Top Chef - Season 5

Top Chef is a reality cooking competition show on Bravo that just started its 5th season. It has the standard elements of a reality competition show in the sense that it creates drama and tension, reeling in viewers to watch every week to see what happens and to see who will win or lose. Bravo's website even has a fantasy competition game. There are always chefs that you want to win and those that you want to go down in flames. A large basis of my love for this show is my admiration for the skills of the contestants. Like many others, I have a deep appreciation for fine food and cooking and many of the contestants that have competed on this program are artists of this craft. It's amazing to see how quickly and creatively they can create dishes based on the sometimes absurd and shocking situations that they are given in order to do so.

After having just watched the first episode of season 5, here are some of my predictions, which will likely change down the line...

My initial prediction for the top 6:

• Stefan - I knew before even watching the first episode that this guy would be trouble...on the Bravo website, they have headshots of everyone - this guy is the only one not smiling.
• Fabio - Okay, this guy's name is ruined by the model of "I can't believe it's not butter" fame, but he is definitely Italian so he knows his stuff...the question is whether he'll know his stuff when it comes to cooking other than Italian food, but I think he'll still make it far.
• Gene - This guy is all tatted up - he's from Hawaii and he moved to Vegas and has no "culinary education"...but he looks like the real deal to me. School of Hard Knocks.
• Hosea - I haven't seen a lot to judge this guy yet, but he looks serious, experienced and competitive.
• Jamie - Again, I'm going with the badass physique as with Gene to go with, but I think she won't take crap from anyone and she'll bull her way through.
• Leah - The NY native, she has the advantage of being exposed to such a culinary versatile city on a daily basis and she proved to be a top contender on the first episode.

Now...on the other hand...the people that I think will be eliminated in the next few weeks (in this order)...

• Radhika - she squeezed by on both the quick fire and the elimination challenge on the first episode. She does not seem very competitive at all and she wants to prove that she has more to offer than Indian cooking...but I don't think it will happen.
• Carla - She seems confident but something strikes me that she will not go far in this competition.
• Danny - although his over-the-top Long Island 'tude would go far in the dramatic aspect of the show, I think his personality might give him problems in any team challenge
• Jeff - this guy seems way too vain. Either prepare your food or prepare your hair style dude.

So those are my initial predictions...I hope the loyal viewers are excited and enjoy this season and I hope some people might try watching for the first time...