Remember this, when we decided to make Top Chef:Chicago into a fun game? It’s halfway through the season, and the same Disher who invented the game sends the mid-season review:
Just watched Wednesday night’s ep on the DVR last night and though that we should do an almost-mid-season review of the handicapping. This shouldn’t be too tough, since the players are few in number. I have the picks as such:
Me: Richard, Dale, Stephanie, and Andrew (4 for 4 so far)
You: Richard, Antonia, Nikki, and
Manuel(3 for 4)Donna: Antonia, Jennifer, Richard, & Stephanie (4 for 4)
Logan: Richard, Stephanie, Mark,
Ryan(3 for 4)Todd J.: Richard, Stephanie, Dale, and Spike (4 for 4)
RB: Dale, Richard,
Jennifer, Antonia (3 for 4)I find a couple things interesting. First, everybody has Richard Blais in their group, and thus far he’s got to be in the clubhouse with the lead, but it’s only Friday (literally and figuratively) and there are 36 holes yet to play.
Second, nobody had more than one of the early round losers.
Third, I’ve been very impressed with this group compared with Season 3. After about the second or third episode, each of the chefs seems to feel that they have to bring it every week; last season, there were a lot of folks who seemed to just want to coast in the middle and then try to turn it on in the playoffs.
Last, I think that there are a bunch who are just hanging on by a thread: Mark, Antonia, Nikki, and Bad Attitude Lisa. If there were a group challenge coming up with all 4 of them on the same group, I could see the judges cutting the entire group just to be rid of them. Except that the show probably has a 16-episode contract and that would totally screw up the production schedule.
