By Kim
It's the reunion, hosted by Andy Cohen. All of the cheftestants are back, along with Tom, Gail, Padma, and Eric Ripert. Here are the most interesting parts in bullet form, and I'll cover all of it in the full recap later this week:
- ● Angelo wears a really ugly shirt.
- ● Ed admits that he was disappointed getting Ilan for his sous chef, but also says that Ilan didn't hurt his cooking at all.
- ● Kevin plans to open his own restaurant with his winnings.
- ● Tiffany got married and Ed has a girlfriend, and there is nothing going on between them, now or during filming.
- ● Andrea has bad blood with Michelle Bernstein and jokes that it was because Michelle stole her pea puree.
- ● Alex claims that he made the pea puree, and Amanda backs him up. Tiffany isn't buying it, and Ed is still dubious. Nothing really gets settled.
- ● Tim thought he was quite the ladies' man.
- ● Angelo and Kenny were cocky.
- ● Kenny has a tattoo on his abdomen that says "Beast of the Kitchen."
- ● Everyone agrees now that Angelo wasn't trying to sabotage anyone.
And the All-Star cast is revealed, with the caveat that no former winners are competing; the season starts December 1st . Here's the cast, and while there are kind of a lot of assholes, I can't wait to see some of these people get another chance:
- Season One: Stephen and Tiffany
- Season Two: Elia and Marcel
- Season Three: Dale, Casey and Tre
- Season Four: Blais, Dale, Antonia and Spike
- Season Five: Fabio, Carla and Jamie
- Season Six: Jen and Mike I.
- Season Seven: Angelo and Tiffany
Look, I have come to accept that Andy Cohen is going to host every reunion of a Bravo series. And he truly doesn't bug me as much as he once did; he's gotten more polished, perhaps from hosting his own show and getting more experience. But it still kind of bugs me that, with all the people trying to make it in this business, the network chooses someone on the executive side to host. Because you know he's never going to investigate or dig about something that might make the production or the network look bad. Then again, another host might, but it would get edited out, so there's no winning that one.
So Andy Cohen is hosting, and all of the cheftestants are there, including the ones you forgot existed, like Andrea. Or Jacqueline. The judges are also there: Gail, Padma, Tom, and Eric Ripert. I think Ripert was kind of a dud this season, don't you? I don't know why they even need a fourth judge. I mean, he wasn't annoying like some past judges have been, but he didn't add all that much in the judging segments that we saw. I think it's just so that Tom can have a little chef buddy to go to the market with from time to time. I guess Padma is technically not a judge, since they listed her as a "host," but she does have a say in who stays and goes from what we've seen.
Andy explains that tonight, they are going to reveal the cast of the season, which will be an All-Star season, and it will start in December. That's awesome! If they get the cast right, this could be really good. I love All-Star seasons of reality shows. And so soon! Hooray!
Andy starts by congratulating Kevin, and talking about how surprised he was that Padma called his name as the winner. Angelo is wearing some horrific paisley shirt. It is SO BAD. How could he possibly have looked in the closet and thought, "People are used to seeing me in my chef whites, so this is my one chance to show off my personal style. Ah, yes. The cat puke colored paisley is PERFECT!" Tom says that Kevin won because his dishes were the best, as it is every season. Andy brings up the idea that having Michael Voltaggio as his sous chef might have pushed him over the edge, and Kevin doesn't deny it, but says that he could have won with Hung's help as well.
Andy moves on to tell Ed that he seemed disappointed that he get Ilan as his sous chef. Is that a question? Ed stammers, "Well, because I knew... all right, yeah." Everyone laughs and we see a flashback to Ed and Ilan clashing in the kitchen. Andy asks if Ed thinks that Ilan hurt him in the finale. Ed says Ilan didn't hurt him, and Gail pipes up and defends Ilan, reminding everyone that he won his season, and he knows how to cook. True, but he's clearly inferior to the other options for this finale. Come on, Gail.
Let's look at Kevin's journey to the finale. He comes from a family of bakers, and he took his mother's death really hard. People noticed that he had a temper, and he kind of flew under the radar. Angelo praised Kevin's presentations, and he got praise from various judges. And then he won! And was shocked that Padma named him as the winner. Andy asks Kevin what he will do with the money, and Kevin says that he wants to use it as seed money for his own restaurant, and also buy a new house for his growing family.
Andy moves on to Angelo, pointing out that as an expert in Asian cuisine, he had to be the favorite going into this finale, and then he lost. So, what happened? Angelo says that Kevin cooked amazing food. Andy brings up how sick Angelo was, and it's nice that Angelo didn't immediately say that he might have won if he were well. Angelo admits that getting sick and having to cook while under the weather wasn't how he envisioned the season ending, but it happened, so there you go.
So, Kenny. Remember when everyone thought you were going to win? And then you went home? What was up with that? Kenny admits that he was shocked, but he thought the other team in Restaurant Wars made some good food. Andy puts the same question to the judges, and Tom says that it can happen to anyone. Wow, that was boring.
