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.

PR: these no one gets eliminated results are never satisfying. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with when they have more time, though.

I wish Alexandria had been voted off. I really think it shows a lack of creativity (or boldness? point of view?) when everything is all black. If it's got beautiful detail or fresh shape, that's one thing, but her stuff really doesn't most of the time.

I think Helen should have stuck with her original concept. Maybe the cape needed toning down or something, but the gown alone was really sad.

I thought Bradon's look was the only truly avant garde garment on the runway, but I wish there was some color to it. White reads more moth than butterfly to me, you know?

Hm, I don't remember Helene's original concept. The dress she ended up with was pretty enough, but way more red carpet than avant garde.

I agree, Bradon's was the only actual avant garde. I didn't mind the white since he was evoking the movement of butterflies with the bobbing of the thingies more than referencing actual butterflies. And it was just gorgeous. Probably would have been gorgeous in color, too, but it's not like it looked bridal or washed out.

I did think Justin's dress was really beautiful and unusual. I generally don't get Alexandria; even the things the judges point out as particularly good, I can't see it. Her reworked plaid pants were pretty cute. I never did figure out where that 3rd print was in Dom's "avant garde" look, but her reworked piece was awfully good.

I really think it shows a lack of creativity (or boldness? point of view?) when everything is all black.

Also, lack of understanding how the program works.