They pick knives for the Elimination Challenge. Fabio goes first and his knife says Lidia Bastianich, who he calls the queen of Italian cooking. He high fives himself and starts mapping out today's ravioli. Hosea chooses Susan Lingaro, and has trouble pronouncing her name. He tells us that she's the president of the James Beard Foundation, which gives out what is described as "the Oscars of the Food World." That must be a short ceremony. How many times can you say "The winner is...Big Mac!" before everyone just gets bored and goes home? Stefan picks Marcus Samuelsson, Leah gets Lipnicki, and Beaker chooses Jaques Pepin.
That name funny.
The final challenge in New York will be too cook "the last meal" for their culinary master. That's really morbid. Especially if they're all really old. Beaker is assigned roasted squab with fresh peas. Snottiest last meal ever. Get me a frozen Milky Way and a 2 Liter of Diet Coke and just let me cry alone in the dark, k? Hosea is assigned shrimp scampi with tomatoes provencal. He starts jumping up and down yelling "potatoes! I win!" and Scar has to break it to him. Tomatoes, you douche.
I don't get paid enough for this shit.
Stefan is assigned roasted salmon and spinach. Fabio gets roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and a leafy salad. What the f? These are some of the simplest dishes ever. I guess that's the point. There has to be a twist to this, cuz there's no way this show is going to take forty five minutes to roast a couple birds and a salmon filet. And shrimp scampi? One time in the late eighties my dad ordered shrimp scampi at Red Lobster and my mom goes "that's soooo done." Yeah. Cuz my mom can even be a snob in a Red Lobster. I think I just told you too much about myself.
Cheeken donna even rhyme weed raviolis. Puta chinga mascarpone!
Lipnicki asks for eggs benedict. LOL. What a freak. Beaker is allowed to switch her chef because she won, but she keeps Pepin because he's French and he asked for peas, which makes them soul mates somehow. Also, Juanita the spirit guide whispers that she heard the chef has a big one.
Hootie...oh hayell no get that thing away from me! I'm a model!
Scar is explaining they have three hundred dollars for their five course meal and the girl is whispering. She's been on her feet too long and can't even talk anymore. Poor Scar. She has a really tough job.
Just buy some shit and cook it up, k? I'm tired.
During the little between commercial snippet, we see a clip of the remaining chefs going to check out Harold's restaurant. He comes out and reminds us why he'll never be on TV again.
We done here? Cuz I got a chop on the grill.
It's so rare to see someone not obsessed with being on TV on a reality show. I would say it's refreshing, but the second they showed his face I blacked out and it's two hours later and I'm pissed that boring ass Harold got me off schedule. Over at Whole Foods, Ronda the spirit guide makes a joke that Beaker and Pepin are two peas in a pod. Beaker cracks up.
That's funny! Cuz I have to make peas!
Juanita? Less amused.
Fabio is way confident. He says that Scar may as well have handed him a banner "that say hallo! Anna weelkome to da final!" He sees Stefan wandering around the aisles and says "hallo! My frane! What are you do in New a Yorka?" He cracks me up. I hope his mediocre cooking doesn't get him eliminated today, cuz I need the giggles. Hosea tells us again that he really wants to beat Stefan. "It doesn't matter how good of a cook you are..." you better hope not "...., make one mistake and you're out." I could type all the mistakes Hosea has made on his substandard path to semi stardom, but Stefan saves me the time by putting it as simply as possible: "you could chop off my arms and legs and I would still run circles around that guy. He doesn't have the balls to be a chef. That's it." Well said. Leah gets challah bread for her eggs benedict, saying that she wants to put her own spin on it. Yay she's going home. All Lipnicki wants is an egg and an english muffin, woman. Have you not been listening?
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Comments (18)
I love you Flip, you make me laugh until I cry so I tell you this with love ... look up squab in the dictionary.
1 of 18 | Posted by Quean CeCe | Posted on February 13, 2009 6:58 AM
I lost count of the times I laughed out loud while reading this recap. Thank you for noting the dewy, soft lens they used, especially for octogenarian Pepin. I thought something was wrong with my TV.
Soooo glad the Stalker is gone. Seriously the editors hate her too. Did you see her ask some dude at Whole Foods where the butter and eggs were? Haven't they shopped there quite a bit already? Even if not, could she really not figure this out herself? Hate! She's given some post-booting bitter interviews saying she hates Toby (yay!), her boyfriend dumped her for kissing Hosea (yay!), she had never put a plate together from start to finish before the show (no kidding!), and she doesn't regret kissing Hosea (yuck!)
