Top Chef Power Rankings 10/15/09

Solid episode all around. They Cheftestants had to show off their pig cooking skills. Fodor must have enjoyed the hating on Robin. I think she just likes talking and gets under people’s skin, I don’t think she’s intentionally evil like some other contestants in past seasons. Toby Kieth had the line of the night comparing American Pinot to French Pinot calling French Pinot a hairy armpit. Listening to the Chef’s talk about their dish before they made it, you could tell Laurine and Ash were in trouble as they were cooking out of their comfort zone. No surprise they were on the bottom. Lastly, the Top 4 Chef’s last night were the same 4 Chef’s who have been the Top 4 in the Power Rankings for most of the year which leads to no change at the top.


Top Shelf


Kevin “Red Beard” Gillespie



“Red Beard” continued his strong run with another elimination challenge win. He claims to have a pig tattoo saying pig is his favorite dish to serve. He said he would be disappointed if he didn’t win. The dish came out solid and he continues his run on top.


Bryan Voltaggio



Bryan went out and performed again. He made a top dish again, he is the model of consistency for top chefs. I think this is the first time he didn’t win when his brother was in the final with him. I did find it interesting how it seems like Michael is trying to get in Bryan’s head and not take any crap from him and dishing it out. If fellow chef’s are noticing then it might be something. I don’t think it will be enough to break Bryan


Jennifer Carroll



A solid night for her again. I am starting to worry about her perfectionist attitude. So far it has worked for her, but I could see a time sensitive challenge where it could come back to bite her in the butt. Also, we have a new conspiracy theory out there, Jamie thinks the reason Jen never wins is all the guests judges are male and choose a male to win. I think it’s a group decision who wins, but Jamie disagrees. What do you think.


Michael Voltaggio



He had a good comeback week after finishing in the bottom two the week before. He didn’t do enough to move higher in the rankings. Like I mentioned with Bryan, I’m interested to see if he is going to try to psyche out his brother.


Middle of the Pack


Eli



Eli had a good night, winning the quick fire and making a good dish. His biggest draw back was his food’s pairing with the wine. I found that amusing because in the quick fire and the elimination challenge he was talking about how he knew how to pair items and nobody else really did. Well, apparently not.


Michael Isabella



He’s is the happiest person on the planet that there are still two bad chef’s behind him. He hasn’t done anything special or bad all season, and as long as bad chefs are on, he’ll continue to rid in the middle of the pack.


Chopping Block


I honestly don’t see how either of these two Chef’s are still here. Not saying they should have left and Ash should have stayed, but holy cow, we are at restaurant wars and these two are still here, that’s crazy. I hope they don’t end up on the same team and have the other two chefs pull them to victory.


Robin Levnenthal



As much as there is a dislike for her, and her cooking skills, she still isn’t the worst chef on the show. She did have a bottom 3 finish in the quick fire and had a bottom 3 elimination challenge. After seeing the discussion she was clearly not going to get kicked off yesterday. Also, as I have said before, sadly the producers do have a say in who gets kicked off, and Robin creates controversy, so she might hang around a few more episodes to let the controversy continue.


Laurine Wicket.



As I said earlier, as soon as she started talking about her dish, you knew she was in trouble. She said she had never cooked pork they way she was going to try. As soon as I heard that I yelled “DONE!” Sure enough, chopping block again. On the chopping block, she tried to explain how she cooked her food, and the guest judge told her that was incorrect. That for me, would have sent her packing, but she survived another week.