Top Chef Recap
By Jason Lee
February 12, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In episodes past, we've seen the Top Chef house filled with a variety of things - drama, smoke, adultery, chefs - but today, it's filled with one thing and one thing only: tension. With only five chefs left, we're going to see four happy chefs and one disappointed by the end of this. Everyone is still reeling from Jaime's elimination last week, though Stefan is rejoicing, feeling that because another talented chef went home, the path is that much clearer for him to take home the title.
As for the women in the competition, Leah (for the umpteenth week) says that she needs to start cooking good food. She said that she loves cooking and needs the validation of doing well in this next Elimination Challenge so that she can do well in the finale.
Carla, on the other hand, admits that she got into cooking late in life. In her early adulthood, Carla used to model but would always buy cookbooks. "Models eat?" I scribble in my notebook, though in retrospect I guess that it's entirely possible to love to cook without loving to eat.
We head to the Top Chef kitchen and we see molecular gastronomist, Wylie Dufresne. He's vexed a number of innovative Top Chef contestants like Season 2 runner-up Marcel and Season 4 finalist Richard and I'm curious to see what spin he'll put on this Quickfire.
Actually, there's little to no spin. The Quickfire is standing motionless. As we saw in the episode leading up to the Season 3 finale, the chefs must cook breakfast...though they have the requirement of using one of Wylie's favorite ingredients: the incredible, edible egg. I just hope this time around, pompous Hung isn't around to knock over a bottle of truffle oil and then deny he did it (I still haven't forgiven you, Hung!).
Stefan makes an incredibly complicated looking dish, with eggs done two ways, poached and as part of a panna cotta. "Clever," says Wylie. Leah makes a quail egg with potatoes and caviar. "Nice," says Wylie. Carla has done a take on Green Eggs and Ham by cooking eggs with spinach and jalapeño oil - a dish that Hosea strongly criticized for being overly simplistic. "Pretty," says Padma. Hosea does a trio of Japanese dishes, but all with eggs in them ...a salmon roll with an egg white as the wrapping, egg sticky rice and a tempura fried egg. "Neat idea," says Wylie. Fabio hates breakfast (he got tripped up on the breakfast challenge earlier this season) and does sunny side up eggs two ways. Wylie seems concerned that there's no egg in his dessert.
Wylie is quick and decisive in what he liked and didn't like - understandable given that he's appeared on this show for the past four seasons. On the bottom are Fabio, who stepped around the idea of breakfast and eggs, Hosea, who didn't tie his three dishes together, and Leah, who was weighed down by a heavy, greasy potato ravioli.
On top, we have the other two chefs. Carla is praised for being playful and introducing humor into her dish while Stefan showed his strong technique and expert preparation. I'm thinking Stefan wins but NO! It's Carla! Wow.
"You made one thing and everyone else made two, but doing one thing was smart and pushed you through," says Wylie. Carla is on top of the world, having won with a simple but good dish. It sadly reminds me of when Ariane won the NBC Today Show Elimination Challenge with her simple but good dish. I miss Ariane and hope that you vote for her for Fan Favorite.
Carla is promised a big advantage in the Elimination Challenge but before she finds out what it is, the chefs draw knives. On each knife is the name of a legendary American chef. Padma explains that for the final challenge in NY, five amazing, influential chefs chose what would be their pick for their "last meal on earth." Each of our contestants must cook the "last meal on earth" dish of the chef whose knife they drew. They are:
Leah: Wylie Dufresne, eggs benedict
Fabio: Lydia Bastianich, queen of Italian cuisine, roasted chicken and potatoes
Hosea: Susan Ungaro, President of the James Beard association, shrimp scampi
Stefan: Marcus Samuelsson, roasted salmon and spinach
Carla: Jacques Pepin, greatest chef in the world, roasted squab and peas
Carla, as the winner of the Quickfire, has the opportunity to switch with any chef if she pleases but she declines immediately. For one thing, she's over the moon about getting to cook for Jacques and secondly, she loves peas. She's not the only one who's excited about this challenge. Every chef (sans Leah, who still sounds high) seems almost bowled over by the opportunity to cook for these amazing chefs and is eager to get started.
