Top Chef Seattle - Season 10 premieres Nov 7th

[mramage]

The web pages are just being put up on Bravo - no chef descriptions yet.

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/seaso...

[Janet from Richmond]

I've bailed early on the past two seasons, so hope this one is better.

I've got to pull for Jeffrey Jew since he's a Hokie :-)

[huiray]

***Semi-Spoiler-ish***

(but not really, IMO)

Well, the preview for the season seems to show that there will be:
• fishing for stuff in a mud pit in the kitchen
• rollerskating
• foot-massaging in the kitchen (male on female with female contestant seemingly smoking a cigarette)
• A pregnancy is revealed (?)
• doing something on a muddy beach (clam digging?) with falling down etc
• ego face-offs and friction in the kitchen and stew room (sigh)
• bombastic snark from judges (sigh again)
• helicopter trip into snowy mountains
• a dog-sled (on snow) situation
• assorted drama (crying, bear in a tree, "don't believe this is happening" stuff, etc)

But we also seem to see Emeril Lagasse and Tom Colicchio cooking in the TC kitchen!

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/seaso...

[gaffk]

Wow, other than some of the judges and Tom and Emeril in the kitchen, that looks awful. Looks like another season when I'll watch disinterestedly on demand whenever I'm really bored. (But, of course, I'll follow Linda's recaps ;)

[Janet from Richmond]

After bailing on the past two seasons, I always kept up with Linda's recaps :-)

[gaffk]

They're definitely more entertaining than the actual show.

[LindaWhit]

Oh My GAWD! Da preshah! ;-)

[huiray]

It's a COMPLIMENT to you. :-)

[LindaWhit]

I know. There's still PRESHAH! :-) I'll have to make sure the pause/restart on my remote is working this time.

[KrumTx]

LOL. You do a great job with them.

[fame da lupo]

All that seems preferable to Pee Wee and amateur cross country skiing.

[linus]

so, you like the apples, but not the oranges?
t.v. is hard.

[NonnieMuss]

Agree. I'd like to go back to the days of speed/skill competitions - chopping relay races and the like, or the Name That Ingredient challenge. But it still has to be better than the Texas chili-steak-barbeque season. I want to see the chefs' chef skills, not bike-riding abilities.

[jujuthomas]

I was JUST wondering about this and hadn't had time to check the bravo website! Thanks for the info. :)

[gaffk]

Did I count 21 chefs? That's too many.

[ChefJune]

They'll weed them out speedily and get down to a manageable sized group. ;)

[gaffk]

I just hope they stay away from all those gimmicky, group challenges this season. If I see signs it's going to go like TC Texas, I may have to swear off the franchise altogether.

[ennuisans]

Supposedly the plan is "back to the basics".

http://www.realityblurred.com/reality...

NSFW language in the link.

[linus]

this disappoints me. what on earth will viewers whine and get self-righteous about?

[lisavf]

Yeah, 21 is way too many, but it's easy to spot the quick cuts: the woman who does R&D for FreshDirect, the guy whose primary reference is having worked at Disneyworld, the dietitian, the pastry chef. Just on the face of it, they aren't the types to make it for very long.

I love that there's some international flavor - chefs from South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Japan. Hopefully this will result in some interesting variations in the food.

I have zero familiarity with any of these chefs, but based on their bios and a tiny bit googling, I'm liking Lizzie Bender, Chrissy Camba, John Tesar, Bart Vandaele. Jeffrey Jew is a bit of a wildcard - the negative, in this competition, is that he is a personal chef; the positive is, he has an interesting resume. But I am looking forward to finding out how resume translates to skills and creativity for all of the chefs.

November is too long to have to wait. Maybe we'll get some tasty tidbits before then!

[donovt]

Tina Bourbeau from freshdirect has a pretty nice résumé. Nobu, oceana, nobu next door, CT.

[lisavf]

I didn't know b/c that's not reflected on the listing in the above link. She may do well... One never knows. That's what makes it so interesting to watch. It would be nice to have another woman take the win. I've already marked the date in my calendar.

[donovt]

I used to work at FreshDirect, so I'm definitely rooting for her. Can't wait for the new season.

http://www.freshdirect.com/popup.jsp?...

[huiray]

"I love that there's some international flavor - chefs from South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Japan. Hopefully this will result in some interesting variations in the food. "
---------
Let's see how that plays out.

The four contestants with hometowns outside the USA all reside IN the US now, though, and have been working in USAmerican restaurants, with greater or lesser "International influences" in their food. Pellegrino appears to cook Italian, not Brazilian. Yagi came to cooking late, after abandoning banking - but she seems to be incorporating a lot of Japanese cuisine in her food. I expect Vandaele would continue to bring his Belgian flavor to his dishes; while Binder might continue in her Italia/nAustro-Hungarian vein, maybe? (There is some inconsistencies in the bios I looked up for Binder, although it does seem she has worked in many places around the world.)

Yes, Jew is a wild-card...interesting resumé.

http://www.belgacafe.com/pages/chef.asp
http://www.starchefs.com/chefs/rising_stars/2010/los-angeles-san-diego/chef-kuniko-yagi.shtml
http://chefcarlapellegrino.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=60
http://www.bravotv.com/people/elizabeth-binder/bio
http://www.smalllotsbigwines.com/meet-the-chef/meet-the-chef
http://sanfrancisco.grubstreet.com/2012/09/lizzie-binder-top-chef-bar-bambino.html
https://www.facebook.com/ChefJeffreyJew/info

List of bios on Bravo with pics of the contestants:
http://tpchf.bravo.starcloud.us/inf/i...

[LindaWhit]

I'm thinking the two from Boston won't last long. And I suspect the 21 will be cut to 12 or 14 in the first couple of episodes.

And interesting mix of chefs from all over, however. No real concentration on one city or state, although NYC and CA chefs seem to be represented the most.

[LurkerDan]

I saw this in our local rag with all the chef details:

http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety...