Top Chef 5

Next month season 5 of Top Chef will begin, without Ted Allen as a judge. I've been spending some quality time this morning scrutinizing the new spate of cookie hopefuls on the Bravo website. It's so hard to glean anything about a person from a short, and not particularly snappy, bio and accompanying pic.
This is not to say that I didn't notice anything. Jamie, a NYC native and SF sous chef transplant, exudes an interesting (queer friendly-ish) vibe. But you know what? As I am no longer 12, I care less and less about those finer points. Other things engage me much more, like the actual food and whether Bravo has started to infer with the judges to such an extent that the elimination table is no longer unbiased. Case in point: Last season's Lisa and claims that the producers wanted her kept around because of the conflict she provided. Now, I have not the first clue what sort of chef Lisa is in reality, having never actually eaten anything that she's prepared, but the girl was before the judge's table more than anyone else, barely scraping by for weeks on end, yet she made it to the finale. It just seemed hinky, you know?
Also in the new season there's a local chef, Jill, from Latrobe, PA, who has relocated down the Cumberland Valley to Baltimore. Why go there? Why? She could redeem herself by still being a Steelers fan. If she's a transplant Ravens fan...I guess I'll have to get out my sewing kit and fashion a voodoo moppet. But and still, Jill, I'll be rooting for you early on, so don't screw up!
And one last observation: NO FAUX HAWKS this season at all :D That 'do is so over and done, so dead that I marvel anyone would still gel it up. It doesn't look cutting edge. It looks like a midlife crisis.