Top Chef Season 4
 

Yes, I love this show. Season 4 premiere (right here in Chicago) on right now.

Anyone else watchin?

Holy crap. This is one of my favorite shows and I had no idea it was on. I suck. At least Bravo shows episodes at least 20 times during the week, so I'll definitely watch ASAP.

Yeah my wife is addicted to this show and I like to watch it, too. She's watching hard-core right now while I'm paying about 10% attention to it. I will have no trouble seeing this episode again at some point, I'm sure.

Tell you what, this is one of the shows I wish I had Tivo or some sort of DVR for. The commercials for Bravo's other shows are...painful.

I can't read this, the 1st ep is one of the shows backlogging our DVR right now.

I didn't catch it last night, as I was watching South Park and Lewis Black's new show, but I'll definitely be checking it out on one of the many re-runs. Only down side for me to this show, I really loathe Padma.

/tk

shit, it's back on? love this show. and hell's kitchen which is on again soon I think.

If I had a nickel for every woman who despises Padma...

And yeah, rkmsuf, check the 2008 new shows/seasons thread I started. This one and HK are mentioned.

One of the other boards I post at is largely based in Chicago, which is where this season was filmed. One of the guys posted this today:


At least one of the guys on that board is a chef, too, so it will be interesting to read their comments about stuff as the season progresses.

My wife loves Padme and I don't like her. Gail Simmons is more my speed. Yum.

This will be so hard to believe for some of you that have read a select couple of other threads of mine, but I have this friend (the best-buy, Maaco, movie-maker, playmate cameraman guy) that is a very good chef (was a professional chef for years) and I like to watch this show with him so he can explain to me just what the eff is going on most of the time. We backlog these episodes on the DVR and my wife watches them when they air and I usually ignore them until I can watch with him. I'm more interested in the food side of what's going on, I just don't understand any of it without help.

I'm rootin' for the New Zealand guy.

Well, I just don't think she adds anything to the show. I know she's written a cookbook, but that doesn't really mean she knows much about "being a chef" or what makes food good. Quite often, she disagrees with the other judges about what is "good" or shows "great skill," because she just is too stupid to know. I definitely watch this show for the techniques and the food, not because I care about the fighting they inspire (forced or otherwise) to make it a "true" reality show.

If most women hate her because she's pretty...well, there's that. I think she's pretty. Not super-model pretty, but I don't hate her because of her looks. She just doesn't seem to really know much about food and haute cuisine.

/tk

I agree she doesn't seem to know what is going on most of the time. There was one time last season where I think they intentionally edited the show to include as many times as possible where she would just, quite literally, repeat whatever Tom said. I thought it was terrific.

I don't really think she is all that pretty either. I mean, she is mildly attractive, sure, but her look is really not my kind of thing.

Repeating:
Gail freakin Simmons

yeah

She's the host - her knowledge of food is irrelevant. Jeff Probst didn't have to prove he was Les Stroud before hosting Survivor, did he?

And even though she's allowed to "vote" on who wins/loses, we never see how the discussions are ultimately resolved. Just a hunch, but if everyone is evenly split, I don't think she casts a deciding vote. She's just there to move the story along and serve as eye candy.

Gail Simmons is as attractive to me as Tom the Bear.

Please! Link to Tom the Bear!

Wait does Tom the Bear look anything like Sgt. Grumbles?

Tom the Bear is Tom Colichio, the chef/co-host. Last year, on one of those Top Chef Specials where they bring back former contestants, it came out that Tom has a huge following among certain types of gay men. Tom seemed distinctly unhappy and uncomfortable with that revelation. One of the funniest, out of nowhere moments on a reality show I've seen in some time.

It's up to you to research "bears."

Crap! I did not know this was back on either. I love watching this.

As much as I love this show, my appreciate would go up an additional 10% if they could land Anthony Bourdain as a permanent judge instead of just once or twice a season. And Rocco DiSpirito has largely redeemed his reputation thanks to Top Chef, even if I thought he displayed a few of his douchebag-esque qualities last night.

Hard to say I have any favorites yet and won't say too much for spoilers. There are a couple of people who definitely demonstrated potential to get on my nerves though.

I agree about Bourdain, absolutely.

Oh yeah I saw that. That was indeed pretty funny. I really like Chef Tom, by the way. Not in the way those particular followers do, but he seems like a really cool guy.

