I’m enjoying Top Chef Masters so far, but last night’s “Magic” Elimination Challenge was by far the most arbitrary “Everyone gets one theme to work with” challenge in the illustrious history of arbitrary-ass Top Chef challenges. The guest judge/wizard described that magic is all about four things (and nothing else) — Illusion, Mystery, Spectacle, and Surprise — and surprise! Each chef was given one of the extremely comparable nouns as their theme to cook with.
In the grand tradition of “Vulture, Lion, Bear, Gorilla, Penguin”, here’s a list of some handy groups of random terms for future arbitrary Top Chef challenges. Feel free to leave your own in the comments:
Nickel, Dime, Quarter, Penny
John, Paul, George, Ringo
Index Finger, Middle Finger, Ring Finger, Thumb
A, B, Select, Start
Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Courier, Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial
Alec Baldwin, Stephen Baldwin, Billy Baldwin, Daniel Baldwin
Helium, Oxygen, Neon, Xenon
Feudalism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism
Die Hard, Die Harder, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Live Free Or Die Hard
Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adverb
Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig
Head, Thorax, Abdomen
Prince, Weird Symbol, The Artist, Prince Again
Yourself or Someone Like You, Mad Season, More Than You Think You Are, Exile on Mainstream
The Number 1, The Number 2, The Number 3, The Number 4
Others? Leave ‘em in the comments!
