Recap week ending 11/22/2009

Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:

The guest judge this week was Gavin Kaysen who competed in the 2007 "culinary Olympics" called the Bocuse d'Or. Sorry, not impressed. The footage of that event looked like it was filmed in a high school gymnasium by a local municipal access cable company. Seriously, it looked like a joke.

Anywho, for the Quickfire Challenge, the 5 remaining cheftestants were to try to recreate in their own style Chef Kaysen's dish that he made in 2007 which was a Ballotine of Chicken, Chicken Liver and Crayfish. It is essentially a protein inside of a protein inside of a protein...think turducken.

While the instruction were to make a "version" of it, brother Michael apparently took a little too much license and made a terrine. I'd always thought of a terrine as a cooking dish (and it is) but in food it's essentially several items pressed together and shaped and cut. It kinda looks like a sushi roll. So, his dish didn't go over too well. Surprisingly, Jen won! It was her first win in a looong time, and maybe finally will get her confidence back up. Her win got her 30 minutes extra time in the Elimination Challenge.

The Elimination Challenge of course was to make something in the style of the Bocuse d'Orusing one protein (either Salmon or Lamb,) and 2 garnishes. Kevin (who I agree with) said that while the Bocuse d'Or is all about presentation (you present your dishes on a mirror...oy,) he wanted to focus on complex flavors. I mean, leave it to the French to come up with a food competition that is more about looks than taste. What is it for, a magazine cover? Ridiculous. Anyway, Brian was the one who everyone thought had the best technique and complicated dish, but his lamb was undercooked. If he had Jen's extra 30 minutes, he probably would have won. All of them received some praise, and all of them received some criticism. Kevin won, which I'm SURE pissed off Michael because he keeps saying that Kevin cooks what he cooks on his day off. WTFE a-hole. Kevin not only focused more on taste than appearance, but he sous vide his meat, which he'd never done, and he had asked brother Bryan the night before on some tips for doing it. Bryan said that he'd have been an a-hole to not tall Kevin...and that he doubted that his brother would have told Kevin. He's probably right, and Kevin is probably lucky that Michael went to sleep early, so he didn't know about his brother "helping" a competitor. Eli ended up going home so as predicted here after the 1st or 2nd show, the Final Four are the brothers (Bryan and Michael,) Kevin, and Jen.


Next Iron Chef America:

This started with 10 chefs, and I only knew 2 of them. Amanda Freitag and Jose Garces. Both had competed on ICA before (and Garces won as I recall.) The final 2 chefs were Jose and Chef Mehta who was born in India. So, the new Iron Chef would be a minority (either Hispanic or Indian.)

The final round was a head to head ICA battle in Kitchen Stadium and the "secret ingedient" was "ribs and racks." So it was ribs from pig, cow & buffalo. Unlike the first NICA 2 years ago, the 3 judges who had been judging all along actually got to be judges for the finals. The last time, there was a LOT of issues where the 3 judges throughout the show weren't the judges for the ICA battle (3 Iron Chefs were instead,) and the 3 judges who had been there all along thought that Symon probably would not have won had they been the judges. So, this time not only were the 2 judges there, but also 3 current Iron Chefs (Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Morimoto.) To me, that made the most sense, and both the Chairman and Alton Brown also were served dishes. I bet if there had been a tie that Alton would have been the tie breaker.

It seemed pretty apparent to me who would win. The 3 judges of the series made noise that Chef Mehta took more risks and that maybe led to more failures but also led to the single best dish. The Iron Chefs seemed to say that Chef Garces might have been more "conservative" but nearly everything was technically correct, cooked correctly, and he didn't produce 5 "Latin" dishes, so it wasn't "really" conservative for him. In the end, Chef Garces won and is the new Iron Chef to replace Mario Batali who has had a falling out with Food Network...although he WILL compete in the Iron Chef Battle with the White House Official Chef along with Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse (who also has had a falling out with FN.) This special episode of Iron Chef America will air in January.


Detroit Lions vs Cleveland Browns:

While this game was blacked out locally, I listened to it on the radio.

What the heck was that on Sunday?

The Lions are at home against another 1 win team. A team that had ONLY had 5 TDs for the ENTIRE SEASON so far, and of those 5, only 1 player who was directly involved in ANY of them was actually in the game. The Browns are imploding from within with players calling out the coach, the coach calling out players, and the owner working to replace the GM and coach. ANd they're imploding from without with fans hoping they lose all the rest of their games, that the QBs get hurt, that the owner fires everyone and/or sells the team. You think it's been bad here? At least the Lions team are on the same page and trying to get wins.

