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  1. Now I'm hurt... I went through that mathematical exercise a few pages ago and no one looked at it? It showed that James Oseland was "Stingier" with his stars across the board in the elimination rounds. Overall, he gave out fewer stars than the other judges. He simply had a higher threshold for giving out stars. This is fine, as long as he consistently applied it to all contestants, and I believe he did. It's like a baseball umpire who is calling balls and strikes. As long as he's consistent in his strike zone from batter to batter, even if it's low, high, small, or large, it's fair. Judging is subjective, right? Instead of some conspiracy to hurt one charity to help another, maybe Oseland actually liked Rick's food better? Thanks again to all for making the wait between shows so entertaining, and to Jay for participating on this thread.
  2. I really enjoyed this series. The finale was great... allowing the three top chefs to tell their life's biography through their dishes. It was really very interesting to hear their stories. I thought Keller was running away with it, but by the time of judges table, I felt that any of the three could win it. All were certainly worthy. As for Chiarello, he assumed the mantle of underdog towards the end, calling himself "Scrappy". I think it was just good-natured gamesmanship with the other chefs. So he's competitive... it was a competition after all. And a particular thank you to Jay for participating in this thread, the participants always add a lot to the discussion since they saw the context of everything before the edits took over the direction of the story. Also, thanks to all here for making TCM a very entertaining 10 weeks.
  3. Perhaps a better analogy... it would be like watching dough rise.
  4. Sorry Jay, it's what I know. I earned my electrical engineering degree from prestigious Georgia Tech... what else other than data reduction could I add to this community of highly trained cooks and chefs and restaurateurs? Learning all I can from foodie sources has made me pretty good in a kitchen, but as a hobbyist. I'm much better at brewing great beers. I'd love to be a food writer when my engineering days are over. Watch out, I may still add the standard deviation results... Cheers!
  5. SORRY! Of course, after all that, I found a keying error. Chiarello had 19.5 stars, not 18.5. So, here's my equivalent of a pie-chart reward... a ridiculous breakdown of the elimination round results. I added the individual judges' scoring also, so you can see who the strict and soft judges are. I was very surprised that James gave out the fewest stars and Gael Greene gave out the most. Gail Simmons sat in for Jay Rayner for two of the episodes, 4 and 6. Rank Ep Chef Stars Quick Diners James Gael Jay Gail 1t *2 Suzanne Tracht 22.5 5.0 4.5 4 4.5 4.5 1t * Rick Bayless 22.5 4.0 4 5 5 4.5 1t *4 Anita Lo 22.5 5.0 4.5 4 4.5 4.5 4 *6 Art Smith 22.0 4.5 5 3 5 4.5 5t *1 Hubert Keller 20.5 5.0 4 4 4 3.5 5t 2 Graham Elliot Bowl 20.5 4.5 4.5 4 4 3.5 7t 2 Wylie Dufresne 20.0 3.0 3.5 5 4 4.5 7t 6 Jonathan Waxman 20.0 3.5 4.5 4 4 4 9t 3 Wilo Benet 19.5 4.5 4 3 4 4 9t *5 Michael Chiarello 19.5 4.5 3.5 3.5 4 4 11 1 Christopher Lee 19.0 3.5 4 3.5 4 4 12 4 Mark Peel 18.5 2.5 4 3.5 4.5 4 13 6 Michael Cimarusti 17.5 5.0 3.5 2.5 3 3.5 14t 5 Rick Moonen 17.0 0.0 4 4 4.5 4.5 14t 5 Nils Noren 17.0 3.0 3.5 4 3.5 3 16t 2 Elizabeth Falkner 16.5 3.5 3.5 3 3.5 3 16t 3 Ludo Lefebvre 16.5 3.0 3.5 3 3 4 18t 3 Cindy Pawlcyn 15.5 3.5 3 2.5 3.5 3 18t 5 Lachlan Patterson 15.5 3.0 3.5 2.5 3.5 3 20 6 Roy Yamaguchi 15.0 4.0 3 2.5 2.5 3 21 1 Tim Love 14.5 3.5 3 2.5 2.5 3 22 1 Michael Schlow 13.5 2.5 3.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 23 4 Douglas Rodriguez 13.0 3.0 3 2 2.5 2.5 24 4 John Besh 12.0 0.5 2.5 3 3 3 * = episode winner Averages 17.94 3.50 3.73 3.35 3.71 3.66 3.63 And the corrected average stars awarded per episode. Episode Avg Stars 2 19.9 6 18.6 3 18.5 5 17.3 1 16.9 4 16.5 I apologize for the confusion... I wasn't able to edit the original post. There's enough data here to: a) bore the hell out of everyone b) perform all sorts of geeky foodie analyses about judge trends So there it is. Discuss.
  6. OK, I'm an engineer so I'm really good with numbers. This Bulletin Board code isn't able to display in tables, so please forgive the Code box. Here are the final standings for all 24 master chefs using the elimination round rules. Rank Ep Chef Stars 1T * 2 Suzanne Tracht 22.5 1T * 3 Rick Bayless 22.5 1T * 4 Anita Lo 22.5 4 * 6 Art Smith 22.0 5T * 1 Hubert Keller 20.5 5T 2 Graham Elliot Bowl 20.5 7T 2 Wylie Dufresne 20.0 7T 6 Jonathan Waxman 20.0 9 3 Wilo Benet 19.5 10 1 Christopher Lee 19.0 11T 4 Mark Peel 18.5 11T * 5 Michael Chiarello 18.5 13 6 Michael Cimarusti 17.5 14T 5 Rick Moonen 17.0 14T 5 Nils Noren 17.0 16T 2 Elizabeth Falkner 16.5 16T 3 Ludo Lefebvre 16.5 18T 5 Lachlan Patterson 15.5 18T 3 Cindy Pawlcyn 15.5 20 6 Roy Yamaguchi 15.0 21 1 Tim Love 14.5 22 1 Michael Schlow 13.5 23 4 Douglas Rodriguez 13.0 24 4 John Besh 12.0 * = episode winner Also, for comparison, here are the rankings of episode by average stars awarded overall. These can be used to normalize the chef scores by the "difficulty" of each episode if you're interested. Episode Avg Stars 2 19.9 6 18.6 3 18.5 5 17.0 1 16.9 4 16.5 The biggest surprise here is who finished last. Discuss!