Btw, Fabio said he was like "a flash, zip, zip, zip" not Fletch.
2 of 18 | Posted by real_atlanta_girl | Posted on February 13, 2009 7:19 AM
Well done as usual, Flipit! While watching this epi, I was thinking of you - there was some great fodder this week.
But what I totally did not see coming was your screencap about PS Leah's "eye view" of HOSEa'a bald head. OMG, hilarity ensued when I read that.
Was it just me, or did PS Leah look HAPPY to be cut loose? Honestly, she looked like she won instead of being told to pack her knives. Good riddance to the pouts, baby talk, stalking and poor cooking skills.
I was nervous for Beak when Juanita and Ronda were reading Dr. Seuss - thought that might backfire on our girl, but she pulled it off. Great job, and loved her "See ya!" tortise impersonation.
I found Fabio charming early on, then he began to grate on me a bit - but he was a total class act in this epi. He even hid his broken finger while serving dinner and at Judges Table - as if to not emphasize his injury so he could be judged on his food alone. You know that HOSEa would have had his arm in a sling and blame everything on his injury. LOVED his saying "clever" for cleaver when he was "cut ting up da cheeken widda clever like Chason." And the new shirt will have to be "It's Top Chef, not Top Pussy" - classic!
I'm totally over Toby (sorry Juddfan :-)) and it appears that our Tom-Tom is too. He makes sourpuss faces whenever Toby monologues.
It was good to see Stephan get a little humble pie - there is such a thing as overconfidence. Hoping for a Stephan, Carla, Fabio F3!
THANKS Flip for the morning laugh!!!
3 of 18 | Posted by njgasmifan | Posted on February 13, 2009 8:08 AM
I thought the lady's name was Susan UNGARO, not LINGARO... but whatevs, since she doesn't matter in the long run.
I'm so glad that Beaker and Fabio have survived, and I hope that Hosea is gone next week. He doesn't really do anything well, other than Leah, and he doesn't deserve to be in the finals.
My ranking for final 4:
4th- Hosea
3rd- Fabio
2nd- Carla
1st- Stefan
I think that any of the chefs have to cook at their absolute best to beat Stefan at this point, which is not going to happen, especially with what looks like sabotage in the next episode with the usual Top Chef "who turned the burners down?" mystery.
Flipit, another great recap and I love you so much! Thanks so much for being my Facebook friend! I feel like I know a celebrity!
4 of 18 | Posted by slutty_whore | Posted on February 13, 2009 8:14 AM
Two things I am dumbfounded by after this episode:
1. Carla was a model?
2. Green eggs and ham wins over Stefan's dish?
This Lipinski guy is into molecular gastro cooking and Stefans to me was the closest to that type of cooking, but suddenly he is into simplicity?
BTW, Lipinski, was that a Chiapet under your shirt? He had chest hair creeping up his neck like ivy on the side of a building. A little man-scaping before going on national TV next time please.
I'd like to thank Scar for the highbeams and the judges for eliminating Leah. Still a little perplexed that Leah was eliminated when every judge disliked Stefan's dish but there were a few that didn't mind Leah's runny eggs. At this point I think the judges know who they want in the finals (and Leah wasn't one of them).
In next week's preview, did they show people in New Orleans yelling "HOOTIE HOO"? Can't wait.
Great recap as always.
5 of 18 | Posted by philo | Posted on February 13, 2009 8:53 AM
1. Squab is young pigeon not duck. :p
2. I could picture Beaker as a model. She has beautiful bone structure and is pretty when she isn't making faces.
3. When Fabio said the whole Top Pussy thing I immediately thought of you, Flip. Wait... that sounded wrong. I mean that I thought about how you must have loved that. This season is filled with material for these recaps.
4. There was a shot of the "last supper" table and Toby was seated on the end. In several renaissance images, Judas is sat apart from the others (on the end or on the other side of the table), maybe Toby is the Judas of this last supper? Or maybe they sat him on the end because then only one person would be stuck sitting beside his lame ass?
Awesome recap, as always!!