So, what happens? The Browns roll up a 24-3 lead.

In the first quarter.

WTF?

But, as I contended last season...these Lions aren't quitters. Last season, had we played Cleveland or St Louis, or Cincy, or a couple other teams, we probably would have beaten them. The Lions were motivated to not go 0-16 while those other teams just wanted the season to end...and they lucked out because each one of those 4 win or less teams played other 4 win or less teams while the Lions did not.

So, the Lions get it back tied at 24 at halftime. Then they took the lead! Then, like the Lions, they not only lost the lead, but turned the ball over late in the 4th quarter by a bad decision by StafFORD. Calvin had triple coverage, yet Matt tossed the ball his way regardless. Dumb. Typical Lions QB. But wait! The Browns fail and kick the ball back to the Lions. What does StafFORD do? He marches them down the field to around the 30. Then he heaves a last second desperation toss towards Bryant Johnson in the end zone, and is promptly flattened onto his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Johnson was essentially frisked like he was a dope smuggler, so after a pass interference call, the Lions had 1st and goal from the 1 with 0.0 showing on the game clock. Daunte Culpepper, who hadn't even been warming up, had to run onto the field to run the last play. So what does the genius coach of Cleveland do? He calls time out. Many say that he didn't have a choice. They were winning and they had to get their defense set. BS! Let the ice cold Daunte try to run a game that he had absolutely no handle on and take the chance that the Lions, as usual, would fail. Instead, out runs StafFORD, lame arm and all, and tosses the winning TD to rookie TE Pettigrew! HOLY SCHNIKES!!!! This isn't Joey Harrington. This isn't Scott Mitchell. Those clowns would have been writing in pain on the bench, watching the game on the jumbotron.

What did I learn from this game?

That the Lions are absolutely terrible. Their defense couldn't stop a check, and their special teams must be full of "special" people. Durr durr.

But, the offense isn't horrible, and StafFORD tossed TDs to 5 different players. 2 rookies, one a 2nd year player, and one a 3rd year player, and the 5th the backup TE. That shows that perhaps there is a nucleus to build upon. StafFORD has shown that he could be "the real deal" and prior to the game HE took all the blame for the multiple dropped passes over the prior few games. That sends a signal to his offense that HE is the leader, and that builds respect. StafFORD got 422 yards and 5 TDs, the first time a rookie has done that since the 1930s! HOLY SCHNIKES! Does this mean that the Lions "turned a corner?" Hells no. But it does show that perhaps, just maybe, they got the right guy last draft. The offense needs LINEMEN, not skill players or StafFORD will get killed. But the guy's got the heart of a winner and the toughness and guts to get him through the bad times.

The Lions will be lucky to win 1 more game (Chicago at home on the last week is their best bet) but that was a nice win and a nice boost to the offense and showed that the Lions may FINALLY have a true leader in the locker room. They had better spend the entire off season bringing in veteran defensive linemen and secondary as well as o-linemen, and target those positions with EVERY pick in the next draft.

Oh, and I happened to pick up StafFORD for my Fantasy Football team and he got me over 55 points! W00t!!

I played my brother's team, and he's a HUUUUGE Lions fan. Must have sucked for him knowing that although the Lions would win, he was getting killed. Sorry about that, bro.

Catching up

Sorry that it's been so long, work has been nuts.
Anywho, I'll do short recaps of Warehouse 13's final 2 episodes and the last 3 eps of Top Chef: Vegas, plus a few comments about other shows this season.
Suffice to say, I probably won't be blogging any shows for the time being, but I will try to keep posting on Top Chef until it finishes.
Anything else, tv shows, movies, wtfe, will come as I can.

Warehouse 13:

Ok, so I was wrong in that Mrs Frederic didn't turn Artie and the team loose to get MacPherson. The second to last episode started with Myka in Europe in a hotel room they traced to MacPherson. She discovered that special hand cymbals that he had were not in their storage box in the room, so he must have them on him. At the same time, Pete was chasing MacPherson down a street in Montreal when 2 cops showed up. MacPherson used the cymbals which blasted a sonic wave that knocked Pete over and killed the 2 cops (Pete had been warned to cover his ears, the cops weren't so lucky.) Mrs. Frederic was NOT pleased at what they had been up to.

