Top Chef Reunion Dinner - Questions

Questions. So many questions. But first. Bonus clip of someone treating Toby Young like he's treated chefs in the short time he's been on the show.

Definitely a warm glow moment.

Here's my biggest question. If the producers of Top Chef are so keen on rehashing their worst moment of the entire Top Chef Conglomerate, then please explain why you don't show the whole video tape in the sequence that it was shot. Because the way it was broadcast is apparently not the way it happened.You see Elia huddled on the floor, after the attack? She has all her hair. Instead of asking Marcel if he feels like a victim, you should have been asking Ilan who decided to manipulate the sequence of events. That would have been interesting, to say the least.

More Questions Next

Sometimes You Have to Take the Good with the Bad

Were they describing the Quickfire or the judges?

Love the Michelle.

Not loving the Toby.

Are You a Loyal Top Chef Fan?

If you watched this last episode, you saw a new little twist to the Quickfire. An audience participation twist. That is you could participate if you happened to be on Bravo's website and stumbled upon this poll during the last season of Top Chef. Apparently enough of you did because you helped choose what the Quickfire Ingredient would be used for this episode.Why you didn't pick snake is beyond me but that's a post for another day. What fascinates me is that it made it sound like they did it live when in fact this episode was filmed months ago. But the funniest thing about this was Padma's sulky explanation that "To reward our many loyal fans, for the first time in six seasons we've given them the chance to pick today's Quickfire ingredient....57% of the vote went to cactus" Reward?? Seriously, did she say reward their loyal fans??? That's it? Oh hell to the no she didn't.

Let's review. Six seasons of Top Chef, one season of Top Chef Masters. As a loyal fan, my cohort and I started blogging at the offseason after the end of Season 1.

We had a thing for Harold Dieterle (still do). We poked fun at judges....
...and producers.
Contestants certainly weren't immune to our photochoppy fingers.

We have a bizarre obsession with Pirates and Monkeys.

We suffered through the Curse of Season Two and the Plague of Gates (Lycee, Toothbrush, Clipper).
We even have a lingering mystery.
Who did this for their audition tape? (Shamu's money is on Hung)

We come back season after season. Why? Because we're Top Chef Crack Monkeys. We bitch, we complain, we moan but we always watch. So I think it's pretty safe to say we're loyal fans. So if you think we're even because you gave us the opportunity to spend 99¢ to text in our vote to choose between snake, cactus or kangaroo, you are in serious need of rehab. You know what that covers? One episode of watching any asshat who cared more about what was on his head than what was on the plate. Or maybe 5 instances of Tom saying something isn't seasoned properly. It sure as hell doesn't come close to even for making us watch this doofus.So when you're serious about rewarding loyal fans we'll be right here. Wearing our "It's Not Crap on a Plate" t-shirt and fiddling with our conch dicker. Waiting. For our Reward. Or Godot. (Not that it matters because we suspect the results will the same.)

Can Toby (who??) Young fill Ted's Allen's shoes?

The Troll's query got us to wondering - just who is this person taking Ted Allen's place on Top Chef N.Y.? We're not familiar with Toby Young - in fact, we'd never really heard of him until he was announced as being Ted's replacement. We can only go on what we've read, most of which is a bit vague when it comes to Young's culinary qualifications that seem to be limited to his involvement on an amateur television cooking competition, and a failed attempt at being a restaurant critic.

According to NNDB, "Toby Young's two-pronged claim to fame is having been fired from nearly every newspaper or magazine he's worked for, and having largely nothing to say except blather about himself. In 1995 Conde Nast, Inc. lured Toby with $10,000 to New York for one month. That one month extended to a two and a half year career at Vanity Fair; Young wrote 3,000 words, for which he was paid $85,000 (roughly $28per word). Nice work if you can get it.

The London-based Private Eye satire magazine sums him up as a poser, quoting a (fictitious) woman meeting him at a party: "So you're the Toby Young you write so much about..."

We also found smackerels in The Independent, and The Guardian.

But don't just take the word of journalists, here's an article from the Spectator U.K. about Toby's "issues", written by Toby himself. Not enough? How about a visit to his personal shrine uh-er we meant website...

And if you still have any doubt that Mr. Young is qualified to step into Ted Allen shoes, just read his rave review of "The Cheesecake Factory" in Slate Magazine.

We're hoping it's all hype...that's he's really more than a legend in his own mind. But just in case, say a little prayer for the cheftestants, and keep your fingers crossed for a Cobb Salad challenge...