Yeah, getting down to Chile is a haul. LAN Chile is about the only airline that regularly has direct flights from LA to Santiago. Any other airline and you are likely to have at least one layover in either Panama, Colombia or Peru. Then once you reach Santiago, you are on another plane up to Iquique which is like the second northernmost beach city in the whole country (only Arica is further up). So I'm sure they were all a little travel weary. But still, it's the first leg! We can't have clue non-reading and killer fatigue on the first league. These kids will never survive India that way.

YAY, Top Chef New Orleans!

Dear Douchey McDoucherson- when a local is trying to tell you about the city, don't fucking bitch about it. Learn something, fool.

Interesting that the two New Orleans chefs got immunity. I guess the challenge where they won their spots was just the day before. Or they didn't want to lose a local chef right away.

So, here's the insider look at the show: [link] I guess this was filmed in late May which is already no fun, heat wise. I know the first episode I was invited to participate in was the Halloween episode which was filmed in mid June.

I don't know any Dinner Lab people! Dang, I was hoping to catch glimpses of folks I knew.

Top Chef New Orleans!

I really liked the Caribbean chef (St. Lucia?) and I would've liked to try her dish. I also enjoyed the chatty chef from China who made a recipe she stole from her mother-in-law and the chef who made the really spicy dish which Emeril was also feeling. I also really liked the Mexican dude who came here illegally and recently earned a Michelin star for his restaurant. His dish didn't seem to wow folks this time, but I bet he can really cook! I wanted to like the Australian chef and I'm glad that it at least seems like she made a good dish, but you can't play the "I'm more than just a pretty face" role and then show up in the kitchen in flip flops and Daisy Dukes. Boo!

The hotshot, big ego dudes all kinda blended into a blob for me. There was the hot one and then his friend, the less hot one, and maybe one of them was the same as the one who was complaining about how the local chef wouldn't shut up on the way to the market, but then that local chef with the curly hair (I think he works at Galatoire's?) also seemed kinda like a hotshot, big ego dude himself? I don't know. There are still way too many people. But fun first episode. I want to be a part of this Dinner Lab!

Survivor! Exciting for me that now the most annoying players to me (Rupert and Coulton) are out.

The Mexican chef's restaurant is right down the street from me. It is awesome and he is cutie pie and he came out from the kitchen to give me a hug on my birthday last year because it was his birthday too.

Also what Nora said.

but you can't play the "I'm more than just a pretty face" role and then show up in the kitchen in flip flops and Daisy Dukes. Boo!

INORITE! I would have given her the daisy dukes if she'd been wearing good shoes. It's just not safe (and often against health codes) to wear open toed shoes in a kitchen.

Nora thanks for the link to all the insider details about how they film Top Chef -- that answered a lot of questions I've had since I started watching this show lo these many seasons ago.

Check out this article about PR NY Fashion Week. The person was trying to guess who would be in the finals. This isn't really a spoiler at this stage (since we know 2 people in the final), but there are assessments - not very many pictures - of the final collections. I was very entertained.

[link]

This is an amusing recap of TC: NOLA: [link]

Some parts I liked:

Michael from Galatoire's drives and points out the sights along the way like a nice travel guide, but it seems like Travis (who only dates Asians) just wants him to shut up so they can concentrate on the food. Which is not really the way to be in these parts.

Sexy Jason is like, "Emeril put Louisiana on the map for food" and somewhere Justin Wilson is like, "sup?" and Paul Prudhomme is like, "yo!"

The moral of the story here is never ever use ice to cool down your dashi. And I'm not sure why, but that sounds slightly dirty.