Top Chef: New York, Finale

Finale, Part 2 (Otherwise known as the actual Finale)

Finally the field of chefs has been cut down to only three: Stefan, Hosea and Carla. Other than Stefan, probably not an outcome I would have predicted at the beginning of the season. Not that I have anything against Hosea, but he's always seemed kind of middle-of-the-pack to me. And although Carla has been awesome the last several episodes, she started off so weak that there was really no way to see this coming. Yay, Team Carla!

Predictably, the challenge for the final round is rather simple -- cook the best three course meal of your life. I love it. They will be cooking their meals at Commander's Palace, and the dishes will be served head-to-head. They will be free to use any of the ingredients found at Commander's Palace, so I think we can all rest assured that they will be top quality.

And then, of course, twist #1. Because the chefs will have a limited amount of time to prepare their dishes, they will need some assistance. This comes in the form of three ghosts of Top Chef's finale past - Casey (Dallas' own) from Season 3, Marcel from Season 2 and Richard (LOVE HIM) from Season 4. All three came this close to winning their seasons, but all three blew it (especially Richard) in their finale. The chefs draw knives to see who will be paired with who, and Hosea draws first pick. He goes with Richard (I would have too), Stefan takes Marcel with his second pick (now there's an interesting pair), and Carla is left with Casey - although she claims she would have picked her anyway.

I am going to skip ahead here a bit, because I couldn't find a picture to go with twist #2, and I want to include it in the recaps of the chefs' dishes. After getting 2 hours of prep in after the challenge is announced, the chefs return to the kitchen the next morning to find Tom standing there with a big ol' dead alligator. He tells them that they will have to create a fourth dish - an appetizer to be served before dinner. There are three possible proteins - alligator, crab and red fish. Tom produces a king's cake (love it!), and whoever pulls the baby gets to pick who gets what protein. Hosea gets lucky again, and he picks the red fish for himself, the crab for Carla, and of course sticks Stefan with the alligator. Way to poke the bear, Hosea.

Carla decides to base her menu around French comfort food, which sounds like a good plan and right up her alley. She mentions doing her version of a bouillabaisse, and doing a meat-and-potatoes course. Here's where things start to go downhill fast. Casey suggests that Carla sous-vide the steak, since it's so easy. Carla has never tried this technique (Danger!), but agrees to give it a shot. Seriously. On the finale. She decides to try a technique she's NEVER done before. I kiss Carla's chances of winning goodbye at this point.

And from there it only got worse. For her third course, she had decided to do a cheese tart with a marmalade and some other yummy bites. Casey, once again (or at least it appeared on the show) talked her out of her game plan and into doing something outside her comfort zone. Carla takes her suggestion to do a blue cheese souffle (yum), but botches it by putting it in an oven that is too hot. The souffles are curdled and inedible, so she is left with no real third course. Needless to say, the is out of the competition.

Casey, by the way, did not appreciate how she was portrayed in the finale. Check this out...

Hosea calls himself a "flavor junkie" and wants to base his meal around strong flavors. Hmmmm. Isn't that what all food is based around? Flavor? But anyway, his menu does sound pretty darn tasty. For his first course, he's doing a trio of sashimi, which being a fish specialist you would think he would knock out of the park. His second course sounded like the best dish of the evening to me - scallops with foie gras and pain perdu and apple compote. Yes, please.

He decides not to do a dessert course (which Tom totally okay-ed when he announced the challenge) and instead does a venison loin for his third course. I commence drooling again.

So, this is pretty much Stefan's to lose, right? Wrong. Once again this week, Stefan acts only mildly interested in the challenge, and much more interested in being a jerk. I have enjoyed him all season, but this was the first episode for me where his joking and ribbing with the other contestants crossed the line from amusing to douche-y.

But back to the food. For this first course, he commits a major food sin, and chooses to freeze the fish he's using for his halibut and salmon carpaccio. He says this will allow him to slice it thinner, but this seems like a mistake to me too. The whole point of gorgeous, fresh fish is that it hasn't been frozen, right?

His second course sounds much better, and much more classically Stefan: squab with braised red cabbage and schupfnudlen (hand-made noodles that look kind of like spaetzel to me).

For his third course, Stefan does decide to do a dessert, putting together a whole plate full of little bites of ice cream, a banana pop, and some other random stuff. Compared with some of the other desserts he's done on the show, this one just looks kind of busy and fussy, not like something I'm dying to try. We'll see what the judges think.

When it comes down to judging, we get twist #3 - Fabio will be one of the judges! Yay! He is joined by Rocco DiSpirito, Branford Marsalis (who is ADORABLE at the judge's table), a bunch of other random New Orleans chefs, and the usual suspects - Toby, Padma, Gail and Tom.

The appetizer course pretty much seems to be a wash, as they love all of them. Hosea did a corn cake with red fish, Carla did a blue crab soup that sounded kind of Asian-inspired (Casey's influence again?), and Stefan did an alligator soup.

Then it started to get interesting. For the first course, everyone LOVED Carla's bouillabaisse. They said it was totally a "Carla" dish and that they could taste the love. Hosea's dish is deemed beautiful (it was gorgeous on the plate) but under-seasoned and just kind of uninteresting taste-wise. Everyone agrees that Stefan shouldn't have frozen the fish, which left it kind of watery, but that the dish itself was well-executed.

During the second course, Carla started to get smacked down. The sous-vide steak was deemed tough (ouch) and the plate itself overly fussy. Hosea's scallop dish was very good, although Rocco is "tired of foie gras". Gag. Both Gail and Marsalis totally call him on this pretentious posturing, though, which is adorable and hilarious. Everyone LOVES Stefan's dish, which was the best of the round, although Hosea's is a close second.

