Project Runway: The All Stars Challenge

No more The Fashion Show, the REAL fashion show has returned. They bring back 8 designers (fan favorites) to compete in a single challenge for $100,000.

The designers (in the order of their arrival):

htt- season 3 winner, he’s got a crazy looking girlfriend and has started a band in addition to his design work

Daniel Vosovic- season 2 runner up, wrote a book called Fashion Inside Out

Korto Mormolu- season 5 runner up, now has a jewelry and bag line

Uli Herzner- season 3 runner up (and one of my personal favorites)

Chris March- season 4 finished fourth, is designing Beyonce’s tour costumes

Mychael Knight- season 4, finished third, he has a fragrance line

Sweet P Vaughn- season 4, finished fifth

Santino Rice- season 2 finalist, says he “made Project Runway”

The men seem torn between wanting to say “SHUT UP SANTINO!” and laughing at him for being funny. He’s exceedingly loud and apparently even louder in real life. Each of the designers have had a lot of success since their time on the show. Heidi is pregnant again.

The contestants wake up at 6. Probably good or they’d wake up to Santino’s screaming. Their work spaces are labeled and Uli says she’d love to live there. The challnege: create a 3 look collection costing $1,200 with one dress being red carpet worthy. No one seems interested in talking as they sketch out their designs. Chris falls asleep. Then they get 45 minutes in Mood to pick out fabric. Uli doesn’t pick out any prints. Sad. Tim Gunn even comments on it. Tim says that as All Stars they should be faster than regular contestants. Sweet P and Uli worry about the similarity of the fabric. They have similar color palettes and view one another as competition.

Santino continues talking. Korto says he’s a fool. He does a good Tim Gunn imitation, though he is the most irritating person ever to be around. Santino says he’s bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter than the others. He sort of reminds me of a manic/defective tickle me Elmo. Everyone is in their own world. Santino thinks Sweet Ps looks like a sad home economics project.

In comes Tim Gunn, with a twist. Because it wouldn’t be Project Runway without.  He has a message from Nicole Kidman (insert plug for her new movie here). The red carper design is being designed for her to wear at the movie premier. So this hasn’t changed anything but it’s certainly exciting to the designers. Red carpet dresses are great publicity.

Tim comes to check out the work. Korto’s isn’t clear enough to see and Tim looks skeptical. Everyone listens carefully as Tim makes the rounds, using the chance to size up the competition. Santino is arrogant. Tim is concerned with Sweet P’s colors and agrees with Santino that it looks home sewn. Daniel says he doesn’t do “gowns.” His goal is to show something new. Listening to Mychael talk it’s clear he has no idea where he’s going. He just has to “make it work.”

Time for a model casting (which means losing sewing time). Apparently if you get the wrong model you’re screwed. Chris is falling asleep during the casting. He says “would this be Project Runway is I didn’t sleep?” Sweet P and Uli battle over models and Sweet P wins.

Back in the workroom Santino break the sewing needle for one of the machines. Jeffery has replacements but lets Santino sweat for a bit because he’s being obnoxious.

The models come in for a fitting. Uli’s models don’t show at all and she has to model herself (Chris thinks she should just do her own show). Sweet P’s are late. Santino’s hope he plans to make tops.

Heidi and Tim stop them for a surprise: a dinner celebration. None of them want to go because they’d rather work but it isn’t optional. The food is good, they all begin to relax, and then we see the real reason why they have come: the real twist. In order to make sure they can all still be innovative, they are to make a fourth piece using only things from the restaurant. They have 5 minutes to collect the raw materials. Chaos. It sounds like a bar fight. 25% of the look can consist of the fabric they already bought in order to integrate the outfit into the collection.

Watching them sew for over an hour is too long. This show definitely works best in a one hour format. In comes the hairstylist and make up artists to consult on the looks. Then Tim comes to check on their newest work. Uli is at a loss and had not begun. No one can figure out what Santino’s doing beyond running around and they don’t know if he’ll finish in time.

(Love the countdown to the new season in the corner…)

Finally time for the runway show. Most of the designers are stressed about finishing. Except Chris who sleeps on the couch. Tim sees him and holds up his hands as though to say “I give up.” Mychael just wants to know the winner already. One of Uli’s models isn’t coming so she has to deal. Santino’s look seems to be coming together now.

Time to send the models to the runway.

Heidi is not just pregnant, she’s uber pregnant, like could be carrying a toddler rather than a baby. Still looks glamorous though. Back are regular judges Nina Garcia, Kichael Kors, and guest judge Diane Von Furstenburg.

