris was lucky that the cooking wasn't bad to boot, because it would have been him joining his little buddy Richie in the exit. I was shocked to see Chuy not do well, but bad cooking on top of a bad idea usually spells TC doom. It's easier to forgive sloppy presentation (Ty) than to forgive overcooked fish. As you said in an earlier blog, seafood protein cannot be saved if it's overcooked.

Loved it that roasted brussels sprouts won the challenge! And was it two desserts that made it to the favorites list? That was a good reminder that TC is more than just the entree course.

I'm glad that you're on the mend with your back, just take it easy til you're completely healed. Looking forward to the rest of the season!

I have been a fan of Top Chef since season 1. I love learning about new types of food or new ways to prepare things. It seems that the contestants have been chosen based on their actual talent rather than in their ability to cause drama as in early seasons (season 2), which is a refreshing change from other reality tv!

I loved All-Stars! It was great to get to see the old contestants and to root for them again. So far this season has been great! I wasn't so sure about the contestants cooking for their chef coats, but it turned out to be something entertaining and fresh for the show. Last chef standing is a wonderful idea too! I think making it all the way through that would be even more difficult than cooking on the real show!

I love that viewers get an insight into the judges decisions through the blog. I appreciate Tom mentioning that he reads the blogs and wants feedback from fans. I'd love to see more Tom! The whole oogling of Padma is getting old...and it bothers me that she voices her opinion so much. What are her credentials that make her opinion of equal value to that of the other judges?

Keep up the good work! :)

After watching the “Door to Door” episode I sure hope you get the show back on track.
To me, it came across more like a new program called “Yuppies of Dallas.”
Best wishes on healing up after your surgery.

My wife and I have enjoyed watching all The Top Chef shows, but I find the main series is progressively losing its way. For your viewers please focus on the cooking more, e.g. Masters and AllStars, so the audience can watch, learn, and be inspired to mimic your great chef contestants. Challenge them with products, time limits, cooking environments, and less with the interpersonal dilemmas of team challenges.

Still love the show and judges, just expecting the greatness that you've served up many times before.

Tom, I'm glad you are happily recovering from your surgery. While I've watched the show in all its versions since Season 2, this week's episode was the first one that inspired me to check the blogs. When I saw your facial expressions at the second house, I wondered if you had been given something raw or rotten but weren't saying anything -- it looked like stomach distress. I'm guessing the camera just caught the right angle for your expression of back pain, which judging from the look on your face was horrific.

I hope you have a speedy recovery and feel much happier soon!

Wow... Good to know. I thought maybe you had a few too many glasses of wine!!! Hope all gets well!

I don't know why everyone is down on choosing Park Cities as the location for the show. Who do you think sustains the restaurants that all these chefs aspire to own? It's not the "foodie" types (I hate that word, as it happens) because they don't have enough money for expensive dinners on a regular basis. Top Chef showcases and features the top .1% (or higher) of the culinary industry, so I don't know why it's such a big deal to have some wealthy couples on air unless your pretension is only acceptable where taste in food is concerned.
Frankly I thought the episode was condescending to the hosts on the part of both contestants and judges (maybe that was the bad back - I think I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt).
As an aside, are we going to have any judges from the host cities by the time this season is over? You imported judges from LA to judge chili at a rodeo? Just seems like odd choices. I guess this happens in every season and maybe I'm just taking it more personally because I live in Dallas.

Tom, I'm sorry you are in so mich pain. I will remember you in my prayers. I love the show and am an avid viewer.

I am from Texas, and have lived here my whole life. The show last night was an embarassment to Texans. I just want the world to know that most people in Texas, both with money and without, are not so silly and pretentious. Texans are very welcoming, friendly people, and few are as shallow as those couples that were chosen to represent Dallas. Please don't play to the sterotype. I do believe you would have a much harder time finding those sterotypical Texans than finding the "real" people of Texas. Texas is extremely diverse, please show the diversity, the interesting, even the weird, but, PLEASE, PLEASE don't continue to perpetuate a false sterotype.

I was very disappointed in the show probably for the first time since its inception. The Stepford couples were the most despicable people. I literally thought I was watching a movie parodying of these type of people. I kept on having to snap back into reality and realize that yes, there are indeed people who are that fake and disturbing in this world.

I have great respect for the show and its contestants, so that is why it bothered me that it would sink so low as to promote such horrible people. Plus I won't even get into the fact of putting these people on a pedestal during a period of time in our country when many are hurting. This isn't the Kardashians or Real Houswives of Emasculated Husbands, this is Top Chef...one of the very few respectable reality TV shows out there.

