Wow Finally! In more ways than One!

Took long enough to get this option up here...lost gets recaps like 20 min after the show ends, we wait almost a week? oh well, better late than never.

 That also sums up my feelings about this season so far, episode 3 before I really feel like I sorta care. Zimma, we hardly knew yee, and well, didn't care about you, mostly because you gave me no reason to you were....well boring as dirt, or salt as the case may be. And who went home second?? Oh yeah that other lady who was dumb enough to make blinis and try to reheat them...also boring.

The ep opens predictably enough, talking about how women don't make it as far in the kitchen as men, a point proven by the fact that 2 of our ladies have already left the competition. Jen and Zoi (anyone else want to call her 'zoy' instead of zo-eh?) seem to have a good dynamic, lets see how long that lasts, thus setting up the ominous editing for a bottom dweller.

The quick fire brings us Rick Bayless, a true giant in terms of Mexican cuisine here in the states. Manuel seems to get a little overconfident in his ability to make a taco, Richard takes home the win and the immunity, with an amazing looking jicama taco, while Erik serves us another plate that looks like a baby, well pooped on it. Richard prize is to have his food served on Bayless's menu at Topolobampo. Great prize, but I always wonder how the Top Chefs feel about their food innovation getting put on someone else's menu. 

Then comes the real magic for this episode, the elimination challenge. After a self selected team pick em (interesting that they did it this way instead of drawing knives, not sure how I feel about it) we have team red and team blue. Team Red goes simple while Blue brings it uptown. Gotta say that I liked the looks of Red's food better (sliders, pasta salad, corn dogs) than the paella, and terrifying Mac & Cheese.

BTW who ever had a block party like this in their neighborhood? My area block party mostly consisted of my mom having one to many wine coolers and then dancing to "kokomo" for the better of the evening. Certainly there were no dunking machines or professional chefs in the mix.

Which all bring us to the quote of the ep "no one ever wins Top Chef for making pasta salad." Courtesy of Zoi. As such here comes our bottom dwellers, Erik for his soggy corn dog (his 2nd stint in the bottom) Ryan for his sketchy mayo free Waldorf Salad (also his 2nd time in the bottom) and Zoi for her pasta salad. In the end we've seen enough poo-poo plates from Erik and he's sent packing. Did he really not see what happened to what's her name from last week? Think about the transport people! That may be this seasons new taste your food...

Some random thoughts as to this season thus far:

1. No chef really jumps out at me. Maybe Dale, he does seem to have some talent and is standoffish enough that I don't really like him, much like many of the chefs I've worked with. Andrew is a sous chef at Le Cirque which is huge, so even though he twitches like he forgot his meds that day, he must have some talent. Jen seems to be the best female thus far, but will her and Zoi's relationship have an effect? The editing seems to suggest so.

2. Is Richard really sporting the same haircut as all the gay females from TC? Remember stephanie from last season? Same do...Jen as well. Did no one point that out to him? Not to mention that it looks better on Jen than him?

3. As far as Richard goes, I'm not convinced that he is as versed in the molecular gastronemy as we or he, would like to think. I think he saw this as a niche he was able to exploit to get himself on the show ( a la Marcel and Hung before him). I could be wrong, but so far I haven't seen much of anything from him. 

4. I really do think that it's possible we see a female winner this season. After the past three winners were all male including season 2's all male finale, making only 2 females out of 7 finalists. That said I do think that we'll see Jen (?) take this one home. And on that note, Jen did mention the fact that seeing more than one woman in the kitchen is rare, two lesbians even rarer. I would like to just point out that on this season of TC there are 3, count em!, 3, gay females in the running, something that really is amazing.