The chefs take their $300 to Whole Foods Market and start shopping. The question for most of them is "how far can I take my dish?" meaning, are they supposed to stay traditional with the dish or should they spin it? On opposite sides of the spectrum we have Leah, who's going uber traditional with a very simple dish (I mean, eggs benedict? C'mon, how do you mess that up?) and Hosea who's out in Eugene/Jeff-land with a dish that barely resembles a shrimp scampi.
*CRASH*
There's a huge ruckus in the kitchen and we immediately know that someone's injured - but who? It's apparently Fabio, who's broken his pinky finger.
"Do you want to go to the hospital?" asks the medic.
"Hospital? I'll chop it off and sear it on the flat top and tomorrow I'll deal with nine fingers," Fabio scoffs. Despite his humor and bravado, he's having trouble cooking without his pinky. He can't peel the potatoes as well and because he can't use his knife properly, he's basically hacking away at the chicken with a cleaver. Having just seen "The Wrestler" this weekend, I'm afraid that he's going to chop his hand off by accident and run through the store, cursing at everyone he sees.
Head judge Tom enters the kitchen. This is the point at which he typically goes around to each chef and gets an idea of what they're doing. Not this time. "Please, I don't want to be embarrassed," he says and leaves. Oh boy, it really says something about the diners if Tom's only advice is to not embarrass him and themselves in front of this crowd.
Leah goes first with her eggs benedict and the reactions are mixed. Wylie doesn't like the salad, saying that if this were his last meal, he wouldn't want to be bothered with it. Jacques, super legendary chef and the person that will be serving as guest judge at Judges Table, criticizes the sauce for being too thin. Tom doesn't like that the egg whites are so runny. Other than that, the dish is pretty good.
Stefan is supremely confident about his dish, saying that he could have cooked it in his sleep and that there's no way that he could have messed it up because he cooks this type of food all the time. Well, he's wrong. "His salmon is horribly overcooked and less successful than [Leah's] dish," says Wylie. "In my restaurant, this would have gotten sent back," says queen of Italian cooking, Lydia. Wow, I'm thinking that Stefan could be going home.
Hosea is feeling the pressure but turns out a shrimp "scampi" and a tomato provencal. Marcus says he did a fine job but Jacques strongly criticizes the tomato for not being rustic enough. Lydia doesn't like the color, Susan wanted more garlic and Tom says that they have to either compare the dish to their expectations for a scampi or decided if Hosea did a good job with what he was trying to accomplish with a variation of a scampi. Seems mixed but still better than Stefan.
Fabio's dish is a huge hit. Wylie loves the chicken and says that this is the first dish where someone actually channeled a great chef, though he also compares the salad to "something you'd get on an airplane." Marcus says that this is the first dish that could have been served in one of their restaurants and Lydia, who'd requested this dish, says that it's exactly the way she was hoping the dish would be.
Lastly, we have Carla, who's freaking out that she's overcooked her squab. Oh boy. I'm really nervous now. But looks like I have nothing to worry about as Lydia takes one bite and proclaims herself to be a squab-convert. She also compliments the peas. Marcus notices that the squab is overcooked but Jacques says that it tastes perfect. Tom praises Carla's audacity to bring such a simple but perfect dish to the table.
"I think I could die happy with this," says Jacques, who'd requested this dish. YES!!!! Okay, at this point, I'm thrilled. I think that Carla's won the challenge and that Stefan is going home. I could not have asked for a better outcome.
Back at Judges Table, all of the chefs are called out. Leah needed to cook her eggs longer and really went wrong with the Hollandaise sauce. "I think you thinned out the flavor," says Padma. Hosea had excellent shrimp but Jacques takes big issue with his tomato.
