Top Chef 22: Canada

What happened with Mossimo while he was presenting his dish? Was he unzipped and his dick came out? Did he get an erection? That was a curious unexplained moment.

He was just loud. Took everyone by surprise.

I realize it's early, but seems like there might be some good talent this season. Maybe a little light on eye candy.

This thread may be a non-starter, but just in case it takes off, I'll add that I just watched LCK and found it hilarious that Mimi LaButch was so aggressively anti-eggplant. She knew what she was saying; made me like her more.

Mimi LaButch was like a Paula Pell character, or Melissa McCarthy from Bridesmaids. “My partner took all the pots and pans!”

Canada is too big and varied a location. Top Chief usually focuses on a single city. Then they did Wisconsin. Now an entire nation? What’s next—Top Chef Europe?

R5, it started with Top Chef: Texas, in which they graveled to several cities in the state. That was the season than many would like to forget, because of the outright bullying and despicable behavior of fat Heather and fat Sarah.

r4 Mimi was hilariously inept during the main challenge & her pork looked grey and disgusting. Fantastic casting for reality TV. Last Chance Kitchen was also pretty entertaining, link below. The new guy is quite handsome.

Poutine?

Tourtiere?

Smoked meat?

Hoping for Nainamo Bars!

Agreed with R2: Very short on the eye candy this season. Yes, I realize it's cooking show, not a beauty pageant.

This seems like a pretty strong group. Bailey was obvious filler casting but, overall, there seem to be fewer chefs who are clearly out of their depth.

Russian woman: I will make traditional Russian dish. Repeat every week.

Is that Vernon Wang in the middle, OP?

R11, I have to say, I was intrigued by her pine cone jelly.

Kristen Kish is gorgeous, I marvel at her beauty every time I see her (and I’m a gay man).

Plus she seems to be owning her place on the show this season, appears more relaxed and confident.

I find Master Chef more entertaining than Top Chef.

Master Chef Canada has more interesting judges and contestants.

R14, I love that Kristen isn't trying to be Padma V 2.0.

She is bringing her own personality and vibe to the show and it all feels so seamless.

At this point I could do without Tom and Gail.

Relieved Massimo didn't go; he's as close as we get to eye candy this season. (I know!)

There seem to be quite a few really strong chefs this season, and I'm enjoying how they all have each others' backs in the kitchen. The show got so much better in my eyes once they stopped trying to create villain story lines after the first few seasons. (Yes, there have been villains since, but less obviously of production's making.)

#1 villain. All the fat must make one evil.

Kristen Kish really shines during judges' table. She very effectively communicates what works/what doesn't and why.

All American contestants have $200 to spend at Wholefoods, including a 50% tariff.

Well, at least we know that Massimo rarely has performance issues.

Have you noticed that when they call out the top 3 favorites they always make a big show of being relieved when they are told they are in the top even though the first trio is ALWAYS the top three?

I wonder if they mix up the order so they don’t know. Then edit to always put the top three first.

Years ago, when there was the stew room, the worst chefs were sometimes called out first.

While Tom seems engaged and focused in Last Chance Kitchen, during the competition itself he seems grouchy and completely over it this season.

I agree Tom seems a little off -- especially in shots where he's in the background while other people are talking -- but he was certainly gung-ho about Tristen's dish and talent overall. He said "yum," fer chrissakes!

I miss the stew room.

We still get a bit of stew room after they announce the bottom three.

I'm really starting to think Tristen might be Paul Qui-level dominant this season.

I missed her intro so I took a while to recognize Sarah Bradley. Actually, it was her voice that first sounded familiar, and I was like, "Wait, is that...?"

Girl got herself a glow-up!

At least Massimo apologized for being an asshole, lmao.

I didn't expect Bailey to be the one to come back from LCK. I thought it would be the Russian lady.

I'd take Mossimo's loads.

Are they quick fires?

R33, he claimed he has never had performance issues!

Suser Lee's son is a hottie.

