Quickie ‘Top Chef’ Recap of the Month

So why haven’t I talked about Top Chef more? Wny not give a weekly recap or review? You see, if you have a show like Hell’s Kitchen or Last Restaurant Standing or some of the others, you get one chance of seeing what you missed the following week. With Top Chef, however, let’s admit it, Bravo gives you three more chances the very night; you heard me, within the first six hours of the first episode of that week you have no less than three more chances. And then, over the course of the week before the next episode? Dunno, something crazy like it’s on 27 or something more times? … That said, hey, a month has passed, so here’s a little TCB “What’s Happenin’ on Top Chef” score card for you.

Top Chef, Season 4. The standings at the end of Week 4.

Super quick Top Chef recap of the past month:

Week 1: Welcome to Chicago; Zoi and Jennifer are lesbian lovers; Nimma majorly over salted her food - First casualty. Rocco Dispirito and Anthony Bourdain guests. Week 2: “Zoo Food”: Valerie made bilinis to serve a couple hours later - Goodbye; Tom is a bear. Wylie Dufresne judges. Week 3: “Block Food”: A-hole Eric (who thinks he knows more about Mexican food than judge Rick Bayless) made corn dogs to serve several hours later. - See ya, genius! Week 4. “Film Food”: Spike came up with stupid food idea; teammate Manuel went along; the judges decide that passively going along is a worse sin than actively making a stupid decision. - So Manuel is gone. Not the best judgement they’ve ever made, not the worse either. Solomon would have cut each chef in half. Daniel Boulud is guest.

Next Big Thing: Celeb Chef Eateries in Your Department Store?

Celebrity chefs with restaurants in airports … Star restaurants in Vegas and Beijing … in casinos …. even in new museums. So what’s the next trend? We think we’ve spotted it.

Based on this Ocean County (duh, where else, huh?) newspaper report, it looks like big name stores are all going to get trendy little star chef eateries next. And you know if it happens in LaLa Land, it make end up happening everywhere else after.

La Brea Bakery will open inside the Macy’s at Fashion Island, probably late this spring. At the same mall, Dean & DeLuca, a gourmet food retailer coming next year, will have a café.

At South Coast Plaza, the Macy’s Home Furniture Store plans to test a high-end food court with a Frontera Fresco by chef Rick Bayless, Cat Cora BBQ and a Burger Bar from Marcus Samuelsson. No opening date has been given.

Also at the Costa Mesa mall, Bloomingdale’s will welcome a Charlie Palmer restaurant in early May. The store will also have a second restaurant that hasn’t yet been named.

Wait. Didn’t I just say in my previous post that Cat Cora had no restaurants? I guess I should have said “yet”!