Poor Carla, by the time the third course rolls around, she is already out of the competition. Poor thing doesn't even have a real dish to put out, and everyone is very disappointed. Stefan's dessert course isn't met with much enthusiasm, with Gail calling the plate something straight out of 1992. Ouch. Some of the judges do give him credit for even offering a dessert, though. Hosea's venison, on the other hand, is a big hit with everyone.

When they get to panel, things get emotional pretty quickly for poor Carla. My heart was just breaking for her when she explained tearfully that she didn't cook "her food" and that's where she got tripped up. Even robot Stefan seemed sad for her and tried to offer her some comfort, which was a nice gesture. But it was clear to everyone - including Carla - that she was out of the running.

What became more clear as judging continued, however, was that everyone pretty much agreed that Hosea had made the best meal of the night. However, Stefan's second course was deemed to be the best overall dish of the night. Would that, paired with his great track record over the course of the season be enough to net him the title of Top Chef?

No. Hosea is named Top Chef, finally beating his season-long nemesis, Stefan. Although I totally think Stefan (and probably Carla) is a better chef than Hosea, it seemed to me that Hosea earned it. That being said, I still felt disappointed at the outcome.

Overall, I think this was kind of a weak season of Top Chef. There just didn't seem to be as much talent in the field as in the past, and I think that really hurt the overall entertainment-factor this season. That fact, paired with the disastrous Hosea/Leah show-mance, put this as my least favorite season of Top Chef ever. However, I still enjoyed it, and I will be there to watch again next season!

Top Chef: New York, Finale Part 1

Woo hoo! It's finale time! I'm ready for some drama. And as the final four arrived in New Orleans, right away Fabio's mohawk (finally!) started the episode off with a bang. It just wouldn't be a complete season of Top Chef without a mohawk.

When the group met up with Padma for the QuickFire, it was revealed that Emeril Lagasse would be the guest judge for this episode. Clearly, not a big surprise, as he is so closely associated with NOLA. The next announcement, however, was a surprise. The top four would not be competing in the QuickFire. Instead, the last three chefs booted off the show, Jamie (yay!), Jeff (whatever), and Leah (ugh) would compete to get another crack at the Top Chef title.

I was excited, because I was very disappointed to see Jamie go home a couple of weeks ago. I think she's definitely talented enough to be in the top five. However, Jeff and Leah came with their game faces on as well. Jeff especially seemed very confident. The challenge was pretty straight-forward: come up with a dish using one of the signature ingredients of New Orleans, crawfish. YUM! Jeff did something really simple - Crawfish and grits - but it looked pretty tasty. Jamie made a corn cake topped with a poached egg and crawfish cream sauce that looked pretty amazing. She had me at crawfish cream sauce. Leah made gumbo, even though she admitted she'd never made it before. Seemed like a weird decision to me.

Apparently, Jeff's grits must have been pretty unbelievable, because Emeril fell all over himself complimenting him as he named him the winner. Jeff was awarded Emeril's new cookbook (yawn) and was informed that in order to make it to the finale (part 2) he would have to win the Elimination Challenge. Whoa. Good luck with that.

So what would this elimination challenge entail? Well, the chefs are taken to the place where they hold the floats for the Krewe of Orpheus that participate in the Mardi Gras parade. They were then told that later that night they would be catering the Orpheus Masquerade Ball at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The chefs would be required to make two dishes and a cocktail to feed (and water) 100 hungry guests. To up the pressure, there would be not be just one chef eliminated at the end of the challenge - there would be two.

The winner of the challenge will also receive a Toyota Venza! I've never heard of one/seen one before, but the chefs seem pretty psyched about the opportunity.

Don't the judges look cute in their masquerade outfits? I thought so. But back to the kitchen...Carla decides to make an Oyster Stew and a beignet with shrimp and andouille sausage. Yes, please. I will have both. As her drink, she chooses to go with a non-alcoholic option, a cranberry and lime spritzer, as she isn't a drinker. I respect this decision, but I am worried about how it will effect her, as I have grown to like her so much. She also freaked me out with the oyster shucking, but thank goodness that ended up working out okay.

Hosea goes with a duck, sausage and chicken gumbo - which he has apparently been working on perfecting at home - as well as a pecan-crusted catfish dish. He sounded pretty knowledgeable when talking about the gumbo, but his second dish seemed a little boring. His drink, on the other hand, sounded pretty tasty, if overly trendy. He made a blood orange and pomegranate hurricane. Are there any two ingredients that are getting as much hype these days? I think not.

Fabio decided to go above and beyond and make three dishes: a rabbit maque choux (pronounced "mock shoe" according to wikipedia) served with grits, a crawfish and crab pasta dish (sounds very Pappadeaux) and a muffaletta bread (yum). For the record, maque choux is a dish of corn, peppers, tomatoes and onions simmered together in a broth (thank you again, wikipedia). His drink is a bell pepper martini. Not sure what to make of that, but at least it's somewhat original.

Jeff made a pot de creme with crawfish and a fried oyster with sausage. The oyster didn't look like much, but the pot de creme looked pretty freakin' tasty. And his drink (a cucumber mojito) looked even better.

Stefan, who treated the whole challenge with a rather disinterested attitude, also made a gumbo, although his featured rabbit and duck. He didn't seem to have the gumbo chops of Hosea, but knowing Stefan, it was probably pretty tasty anyway. He also made an apple beignet and a black cherry rum cocktail. The rest of the chefs were unimpressed with his attitude, and I started to get the feeling that although his food sounded pretty good, his 'tude might get him tossed.