6 of 18 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on February 13, 2009 9:33 AM
Flipit, I just have to say that your Top Chef recaps make me laugh out loud more than just about anything else on the internet! Just when I think it couldn't get any better, you give me this:
"She tells us the tortoise story again, but Juanita gets bored and breaks into Josh Grobin's "You Lift Me Up."
7 of 18 | Posted by User Name | Posted on February 13, 2009 10:32 AM
LOL - I thought Fabio said "flesh" so I thought he meant streaking.
8 of 18 | Posted by suckitbitches | Posted on February 13, 2009 12:02 PM
Snootchy Bootches: I though the same thing about Carla before Flipit said anything about. I was noticing how tall and thin she is and that in a unique, quarky way that she is very beautiful.
I hope that it is Stefan and Carla in the final two. I am shocked at the selection of chefs for this season. Most of them could not cook their way out of a paper bag. I think that Stefan is the only chef that could have competed with chefs from the other seasons. Ummm?
Fabulous recap Flipit. I keep laughing at the Big Mac line. Nice!
9 of 18 | Posted by areyoucliff | Posted on February 13, 2009 12:26 PM
guys thanks so much for reading and commenting. and i am mortified about calling squab duck. i know it's pigeon! we serve it at the restaurant i work at! so lame. that's what i get for writing these in the middle of the night. haha. HOOTIE HOO!!!
10 of 18 | Posted by flipit | Posted on February 13, 2009 2:09 PM
"I'll bet she was passed around that first kitchen like a cold." I almost spit my wine all over my computer screen when I read that. You know it's gotta be true.
11 of 18 | Posted by lajane | Posted on February 13, 2009 3:05 PM
Flipit, I'm to the point where I can't tell if I read your recaps because I watch Top Chef, or if I watch Top Chef so that I can read your recaps.
"We done here? Cuz I got a chop on the grill." Why is that making me LOL every time I see it?
HOOTIE HOO!
12 of 18 | Posted by LoraGW | Posted on February 14, 2009 7:02 AM
I think Carla is definitely "sexy-ugly" like Angelica Huston. She's what Tyra would call "exotic" (read "ugly"). Loves her though and the show wouldn't be the same without her. It must be her Tom was talking about when he said we'd be suprised who ended up in the finals.
I'm an unapologetic member of team Stefan and if he doesn't win something is very wrong in reality tv world. As far as Hosea goes... dude, get over yourself. You suck and I can't deal with it anymore.
Yeah New Orleans! Can't wait for the finals in one of my favorite places on earth. I could die happy surrounded by food in New Orleans. Loves ya Flipit!
13 of 18 | Posted by BugMom22 | Posted on February 14, 2009 11:00 AM
Pigeon, duck, who gives a ...
This recap made me laugh out loud. I heart Carla and hope she wins. And I really heart Flipit. Best recapper ever.
14 of 18 | Posted by Liberal Wag | Posted on February 15, 2009 3:39 PM
The whole time Hosea was cooking the quick fire I was wondering if sweat was dripping into the food. Totally grossed me out.
Daddy Tom was sure rockin that suit.
And please say that Toby won't be back next year. He tries to be funny(I think) but comes across as an evil mean spirited little troll with a boulder on his shoulder.
I'm rooting for Carla for the win but it probably will be a$$ hole Stefan.
Hope she wins fan favorite.
Funny recap as usual.
15 of 18 | Posted by skies | Posted on February 15, 2009 10:13 PM
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The picture of Beaker holding her hands "this far" apart and looking excited and amazed was BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL! Ditto the one of Carla in a burka!
Boy, I guess I never noticed what. a. fucking. SCHNOZ. Hose(a) has! Combine that with his snaggle-teeth and his schlubbiness and the only word that comes to mind is "Hawt." And "Pukeyvomit." And "Heandleahdeserveeachothersotheycanbetheasshatcouple."
Awesome job, Flipit, you knocked it out of the park... AGAIN!
love, J-Mo :)
16 of 18 | Posted by J-Mo | Posted on February 16, 2009 9:17 AM
SPOILER ALERT! (sort of)
I am watching the final part 1 and I don't care who wins this quickfire - this is not fair!
17 of 18 | Posted by Y3KPhenom | Posted on February 18, 2009 7:18 PM
Flipit, I love you, will you marry me? LOL.. this was one of the funniest recaps ever.....
18 of 18 | Posted by tracyintpa | Posted on February 25, 2009 10:15 PM