How do they make cooking so miserable?

Shocked that Katianna went home. I thought it was going to be Vinny, based on the editing, but then he wound up on the winning team.

Such a great bunch of cheftestants! Decent, talented human beings -- Tom called out the overall high quality of the cooking -- and I'm happy to have the drama coming from somewhere other than inter-personal conflict.

I really hope Katianna makes it back; I like her and she seems like she's in the top tier despite the bad call on the tofu.

Tristen is a low-key beast.

I wept for Henry. That was heartbreaking.

I really like Katianna, hope she makes it back.

The team challenge rules really screwed them this time. Best dishes on the losing team, worst on the winning team.

Is the team competition element really necessary? Why not just reward the best and eliminate the worst?

Pickles seems more like a Quickfire Challenge than an Elimination Challenge to me. And are pickles particularly Canadian? (Yes, I realize not every challenge has to be Canada-themed, but this just seemed random.) I'm trying to ignore the grievous paid product placement of this week's Quickfire. Not new on TC by any means, of course, but still.

Chipotle has been getting themed quickfires for years and years.

Your challenge is to make a Chipotle inspired dish, which unlike a real Chipotle dish, doesn’t give the judges extreme diarrhea within 30 minutes.

Your time starts now!

Massimo is a bull in a china shop!

Is that an Asian guy in a dress or an Asian woman with no tits?

At this point, it would be a shock if Tristen doesn't win the whole thing. I remember Tom saying they had to try to edit around Paul Qui's dominance in his season and they don't seem to making any such effort this time around. (Hmm.... or is that a sign that he DOESN'T win?)

My DVR also recorded the post-episode WWHL with the judges and they quickly danced around Andy's question about Tristen looking like a front-runner (again making me think he wins). Tom confirmed that this season's contestants are exceptional, saying 10 of them could have won. I sorta wish Bravo's marketing/PR around this season leaned into that angle a little bit more; it might lure back some viewers who have drifted away over the years. I'm always worried the show's gonna get canceled. (I mean, I bet there are maybe a half-dozen DLers engaged in this thread, max.)

The Martha Stewart/Jose Andres show “Yes, Chef!” seems to have some of the old Top Chef mojo.

Damn! Spike became a silver daddy overnight and is only a few years older than me. He's still hot, though.

I like Lana's vibe and energy but wish she would do better in the challenges. She's strictly middle-of-the-pack.

Tristan, César, Vinnie, all ping to me.

Henry already outed himself.

R50, didn't Henry call himself a "bottom queen?"

I can't wait to see Massimo as front of the house next week on Restaurant Wars!

R47, I'll be checking out Yes, Chef this week. It will probably lean too much into bad behavior, like Hell's Kitchen, which I detest, but watching Martha Stewart berate others for their poor attitudes will likely provide some entertainment for a while, at least.

[quote] didn't Henry call himself a "bottom queen?"

She most certainly did.

Last season and this I’ve noticed a call and response affectation of the cheftestants saying “heard” all the time - much like those cunts on The Bear.

r49, I like middle-of-the-pack for her.

Kristen always looks hot as fuck. Whoever dies her styling nails it every episode. I much prefer her to Padme who got really boring really fast.

That's been used in restaurants for decades, R54.

I worded in restaurants for 25 years, and I still think it's stupid to yell out "heard."

Yes r57 I am aware, however I’ve never noticed it as obviously or prolifically since The Bear started showing so I’m blaming it on that insufferable pretentious alleged comedy.

I want Spike inside me quite deeply

R56 = Salman Rushdie.

I didn’t care for “Yes, Chef.” Too manipulated, and not enough cooking. Martha is not up to the challenge. Too old.

I don't think "Yes, Chef," will make it as a long term cooking show, but I'll stick with it for now. Martha was fine, but it was disappointing to see José Andrés deferring to her at every moment. And I don't know that we really need a reminder of how terrible a person Katsuji Tanabe is.

