Great to see your rundown on the contestants, Tony. I’ve been fascinated by the show, and it’s delightful to see your insider comments.

Maybe Marcel can go straight from Top Chef to commis on Ramsay’s “The F Word”…

I spent most of the series thinking Ilan was the mature, silent type. Oops.

And Marcel…not so bad, really. Just young and completely devoid of people skills. He could learn. But if he wins, he probably won’t.

I was sort of unpleasantly surprised by the maturity level of most of the contestants at some point in the series. I work with preschoolers and at one time or another, most of the contestants reminded me of them, except with better bladder control (I’m assuming.)

Kal, I would pay good money to see Marcel in Ramsay’s hands. I think it would be very good for Marcel, though it might turn Ramsay’s hair gray in a single episode.

But hey, anyone up for making a little poolish? What say we pitch a new reality cooking show to be called “The Stagiare?”

The star will be a famous and sagacious master chef who challenges a group of very hot twenty-somethings to compete for the chance for a stage in one of his fabulously successful restaurants. Now I can’t imagine anyone better for the lead role than the fellow who one clever observer has given the nickname “Ewok.”

When Ewok wants to eliminate someone he calls them all into the walkin-in freezer and provokes them to insult each other until one of them starts to whine. Now Ewok shakes his fist at the whiner and says “Bam! You’re 86′d”

Anybody?

What kind of crack house ARE they running at Top Chef?

You can see this at Amuse-Biatch:

http://amuse-biatch.blogspot.com/2007/01/amuse-biatch-readers-say-grab-reynolds.html

http://bp1.blogger.com/_aymCYbZEEBE/RbeVoMvgb3I/AAAAAAAAAkk/oqnTPAKKtVQ/s1600-h/elia3iu3.jpg

(There are spoilers on that blog, so skim at your own risk.)

Even though a known agent provocateur, I’d still rather see Ilan win than Marcel. Marcel needs not to work as a Ramsay commis, but a Robuchon commis. Any man who could make Ramsay cry is the one to truly beat Marcel into shape – I bet Ripert would agree.

Also, I don’t recall Alex on the show…did you mean Carlos?

If what you say about him is true, it isn’t showing up on my tv screen.

And that’s pretty clear in the first part of the finale episode–I agree with you that Sam should have been in the final two, and I was quite shocked that he wasn’t. It felt like Colicchio came up with an excuse to cut him–what, that’s not cooking? Please. Cooking is not solely the application of heat, and Colicchio knows this. It was bullshit excuse. And I think you’re right, too, that the judges/producers were more concerned with how similar to Harold Sam was, from a television-character point of view (which, really, is all we the audience have). But there’s something worth noting from that too–perhaps, in the frame of this competition, the sort of chef that Harold is, that Sam will likely one day be, is what a Top Chef really is. I think it’s pretty telling, and also I think it’s true to the idea of chefhood the show’s narrative is trying to convey.

I almost think it would have been more interesting to keep Sam and Marcel on for the final two, not in the least because it sets up a similar dynamic to the previous year’s contest. But I can see why the producers went with Ilan and Marcel–the animosity had been there from day one, and it was hardly a secret that they rubbed each other the wrong way, and it’s good television to play on that animosity. Elia, really, wouldn’t have made it into the top two. At the end of it, she was too unstable and uncertain, in her cooking and in the kitchen. You never knew when she was going to go crazy, and while a little crazy adds spice to any kitchen, the constant attitude of giving up and saying fuck it was not going to get her to the end–though it did get her very far.

Marcel…truth or no, what we have of him is on our screen. And while the audience should nod to the fact that what we’re seeing is a very carefully constructed narrative, with a lot of edits and cuts, it’s not like the producers gave him a script to read on how to act. (Unless they did and he was a plant all along!) That’s him, that’s his attitude, that’s him fucking around with other people. And when nearly every person in the competition wanted to thwap him, even Elia at the end of it, well. That pretty much cements him as a twat. I dearly hope he doesn’t win.

Wow, I’ve lost respect for Mr. Bordain – he speculates a lot and conveniently overlooks all of Sam’s excuses his HUGE EGO (as in if chef so and so would have served watermelon in hot asiago cream sauce it would be HUGE).

Not going to watch your travel/cooking show again Mr. Bordain – you should have stayed out of it.

I hate pickles (and that isn’t just referring to Sam’s dishes but that wizened old man at the top of this article).

Please.