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I kept meaning to comment about the lack of weekly Top Chef Masters thread.

i totally loved the "sweating like a mountain goat at the beach" thing too. oh fabio...

oh. and i think it will be the best show-down between rick and hubert... i cant believe this show has made me actually like rick bayless! - as a friend described: "doesnt he look like he'd be a creepy computer teacher at a middle school?"

I've never been fond of Michael Chiarello's attitude and have been watching TCM and thinking that maybe age and success had mellowed him and given him some maturity and grace. Well, not so. This last episode removed the veneer and we got to see him in his full jerk glory.

Keller and Bayless were so lovely in comparison. Plus, they show true leadership in their respective kitchens. I wish Anita had stayed and Michael booted. I really enjoyed watching her so much.

@laila: I couldn't agree more!

Bayless is the best, but I think Keller will win it - he seems to do very well under pressure (washing pasta in the dorm shower!) and seems to inspire other people to give their best for him.

While I enjoy Anita's cooking, she seemed to peak early in the competition - something we have seen in the regular Top Chef shows.

Michael does have a jerk side (anger management issues?) and there may have been a good reason for turning to television work for so long. Talented, but on his way to a heart attack with jerks like Dale around.

It wasn't very encouraging to see that Dale hasn't learned how to control his temper. No matter how much of a d--- he thought Chiarello was, he looked like a bigger one.

Hubert Keller is a great example of the strength of a Classical French cooking background. French cooking is and has always been a show stopper. If Keller has been brought up in the French apprenticeship system he's probably been cooking since he was 12, learning how to intricately carve and turn vegetables, make pastries and confections (the chances of him struggling with the infamous top chef dessert challenge are slim to none).

I like TCM so far the best out of all the Top Chefs because people can see some really great qualities that professional chefs with years and years of experience have. Not just Keller for his obvious technical proficiency but Bayless for example who devotes himself to a particular cuisine and becomes an ambassador for it and on top of that is a great people person--a quality that is too often not found in a chef.

I'd definitely like to see another season of TCM. This time with Colicchio as a contestant.

I was a bit surprised at michael chiarello's temper yesterday... but I still can't understand the lack of respect from the younger chefs towards more experienced masters in their industry - dale and spike, specifically. Confidence and talent will never excuse good manners...

I am pleased to see the composure experience brings, seeing how cool both Keller and Bayless are. I have to try their cooking soon...

And from the regular TC contestants, Fabio still is MY FAVORITE!!! I just love him to pieces... I wish we would have seen more of him yersterday.

@sizetoosmall that's hilarious, he totally does. It's his hush hush voice.

As much as I love Bayless' cookbooks and his cool as a cucumber approach, I feel like every episode he makes guacamole and variations of the same dish and the judges just keep heapin on the praise. Guacamole is delicious, sure but i don't get it.

I am loving this show, and I definitely want more. I love seeing the pros face these oddball challenges, especially the blind taste test in this episode. My only problem is who to root for? I like both Bayless and Keller.

And though I'm not exactly in love with Michael Chiarello, I did have to laugh at that comment about eating 3 Dales for breakfast.

I think 3 dales for breakfast would taste " furry, mealy, and doughy". :)

I'm totally torn between Keller and Bayless as well: Hubert seems to wow the critics, but seems to miss with the "general population" diner scores. Bayless always knocks it out of the park with approachable food that most people love.

I'm predicting Keller will win though-- he's much more diverse in influence than "just French".

For my part I think Bayless will win. He is very consistent, very cool, important characteristics when you are in a competition. Seeing him in this series makes me want to buy a book of his recipes and try them.

Keller is brilliant no doubt, and certainly seems like a great guy. His food sometimes seems a bit more ethereal, one of the reasons, I guess, that he doesn't do as well as others when regular people (as opposed to critics) taste his food.

I've been a fan of Michael Chiarello's recipes for a while now off stuff from Food Network. I know this guy can cook having tried his food. But the chefs there didn't seem to hold him in the same esteem as the others TCMs right off the bat. Of course, Chiarello's demeanor wasn't going to win him fans, what with the two minute chopping test. But I'm not sure asking you to do what you say you can do is a crime. We didn't hear any criticism from him on the TC prior contestants' techniques. Yet suddenly he seemed to go on every younger chef's hate list! The attitude from Dale and Spike was ridiculous. Nothing excuses their lack of basic respect. Having gone through the process themselves, the Top Chef contestants should have understood that he was in the hot seat and was doing what he thought was best required to win. It seemed like most of the younger contestants wanted their own egos stroked before they were willing to help. The one with the best attitude of the lot was Brian, I think, who said he didn't care who he worked for; he would follow instructions and help the chef win, because that's what a sous-chef is supposed to do. In my opinion, Chiarello did show maturity by not engaging Dale further.

Much as I love it, I also think this show is plagued with the fact that it is, in the end, a TV show. There must be a lot of focused editing involved to imply a certain atmosphere. They play up the drama entirely and to those of us watching it is hard to tell what the reality is (reality show, ironically). The way the criticisms were cataloged, it looked like Chiarello's food was pretty bad, yet he merited a four from all the judges (if memory serves me well), and Anita, who at least had one dish they thought was brilliant got threes and ended up going home. Strange, no? I guess that's TV!

I hated how they showed the whole Dale/Michael fight in the previews and then showed the exact same part on the show.

How did it end? Who walked away? My goodness, what a let down.

Also, agree that Spike was disrespectful, but so was chopping a carrot. Surely Chiarello could have come up with a more challenging test for the chefs.