  7. I had forgotten about this show until I opened this thread. Hulu has episodes 1-7, and I had to go to nbc.com for the final episode 8. MPW came across as a pompous preacher in suspenders, Gene Wilder/Young Frankenstein hair, and checkered Vans with no socks. Every time he started wagging that finger at the camera, acting as if each word was the most important thing said in human history, all I could think of was Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman", or Raphael Palmero's "I did not take steroids. PERIOD!" Either is a reason to cancel the show. It followed the same formula as other cooking reality shows, didn't do it as well, and had an unlikeable host.
  8. First off, to Jay: It's great to have actual participants in the show sharing their experience and insight here. I remember exchanging thoughts with Michael Ruhlman about the "Cooking Under Fire" show from a couple years back, so please, continue your dialog here. One thing I notice in Top Chef Masters is that the chef-testants have all pretty much established their national reputations and success already, so there is clearly a lot more respect and camaraderie between them in the kitchen challenges, rather than the "I'm so much better than these other hacks" attitude from chefs who are still desperate to get national exposure. Reminds me of how colonels in the military behave, vs. generals once they've reached their career objective (and maybe feel some guilt). The master chefs really come across as having a hell of a lot of fun with each other, versus the Do-or-Die-and-screw-the-others chance to get some much-needed publicity. And finally, I'm just an engineer who cooks as a much-needed artistic outlet with my hands, not a professional, and can appreciate the technological approach to cooking when it's as sincere as Wylie Dufresne's... but is it wrong for me to picture this guy - Link to Mr. Kidd every time I see Wylie on camera?
  9. I liked the show. I respect the comments from some of the cheftestants who were judges on prior TC series, that they kind of felt obligated to put the shoe on the other foot and see how it felt to go through the challenges and be on the receiving end of the critiques. Turns out to be not as easy as it looked. However, due to it being for charity and having big name chefs, the critiques certainly are a lot softer than regular Top Chef (Collichio, Toby, etc. - do you think Rocco would dare guest judge on this?) It will make them much more knowledgeable judges in the future. The Chopped format to get quickly down to the final 6, meaning 18 of the 24 chefs will only make a brief appearance on a single episode, is disappointing, but then it would require 23 episodes to do single eliminations. This will only take 11 or so. I enjoyed the friendly camaraderie, and the dorm room challenge was a great way to constrain the talents of chefs. The cluelessness about how to work the microwaves was really funny, but also a positive reflection on their craft that they had rarely, if ever, had one in their own kitchens. I gotta try that drying the newspaper idea.
  10. Everyone on this site needs to wake up and stop putting their foodie heroes and favorite TV hosts on some sort of religious holier-than-thou pedestal. She isn't some saint to be worshipped, she's a TV entertainer whose main claim to fame and biggest career break is that she was once married to Salman Rushdie. I laughed out loud watching the blatant cuts to cleavage, the licking tomato juice off the leg, the tongue lapping up the side of the bun, and the provocative pose that pulled the dress up her thighs. It has this site talking about the Hardee's Thickburger, so mission accomplished! Hey, she's got a great bod, and someone offered her a bunch of money to apply it. She pulls it off a hell of a lot better than Rachel Ray does. Anyone who is disappointed in her holds TV personalities in way too much esteem. They're just people looking for their next job, like all the rest of us. Good on her, I say. With all due respect... edit : And I'll wager even Saints Bourdain, Keller, Adria, Dufresne, Pepin, Ripert, and even Trotter have indulged in fast food at some point. The quality depends on the context of when it is eaten.
  11. maybe it's that contestant that he was going to send to culinary school and then have back on the show..forget her name. ← Great concept! I never thought of that. I figured it would be the girl who quit two weeks ago after the burn. I hope it turns out that way.
  12. Gordon Ramsey was on Conan O'Brien last week. He came off very polite, personable, and funny, although he dropped a couple bleeps when he was describing how Conan did the last time they did a cooking demo on the show. He is a very intense person even when in a relaxed situation. After the first segment, they did another cooking demo, giving Conan an opportunity to take a few slugs from a tequila bottle, and Gordon threw the spring roll Conan purposely screwed up against the curtain. It showed his funny and human side. I like the guy, even with the Hell's Kitchen editing. Maybe even more so because of it. He's paid to present an attitude on the show, and he does it about as well as anyone.
  13. OK, I had Emeril Live on last night. It was a rerun of his casserole show. At one point, Emeril hollers out, "How are you guys in the back doing?", and they cut to the bleacher section, and I SWEAR Corey was there in the bleachers, wearing her chef jacket. I don't know when this was filmed, but I saw the same casserole show a couple months ago. Maybe she was trying to lure Emeril into the hot tub.
  14. Yeah, the guy who played "Big Pussy" certainly lived up to the name that day.
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