Top Chef 1/31/19--"Music City USA" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: no Quickfire, but the Elimination challenge was to get into two teams and throw a party on a houseboat on the lake. Eddie got to pick teams, and took the extra person since there were an odd number of people left. He took the more introverted people who wanted a “classier” party. Adrienne spent most of the episode sick, and there was briefly some drama with a loss of power but in the end, it didn't affect much. Kelsey won, and her team got 79 votes out of 100 which is a pretty substantial landslide. Kelsey's oysters and her puppy chow party favors gave her the win. Meanwhile, Brian decided to get into the hot tub with his shoes on, to be “fun”, but then cooked his porchetta so poorly he was eliminated. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 1/30/19--"On the Prowl" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: we pretended that corsets celebrate a woman's figure, because sure. Everyone got a corset they had to incorporate into a garment. I feel that “All Stars” should have to construct their own corsets from scratch, but as we all know they don't ask for my opinion even though they should. Christina made wings over her model's hips and a latticework skirt and she won. I didn't really like her look, but in terms of “we're going to sell your look online” it was simple enough for that, I guess. Jasper did some weird thing with his pants, and some poorly-arranged lace, and was sent home. (click for more)

Top Chef 1/24/19--"Whatever Floats Your Boat" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire involved making a spin on the Kentucky Hot Brown, meaning you had to make a hot sandwich-style dish with turkey and some kind of sauce. Justin won with a maple Mornay sauce and fried turkey, which sounded amazing. The Elimination challenge involved beef primal cuts and beef, basically. The secret requirement was apparently just huge cuts of meat, cooked simply. That's what the judges actually wanted, and no one really made that, so everyone was disappointed. Eddie won, with cabbage rolls, basically. I mean, I'm not saying I don't think he should have won, because I'm not upset about it. But they nailed a bunch of people for not making giant steaks and bones and whatever, and they had to feed the whole restaurant so maybe make it clearer that you just want beef? Instead of that being the secret requirement you bust everyone for? Anyway, Brandon made beef tartare with some weird sauce that was too thick, so he was sent home. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 1/23/19--"Of Corsets Fashion" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: the unconventional materials challenge involved Southwest Airlines, so of course there were seatbelts, and ticket jackets, and random plastic. Irina won by making a dress out of the circular bottoms of paper cups. Seth Aaron tried to make a dress out of seat belts but it had a terrible silhouette so he was eliminated. (click for more)

Top Chef 1/17/19--"Carne!" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: so we had a competition for Last Chance Kitchen, where Nini and Brother Luck competed to come back to the competition. Nini made a couple more mistakes so in the end, Brother Luck returned to the show. I wasn't that surprised. The Elimination challenge was to make a canape inspired by a Prohibition-era cocktail. Eric made an oyster dish, which is not a canape, but not very many people made actual canapes so I guess that wasn't that important. Anyway, Eric won. Brian deep fried some gnocchi and they turned out terrible, but then Brother Luck didn't make a dish inspired by his cocktail so he was eliminated again, wasting everyone's time. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 1/16/19--"Buckle Up!" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: there were too many people on this show. Everyone had to make graduation outfits, based on tassels with two colors. Just as if you were an extra high school student and decided that under your cap and gown you would dress in your school colors. Anthony Ryan won, with royal blue lace pants and orange hot pants and crop top. Whatever. Sunny was eliminated for not using both colors. So just to make sure everyone knows, the judges declared with that elimination that following the challenge is more important that making a good outfit. (click for more)

Top Chef 1/10/19--"Roaring Munchies" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the end of Restaurant Wars. As expected, Third Coast was a trash fire and everyone blamed Nini. I'm not sure what Justin could have done to help the situation, and apparently those “waiters” were caterers which mostly explains why no one understood table numbers, but apparently it wasn't much. Brian's super anal service manual and chicken ballotine gave him the win. Pablo cooked his proteins poorly, and the judges blamed Nini too, so those two were sent home. I think even if the FOH stuff wasn't totally Nini's fault, she did plan to spin ice cream to order during service, but she wasn't ever going to be back in the kitchen during service and I'm not sure she actually discussed this plan with her team. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 1/9/19--"Top of the Class" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: Six winners from original Project Runway and six from international Project Runway came together to be “inspired” by their “country of origin”. Whatever. Dmitry made a black dress with blue/green embroidery and his signature floating cutouts, and won. I didn't notice last week that he did cutouts like he often does, because it's been that long since I've seen him. Anya made one of her usual boring maxi dresses, and Anthony Ryan made a really weird disjointed dress. But of course, because these producers suck, no one is eliminated. Oh and here are two more contestants: Sean (the guy with the fringe) and Juli (from Australia). This is why I always say I hate this show. (click for more)

Top Chef 1/3/19--"Restaurant Wars Part 2" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: we had Restaurant Wars early, with three teams instead of two. Michelle won immunity during the Quickfire. Her team seems mostly OK? Kelsey and Nini's team was very cocky, but fell apart during prep. They were really behind, and it's implied that Nini was a terrible FOH and didn't train her servers. Brian wrote a whole service manual so he seemed to be the most well-prepared for service, even though he was behind on prep. Then Tom appeared and said it would be a double elimination, right before we got the To Be Continued. (click for more)

Project Runway All Stars 1/3/19--"All Stars Goes Global" summary

Previously on “Project Runway All Stars”: So this is the “all winners” season. Everyone is a winner of regular Project Runway. To make things interesting (or because not enough people wanted to return) we have winners from international editions of the show. I'm not that upset about that, for all my snide comments, because it means people we've never seen before, but who are familiar with the show and the work demands. I also saw a couple of ads for Heidi and Tim's new show, or casting for their new show anyway. So that's really happening. Anyway! Thanks for your patience and for returning to my blog and let's get started! (click for more)