Alex Falcone

Episode 15 – Ticket To Hawaii

Is it so much to ask for Nick to get eliminated? Geez. All I want is for some hot reality-show food justice to be served on season 11’s undisputed villain.

Instead, Nick gets his ticket for Hawaii punched and we have to wait one more week to find out who gets eliminated along with him before the final challenge.

In their last week in NOLA, the chefs cooked one bite for Gail, one vegetable for Tom, and then one mark you’re leaving on New Orleans. As usual, the Power Duo of Shirley and Nina left more of a mark than the boys.

And then somebody made Emeril cry.

Episode 14 – Turning Points

This week feels like a return to the regularly scheduled Nina/Shirley show after the insane drama of last week. Sure, Nicholas is still around and Stephanie isn’t and sure, he’s super annoying about everything still, but at least the people we want to see doing well are still doing well.

It’s still hard to figure out why the producers keep offering immunity (5 chefs? Are you nuts? We asked them but you’ll have to listen to the show to find out.). We also talk about how fun Jon Favreau is a guest judge and what we look for in a funny celebrity. Who would you like to see as a guest judge? Also WHAT IS PADMA WEARING??

Episode 13 – Controversy City

Holy knife block, Batman. Things are about to get controversial up in here. I want to dive right into but first, some facts:

[1] Nicholas wins immunity in the Quickfire, the first time immunity has ever been awarded with just 6 chefs remaining.

[2] It’s a team challenge, so the losing chef has to come from the losing team.

[3] Nicholas sucks it up and causes his team to lose, despite objections about his dishes from podcast favorite Stephanie Cmar.

[4] Thus either Stephanie or Shirley have to go home for dishes that the judges LOVED.

[5] Tom is not happy.

There is so much to say about this so let’s dive right in!

Episode #12 – It Came From The Sea

We’re back from the holiday with another action packed episode* (*please note, action in this case refers to giggling). First up, John Besh and his weird hair returns. What is with his hair and why does everybody on the show love it so much?

John and his hair challenge everybody to cook tiny lobsters. Padma does her impression of one of the crawfish before it gets killed.

Continuing the theme of sea-bounty, the chefs have to cook a dish featuring two different local seafood items. Almost everybody makes ceviche. The chefs in the bottom are there for making tasty dishes that don’t highlight the ocean critters enough.

In comments, tell us your favorite thing that comes from the sea, whether you can eat it, watch it, or make fun of its weak superhero powers.

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Episode #11 – Back To School Special

College is the place for experimentation, not boring shrimp.

But first! For the Quickfire challenge, the chefs have to cook drumsticks. For a drummer, because Top Chef loves the puns all of a sudden. Specifically, they’re cooking for Questlove of the The Roots, which is awesome. In a slightly awkward moment, he’s there to plug his restaurant which has since closed. Oops.

Next up, the chefs “go back to school” as they keep saying. Really they’re just going to a school, but it’s hard not to be cute. They’re at LSU (the only university with a live tiger, apparently).

They cook for 500 students, which is amazing, and they do it without well distributed cooking equipment. Who will help the kids put on the freshman 15 and who will make them wish they didn’t have a meal plan? Find out.

Also, if you haven’t, you should definitely watch Behind the Mask on Hulu.

In comments, tell us if your college experience was mostly about stealing food OR when you became a foodie.

BONUS! Interview with Top Chef’s Executive Producers

Holy crap, you guys. Something really amazing happened. I got permission to interview Nan Strait (executive producer of Top Chef seasons 1-10) and Hillary Olsen (EP of TC11) from Magical Elves!

I got them both on the phone and grilled them about the Knife Block, pea puree, and many other important topics. Oh, and by grilled, I mean I was a bit nervous and I asked them softball questions. But it was really fun and I learned a bunch of stuff about Top Chef. I hope you do too!

Episode #10 – Cook Your Mom’s Food

Every week the chef’s say they want to be able to cook their own food. But it turns out their also pretty good at cooking their moms’ food. But first, a Quickfire that features the unsubtle sponsorship of Dunkin’ Donuts. Here, guys. Cook something with our sponsor’s coffee on it.

Once that’s over and Shirley has a new air conditioner, it’s time for a very straight-forward challenge that lets the chefs excel: Cook something that reminds you of home.

But cooking well and thinking about your kids can make some people emotional.

But he still cooks so well, Anthony Mackie wants to be his daughter.

What do you crave when you go home? (Is it cheese?)

Also, stay tuned in a couple days for a very special Pack Your Mics Extra!

Episode #9 – The War of the Restaurants

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, not the holidays. Restaurant Wars! It’s our favorite challenge of the Top Chef season and this one lived up to the hype. Who will pop up better? The ego driven team at Found?

Or will it be the Bad News Bears of restaurant Fin?

And more importantly, who will go home? An executive chef or a front of the house person?

In the comments, let us know what you’d call your restaurant if it was going to war.

Episode #8 – Hip Tang and The Pig Gang

New Orleans is a cool town. It’s got some great food and more than a couple weird musicians. So challenge number one is making hot sauce for the word-inventor king of swamp funk, Dr. John.

It’s hard to tell what he’s saying, and Padma doesn’t seem thrilled to have him there. But we are. (If you want to see Dr. John actually do something besides eating hot sauce and mumbling, check out this video).

For the elimination challenge, we lost Dr. John but we got… a gigantic dead pig. Which the chefs have to “use the whole animal” (as in eat some face and feet, not as in, leave no evidence a pig used to exist here). They serve this pile of pork to 150 guests in a swamp party and it’s shockingly good. Every bite. All three of the bottom chefs made delicious food. That’s life on season 11.

We also discussed Richard Blais’s new show (Cook Your Ass Off, h/t: Julia). What’s your other favorite food program? E-mail us, or leave a comment below, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.

Episode #7 Tough Potluck

Trumpeter, cook, and weird smiler Kermit Ruffins joins the chefs for a series of forced musical tie ins.

Cooking is like improvisation in music… in that sometimes there’s a trumpet? And then there’s a potluck for a group of musicians, except instead of a potluck, it’s a party catered by professional chefs? Let’s not be too picky about names (who do we think we are, Tom?). Instead let’s just revel in the fact that the chefs didn’t all blow it this week.

And let’s try not to be too sad for this public vote of no-confidence in Patty.

We also talked about which Top Chef restaurants we’ve eaten at (here’s the map of them all in case you want to try). Got more questions? E-mail us or leave a comment below.

Also, we’ve now got our own Twitter and Facebook accounts! Be our friends!

Author: Alex Falcone