read Collichio and Bourdain's blog this morning and Collichio's is a lot longer than usual. He discusses the history of Italian cooking in this country - in a discussion I found interesting.

Since I found out to read the blogs using Safari "reader" functionality, it has made the whole experience much more pleasant.

what about Fabio saying that her dish wasn't Italian? Annoying.

That really annoyed me. That dish is such a classic Italian dish; some version of it is on any good Italian menu. It may come down to the fact that Italian food is so very regional, and that is obviously a dish you would mostly find in coastal Italian towns where the seafood is fresh.

Yes, Collichio's blog was particularly interesting this week.

Well, the classic mussels dish is moules marinières, which is French, but it obviously exists in various forms and I didn't think it was odd for her to make it.

Mostly, I just think there have been a lot of sour grapes toward the winners of late.

...and a strong discounting of the abilities of the women chefs

What le nubian said.

Ha! They had the best course of the night.

I was sad to see Tre go last night. Must've been particularly galling given that he won with his risotto on his season. I thougth it was ass-y to hate on Antonia's win. The crowd from Rao's and Lorraine Bracco and Tom all seemed to think that the dish was plenty Italian enough so Fabio and his sour grapes can bite me. I'm with Antonia that Mike I. tops my "Who needs to go next" list. It would rock if it were an all girl finale. I'm not sure all of them, especially Tiffany, have the stuff to make it that far. I think it must be wearing on Tiff that she's doing this competition right after her season ended. That's got to be a lot.

AI: So bad last night. So, so bad. I think that might've been the worst audition episode I've ever seen from any season of any reality show ever. And it's so disappointing because they had been doing relatively well this year.

The crowd from Rao's and Lorraine Bracco and Tom all seemed to think that the dish was plenty Italian enough

Seriously. Also, no one had a problem with the antipasto all being warm appetiazers, and not a charcuterie (sp?) plate (per that discussion between Mike I. and Tiffany).

I'm not sorry to see Tre go. He has a real assholish side that comes out sometimes, and I think his "wel,l you all just don't know what risotto is" defense was a good example of that.

Dale, who I've liked up to this point, is at a very "I'm so fucking good that whatever I do must be good" place. Tre was kind of there himself.

Mike I, who I like more than most people do, I think, is a little different. He started laying the groundwork for being in the bottom right from go. All his "al dente" shit. He knew he fucked it up, so he shifted right to the cover up. Not a whole lot better.

And even having seen the commentary here, I was shocked at how they reacted to Antonia. The casual misogyny among these chefs gets harder to take all the time. I loved that all three women ended up in the top group.

Bourdain in his blog says you can't get in there unless you know someone who has a table or you know the owner. They do not take reservations.

They do have an outpost now in Vegas at Caesars. My mom and I had dinner there a few years ago and it was really terrific.