Once the judges started going around doing their tastings, it became pretty clear that all of the chefs really brought their a-game to this challenge (well, except maybe Stefan). Everyone had at least one dish that blew the socks off the judges (well, again, except maybe Stefan), but there was no, "ew, this is terrible" dish.

The top dishes seemed to be Carla's stew and her beignet (yay, team Carla!), Jeff's cucumber mojito and his oyster (must have been better than it seemed like it would be), Hosea's gumbo, and Fabio's maque choux. Stefan's food was universally agreed to be 'pretty good', but nobody seemed blown away by any of it.

Once again this week, Carla was named the winner! Where has she been all season? She's been totally kick-ass lately, and I am really starting to think she could win this thing. Hosea is also declared safe.

Unfortunately for Jeff, who did quite well in this challenge, he was automatically eliminated because he didn't win. It was really too bad, because he did seem to perform very well. And his cucumber mojito looked scrumptious.

Sadly, the two men of Team Europe found themselves on the bottom this week. Stefan was rapped pretty hard for phoning it in this week, and Fabio was dinged for some relatively minor quibbles about his food along the lines of, "I wish it had just had a little more spice."

I have to say - I think that Fabio was robbed this week. During the tastings, it seemed like people enjoyed his food much more than Stefan's, but I think Stefan's overall performance must have carried him through once again. A finale without Stefan wouldn't have seemed right, but at the same time, he did clearly try to coast this week. Oh well, we'll see what happens when he takes on Hosea and Carla in the finale. I can't wait!

Tom Colicchio Doesn't Eat "Healthy"

In an interview posted on the New York Times' Well Blog today, celebrity chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio shares some interesting opinions about how kids should eat and how parents should be cooking.

The Top Chef head honcho will participate in a panel discussion on family eating this weekend at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, along with the likes of Rachael Ray, South Beach diet founder Dr. Arthur Agatston and cookbook author and famous significant other, Jessica Seinfeld.  Even though I have no little ones of my own (unless you count dust bunnies), I found his comments on this subject enlightening and refreshingly off-the-cuff.  For instance, when questioned about whether restaurants are doing their fair share when it comes to promoting healthy eating, Colicchio quipped, "What chefs can do when it comes to getting the word out is have people understand food differently.  If food is well sourced and well prepared, I don’t think the word healthy needs to be brought into it. ...I’m not worried if I’m using four different cheeses and it’s high in fat.  It’s real food.  That’s what’s more important."

I wholeheartedly agree.  Between this and his recent life-saving heroics, Mr. C's stock has gone way up in my book.  Click here to read the interview in its entirety. 

C&S

 

Top Chef: New York, Episode 12

The Last Supper

After last week's shocking elimination of Jamie, this week's Top Chef set us up for a pretty interesting ride. With Stefan as the obvious favorite to make it to the finals, it seems to me that the other four (with the possible exception of Carla) are pretty evenly matched. They each have talent, but they also all have their faults. I thought Carla would likely be booted this week, with Leah and Fabio being next on my list of possible boot-ees.

As soon as I saw Wylie Dufresne, I figured the challenge would be all about molecular gastronomy. He's been on the show before, and is apparently quite the big-wig in the field. However, when they talked about the challenge, those words were never mentioned. Wiley simply spoke of his love of eggs, and the chefs were then instructed to come up with an egg dish that would "surprise and delight" Wiley.

The chefs went about this in very different ways. Stefan did something that looked incredibly cool, making a panna cotta with a mango puree inside that looked exactly like a soft-boiled egg when you cut it open. That blew my hair back a little bit, I must admit. Hosea did a sushi roll, but instead of wrapping it in seaweed, he wrapped it in a thin sheet of egg white. It looked cool, but it didn't sound particularly tasty. Leah made a fancy quail egg thing that involved bacon hollandaise (I'll take it), but didn't seem particularly inventive. Fabio did an over-wrought three component dish that was very dessert-like, but didn't impress like Stefan's dish.

And then there was Carla. She admitted up front that she didn't know jack about molecular gastronomy, so she was going to go completely the other way and just try to do something clever. What she came up with was green eggs (eggs with spinach) and ham with a salsa verde. I thought that idea was a little hackneyed, but I guess it must have been quite tasty, because she was named the winner. No, seriously, she was. I thought for sure that Stefan had it in the bag, but I guess Wiley was hypnotized by Carla's crazy eyes or something.


And then it was time to talk Elimination Challenge. Padma had the chefs draw knives, and they were each paired with a famous chef. They were then told that they would be cooking these chefs their "last meal" and that they had all selected their favorite dish. The match-ups were as follows:

• Carla: Jacques Pepin, roast squab and fresh peas (I actually have never tried squab, and I know this is totally ugly American of me, but pigeon? Ew.)
• Fabio: Lidia Bastianich, roast chicken with potatoes and a leafy salad (Seriously? Salad for your last meal?)
• Stefan: Marcus Samuelsson, roasted salmon with spinach (How very Nordic of him to pick Salmon)
• Hosea: Susan Ungaro, shrimp scampi and tomato provencale (My favorite pick. Yum.)
• Leah: Wiley Dufresne, eggs Benedict (Pretty darn good choice too.)

Okay, I have to admit, Carla is growing on me. She was so cute and excited that she's be cooking for Jacques Pepin. I believe she referred to them as "two peas in a pod" because they both like pees. Then she cracked herself up. Adorable, even if she looks like a cross between Sideshow Bob and Beaker from the muppets (in a good way). Once again, I assumed erroneously that Carla would have trouble with her dish. She knocked it out of the park again, and although her squab was a little over-cooked to some (not at all to others) everyone agreed that her peas were the best dish of the night. Seriously, how good must these peas have been to get that kind of praise?

