Top Chef Finale

Wednesday night was the final cook off. Hung, Casey, and Dale were on the top of a mountain trying to get water to boil and skins to crisp. Casey may have been the fan favorite, but she sure was not the judges favorite. She's kicked but at key times through the show, getting her to the finale, where, I will admit, she totally blew it. Oh well, I wanted Dale to win anyway. He made two of the judges favorite dishes. His lamb chop poached in duck fat tasted great (I guess) and showed his creativity at high altitude. All of Hung's dishes were good, but the judges commented on how most of them lacked acidity, or kick, or some sort of WOW. Even his desert was boring - chocolate cake.

Who Won?????

Why Hung of course. I was sooooo disappointed, I'll never watch that crappy show again (yes I will). Now Hung can take his $100,000 and open up a french restaurant and cook classic food just like its been cooked for hundreds of years. How original and exciting is that?

Holding back the tears

Well, CJ was asked by Padma to please pack his knives and leave. Poor gal trying to hold it together – what a crappy job, men are such babies when it comes to the dirty work. I thought Brian should get the boot. He’s has some good dishes, but they really aren’t any better than CJ’s, and he is certainly more boring personality wise. Nice enough – but boring. Too bad Hung wasn’t on the chopping block; I’ve had enough of him too. Arrogant, snotty, selfish, and his food may taste good, but again – its boring. Steak and eggs, yippee. And by choosing two proteins (as was his prize for winning the quick-fire) – he screwed someone – let’s just say he screwed CJ. Yep - Its all Hung’s fault.

Top Chef - another bummer

According to last nights top chef commercials, the Spam recipe that Brian made for the quick-fire challenge was SUPPOSED to be featured on the top chef web site. Nope. (I hate that web site and go there only when lured.) Instead the are featuring Casey's Beef Carpaccio with Shiitake Broth, which looked fine and won her the elimination challenge. But I'm upset because that's not what the TV promised last night. What's pretty funny though is that they have a rate the plate thing on the web site, and Howie's dog turd looking thing is just not an option.

Check out the eric three thousand link - he does a much better re-cap than I.

And on the topic of reality shows, Living with Ed is on HGTV again. I'm a bit of an eco-freak myself. Last week Jay Leno showed Ed his 80% efficient water heater. I guess most water heaters are 70% efficient, and tankless is 75% efficient. Even so, I think tankless is a better option because you use less material to make it, and there is less material to dispose of when it is replaced. http://www.livingwithed.net/