Santino’s first outfit looks sort of like Britney in the red catsuit but in a beige color. His challenge piece is the least cheesy of all. Mychael is next and his collection (looking more like a scattered idea) is ok. Flattering form but otherwise unexciting. Uli’s is very different for her, very structured. Still interesting though. Korto’s restaurant look is awesome, the dresses are good, but I don’t like the pants look. Chris’s costume i still costumey and crazy. I wish he’d cut the hoods. He’s “never been one to make clothes that people just wear.” Daniel’s is a combination of futuristic and athletic looking. Jeffrey’s hair and make up is odd looking with his but the dresses themselves are pretty nice. Sweet P’s dresses are a bit plain. I don’t like the basket dress.

Judgment time.

Nina says Mychael can make women sexy. Michael Kors doesn’t get his challenge dress.

Heidi is surprised by Uli’s. They say she matured but she also lost some of the heart and spirit.

Jeffrey’s lacked po;ish and was messy.

Santino took the easy way out, overused lycra–dress is disco swimming pool

Mychael, Uli, Jeffrey and Santino are bottom four and promptly sent packing.

Chris is shocked to be in the top 4. I’m just as shocked. Critique: the looks were overwhelming for his models.

Daniel’s side panels are dramatic and he has grown the most of the designers.

Korto aimed for expensive. Her restaurant challenge is placemats and lava rocks. I like hers best I think.

Sweet P is a bit homemade feeling. Definitely her style. Didn’t realize that the pale green dress is leather, that’s cool.

Now for the results: Chris is out first. He’s glad to finally be respected like everyone else. Sweet  P is ousted second. She’s happy and proud. And the winner is…Daniel!

Ace of Cakes Food, Fashion, and Galactic Bounty Hunters

Mary fights to stay at the top of her game. She sits for longer than the average human being and this takes training. 

They’re hired to make Boba Fett’s ship for a groom. As Star Wars fans this is huge. Elayna gets the Star wars cakes which is funny because she doesn’t know that much about it while the people who see it will know and make a big deal if it’s bad or wrong in any way. They go detailed, including storm troopers pushing the frozen Han Solo into the hold with Boba Fett watching. 

Meanwhile they look at other cakes-

The New York City Food and Wine Festival asks them to make a cake for charity, along with other top notch chefs. They suggest he makes his tattoo, which is a whisk. He is apparently hosting “the Sweet Event.” He wants to cake to look awesome and taste good. They use the most popular flavor among the cake designers. He’s aiming for a six foot whisk. He uses his arm as a reference to how it looks. He plans to cover the handle of the whisk with chocolate so he had everyone come and help him

Steps to the Cure is a breast cancer foundation so the designers are given the task of making shoe cakes to auction off. Duff gives no direction because he wants to see what they do. They each do something different. Jeff wants to do something fabulous and fierce. There will be a total of 12 shoes. There’s a bowling show, a disco boot, high heels, sequins that look like Dorothy’s magic shoes, the little old lady who lived in a shoe. Apparently a delivery boy gave Anna, a designer, one shoe from a store so she’s making the mate to it. They are all competing to see whose shoe sells for the most. One of the designers says “I’m not here to make friends so if I have to throw somebody under the bus, I will.” Joke. Each one is unique and pretty amazing looking in their own way. The shoes made like >$8,000 dollars. Duff’s went for the highest. 

Now how to transport the whisk cake? It moves around so Duff uses cards to stick it in place but the cards fall. He makes it in pretty good shape. He has to walk a good amount carrying the 400, no 500, no 700, no 1,000, 1,500 lb cake. Once there he sets out to quickly repair it and put it together. The different appetizers are crazy. As a host, Duff just has to hang out and take pictures. 

The figures for the Star Wars cake are ridiculously good. Jeff delivers it and the groom loves it. He’s floored.

Ace of Cakes Yankee Stadium

Charm City Cakes is hired to do the inaugural cake for yankee stadium.

We begin with the pondering emails (people work so fast they don’t think about it. Mary has a “fail folder” and a WTF? stamp).

This week is really hard. a lot of people are leaving, 5 decorators in total, with 18 cakes to make. Duff’s eating cake…

Yankee Stadium cake- One of the cake decorators is obsessed with the Yankees (she bleeds pinstripe blue) and will help though she thinks she’s not getting to go so she’s sad. Jeff and Duff go to scope out the stadium. It’s funny to listen to him point out what things will be recreated in cake form. 

Other cakes include: bass cake with a sparkly purple coloring for a surprise birthday (the first guitar for the cake designer). There’s a Jesus cake, a car, houses, 

They just got a brand new coffee machine so the designers are overdosing on cake. It’s coffee “working.” 5-10 cups a day…

Stadium cakes are very difficult so Jeff gets nothing else to do at that time. He’s done a number of them now so he has a standard system. Duff makes a flag for Boston. (Uh oh, there are Red Sox fans in the bakery too…)

Duff has a guitar that looks like a blue daisy, which he brings in and begins playing. (Because they have so much free time.)

