Overconfidence, Second Chances, & Top Chef

Second chances are nice but sometimes they end the same way the first chance does. Confidence is charming, overconfidence is a set up for disaster. Being humble is sometimes charming. Those are three of the lessons that I learned from Top Chef's semi-final this week. Before talking about Top Chef a couple of questions. Have you ever reached a stage in a relationship or on a job or in life where you are overconfident? And if you have what has been the result? First, relationships. I'm not the expert on relationships but I'm a very good observer of them. What I notice is that if you have confidence in yourself and in your partner that breeds trust and leads to better things. But I have also noticed that if you get to the stage where you are overconfident in the relationship it leads to you overlooking the details that got your relationship to point of happiness and trust. Maybe you don't bring flowers anymore. Maybe you forget to tell your partner that you love them. Maybe you forget to tell your partner they look nice. No more surprise gifts. No more spontaneous moments. That kind of overconfidence leads to sadness and one or both partners not feeling appreciated. Which leads to separation. What has been your experience with confidence and overconfidence in a relationship?

Second chances? Have you ever given someone a second chance? Has it worked out for you? Have you ever been given a second chance? Did you do better the second time around? Now on to the show that sparked the questions for the day.

This week on Top Chef was the semi-finals with Carla, Hosea, Stefan, and Fabio. The Oscar for being the most overconfident cook goes to Stefan. The Oscar for the cook in the role of second chances goes to Jeff. Jeff? Yes, Jeff. The Quick Fire Challenge this week didn't involve any of the semi-finalists. Instead coming out to compete in the Quick Fire Challenge were Jamie, Leah, anbd Jeff. With the winner getting a fifth spot in the semi-finals. Guest Judge for the semi-finals was the known to almost everyone in the world chef, Emeril Lagasse. The second chance Chefs had one hour to create a dish featuring Crawfish. Jeff learned from his past mistakes and went with a simple dish, shrimp & grits and a salad. He won the heart of Emeril and a chance to compete in the semi-finals. The one kicker though was to go to the finals Jeff had TO WIN the semi-finals.

The elimination challenge was to cook three dishes for 100 people attending a masquerade ball in the great city of New Orleans. One dish had to be a drink. One dish had to be cooked Creole style. The winner of the semi-final not only moved on the final but won a car! A Toyota Venza. The surprise top three for the night were Carla, Hosea, and Jeff. The even more surprising bottom two were Stefan and Fabio. Stefan's overconfidence finally got to him, with Tom telling him you have to live up to your confidence. The winner of the challenge? The one that did the simple dish and the only one to do a non-alcoholic drink. Shrimp & andquille beigne with Creole aaioli. Carla won the car. She humbly thought she didn't do that well but Emeril quickly corrected her. Carla won the car. Since Carla won, Jeff even though he was in the top three, was sent packing. Stefan barely made it as the judges sent Fabio packing.

The finals are next week and competing will be Carla, Hosea, and Stefan. Internet rumors are saying Hosea pulls off the win. I'm going with Carla. Who are the Top Chef fans here going with?