Myka's father, who runs an old new & used book store and lives above it with her mother was sent an old Edgar Allen Poe book. Upon touching it, words from the pages ran up his arm causing him to scream in pain. Myka's mom called and told her that he had some sort of seizure, so Myka went to check on him...although they never got along. Pete showed up unexpectedly to offer his support. Later, the father read the book again (not knowing what had happened) only this time he went into some trance/coma like state and the words could be seen all over his body.

At the same time, a college student with a crush on a pretty gal "hears" Edgar Allen Poe's pne "calling" to him. He breaks into a display case with it, and by writing a word down anyone who reads it is affected by it. He writes "fire" on paper and puts it in a rivals locker and the guy bursts into flames (survives.) Then his professor confronts him about the pen and the kid shows him "wall" and the wall grabs the prof and buries him alive inside. Luckily, by now Pete and Claudia have arrived and they get the prof out of the wall. The kid entralls the gal and when Pete & Claudia show up he shows them "Pendulum" and suddenly they're lying prone on the ground with a giant pendulum swinging above them. They're able to break the spell from them and the gal, and take the pen into their custody.

Back at Myka's parent's place, the reunite the pen and book and the words leave her dad and go back into the book. As Myka and Pete leave, they realize that something isn't right. They go back inside and fine Myka's parents entralled by a lantern (Jack the Ripper's) and MacPherson is there. He agrees to free her parents and spare their lives in exchange for the book and pen. He takes them and leaves.

Ok decent episode, it resolved Myka and her father's estrangement when Myka finds out that he wrote and rewrote a book about her and how great she is. He never published it, but Myka and her mom encourage him to do so. Myka's parents were played by real life husband and wife Michael and Susan Hogan. Michael played the eye patch wearing Colonel Tigh on the recent BSG remake series.

The final episode of the season had the whole team hunting MacPherson who possessed a Phoenix pendant that allows the wearer to survive being in a fire, but by killing double the amount of lives it saves. This is what caused MacPherson to be banished from the Warehouse and imprisoned. Years earlier, he used it to save the life of the woman he and Artie both loved, but it killed 4 firemen. Banishment from the Warehouse means adding an element to his blood that should he step into the Warehouse, the magically enhanced elements in the Warehouse would cause him to explode. He somehow had managed to not only escape prison some time ago, but had managed to get the Phoenix pendant as well as other items from within the Warehouse. Doing an investigation, the team used the item's tracking device that records anyone who removes an item from a shelf. In all cases, the person was Claudia.

Turns out that MacPherson had a shape changing artifact, and had one of his henchmen wear it to "become"Artie to try to frame Artie as a major criminal. It was also revealed that Leena, the Bohemian woman who runs the Bed & Breakfast where the agents live, was working with MacPherson and stole the items for him while looking like Claudia. The point was to get the agent's to capture MacPherson and bring him to the Warehouse to be encased in copper for all time. In order to do that, he was given an item that neutralized the chemicals in his body so that he could go inside. Once inside, Leena (as Claudia) freed him from the copper and he stole some items and set the tunnel that connects the Warehouse to the outside to explode...which it did...with Artie inside.


Top Chef 6 - Las Vegas:

The last 3 episodes-

Episode 5:
Guest Judge: Tim Love who competed and lost in the first rounds of Top Chef Masters.
Quickfire Challenge: make something with cactus. Winner: Mike I who won a $15,000 chip
Elimination Challenge: Camping cooking out in the desert with fire pits.
Winner: Brother Bryan for his second in a row, and third overall.
Eliminated: Mattin who made ceviche...out in the dessert...and it was raw.

Episode 6:
Guest Judges: Michelle Bernstein and Penn & Teller.
Quickfire Challenge: Make something that represents Angel on one shoulder and Devil on the other. Winner: Robin who made a dish that represented what she could eat and couldn't eat due to her cancer diagnosis. The cheftestants were NOT happy as Robin is considered a light weight and they though Michelle gave it to her because she's a woman and her cancer story. Chef Tom disputed that in his online blog. BTW, Michelle Bernstein is SMOKING HOT now!
Elimination Challenge: Use their own "magic" to deconstruct and recreate a dish.
Winner: Kevin who had made a similar dish in the previous challenge but failed...he just happened to get some of the same ingredients by chance.
Eliminated: Ron who tried to make a Paella but neither successfully or correctly made a paella, and didn't even get the concept of deconstructing it as it was essentially just his trying to actually make a paella using the normal ingredients.

