Top Chef DC Episode 1 Recap, or, Notes from the Only Person Who Didn't Watch at Good Stuff

We learned a little bit about way too many people tonight.  The first couple (or six) episodes are tough in any reality show, because you feel like you just want to ax half of them--the ones you just know won't make it.  Why waste your time watching them fail, get slammed by the judges, and then finally get aufed, knives packed, etc?

Anyway, so and so has little bebehs at home, whatsherface is self-taught and (thinks she) can kick everyone's collective ass, and most people have a whole boatload of confidence.

Let's recap the actual episode then move to my personal thoughts (aka Where I Judge Them roundup):


The Quickfire:
Mise en place.  Final round was to make a dish, any dish, with the ingredients.  Kenny had lightning speed the whole time, but Angelo was the ultimate winner in taste.  Mm chicken.  But Kenny was runner up. 

The Elimination Challenge:
My first thought was: Groupwork.  I hate groupwork...on reality shows.  But it turns out that they were just divided into "groups" to see who they were cooking against.  Not actually working together.  The challenge was cooking regional cuisine (from your region!) for 300 people at the Cherry Blossom Festival.

The top four were Kenny, Kevin, Alex, and Angelo.  See their bios on the Top Chef web site.

Angelo took this one home.  Angelo made little one-biter spoons of bacon froth on Arctic char.  It was cute and pretty.  Tom said it was "really good," but Gail thought it was too dill-y.

Eventually we said goodbye to John, Mr. James Beard nominee with the wild dreads! They just didn't taste the maple in this Michigander's maple Napoleons with toasted macadamias.  They just tasted "sugar, sugar, sugar."

Best Quotes:
"I feel like an orchestra of flavors."  - Angelo
"You said you served this dish hundreds of times.  Did you make it?"  - Tom
"I'm just here to cook, I'm not here to play with dice."  - Tiffany.    THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT TO YOU KNOW WHAT!!!!  I'm Not Here To Make Friends.
"And you guys can lick your balls."  - Angelo.  OK, so he really meant to say "bowls."  I can't be the only one who did a double-take.  Does anyone else think this guy has sort of an accent?  A Madonna thing going on?

Parting Thoughts:
Angelo is intense.  Name and place dropping like none other!  We'll see if he lives up to the hype.

No one has a faux hawk this season.  That seems wrong...[see more coverage of faux hawks here and here. OK and here and here, too.]

The dish I most wanted to eat, just gut reaction gotta-tell-ya, is Tamesha's jerk chicken sphere with the fun jicama, mango, crunchiness underneath.  Looked tasty.  The judges didn't discuss it--not sure if that was an editing error.  They were too focused on the two sauce situation, contrasting the judge's disappointment with Timothy, the local, with his confidence.

Padma looks awesome.

This first episode has more "I worked for Whatshisface" and "I was nominated for XYZ award" and "This magazine named me Best Person Ever To Exist" than any previous introductory ep.  Maybe this isn't the most humble bunch.  Or maybe they are just that awesome.  We'll have to wait and see.

I think next week we should count the number of times they say "deconstructed." 

Let me know in the comments what you thought--what looked delectable, what description made you throw up a little in your mouth, and most importantly, did you like Padma's outfit?  Whatever you'd like to share, your thoughts are hereby solicited.

Thanks for playing!  I'm going to go read a bunch of TCDC tweets now...

P.S. To avoid intellectual property issues and possible improper crediting (and also THX FOR MAKING UR PHOTOS UNSAVE-ABLE, BRAVO!), I'm going to feature a real live iEatDC Family Photo taken in the DC area for each of these posts.