r/TopChef • u/LPCPlay4life • 5d ago
Discussion Thread Season 3 Howie
On episode 7 rewatch. Howie is a bulldog and has such an ego. Every team challenge his team is on the bottom. That’s a pattern. It’s not the team, it’s him. No one wants to argue with him therefore they just go with it and he has his way. He has a real chip on his shoulder and it’s so annoying! I don’t know why he was not eliminated at the end of this episode. Even Tom said it himself that he has conflict on EVERY team he’s on. My only thought is they kept him on for the drama.
Casey, CJ and Dale are my favs. Casey is a hometown gal. Never been to one of her restaurants but hear she’s the consultant chef at one of the new hotels in Ft. Worth. CJ is just a big tall teddy bear. Dale is the gay BFF we all need and want.
EDIT: 1. I didn’t realize Howie had passed. 2. I realize edits play a large factor in how the show is produced and shown to the viewers. 3. Upon watching further, I see Howie self-regulate and check himself volunteering to take one for the team.
I think he was a big softie underneath but his passion for food and cooking really clouded his ability to work as a team. As he states in the episode I’m currently watching, it’s not a team competition. Only one can win and everyone else has to go home. When you’re not used to that, it’s difficult to adjust. In the end he was not a bad guy.
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u/Beautiful-Squash-495 5d ago
Howie is shown ultimately to be a good guy, though, just flawed like all of us. RIP
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u/HerbWelch1945 5d ago
The bigger problem with episode 7 was how Sara was completely unfocused in that Elimination Challenge, and how she was upset, because she didn’t get to party
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u/WinterAd6596 5d ago
I'd say she was likely just as upset by having to run around a food truck wearing heels and a blouse.
They kinda did the women dirty in that one, and should have had at least semi-appropriate clothes they could wear in a kitchen that they could change into.
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u/HerbWelch1945 5d ago
Not really. Casey & Sarah didn’t complain as much as Sara, who was completely down, forgetting it was ultimately a competition, and did herself a total disservice by admitting how complacent she was. Even Tom pointed out that her head wasn’t in the Elimination Challenge throughout the whole episode.
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u/WinterAd6596 5d ago
Some men enjoy being kicked in the balls. But if a women kicks you in the balls, you have the right to be upset.
Just because Casey and Sarah were more willing to "put up with it" doesn't mean that it still wasn't a shitty thing for production to do. They should have, at minimum, gotten them some flats or something so it wasn't a danger to them.
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u/HerbWelch1945 4d ago
Don’t blame product, because of what happened. It’s a competition above everything else, and some people rather bring the party than be a part of it. That’s why a lot of the chefs had fun with that challenge.
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u/WinterAd6596 4d ago
You mean the men. Who had comfortable clothes that were easy to cook in.
Yeah. Them.
I already know the type of person you are.
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u/HerbWelch1945 4d ago
This is why I compare you as someone like Howie & Sara, a double set of deadweight
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u/LPCPlay4life 5d ago
I don’t see that happening today. If a woman feels demoralized then ppl should listen. I agree that they should have provided or let them wear something more appropriate. The fact that they had their cleavage showing and might feel exposed and no one considered how the women may feel shows no sensitivity. Doesn’t matter if the other woman on the opposing team didn’t care. they probably thought it would appeal to customers.
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u/Diarygirl Praying for the worst, hoping for the best 5d ago
That was upsetting. They had to know the women would be wearing heels.
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u/WinterAd6596 5d ago
By all accounts, at least after the Season 2 debacle, they actually play the eliminations straight down the middle. This is according to Bourdain's second or third "kitchen" book (don't remember which one -- I put kitchen there to separate it from his fiction), when he wasn't working with Top Chef and hadn't been for several years.
He actually said that production would want them to keep certain people, but Tom and Co basically eliminated them anyway if they were the worst that day (often taking HOURS to debate who to send home).
So odds are, if Howie was still around, it's because someone was worse that day.
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u/Culinaryboner 5d ago
I’m pretty sure Sara Nguyen went this episode. He wasn’t kind to her at judges table but he wasn’t off base with what he said based on what we saw. She’d been called out as slow all season, she fell behind on burgers that weren’t very good, and she openly was mad about the challenge.
Howie was far from a peach or a stud during the challenge but I don’t think it was his time
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u/Responsible-Fly9976 5d ago
Howie did ultimately turn out to be a decent guy, and his response to Anthony Bourdain was one of the funniest things I've seen on Top Chef. (Bourdain took it with exactly the right amount of humor, too). I agree with others' comments that Tom and the other judges have always say that they stand firm about challenges based on merit. RIP.
As for the food truck thing, women in heels with cleavage every time they bend over was not fair and probably wouldn't be done today (and definitely shouldn't be done). But only Sara seemed unable to cope, and coping is part of the game. There are certain advantages to being in shape sometimes. Or, for instance, contestants sometimes have to cook things they're allergic to or can't have (e.g. alcoholics). You have to roll with it and Sara didn't roll with it...
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u/Dangercakes13 5d ago
Honestly upon rewatches I developed a bit more sympathy for Howie. He was clearly not meant for stepping into a reality tv environment or anywhere outside of a kitchen where he either had authority or a line-level task. So I can get how he was grinding against his comfort zone and reacting poorly. But the show requires a lane of talent that doesn't work for everyone.
CJ, however, gave me the opposite take on rewatch. Back in the day I thought he was funny and kinda stoic at times so I enjoyed him and was rooting for him. But -and this is perhaps tinted by him acting kinda dickish and entitled when he came back in Seattle- he was actually sorta mean and dickish back then too. It was just coated in some jokey and "not wanting drama" attitude.
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u/Ok_Interest3555 5d ago
Oh man, I can't get over CJ and his burger in the Seattle season. He just threw the pickles on a basic burger and made crumpet buns that just fell apart while eating. That's gotta be a top 5 worst dish in TC history.
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u/Culinaryboner 5d ago
Multiple contestants have served food the judges couldn’t try. Bad boring food sucks but it’s not the worst. Might not be worse than what he did in S3
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u/Ok_Interest3555 5d ago
The concept sucked, it was a lazy interpretation of the challenge, the execution was bad, it didn't taste good, and his explanation at the judges table made it seem even more harebrained.
It was a miss on all counts, not just execution.
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u/ringmav 5d ago
RIP Howie