Episode7:
Guest Judge: Tyler Florence of Food Network (huh? how was he able to do this?) aka my "celebrity look-alike." I don't think I look like him, but he's the only celebrity who is even close. I think he was able to be on this show as it was all to benefit a feed the hungry program that he's seriously involved with.
Quickfire Challenge: The pulled a slot machine and it gave them 3 random ingredients based upon "mood" "taste/texture" and "origin of cuisine"
Winner: Kevin who could take a $15,000 chip, or have immunity in the Elimination Challenge. He chose the chip (good call!)
Elimination Challenge: They had to draw knives to pair up and make a dinner using ingredients given to them from a well regarded restaurateur who also were members of Tyler's organization. The ingredients represented that restaurateur's "style" but they didn't have to make the dish like the restaurateur, they could make something of their own using that person's ingredients in a new and different way.
Winner: Jennifer who had been sick and was in the bottom in the Quickfire Challenge.
Eliminated: Ashley Brother Michael almost got the boot, but since he wins more than not and Ashley's in the bottom more than not, I think that's why she went.

At this point, the only really "weak" cheftestant left is Robin. She SHOULD go this week, and if not her then maybe Laurine.


Other Shows:

Survivor:

They spent waaaay too much time hyping Evil White Russell and yet nothing he has said is really true. He keeps gloating that he's "calling the shots" yet the first to go was a young gal who didn't get along with the tribe, and the next to go was an over 40 woman. These are the types who USUALLY go first anyway. His first real challenge was when Jaison wanted to get rid of Ben but EWR didn't. Jaison got his way as EVERYONE (including EWR) voted out Ben. I will give EWR credit for finding the Hidden Immunity Idol without a single clue, but for me, it was hidden very lazy. I was more impressed when Eirk was told the 2 clues by Shambo and he went and found it just using what she had told him. Their HII was also in a tree, but it seemed MUCH harder to find.

The Amazing Race:

It would SUCK to have been Philiminated before the start of the race as the "hippie" couple was, but at least it's not as bad as when they've done it on Top Chef where they had traveled across the country only to be eliminated before it began, or Survivor where people had traveled across the planet only to be eliminated before tribes were even formed. I had hpp[ed byond hope that the annoying lawyer couple would be the ones to go, but alas.

Right now, I like the young couple who have been together since Elementary school, the father and son team, and the Globetrotters (these 3 teams finished 1, 2 & 3 on the last episode!)
I didn't like the poker playing gals, but they redeemed themselves a bit when the gay brothers had stopped to help them and they told them to continue on so that they wouldn't fall behind trying to help them.

Smallville:

So, they made Clark "Batman" for the first 2 episodes and he's now "The Blur" instead of the "Red Blue Blur" as he now wears black and not red & blue. They're also making Green Arrow have the "addict" storyline...much like the Tony Stark drunk storyline in Ironman. I think they had a GA storyline that was similar in the comics, but I'm not 100% sure. Also, Zod and MANY Kandorians are on Earth, but NONE of them have powers...yet. They now know that Clark exists, but for the moment, they think it's Jor El. I'm also not sure I like what they're doing, but I'll reserve judgment until I see how it all plays out.

Stargate-Universe:

This certainly isn't the "old" Stargate, and also isn't Star Trek:Voyager. MUCH darker. MUCH more conflict. Also, MUCH more adult and has really "deep" themes.

Fringe:

Pretty good, glad it's back. Hope it does well.

Heroes:

I haven't watched ANY of the episodes, and apparently neither has America as it's ratings are terrible. I doubt it will make it.

Dollhouse:

Somewhat better, but still glad it's back.

Sanctuary:

Very different than last season so far. I like the change, and the effects seem even better, so perhaps they increased the budget. So far, so good!

Wolverine & The X-Men:

Wow, this series has continued to impress me. If you're not watching it, you're missing the best first season of a cartoon series ever...even better than Spectacular Spiderman from last year.

Spectacular Spiderman:

It took a LOOONG break recently for no reason after having FINALLY come back on, but it's back and it's still good.

Next Iron Chef America:

Why?
I know Batali is gone, but I recognize NONE of these people. Why not wait and maybe bring back some of the other NICA people from last time, or some of the TCM folks. Who are these people? So far the first episode might as well have been called Top Iron Chef America as it was virtually IDENTICAL to Top Chef and NOT like the previous NICA that Michael Symon won.