I thought it was great that the judges acknowledged what a fantastic job Fabio was doing managing his servers.

I know Bourdain, for one, has mentioned in his writings how much he hates dealing with front of the house stuff, so I think there's a lot of respect for someone who can do it well, and pull off a really good dessert on top of it.

Tiffany really dodged a bullet there.

yes, she did. I was really unimpressed with her as front of house. And she seemed to move really slowly. Yes, part of your Front of House job is to schmooze, but also to pick up slack, let your servers know what's going on, etc.

Also, is it just me, or is Angelo way more sympathetic this time around?

It's like Tom said, he knew that there was a disaster, so he just kept his head down and tried to make a good dish. He failed at that, but that was his goal.

Seriously! The person (Carla) who won the last elimination challenge got picked dead last. WTF?

well, given her last Restaurant Wars where she sent out crap food with a lot of love, I can see the hesitation.

Hey Vortex, did you get my email? How about a package?

I responded to you

I tried not to watch American Idol last night. I really did. But it's like crack, I'm pretty sure, and I can't not watch this show. I'm leaving for the boat in two days and I still watched it. It's a sickness.

I actually really liked it, though! I thought a lot of people were excellent, and I feel like the new judging panel might work really well together.

People on Top Chef All Stars I like(d) more this season than I did on their season: Angelo, Tiffani F., Stephan, and Mike I., to an extent.

People I liked more on their season than this season: Jaimie, Jen, Tiffany, Blaise.

I have always loved Dale T., Carla, Tre, and Antonia!

I have always hated Spike.

I wanted to believe that Marcel's douchiness was because he was in the season of complete and total bullies and assholes, (man, I hated that fucking season) but I guess some of the blame rests on his shoulders as well.

I am fairly consistently meh on Casey, the other Dale, and Elia.

Fabio is getting back into my good graces, I liked him on his season (even though it was apparent he was outclassed in the kitchen), but he definitely believed his own hype when he first came back.

(I was cracking up last night remembering his line about being Front of House on his season's RW, saying that he could serve monkey ass in a clam shell and they'd still win... which is basically what happened.)

Cereal:

Marcel + SyFy Channel = LOLWHUT

zuisa, I watched AI last night, too. I can't quit this show. I've been down to ride since S1 and I'll stick to the bitter end. I thought the premiere was way better than it had any right to be. And Steven Tyler is the cream in my coffee. He was hilarious on the panel, even when he was being a complete lech. I thought they put a lot of questionable people through last night and I'm seriously sketched out by the lowering of the minimum age to 15, but after last night I'm in and I'm kind of excited about it. I don't know how they do it.

I even rebooted my AI blog. Hope springs eternal, I guess. Don't judge me!

I avoided AI. I hate the auditions. I might show up for Vegas, but I am thinking I might give AI up this year.

I'm with ND: Marcel's season was awful, but I hated Marcel the whole time and I was pretty upset with the bullying shit because that made me feel sorry for Marcel.

Mike I is an ass, so I think he will be the next villain. Angelo might re-emerge though if he keeps fucking with other people's dishes.

I avoided AI. I hate the auditions. I might show up for Vegas, but I am thinking I might give AI up this year.

This is me. I'm sort of enjoying not watching much regular stuff.