Bios of the new 16 chefs. I don't know if any meet the hotness factor of Sam from season 2, but it looks like a fun group.

Hellooooo, Ryan. Yum!

Just a bump since the new season premieres next week.

Oh, yeah. Still diggin' Ryan...

As much as I liked Sam from Season 2, no one was hotter than C.J. in Season 3 (though Dale's charms definitely grew on me as the season went on.) C.J. will be difficult to beat in the looks department, but I'm optimistic that at least one hottie will turn up the flame!

That aside, I'm looking forward to TC in Chicago. Besides Project Runway, I can't think of a better way to spend the night.

Incidentally, the Sam photo cited above is incredible. Where did you find it? Is there a similar pic of CJ? Thanks for sharing!

Here is the first 10 minutes of the premiere tomorrow night. (After a 30 second commercial of course.)

I got to work with Antonia at an event last weekend and she is really sweet and talented. She would not give any hint to how far she went though.

It's interesting to see the high quality of the contestants this year. There is also a lesbian (or gay woman if you prefer) couple that are competing against each other. That should make for some good drama.

ok watched last night's new episode. Is it me or do any of you other guys think that the 'lesbian couple' is total television producer driven BS??? Are they serious that of ALL the contestants that audition that these TWO just happen to beat out everyone else? Come on...shameless if you ask me.....grrrrrr. And NO I don't have an issue with women, lesbians or any other member of our community. I would be ticked if it were a husband and wife also...ugh.

Dale and Andrew...douchebag and douchebag+.

Not sure why, but there's something about Manuel that I like.
But I have a feeling someone will grow on me like Dale did last year.
Still can't believe he is dating Jack from Project Runway though. I wasn't a fan of Jack's at all.

They are no longer together. Jack dumped Dale a while back.

I think it would be difficult to date someone who has been on a reality show. They are selected for their outlandish self-centered personalities which I think are fun to watch but you probably can't be around them for long periods of time. Dale and Jack were probably in "Look at me! No look at me!" overload.

Jack DUMPED Dale???????
Kinda hoped Dale would have done the dumping...But, at least Dale is single again.
But, yeah, it would be tough for 2 reality "stars" to date each other.

So...How can I get a hold of Dale?........

Omigod, Andrew is already the most unlikeable contestant on this show. I'm hoping he accidentally sets himself on fire. What a creep! Did he even utter a sentence that didn't have some variation of the word "f**k" in it?

Manuel got the boot last night. Am enjoying this season quite a bit. Hasn't been a lot of fighting this season, but the preview makes it look like that may change next week.

I believe next week is the episode Kevin and I attended. It took place at Macy's on State during Meals on Wheels - can't wait to see it.

They had some sort of 'earthy' theme that they had to cook around, fire, water, wind...etc.

So far, Andrew and Dale are neck-and-neck for "least likable Top Chef contestant" honors. I can't believe Andrew told the judges last week that they'd have to have security guards drag him off if he was voted out, because "this is my house." What the hell was he thinking?

Ryan is by far the sexiest guy in the contest, I think. Spike's close as far as looks are concerned, but his attitude is starting to grate.

So far, Richard is my early favorite to win the whole thing.

So the fireworks started at the end of the episode...AWESOME!

The Fire group, for lack of a better term, really pulled it out of the fire. When they were talking about just serving a deviled egg, I thought they were toast for sure. Yes Lisa was a bit of a b*tch, but if she were a man, I think Dale would have "respected him for his sticking to his guns." The shrimp looked tasty and the bacon looked really good. I was impressed by the technique Lisa used to prepare it. The look on Dale's face with Ming announced that Lisa was the winner was priceless. I was half expecting Stephanie to win yet another challenge.

I honestly thought Richard should have been the one to go home. To have one scale on one piece of fish is forgiveable, but honestly, did he even scale the fish?

