Reality on Bravo

After Joey’s memorable elimination last week, the chefs needed a night out. And, they almost got one. But, on Top Chef, it’s always about the food.

This week, Top Chef began with Dale winning the Quick Fire challenge - mixing up your own Cold Stone Creamary ice cream. Mmmm. (Although, didn’t they do a similar ice cream challenge last year….but I digress…) DALE was the winner! Woo hoo…I really like that guy.

So then, Padma announces that the cheftestants are going to enjoy a night out on the town, which we all know isn’t going to happen. Cut to the apartment and Dale/Sara N. dancing around, talking about how close they have grown. Ok, well we KNOW Dale can’t go home…so I guess it’s Sara N.’s night!

So everyone gets ready to go, and they pull up to the nightclub to find this…Padma, the guest judge, and two portable kitchens. They don’t get to go out. They have to cook for drunk people. Sigh.

They split into two teams and start making their menus. Dale gets to go party - soooo lucky - and enjoy a four-course meal with the guest judge. You can tell from the start which team will win. Poor CJ spends the whole time making things work, while the other team simply meshes.

At the end of the night, the losers - Howie, Sara N., CJ, and Casey - are brought in to the judge’s table. As they are questioning them all, Howie basically refuses to step up to the plate and instead blames the failure on Sara. The team admits that there was timing problem and that it was probably due to Sara, but everyone also admits that they didn’t ask Sara to speed things up and she didn’t know there was a problem. Howie then calls Sara a baby. What. an. ass.

Another issue here was the fact that they had to cook in their dance clothing. This is not a big deal for the fellas (Tre even took off his shirt and cooked in his wifebeater), but it is for the girls, who weer in heals and low-cut tops. That was not cool, Top Chef. Not at all. Yes, boobs bring in ratings, but I 100% with Sara - it was demoralizing. They could have easily helped this problem by providing everyone with Top Chef T-shirts and shorts to change into.

In the end, Sara N. went home. Yeah, I think it was her time to leave, but I don’t feel good about the circumstances. These team competitions are not fair for anyone, an if the show wants to be solely about cooking, they need to have individual challenges. A top chef has to be a leader, and if you’re working on a team full of leaders, everyone will fail. But, if you allow someone else to actually be a leader, you’ll get nailed for not speaking your mind. It enrages me.

And it looks like next week will be the infamous “run your own restaurant” challenge. I hope Howie leaves. I mean, he has been in the bottom more than anyone, and a lot of talented people went home before him, unfortunately. He keeps saying that he’s not here to make friends, but you know what? No one respects him or wants to work with him, and to be a Top Chef, you need both of those things to fall into place.

Thoughts?

Top Chef, Bravo, cooking, reality television