Anyway, you underrate Gail Simmons!

Yeah, I like Tom a lot, too. I wish he was on more as well. I particularly like it when he interviews them as they are preparing something and you can tell from his facial expression that he thinks they are making a terrible decision. If I was one of those people and I saw that, I'd just stop what I was doing, say screw it, and go have a smoke.

I'm still cracking up from the Thanksgiving episode in Season two when he told Mikey that his cooking technique was "Flintstonian" in its execution.

What I loved about this episode was Bourdain not liking the sakee martini. If you make an achololic drink that he doesn't like, it must be bad.

Is it just me, or are all these people d-bags?

I like Mark (the Kiwi).

And like...that's it. The likability of these guys just isn't there. The guy they just axed last week (Erik, the big tatooed dude) was cool as hell.

And one of the lesbos needs to go now. They made their point, no more.

I'm also rooting for Mark. Seems like the only person there that I would like if I met them. Totally agree with the d-bag comment, and I liked Eric also.

Last season had much better contestants, for sure.

What I wanna know now.

Is how the hell mushroom bitch (that tall skinny older chick who has made like...nothing decent) still there?

I hate these people. I'd punch every single one of them in the face, and it would be justified.

We'll probably watch this episode tomorrow or Friday. I don't think there's anything wrong with Richard, but the Beardo Twins and Dale need a good kick to the nads. And I'm glad Peppermint Patty went home a few weeks ago, too.

There really is nobody likable at this point. It is just a train wreck IMHO. My wife can barely stand to watch and I'm getting close to that as well. I'm to the point where I wish I could just skip ahead to it being Dale vs. Richard because I'm not sure anybody else there can cook with them. And I hate to root for that since Dale is a prick and Richard is fairly arrogant but if I saw one of the others walking down the side of the road, I'm pretty certain that I would swerve to hit them.

Richard may be arrogant, but at least he's quiet about it. And he's clearly the best cook of all of them. If he was carrying on like Andrew, then I would agree with you. I find him pretty well spoken, funny, and dead-on with nearly every decision he makes in the kitchen.

I agree. Richard definitely seems like the best cook. You'd have to be pretty good to be an opponent on Iron Chef America, right?

To me, it seems they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel tho, as compared to past seasons. I guess you could say that about a lot of these competitive, non game show, reality shows.

he was also on Iron Chef America - which makes me think that he has more legit "recognition" in the industry than any of the others at least.

I think it does basically have to come down to the two of them, but I have very little doubt that Richard will win.

And as someone else said, at least he's not "in your face" about being better - in fact early on when he had won immunity I appreciated the fact that he was still being an active part of his team and driving them to victory and then in the wedding episode sharing the prize with cake-girl (whatever her name is).

He's not a dick. Dale's clearly arrogrant. Therefore I gotta pull for Richard.

I agree on the Richard and Dale thing.
Also completely agree about Dale. He reminds me way too much of Hung from last year, who I wish would get a swift kick to the nuts, because I really don't want that wad procreating.

I also like Stephanie, though. She had a few down weeks, where she was really hit or miss, but I like her cooking style.

I still think it'll be Richard at the end. As a side note, I thought he was great with his kid sous-chef a couple weeks ago, which gives him bonus points in my book. :)

/tk

Also, his Seinfeld impression and that whole idea for the "confused" or whatever word they had to work with dish they made was brilliant. You could even hear someone (camera man, other contestant?) laughing in the background.

Richard, Stephanie and Antonia are fine competitors. I would have no problem with any of them winning. Richard had some toolish moments early on and I really want to shave that faux hawk off and shove it sideways, but he's growing on me.

But the remainder are douchebags. Lisa can go anytime now. Spike is an absolute tool, and Dale is as well.

Right now I'd bet on Richard ... he seems on a roll. Stephanie has had moments of brilliance and serious lapses. Antonia seems like a great cook but I'm afraid she's going to struggle at some point as a "chef." Just the way the show seems to go, it seems like there will be a cool chef versus a tool at the end. Dale seems the most likely of the tools to make it through, although Lisa reminds me a lot of Tiffany from season one. Spike should have been gone a long time ago.

Next week's episode should filter things out a bit ... Restaurant Wars is always a deal breaker for someone.

