a couple of nights ago i had a very fun and unique experience at my little condo in bucktown… about 35 guests whom i had never met before along with a television crew from NBC all piled in for a potluck to celebrate everyone’s participation in virtual kitchen stadium.  i have never had more than 5 people in this condo before, so it was a great way to break in the new pad.  it was fun to see the place look so put together and clean (aside from my office, which reminded me of what it must have looked like under my bed growing up every time my mom asked me to clean my room).  shhhh.

i decided to make the dinner a potluck.  for one, i wanted to finally taste food cooked by some of the participants since up ‘til this point it was all food porn.  secondly, it let me focus on cleaning and setting up.  i just sautéed some shrimp and whipped up an aioli, set out some nuts and olives, and of course put out some tasty cheeses.  once everyone arrived with an array of beautiful dishes, i knew i had gone in the right direction.  only thing that would have made the evening much more successful would have been a second oven.  it was like thanksgiving with one oven when you can’t heat your casserole because the darn turkey is hogging the space.

nonetheless i think everyone had a great time.  it was a little crowded while NBC was here filming for an episode of ‘1st Look’, but with a chance to appear on national tv i think everyone got over it.  the show is featuring an entertainment piece and i was here to give a few tips for throwing a party at home.  such as, make all of your friends do the cooking so you can relax all day.  and rent plates and glasses so you can send them back to the company dirty and not have to clean up.  hmmmm, might be called the lazy party thrower.

after we were all sufficiently stuffed, we gathered around my new big screen tv (finally replaced my tv from college that was sitting on the coffee table) and watched this week’s top chef.  it is such a fun experience to watch it with a group of top chef fans.  there was cheering, deep discussion during commercial breaks, and a lot of WTF sounds when the guest judge compared robin’s panna cotta to some old lady’s thigh (or whatever she said, thick accent made it hard to understand).

as for the episode, it was not very full of surprises.  there is always a breakfast episode, though padma in bed with another woman was a first.  i thought eli’s dish sounded the best by far, so was happy to see the judges agree.  for the elimination, the only surprise was to see jen plummet to the bottom once again.  the experience is very long and overwhelming, but so is every day in a kitchen so i am surprised it is taking such a toll on her creativity.  could also be some self-esteem issues now that she has spent a few weeks at the bottom.  having the judges tell you how much you suck for an hour (yes, that three minutes you see is edited down) is quite unpleasant.  the three boys on top are sure to be the last three standing, i would say.  though i am fully behind kevin, it is really anyone’s game.  it all comes down to the last dinner and they have all won a number of eliminations.  would be interesting to see mike’s reaction if his brother comes out on top.  do not think that would go over well.

i say lets avoid any brotherly bickering and just have kevin win.  good plan.