Hosea went out on a limb a bit by not doing a traditional shrimp scampi and tomato provencale. I think this was actually smart of him, because it didn't allow the judges to compare it to "the way they would have made it". They could only compare it to whether or not he executed what he was trying to do.

Leah seemed kind of scattered in the kitchen (as usual), and the judges were fairly unimpressed with her dish. The main complaint was that the egg was pretty watery (gross) and that the hollandaise was too runny. Dufresne was also offended that she added a salad to his meal. Now that's a man after my own heart.

Stefan scared me this week in the kitchen by proclaiming that he could "make this dish in his sleep." Uh oh. When chefs start bragging like that, it's never a good sign. He also mentions that since he didn't know how Chef Samuelsson would like his spinach, he would serve the salmon both with cream and without. Huh? When it was served to the judges, the feedback was not good at all. The salmon was apparently over-cooked, and the spinach was pretty boring. Yikes. I am sweating a little now after what happened to Jamie last week.

Fabio had a major mishap in the kitchen, breaking his finger (ow!) while preparing his meal. He had to finish with his hand all taped up awkwardly, and you just felt terrible for the guy. Of course, he handled it with his usual good humor - I heart this guy. And I was so excited when his dish was served and he got such high praise for his chicken and potatoes, even though the judges pretty much hated his salad. Since that was such a small component, I figured he's still be okay.


Not only was Fabio okay this week, he was named the winner - I believe for the first time. Yay! Carla was pretty much declared "second place" and they both left the judges room jumping up and down and getting super-excited.


I honestly thought for awhile that Stefan would go home (there was basically nothing about the dish that people liked, other than the "flavors" that Tom Colicchio kept mentioning), but fortunately, Leah's dish must have sucked just enough for them to justify sending her home instead. Thank goodness. A finale without Stefan would have seemed cheap. I was glad Leah was sent home. She has definitely worn out her welcome with me, in case you hadn't figured that out already :)

So the final four headed to New Orleans for the finale are: Hosea, Carla, Fabio and Stefan. Clearly, I think Stefan is the favorite, but what do you all think? Does anyone else even stand a chance?

Top Chef: New York, Episode 11

Le Bernardin

I was so excited about this episode, because I absolutely love Eric Ripert. Every time I've ever seen him on TV or read any of his interviews, he always comes off as super-humble and nice. I also was lucky enough to have the opportunity to eat at one of his restaurants, Blue, when I was in Grand Cayman last year, and let me tell you, it was one of the most memorable meals of my life. Seafood heaven.

So, after a lame quickfire last week, we got a doozy this week. Since Ripert is a seafood chef, the challenge was a fish filleting tournament. Yikes. Hosea is both nervous and excited, since - as he has mentioned about 1,000 times this season - he is a seafood chef. The first fish is a sardine. Yikes. So tiny, so many bones. Carla knows she is screwed from the get-go, and won't even show Ripert her fish. He is obviously amused, which was pretty cute. Jamie also got the boot in this first round. Leah pouts and talks about what a horrible job she did (like she does on every QuickFire) but then is named as the best in round one. Hosea, Stefan, and Fabio also advance to round 2.

The fish in round 2 is an arctic char. Pretty different from the sardines, as they are pretty ginormous. Hosea takes this round, and is pretty proud of himself. Leah pouts again about how she's doing such an awful job, only this time she just freakin' quits in the middle of the challenge and refuses to do her second fillet. She is officially my least favorite contestant this season. What a chump. Stefan also advances and Fabio is eliminated. Darn. Anytime we can get Fabio screen time, I am happy.

In the third round, they upped the 'ick' factor significantly an gave the contestants "recently killed" eels to fillet. Apparently nobody told the eels they were dead, because they were squirming and squiggling around all over the place. GROSS. Apparently Stefan is an eel master, and it is clear that he has this round in the bag from the beginning when he grabs the eels and nails its head to the cutting board. No I am not kidding. he then peels it like a banana and fillets it in what seems like about 30 seconds. Hosea, on the other hand, basically just has to watch Stefan and copy what he does. To his credit, it looks like he did a pretty decent job for his first time working with eel. To Stefan's credit, he totally kicked Hosea's ass and won the QuickFire, once again earning "a significant advantage in the elimination challenge".



The next day, the chefs are invited by Chef Ripert to have a six-course lunch. Hmmmm, interesting, six courses...six contestants...I wonder if there's a connection there. Anyway, the food looks rockin' and deceptively simple. Jamie says something totally obnoxious about how she isn't inspired by this kind of food, and even though I usually like her, this sounds so bratty that I pretty much want to slap her. At that point, I start to get worried about her, because they seem to be focusing on her a lot in this episode.

After lunch, Padma tells the contestants that they will be recreating the six dishes that they sampled at lunch. Stefan gets to choose his dish, as a reward for winning the QuickFire. He chooses the Baked Lobster with Asparagus and Hollandaise Sauce, which does appear to be the easiest dish (and also looks so good that I want to eat my TV - but that might just be because I'm 8 months pregnant).

The other chefs draw knives, and their fates are revealed to be:

• Carla: Oil Poached Escolar with Potato Chips in a Bearnaise Sauce
• Hosea: Spiced Monk Fish with Black Garlic
• Jamie: Sauteed Black Bass and Braised Celery with Serrano Ham Peppercorn Sauce
• Fabio: Sourdough Encrusted Red Snapper with Tomato Basil Consomme
• Leah: Baked Mahi-Mahi with Miso and Matsutake Mushroom Sauce

Once the chefs get in the kitchen, it became pretty clear that this was not an easy challenge. Other than Stefan, who basically sailed through preparing his dish (the only issue was that the hollandaise was a little thick), and Carla, who apparently is a classically trained French chef (huh?), the contestants really struggled. The good news for the chefs was that before they prepared their final dish to serve to the judges, they would have a chance to do a trial run for Chef Ripert who would give them a short critique.