Man, since I had to watch this thing in the PST, I come into this thread all late, and everybody's already said everything good.

It took all of like what, ten minutes of this season's premiere to pick Richard out of the crowd as the obvious winner. There ARE enough variables in Top Chef's wacky contests that he could bow out any time, but his skillz are obviously a level or two above everybody else's, and although he doesn't win every time, people consistently seem to enjoy his food, and almost none of those other toolsheds can say that.

As an aside, I think my first inclination upon watching both Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen for a few seasons was to assume that Top Chef is the more 'pure' of the cooking shows, because it presents itself as a little (okay a LOT) classier, and all the contestants seem to come from much better culinary backgrounds....but really for all of these guys the ultimate goal IS to run a restaurant, and in that context Top Chef's challenges really are kinda useless. Top Chef is all about making them cook around ingredients, or without certain ingredients, or with jaguar fetuses, or in an iron lung, while all Gordon Ramsey really wants is for you to COOK THE FUCKING RISOTTO, YOU DONKEY!! Night after night, day after day. And really, isn't that actually much more representative of restaurant life in reality?

I disagree, because the winner of Top Chef does not get to open a restaurant. That's not a prize on the show. Obviously, most of them want to do that, but that's not what the competition is about or designed for.

This is true. I guess my point is that up until the endgame it's not so much 'Top Chef' as it is 'Chef Who Can Cook Best Under Goofy Conditions'....which certainly isn't to say that's not an impressive and totally critical skill, necessary to being a good chef, but I think it can result in knocking out cooks who might be better 'pure' cooks, in favor of people who just better adjust to the games rules. But you're totally right that's an obvious design point of this, and all reality shows, and without some aspect of a game it would be pretty damn boring: "I'm going to make a salad" "OK, that was good."

While I have found the competitors underwhelming this season, I have found the challenges to be twice that amount. There were too many catering and team events. The quickfires all felt like rehashes of previous ones.

And they axed my OTHER favorite guy on the show last night. Blegh.

I also concur...very tired of catering type events. Seems like there's just a TON of those.

Based on some of the comments, I'm fairly certain I know who got kicked off.

I've been watching this show and agree with the hatred toward Dale and Andrew. They are so obnoxious that I fast forward through their interviews/one on one's half the time because everything they say makes me want to throw the TV out the window.

I really like Stephanie, as well as Richard. Living in Atlanta, I'm hoping to get to go to his restaurant at some point. I'd never heard of him (or the restaurant) before the show, and it still isn't getting any press (that I've seen) so who knows what is going to happen.

I still think it's a good show, and even though some of the challenges are a tad overdramatic, it's still entertaining. I don't think they are any more "out there" than the challenges on Project Runway or any of the other "non Survival" style reality shows.

I picked Stephanie to win after the first show, so I hope she makes it to the end. The bottom 3 this week are really the three that need to go the most. It will be an interesting battle between the remaining four. Antonia has surprised me, and Richard of course was good from the start. Dale is an ass but keeps winning challenges, hard to believe he will win after Hung won last year though.

I don't think Hung was an ass in the same way that Dale is an ass. Hung could be quite likable and was a good teammate. I don't think that's true of either Richard or Dale.

I think Richard is an excellent teammate...giving Stephanie the prize after the Wedding Wars challenge was very impressive in my book. I think he has a good balance of taking the lead and "driving", but not becoming a dictator or having attitude when someone disagrees or voices their opionion, like Dale does.

Yeah, I don't get the Richard hate at all. Especially when he won that one QF challenge, then actively participated in giving great ideas that were used in the main challenge that ended up winning the week. Compare that to the bitchfest that ensued after that one chick won immunity and the events that lead to Peppermint Patty's GF getting kicked off.

I would argue that Hell's Kitchen has even less to do with running a restaurant than Top Chef. I don't think there is any argument that the worst chef on Top Chef is a thousand times better than the best on Hell's Kitchen. And Hell's Kitchen is nothing about being a chef -- it's a show about being a line cook. Completely different from Top Chef.

I'd have to go back and see but it feels to me there have been roughly the same number of team challenges as in the past. I think they have favored team challenges more than duo challenges. To me, the team challenges in past seasons have absolutely been where the show was decided because it was in team challenges that you get to see leadership and authority, which are essentially skills of a chef and completely missing on HK, which is just Ramsey cursing at everyone.

