A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

TOP MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL: Disappointing several, I'm sure, tonight's Top Chef did not wind up doing a kosher challenge, but instead took a detour that was initially less severe than last year's Zooey Deschanel challenge, but when you think about it, may actually have been harder. Look at the CraftSteak Vegas menu. Once you remove the forbidden items, there's not exactly a whole lot left to work with--and that's what made the challenge interesting--the cheftestants spending the night planning their elaborate meat-focused menus, and then having to throw it completely out the window and play it by ear. Also worthy of discussion are tonight's results, which leave us wondering both how much and how little influence the producers had and raise the eternal question of whether a strong performance over a series of episodes outweighs a weak performance in one challenge. That, however, is for the comments.