Duff is getting nervous and worries that the cake design quality will suffer. Making the stadium is not so much difficlt as repetitive with a lot to do. 

The guitar is progressing so far. She’s working on getting the color just right. The company, Daisy Rock, sends in a model guitar for them to use to figure out how do it. But when they get it they see the color of the cake isn’t quite right. 

Duff, Jeff, and Mary have to drive down to deliver the cake. They leave early so they can work on it a bit there. 

With the sample she had, she gets more accuracy but then she scratches the cake and makes a pick to cover it up. The family comes to pick it up and they are thrilled with the cake. The birthday girl sees the cake and all she can say is “Shut up!” It was just full of surprises, the family, the cake, the guitar itself. 

At Yankee Stadium they’re exploring. Due to the weather they have to keep the cake indoor. Yogi Berra stopped by to see the cake. He says it’s beautiful. Johnny Damon, current right fielder comes in too. Derek Jeter shows up next. Mary is star struck and got his autograph. The cake gets shown up on the stadium scoreboard. Mary says she can die a happy girl now.

Top Chef vs. Hell’s Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen began about half a year before Top Chef (though they are both preceded by the British version of Hell’s Kitchen as well as Iron Chef, which originated in Japan in 1993 and was later brought to the US). The two shows sport similar formats: a group of aspiring chefs are put through a series of challenges in order to determine which one is best. Both feature an early challenge in the first part of the show which garner rewards and/or immunity depending on the point in the series. Then there is an elimination challenge in which, after a performance, a contestant is eliminated, until only one remains to claim the prize. Here is where the shows’ similarities end.

For Top Chef, the immunity/reward challenge, known as the quickfire challenge, requires the contestants to cook a dish in a short amount of time (<60 minutes generally) with certain restrictions. Occasionally it is some other test such a taste test, etc. Some challenges include a color theme, cook eggs with only one hand, create an original ice cream flavor, create a dish with ingredients bought from a vending machine, etc. Then for the elimination challenge, the chefs each cook their own dish (or dishes) with specific requirements such as create a meal with less than 500 calories, update a classic childhood dish, create a meal with 7 courses, each course representing one of the seven deadly sins, etc. The meal is served to the judges who then call the contestants to the Judges’ Table and choose who is eliminated. The prize for winning Top Chef- $100,000, culinary sets, appearances in Food & Wine Magazine.

For Hell’s Kitchen, the contestants are split into two teams (guys vs girls for most of them) and compete in those same teams until there are few enough people left to combine into a single team. The reward challenge is usually to teach the contestants some lesson that will be applicable to the later part of the show: homemade pasta from scratch, shuck scallops, pack sausages, identify the types of meat from different parts of the cow, create a menu for a party, etc. (Though the first is usually create your signature dish, as Chef Gordon Ramsay, who runs Hell’s Kitchen and the show, believes this says a lot about a chef.) The winning team is taken on a reward while the losing team is given a punishment: decorating the room for a party, prepping both kitchens for service, dealing with deliveries, etc. At dinner service, the two teams compete by running their own kitchen and serve customers (this always begins in disaster and slowly the contestants get better) usually using something from the reward challenge (ie the meal they made is added to the menu). After service ends the losing team (or sometimes “the best of the worst”) must nominate two chefs for elimination. Ramsay usually gives them a chance to say why they believe they should stay and then he decides who will leave. Something unique about Hell’s Kitchen is that Ramsay has sole decision making power and as such, he sometimes fires someone who wasn’t put up for elimination. The prize for Hell’s Kitchen- a high paying chef’s position at a big restaurant usually valued at $250,000.

So far I’ve seen a lot of Hell’s Kitchen and very little of Top Chef, so I haven’t made a concrete decision, but as of yet, I definitely prefer Hell’s Kitchen. In part, the drama on Hell’s Kitchen is so much higher (partially because Ramsay is crazy) and the challenges seem more important. If they fail, the kitchen closes and customers are sent home without getting served. The stakes (meaning the prize) aren’t as high on Top Chef. But I haven’t counted it out just yet. I think part of why I haven’t really gotten into it was because the first few episodes I saw were the Top Chef Masters series, where for the first few episodes we met different chefs each week and therefore didn’t get to know the contestants. Part of what I like about reality tv is seeing the people and getting to know them and coming to root for them (despite how true to life it may or may not be, it feels “real.”)

The new season of Top Chef has just started and I’ll be watching to see what I feel about it.

Which one is your favorite?

Toddlers & Tiaras: Stars of Pennsylvania

This is a prelim pageant.