Hosea was totally unfamiliar with the spice used in his dish, and apparently used way too much of it, according to Chef Ripert. Fabio had too much crust on his fish, but the flavors were spot on and the fish itself was well-cooked. Leah's dish was a mess, apparently. She couldn't figure out how the sauce was made, so apparently she mixed the miso with butter, which Chef Ripert said was all wrong. Poor Jamie was so in the weeds that she didn't even have time to get a dish together for Chef Ripert to taste. Apparently she hates celery, and had never braised it before, and was really struggling with the concept. Doesn't seem like it would be that difficult, but she was hating it.


At the judges table, Stefan, Carla (two weeks in a row!), and Fabio were the top three. I thought Carla should have won (never thought I would be saying those words), since her dish seemed to be much harder, and she pretty much nailed it, but they named Stefan the winner instead. His price was pretty bad ass - not only did he win Chef Ripert's new book, he also got a chance to work with him in his kitchen and accompany him to a food and wine festival. Not too shabby.



The bottom three were Hosea, Leah and Jamie. Hosea's monkfish didn't have time to rest, so the texture was off. His spicing was also still too strong. He quickly admitted he knew the fish needed to rest but just didn't have time, and it was pretty clear that he wasn't really in trouble. Leah, on the other hand, did not impress the judges at all with her half-hearted explanations and total lack of understanding of the dish. I am so ready to see her go already, but I guess it wasn't in the cards this week, although Colicchio did give her a talking to about quitting during the QuickFire.

Unfortunately, Jamie was the chef to get the boot this week. I guess she totally over-salted the celery in her dish to the point of it being almost inedible. What a shame, because I think she was definitely one of the most talented contestants on the show this year. I would have sent Leah home over her in a heartbeat, as at least Jamie seemed to understand what she did wrong, but alas, I am not the one making these decisions.

Top Chef: New York, Episode 10

Due to a busy week at home and at work last week, I was a bad, bad blogger and missed my usual Top Chef post. That means that this week you'll get two Top Chef posts from me. Hope you're hungry!

Episode 10: Super Bowl Chef Showdown

Shockingly, this episode was kicked off with a QuickFire that was product placement-tastic. The Chefs were asked to create a dish with either nuts and grains (Carla), poultry (Jeff), meat (Hosea), fruits (Leah), seafood (Jamie), dairy (Stefan) or veggies (Fabio). The catch was that they had to use oats - Quaker Oats! - in the dish as well. Yawn. I'm not going to get into too much detail, as this QuickFire was pretty lame and I have a lot to cover in this post. Basically, pretty much every chef used the oats in the same way, as a crust of some sort for their dish. Some turned out better than others, and Stefan was declared the winner with his banana mousse with oat sugar crisp (yum).




The Elimination Challenge on this episode was much more interesting. The Chefs were each given a city that corresponded with an NFL franchise and told that they would have to create a dish that could be cooked in twenty minutes (yikes!) from a mystery basket full of ingredients associated with each city. Sound confusing? I'm not even done yet. The chefs then had to battle with a Top Chef All Star from a past season to see who could come up with the best dish. The match-ups were as follows:

• Dallas Cowboys: Stefan and Andrea, Season 1 (Stefan got to choose his city and competitor because he won the QuickFire)
• New Orleans: Carla vs. Andrew, Season 4 (speaker of my favorite Top Chef line of all time - "I've got a culinary boner right now.")
• Miami Dolphins: Jeff vs. Josie, Season 2 (and owner of one of the most famous faux-hawks in Top Chef history)
• Seattle: Hosea vs. Miguel, Season 1
• Green Bay: Fabio vs. Spike, Season 4 (I was never impressed with Spike, and always found him decidedly creepy)
• New York: Leah vs. Nikki, Season 4
• San Francisco: Jamie vs. Camille, Season 3

We could certainly have a lively debate about whether or not these are truly "All Stars", but that is really neither here nor there. Stefan clearly didn't respect Andrea when he picked her, which made it even greater when she beat his Euro-ass in the challenge. What about salad said "Dallas" to Stefan? Not sure, but he was pretty clearly not taking the whole thing very seriously and it burned him.

I thought Hosea's dish, a crispy salmon roll with ginger blackberry sauce, sounded and looked really yummy. Carla's gumbo also looked tasty, and I was certainly impressed that she made a freakin' gumbo in 20 minutes.

In the biggest surprise of the week, Carla won the challenge. I thought for sure she was done for this week (and still think she is the weakest chef on the show), but I guess her gumbo was really as good as it looked.

On the not-so-good side, Fabio lost his challenge with his venison, which was apparently quite overcooked. I believe it was Tom who said something to the effect of, "It was already dead, you didn't have to kill it." Jeff's ceviche-off with Josie was also unsuccessful, and he whined like a big baby when he lost because, "ceviche isn't supposed to be hot." Well, pretty sure it's not supposed to be cooked either, buddy, but that didn't stop you.

The bottom three were Stefan, Fabio and Jeff, the three chefs who lost their match-ups. I was terrified that Fabio would be sent home (oh, how I love him), but instead it was pretty-boy Jeff. I can't say I will miss him, but I will miss giggling every time his title as "Executive Chef at Dilido Beach Club" comes up on the bottom of the screen.