Yes, Chef is the most contrived piece of shit disguised as a cooking show. You have a cookoff between the chef who won the challenge and the one that chef wants to face in the cookoff. The winner gets to choose the type of cuisine to be cooked ( in this case, Greek), but the loser gets to choose the ingredients ( Mexican). Why? Huge advantage to the loser. Both prepared Mexican dishes, not a hint of Greek. I won't watch another episode. Just let the winner choose the cuisine that both will have to cook.

R58, is it any worse than everybody calling each other 'chef?'

Has anybody ever checked out Tournament of Champions? Yes, it's hosted by Guy Fieri of all people, but the level of chef talent -- which includes many past Top Chef winners and contestants -- is top-notch. It's basically two chefs going head-to-head in 30-minute Quickfire challenges.

Tournament of Champions is in certain ways a modern take on Iron Chef, with the chefs often competing to prove their pedigree against "giants" in the field, the reporters on either side, the out of left field criteria/ingredients for each challenge, etc. Guy Fieri really fouls the proceedings, as usual, especially with his favoritism of some of his own pets from his other shows (Britt Rescigno worst of all). But there are so many chefs I enjoy seeing that I end up watching anyway.

Tom is so fkin hot.

Another incredible performance by Tristen under really tough circumstances. He's clearly a class act (and talented chef). This is such a strong season!

Massimo was killing me! When he referenced Goodfellas, I died!

Crouching at the side of the table!! Asking the lady judges how long they were in town for?? WTF?! I couldn’t stop laughing!

Then when he was spying on the table…

And Tom says about his dish, “Yes but did it wink at you?” Ha ha!

He was kind of rockin’ those jeans, though.

Massimo is the kind of guy you might sleep with but you’d be too embarrassed to introduce him to your friends.

Massimo is giving major divorced dad energy, lol.

The showed the chefs wiping up the kitchen when they were finished. Do they have to clean up?

Here's a gourmet recipe for a pungent, yeasty crotch: Massimo recommends running around & sweating in skin tight jeans for several hours. One drop of his ball sweat works as a wonderful sourdough starter.

Massimo with the can of hairspray!

R73, of course. Cleaning as you go and cleaning up after yourself part of working in a kitchen. You can’t just wreck the place.

OP they don’t always cook in the style of the region in which they are located. They are probably going to travel to different parts of Canada. Just like in American seasons they’ve traveled to different parts of the state or sometime even out of state of the main city hosting.

I actually thought that the lone Canadian's idea of doing a restaurant inspired by Canada's 6 cultural influences sounded interesting. But Phlora & Phauna ended up winning anyhow, so what do I know?

And I am sorry but Massimo deserved that W.

He put himself out there as FOH and still made a delicious dish.

“Be back with some food for you.”

LOL

Massimo was bad. The best front of the house person ever was Fabio Viviani.

Fuck Fabio. Massimo was way better than that hack.

I don't get the criticism of kneeling at the table. I understand upscale vs. casual, but the was just nitpicking. The other guy ignoring the judges was worse.

It's corny and insincere. It's not that deep.

R84, the cunt criticizing Massimo came across like a cold fish.

It also came across as insincere.

Shuai was too hands-off. Massimo was too hands-on.

Shut the fuck up.

Nina criticised Lana’s first course at the table saying she didn’t like the way the greens were cooked (which must be some black woman superiority complex when it comes to collard greens) and then praised it at the judging!

Yeah R85, it was odd just minutes after KK told Tristan that he didn’t always have to be “ON” and that they’re all human, that cold fish bitch tells Shuai, “We asked you how you were and unfortunately you told the truth.” O-kay.

r85 was it that marble mouthed former contestant... Nina? She always seemed miserable.

Yes, she looks like she needs her meds adjusted.

Toppa scallop!

Why even bother setting this season in Canada? There were a couple of nods to Canadian dishes early on, but now it's just pickles and pizza.

R91, agreed (or "heard" as the chefs love to say).

