This Top Chef Masters ain't no Top Chef All-Stars or even the last Top Chef Masters

I love the Top Chef series.  I've watched episodes from each one... and followed Top Chef All Stars very closely.  As that competition is over and perhaps Bravo is casting a new group of chef hopefuls for its next season we have Top Chef Masters.  I watched the last edition of Top Chef Masters which seems to be reverse of this season. Last time it was a poorly casted host and a stellar group of chefs (that I've heard of) including Rick Bayless and Hubert Keller.  This time the host, Curtis Stone, is perfectly delicious in this role but the contestants are a bunch of nobodys with the exception of two chefs that I've seen before, Chef Traci and Chef Tio.  It's akin to this season of Survivor that brought in a new group and peppered in Rob and Russell from seasons... Plural...past most likely in attempt to boost ratings. One tribe made the mistake of throwing a challenge to get rid of Russell and that began their demise... but that is another recap.

Chef Traci is the one that looks like she is always angry.  I would agree that she deserves to be in this competition as she kicked Mario Batali's butt on Iron Chef. Apparently, one chef is vegetarian so he can't taste his meat dishes... I mean seriously there was no other carnivorous chef to choose from?

I caught last week's episode, which did not do much in terms of influencing me to set my Tivo this week. The quickfire judge was Kelis.  I thought the only food she was familiar with was a "Milkshake".  If you don't understand the reference that was her one hit wonder.  She was billed as a grammy-nominated artitst as well as a trained chef. Maybe she should go back to cooking as her music career has gone nowhere.


Seriously?


For the elimination challenge the chefs needed to update classic dishes from the 1960's.  They brought in Christina Hendricks (the red head with the big boobs) from Mad Men and her husband who is also some marginal actor. I had a hard time getting through the show at this point.  One chef had to update ambrosia which seemed too much beneath him.  That's Uncanny Goodness right there especially with the mandarin oranges.

Some chef I never heard of lost.  Oh well. I'm super disappointed with the casting of this Top Chef Masters season. I didn't even spot any rivalry or bad chemistry to keep the show interesting.  I'll wait for the next Top Chef.  Let me know if you agree or disagree.