Top Chef Season 3 Episode 12
“Manhattan Project” SPOILERS AHEAD: Like Anthony Bourdain, I thought last night’s Top Chef ep was the best of the season thus far. Phil at ALoTT5MA also liked it a lot, and has good commentary. The contrasts between Casey and Hung were well highlighted, in both the quickfire and elimination challenges. Hung is the most cutthroat of the remaining competitors. He is classically trained, as he often snottily reminds us. Casey is not classically trained, but does a good job of executing modern dishes with classic influences. She is much more likeable than Hung, and she’s demonstrated over the past several episodes that she’s a talented chef.
The contrasts between the two of them and the other three were also well depicted. Brian clearly could have been either at the bottom of the tops, or the top of the bottoms, but he was squarely in the middle. And no matter how likeable Dale is–”I’m a big, gay chef, and I’m gonna outcook your a$$!”–that doesn’t account for the significant lapses he’s had, like forgetting a plate on the plane, and forgetting the sauce on his duo. Also, was he present earlier in the season when the judges derided one of the candidates for doing duets? And didn’t he learn a lesson from the boat episode, that one simple item is better than two complicated ones. To his credit, though, I don’t doubt that it’s hard, and I’m in a comfy viewing spot the day after the show and on my couch, not in a kitchen with professional chefs staring at me, and the most illustrious judging panel waiting for the dish.
I was relieved to see Sara eliminated rather than Dale, if only because he’s such a gigantic personality. Her dish looked good but sounded terrible, though I wondered if the couscous was good; I only heard it called underseasoned.
I very much enjoyed Casey’s comment on being a woman in what has been, and still largely is, a men’s club. Nowhere was this more evident than in the quickfire judge, Sirio Maccioni, saying that he’d like to pick her instead of Hung as the winner, because her dish was good AND she was pretty. Yet she faced down the stony-visaged kitchen chefs and stepped up to do a great job in both challenges. That indicated to me that she deserves to be there.
Does anyone else wonder how Lia and Tre would be doing, if they were still around? They seemed the most talented previous eliminations, to me.