Live Chat Wars!

In the annals of Top Chef history, few episodes have caused as much of a stir as last night’s thrilling Restaurant Wars edition. Chatterers from around the culinary globe joined the Top Chef Live Chat to express their shock, dismay, and in some cases, glee at a fan favorite’s surprise departure. Tasha Kile arrived early to the chat and summed up the anticipation the room was feeling: “I'm so excited for tonight, I won a cookbook for tweeting today :) love top chef!” And we love you too, Tasha. Before the show started, returning chat favorite and aspiring chef Jay popped in with some exciting news “I just got into culinary school!” The live chat applauded Jay’s monumental development. “Go Jay, fun times!” shouted Kathy Bilodeau. 14packethacker echoed Kathy’s sentiments, “Good Luck Jay… I burn boiling water!” Amazing how in just its third week the chat room is already a highly functioning support group. And it’s still way cheaper than therapy! Here’s hoping Jay’s the first Live Chatter to make the leap to Cheftestant. Go get ‘em, tiger! As the Tag Team Quickfire Challenge got underway, chatter Jonathan Brown went after the chef you love to hate, saying, “Lol, Alex didn't get picked. That's not much of a surprise.” Live Chat regular Judd Shapiro offered a prediction, “Of course, the team without Alex will win.” When East Coast host Bravo Monica polled the room on who would win the challenge, red or blue, the results were one-sided. In fact, one-sided doesn’t near describe the complete and utter landslide it truly was. “LOL I love how Blue has 100% on the poll,” giggled chat vixen Michelle. To the surprise of zero percent of chatters, the Blue team did take the crown prompting to Ruby to pat herself on the back with “yup, we called it 100%.” In the Elimination Challenge, the teams had to pick one Cheftestant who would serve the front of the house. The red team’s decision to pick Alex was mostly greeted with kudos. “I think it is smart to put Alex out front. History of Restaurant Wars is front of the house goes home,” observed Barbara. LAB disagreed, pointing out that, “Alex screws up everything.” Everything but pea purée, LAB! The Blue Team decided to draft Kelly as their front-of-house representative; they also decided to call their restaurant Twenty 21. Yet again, the red team drew the ire of the chatosphere when they decided to call themselves… Evoo? Bravo Monica quickly typed “Anyone else roll their eyes with the name EVOO?” Most agreed, but14packethacker wittily called back to a much-derided Season 6 restaurant name “EVOO - not as much as REVOLT.” Touché, 14packethacker, touché. As Alex rudely addressed the serving staff of his restaurant, chatterer Val Forgett spoke out, “Wow, give a small man small power and see a big monster come out... Show me again how to wipe a table, Alex...” And Val didn’t s top there, audibly wondering “Is it really smart to put a guy who looks like serial killer as the host for your restaurant?” Ouch! But sun-soaked chatterer FloridaGal chalked up the Alex hate to the dynamics of Top Chef itself, “Every season has a person who you love to hate.” As the Red Team prepared their food, the judges, namely Padma, got anxious. Funnyman Jason White put it simply “Padma HUNGRY.” As Alex mumbled his way through the dishes, the hate commenced. “Alex, what a train wreck,” cringed Chris. Diane RForgett agreed, posing “Is Alex REALLY a Chef anywhere? The Blue Team had more cohesion in the kitchen, but the food wasn’t exactly a crowd pleaser. Even still, chatter supremus Austin argued, “I think anyone on the blue team deserves to win because they all cook great and don’t have the attitude behind them. Despite Austin’s wishes, the results had the blue Team seeing red. “WTF? How could the red team win?” moaned Michelle. An unnamed Guest was oddly prescient “With restaurant wars you never know who will go home... it’s another ball of wax.” And when the axe fell on Kenny, considered a heavy favorite to make a run to the finals, the chat’s collective jaw was left noticeably agape. “OMG they killed Kenny!” zinged a commentator who called himself “Pea Puree.” Frequent commenter Guest sounded off: “Kenny made a pretty revealing comment. It's supposed to be Restaurant Wars, not Front of the House Wars. Sucks that he went home. He has been pretty consistent compared to the others.” Always ready to share his bit of wisdom with the room, chatterer Judd Shapiro tried to make sense of it all. “It's one of the classic Top Chef questions,” he said. “Which is worse? Not cooking good food or not fulfilling the challenge? If Alex didn't cook, he didn't participate. But, Kenny had the horror show.”