More Vegas style was displayed on Top Chef this week,as the Quickfire challenge had the chefs rolling dice on a craps table to determine the number of ingredients to use for an impromptu dish(salt,pepper and oil were freebies). Padma and guest judge Todd English not only had immunity for this round as the prize but $15,000 as well.
Michael won the QF,for making a gazpacho with toast using liquid nitrogen to chill it out. Todd English was very impressed by that choice and Michael's brother Bryan was put on notice with that little family victory. I worry about those guys,sibling rivalry on top of an already tense competition is just a firecracker fuse waiting to be lit.
The Elimination Challenge was to cater a bachelor & bachelorette party,with the men cooking for the bacholerettes and the ladies preparing food for the other side. Part of the challenge was to match their dishes to one of three shots of booze to be served at each party. One of those drinks was a "Moscow Mule" that has vodka and ginger,which Eli's ahi tuna tartar with puffed rice went incredibly well with,according to Judge Gail.
The men's team won the challenge with Michael and Hector joining Eli in the winner's circle but taking home the top honors here was Bryan,for his sweet and sour lime macaroon with corn nuts. That makes the brothers Voltaggio even steven for the time being there. Let's see how long that's going to last!
On the chopping block for the ladies were Eve,Ashley,Jesse and Preeti,who made a coriander tuna with eggplant on a wonton crisp. Judge Tom felt that the tuna was over marinated,turning it mealy and that the shiso leaves placed on the bottom of the plate were too wilted to bother with in such hot weather.
Preeti kept saying that folks came back to her station for seconds and thirds,so she thought her dish was fine. Preeti,you have to remember that most of those guys were drunk,which means that their taste buds had an "out of order" sign on them that day.
Eve wound up packing her knives,for the less than spicy shrimp ceviche with salsa and popcorn she served up. I think that was a wise choice,due to this being the second time she's been on the chopping block(along with Jesse,who I hope can do better next time)and her explanations of what went wrong have been fuzzy,to say the least.
Next week,the Elimination Challenge will involve cooking for the military and tensions will flare up between two of the ladies in the Bottom Four this week. With any luck,that spat will quickly become water over the bridge:
The Rachel Zoe Project returned for a second season of Vapid Fest and why I watch this show is somewhat of a mystery to me. Yes,it's a guilty pleasure but what hooked me into this last time was Taylor,Rachel's bitchy right hand gal who was hellbent on making new hire Brad's life a complete and total misery.
On the positive side,Taylor and Brad now seem to be more in sync with one another and are on a buddy-buddy level these days. Perhaps some of that is due to a couple of other assistants being hired to do more of the grunt work. It's an improvement over how they got along before, big time:
The bad news is that Taylor is still Taylor,with her total lack of sense of humor about herself. Granted,Rachel can be amazingly thoughtless with her words,but I really do believe her when she said that she was only kidding with Taylor about fitting into designer dresses at work(something that Taylor doesn't even want to do in the first place!). Oh,well,things would be boring on this show without some bitchery to spice it up:
Many rescues on True Blood this week,as Sookie and friends come home to a Bon Temps Gone Wild, with Sam and Andy on the run from their Maryann crazed neighbors. Jason was thrilled to have an excuse to go into action while Sookie and Bill went over to Lafayette's to see if they could snap Tara out of her trance.
It took a combo of Bill's vampire glamor with Sookie's telepathy to bring her back from the abyss but thank goodness that it worked. I agree with Lafayette,to hell with Eggs,Tara needs to stay as far away as possible from anything to do with Maryann and her evil plans:
Jason and Andy did a good job of tricking the hunting party at Merlotte's into letting Sam go(even if they were too slow about producing demon god horns)and Sam is probably going to have to tell them about his shapeshifting powers or convince them that he is one hell of a magician there:
While these victories are good,there are only small fights in the ultimate war for the souls of Bon Temps. Sam is no doubt a major player in the upcoming battle royale and Bill's going to the Vampire Queen of Louisiana for help will do some good but it seems to be Sookie who may truly have the upper hand when it comes to taking Maryann down for the count:
RANDOM NOTES
DESIGNSTAR: It was kid's room makeover this week and while Antonio's dinosaur room soared,Jason's prissy pink princess design wound up leading him to his dethroning.
I did feel bad for him when he had to change carpenters in midstream(a good decision,since the first guy wasn't getting anything done)but a number of choices that Jason made for the room were real stinkers,like the painting pattern over the window and those black place mats on the wall-crazy!:
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