This week’s Top Chef provided another opportunity for the contestants to humiliate themselves, a chance they took full advantage of. In the Quickfire Challenge, pastry chef Dale got another chance to use his special skills and again ended up losing, to Joey, who claimed to be totally ignorant of the pastry field. And in the Elimination Challenge, in which the chefs were asked to create a Latin meal for Miami soap-opera stars, Hung managed to screw up arroz con pollo. In the end, though, only one chef could be exterminated, and it was the hapless but likable Lia, whose dish was shamefully bland. We compared notes with Adam Platt via IM immediately afterward.
Platt: Wow. Like a trooper, I sat and watched that comical, somewhat maudlin display from beginning to end. I can’t tell you how much I missed my top chefs.
Ozersky: Platty, I made a very interesting sociological observation in this episode.
Platt: What was that, pray tell?
Ozersky: Birds of a feather flock together. Look how the two fat guys bonded — and the two pretty women were immediate BFFs who wept for each other at the end.
Ozersky: You knew that Joey and Casey weren’t going to be best pals.
Platt: Such is life, Cutty. We all inhabit a giant schoolyard. But I was sad to see her friend, the fair-cheeked Lia, bite the dust.
Ozersky: Me too. Even if she did have it coming. What did you think of Hung’s performance?
Platt: They are relentlessly attempting to set Hung up as the evil villain of this show. My feeling is he’s a bit of a drip.
Ozersky: What I don’t get is how he could (a) overcook rice and (b) not know it. You know, I was in Las Vegas, and I saw him in the kitchen at Guy Savoy. He really does work there. You’d never know it from this show.
Platt: Well, you know, I’ve watched a few of these shows now, though luckily not as many as you have. Do we have any idea who the best chef is?
Ozersky: Who do you think?
Platt: I have no clue. Possibly that giant has some talent.
Ozersky: So you think that because C.J. is physically large, that makes his talent large? That just proves my point.
Platt: Um, what the hell is your point?
Ozersky: Like flocks to like. You feel the urge to praise the one freakishly tall individual.
Platt: True. Much like Cutlets and his beloved Howie.
Ozersky: Exactly …
Ozersky: :(
Platt: I say the loser next week is Lia’s friend Casey. She of the dry, nay lizardlike, Mexican chicken dish.
Ozersky: I say Sara. She can’t skate by much longer. And Casey is too pretty to eject this early.
Related: ‘Top Chef’ Non-Winner Lia on What Went Wrong
Sternbergh Thinks There Are Too Many Locals on ‘Top Chef’
