Why was it the right thing to do? He felt bad he made a terrible dish. He didn't want to have made the worst food and have someone who made better food go home. It wasn't a stratagem or stunt, it didn't backfire. He fully expected to go home imo.

I don't think that not giving up immunity is the wrong thing in that circumstance, but giving up immunity and taking responsibility for horribly screwing up his dish is noble and admirable.

In most reality shows the more immunity drama and attention whoring the better, but in Top Chef I really just want to see the best cooks do their thing, so I'm mostly rooting for fairness.

There's a part of me that wishes they had let Jamie give up immunity, eliminated him, and THEN eliminated Emily too. Because surprise mother****er.

There's a bigger part of me that wishes they had eliminated Emily first, and THEN asked Jamie if he still wanted to give up his immunity. If he says yes, then adios.

But mostly I wish the show had not let him give up immunity, because this is not that show. It's not like they would have let him give his immunity to somebody else. And besides taking away a deserving chef, it puts Emily in a lousy spot psychologically, which Tom made sure to underline at the end, because nobody likes Emily, because Emily sucks, hard.

I don't think what Jamie did was exactly honorable or dishonorable. He left because he felt he didn't deserve to be there, and yeah there's some honor in that, even if he was objectively wrong, because according to the rules he did deserve to be there, and it's not like the rules are totally silly: he earned his immunity by beating everybody else at cooking. So leaving was partly selfless, and partly inappropriate, and to me it was also partly selfish, because in short I think he couldn't stand the heat so he got out of the food cooking room. Because on this show in particular---where the contestants actually know what's what and who's genuinely deserving, and also where there's an older kids sit on the back of the bus pecking order and fame component---in this environment it would sort of sort of suck to walk around knowing (a) that you actually weren't as good a chef as most of the people left, and (b) knowing they knew that too, and (c) knowing that you only survived the last two weeks because of a kink in the rules, which you are (d) reminded of every ten minutes by Padma because she remains an incredible, horrible bitch.

So the writing was on his face and leaving like he did was a form of taking the easy way out, because it ends the pressure. And if it scores minor social points with the cool kids (who all definitely want you to bail) well that's ok too.

I don't think he did it for the cool points, I think he did it because at some level he thought it was the right thing to do, I just think he was wrong. Ultimately it's the show's fault for letting him leave, which of course was done in the spirit of fairness and good food and had nothing whatsoever to do with putting their villain in a situation where the odds of a supernaturally satisfying meltdown are skyrocketing. And don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the meltdown, because Emily, your personality, it sucks, but again: not really the reason I watch Top Chef. I watch for good cooking and good cooking conversation and because I like Tom and because I hate Padma but am still totally turned on by even her stupid arm scar that she loves to show off because she thinks it makes her less vain and because there's just something about Gail from five years ago that still makes me want to pack up my knives and my pants and bend her over a dishwasher

Whoa settle down EM

I'm thrilled Jim was eliminated. His effing voice put me on tilt through every episode. Jesus he sounds like a woman.

I liked Jamie until he gave up his immunity. What an effing idiot. This is a competition! He should be doing every single thing he can do to win, not bending over and letting himself get effed. Brooke knows where it's at. She's in it to win it; talent plus competitive nature.....Shirley too for that matter.

I thought Tom was going to push back on the giving up immunity. Tom seems to love the gamesmanship as much as he does the cooking, well, almost as much.

He was quick to figure out why Birdman got the bad ingredients, seems like Tom gets a real joy out of the competition. Figured giving up immunity would be insulting to him.

Plus, what an awful strategy in retrospect. Unless you knew that you could beat the other teammate once it went down to 50/50, then it's diabolically awesome.

EDIT: i was grunching and didn't read the above comments first. Maybe Tom, by eliminating him for giving up immunity, was showing some gamesmanship himself and getting involved.

did you hear what he said about beating heroin makes you stronger? Not sure the guy operates on the same level

I agree with the Tom comments, he totally gets into the game as well as the cooking and yes maybe Tom gave him what was coming to him for giving up immunity.

The chefs never seem to be very into "playing the game" or any of that stuff, with some minor exceptions. To them, this is about showing their ability and adding to their reputation, which they take a ton of pride in, so I can understand where Jamie is coming from even though it's objectively stupid.

Yeah some of them even to the point of being anti-gamesmanship. Like when I believe it was Michael Voltaggio told Kevin Gillespie how to sous vide.

Damn Casey looks hot tonight. Brooke too

I really hope the shrill chinese chick gets bounced soon.

hahahahahahaha kill yourself Katsuji. What a prick. Was totally expecting John to go home, awesome surprise.

Emily is really luckboxing her way through this

Top chef peeps,

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

I think Emily is kinda cute.

Ewwww

I was going to try to rank who's left by pure cheffing power but I still don't know enough about cooking. Brooke/Sheldon/Shirley/Sylva seem like they're on a different tier than Casey who may or may not be on different tier than John & Emily.

imo Brooke has the highest ceiling but it's easier to see her laying an egg than say Shirley. Prediction: Brooke wins LCK and then wins the whole show.

Biased because I'm sort of crushing on Brooke. I'm definitely rooting for her and Sheldon. Emily and John are the only people I root against. Sylva seems like he'd potentially be a pain to work with, but if he keeps justifying his tone with great food then more power to him.

Always thought Katsuji was annoying, but as a cheftestant I admit he kind of grew on me.

Don't think that Sylva is on Sheldon/Shirley tier, not sure about Brooke either. Sheldon and Shirley are clear favorites imo.

What may prevent Sheldon from winning this year may be his back injury. If there's another high stakes quickfire, the short amount of time could be massive if he moves the wrong way.

It could well be because of me having a long running crush on Casey, but I feel like she's being slept on as far as ability. She laid an egg when she had immunity, but throughout her top chef career she's been consistently really good.

It's a pretty strong final 7 whichever way we cut it. I'm hoping Emily's luckboxing ends soon and we can just have 6 excellent chefs duke it out to the finish.

Katsuji seemed to get the villain edit this season. Maybe I am mis-remembering but I thought he seemed pretty cool on his first season. At any rate I'm really surprised John didn't go home, he was an absolute disaster running the kitchen, and his only dish was terrible. At least Katsuji made one good dish.

Agree. She looks like she does some serious arm workouts and (wisely) wears a lot of sleeveless shirts to show them off. Brooke is cute too although I think Casey is in a different league.

I'd rank Brooke and Shirley clearly the top tier with Sheldon, Sylva and Casey pretty even on Tier 2.

It seemed Brooke's front of house service was really really good...especially when compared to the trainwreck from the other team. she can cook AND she can pull a restaurant together?

I'd bump Healthy-Sheldon up to Tier 1. Maybe his back does cause him an issue though. One of his best strengths is he seems to know the kind of food that's his wheelhouse and has no problem staying there.

did you guys know that Paul Qui got arrested for domestic violence charges last year?

Yes.

He is out of rehab and redesigned his flagship and also renamed it from Qui to Kuneho.

Its in my opinion a much better restaurant now.