I hope your back surgery went well. Must've made you wince like me when the chefs were forced to STOOP in a field for 30 minutes trying to do the quickfire challenge. Cooking in unfamiliar surroundings shouldn't include tortuous conditions where people are going to get hurt. I knew the second it started there would be trouble. I'm suprised the overweight chefs were able to get through it without experiencing severe back pain.
If you judges can't imagine doing the quickfire at this stage in your lives, pregnant, with a bad back, overweight, etc. then why is it fair to expect these chefs to do it? That quickfire challege actively discriminates against the chefs of size or who happen to have a touchy back... VERY common after childbirth or a tough season of cooking, household project, etc.
If you're not considering ergonomics and back safety in these challenges, you're not doing right by these contestents who trust you to keep them safe during the competition. If it's impossible for a chef with a disability or pregnancy to complete a challenge without being injured and in agony, you are doing wrong by all chefs in every workplace.

I'm a huge fan of the show, very loyal viewer. Please don't do anymore shows with out of touch, rich, snobby socialites. Who cares what these people think? I get that its a component of the culinary scene to cater to these interests, but these people SUCKED!

I love Top Chef, and I have seen every episode of every season. Last night's show was the worst of any in Top Chef's nine seasons. I felt ill just watching it. Whoever chose those empty-headed millionaires should pack their knives and go. With so many people homeless and struggling to make ends meet, choosing those hosts was in poor taste. Is this the best of Texas? Yuck!

I'm really starting to dislike a lot of the chefs this season. I feel that the skill level of these chefs is not as high as in previous seasons.

You were so rude. I understand that the (seemingly very nice) couples were deliberately chosen for the Bravo audience demographic to sneer and laugh at, but you were a guest in their homes and should have controlled yourself. Watching you laugh at them was so mean, and confirmed everything most people think about pretentious foodies.

A lame idea, but what the hell, for a future episode. Break up the contestants into two teams. Simply cook a 4 course meal in two hours. The twist, the contestants get to the kitchens only to find they are totally trashed and have to be cleaned before they start, clean and cook all in 2 hours

This episode made me smile.

Paul Qui, the most talented chef ever to compete on Top Chef, won again. And although Chuy, who is extremely talented, went home, there is still plenty of talent. I especially love Ed, Paul, Grayson and Nyesha.

I'm glad that you explained your grumpiness because we all, as viewers, noticed it.

Tom good luck with the back sugery, went through that and it is painful. Usually enjoy the show but last night seemed off, not only some of the food but the whole format, even the judges energy seemed subdued, of which yours is explained.

I enjoyed cooking part of the challenge, but thought the hosts were poorly chosen. These three couples were plastic, boring and childish. They didn't seem to have many social skills and their comments were dull. Honestly, it seemed a caricature of both social climbers and Dallas itself. I'm glad Mr. Colicchio cleared up what was causing his bad mood, because I thought the hosts were the culprit. Last nights show reminded me of a bad Kardashian episode, where money, status and flat expressions rule the day. I expect more from Top Chef—a champion of creativity, individuality and ingenuity.

First, Tom - I hope you are recovering, back injuries are very hard for most people to understand the pain of just sitting in a dinning chair after back injury.
Second, I am sorry but I was so disappointed in the show. I have met many people from Texas, and the three couples did not represent anyone I have ever met from Texas. Frankly, I nearly decided to stop watching the show after this episode. I really hope the season will quickly make up for this poor episode and I hope Austin gets a big representation for the very unique and cool town it is for food and culture. Not to mention, most foodies know that it is the birth place of Whole Foods Market!

Hope the back is better. the hosts were certainly interesting! I'm sure you had quite the time. he likes meat, she likes veggies! gummy bear wedding cake! deserts "worth" the calories! my wife and I enjoyed the hosts' shenanigans to no end. And it was clear that they knew what they liked when it came to food. Just goes to show how sophisticated and diverse the culinary culture is in Dallas.

While we do dinner progressives from time to time, it's a much different experience, and you're always welcome. If you ever find yourself in DC, let's go pick on Isabella at Graffiato, grab a couple cigars, and make a night of it.

Cheers, and thanks for the great blog!

Tom, sorry to hear about your back.

As someone who has spent most of his life in Dallas, I have to say last night's episode was both frustrating and embarrassing. There are many foodies in this city and there are even many people in the Park Cities that would represent the area better. It is very easy for shows that come to Dallas to play on the stereotypical big money, big everything image. The show had the opportunity to take the time to learn more about the area and portray the many non-pretentious elements of this town. Or hell, showing the pretentious but foodie side of Dallas would have been better. But seeing as how the show is going to South Fork Ranch next week, it looks as though stereotypes will be the name of the game. I hope I am wrong.