Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr as guest judge! And Restaurant Wars Elimination Challenge!
Woo-hoo! Pour me a glass of wine, we're in for one exciting hour!
( I think I've used up my allotment of exclamation points!)
Let me get Starry-eyed a minute. I get a kick out of Stephen Starr - and not just because he's from the same part of Jersey as many of my cousins.
I've spent time with Starr while writing a few stories about him and his restaurants - including Morimoto, Buddakan, The Continental, Pod - for USAToday. Stephen is very serious, but can be very funny. He's extremely well-read and is meticulous when it comes to restaurant planning. He thinks about everything - from what's going on the plate to the restaurant design to what kind of music is being played in the restrooms. And that's why he's a "powerhouse" in Philly, Atlantic City and New York.
Quickfire this week was making a signature dish to impress a potential restaurant investor, in this case Starr.
While Padma didn't mention Stephen's Philly restaurants, it was no big surprise that he didn't think much of Fabio's "high end cheesesteak." Starr owns a restaurant - Barclay Prime in Rittenhouse Square - that serves a $100 cheesesteak, for goodness sake. Can't do much to top that.
And, really, that was Fabio's signature dish? Huh?
Perhaps, because I'm somewhat familiar with some of his likes and dislikes, I had a feeling that Stephen was going to pick Radhika and Leah dishes (even though Leah almost used a fish that smelled like "ass.") But the flip side is that they are two people I would never chose as leaders of the two competing restaurants called Sahana and Sunset Lounge.
And wasn't it amusing when Stefan tried to bluff his way through his "Euro-American" concept. Starr wasn't buying it and asked ,"What does that mean?" Busted Stefan.
Someone in the editing department has an wickedly evil sense of humor - why else would they select the funky '70s porn music when Hosea and Leah were hooking up? (Eeeewww... and what was up with that weird little girl voice Leah was using when she said the bed was "comfy"?)
Other thoughts:
- "We flirted a little too much" is Hosea's euphemism for what the rest of us call cheating.
- Sunset Lounge? Ugh, what a tired, uninspired name for a restaurant. It reminds me of a diner at the beach.
- But the restaurants looked much nicer than in seasons past.
- Top Chef karma is a bitch. Hosea and Leah throw Ariane under the bus last week and it comes back to bite them this week.
- Do you think the "lovebirds" would have regretted hooking up if it wasn't captured on tape? Somehow I doubt it.
- Starr cracked me up when he called Fabio - 'fabio-lous' as a front of the house man for Sunset Lounge.
- Carla (Beaker) was on the edge of eye-popping lunacy when she was explaining that while her desserts were horrible, she was still sending out the "love." Hello? What the hell does that mean? She is this season's wack-a-doodle.
- I had enough of Judge Toby and his stupid, studied comments that sound like he's written and rehearsed them in front of a mirror before appearing on camera. Especially the line about dessert reminding him "of the career of Elvis Presley....yadda, yadda, yadda..." Please. Judging from Tom's clenched jaw, it looks like he has had enough of Toby, too.
- Stefan is the Ice Man. The dude refuses to let warm freezers ruin his desserts. Starr deems him this week's star and it seems deserved.
- Radhika, however, seemed like a zoned-out zombie who couldn't lead or make any decisions. While zombies are great at ripping apart human flesh, they don't make good Top Chefs. No one was throwing Radhika a bone this week. Zombie, go home.
Woo-hoo! Pour me a glass of wine, we're in for one exciting hour!
( I think I've used up my allotment of exclamation points!)
Let me get Starry-eyed a minute. I get a kick out of Stephen Starr - and not just because he's from the same part of Jersey as many of my cousins.
I've spent time with Starr while writing a few stories about him and his restaurants - including Morimoto, Buddakan, The Continental, Pod - for USAToday. Stephen is very serious, but can be very funny. He's extremely well-read and is meticulous when it comes to restaurant planning. He thinks about everything - from what's going on the plate to the restaurant design to what kind of music is being played in the restrooms. And that's why he's a "powerhouse" in Philly, Atlantic City and New York.
Quickfire this week was making a signature dish to impress a potential restaurant investor, in this case Starr.
While Padma didn't mention Stephen's Philly restaurants, it was no big surprise that he didn't think much of Fabio's "high end cheesesteak." Starr owns a restaurant - Barclay Prime in Rittenhouse Square - that serves a $100 cheesesteak, for goodness sake. Can't do much to top that.
And, really, that was Fabio's signature dish? Huh?
Perhaps, because I'm somewhat familiar with some of his likes and dislikes, I had a feeling that Stephen was going to pick Radhika and Leah dishes (even though Leah almost used a fish that smelled like "ass.") But the flip side is that they are two people I would never chose as leaders of the two competing restaurants called Sahana and Sunset Lounge.
And wasn't it amusing when Stefan tried to bluff his way through his "Euro-American" concept. Starr wasn't buying it and asked ,"What does that mean?" Busted Stefan.
Someone in the editing department has an wickedly evil sense of humor - why else would they select the funky '70s porn music when Hosea and Leah were hooking up? (Eeeewww... and what was up with that weird little girl voice Leah was using when she said the bed was "comfy"?)
Other thoughts:
- "We flirted a little too much" is Hosea's euphemism for what the rest of us call cheating.
- Sunset Lounge? Ugh, what a tired, uninspired name for a restaurant. It reminds me of a diner at the beach.
- But the restaurants looked much nicer than in seasons past.
- Top Chef karma is a bitch. Hosea and Leah throw Ariane under the bus last week and it comes back to bite them this week.
- Do you think the "lovebirds" would have regretted hooking up if it wasn't captured on tape? Somehow I doubt it.
- Starr cracked me up when he called Fabio - 'fabio-lous' as a front of the house man for Sunset Lounge.
- Carla (Beaker) was on the edge of eye-popping lunacy when she was explaining that while her desserts were horrible, she was still sending out the "love." Hello? What the hell does that mean? She is this season's wack-a-doodle.
- I had enough of Judge Toby and his stupid, studied comments that sound like he's written and rehearsed them in front of a mirror before appearing on camera. Especially the line about dessert reminding him "of the career of Elvis Presley....yadda, yadda, yadda..." Please. Judging from Tom's clenched jaw, it looks like he has had enough of Toby, too.
- Stefan is the Ice Man. The dude refuses to let warm freezers ruin his desserts. Starr deems him this week's star and it seems deserved.
- Radhika, however, seemed like a zoned-out zombie who couldn't lead or make any decisions. While zombies are great at ripping apart human flesh, they don't make good Top Chefs. No one was throwing Radhika a bone this week. Zombie, go home.
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