Top Chef Thoughts

I suck at the whole "recapping" thing, huh?

I do have a couple of quick thoughts on this week's episode. First of all - pastry. Wow. That's a tough challenge, even for a quickfire. It looked like everybody did a nice job, though I wish we'd gotten to hear a little more of the judges' reactions, especially regarding taste. I, for one, was shocked that Lisa's berry and fried wonton mess made it into the top three. Not only was the plate a disaster (at least compared to everyone else's) but the dessert seemed fairly unsophisticated. Which is fine; I just don't think of it as winning.

Second - is there any way Richard's not going to win this thing? My guess for final three: Richard, Stephanie (despite last night's showing) and Dale. Maybe Andrew lurking around. Which leads me to...

I definitely think this season has the strongest talent of any. At this point in any of the previous seasons, I seem to remember at least one or two slightly subpar cheftestants still in the game. Wednesday night, Colicchio made pretty clear that the losing team was the weakest, but not necessarily weak. Everybody's got chops. The chefs know it, too.

And I was surprised that they didn't send Antonia or Lisa home. Really surprised. I see that Stephanie and Jen's dish was kind of a mess, but Antonia and Lisa had so many opportunities to connect their dish to the theme, but they just didn't. I bet we see some stepping up from Stephanie, though. She's good as it is, and last night's near-miss probably lit a fire under her.

Final notes: Spike gets his soup. Jen gets her Zoi. Read the Best Week Ever post, and the comments. Funny.