Top Chef Recaps

While I was personally on vacation in Florida and Alabama, eating seafood, I was able to catch the episodes of Top Chef that I missed in the repeats Bravo ran last weekend. In Episode 5, Zoi was sent home and there were big arguments among the chefs after that happened which was surprising after the camaraderie shown in the previous episode.

On Episode 6, the tailgating episode, Jen won immunity from elimination with her quick fire win using beer to cook Shrimp & Scallop Beignets with Fennel, Avocado & Pepper Purees. The chefs went to Soldier Field where they were given charcoal grills to prepare dishes for not only the judges but also for the fans, with the fans judging the food they were given by filling out cards afterwards. Dale was the winner of the elimination challenge and was given the bonus of keeping his large grill. Ryan was sent home because of the inappropriate tailgate food he served. He wanted to raise the level of tailgate food but it was an unsuccessful effort which ended in his leaving the show. I was surprised that Mark was not sent home after Tom Colicchio called his station unsanitary.

On Episode 7, the last televised episode, Johnny Iuzzini, a top pastry chef, was the guest judge. The winner of the quick fire this week was Richard who won immunity. But, the guest judge also liked Dale's effort which was a traditional Hawaiian dish with shaved ice that the pastry chef enjoyed. Since Richard's dish was more innovative, he won this week's quick fire challenge and immunity in the elimination round. Richard will also be the only chef from this season who will get his recipe in this season's top chef cookbook.

When the chefs were told they were going out on the town, vision's of last season raised its head when the chefs got dressed up to go out on the town and ended up having to prepare food for the party goers. They ended up cooking in two catering trucks which the women were definitely not happy about having dressed in heels and low cut tops. It ended with one of the unhappy ladies being sent home. Getting back to the present, this past week the chef were taken to The Second City where they were enjoying the show until the cast members started asking the audience to shout out colors, then emotions and then ingredient names. It was obvious to them rather quickly that these would be their dishes. The answers from the audience, who were shouting out the funniest things they could think of, became the basis for the dishes served in the elimination challenge. The cast from Second City were to be their guests for dinner the next evening along with the judges, Tom, Padma, Ted Allen, and Johnny Iuzzini.

This time the chefs were allowed to pick partners and they pulled numbers from a hat to pick the dishes, although each dish had to be based on the word combinations given at the Second City show. They all seemed to jump right in to the challenge with the exception of Stephanie and
Antonia who decided to ignore the fact that they were given Polish sausage as the main ingredient. They had a bit of sausage in their dish but served sea bass as the main ingredient. They ended up on the chopping block for that choice. But it was Stephanie and Jennifer who had the worst dish, their words; orange turned on asparagus led them to go too far with the sexual connotation. Their presentation was the most humorous with the cast from Second City and the judges laughing heartily but it did not have them raving over the dish. They should have concentrated on the flavor instead of the joke. This got Jen sent home.

Meanwhile the pairing of Richard who had immunity and Dale, who was taking a chance pairing with someone who had immunity in a two person challenge, won the elimination challenge with their grilled tofu dish. Their words were tofu as the main ingredient, green as the color and perplexed as the word. They fooled the judges by rendering beef fat and then marinating the tofu in the beef fat so that the tofu served with an Almond-Cashew crust over green curry sauce was the embodiment of the challenge as the tofu ended up having a decidedly beef taste (perplexing) and according to the judges tasted great. The other dish the judges liked was Andrew and Spikes butternut squash soup. You can get these recipes on the Bravo, Top Chef Website.

Stephanie who is decidedly a contender was a surprise ending up in the bottom two. She seems to either be on top or on bottom of the challenges and tends not to spend too much time in the middle leaving us to wonder if she can win this. She may be the only woman who is winning enough to be the first female winner of this show, buy her has some good competition in the male chefs so this may not be the year we see a woman on top. Richard is definitely coming out a winner more often than not, but so is Dale now. Surely we will see "Restaurant Wars" soon, always an interesting challenge on Top Chef in the past few years, along with traveling to different cities as the chefs dwindle down to the top contenders. I will be anxious to see who wins this week's challenge and who is sent home.