Top Design

Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)

Episode Overview: Five designers are left and they are free, finally, to work alone on this week’s project: designing a chef’s table for a mystery guest.

Episode Highlights:

• As the designers head into the final stretch, they at last have the chance again to work solo to show their design style.
• Carisa Perez-Fuentes and Goil Amornvivat continue to be a little frazzled as they pull together their looks.
• The mystery judge makes his appearance, and it’s a face familiar to Bravo viewers.

Recap:

There are just five designers left and the big question is: do we still care? 

Well, they do, and Andrea Keller remarks that this is a big week for her as she really really wants to make it to the final four.

The designers head out to meet for lunch where they get their new challenge from Todd Oldham.  They are going to work alone (finally!) and have a mystery client for whom they will be designing a chef’s table - a special room within a restaurant where the guests of the chef can enjoy a special menu.

Todd lets the designers know that this mystery chef client has some specific tastes that they will need to incorporate into their room.  His food is modern, clean and uses high-quality ingredients, and his design style is eclectic, incorporating elements of nature, mid-century style, and arts and crafts style.  The last two are kind of head scratchers when put together, as mid-century is a pretty different look than arts and crafts.

The designers start their shopping, and it is these two disparate styles that cause some of the initial confusion.  Luckily, they have a good budget to work with - $42,000 – and this helps the designers get a head start.

Carisa encounters some challenges while shopping as she arrives too late to get a decent selection of chairs; they have all already been reserved by the other designers.  Michael Adams also has problems the right quantity of any one style of chair, so he decides to go eclectic and selects three different styles to mix and match.

The construction phase is its usual mix of rush and anxiety.  Matt Lorenz had decided to install a floor constructed of leather tiles.  This turns out to be much more involved than he had thought it would be, and he is a little panicked about his schedule, even with the extra hour of prep time he has because of his win last week.

Goil is again beset by nerves; he is too flustered to install the wood floor, but luckily his carpenter calms him down and is able to get him refocused and on track. 

Carisa, on the other hand, is not having such luck with her carpenter.  He has become a little fussy for her tastes, and doesn’t want to listen to her direction.  This creates a near disaster when a beam he is installing collapses and breaks.  Fortunately, she had moves her expensive wood slab table out of the way out of concern before the mishap.  Once again, Carisa frustrates: she really does have a legitimate point with some of the issues and challenges she has had with her co-workers…but she so consistently seems to have friction on her team that one can’t help but get a little irritated by her.

It’s time for judging and the guest judge is revealed: it’s Tom Colicchio, owner of Craft restaurant, but probably best known to the viewing public as a judge on Bravo’s Top Chef.  He, Jonathan Adler, Kelly Wearstler and Margaret Russell take a tour through the rooms, then return to the White Room for judging.

Goil's Room:


Matt's Room:


Carisa's room:


Michael's Room:


Andrea's Room:

All in all, it’s a pretty ho-hum judging.  Michael is criticized for his oddball Tibetan rugs and refusal to add any storage to the room, and the judges don’t like his defensive attitude.  Additionally, when the judges asked him to single out another designer’s room as the least appetizing, he refused to participate (which I actually found somewhat disingenuous as he certainly has had no difficulty in ripping people apart in interview). 

Carisa’s room is boring and empty, and her usual litany of excuses doesn’t impress anyone.  Goil’s room is just so off-the-wall, and didn’t seem to take into account any of the direction, that Tom can’t decide if it’s genius or madness.

Andrea and Matt are praised for their tasteful and luxurious rooms, and Andrea is named Top Design. Then it’s time for someone to be out, and this week, it’s Michael who is heading home.  He mentions in his close out meeting with Todd that he is only 23 years old, so I suppose his catty behavior can be chalked up to youth.

And then there were four! 

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

(Images Courtesy of Bravo)