Top Chef, Season 3, first two episodes

[Jenise]

So what does everybody think so far?

Some impressions:

The new kitchen is very impressive, and this seems like a great bunch of candidates.

The challenges have been pretty A Game-cool, too. For those who haven't seen it, in the first episode, the candidates were lounging around getting to know each other at a welcome reception (at the Gianni Versace mansion in Miami) and suddenly had their first Quick Fire challenge foisted on them--they had ten minutes to take the food they were snacking on, with nothing more than plastic party utensils as tools, to turn out some kind of amuse bouche. There were some interesting creations but the girl who won was IMO way out in front of the rest. Then for the main challenge, they had to choose from a rather upsetting array of exotic meats and seafoods--gooey duck, rattlesnake, eel, kangaroo etc. The guest judge was Anthony Bourdain. It was one of the best episodes of this show I've seen.

The second episode: for some reason I can't even remember the Quick Fire challenge, but the main challenge was kind of cool. They had to create an upscale BBQ dish. They prepped the day before then all their stuff showed up the next day in a gorgeous outdoor setting, and each had a BBQ and a bag of briquettes. Once again, there was a clear winner, and it already seems like there's this group of four or five who are just a bit out there in front of the rest. SPOILER ALERT: Okay, I thought Sandy's dish sucked--vanilla poached lobser bites on a skewer with a bacon-wrapped dates. The date things is so cliche and not Top Chef material. But at least she used lobster--somehow, as a judge, having to choose between the two crimes of not actually grilling the principal food item and not serving food that's upscale enough (Joey did simple marinated chicken legs), it would have been a tough choice but I might have sent Joey home. Only argument for keeping Joey is that he's contentious and makes good TV. The winner, for anyone who didn't watch but is curious, made a seafood sausage out of sea bass, scallops and one other item that escapes me now--shrimp?--that was apparently quite delicious.

It's starting out well from a keeping-my-interest standpoint (which is extremely difficult for any tv show). I would have a hard time eating much of what the contestants prepare, because I don't do raw meat of any kind, at all, period!

I don't really have a favorite yet.

My faves are Hung and Tre...they both can kick-ass cook. Tre's nerves seem to be getting the better of him a bit and I thought it was a bit of a stretch that he was in the bottom group with the BBQ--although no acid in that dish was a big mistake...One he should have seen.

No villains, for me, either. Hung wants to be a bad boy, but he's too good at what he is doing right now.

Get the whiner (Joey?) off.: he stole my watermelon shooter. Uh huh. Because it's never been done before, right?

[Jenise]

Barb, agreed. But I also like Micah. Of the girls, she seems to be a standout with a natural gift for combining elements. When she chose lamb for her BBQ, I thought "oh no!" but apparently it worked quite well. Howie seems to have some talent too, but a bad personality (though I loved him for rapping Bourdain on the knuckles by citing in his very book where he'd advocated a different philosophy than he was judging Howie by--that was cool)--if he'd been able to get his frog legs on the plate, his dish would have been a top 3. That sea urchin risotto looked stunning.

Yep..Hung and Tre are, no doubt, the best of the bunch.

But Hung had better back off the A**-Ho** shtick if he is going to have to work with any of these people later on. You'd think that after 2 seasons, these people would know that you can't solo your way thru these contests.

Joey needs to go. He isn't that good...but he doesn't know it.

Richard