'Top Chef Reunion': Fabio's no Padma
Top Chef may have taken a break this week from regular programming, but that doesn't mean that Liz and Justine are taking the night off. This week, we've got a Top Chef reunion show, bringing back some of the strongest personalities from the previous five seasons of the show. The 11 cheftestants (plus Fabio, fan favorite from season five, playing host) who came back were some of the strongest and conveniently most dramatic on their seasons.
We're not banking on huge fireworks on this episode, but it will be good to catch back up with a few of our favorites. Justine wanted to see Richard, Hung, Fabio and Harold; Liz is excited about Marcel, Richard and Harold.
Enough of the nostalgia. On to the reunioning!
(Photo of the charming Fabio by Getty Images)
Here's who is on the show, for those of you keeping score at home:
Season 1: Harold (winner), Tiffany
Season 2: Marcel, Ilan (winner)
Season 3: Dale, Hung (winner), Casey
Season 4: Richard, Lisa
Season 5: Carla, Stefan
Notice that the winners of seasons 4 and 5 are missing? Stephanie may be legitimately busy, but we're thinking Hosea may not have wanted to show his face before much more competent chefs.
We're barely 30 seconds in to the show and Liz already admits that she had (still has?) a huge crush on Harold. He's gained a little weight (much of it in his face), but he's still cute. This might be the highlight of the whole show.
Ugh, Marcel the Hair attributes people hating him to his being so talented. (Justine hates him with a firey passion.) Liz wants to see a foam.
We all cheer when Richard Blais goes in. He opened a burger joint in Atlanta that serves liquid nitrogen-frozen milkshakes! Those crazy molecular gastronomists. If we go visit that restaurant, maybe Eli will pop in (Liz's wishful thinking).
Lisa looks terrible! And she's even smiling, but it doesn't matter. She always scowls.
Casey was nervous about seeing Carla because of how her contribution to Carla's meal tanked in the Season 5 finale.
Tiffany seems to have learned something from seeing herself on Season 1 – she owns the bitchy part of how she was perceived and said it was rooted in insecurity. We're sure the intervening years have helped, but she seems more reasonable.
Richard really misses competing, and he has a hilarious monologue where he demonstrates how he was "the guy always known for speculating." Oh, Richard. Why hasn't Bravo given you your own spin-off show? A how-to home molecular gastronomy special?
The challenge (if you can call it that)
It can't be a Top Chef show without expecting them to at least cook something. Each season has to prepare a dish (there are about two from each season plus host Fabio, so they're in pairs) based on a knife draw – the knives tell them what course they're making.
Course 1: Dale, Hung, Casey (course one: seafood)
Course 2: Harold, Tiffany (course two: more seafood)
Course 3: Marcel, Ilan (course three: more more seafood)
Course 4: Richard, Lisa (course four: meat)
Course 5: Carla, Stefan (course five: dessert)
The chefs weren't directly competing in the kitchen, and they all seemed to appreciate that.
The most distracting part of the show (but necessary for any reunion show) was the obligatory flash-backing to what happened on each of the seasons. We felt sympathy for Fabio, who had to ask them about things some people didn't want to talk about to justify the reunion show.
(Sorry, we missed a few minutes of the memories because our viewing companion fell asleep and was snoring audibly. We have video evidence.)
Lisa wanted to meet Stefan. They can go off to an island together and never come back as far as Justine's concerned. Each season has to have a villain, and those two, Marcel and Jerkface Mike will be very happy together.
Liz is excited for Dale's crab pirohi because she could make them. She's got the pirohi making apparatus in her kitchen cabinets. Justine's waiting. Dale's dish was voted a train wreck by Tiffany. Liz's pirohi never get that bleak a reception.
There are lots of shots of wine and champagne bottles opening. Harold confesses that chefs like to drink (cue video flashback of one of my favorite moments of his season where he pops open a little airline bottle of what appears to be gin during one of the challenges)
Fabio leads the former cheftestants through the highlights and controversies of their respective seasons. There isn't too much stuff that you haven't seen before if you watched all the episodes. We expected some drama from Casey and Carla, who were paired together during Carla's season finale. Casey suggested Carla sous vide her protein, a technique Carla hadn't tried before. The sous vide fail got Carla sent home. But on tonight's reunion, Casey said she felt she was being blamed for it. Carla didn't seem as burned by the experience as we were expecting. There goes any hope for drama on this reunion.There are a few funny moments with the stew room, but that's about it. (Even Liz fell asleep.)
All in all, it was pretty lame. Can't wait to get back to real cooking next week.
What was the most disappointing part of the episode for you? Did you fall asleep? Who would you have wanted to see invited to reunion dinner? (Liz wanted desperately to have Hot Sam from season 2 on the show, but had to settle for a few glimpses during the flashbacks when Cliff was trying to shave Marcel's hair)
Comments
Certainly the best was the chefs saying Tiffany and Marcel were unfairly represented as bad guys, but not mentioning Lisa at all. "You two were unfairly made to look like jerks. Lisa, you actually are a jerk." Too good.
The worst was certainly Marcel's reacting to Fabio saying that he looks like he wants to fight everyone by.... acting like he wanted to fight Fabio. Good work Marcel.
It's so annoying when the chefs embrace their jerkiness. Lisa's a total jerk. The montage of her scowls at judges' table from throughout her season says it all. And maybe Marcel's being a hot head is just him trying to compensate for looking like a wimp when Cliff tried to shave his head on his season. --Liz
Posted by: AK | November 5, 2009 1:10 AM
This episode was a waste of time. The recap here on this blog was more interesting than the actual show.
