The Bottom Six Take a Taste Test on Top Chef 5 NY

On the last Top Chef 5 Jeff, and sadly not Leah, went home. He got beat by an All Star in his pair off which sent him up against the best in the bottom three and ultimately sent him home. The morning after the elimination of Jeff both Stefan and Fabio realized that they do have a chance of going home. Both felt like they received a second chance and were ready for the next round tasks. Hosea was only worried about taking down the "Euro" chefs, being that he's the last American guy. Being down to only six chefs there is no room for failure, you know I'm talking to Leah, and their guest judge Eric Ripert was going to weed out the weak. His specialty was speed and technique where fish filleting was the task. The first round was cleaning and butterflying a sardine. They only had five minutes to do so with Carla doing horrible, Leah doing well, Stefan doing well, Jamie doing ok, Fabio doing pretty good and Hosea doing eh. He's a seafood guy so he should have done better and somehow Leah and Stefan won the round. WHAT?

All but Carla and Jamie went to round two where they had to fillet a bigger fish. Leah gave up with only a few minutes left, showing her normal negativity, while Fabio left out a ton of meat knocking both out. That left Stefan and Hosea in the final heat: peeling and filleting fresh water eel. It was dead but continued to move, making things a bit freaky. In the end Stefan won the Quick Fire, giving him an advantage in the elimination challenge and showing the Euro guys aren't going down without a fight. The next day the crew went to Eric Ripert's restaurant for lunch but really it was for their challenge. Six dishes would be brought out for them to try which in return one of them would have to cook from taste. All were kind of shocked when the knife block came out to draw their dishes. Haven't they seen past seasons? Stefan's reward was the ability to choose his own dish and he picked the lobster. Jamie hated the dish she picked, which wasn't looking too good, but nobody really had an advantage with this one.

Down in the kitchen everyone got to work. Carla was new to oil poaching fish but seemed confident while Fabio was happy with his dish. Jamie, as I said, wasn't too excited with her dish and had never done what she had to. Stefan was going at things pretty quickly, getting the more "easy" dish while Leah said she knows how to butter fish. She hasn't shown it yet so we'll have to see if she's lieing or not. Hosea should be in his element with the seafood surrounding him but he seems hesitant. He isn't sure how to bread the fish which could turn out bad. Guest judge Eric Ripert then came in to test the dishes and was very critical about each. He gave them some some recommendations on how to make the dish better and it was an early call on how well they were doing. Carla was really the only one doing well while Hosea and Leah were having issues as normal. Jamie's was the only dish that Eric didn't taste. She was running behind on her preparation and things weren't looking too good for her.

Upstairs in the dinning room the judges met to taste the fish. Fabio was up first and Eric said his dish was very close but not exactly right. Others liked the dish but had small complaints with it. Our favorite Leah was up next and was running late as her fish wasn't fully cooked. As it hit the table the judges noticed both a visible and flavor difference but they didn't really HATE it. Stefan's lobster was next and the only complaint was the sauce was too thick. The lobster tasted exactly like Eric's which probably meant Stefan was pretty safe at judges table. Next up was Carla who also ran late but pulled out her dish thanks to every one's help. Tom believed her dish was very difficult and Eric said she got it, meaning Carla was doing well for once! Second to last we had Hosea who didn't want to fail in a seafood challenge. His fish was a bit different then Eric's, something the judges didn't really like. Hosea's dish was the least precise, something Tom didn't understand considering Hosea is a seafood chef. Last but not least we had Jamie who sent out way too salty celery. They believed the fish was well cooked, well all but new comer Toby. Apparently he said Jamie jumped off a tight-rope, not sure where he got that from but yeah. The Toby guy hasn't really added anything to the show, bring back Gail!

Back at the judges table Fabio, Stefan and Carla were called in first. It was obvious they were in the Top 3 meaning our girl Leah was there at the bottom! Go Leah! Maybe rooting for her will send her home. Out at the table Stefan, Fabio and Carla praised their dishes while gaining much respect from all the judges, especially Eric. He commended them for doing a great job but crowned Sfefan, once again, the winner of the challenge. His reward was a copy of Eric's book PLUS time at all three of his restaurants AND a trip t the Food and Wine festival. What an amazing prize and Stefan surely does deserve it. With the top three back that means Leah, Jamie and Hosea were going out to replace them. Hosea was surprised to be in the bottom considering his reputation but realized the mistake that he made. Leah also realized her mistakes and for once, actually acted like she wanted to be there. Tom called her out on giving up on the Quick Fire challenge and she backtracked by saying she didn't want to give up. Little do they know she's given up many times before, just not in front of the judges. Jamie's celery was the issue in her dish and she realized that was the problem. None of the judges were too happy with her work but she did put up a fight, saying she did understand her dish but couldn't fix the problems in time. While discussing the three Tom brought up the fact that Leah wasn't paying attention and didn't have her head in the game. Her Debbie Downer didn't seem to matter though as Jamie's salty celery sent her packing. Why is Leah still there? Hopefully next week my wish will come true!