El_P: read the link i quoted above. it appears the producers (understandably) made the situation out to be a whole lot more dramatic than it really was.

Not only audacity to ask but feeling that Shirley should give it up no questions asked.

New season next week

Thanks. Wanna do a draft?

sure. looks like most of the cheftestants are from the western usa this season

Digging the LCK murderer's row, obviously that first lamb was going to get slaughtered but it adds a nice twist and raises the stakes.

Seems like a strong lineup for the main show.

The chefs all seem very nice and talented this season. I like that they've realized the competition is naturally entertaining and you don't need to force it by casting jerks.

Was kind of sad how obvious it was that Melissa was going home from her first appearance basically. There always seems to be one chef who just isn't cut out for the competition.

It's insane how often Marcel surfaces on these TV cooking shows.

Baldie Tyler is really pushing the envelope doing (or pretending to) all new dishes he's never done before. He got away with it this time but this feels like a recipe (pun intended) for disaster.

Most surprising quote of the episode: "He looks like one of those guys that used to tie up the ladies to the train-tracks."

Tu seems to nice for the competition, maybe there's an arc there where he gets more cut-throat as the season progresses.

First boot wasn't hidden too much, many clues given, also it appeared to be the worst dish by a mile.

All in all it looks like a decent cast with lots of decorated and very very confident chefs. I think we'll see some major blowups due to over-complicated dishes this season.

Really liking the cast this season. Pakistani chick and Amish soul food guy seem most interesting so far.

Not a fan of Jen's hair in LCK. That's a bad look for her.

I thought that was a hilarious reference to that cartoon (can’t for the life of me remember the name) that was on back in the day.

Dudley Do-Right

Snidely Whiplash

Haha. Yes!!

I guess we have solved that riddle then. The only question remaining now is whether that was a micro-aggression or not.

was going to extract and make a new thread, but then realised that we didn't do that in s14 either, so why start now. i have renamed the thread to make it more general.

yeah, strong first episode. good dishes, no terrible people (yet), and padma making lewd jokes. what else could you want?

Dude from Pasadena and Vietnamese guy is my picks

Mustache Joe is my guy

Has there ever been a worse Top Chef run? Rough for Melissa. Bottom on quickfire, eliminated in the main event, eliminated on LCK, all over what seem like basic cookery problems.

Only the toppest of chefs can cook a potato. Go to her restaurant, everything else top notch!

Nerves got the best of her.

There was a chef last season who had the exact same thing happen to her and then I think she forgot to plate a necessary ingredient in her LCK appearance and lost there. So there's definitely been similar runs.

I think even really good chefs can just crumble in that kind of environment with the challenges they come up with, so I think it's a mistake to assume it says a ton about her as a chef.

Yeah. I assume to get on that show you're already in the 99.9 percentile of chefs, sometimes you have a bad run.

I felt bad for her.

Gail looks good this season already. Just saw the first episode today. I tried to watch LCK and I couldn't load it. But there's a screenshot of the 2nd episode of LCK already lol.

Disregard my last post. I didn't realize episode one of LCK was prior to the start of the new season.

What was the whole bear thing? Some inside gay joke?

That cracker from that cheese rind looked good. I probably would have devoured that.

How do you undercook food when you have like 1-2 hours to cook? I don't get it. I'm not a chef so I'm sure I'm missing something.

80% of the field looks capable of winning.