Antonia was completely right in her thinking that a soup might have been too basic for the first course. You're given $500 to serve 80 people and you want to make a soup? It had better be the most incredible soup you've ever made! And looking back on the video, Antonia did say that if Spike and Zoi really wanted to make the soup she'd go along with it. I had to take issue with the judges comments that soup as a first course would have been fine. If they had served the soup, I can imagine the comments would have been, "We give them $500 and they give us a squash soup?"

I was sad to see Zoi go, I liked her, but the fireworks afterwards, that was worth the price of admission!

Spike was a jerk for his comments and I thought it was completely appropriate for Antonia to call him out for them. The fight between Dale and Lisa had been brewing for a while, just didn't think this was going to be the thing to light it up. After all, they did win the challenge.

So Bobby, tell us all about the event! Were you able to try all the dishes? What were your thoughts? We're dying to know!

My boy, Ryan, got booted last night. He messed up pretty bad - having non tailgate food for a Chicago Bears tailgate - and apparently not having it be all that great anyway.

At least Dale didn't have a reason to grab his balls last night (that we saw)...

I was a little disappointed that Ryan admitted to being a metrosexual. I was kinda hoping he was just gay.

Me, too! Who will I lust after now that Ryan's gone?

Who in the heck was the guest judge this past week for the Improv challenge????
My God, he was the best looking guy on there this season so far.

Found out....His name is Jonnhy Iuzzini...An award winning pastry chef......WOOOOOOFFFFF!

In a word....yummy

I am really glad that Jen got the boot last week....if I had to hear her drone on about "winning it for Zoe" one more time I was going to scream. Plus, that dish they made looked gross.

I was too...But everybody that is left, except for maybe Richard and Dale, or damn annoying. It's almost painful to watch. All of the women need to go. I have no favorites there at all.

Wow... Johnny Iuzzini. Hot. Check out his web site.

Oh...I'm in love with him.
I hope he gets a tv show soon.....

"I have a culinary boner."

One of, if not THE, best Top Chef lines EVER! Right up there with "I'm not your bitch, bitch." and "You're a tool and a douchebag."

Fun episode. For once having kids involved didn't suck. Thought both challenges were tough, but do-able.

Spike is beginning to grow on me, but I still can't stand Andrew -- or Dale, for that matter.

I wasn't surprised that Nikki got the boot this week; she didn't exactly overwhelm the judges on at least two occasions, and she failed to lead her team in the wedding challenge. That said, I would have rather seen Dale get sent home; he seems to be even more full of himself than Hung was last season, and he's definitely the least mature (with the possible exception of Andrew) of the chefs.

At this point, I'm sure that Richard will wind up in the final three. I'm still not certain about the other two finalists, though.

I think Andrew, Spike, and Ryan are hot.

Unfortunately, Ryan was voted off. He was a little arrogant.

I'm not sure that "arrogant" is the right word to describe Ryan. "Stubborn" seems a little more accurate -- he was determined to do it his way, no matter what the judges said. Of course, maybe that's a form of arrogance.


As far as looks go, Ryan was definitely this season's champ. Spike's close, and Andrew would be much more appealing if he'd lose some of the attitude and shut the hell up once in a while. Richard's looks are starting to grow on me -- he's not the classic stud that Ryan was, but he's certainly attractive in his fashion (although I wish he'd change his hair style).

Surprised no one has posted on this for a while...

But, YAY! - Dale was sent home!! Funny that the more he bitched about Lisa being negative, the more he got just like her! Am happy that the three best are still all in it - Richard, Antonia, and Stephanie. The last episode, "Restaurant Wars" was really good and I'm glad they decided to do it this year after making it seem like "Wedding Wars" was all we were going to get.

Still missing Ryan, though...

The "Final Four" episode was last night. Antonia was sent home because of some undercooked beans, leaving Lisa, Stephanie, and Richard to battle it out for the title. The texting poll was something like "who would you most like to see pack their knives and go?" with all four people being an option. Lisa "won" with something like 91% of the vote.

