After spending a great deal of time looking forward to the first episode of TCAS, I must say that it was everything I hoped for and more. It was great just to see all of the chefs getting together at their house and mixing. For the most part, I thought that they were very decent to each other, especially considering some of the past tensions.
The Quickfire was great fun. It was a terrific concept to have each season's chefs work together to create a dish that was representative of the city that their season took place in. Since Season 4 was my favorite, I was glad to see that they won and received immunity for the Elimination Challenge. When the Quickfire started, I thought that they might actually go with a deep dish pizza and was a little surprised that they worked in the direction of a deconstructed hot dog. Of course, Blais' creativity once again helped to elevate the dish to a new level with his addition of mustard ice cream. He just thinks differently than everyone else!
The Elimiation Challenge was for each individual chef to cook the dish that got them knocked out of the competition during their season. Although Stephen was at a bit of a disadvantage in that he had to cook something that he had never cooked before (he was front of the house during the original elimination), he still failed to take it to any kind of level that would have guaranteed him safety. Joining him on the bottom was Fabio, whose dish looked like a real mess. Bourdain may have gone a bit overboard in his criticism, but that is what we expect from Bourdain. I think that Fabio really over-reacted to Bourdain and took it way too personally. And the person who got eliminated, Elia, looked really lost and in over her head. She seemed to be in complete denial about the quality of her dish and - let's face it - raw fish just doesn't cut it. Although I had Stephen ranked at the bottom, I really felt that Elia deserved to go.
On the top end, I felt bad for Blais, who was plating past the alloted time and thus was eliminated from consideration for the win (Carla maintains that he never heard the bell). I have had him up at No. 1 on my rankings and I see no reason to change that - everyone loved his dish and he showed really well in the QF. I was quite surprised to see Spike turn things around and create a really good dish. Even though I have him ranked toward the bottom, he can be very surprising - and his personality makes him perfect for TC - so I hope he sticks around for a while. Jaime is the only contestant whose food I've eaten, so I alwasy seem to end up rooting for her. She did very well last night, being praised for her QF dish and coming close to winning on the EC. However, it was Angelo who won the first EC, by reimagining the dish that he couldn't perfect due to illness at the end of Season 7. I expect him to do very well in this competition and I suspect that I'll move him up a bit.
I have to give some thought as to my rankings, but I'll have them posted before the next episode.
On the whole, though, I loved the first episode and I'm hoping that the rest of the season is as entertaining. Since we don't have to get to know these chefs from scratch, the sense of familiarity with them makes for great viewing - and to see the mix from different seasons is very pleasing.
I'm looking forward to the next episode!
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