1. I was discussing Top Chef with my friend (and frequent commenter on this blog), Jake, and he pointed out something I hadn’t noticed before: at the beginning of each episode there’s usually a brief segment highlighting the person who will by sent home later in the episode, thus making it easy to predict who will be sent home.
2. Earlier in the conversation I had mentioned my surprise at the fact that Robin’s cancer has not been mentioned yet. Jake predicted that this week’s episode would focus on Robin and her battle, and that she would be sent home.
3. This week’s episode begins with the camera trained on Robin discussing the fact that everyone thinks she is a terrible chef.
4.Cut to the quickfire, which is “angels and demons” themed. Robin’s demon is cancer. Her angel is struggling to overcome cancer.
5. Jake is a smart guy.
6. You know who isn’t a smart guy: Eli.
7. How was Jake to know that Robin would win the quickfire, thus gaining immunity in this week’s elimination challenge?
8. Eli, though, he should have understood a simple rule: if you want to be a sympathetic reality show character, don’t be snarky to the woman with cancer.
9. The next challenge is judged by Penn and Teller.
10. More proof that Kevin might have actually gotten in to MIT: he’s a “huge” Penn and Teller fan. The only people who are “huge” Penn and Teller fans are a) deliriously hungry jungle animals, and b) tech nerds with poor senses of humor.
11. To re-iterate: Penn and Teller aren’t funny. Especially Teller’s whole “no talking” schtick.
12. There is a problem with this week’s challenge, which is to make a “deconstructed” version of a classic dish. The problem is that Ron doesn’t seem to know what deconstructed means. It’s not his fault; his English isn’t great.
13. That said, his dish still sounds pretty terrible.
14. Okay, so Penn is a bit funny.
15. Padma: “Believe it or not I’ve actually had bull’s testicles.”
Penn: “I bet.” 
16. She kind of walked right into that one.
17. Toby Young makes a good point about the pronunciation of paella. Why do Americans pretend to be Spanish and pronounce it correctly (pie-Aey-uh), as opposed to the way it looks (pie-ella)? We don’t pronounce “Mexico,” meh-hee-coe.
18. However you say it, Ron loses.
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Jake says:
Thanks for the kudos Wilson. You rightly point out the one flaw in my prediction for this episode - Robin winning the quickfire challenge and therefore gaining immunity. They discussed it just a little bit, but her dish was pretty bad, with Colicchio doling out a few very choice words regarding the consistency of her flan.
But Ron was clearly going home this week as soon as the word deconstruction was mentioned. He's consistently shown that he doesn't get the concepts that the challenges ask for (whether that's because of his English or not is anyone's guess). In the first week, when they were asked to cook based on their vices, and most of the chefs (being in the restaurant biz, after all) "cooked" alcohol/alcoholism, Ron "cooked" his story of coming to American from Haiti on a boat. Not exactly a vice...
Here's the thing, and I feel strongly about this regarding this season in particular: there are some Chefs who you just know, no matter what, are not going to win. You can usually tell this within the first couple of episodes. In general, anyone who cooks "ethnic" isn't going too far. Ron, Hector, sorry. Preeti didn't really present herself as an "Indian" cook, but Radhika from last season was definitely that. Douchey Mike, his Greek thing isn't gonna get him that far. Generally speaking, those who are super young but "really skilled" aren't gonna cut it either - often their skills don't translate to the intense time limits the show imposes on the chefs, which the more experienced cooks cope with easier.
But this season, you could practically write in the top 4 or 5 within the first couple episodes: Jen, the brothers, Kevin, and space for a dark horse. Carla was the dark horse last season, and probably one of the only people in the series' run who I predicted would definitely go home, showed all signs pointing to that destiny through 1/2 a season, and then went James K. Polk on everyone.
Wilson, excellent photo of lingerie clad Padma eating a rib. Foodie geeks the country over just soiled themselves.
Mike says:
Why is it now fashionable to comment on peoples' pronounciation (ok, have fun with my grammer and spelling). Seems like a new PC wave to me. I have always pronounced paella the traditional Spanish way because I've never heard it pronounced differently, until recently.