ShelbyTMItchell The show has gone on downhill and fast as the show not completely stopped being a cooking show and contest. But it also shows that the judges are partial and also that they are showing favoritism to contestants and wants that contestant to win not by food but by looks, appearance, or loving to hate the person, etc.Really the show has gone downhill. Since 2010 and onward. Wished that Gail Simmons who knows her food more than host Padma does. Padma is there for the eye candy. Gail is that but also she knows her food more than Padma.Tom C is a great judge but at least he is not abusive like Gordon Ramsey is on his shows. But still the show needs to go back to cooking and not appearances.

TEAQUIEMORO I love this reality show, and the food looks great. The chefs are the one's the really get me attached to the show. The first three were good and I was happy for Harold and Hung to win, I thought in Season 2 Marcel should have won over Illan. Marcel did all these stuff a person or a chef couldn't do, Illan did all Spanish. Also Sam should have went to the finale 2. In the 4 Season things really cook up when 2 lovers in Top Chef double there chance. In each season I hated Tiffni, Illan, Howie, and now Lisa. At first she was okay, but when she thew Dale and Andrew under the bus and made them both go home made me sad. Ihope she doesn't go 2 the final, she's a b###h. Lot's of hope to Richard and Stephine. Tom is one tough judge to please, an even harder one is Eric. He is one mean son of a gun, he can take you down with one word. Glad that Ted and Gail are back and the lovely Padma. She really beats season 1's judge. And now the competition continues, watch Top Chef the best cooking show. Never missed one Episode, hope you watch it cause you won't be disappointed.

bob the moo A group of budding professional chefs come together to compete in a contest to see which of them will become "Top Chef". Each week they have a challenge and a "cook off" with the winner lauded by the panel of judges, while the individual deemed the weakest is sent home and takes no further part in the competition.Yes, here we are in familiar territory with the reality contest model of a group of gradually dwindling people competing for a dream job. Fans of America's Next Top Model will recognise it and I'm sure it has been done many times in other guises in shows I just not aware of. Like ANTM, the contestants want to get a major jump in their chosen career and compete to get it. Each week we have the challenges, the in-fighting, the tensions and then the removal of one of the group. It is a winning approach so I can understand why others have just tried to apply that model to other disciplines – in this case cookery.As with ANTM, the subject isn't really important because it the show is driven by the tension tensions between the characters. It may be clever editing but the most is made of the minor snaps at one another and the "diary room" comments are used to feed the minor fire. As such it is engaging enough guff that I find easy to watch without actually having to commit any emotion or brain power in watching. Everyone hates some characters and likes others and this is where the entertainment comes from. I confess that I found the judges quite dull and lacking in the sort of character and extremes that other similarly structured shows tend to have.Overall then a fairly derivative affair perhaps but it is a formula that works and those that like this short of show will enjoy it. For my money though, it is distracting enough nonsense but nothing that I remember for more than five minutes after watching an episode.

ponyiq I started watching this reality series with the second episode during the first season. I have loved it ever since. I really like the challenges. I have heard the complaint that it is not always about the cooking but being a top chef is about the cooking.. the challenges in my opinion are set up to evaluate how the chefs interact with each other, co-workers, underlings, and customers. I think the show is designed to challenge the chefs in ways that they are not accustomed to but yet, the effect is the same as things that happen every single day in the kitchen. THe challenges force the chefs to look deep within themselves. What I mean is that the challenges are set up to encourage out of the box thinking, what happens when half the staff is out with the flu, the delivery truck is 6 hours late, the market sent the wrong type of lettuce/squash/herb, the freezer went out, the house is overbooked by double, as someone got a date wrong on the books so 2 whole seating's are scheduled for the same time, when something gets burned etc. This show just puts what normally might happen over 6 months of problems squashes it into a couple of days, a group of people stuck together away from home, living together, working together,cooking together-from all walks of life, all kinds of cooking experience and education. Add it all together, stir it up and you get a great show