After Antonia left, Lisa bitched to the other two about them not congratulating her on surviving another round. Stephanie and Richard were both like "what?" Lisa said she thought it was clear they would have rather seen her go home than Antonia (which was probably VERY true), but she still wanted to be acknowledged for making it to the final three.

I'm pulling for Stephanie to win it all. I would be fine with Richard winning as well, because he's shown he knows what he's doing. I just like Stephanie better.

Can't wait for the reunion show - but I haven't heard when it's going to be yet.

I need to catch up, have missed the last two episodes.

I'm shocked and disappointed that Antonia was sent home. I got to work with her in February and she is so nice and talented.

I'm sure it was the producer's decision was to keep a little angst in the mix. I hate it when drama is more important than keeping the better talent around.

Including last night, Lisa has been in the bottom group 6 times. That alone should have been enough to send her home. Has she won anything, even a quickfire challenge? I don't think she has. Regardless she is the weakest finalist ever.

And that nonsense about the others not congratulating her falls in line with her paranoia/persecution personality. She never takes responsibility for anything, other people changed the heat on her burners, etc. Plus she's a mega-bitch. Frankly I can't believe only 91% texted that she should go home. Dale and Antonia are much better chefs than Lisa and Andrew and Spike are porbably better as well.

She won 1 elimination challenge early on but she's been in the bottom so often they should just call it "The Lisa 3" next year. It's sometimes fun to root for the underdog but when they don't deserve it it's hard to do.

I yelled "Fraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!" when Padma announced Antonia was packing her knives. What a crockpot full of pig dung that Bitchface is Top 3. I am rooting for Stephanie to pull out a victory over Blaise I don't know what I'm going to do if Bitchface makes top 2.

Hopefully Lisa will cringe when she watches the shows. Totally awful personality. Totally should have been kicked to the curb ages ago.

Go Stephanie!

I, too, was shocked that Antonia was sent home rather than Lisa. At this point you'd think overall performance would be part of the equation, and Lisa has consistently been among the bottom performers for the past two months. Antonia has one sub-par night and she's sent home? It seems clear the producers are looking more for drama than excellence; hence the bitchy, unlikeable Lisagets to stay. Ugh!

Well the judges (and some crafty editing, me thinks) had me a tad worried that C@ntzillisa might actually win this thing. But in the end it was pretty obvious Stephanie was the winner. But Lisa clearly beat Richard, at least in the final. He was a very distant third. Overall kind of a blah season.

And now for some really bad news. Bravo is making a spinoff of Top Chef. From Variety.com



http://www.variety.com/article/VR111798728...d=2891&cs=1

And I guess next week there will be a reunion show. I imagine a whole lot of it will be some of the chefs attacking Lisa and Lisa being questioned about the other chef's and viewing public's hatred of her. And maybe we'll finally get to the bottom of who was messing with her rice!

So, I was watching the show last night and had anticipated it the entire week. Saw the challenge, having the dinner served and then commercial break--- then I fell asleep---
Weird thing is, I remember this morning that I had dream that I was blowing Tom Collichio...in my kitchen... while Richard was making soufle, wearing shorts but he was wearing high-heels. WTF!!!

I was pleased that Stephanie won the title this year -- not only was she the most accomplished chef this season, but she was by far the nicest and most level-headed. Richard would have been my alternative choice if he hadn't choked in the finals. I think he peaked early on, at least as far as showcasing his flair for experimentation, then retreated to safer choices toward the end of the season.

I still can't believe Lisa made it to the final 3. After all her losing appearances at Judge's Table, I thought her track record would have caught up with her. I think Antonia was much more deserving of a final-three spot -- more talented and MUCH nicer than Lisa.

On looking back, I can't remember Lisa's winning any quickfire or elimination challenges, but I read elsewhere on this thread that she'd won at least once. Can anyone refresh my memory?

Overall, this season was a little less exciting than previous seasons. I wasn't rooting wildly for any of the chefs, and I didn't fall in lust with anyone either (except for Ryan, but that was just a passing fancy.)