I’m back on the right coast and that means that I’m at the hottest possible spot for Top Chef watching– Chef Spike’s Good Stuff Eatery, here on the Hill, in Washington, D.C. By the way, I’m sitting right next to the bad boy himself…ah, being a blogger. It does have its privIleges. 😉
It’s the “palate” test! Spike likes.
I think we can all agree that Padma’s hair looks great. 😉
“Actually, this challenge is kind of stupid.” Can I quote that, Spike? Laughs. “Yeah.”
SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP
Radhika is about to get tested, and she does well. Go, brown girl in the ring!
I typed too quickly– Radhika then lost the next round via a bad “chili powder”-covered answer.
“Everyone knows the base of a sauce is celery, carrot, onion.” – Spike
By the way: if you want to be the 432nd person to follow Chef Spike on Twitter, try this
Radhika would rather be on SATAN’S team, on Stefan’s. Nice.
Awww, Spike shouts out SM on his Twitter! How sweet is that? Almost as sweet as my fantastic black and white milkshake.
Jamie proposes that for “something borrowed”, her team borrows Indian cooking, from Radhika’s mom. Radhika is THRILLED at this. 😉
Chef Spike and I both had the same rxn to tomato carpaccio, i.e. isn’t that…sliced…tomato?
Spike is speaking to the mutineer on my right about how he agrees that Daniel may be the unlucky chef out, this ep…
Radhika is making raita…how is that NOT overtly Indian, gf? She’s really worried about being THE INDIAN PERSON, but…she kind of is.
“There’s a reason why the best sushi chefs in the world do not have surf and turf on their menus!” – Spike
“we’re borrowing…from…um…radhika’s culture.” wow.
Spike: “too much shine between these three (colichio + two cheftestants who are also bald)…where are the fauxhawks? I want the fauxhawks back.”
re: colichio’s either this will be spectacular…or horrible. A resounding pronouncement of “horrible” from GSE.
How? How does make-your-own-sushi fit what Gail is about to do with her life?
FYI– Spike says Padma is HOTTER in person. (Hell yes!)
We all notice Fabio’s wedding pic and Spike says that Fabio’s pretty wife is Greek. Spike himself is “Gre-wish”. ;D
Chef Spike is SO OVER shot glasses. I agree when I see the jittery presentation of them!
me: “did he say SPOOGE??” spike: “Never refer to anything on a plate as a “spluge”.
“(this meal)…not a good start to my new life” – the guest of honor. Oh, SNAP.
Spike disagrees with the chef’s consternation about the lamb, calling it “beautiful”. I’m a strict veg, so I’ll trust him. 😉 “Lamb tastes best rare…or really well-done. Either one.”
“We decided to…borrow Radhika’s culture…” spike: “so they’re going to give it back?” Word!
I thought radhika’s “borrowed team’s lamb/plating looked great. 🙂
I remark that the women are eating up Fabio’s accent and over-the-top compliments…says Spike, “That’s my boy…too bad there are turds in front of everyone (referring to the unfortunate looking sea bass).”
Gail agrees with Chef Spike that lamb was perfectly cooked.
We’re all saying “carrots”…”lamb”…as we wait for the guest judge to announce the winner…some of us were right. 😉
“None of us expected anyone but me to win”? Jigga wha?
“Sushi rice is not sticky rice, they are two different things”- Spike
Clueless Daniel: “I’m unbelievably happy (with what we put out)” …WOW. Just, wow.
Carla is so sweet to not throw mushroom-strewing Daniel under the bus, with prejudice.
The expressiveness of Colichio’s face is just awesome.
It looks like it’s between Eugene and Daniel for knife-packing and going, but a few of us here are talking about how the former has a better backstory, how we hope it’s Daniel.
DO NOT READ FURTHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO GOT CUT!
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Daniel is OUT. As Spike is saying, he prob STILL thinks it was a good dish.
zomg, next week looks CRAZY. Martha Stewart? Food borne-illness? Radhika looking distressed? You best believe I’ll be back here, same place, same time, same seat, with Chef Spike feeding us the real 411.
Is it just me or do they not give enough air time to our girl? She needs to start a fight with someone or do something interesting. Top Chef and other reality shows routinely sleep deprive their contestants to make them act loopy.
I can’t believe he made that pickle comment! LOL!
Gotta agree-Radhika keeps cooking Indian food. Does she feel pressured to do this? Or is it a comfort thing? Esp. after saying she didn’t want to be known only for Indian cuisine. Hmmmm.
“She needs to start a fight with someone”
She’s not Punjabi…I keed, I keed…
Hey guys. Did you know Radhika’s Indian? She’s Indian. We are borrowing from her culture! It’s so unique and exotic! Isn’t it cool? It’s INDIAN!
Oh tokenism. I guess I can at least be happy that Indians is one of those “cool” minorities.
I disagree with Spike on the Quickfire. I thought it was awesome because it wasn’t like last season’s palate test. I also loved Name That Tune so I might be biased. I did think it was absurd that Carla offered up peanut butter when she could have just said salt or pepper. I haven’t seen the rest of the episode but will see it on the rerun in 45 minutes and then post my thoughts. I did see that Daniel got eliminated so that’s super. He’s a cad.
MISSPELLING!!?? By A N N A???
7 · strunk said
Okay, okay…fixed.
I was live-blogging. It happens. 😉 I was focusing on speed, not accuracy (that’s what HE said!).
8 · A N N A said
not really, look again 🙂 the pole is far longer than you’d planned for. that’s what he said.
sorry, my mistake. screwy browser font made the upper case I look like an l.
I wanted to come to Spike’s restaurant so badly, but I’m too sick. I will be there next week for sure though.
Fab line from Daniel: “I think I’m going to win. I feel like a winner.” –Doh! That’s a harsh comeuppance. I love how they cut B roll to make the loser look really bad. Such as when he said, “I’m excited. I think she’ll make a hot bride.” I mean, she’s no Gretchen from Real Housewives but why do you say that on camera?
I kind of think Stefan got screwed in the Quickfire. From a sauce, I’d like to know how many people in the world could distinguish between tomato paste and condensed tomato soup or whatever tomato was undoubtedly in the sauce. I think Padma kind of agreed with me when she repeated it. It’s also interesting how the beginning of the Elimination Challenge has Stefan being right about a lot of things that end up going poorly.
As for our brown girl, I think she just needs to suck it up and cook Indian. She’ll have to answer the question at Judge’s Table at some point but it will keep her around for a while. What Ariane is doing still on the show is beyond me. She’s succeeded on microwave turkey, a tomato/watermelon SALAD. I’ll grant her the lamb dish. I think she will end up like Betty from season 1 though. My initial reaction for blue was blue crab but I doubt they could find that easily. It seems odd that knowing there is no such thing as blue food, they would make it a condition of an elimination challenge.
Anyway, I’m on a quest to get to as many of the good TC restaurants as possible. If you’re ever in Dallas, Tre’s not there anymore, but Abacus is fab. I’m going to try Casey’s restaurant next time I’m in town, Hung’s restaurant — I think he’s a Guy Savoy when I’m in Vegas, Harold’s restaurant in NYC, and Spike’s when I’m in DC. Does anyone have TC restaurant suggestions other than those?
did anyone notice that at Gail’s party there was another indian girl there? That makes three for the brown team: Padma, Radhika, and random bridal party guest!
What does this have to do with Sonal Shah? I thought this was a blog about
South AsiansSonal Shah!who’s watching mr chahal on secret millionaire…lil man doin it big!
Doesn’t Jeffery look like Chase from House MD? Also, I’ve only seen two episodes of the show this season (hence did not read after the fold) but Fabio also seems to be inspiring his food from his Italian roots – so why not Radhika. I guess, I am wondering why this is an issue even with her. I just want to say, grrrl… cook it any way, just stick in there and win! First desi and first woman Top Chef, you can do it!
Thank you Anna for posting about Top Chef !
I think Radhika is really cute and I wish they’d show more of her. She seems fairly competent but the girl needs to speak up more. Now, I am not much of a cook, but it did seem to me that in an episode where her team “borrowed from her culture”, she was completely sidelined. At the judges’ table all the talk was about the other two contestants on her team (also because one of them kept talking).
I have known quite a few DBD women (myself included) to struggle with this concept of taking credit and being assertive. I wonder if this is a cultural thing where she is not able to speak forcefully for herself. Or just that they keep cutting her out because she is a no-drama personality.
Casey’s restaurant Shinsei is located on Inwood just south of Lovers Lane. She actually gave me utensils once before she was on Top Chef. Her restaurant is pretty good with a laid back feel and good music at the bar upstairs. Small and intimate atmosphere.
Abacus is overrated in my opinion. The food is not bad but way overpriced. Definitely a Dallas restaurant for the botox and boob job crowd.
Didn’t catch the last ep? Can’t wait to hear your feedback on that one… Happy Hols, btw… 😀
19 · itallcomesaround said
We DID catch it, but the craziest thing happened– the wireless at Good Stuff was down, so I thought, I’ll just blog it from home, via DVR. Spike had invited me to sit at his table, again, when the place was packed so it didn’t exactly feel like a waste of a trip or anything. 🙂 I realized he was live-micro-blogging the ep via Twitter, but his usual help wasn’t there, handling the laptop while he manned the blackberry; as a result, he looked a bit distracted/swamped.
I asked “Do you want me to help you?” He looked at me gratefully and said, “That would be wonderful, are you sure you don’t mind? It would be a HUGE help.” Did I mind? Are you kidding? I changed spots and went to the other side of the table, where the Bravo people were and helped him with Twitter for the whole episode.
It’s tough if you’re new to and not used to Twitter; the 140-character limit can be challenging, especially when you want to focus on what’s going on vs continually reword what you’ve said so that it fits. I’ve used Twitter for a while, so I’ve grown accustomed to it. Spike was so kind, he immediately tried to comp my/my friend’s dinner, for my help.
It was really fun to be sitting next to him, hearing him dish about what was real and what wasn’t (as well as what Tom and Padma are really like!). I had a blast, but SM suffered for it. 😉 I thought that since these posts don’t get a ton of comments anyway, no one would notice or care. Thank you for making my morning by indicating that someone besides me, Cherian and mutineer Rajiv (who was also at Goodstuff, albeit two tables away!) care about watching and obsessing over Top Chef. 😀
No worries, Miss Anna. I just don’t have anyone to squeal in excitement with over TC or ANTM over here, so this section of the blog saves me from having to have a conversation with myself. Next time then, and also… GO team Radhika!!!
I was just about to chastise Anna for missing the last episode and encourage her to step up tomorrow, but I see it is already taken care of. Alas, I’ll miss it as I’ll be away in the hinterlands for the next two weeks, but I look forward to catching up with TC when I get back.
Also, I hate to jump off the Radhika boat, but I think her clock is ticking. She needs to branch out with something unexpected and fabulous or Tom’s going to give her a stern talking to, I imagine. But then again, Ilan did go all the way with his one-trick saffron pony. Then again, nobody in this season seems that strong in the kitchen, so maybe she’ll end up in the final four…