Top Chef: New York, Episode 9

Restaurant Wars

I would like to start this episode review with a side note, and after that I'm not going to discuss it any further (at least in this review). I am totally annoyed by this whole Hosea/Leah romance sideshow Top Chef has going this season. The whole reason I like this show (and Project Runway for that matter) is that they are about talented people working hard to display that talent. They are not The Real World, where the whole premise of the show is following around a bunch of drunk teenagers waiting for them to hook up with each other.

This is why I am so irritated by the Hosea/Leah hook-up. I want the only drama on Top Chef to be, "Did she put enough salt in that?" or "How many scallop dishes will Jamie make this season?" I don't need sexual tension to make the show interesting, and I don't want to hear grown-ups whining about how they've really messed things up with their girlfriend/boyfriend back home. This is about the greatest professional opportunity these chefs will ever get, and squandering it like a couple of drunk teenagers at their first frat party is insulting to everyone on the show and everyone at home wishing they were on the show.

That being said, nothing can ruin Restaurant Wars for me. It has been one of my favorite challenges every year, and this year was no different.

So, Padma announced at the beginning of the QuickFire that this week was Restaurant Wars, and therefore, the "prize" for winning was that they would be the chef/owner of one of the two restaurant concepts they chefs would open. The challenge was to come up with a dish that would reflect the style of the restaurant they would open.

The first winner was Radhika, who made Pan Seared Cod, Chorizo, and Cream Sauce (pictured above). I thought her explanation of her concept (globally influenced cuisine) was cohesive and interesting, so I wasn't surprised she was picked.

The second winner was Leah, who seemed to have no direction whatsoever when she was cooking. I also found her explanation to be kind of vague. She made Tempura Fried Poussin with Dashi Soy Sauce (pictured above), which could either be gross or great. I have to admit that I've never tried Poussin, but I might in this concept.

Did anyone else get the feeling that Radhika was in trouble from the second this challenge got started? First mistake - never run the front of the house if you're the chef/owner. She should have been back in the trenches making sure the food turned out perfectly, according to her vision. She did absolutely no cooking whatsoever. She also let her teammates (Jamie, Jeff and Carla) walk all over her throughout the planning process. She should have made Jeff work the front of the restaurant (the ladies would have loved it). Radhika doesn't have the temperament to greet guests and manage the wait staff. Most of all, she should have paid more attention to what Carla was doing in the kitchen. Yikes. Carla pretty much (with a little help from Radhika's lack of front of the house skills) cost the group the competition by completely screwing up the desserts. Both of them. Pretty much to the point of inedibility (once again, I reserve the right to make up words).

Leah's team (Hosea, Stefan and Fabio) seemed to be in trouble from the beginning as well. Mostly because Leah seemed to have no idea what she was doing. What was with the whole fish/bones thing? Seemed like a bad choice on her part, although I was kind of confused about how exactly that happened. Did she just buy a really bad, bony cut of fish? This team did have two major things going for it, though: Fabio and Stefan. If I were either one of the team leaders, I would have picked Fabio with my first or second pick strictly to run the front of the house. The guy was a natural, and everyone loved him. Stefan was the last pick of the draft (presumably because he can be kind of a douche to work with), but he's also clearly one of the most talented chefs of the show. He proved it tonight by producing not one, but two outstanding desserts.

Leah's team won the challenge by the skin of their teeth, thanks to Stefan's desserts and Fabio's charms. Leah was told that if her team had lost she would have been the one booted - no question. But she lives to cook (and annoy me) another day. Stefan is named the winner, and wins a kitchen full of the appliances they use to cook on Top Chef. Not too shabby! Certainly beats an autographed book.

Poor Radhika. She never had a chance, did she? If only Radhika had concentrated on the food instead of running around like her hair was on fire, she might have been around for awhile. I think she was pretty talented - what did she win, like three or four QuickFires? But I think it was when she had too much time on her hands to over-rotate on her decisions that she tripped herself up. Carla once again screws up royally and slips through the cracks. I'll bet she felt pretty guilty, because if her desserts had been even half-way decent, her team probably would have won.

Joan Nathan: "Tom Colicchio saved my life."

This just in:

Speaking of Top Chef, a story in this morning's New York Times reports that TC Head Honcho Tom Colicchio came to the rescue of cookbook author Joan Nathan in Washington Monday night.  

Nathan, while hosting a charity dinner benefitting local soup kitchens, "slumped to the floor choking" in front of a crowd of guests.  Alice Waters, who was among those who witnessed the incident, called out for help.  And faster than you can ask Is there a chef in the house?, Colicchio rushed to the rescue.  Our hero!

Nathan is now doing just fine.

Top Chef: New York, Episode 8

Down on the Farm

What a fun episode this week! It started off with a bang - I was so excited when Padma introduced Hung as the guest judge. Like the contestants, I figured that he would be presenting some kind of crazy fish challenge. However, I was psyched to see that it was actually a prepared foods challenge.

The contestants had an enormous pantry full of packaged foods from which to prepare a dish of their choosing. I have to say, the stuff they came up with looked pretty bleak. I think Lisa and I did much better during our CVS challenge! Of course, they only had 15 minutes to cook, so I guess that's understandable.

The winner was Stefan with his Baked Bean Soup and Grilled Cheese and Spam Sandwich. That was pretty funny that Hosea basically handed him the win by sharing his Spam. But, he seems like a nice guy. I know I'd have a hard time not sharing stuff if I had extra.

