Watch What We Say: Top Chef

Episode 5

By Jason Lee

December 12, 2008

I really thought the dishes were good.

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The editors have done their job and now I have a multitude of scenarios running through my head for what might happen. I think Jeff's sorbet will be a big miss and maybe the token shirtless-surfer-chef will be on his way out. I think Eugene has lost his culinary bearings and because now his team's dish looks like both a conceptual and executional mess, I think he might be going home. Ariane might be going home because she always might be going home.

After the diners file in, Padma thanks everyone for coming to celebrate Gail's upcoming wedding. Everyone applauds. Gail looks like a giddy schoolgirl and can't help herself from exclaiming, "I just can't wait to get married!" I can't wait either, Gail, but the voters in California won't let ME get married thanks to something stupid called Proposition 8 . . .

Anways, service starts and "old" is up first. They put their plates out in front of an intimidating group of female diners and it seems like their dish is a hit. Nothing distasteful on the plate and Jeff's sorbet is apparently delicious. Not much screen time is given to them so I'm assuming that they're all safe.

The "new" team starts plating dishes and – *ALARM BELLS, ALARM BELLS* Oh my lord, it seems that Daniel has decided on his own that Carla's salad needs shitake mushrooms at the bottom of it. Without discussing it with anyone, he cooks and dumps a bunch of shitake mushrooms into the bottom of Carla's wonton bowls and she has no choice (due to the ticking click) to do anything but continue to scoop her salad on top of the mushrooms. She can't even taste her dish before it goes out. This is bad.

Yes, it's bad. Their plate looks awful . . . like a little Whitman's Sampler, but with surf-and-turf ingredients instead of chocolate. And to top it all off, Eugene forgets to mention to the diners that they're supposed to combine the ingredients on the plate themselves to make their sushi rolls. I'm starting to think that this is the biggest catastrophe that we've seen so far this season.




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Team "borrowed" is up next and Ariane is freaking out. Her lamb is not done. The girls re-arrange their plating schedule to let the lamb cook for a few more minutes (not wanting to serve raw lamb . . . I think Jaime learned her lesson last week). It's hectic and crazy and insane and every other chef has to pitch in, but the girls get their dish out. Whew.

And what a dish. Everyone loves Jaime's pureed carrots with Indian spices and the lamb is apparently cooked to perfection. Let the record note that this is the second episode in a row where Ariane has cooked her protein perfectly.

Finally, we have team "blue." While they've managed to include a lot of blue elements in the dish (yellow corn and green chard are next to blue on the color spectrum, blue cornmeal on the sea bass, etc.) and even though they have Fabio introduce the dish to all the lady diners (hoping that he'll charm them with his Italian accent, which he does), their dish falls flat. It apparently has no textural contrast . . . in fact, one diner calls it "old people food." Ouch.


Continued:       1       2       3       4

     


 
 

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