The only disappointing thing this year is that everyone knows that the team challenges are about leadership and everyone has done whatever they can to avoid being tagged as team leader because if you fail as leader you're gone. You almost have to force them to take a leadership role in the team challenges because no one wants to gamble and lose. Last season they had a challenge where the winner of the quickfire got to pick the team leader.

My dislike of Richard started in episode one simply because he came across so arrogant. But that has eased with me and he's easily one of my three favorites at this point from purely a likability standpoint.
I agree with this last part -- if there were no limits or rules, you would absolutely get greatest hits dishes with no creativity or challenge.

I still don't get people who think that Top Chef has goofy conditions compared to Hell's Kitchens, where the staple preliminary challenge is cutting chicken or filleting fish. Boring. Heck, even Hell's Kitchen is stealing Top Chef challenges, like the blind taste test.

I think even the quickfires, where there are the most rules and restraints, test a chef's abilities to think quickly and creatively. In season one there was so much grief -- mostly from the chef's -- about the convenience store challenge, but they have really eliminated the gimmicky quickfires.

The most gimmick quickfire this season was the Uncle Ben's challenge -- and I'll agree that anytime the sponsors get involved, it's a bad challenge. But I don't see anything wrong with challenging chef's to come up with a dish using no more than five ingredients.

Since we're all sports fans, I'd argue that the challenges on Top Chef have as much relevance to being a chef as cone drills, shuttle drills, etc. have in sports. In sports, those drills and challenges are critical to developing skills and helping identify talent and ability.

Absolutely, fucking undeniably. The people on Hell's Kitchen are completely and obviously ridiculous.



To a great degree, I think you're totally right, up until the endgame, the people in Hell's Kitchen don't really have much if any control over their own destiny at all...but I guess that's really the root of my complaint (and it's the weakest complaint ever, as absolutely I love both these shows). That they're both kind of goofy up until the endgame, when in each show they ARE given a chance to display the best of their abilities, in the best of conditions (relatively speaking)

....but at that point, the raw chances are pretty good that the chef who MIGHT cook best under those, supposedly ultimate criteria, was long ago kicked off the show because he/she didn't make the best dish out of endangered animal parts, couldn't handle being yelled at for 6 solid hours, or because two douchebags from the same home town conspired to get rid of them.

I guess what I'm ham-handedly trying to get at it here is:

If we the fans and the producers and the judges of these shows all agree that having real people cooking in the best of conditions IS the ultimate judge and the ultimate reward for having watched the show all year, then why DO they put them through all the stupid challenges? Couldn't we just watch all of the same political maneuvering and comedy, but with people actually cooking things they LIKE and everybody producing the BEST of their food, rather than spending the majority of the shows essentially forcing people to cook the food they least want to cook with. I imagine that the producers would argue "It's too boring"...but that explanation falls apart if it's exciting enough to serve as the finale, and what all the viewers are waiting for.

Hmm, I'm not a fan of the Restaurant Wars (and Wedding Wars)-style challenges. I know that they are probably more relevant for those competitors, as they quite often want to open their own restaurant, but I enjoy seeing the finesse of the cooking, I don't care about the melodrama of staying up for hours or of finding the right tablecloth.

This season has been decent, though, I stand by what I said earlier, I think it'll be Richard (and I like him pretty alright), but I'd like to see Stephanie do well. And I hate Dale. :)

/tk

Send all these people home.

Bourdain definitely rocks. I still say boot Padma and rotate Bourdain and Allen in with Tom and Gail as the permanent judges plus a guest judge each week. Bourdain is simply terrific.

Really don't see why anybody has a beef with Richard, Antonia or Stephanie. Richard and Antonia both have great resumes and track records, and Stephanie clearly can cook. Lisa and Dale have rotten attitudes but are decent chefs. Spike is ordinary and really doesn't belong. As long as either Spike or Lisa go next week, it's cool.

Three top chefs remaining are head and shoulders above the rest.

I was so happy to see Tony judging this week! Yay! Restaurant wars and Bourdain. I agree with kc that I'd love a judges table of Bourdain and Allen and chef Tom (Gail I can give or take...bring in the bitter old fortune teller lady from the Japanese Iron Chef).

I can only imagine Lisa's day is coming very soon, the tighter things get, the more she keeps talking, yet her cooking seems to be getting worse and worse.

