Top Chef: Everybody Hates Marcel

So my inexplicable thing for Michael isn't really so inexplicable after all. He can actually cook! He pulls off a Top Chef first and wins both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges in one episode. I loved Tom's incredulous look to Padma during the dinner party, "this is our Michael?" Both his dishes looked scrumptious. Perhaps it's a salmon thing. But really, who would have guessed that Mr. Cheetos and Snickers amuse bouche would be so great with fish? Or maybe it was the Vicodin he was hopped up on after having a wisdom tooth pulled. Regardless, I think he's been building up to this and I'm super happy to see that he got his moment of glory. I'm still doubtful of his making it to the end, but who knows. Anything can happen.

I have to say that I really liked both challenges this episode because they exercised the chefs' creativity without really being too restrictive in terms of ingredients. The elimination especially was a really rocking idea, and definitely tough. None of them were really obvious, except for gluttony, and I think that overall, they did a really good job drawing inspiration from them. My favorites were Elia and Michael. Elia's simple but beautiful roast chickens were perfect for pride and I loved that she presented them whole at the table before carving. And Michael's wacky idea of a trout being envious of salmon just totally worked out. Glad that he didn't end up going with the imitation crab thing.

And so we come to Marcel.

You know, I'm not going to excuse Sam and Ilan's behavior during this episode. You shouldn't say those kinds of things to people, no matter how irritating they are, and especially not on video. But I kind of can't blame them either. I think that Marcel is one of those people who's only mildly annoying and for the most part, tolerable--in small doses. Once you start spending a lot of time with them, they get more and more irritating and there comes a point where you just can't take it anymore. I knew a lot of guys like this in high school. And on Top Chef, what with the close living quarters and hours spent together in the kitchens and the pressure of competition, I can definitely understand the level of aggravation that arose. So, it's not really Marcel's fault either. But I do feel that if he maybe lost a little bit of that arrogance he wouldn't get on people's nerves so much.

So, final six! Next week is that episode where teams of three have to run a restaurant for the night. From the looks of the promos, it seems that the teams are Sam/Ilan/Mike and Elia/Cliff/Marcel. What a relief that Sam and Ilan are not on the same team with Marcel. Maybe we'll have less drama and more cooking!