Ya know, Massimo getting overruled for his Canadian-themed Restaurant Wars idea could also be seen as the three chauvinist Americans steamrolling over the lone Canadian. Something they're used to, I'm sure.

Just what are these Canadian culinary classics we're supposed to be missing out on?

R85, I actually meant the vaguely Italian lady judge from Top Chef Canada. She didn't seem entirely pleasant.

R93, I don't know, but I'm interested! Can't be any less interesting than Wisconsin cuisine.

Canadian cuisine

r93, a Jos. Louis.

I like Nina C. but she was a tougher judge than I was expecting.

How about First Nations indigenous cuisine? Venison and game from the Rockies and salmon and seafood from BC? There's three episodes right there.

They had already had a challenge where they had to cook representative produce from the different provinces of Canada.

So that had been done already. No wonder everyone ignored Massimo when he brought it up, it was old news, and they likely would have been slammed for it had they listened to him.

R100, and vegetable-forward hasn't been done before?

I think the advantage of a theme like "veg-forward" is that it allows the chefs room to work in their preferred style whereas Massimo's was gonna be a tour of cuisines they might not all know. That theme is more brain than palate.

No use criticizing Massimo on DL. Posters happen to think he's beautiful, so he can do no wrong.

The Top Chef judges are not mincing words in regards to Trump, tariffs, the whole anti-Canada BS.

Will the 100% tariff on films also affect tv shows? If so then no more filming in exotic locations. It’s TopChef: Alabama next Season with a possum challenge, roadkill quickfires, and the finale is to create a three course school lunch with catsup and tater tots.

Younger Massimo.

I don’t know, R103. I think Massimo is an obnoxious frog face.

DLers are obsessed with Massimo because they don’t consider anyone not “conventionally attractive” worthy of attention.

Massimo is just OK.

There are lots of attractive chefs on the show.

The tarfff on films is a ridiculous concept that Trump announced after having dinner with Jon Voight because Trump thinks he’s a genius and there’s no one left who will say no to him. It would be impossible to implement, and very harmful to Hollywood. Not going to happen. Like reopening Alcatraz (Trump saw Escape from Alcatraz on TV and announced that one without realizing it is now a popular museum and reopening it would be completely a waste of money.)

Trump is a sloppy thinker and a loose talker. He’s obsessed with tariffs so that’s how he insists on framing everything. Slapping tariffs on foreign ,ovies and TV shows or American product shot in other countires would be an unmitigated disaster for all, amd it would wreck the business.

That’s why Gavin Newsome has tried to reframe the issue in the way Jon Voight actually proposed it to Trump: As federal subsidies and tax breaks for shows and movies that shoot in Hollywood CA, something that Trump and this generation of Republicans will never support.

r56, Indeed, I want to wear everything she has on, but probably everything she wears just looks great on her. i would probably look like a potato.

For me R111, if I was to wear it I say it would look like a rubber band on an egg.

To me, the tats ruin her looks.

I largely agree with you, R113, but her inking could be so, SO much worse.

How does a frozen, inedible dish not get the chef eliminated? I guess the quickfire saved him, but they couldn't eat his dish!

Say Quickfire Quick cash one more time...

This is gonna sound a little dark, but I wouldn't mind seeing Tristen on the bottom once. He's a great chef, and so sad about his stepdad, but c'mon, who wants to see a steamroll?

I had the distinct impression there was a little producer fuckery involved in giving the win to Massimo. The judges' feedback on Tristen's dish was the best of the episode.

R118, oh, please. Tristen's reveal kinda fell flat. That likely influenced their decision.

I was surprised they liked Bailey’s so much. I thought for sure they’d say it was too much.

I'm sad about Cesar leaving. His food intrigues me the most -- off-the-wall, beautifully-plated, playful, inventive.