"You needed to cut it in half and sear it to get a nice caramelized flavor to it," says Jacques.
"I didn't want to do something too rustic. I didn't want to put anything on the table that wasn't beautiful," protests Hosea.
"You should shoot for good taste," retorts Jacques.
Meanwhile, Stefan is in shock. He cannot believe that the universal opinion at the table was that his salmon was overcooked. And that his "spinach two ways" tasted like one way. And that it was a mistake for him to use a creamy sauce on the salmon and to make creamy spinach as well. Toby wishes that he'd made the potatoes crispier to bring a different texture to the dish. Stefan is slapping his head in disbelief. I'm thrilled. Someone turn off the oven. Stefan is done.
I know that there's still 15 minutes left in the show but I'm busy imagining tomorrow's headlines. "Pompous Chef Loses On Top Chef." "Top Chef is Stupid-Chef-Free." "Over-Cooked Salmon Makes Toast of Finnish Chef." "Ding Dong, The Finn is Gone." There will be parades tomorrow down Main St., I am sure.
Meanwhile, both Fabio and Carla are clearly in the clear. Toby says that Fabio's chicken tasted like something out of everyone's childhood while Jacques says that Carla's peas were "incredible...I loved it."
The chefs go back to mull over the comments while the judges decide who's going home. It's a close decision between Fabio and Carla for the winner of the competition. Though Carla's squab may have looked overdone, Jacques seems firm in his belief that the taste was perfect. Tom says that if Fabio were to open a restaurant and serve his chicken, he would be known for that dish (in a good way) despite the airplane salad. Hrmmm, I'm sticking with my guess that Carla wins.
As for the bottom, the choice is even murkier. Though Stefan's salmon was way overcooked, Tom thinks that it was well seasoned and the garnishes were nice. He has a bigger problem with the thin hollandaise sauce and undercooked eggs (which almost got Jaime sent home a couple of episodes ago). Toby says that Hosea was his least favorite because it was dull. Tom counters that "its dullness is why he didn't win but I don't know that he deserves to lose for that."
Sounds like Padma thinks Stefan should go, Tom wants Leah to go and Toby wants Hosea to go home. Interesting.
The chefs are called back out and Tom lets them all know that the judges were unanimous in their choice of a winner. I'm sure it's Carla. NOPE. Fabio. Boooooo. Oh well, Carla's peas draw great praise from Tom and the two of them are sent back to the kitchen to celebrate their entrance to the finale.
As for the bottom three, as usual, they have their final accusations leveled against them by Tom. Leah second-guessed her sauce and undercooked her eggs. Stefan overcooked his salmon and Hosea went outside of what a shrimp scampi should be.
I'm praying, PRAYING, that Stefan goes home. I think there's a good shot but with Bravo's editing, you never know. Please oh please oh please oh please let him go home. I never thought that I'd be rooting for Leah or Hosea but amazingly enough, it's what I'm doing.
"Leah," says Padma, "pack your knives and go."
GO WHERE, PADMA? GO TO THE FINALE? IS SHE SAFE? SHE'S SAFE, RIGHT? SHE'S GOING TO NEW ORLEANS FOR THE FINALE??? STEFAN IS GOING HOME?
...
No.
...
ARGH. Stefan and Hosea are safe. Pot-smoking, couch-kissing Leah is going home. Amazingly enough, she doesn't seem all that upset about it. She shrugs and shakes the hands of the judges and the tromps out after a cursory goodbye to the remaining four chefs who are busy trying to hide the fact that they're THRILLED. New Orleans, here they come.
In looking at the final four, I note that I got three out of four right. I correctly predicted that Stefan, Hosea and Carla would make it. I only thought that Jaime would have Fabio's place. I'm really only rooting for Carla at this point - I loathe Stefan and Hosea while I only marginally like Fabio. It's going to be an interesting finale for sure but considering that it takes place in New Orleans, you gotta think that Stefan is at a disadvantage.
Maybe we'll see him go home after all. One can hope, right?