Talking about Texas, Top Chef is back on Thursday March 3 from Houston. 
Continuing to cast the high caliber resume chefs we’ve seen in recent seasons, it will be fun to see how many of them can game the game as well as they can cook.
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The food network started their Tournament of Champions on Sunday. Lots of favorites from Top Chef.
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I just read the bios of the chefs. All seem so talented. I think it comes down to speed. One person has been on TV a lot, on shows like Beat Bobby Fay, Chopped, …. I think that is an advantage.
Perfect! My schedule has room for a new reality show!
I don’t know why they started with a group challenge, but with no communication. No way to get to know others.
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So far the chefs all seem quite talented. Was not surprised at the most recent elimination, especially with the editing focus. I had never heard of or experienced “potlicker” but sure want to now!
Ahh, I forgot to post here after watching. I wanted to taste all the queso recipes!
You can feel/see some who feel confident and also note some who don’t. One stand out for me just cause he’s so likeable right now is Sam
Very happy they’ve continued the trend of serious chefs and cooking. The football gimmick was unnecessary but hey, Texas.
Last night I watched the first episode of a new show on the Food Network - The Julia Child Challenge. It’s home chefs recreating or paying homage to Julia’s classic French cooking. Their studio recreates Julia’s kitchen set up. https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/the-julia-child-challenge
It looks like a fun series with courteous and encouraging judges (a few familiar faces). I liked the way they showed clips from The French Chef alongside contestants doing the same technique. And the one contestant who annoyed me got sent “out of the kitchen.”
Edit - first episode repeats Thursday.
I kind of like the head to head challenges. Seemed like a tie was a good outcome in this case, as the bottom chefs were from both teams. And agree that Sam is very likeable. Hope he goes far!
Catching up.
I thought I commented last week when Sam was eliminated. Guess he wasn’t my fav for too long!
Such an interesting challenge this week with the dopplegangers! So hard!!! I was thrilled to see Jackson and Buddha (?) win. Jackson NOW is one of my favs! The women seem to be falling fast… 
Also the Quick Fire challenges - I SO want to eat all that food!!!
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From the comments on the tv boards, Sam’s appeal faded very fast and was just annoying by Last Chance Kitchen.
I enjoyed the elimination challenge last week with the trompe-d’oeil pairings. It really took presentation up a notch!
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Just watched last week. Thought the pairing challenge was quite interesting. Was sorry to see eliminated pair go.
Yes, Sam seemed quite immature. His performance on LCK did not do much to improve his image. I would guess he is a good chef, when he has his food and tools.
I rarely watch LCK. I don’t know why!
I don’t often but was bored last night with nothing else that was short and of interest!!
I’ve never watched this show and had missed this thread but was excited to see Houston in the title to see whether chefs at some of my favorite places would be competing. I looked at the bios. These people aren’t from Houston? So why is this called Top Chef Houston?
A couple of the chefs have connection to Houston. Top Chef chooses a different city each season as it’s “home base” and then uses that cities chefs, food culture, etc. to base some of the challenges.
They will definitely highlight a couple of the restaurants/chefs in Houston throughout the season. Later in the season they usually road trip to a “special” location - like international - for the last couple of episodes.
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Many of the guest judges, especially in the Quickfires, are from the Houston area.
One contestant definitely is from Houston.
Since this was filmed during the pandemic, they likely won’t go international for the finale. But they should be able to find some fancy venue in Texas that wants publicity!
I won’t mention the winner last week, but I thought he/she deserved it. The chef had an advantage, but the idea and the presentation were excellent.
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All the top 3 seemed pretty deserving. I’ve got to believe Buddha is a front runner. I really like Jackson too. The right person went based on this challenge and others. Liked her as a person though!
I was thinking watching this episode… for the bottom 3 - do you think the judges minds are made up from the get go who is leaving? Or does the conversation they have with the bottom 3 hold any weight?
For the top 3 clearly the decision is made right off the bat.
From what I’ve read in the tv boards, the conversations with the chefs can be quite extended, and Judges Table discussions might go on for hours. So I think it really depends. Sometimes the judges might be in clear agreement, but other times they really struggle. So the chefs’ attitude and explanations could be deciding factors in close situations. Maybe they consider if it was competition constraints vs cooking knowledge and skills that caused the deficiencies.
Or maybe they are trying to decide who they want in the top for future Top Chef guest judge appearances 
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