Someone missed Last Chance Kitchen.

r119, Massimo made a Wellington. That's a dish, not a stunt. (A challenging, well-made dish, apparently, but....) As for Tristen, it's true the diners had difficulty getting their sauces out of the dry ice, but it was supposed to be a challenge -- hence the beat-the-clock element -- and they all accomplished it in time to prevent the sauce from freezing up. It was more inventive all around. As I've referenced before, Tom has admitted the producers had to work to mask the fact that Paul Qui steamrolled his season and I suspect they're having to work hard again. But maybe Tristen will have an off day, or lose his momentum in the time between the main episodes and the finale. Or someone else will have a really good day in the finale. We shall see!

I was sorry Lana stumbled a bit with her fish dish. She’d been doing better in the challenges, and I really like her. I’d like for her to go to the end, but there’s no way that the winner isn’t Tristen or Massimo.

I was worried about Padma leaving, but Kristen has been wonderful. I’m a gold star gay, but damn, she’s hot. And I still love Tom and Gail.

You have to be a little obsessive (I am) but there's a pretty good Top Chef podcast on the Count the Dings YouTube channel. The latest episode features an interview with Buddha talking about this challenge. Among the insights:

- He and Kristen thought Vinny should have packed his knives because they couldn't eat the dish. (He seems generally dubious about the value of counting quickfire results in the elimination decision.)

- He was very impressed with Massimo technically pulling off the Wellington and said it was an example of a chef interpreting a challenge to make it work for them.

- Unfortunately, the conversation derails when they're talking about Tristen's dish (interview fail) so we don't get more than Buddha's initial reaction of "Wow, this is really cool." Buddha does later compare Tristen to himself in that they both have an unusually broad range of skills that they can bring to bear on the Top Chef competition. (I like how Buddha isn't scared to sound arrogant because he has the results to back it up.)

Oops. Turns out the conversation comes back to the Massimo vs. Tristen win decision at the 1 hour mark -- this shit's long, yo -- and he says it was Massimo's "minimalist mastery" that won the day. He had zero margin of error on a very technical dish whereas Tristen's dish had a safety net in that there wasn't a set standard he was trying to meet. So much for my producer fuckery theory.

Okay, one more nugget from the podcast that REALLY took me by surprise: Buddha said Padma has "one of the best, if not the best, palates I've ever experienced in my career." He also said she should be the NYTimes restaurant critic and that when she came to his restaurant he was more nervous cooking for her than he was cooking for three-star Michelin chefs.

Who'da thunk?

Making a difficult dish is not a stunt.

Could REALLY have done without the Egregious Film Promotion Placement in this episode. Does Top Chef really need the money? And it's not like the show is traveling around Canada with all the added expense that entails. Just call it Top Chef Toronto and tell the cheftestants to do a stunt dish.

They've done stupid film promotions before; they did one recently with one of the Fast and Furious movies.

I'm surprised that Cesar is straight.

R129, where do you think they get all the prize money?

R131, me, too. I do love his dainty little plates. He's had some misses in the kitchen but he's also the one who takes the most risks.

I liked when he knew the criteria for using the tapioca nitrate or whatever when Lana asked him, he knew there had to be fat content to make it work. I thought he was impressive on-the-fly. Though I don’t know why Lana put that cornmeal on a sheet pan. I mean, a crumble is butter, flour and sugar. All she had was butter. She should’ve just baked a corn bread, crumbled it up and put it in the oven until it was lightly toasted and then done something with that. You’re not going to get very far with uncooked cornmeal/polenta by itself.

But I also liked in LCK when Cesar asked Katiiana if she needed any help. He seems a good sort.

r133 Lots of misses, including the most surprising one: a missus in the bedroom.

R136, ha! I, too, thought he was batting for our team.

His pickle dessert sounded nuts (in a good way)! Also, his Bleu cheese-and-white chocolate stuffed gougeres. Wild stuff.

r137 That cream puff had Tom all shook up and out of sorts. Cesar later said the flavor profile was meant to recreate the sweet and savory flavors of his girlfriend's ripe pussy.

[quote] That cream puff had Tom all shook up and out of sorts.

R138 Thanks for clarifying you were referring to an actual dish.