I was surprised the booted Dale over Lisa. Was it just because he was executive chef for that challenge? It seemed like Lisa was the weak link all night.

My wife spent the whole episode berating me because I wouldn't take her to an Anthony Bourdain book signing like a year ago or something. I frankly had no idea wtf she was talking about.

I would think being the executive chef had alot to do with it. The captain has to go down with the ship, and their restaurant was the

Butterscotch scallops? what a great idea. :rolleyes:

Lisa has just been consistently bad over the last MANY weeks. And she's entirely unlikable. Kill her.

Although there was good reason to send Dale home last night, he has shown more potential than Lisa. He's won a few challenges and deserved to stay over the person who messed up both her dishes.

I can't see Spike or Lisa overtaking the other three now unless one of them just completely messes up.

I'm with everybody that Lisa is the worst. I must be in the minority, however, in that I don't really like Bourdain. He actually wasn't bad last night, but in the past I've found him pretty annoying.

They've (the judges) said in the past that they only go off of the current challenge's results...past performance doesn't play into their consideration on who goes home.

well that's just bs

Richard, Antonia, & Stephanie are class. I think Spike will sneak into the final-4 just by virtue of Lisa getting booted next week, which is fine, as long as he doesn't knock off one of the 3 who deserve to be there as it tightens up.

Restaraunt Wars knocked off Tre last year and I think he was more talented than CJ.

I'm not generally a fan of Bourdain, either, so at least there are 2 of us.

I figured Lisa would get the boot last night, I was quite surprised it was Dale. Lisa better be next. She should've been gone so many times over by now...

/tk

Agree 100%. Tre was clearly the better cook last year, but he was executive chef and was cut for a horrible service.

Dale's an ass, but he seems to be an adequate cook and the best on that team. Spike's a whining backstabbing baby and Lisa is a pain in the ass and hasn't cooked well in weeks.

Lisa should've gone, but with Dale being exec chef, AND making butterscotch scallops (how does that even SOUND good? maybe because they use maple with salmon?), AND the other chefs sucked, he was the obvious choice.

The other team (Richard, Antonia, and Stephanie) are the 3 best left and should be the final 3 barring Lisa or Spike pulling a great dish out of their ass.

Anybody want to guess who's going tonight, before the show airs (I have no idea what tonight's challenge is supposed to be)?

I'm guessing it's gotta be Lisa or Spike, but we've already seen one "front-runner" eliminated. I'm thinking that even though he's a horrible chef, Spike will get to stay as Lisa is sent packing.

/tk

good thing I set the dvr before cracking the bottle

I think everyone wants to see Lisa or Spike go. It would be a godsend if the judges decided they both sucked ass and sent them both home.

I just hope the Big 3 make it through. I've put the shows on my iPod and have gone back and rewatched/listened to the earlier episodes. It's been clear from the get go that Richard, Stephanie and Antonia were the class of the crop. Richard has won the most elimination challenges, Antonia has won the most quickfires and Stephanie has won enough of both to be up there with them in total wins. All three also were finalists for the win in the first episode, and no one has won Top Chef without finishing first or second in the first elimination challenge. There's your Top Chef trivia for the day.

I wish I could get them on my iPod! I've been watching the previous episodes today (leading up to the new episode) and I'm really tired of Lisa talking about how she's following the rules. I honestly think she's made crappy dishes and tried to stand behind "Well, I followed the rules" too many times (at least in 3 episodes now that I've watched again today).

/tk

I cannot believe that no talent assclown Lisa made it.

I was rooting for them to boot both Spike and Lisa. Spike is no better than Lisa. I loved it when Tom pointed out that Spike had been on the chopping block seven times and Lisa had been in the bottom five times.

Richard, Stephanie and Antonia are simply so well rounded. I think Richard is the most creative and experienced, Antonia is the most classically skilled and soulful and Stephanie is a good blend of the two. Any of them winning is fine by me. I could really go for a steak right now. :)

Anyone else think this challenge was a bit of an F-you to Hell's Kitchen, consciously or not? The chefs go into a restaurant to cook with Tom expediting the service and eveything goes flawlessly -- no real falling behind, not screw-ups, no burning the damn risotto. It was nice watching grown-up chefs operate in a kitchen compared to the screw-ups on HK.