Meadow is 7. She’s done 100 pageants and says she’s a professional. She’s been doing them since age 3. She loves being the center of attention.

The Ayala family has 3 girls who compete in pageants. Angela, 8, has done pageants. Aliana, 3, won a crown in her second pageant. The littlest likes dresses and doing the pageants with her sisters. Addison, 4, has gotten awards too. They do the pageants because they make friends and build confidence.

Roni, age 2, is the “only little princess” of her mother. She can’t seem to pay attention to anyone. She decided to put her in pageants because people kept saying she was adorable. She’s won a grand supreme and has done many pageants.

Meadow and her mom look for outfits. They watch a video from her first glitz pageant. Her mom says it’s given her confidence in school.

The Ayala’s dad was a soldier in Afghanistan and this is the first pageant he gets to see. He’s excited to see them perform.

Roni’s mom tries to get her to practice and she’s not interested. Her grandparents help out. As the first grandchild, Roni is very spoiled.

Meadow goes to her hairstylist, this is the hair necessary for the win. The hairstylist’s daughter is Meadow’s coach. She became a winner with their help.

One of the boys of the Ayala pageant because it is girl stuff. He says he doesn’t like to do it. Addison is allowed to get a hairpiece because her brother cut off all her hair once. They don’t let their kids do the fake stuff-teeth, tan, eyelashes- and they rent dresses.

Roni has things that say “it’s not easy being a princess” and “diva.” They try to get Roni to practice by making it a game with her dolls but it doesn’t always work. Roni doesn’t want to try on her clothes. Her mom likes swimwear best. Roni lies on the floor yelling “stop it!” and doesn’t want to try them on but then she follows her mom anyway.

Time to go to the pageant (Roni is crying–does she ever not whine?) It’s snowy and Roni has a coach. The cost is $50 an hour. She doesn’t have any interest and just lies down. The coach brings in another kid to pressure Roni into doing it. It succeeds.

Meadow arrives a little late and they’re stressing up. Her mom thinks she looks awesome all done up and Meadow likes doing it. She thinks the fake stuff accentuates how they look. Meadow says sometimes she gets nervous when she has good competition.

Margie coaches the 3 girls from the Ayala family. Margie says normally the “bushy eyebrows gotta go.” The mom isn’t a fan. Margie seems to think they have no shot of winning. Normally they do longer session but there isn’t enough time and she’s not confident that she can get them ready in time.

Because of the weather there are fewer competitors. The boys have a single category. The girls use “butt paste” to keep their bathing suits in place (like tough skin in gymnastics)

Roni tans. She uses hairpieces.

Apparently everyone should have a coach who won’t hold back.

Aliana and Roni are in the same group. Aliana struggles. Her hair is nothing compared to the others but she’s still cute though she looks down too long. Up goes Roni who doesn’t want her mom to come on stage with her and did “fabulous”. She wants to go swimming after getting off stage.

Addison doesn’t look happy when she gets on stage. She’s very shy and looks uncomfortable but she perks up a bit. The dad feels a little out of place.

Angela gets up on stage and looks comfortable.

Meadow has a somewhat scary smile on but she does her routine perfectly. She says it was a lot of fun.

They prep for casual wear and Roni doesn’t want to get dressed. Meadow practices her routine with her coach.

Aliana bounces around a bit and spins in circles. Roni, finally dresses, loves the stage and did “her sassy walk.” She also did “hey judges come here baby.” Addison basically stands still on stage. Meadow is in a tiny revealing top and dances around. Angela comes out in preppy cute.

Then comes swimwear. Roni runs on in a one shouldered bikini. She asks if they can go swimming again. Addison starts crying. For her turn she seems somewhat better. Meadow loves the stage. (For a glitz pageant it’s not so huge.)

The tough thing about pageants is that kids don’t understand why they didn’t win so the pageant makes sure everyone gets something.

Crowning begins and Roni falls asleep. Aliana wins best personality. Roni wins beauty wear, casual wear, swimwear. Roni will be vying for a supreme title. Aliana gets the queen for her division. (There seems to be only two girls?)

Tie for princess between Addison and another girl. Meadow wins beauty wear, causal wear, and swimwear. She is also vying for a supreme title. Angela gets beauty wear and queen. She’s a little upset because she wanted the higher titles and she says she likes natural pageants instead of glitz.

Now for the supremes, who got the highest scores. Roni doesn’t get called. Meadow gets Mini Supreme. Finally Roni gets called up (her grandmother seems to be crying). Roni wins grand supreme for the first time ever. The crown is too big for her head and has to be held on.

Meadow’s mom wonders how Roni won over her daughter. It’s also Roni’s 3rd birthday. Final scene: Roni’s mom kissing the scepter and crown.