After the challenge, the chefs were broken up into three groups and told that they would be planning a fresh, seasonal meal around their team names: pork, chicken and lamb. What they weren't told was that they wouldn't be shopping at Whole Foods - they'd be visiting a local farm from which they would be sourcing all of their ingredients. This threw off their menus to a degree, but most of them seemed pretty exciting about the opportunity.

Team Chicken was composed of Jamie, Carla and Stefan (who had the immunity from the QuickFire). My initial thoughts were that Carla would likely be escaping the bottom three this week, as Jamie and Stefan are arguably the two strongest chefs on the show. There was TONS of arguing between Jamie and Stefan (which he clearly thinks is sexual tension and she clearly thinks is totally annoying) and Carla was pretty much stuck in the middle. However, when they started planning their menu, it sounded pretty strong. The chicken paillards with the salad looked very tasty and the roast chicken sounded pretty strong too. Stefan's chicken soup looked like it was probably pretty tasty, but soup outside on an 85 degree day? No thanks.

The lovebirds (Hosea and Leah) and Ariane were teamed on this challenge. Was it just me, or did they seem to take this challenge pretty lightly? It seemed like they just threw some ideas up in the air and went with whatever Hosea and Leah thought sounded best. Ariane definitely came off like a pushover. I thought the idea of the braised lamb sounded wonderful, but instead they went with roasted baby lamb and a roasted tied up lamb loin. Huh? And Ariane handled the lamb from beginning to the end, and it seemed like Hosea and especially Leah didn't do much of anything. Leah even pointed out that she really wasn't doing anything.

Team Pork seemed to get along pretty well, and came up with a yummy-sounding, if a little boring, menu. The corn salad with fried pork belly sounded particularly tasty, and then they also made a pork loin. Again, huh? They did make fried green tomatoes, though, which would have made them a winner in my book. I love those suckers.

To nobody's surprise, Team Chicken was named the winner. All three of them, for a change, which was nice. I always think when you have a team victory that the whole team should be recognized. And I think in this case, it was well-deserved.

On the losing end, however, I was VERY surprised at the outcome. I thought for sure that Leah would be the one to go home, seeing as how she didn't do anything (and what she did do was sloppy), but instead they sent Ariane home for her faulty work with the lamb. I guess the lesson here is that you have to stand up for yourself, otherwise it's your own fault if you get booted. It's a shame, though, as I had started to root for her a little over the last few weeks. At least she comes out of this with some great publicity for her business.

Top Chef: New York, Episode 7

Whew - after two weeks off, I couldn't wait to have Top Chef back. And this week didn't disappoint. With a new judge, an open-format challenge and a *double* elimination (which, for the record, I totally called), Top Chef was definitely full-throttle.

She then shared that the "Diet Dr. Pepper" QuickFire Challenge (GAG!) would be to create a tasty dessert for today's diet-conscious diner - without using sugar. Interesting challenge, but I find it down-right laughable to somehow equate Diet Dr. Pepper with healthy. Sure, it's calorie-free, but there's a reason that I haven't touched a diet soda of any kind since I got pregnant. I just don't trust that whatever's making Diet Coke taste so good (believe me when I say that I love nothing better than a DC out of the fountain) isn't also rotting my insides.

Needless to say, in the absence of sugar, fruit and honey dominated this challenge. I was personally intrigued by Stefan's dish (you had me at chocolate mousse) and Radhika's dish (bread pudding is a gift from God). They chose Radhika, Leah (A crepe with ricotta, strawberries and balsamic reduction), and Jeff (frozen yogurt and a dessert spring roll - I think - this dish was kind of confusing). Radhika was named the winner for the second week in a row, and was awarded with immunity.

Because Padma didn't share their challenge with them after the QuickFire, it wasn't a big surprise to see Tom show up at the apartment later to speak with the chefs. He explained to them that their elimination challenge would be very open - they would be free to make any dish that expresses their culinary viewpoint that can be served family-style for a party of 12. He also told them that since this challenge would be the first for the new judge (replacing Gail while she basks in newly wedded bliss, apparently), the tasting would be blind. Interesting twist, huh?

Tom split the chefs into two groups (group 1: Fabio, Hosea, Jamie, Eugene, Melissa and Radhika; group 2: Stefan, Jeff, Leah, Ariane, Carla) because the kitchen they would be cooking in would be too small to accommodate them all at one time. Group 1 was then whisked off to Whole Foods to get started.

As the chefs from this group started to get prepared, it was obvious from the start who would be in trouble. Not surprisingly, Eugene and Melissa fell into that group. Eugene was making a whole fried snapper (not a bad choice) but would be serving it with daikon "pasta" with a tomato basil sauce. Um, no. That does not sound good. I love radishes as much as the next person, but this combo sounded kind of rank to me. Melissa thought that her fried tuna tacos would wow the judges. Seriously? Fried tuna tacos? Hello, bottom three. Jamie did something that could have bit her in the ass, once again choosing scallops as her protein, to be served with a salad of fennel, oranges and olives. Sounds yummy, but seriously - scallops again? This prompted Fabio to utter the best line of the night (and possibly the season thus far), "This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop."

Once group one was ready to serve their dishes, it was revealed that their judges would be not only Tom, Padma and new judge, Toby Young, but also the chefs from group 2. AND, they would get to watch them all taste the food and comment. Ouch. This was especially painful for Melissa, as Toby (who is like a foodie Simon Cowell) said that her tuna tacos tasted kind of like cat food. Wow. Eugene was also universally panned, as was Radhika's bisque, although that was pretty much moot since she had immunity anyway.

