The tenth season of Top Chef started off with an audition round,where groups of potential culinary contenders were tested by Judge Tom and the three revolving chef judges on the panel:Emeril,Hugh Acheson and newest member Wolfgang Puck.
While Judge Tom had his crew work the line at his restaurant Craft,the other judges gave specific menu items for their teams to prepare,most of which were tests they had to perform early in their careers or use to pick chefs to work for them.
Emeril had his people make soup,something that is not as easy as it looks. One of the chefs,Jeffrey,planned to make a chilled gazpacho but the time limit for getting it cold enough for tasting was a concern.
He managed to pull it off and was the first in the group to get his Top Chef jacket for Seattle. Nice going there,Jeffrey!
Hugh requested salads from his group and he wasn't looking for your typical lettuce and tomato combo either(unlike at my house).
The salad that impressed him right off the bat was whipped up by Brooke and featured fried kale. She earned her chef's coat on the spot and most of her group will join her in Seattle.
Wolfgang Puck asked his crew for an omelet and some of those served up were a bit of a hot mess. However,the majority of his people went through.
Personally,I'm not crazy about these audition rounds but hopefully,next week will bring us right into the competition and some of those challenges that should make or break some of the chefs for the rest of the season.
This fresh new batch of contestants look promising and it'll be interesting to see how Wolfgang Puck fares as a Top Chef judge.
Thanks to my cable company finally coming to terms with Tribune and some online viewing at the CW site,I have caught up with The Vampire Diaries in all of their fourth season glory.
Elena is now a full fledged vampire who can only ingest blood straight from the vein,which makes Stefan less than thrilled,while Bonnie's witch powers are on hiatus due to being forced to return Klaus back to his body(after he hid out in Tyler's long enough to nearly get naked with Caroline).
Also,there is a new vampire hunter in town who is part of an ancient order known as The Five and they might have a map that could lead anyone interested to a vampire cure. Out of all the plot lines going on here,the most intriguing is the possible new bond between Elena and Damon,since she needs to learn how to feed from humans properly and he is more than willing to play teacher.
Elena is ,of course,reluctant to enjoy the whole human blood feast deal and Stefan wants her to switch off to other sources of nosferatu nourishment in order to bypass any chance of her clicking off her humanity switch but I think Damon has the right idea on this one.
As we've seen in many a show,supernatural or otherwise,repression of certain desires only leads to serious building up of tension and the release can be deadly indeed. The sooner that Elena realizes that Damon is the Lestat to her Louis,the better off they'll be:
The teams on The Amazing Race were sent to Istanbul but what happened before they got there is what set the tone for the entire leg.
At the travel agency in Bangladesh,Team Twinnies(Natalie and Nadiya)noticed that some money had fallen out of the backpack belonging to Team Rockers(James and Abba) and they quickly snatched it up off the floor to keep for themselves.
Trey and Lexi saw what they did and halfheartedly suggested that they return the cash to the guys(who were sitting less than a few feet away!)but kept quiet and later in the day, received some of the ill gotten gains from the girls:
When James and Abba saw that the money was gone,they assumed that it had been left in the cab they took and went out to beg for some funds before heading out to Istanbul.
The locals were generous and helped them out,so Team Rockers continued with the race and came in third on this leg. These guys are real troopers and I'm rooting for them to win it all.
Neither Team Twinnies or Trey and Lexi received any penalty for what they had done at the Pit Stop but I do hope that the TAR powers that be do issue some sort of punishment on the next leg. Otherwise,it sets a bad precedent for future teams.
Shame on you,Team Twinnies,for taking that money and double shame on Trey and Lexi for being accessories after the fact. While you didn't actually go through their bag and take the cash,you knew it belonged to them and had plenty of opportunities to give it back.
There's a world of difference between finding money on the street and seeing money dropped by another person who you can easily alert. If you don't know that,you're not as moral as you claim to be and competing in a race is no excuse for such vile behavior. Karma is going to hit you hard,girls and if you really think you're earned any good points in that department,you are sadly mistaken:
RANDOM NOTES:
THANKSGIVING LIVE: Food Network has several big shows geared up for Turkey Day,including this event which actually takes place a few days before the big day arrives. That makes sense,since it would be hard to try out some of the recipe suggestions on Thanksgiving without some prep work and shopping first:
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