Random Viewer thinks that Tom is getting grumpier. Tom admits that early on, the food wasn't as good as it could have been, and it made him mad. He has to be away from home and family while shooting, so the payoff is good food. And, you know, his paycheck, which I'm sure is not small potatoes.
Random Viewer wants to know how Eric Ripert got so good looking. How is he supposed to answer that? Ripert says that people do tell him that sometimes, but his response is that looks don't help in the kitchen.
Andy follows up by asking Ripert why Tiffany went home when she did, and he admits that it was close, but Kevin's food was a hair better. Tiffany knows it. And hey! Tiffany got married since the show ended! Plus, if you remember, she won some prizes on the show that made her wedding and honeymoon even better. We get to see some home footage of Tiffany's wedding. It was in Costa Rica. I don't love her hair. That's about all I have to say about that.
So that leads us into the Ed/Tiffany question. After a clip package of their "relationship," everyone laughs. The only part I saw that looked even questionable was Ed making a comment to Tiffany that she might want to try the white guy. Aw, he was kidding. Can't men and women be friends? Tiffany says that her husband doesn't care, because she comes home to him. Ed's girlfriend sounds like she's not a huge fan of the flirtation, and I can't blame her, because if anyone was pushing for more in that friendship, it was Ed. I'd be a bit peeved.
After the break, we get to see times that the cheftestants blamed one another for dishes gone wrong. This leads Andy to ask Amanda why she cooked with sherry in a kids' challenge. Amanda doesn't have a reason, but she says that it wasn't expensive. Amanda adds that the kids were really loud, and Padma wonders if it was due to all the sherry. ZING! I don't think Padma likes Amanda. Can't blame her. Then they talk about Arnold and Lynne blaming each other for their dish. Arnold tries to claim that they were mad at the situation, not one another, but I think he's being diplomatic. Then Andy brings up how pissy Andrea got when Michelle Bernstein was a judge, and Andrea is still pissy about it. The judges assure Andrea that Michelle was impartial as a judge. Andrea won't give up the real reason why she hates Michelle, and I don't really blame her for trying to rise above, but if she's going to take the high road, take the high road. Don't make these pissy faces and make little jabs but then says, "No, no, we're cool. Everything's fine. I don't want to talk about it." Lame. Andrea concludes by joking that Michelle stole her pea puree, and everyone laughs.
That gives Andy license to launch into Investigation: Pea Puree. He asks Alex straight out, "Did you really steal Ed's pea puree?" They show a clip package of the scandalous pea puree incident. If you thought you were sick of hearing the words "pea puree" during that episode, this clip package is a thousand times worse. Alex gets the chance to speak, but Ed steals his thunder by unveiling a T-shirt that says, "Where's my pea puree???" Alex finally speaks and says that he would never steal from anybody, and he made the pea puree as soon as he got to the restaurant. Amanda steps up and says that she saw Alex making it. Tiffany looks dubious, because Alex never defended himself. Alex explains that he never knew he was being accused of it. Ed still isn't sure what happened. Alex defends himself against Kenny's statement of it taking a long time to make a pea puree, which is a good point. You cook peas, you hit blend, it's done. As someone who has been making assloads of purees for my twins, I can attest that a one-ingredient puree does not take long, especially for something like peas, which don't take that long to cook. Kenny says that Alex didn't even have an idea of a dish the night before, and suddenly came up with the winning dish, and it seemed fishy. Kelly backs Alex up that he did buy peas. So he had the means and the motive to make pea puree.
Amanda, who is not someone that you want on your side, because she comes off as a petulant child no matter what she says, claims that there is probably footage of Alex making the puree, but they didn't include it to make things more interesting. Colicchio assures her that he asked to look at all the footage the producers had, and there was no footage either way. Everyone agrees that they would show footage of Alex stealing if they had it, but Alex kind of doubts that they would show footage of him making his puree and then Ed mistakenly accusing him of stealing it. I have to agree with him, but I don't think they had any footage. It sounds like Alex made the puree first thing, and I'm sure the crew was busy getting establishing shots and sort of figuring out the storylines for the episode and making sure they had footage to support those, and then the pea puree thing popped up later, and they didn't have the footage to support it well. Just my guess. Then everyone has a good laugh about the time when Alex claimed he was going to get a hooker and an 8-ball with his winnings from the Quickfire. All is forgiven!
So, Tim. He fancied himself a bit of a ladies' man. He liked to sing around the house. Everyone loved him. Except Tiffany looked like she didn't appreciate his foolishness. And one time he said he'd love to drizzle some chocolate on Padma. After the clip package ended, Padma says that she's really flattered. Ouch. Dismissed.
Kenny and Angelo were both very confident. Some might say overly so, and cocky. Man, some of these clips are reminding me why I hated Angelo early on; he was crazy confident. He got better once he started losing a little bit. And Kenny had a lot of nicknames for himself. I'm surprised that he doesn't talk about himself in the third person. After some conversation about what cocky means, and Colicchio says that being a chef requires confidence. Andy gives Kenny a T-shirt that says "Beast in the Kitchen," and then Kenny shows off his tattoo that says "Beast Of the Kitchen." Guess he didn't need the T-shirt then.