Cesar is my dark horse to win it all. My prediction: Cesar - Tristen - Massimo F3, Lana out at 4.

I don’t think Cesar will win. I don’t think he’ll even make it to the final. He is very brave though, just making stuff up as he goes along like he’s in a laboratory instead of a chef competition.

A lot of those chefs are making dishes or variations of dishes they’ve been cooking for years - as you would. Cooking benefits from experience and repetition.

Cesar is seems more interested in the outcome of his efforts than actually winning.

After all these years, Top Chef remains the finest cooking competition show on tv, much better than anything on Food Network where every show features the same cooks in a different setting ( Don't worry, the winner will be Maneet or Antonia). And now, CBS has unveiled the " Real Housewives" of cooking competition, something called " Yes, Chef," in which the food is secondary to harassing, betrayal, and nastiness. Martha oversees this abomination. Top Chef remains about the cooking, not the focus on the host or the horrible behavior of the contestants.

Yes, Chef is NBC, not CBS.

R109 Right like how is it even in enforceable. It’s just one of those stupid things he says to make flyover doucheboys says “Yeah, see look. He is even sticking it to Hollywood too”. It’s a digital world we live in. Any film made abroad can be simply be transported with a person flying on a plane on a fucking thumb drive. Or get this—email sent or server connected to the internet. I swear Trump be showing his age sometimes. Dumb cunt still thinks it’s the golden age of Hollywood where everything was made on film stock.

[quote] Cooking benefits from experience and repetition.

R141, at the end of the day, it all comes down to flavor. Although yes, the judges do reward risk-taking and creativity and do actively encourage it in the challenges.

Tom seemed to love Cesar's LCK dishes. Unless you think Tom was just rewarding, as you say, a laboratory experiment.

Yes, Chef is an abomination, starting with its name and ending with the game playing. Shame on everyone involved. In whose interest is it to set up a show where the best chefs get sent home by their competitors for strategic advantage?

Tom did not love the white chocolate/roquefort choux.

And it wasn’t an either/or proposition - if you make a dish or work with a specific flavour combination, you’re going to benefit from repetition, i.e. practice. If it’s all about flavour then practice makes perfect.

I said I admired Cesar’s courage with experimenting - meaning, going out a limb - in the competition. But it leads to wildly varying results.

[quote]Yes, Chef! is a cooking competition series that puts 12 highly skilled chefs, who have been nominated by their bosses, co-workers, friends, and even family, through the ultimate test. These rising stars all have natural talent, but their egos, intensity, stubbornness, or short fuses are holding them back from reaching their full potential.

Hence, the emphasis is not on the cooking, but waiting for the bad behavior. Thank God for Top Chef.

Unfortunately, this is who is responsible for Yes, Chef:

[quote]Yes, Chef!, from the creators of Top Chef, is hosted by Martha Stewart and José Andrés.

Top Chef 23: Mexico next season!!

I've been recording "Yes, Chef" but just started watching. Holy hell! It's all the parts of early "Top Chef" that I don't miss at all.

DELETE.

I also deleted it. Feh!

It seems like Massimo is far more annoying than even the editing reveals. Everybody was speaking ill of him this week.

Tristen was finally on the bottom twice.

That guest judge lady sure had a sour air about her. Why did they have a Montreal-inspired challenge without ever having gone to Montreal?

Tristen's quote about not being able to imagine cooking without a narrative was more than a little pretentious.

Looks like a low budget this year. Fewer locations. Even judges’ table has been in the studio.

I'm taking credit for Tristen being on the bottom. From my keyboard to Kristen's lips..

Tristan is getting on my nerves. Basically telling Massimo that because he isn't BIPOC his food is not legitimate. Now I hope Massimo wins.

I'm rooting for neither Tristen not Massimo. anyone but those two.

^nor

Vinnie should have left last week.

R158 Tristan’s criticism of Massimo had nothing to do with race. He clearly sees him as a very hidebound chef who still worships at the altar of classic French and Italian cuisine. You can disagree with that, but you have no reason to make it racial.

