Top Chef Texas rumor mongering

[Firegoat]

Anyone see the reports that it looks like Top Chef Texas may be filming the finale in Canada instead of Texas?

http://eater.com/archives/2012/01/17/...

[iL Divo]

if they are in Vancouver, lucky them. it's gorgeous and opposite of where they've been Texas.
just looked up the weather because I know how it can be this time of year. cold clammy wet and snowy. I wish them luck it'll be fun if it's true.

[kinnickinnik]

It's truly wintery this week in Vancouver. Wind chills of -20C or so in the forecast. Fun times :-)

[iL Divo]

that's celcius though.
today's expected high of 37•f. it was 29•f this morning at my house in Calif.
they can handle it

[huiray]

Sooooo......WHO ARE THE CONTESTANTS spotted running around in "Whole Foods on Cambie"? Inquiring minds want to know!

[chefhound]

Are you sure you want to know?

I think if I found out that Paul was out and Lindsay and Chris J were in, it would ruin the rest of the season for me.

[huiray]

Well, I would watch to see how it came about - and maybe nitpick the decisions to death! ;-)

[chefhound]

I'm not saying I wouldn't watch. As if I could stop. My Top Chef addiction is very real. But knowing who had been eliminated before watching it would totally ruin that great adrenaline rush at the end of every episode.

I love nitpicking! :)

[twyst]

I ate in Paul's restaurant last week but was unable to pry any information from him :(

[Caitlin McGrath]

I sincerely hope that no one answers this question here. I, for one, avoid spoilers. There's a reason TWOP has specific threads (and black-out bars elsewhere) for spoilers.

[huiray]

I'm sure folks with the info will be sensible enough to post a link to the answers with suitable warnings rather than simply posting the names here. :-)

[LurkerDan]

do they really not start filming the finale until after the show starts airing? That seems rather odd.

[gaffk]

Yep. The finale is always shot months after the season is and while the season is still airing. That's why folks are so suprised when contestants don't know about the cuisine of the finale location--they have several months to prepare.

[LurkerDan]

I knew that the finale was shot months later, but didn't realize it was shot while the season was airing. Seems to me that would be dangerous for keeping it secret, as this thread demonstrates.

[huiray]

Folks were having a field day with TC7 on the spoilers thread on TWoP. Especially when a poster from Singapore reported back on being right there through an accident of serendipity, having a meal, when they shot the QF segment in the Hawker's Market the night they did it, identifying the folks cooking, etc. :-)

[gaffk]

It seems the location is discovered every season, but the winner has never been leaked. I believe they bring most, if not all, of the contestants along.

[huiray]

Yes and no. That same TC7 season had various "indicators" pointing to Kevin Sbraga's win - amongst other things, the reporting of his resigning from Rats with the intention of opening his own restaurant, *before* the finale aired. I think Ilan Hall pulled the same stunt too, but the timing of the episodes was slightly different then and it was before folks got keener on paying attention to sheep entrails like they did in later seasons. :-D

[gaffk]

Huh, maybe. I was never a big fan of sheep entrails . . . prefer the reading of less bloody things like tea leaves ;)

Edit: And Sbraga was one of the smart ones who used the months between the season and the finale to practice cooking Singapore cuisine intensely.

[huiray]

Re: Sbraga - very true. Still, I found it curious that he didn't practice cooking with a wok much (if at all) because he didn't have a hot flame source (or something like that). ?? His comment was a source of discussion on these boards too at the time.

[gaffk]

The finale is never in the same location as the season.

But the poor finalists . . . Texas in the summer and Canada in the winter?

[ThoughtForFood]

Vancouver hardly qualifies as a Canadian Winter.

[gaffk]

Yes, but it's not sunny Puerto Rico or Hawaii. Any place that's capable of hosting a winter olympics (albeit an unusually warm one) would not be on my list of January destinations. (August? Sign me up.)

[huiray]

A former colleague of mine from a long time ago moved back to Vancouver because he missed the constant grey skies and perpetual drizzle. I'm serious.

[FoodPopulist]

It's like people moving back to the city because they miss the noise.

[gaffk]

Now that I understand. I grew up in Philadelphia (right around the corner from a busy fire station) and went to college there as well. When I moved to rural SE Ohio for grad school, I couldn't sleep the first week it was so dark and quiet.

I moved back to Philly and stayed there until a move last year to the burbs. And the dark and quiet still creep me out at night.

[taos]

It's the Top Chef Finale, not spring break. Vancouver will be a nice change from the regular season Texas theme.