<p>Thing to remember is it’s a cooking competition and a celebrity making show. Winning can be worse than losing. A guy like Stefan has a much bigger career because his personality, as grating as it can be, comes across on TV. Richard Blais lost his season and that enabled him to become a celebrity chef, come back to win a 2nd chance all-stars competition and even be on yet another reality show about opening a restaurant. Consider Spike Mendelssohn. He hasn’t won anything but has twice been on Next Iron Chef because of his personality and also was on another Bravo reality show with Blais. The losers tend to do better as celebrities than the winners.</p>
<p>Lergnom, That makes me feel better.</p>
<p>Stefan is my guilty pleasure. :). I know he can be rude and have a foul mouth, but I just enjoy him so much!</p>
<p>asbasket, totally agree!</p>
<p>And that’s why he has a celebrity chef career. He’s been on a bunch of shows and is regularly guesting on cooking shows. Think about Marcel. No one likes him but he has a terrific personality for TV: a grating, self-centered style that works on camera. So he’s on TV a lot. Carla Hall has leveraged her terrific personality into a career that includes being on with Mario Battali. </p>
<p>But who thinks about Hosea? He won the year Stefan and Carla lost. Who can even name the guy who won the year Angelo Sosa was on? Dale Talde who lost the same year as Blais has a celebrity chef career because he was “angry” and then he became “mature” on the all-stars show. </p>
<p>And what bigger success has there been than Fabio Viviani? He was on with Stefan and Carla and has even hosted a Top Chef reunion, does national commercials, etc. </p>
<p>I think I’d rather lose Top Chef so I could win in the real world.</p>
<p>I thought Kristen would be ultimate winner, with Brooke, Stefan, Sheldon as other finalists. I cannot get the replay of LCK, so relieved she may be able to return. I cannot get inside the judges’ heads.</p>
<p>Lergmom, you are totally right. And those are so e of my past favorites- Fabio and Carla!</p>
<p>
Carla, I think, is just as big a success as Fabio. She has a regular gig as co-host with Mario Batali and Michael Symon on The Chew. But you’re right - the losers seem to do better than the winners. Even the despised Marcel ended up on Next Iron Chef, along with Spike (and I’ve never been able to figure out why he’s such a favorite either!).</p>
<p>And a guy from Season 3 who made final 4 only is now a host of the new show The Taste with Bourdain, Nigella Lawson and Ludo Lefebreve. (I may have spelled Ludo’s last name wrong.)</p>
<p>I hadn’t seen this, a clip from last week’s SNL in the link. Top Dog Chef. Enjoy.</p>
<p>[The</a> Dish - SNL Goes Bravo With ‘Top Dog Chef’ - Blog - Bravo TV Official Site](<a href=“SNL Goes Bravo With 'Top Dog Chef' | Bravo TV Official Site”>SNL Goes Bravo With 'Top Dog Chef' | The Daily Dish)</p>
<p>LOL Plantmom…will be watching TC tonite!</p>
<p>BTW, Colicchio says he would have sent Josie home if he knew what the audience did and wishes he’d questioned Kristen more to get out the many ways Josie failed the team. And Gail Simmons voted to send Josie off.</p>
<p>Thing is I don’t see this helping Josie’s career. Maybe fame is all that counts. Maybe being known as unhelpful, as unreliable and as evasively shifting blame has consequences.</p>
<p>I guess negative attention is still attention and she will always have fans due to her “celebrity” status.</p>
<p>Anyone watch this week??? Spoiler below…</p>
<p>Thank goodness she finally went!!! Bye bye Josie! Bet Kristen had a smirk on her face when she saw Josie in LCK!! Hoping Kristen kicked her you-know-what!!!</p>
<p>Kristen won LCK.</p>
<p>Yes! Hope she will be back soon!</p>
<p>I was surprised how much CJ seemed to be rooting for Kristen, even though she was the one to knock him out of LCK after his winning streak. I was thrilled to see Josie leave, and then get squarely booted by Kristen. Don’t think she’ll be getting voted back in by the fans. I was so nervous it was going to be Brooke.</p>
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<p>Speaking about grating personalities, Marco Canora has surfaced on Chopped after missing out to join the Iron Chef America that is has been on life support for a while. I assume his role will be to make us forget the Alex Guarnaschelli. </p>
<p>Where have the good ol’ days gone. Today’s shows are all about recycling untalented and overhyped so-called Food Network celebrity “chef” a la Alex or that mohawk wearing dude. When your best of the newcomers is Zakarian, you know that sticking a fork in the show has come. </p>
<p>That would be poetic justice for Alex. After all the required rigging by the producers to get her to the Arena, it would be nice to see the show canceled before they arrange for the Neely’s to win the next edition. The fake judging is making the House Hunters International look like an unscripted and unfabricated show! ;)</p>
<p>FYI, if you go to the Top Chef site and to Colicchio’s blog he has his fried chicken recipe in there. He notes, btw, that fried chicken can’t be made with the skin on. He said that Josie was the only one to leave the skin on and that it was by far the worst.</p>
<p>I love the old Iron Chef series! Did anyone see the “octopus challenge” episode?</p>