Poor Stephen. He got lambasted at Judges' Table more than once. In fact, one of the harshest comments was when Gail said his food looked like cat food. Man, this is rough. They could have made a montage similar to this for anyone if they dug through and found only the bad things. Okay, maybe not THIS bad. Stephen explains that his style is to use trial and error and keep cooking a dish until it's as good as it can be, and he didn't have time to do that in the competition. That's how I cook! My husband gets annoyed sometimes when I make the same dish multiple times in a week, but I want to keep trying different variations until I get it right. Then I totally forget and never make the dish again. I really need a better way to organize my recipes.
Stew Room! It's like the blooper reel. Everyone loves it. They played craps with giant dice made of boxes, and they played blackjack with fake cards. And once they played baseball and Angelo threw the ball so hard that it got stuck in the wall.
Andy asks John if he's still pissed at himself for using a premade pastry puff and getting eliminated first. John says that he would have done it differently, but his restaurant is doing well. Then Andy asks Tracey if it hurt to be told that her food was an insult to Italians. She says that she hoped it would get edited out but Tom laughs and says he knew it was harsh right after he said it, but he also knew it would make the show. Then there's a little plug for the Just Desserts show with Gail as host, where Gail admits that hosting is a lot harder than just judging. Padma is like, "THANK YOU!" This leads into the judges' blooper reel. I can't really describe every shot, but it features a lot of Padma getting impatient and Colicchio giggling.
Weird Interstitial. Ripoff of Conan's old "If They Mated" bit. You kind of have to see it, but those are some ugly kids.
Andy introduces an alternate version of the credits that's basically like soft porn, music and all. Amanda looks really, really uncomfortable about it, and she gets mad that she just did what they told her to do. She needs to fucking lighten up. It was funny.
Who were the most exciting celebrities? Amanda enjoyed cooking for Nancy Pelosi, and Kelly was excited to meet Buzz Aldrin. Boring.
Random Viewer wants to know if Angelo is as arrogant in real life as he was on the show. Didn't we already cover this? Anyway, apparently people thought that Angelo was a spy. He liked to sit back and watch people. He also used to sit out back on a rock by himself. He talked to himself while cooking. This is one of the best things about having kids; now I can pretend I'm talking to them in the store when I'm really trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Because somehow talking to infants who don't understand me is socially acceptable. Remember when Angelo kept giving people advice and then they got eliminated? Was that on purpose? Tamesha says that she doesn't think Angelo had anything to do with her elimination. Angelo says that he really wanted to try to help people, and he doesn't think his tips made a difference. Everyone thinks that Angelo was sincere. Tiffany had her doubts during filming, but now she thinks he really just wanted to help.
Apparently, this cast was a group of pranksters. Angelo and Stephen tied one another's shoelaces together. Then Angelo put plastic wrap on the toilet seat, and we saw the results on one of the episodes. Then Alex wrapped every piece of Angelo's clothing individually. That takes commitment. So Angelo took Alex's knives and froze them in a block of ice. And finally, Angelo plastic wrapped all of Alex's belongings to his bed. That would get annoying after a while, no? They all agree that Alex was the easiest target for pranks.
Kevin volunteers to name all seven Top Chef winners in order when Andy asks. He succeeds (Harold, Ilan, Hung, Stephanie, Hosea, Michael, and Kevin) and everyone wins some wine as a prize. Andy explains that none of the winners will be on the All-Stars season. I approve. It's kind of bullshit on a show like this to give the chefs another chance when they've already won. Unless you did a season with ONLY winners, which would actually be pretty awesome. The problem is that the winners (except probably Hosea) are too busy cooking awesome food in their own restaurants to do another season. Maybe it could be a one-off.
Andy asks them who will win Fan Favorite. Amanda thinks it will be Arnold because he's campaigning. Bitter, table of one! Arnold says his sister is responsible for the campaigning. Andrea thinks it will be Kenny, and Kenny thinks it will be Tiffany. And he's right! Tiffany did win!
Andy announces who will participate in the All-Star season, which starts December 1st. So soon! How exciting! Here they are:
- Season One: Stephen and Tiffany
- Season Two: Elia and Marcel
- Season Three: Dale, Casey, and Tre
- Season Four: Blais, Dale, Antonia, and Spike
- Season Five: Fabio, Carla, and Jamie
- Season Six: Jen and Mike I.
- Season Seven: Angelo and Tiffany
I'm excited to see a lot of these people again. The first season I recapped was six, so I'm probably most familiar with those cheftestants, although I watched all of the seasons. Tiffany and Angelo are excited to get second chances. Angelo thinks that Dale and Richard are his stiffest competition. Tom thinks it's an interesting lineup, because they were all strong contenders in their season. Gail loves this cast. Ripert is rooting for Jen, since she works for him. Padma thinks Blais is a strong contender. Gail thinks Tre was the biggest upset before Kenny. Ripert wonders how Marcel has evolved since his season. I think we've seen him since then and I think the answer is that he hasn't evolved, but maybe things have changed. I hope his hair has evolved. Anyway, that's it for this reunion. See you in a few months!
Watch a clip from the episode below, discuss it in our forums, then see where past cheftestants are now!
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