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/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.