Top Chef, the "Masters"

I don't know about you but I am loving the new mini-season of top chef featuring the "masters". I'm taking pleasure in watching some of my own culinary idols go from being judges to being judge-ed. I have been tivo-ing the episodes b/c I am usually at work on Wednesdays so I just finished watching last weeks episode tonight. Offal meats - yuk. I loved watching all of chef Ludos freak outs (not a very gracious loser ), and of course it was great to see Rick Bayless, he seems like such a nice man and when it comes to Mexican cuisine in the U.S. he is the gold standard. He totally deserved to win. It was interesting that all the chefs did some kind of Latin food this week - I guess the theory is to cover up the less than savory flavors of the offal meats with lots of spice and acid! It seems like they all made use of the pressure cooker to make their proteins tender. With all of the braising we do I'm thinking I need to get one of those! Anyhow - I find myself kind of missing Tom Collichio and Padma sometimes - but otherwise I think the show is really enjoyable and I look forward to seeing what happens as the show progresses. It's going to be quite a showdown=)