Image Credit: Kelsey McNeal/BravoI can barely keep track of who’s whom at the start of a reality-show season. There are too many people on screen, faces start blending together like grains of sugar and salt in a white bowl, and names like Heather H. and Heather C. don’t help much, either.
But thank you, Seth, for coming out so early in the competition as this season’s nut-job. (It helps my brain immensely.) Sure, Angelo’s erotic relationship with food on this past season of Top Chef was weird, but bursting into a crying fit in front of a guest judge? Proclaiming “I didn’t do it!” like a five-year-old? And building armor out of baking tools to pass the time? Yeah, we’ve reached another level of crazy.
Seth’s antics actually called to mind the lunacy that Kelly Bensimon brought to Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City. In the beginning, we thought, “Wow! What a great, kooky addition to the cast.” Then we began to worry, “This doesn’t seem right.” And finally, it devolved into, “She should probably get off this show for her own good—and ours.”
Similarly, we saw only hints of Seth’s off-his-rocker personality last week (claiming insomnia; speeding through the kitchen), but all was forgotten when he won the Quickfire. This week’s Quickfire, though, was a whole different shebang. READ FULL STORY »
Each day, from now until next Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards telecast, we’ll be posting polls about the major races. Pretend you’re an Emmy voter (or, if the choices strike you as too terrible, go vote in 
Like most people, I tend to assume that Padma Lakshmi’s job hosting Top Chef is just a cover for her real work as an international mercenary superspy. These suspicions were confirmed on last night’s episode, in which the remaining contestants cooked a top-secret meal at Langley while Padma delivered coded messages to CIA Director Leon Panetta. Befitting the setting, it was an evening of disguises and deceit – in Angelo’s case, self-deceit. Culinary meta-chemist Wylie Dufresne was on hand, although the only real espionage he participated in was the theft of Elvis’ sideburns.