I'm so tired of her act during every time she is critiqued. She always has that smug look to go along with her arms crossed.

I'm not reading this thread yet. Still haven't seen last week or this week.

Totally agree there.

And yeah. I just want to punch Lisa in the face every time I see her on the chopping block. And I am told my a female coworker that that would not qualify as hitting a woman - we don't think she qualifies as one.

As for the finals. Once they axe Lisa first, I'm pulling for Richard or Stephanie. Steph is just a consistent, quality chef, and she's a local product. Richard, I wanna see what he pulls out of his bag of tricks in the finale. He was at his best when he pulled out the really weirdo shit earlier in the season. Hopefully he goes back to that.

Richard just seems like he's on a whole different level than anybody else, even in the smallest details. Just the fact that he called that place a "nationally recognized meat purveyor" last night....who the hell talks like that? Someone who's been cooking fine food for a long time....or someone who's been paid a promotional fee. One or the other.

Or someone who talks in an ornate sort of way.

But I agree that Richard is the favorite, which is a shame cause I've been rooting for Stephanie from the start.

I'm a big fan of Stephanie and am really hoping she pulls out a win in the end...there's never been a female to win Top Chef, I think it's time :) Richard is my second place, and Antonia in third.

I'm pulling for Stephanie, too. I remember I picked her out in the opening of the first show and told my wife "that's the kind of person they put in these shows and gets eliminated on the first show." Now, I'm just rooting for her on the comedy factor based on that incredible soul read.

I'm rooting for Stephanie as well with Richard 2nd.

Just when I'd convinced myself that I already spend way too much time surfing the net, I run across something like this and realize that if I had spent even more time surfing, I'd have found it sooner.

Amuse-Biatch

That site is much better than it used to be. Scallopgate is fascinating. There are some stories that are not matching up there.

The Anthony Bourdain quote is freaking awesome!

As for me? I could give a rat's a** who the producers or Bravo want to win or not win . What I've traditionally used the Glad Family of Bags for would probably not make a good commercial. When I read the surprising announcement that Michelob, a beer I don't drink and don't much like, was going to be "sponsoring" my Bravo blog, I advised them that I felt compelled to disappoint them.

mmmm GAIL looks FINE tonight. DAAAYUMMM

oh how the eff do you boot _#)$)@$#$

Un. Fucking. Believable.

And did you SEE the little fan poll before that? Wow.

It dawned on me last week, that those poor bastards were always drinking some variation of Michelob....no wonder some of them are starting to cook worse.

+1


In other news, Spike has apparently been fired by Mai House and replaced by ... Lisa. Spike denies he was fired, but then again he claims that Allen Brothers doesn't carry frozen scallops. I looked at their Web site and you get four 1-pound bags of frozen scallops for $89.95.

Of course two 34 oz. dry aged long bone ribeyes for ... $164.95. Holy schnikes!

When that stupid fucking cunt made that comment about getting a congratulations at the end I wanted to reach through the fucking screen and strangle the bitch.

You should have gone home, slut. Shut the fuck up.

Wrong person went home.

Lisa really didn't help her fan appeal by using the break to get a '90s bull dyke makeover. Did that look come with a 4X4 truck and the Indigo Girls discography?

Also, as another comparison between Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef: What better?

A news set of high-end kitchen appliances, trips around the world, a brand new car.

OR

Driving 20 minutes to the beach to watch Gordon Ramsey wrestle around with his manservant, Jean Baptiste.

Richard's aside, congratulating her for winning the bronze, was perfect.

Definitely. Would have been perfect if he had said the to her face.

" Fine. Congratulations on being the second loser. "

On the plus side, I did win lunch. Coworker bet on Antonia to win, I bet on Richard.

Antonia? Really? Every story I hear about your work CW makes me wonder about your place of employment.

Well, I wonder about my place of employment all the time.

I caught up on this show last night, had 3 back episodes to watch...of course I knew how they ended b/c I'd read this thread, but man - I wanted to bitch slap Lisa when she made that comment at the end, being all bent out of shape b/c Stephanie and Richard didn't congratulate her???? Maybe if she didn't have a huge ass chip on her shoulder and play the attitudinal bitch so well, they would have wanted to congratulate her.

If she wins, I will never ever watch another season of Top Chef. Ever.