Thanks, Christian. I hope recounting our exploits of various members of the viewing party falling asleep during the episode was amusing. --Liz
Posted by: Christian | November 5, 2009 10:11 AM
They should have made the cooking an actual challenge and had some sort of a panel (either other past contestants or the actual judges) judge or comment on the dishes. That would have created a little tension or drama, that would have made for more interesting TV.
Either that or they needed to use a better host who is more experienced at getting the contestants to dish.
To me it just seemed like there was something "off" in the vibe of the whole program. Perhaps because a lot of these folks really didn't know each other that well, or they were all in "reunion poser" mode trying to show how successful they have become (even if they weren't - most seemed to be "working" on opening their own place and just doing appearances).
etucker -- The idea of having past cheftestants judge the ones who were actually cooking in this episode is a great idea. Maybe Bravo's budget for reunion shows got cut and any type of "judging" (aside from Tiffany's scathing review of Dale's pirohi). --Liz
Posted by: etucker | November 5, 2009 11:04 AM
I didn't get last night either. The only reason I watch the show in the first place is for the food review by the panel. I didin't enjoy the soap opera episode.
I guess the accomplished cheftestants (oh wait, only 3 of them were season winners) are too good for judging. Or Padma and Tom were busy filming the season that's currently running. They could have at least gotten Gail or maybe original host Katie Lee (minus the Joel). --Liz
Posted by: NotableM | November 5, 2009 1:27 PM
i was so unexcited by this episode that i didnt watch live and i havent watched my dvr'ed episode yet. im patiently waiting for next week! all of the local coverage of the volt boys has been helpful tho!
Make space on your DVR and just get rid of the episode, unless you've got the hots for Richard Blais or Harold or another cheftestant. It was highly disappointing, if you take me and Justine's word for it. --Liz
Posted by: lore | November 5, 2009 2:15 PM
I did like the unaired snippet from last season when Marcel flipped out at Toby. I hated Marcel during his season (I was also a fan of "hot Sam"), and I thought he might have changed. What a baby!? You know Fabio was fed questions to ask the cheftestants, and Marcel acted like a 2 year old when Fabio asked him things! He was very mean to Fabio, and it seemed like he was acting very condescending toward him. I think someone is jealous that Bravo fell in love with Fabio, just like America.
Agreed on many counts, Jenn. I hated Marcel so much during his season, and every time I've seen him after that, I cringe. His attitude and hair are both so obnoxious, and he was being mean to our Fabio!
Oh, Hot Sam. Why couldn't you be a repeat cheftestant? None of the female segment of the audience would mind, I'm sure. --Justine
Posted by: Jenn | November 5, 2009 2:27 PM
The best Part? Well, the best of a pretty poor show was actually pretty amusing. Please tell me you didn't sleep through Fabio (when the crowd was pretty contentious about past differences) asking the cameras to be turned off and begged, "Don't-a make me look like a dick-a." Great laugh! In fact, that was pretty much the refrain around the office today...lol.
I didn't fall asleep, and I can assure you that Liz saw that part. We looked at each other with wide eyes when he yelled to turn the a-camera off. Trust Bravo cameramen to keep it rolling.
Still, the previews for the episode really made it look more contentious than it turned out to be. I wasn't impressed. --Justine
We often adopt shorter Top Chef catch phrases for use at work, like Bearded Kevin's "Ta-Da!" when he won the Calphalon. --Liz
Posted by: crabhappy | November 5, 2009 3:34 PM
don't hold back any punches... harold looked totally chubby, which is awesome for me because my wife has (had) a big crush on him. more than anything, this episode highlighted how STRONG this seasons contestants are... perhaps the strongest in the series of the show. also, can some please please please teach fabio about plurals? he is a total parody of himself....
Oh, don't hate on the foreigner! His accent is so cute!
Yeah, it is sad that Harold has gained weight -- he was so cute for a while.
Liz and I have talked a few times about how this season's chefs are all head chefs at well-known restaurants or run their own places already. As the show's gotten older, the quality of the chefs has improved (with perhaps the exception of winner Hosea, who just eked out a victory). It doesn't seem like they need the show to get their restaurants anymore -- maybe they just want to be on it for the publicity. --Justine
Hey, Harold's still cute. I'll take a man who can cook, even if he did get a bit chubby. We've also talked about this, Justine -- who would you trust more: a skinny chef or a slightly plumper chef? --Liz
Posted by: The Interweb | November 5, 2009 4:33 PM
I totally fell asleep. Glad I'm not the only one.
I think the part that really screamed "made for tv" though was when more than one chef walked out of the airport with their knives slung over their shoulder. Yeah, like you can carry those on. Give me a break! What, did you pull them out of your checked luggage to make the shot? ha.
I totally wasn't paying attention to the airport scenes at the beginning, but you're absolutely right. You can't carry on knives at the airport, even if you are a cheftestant. --Liz
Posted by: Summer | November 6, 2009 10:37 AM
omg you are my biggest fan on topchef ever.I cried when you got sent home.
Are you trying to get this message out to Fabio, ember? Maybe he'll Google himself and find this comment. --Liz
Posted by: ember | November 8, 2009 11:45 AM
One huge snoozefest. Only highlights were Harold's and Richard's presence.
Totally agreed, toni. --Liz
Posted by: toni | November 10, 2009 6:38 AM
Have just watched this episode, and even though I am a Marcel fan I found myself cringing at his conduct.
Otherwise, it was great to see Richard, Stefan, Carla and Hung again.
Agreed, Drew. As a Marcel fan, it's hard to watch him being such a jerkface (not to be confused with the original JerkFace Mike from the current season). I like Marcel for his foams, not for the drama. --Liz
Posted by: Drew | November 10, 2009 3:23 PM