BU may be on winter break, but Top Chef carries on! I will be posting recaps for every new episode over break, accompanied with a nice food-related self-portrait.
Last night’s Top Chef started with a very strange Quickfire, presided over by guest judge Tony Mantuano, as the chefs had to make stuffing without any cooking utensils–knives, spoons, graters, etc… In being resourceful, Carla stirred with stalks of celery, Fabio used a wire shelf to grate cheese (because he’s Italian), and Tiffani butchered her bird with the blade from a pepper-mill. Amazingly, everyone turned out edible food! The bottom three were Carla for her “Un-Doneté quinoa,” Casey, with her asian flavors, and Tiffani, whose stuffing was too sweet. The top were Tre, who made cheddar and jalapeño stuffing, and Marcel, who cooked an entire squab. Tre won, and along with immunity he got $20,000.
The elimination challenge was even stranger. The chefs had to cook at the U.S. Open, for tennis players and tennis fans. Sounds straightforward enough, but then the chefs were split into teams and told they would be serving one dish at a time head-to-head. The judges would pick their favorite of each round, and the first team to 4 points would be the winner. Only the players who had the losing dishes on the losing team would be up for elimination. This format was weird because it opened up a space for a technicality. Since Jamie’s chickpeas weren’t cooked, she wanted to go last, but the other team got four points before she could serve, so she never had to go. Additionally, Tre had the worst dish the judges tasted, but he had immunity, so the person with the third-worst dish went home, but we’ll get to that later.
Spike, and his team (Angelo, Jamie, Casey, Tiffany, Tre, and Tiffani) made the strategy of serving their worst dish first, which was supposed to be Jamie, who refused to serve first, so the entire plan backfired. The other team, Fabio, Richard, Carla, Antonia, Mike, Dale, and Marcel, didn’t have any plan, and ended up just sending their dishes randomly, which led to their win. Though there was some confusion about when Marcel should plate, causing Angelo to call him “Marcy” when he got steamed. Carla cut her fingernail off during cooking, winning praise from her teammates for not leaving the kitchen like Jamie did a couple weeks earlier (though the Hassidic medic advised her to). She proclaimed, “There’s nothing to stitch! I cut it all off!” Spike was also perturbed because Angelo put stuff on Spike’s dish without Spike agreeing (Angelo also overcooked Tre’s salmon).
Fabio, Richard, Carla, and Antonia landed in the top, since they made the winning dishes on the winning team. Fabio made gnocchi (because he’s Italian, and reminded us of that fact when he won his round), and Richard made Thai-bouleh, but Carla won with her African soup. She got a trip to Italy and a giant bottle of wine.
The bottom four were Tre (who had immunity), Casey and Tiffany D. (who had good dishes, but were just beat out by slightly better dishes), and Spike. The judges had no choice to make; the constraints of the challenge made it for them. Spike was eliminated, which makes me happy, but since he was listed as a cheftender last week, I will have to eat an entire watermelon! Pictures will be posted with next week’s recap.
The Cheftenders as of this week are (but I really think only the first three have a shot at winning, it’s hard to tell):
1. Richard Blais
2. Angelo Sosa
3. Dale Talde
4. Tiffani Faison
5. Carla Hall
Also, for those of you who don’t get it, my picture this week is of the Japanese Iron Chef Chairman.
@buquad I have to admit that was a pretty fun challenge to watch. Definitely beats that museum one, which was kind of lame.