Then it was time for group 2 to head into the kitchen. I was intrigued by Stefan's dish right off the bat, as I love German food. He made a duck with bread dumplings and braised cabbage, which sounded yummy and hearty. Ariane proved once again that she knows how to cook her proteins (and how to make pureed cauliflower) with her skate wing w/pineapple and pureed cauliflower. Both of these dishes were clearly loved by the judges. Not so much with poor Carla's seared scallops with pea risotto and gremolata topping. The gremolata was apparently uber-garlicy and overpowering and the scallops were deemed an after-thought.

After the challenge was over, the top three were called into judging: Ariane, Stefan and Jamie. All three dishes were praised, and Jamie was named the winner. Finally. This dish didn't sound all that strong to me (although it did sound tasty, as I love the combination of fennel and orange), and I thought Stefan's was so much more of a risk. But Jamie finally got her win anyway, and was clearly over-joyed. I think the top three tonight are pretty much the favorites to wind up in the top three at the end of the season, although I could see Hosea, Leah or Radhika sneaking in there as well. In my heart I hope that Fabio makes it that far, because he and his one-liners have become my favorite part of the show this season.

I don't think there was a doubt in anyone's mind who would be heading to the bottom three. Poor Eugene and Melissa have already outstayed their welcomes, and Carla is getting there very quickly. I thought for a second that Toby was going to talk them into keeping Eugene for another week (ugh, no!), but I guess the judges who knew their histories talked him into giving Carla another chance. Although I fully expect her to be eliminated next week, I think she deserved to stay, because her dish didn't really sound all that bad compared to radish "pasta" and cat food tacos.

Top Chef, New York: Episode Six

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Wow. This was a seriously disappointing episode of Top Chef. Other than the greatness of Martha Stewart, it was pretty much a total let-down. I will just jump right into it.

Anytime Martha Stewart is involved, things can't be all bad. Oh, how I love and worship her. Had I been one of the Top Chefs and she walked into the room, I might have screamed like a Jonas Brothers fan before passing out cold. That being said, were any of us surprised that she was there to hock her new book? I think not.

Martha's Quick Fire challenge was to create a one-pot holiday dish suitable for a home cook. Kind of blah, but some people had trouble with it anyway. And I have to say that personally, if there is a dish with a bunch of steps where you have to remove things and wash the pan in between them, that is NOT a one-pot meal.


There were a few bright spots. I thought Hosea's paella sounded pretty tasty, and I was extremely impressed that he was able to get it done without crunchy rice within the hour time limit. I thought Jamie's scallop also sounded pretty yummy, although I am pretty biased, because I think scallops are pretty much the most delicious food on the planet. I also must admit that I thought Eugene's Korean Pork Stew sounded pretty tasty, but I figured he was out as soon as Martha asked about the corn starch in it. Ouch.

Seriously, Ariane wins again? I'm sure her steak and pureed cauliflower was good, and it definitely sounded like something Martha would be into, but give me a break. Also--not a one pot meal, my friend. Anyone cooking that at home would use one pot for the steak and one pot for the cauliflower. Oh, well.

After Martha left, things quickly started going downhill. First, the Harlem Gospel choir randomly showed up in the kitchen. Entertaining, obviously, but oh so random. The chefs then had to pick knives, which were numbered 1-12. I think we all see where this is going. They each got one of the 12 days of Christmas, all the way from 12 drummers drumming to a partridge in a pear tree. They then found out that they would be catering an AMFAR benefit, and would need to have 250 servings each of their dishes. And they would be preparing them alone with only three hours to prep after their trip to Whole Foods. OUCH.

The bigger ouch came the next day for Hosea and Radhika, who found out that the refrigerator where they had left their meats (smoked pork for Hosea and duck breast for Radhika) was left open all night long, leaving their dishes inedible. Needless to say, they were both freaked, but in the Spirit of Christmas (although we all know this was filmed months ago), the other chefs really came through for them and helped them pull together some very respectable dishes.

So respectable, in fact, that Hosea and Radhika both ended up in the top four with their respective 11 Pipers Piping Smoked Pork and Potatoes with Paprika and Partridge in a Pear Tree Duck over Brioche with Pear Chutney. They were joined by Stefan's 12 Drummers Drumming Chicken Pot Pies and Jeff's Ten Lords-a-Leaping Island Hopping Salad (I guess it was Greek?).

Hosea was named the winner, and in true Top Chef fashion, was awarded guest judge Michelle Bernstein's book. Shocking.

The bottom three all sounded pretty terrible this week. Eugene made Five Golden Rings Fish Stew with Golden Pineapple Rings--get it? Geez, could that be more obvious? Perhaps only if he had done onion rings. But in any case, the dish was deemed to be under-seasoned and too sweet. Melissa made Eight Maids-a-milking Beef with Gorgonzola. Sounds promising, but apparently the cheese was VERY over-powering and basically ruined the whole dish.

I actually thought for a second that Jamie would be the one kicked off this week, because her dish sounded pretty gross. It was Seven Swans-a-swimming Scallops in Vichyssoise. Raw scallops. In room-temperature soup. Ewwww! Tom also mentioned that the scallops weren't of particularly good quality and were very slimy. Double ewwww!

Then, before making a decision, in order to totally irritate me, Tom decided he wanted to make an announcement to all of the chefs. He confronted them all in the stew room, telling them that even the top dishes were pretty ho-hum this week, and that none of the chefs were cooking like they wanted to win the competition. He ranted for awhile about this, then told them that in the spirit of Christmas (in July), they would not be kicking anyone off this week. GAG. I watched this for an hour and fifteen minutes - yes, it was an extra-long episode - and nobody got kicked off? Not cool, Top Chef. Not cool at all.

Maybe next week TWO chefs will get kicked off in order to satiate my need for carnage. I doubt it, though.