#manny barilla

[frank-o-meter]

I’m a fan of Top Chef on Bravo. The current season is set in Wisconsin. A major change from prior seasons is the new host - Kristen Kish. Of course I liked prior host Padma Lakshmi, but Kristen is a terrific replacement. (She’s a former cheftestant and winner.)

After the first episode I was rooting for Mexican chef Manny Barella when he won the first elimination challenge. But Manny lost his footing...

So I started rooting for Michelle Wallace, a chef from Texas. I really liked her personality and smile. She won 2 challengers, and was at the top for 4 more times. BUT she also inconsistent, landing near the bottom 2 times, then being eliminated in the 6th episode.

Next I started rooting for Soo Ahn who was a late addition to the game BUT he was eliminated the week after Michelle.

Around this time Savannah Miller, a chef from NC, started to flex her skills. She had been “safe” in the middle of the pack four times in a row, but as her confidence grew, she began winning challenges.

Let me get back to Manny. In the first episode he won, as I said, but he was at the bottom 5 times before being eliminated in the 11th episode. Frankly he should have been eliminated much earlier but each time someone else’s dish was a little bit worse.

Here’s an example: If you watch Top Chef, you know risotto is the kiss on death. Yet in episode 11, Manny decided to make it. He even said he had made risotto more often than he made tortillas. Yet, in the dish he served, the seafood was over cooked and the rice “seized up”. Over or under cooking protein was his consistent problem.

Two more episodes left! I’m hoping Savannah will win but who knows, by then I’ll probably switch allegiance again.

(By the way, Top Chef is the only show on Bravo that I watch - the rest of their content is pretty terrible. The Real Housewives show make women look horrible and vain.)

[tvtracker]

Modern Family Episode 9.04 Press Release and Promotional Pictures. IT’S TIME FOR THE TRUTH, ON ABC’S ‘MODERN FAMILY’ “Sex, Lies & Kickball” – Jay’s best friend, Shorty, is back from Costa Rica and stays at the house so they can catch up and reconnect. However, Shorty is spending more time with Gloria and seems to be avoiding Jay. Meanwhile, Alex is ready to shed her good-girl image and is going to prove to Claire that her relationship with Ben is definitely a sexual relationship, on “Modern Family,” WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 (9:00-9:31 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. “Modern Family” stars Ed O’Neill as Jay Pritchett, Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy, Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Sofia Vergara as Gloria Pritchett, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy, Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett and Jeremy Maguire as Joe Pritchett. Guest starring in this episode are Nathan Lane as Pepper, Chazz Palminteri as Shorty, Christian Barillas as Ronaldo, Joe Mande as Ben, and Gabriel Maddox Maier as Lionel. “Sex, Lies & Kickball” was written by Abraham Higginbotham and directed by John Riggi. Source: ABC