I’m gonna miss Vinnie! He was a sweetheart. Rooting for Lana now.

R158, I respect Tristen as a chef. But I put him in the same category as Richard Blais, Michael Voltaggio, and Buddha. Their season's prodigal son who can do no wrong and become the judges' pets. They also have some arrogance although with the skills to back it up.

R162, you made my point. Why is French and Italian cooking not seen as legitimate when Massimo is an Italian from Quebec? Why can he not claim that as "his cooking"?

I do take Massimo's approach to food. If I'm going to eat fine dining, I just want to eat the best dishes from the finest ingredients. I don't care nearly as much about narrative. You can't taste narrative.

R158, Of course he can, it’s just old-fashioned, Euro-based and therefore hidebound. Clearly Tristan sees it as his mission as a chef to shake things up.

Look, I prefer Italian and French cuisines myself, I’m a real meat-and-potatoes guy who likes the classics. But Tristan wants to branch out from that — which again — is not racial so much as cultural.

Both men are entitled to their approaches, it’s not a blood match or vendetta, just different ways at looking at cooking.

Tristan wanting to shake things up IS the new normal, especially on Top Chef for the last few years. It's a cliche now.

It seems that unless you have parents from two different cultures you can draw on as inspiration then you have nothing. You must bring the judges cuisine from under represented cultures to be valued.

Judges call the last Quickfire " ridiculous"

R170, that was a ridiculous QF. It reminded me more of the type of challenges they'd pull in the earlier seasons, i.e. shop at a gas station and make an elevaged amuse-bouche. This show is better than that now.

The Quickfire was more like an episode of Project Runway in which the contestants were taken into a toy store or flower shop and told that this is where they must get their materials for an evening gown.

I agree that too many of the challenges seem like stunts to placate a sponsor or some low rent celebrity guest who has some obscure food passion.

I agree with Tom. If that QF was going to be done at all, it should have been earlier in the season; not once the QF is factoring into the final results.

I can't help but feel that this was a wasted opportunity to showcase Canada. They spent 75% of their time in Toronto. They should've checked out Montreal and Quebec City.

Also, Vancouver over Calgary please.

Not only that, but they are not going on location. They are staying in the studio. The only time we know we are in Canada is the drone shots after commercials.

R176, I think the most we've seen of Canada is Niagara Falls and that tall sky-tower.

[quote]Also, Vancouver over Calgary please.

The horrendous Top Chef Texas had its semi-finals and finals in Vancouver. But, it was also the season when one of the fat bullies, Sarah Grueneberg lost in the finale then threw a tantrum, then cried during the reunion because she lost. Karma in Canada.

This season and the previous one feel very back to basics. I'm not necessarily complaining, the chefs are all still pretty good and there's no obvious drama plants, but there's no Wow.

If Tristen mentions his culture or the culture he has been exposed to one more time...it's as bad as Eva and her autism on Survivor. Oh and don't forget people who look like me, like they have never had a black chef before! JFC stop it!

Marcel is the greatest Top Chef contestant ever. No one will ever compare.

Massimo and Shuai are picking up steam heading into the Finals.

Um... did Massimo serve a berry leather pulled off the floor? I swear that was his last move under the wire.

I wondered that, too, R183. It looked like it.

5 second rule.

It was waaaaaaay more than 5 seconds. ;)

Massimo worked at Noma (not to be confused with Vinny's beloved NOMAD), and Tristen is essentially Marcus Samuelsson's protégé. The chefs this season are no joke.

I was cracking up last night when Lana said to Danny "Go, girl!". But apparently Danny has a girlfriend waiting at home. If he wasn't straight, I'd say Danny was the most obviously gay chefestant in Top Chef history.

Tristen is unbearably pretentious but seems destined to win.

R189, I'm not so sure if he's possibly peaked too early?

Who is Danny?

There was one guy named Danny, but he was a total geek, he always had food in his braces.