Top Chef Recap - 7 Left

Working a homework crunch, so I have to be brief.

Spike is what the french might call "un bag de la douche." Seriously, "Dale, what's up with being an asshole, that's the sort of thing that haunts you" - "which ingredients will screw my competitors up the most?" I mean, a little hypocrisy is fine, but that's way over the top.

Dale wins yet another challenge, and certainly seems to be a favorite for the finals, if not the whole shebang, if he can just avoid freaking out at the wrong time.

As for who was getting sent home, it was between Andrew, Spike and Lisa.

Introducing the Hierarchy of Elimination:

1) Kick off the dish that is an unmitigated freaking disaster (the "Clay's home cooking" clause)
2) Kick off the dish that most flagrantly violates the rules.
3) Kick off the dish that is the most unsatisfying.
4) Kick off the dish that is conspicuously mediocre and looks like the chef is playing it really safe (the Carlos Salad Principle - COLICCHIO SMASH!)
5) Kick off the dish that deviates most from the challenge but in an understandable way.
6) Kick off the least impressive dish.

The above hierarchy has not been wrong about predicting who gets sent home so far, and it seemed accurate again tonight. It seemed generally like Andrew's dish was the worst tasting of the three; Lisa miscooked things but the judges didn't actually say her food tasted bad; Spike's food had a weird combo but the judges spent more time talking about how unoriginal it was; Andrew's dish was the one that the judges spent time talking about the bad flavor of. When judges say things like "yuck" or "I hope I don't have to eat that again" or "it was just bad" or "it wasn't good at all" that's about the time you want to bend over and kiss your ass good bye, at least this late. I don't know if any of the three dishes met the first test (the unmitigated disaster test) but I think Andrew's may well have. Even if it didn't, his dish unquestionably violated the rules more than anyone else's, and in a flagrant manner. Truth be told, i think that Spike and Lisa's dishes were both 4s... maybe spike's was a 3. But Andrew's was either a 1 or 2, and that means that he goes.

That's fine by me. I mean, I suppose I liked him more than Lisa or Spike, but that's no big. I still see the final four as being Dale, Richard, Stephanie and Antonia. We'll see how it all goes.

*Addendum

I don't get this whole "the dish needs to be healthy, so low carbs and low fat please." Calories come from three places: carbs, fats, and proteins. Saying "low carbs and fats" is just another way of saying "high protein", but there's really only so much your body can do with more than 30% of your calories in protein a day. Frankly, carbs are where you want your calories to come from (i mean, not more than 60-70%ish, but still) you just want to make sure they're complex carbs (whole grains, etc.) The other stuff about low cholesterol and low sugars made sense, but it seemed strange that 'low carb' was being used as synonymous with 'healthy.' Especially for people in a high energy burning profession.