Top Chef Recap

By Jason Lee

February 5, 2009

I would rule on Top Scallop.

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"He won again!" exclaims Fabio as they re-enter the Stew Room.

The bottom three chefs slump out to Judges table. Hosea protests saying that he has no existing familiarity with Za'atar but the judges nail him anyway for overcooking his fish and applying a much too heavy coat of Za'atar to his fish. Tom, in particular, has a problem with his overcooked fish. "Monkfish needs to rest before you cut it and you didn't give it enough time," he lectures exasperatedly.

Leah, who's sounded stoned through this entire episode, opens by asking Eric Ripert how he prepared the sauce, admitting that she had no idea whatsoever in how to recreate the miso broth. Toby slams Leah for the dish, saying that her incompetent miso resulted in a dull fish flavor that's still stuck in his teeth - and not in a god way. She cringes.

"In the Quickfire, you kind of gave up?" Tom asks her. "Do you wanna give up?" That's the question that we all want to know, Tom.

"No, I wanna be here, I wanna win, I wanna be in the final four. I regret giving up but I can't take that back and today I tried my best to do that dish," Leah says in protest. Amazingly, she goes through that entire argument still sounding high.

Jaime opens by discussing exactly what her mistake was with the celery and saying that she knew what she should have done differently.

"I would have sent that dish back if I could have," Padma tells her. "It wasn't appetizing to see or eat."

"It had a metallic aftertaste, a burnt taste that had the effect of rendering the entire dish toxic," says Toby. "I didn't want to eat anything after the first bite."

Upon heading back to the Stew Room, Jaime exclaims, "It's gonna be me. They hated my dish." I'm still clinging to the fact that Jaime cooked her fish properly and that this will save her in the end.




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Padma says that this decision is the most "compellingly difficult" one of the season so far. Sounds like Hosea made a bad error in not searing his fish before applying his Za'atar spice and not letting the fish rest before cutting it. Elementary mistakes but not huge ones. Tom doesn't think that Leah has her head in the game, saying that he doesn't know why she should stick around if she's not paying attention or putting energy into getting things done.

They turn their conversation to Jaime and after Padma criticizes the dish, Toby stands up for her saying, "In her defense, at least she understood what went wrong."

"We're dealing with a choice between someone who made a mistake and didn't fix it and someone who didn't know what they were doing and didn't understand it," Tom concludes.

Sure sounds like Jaime is safe to me. I rub my hands together greedily as I wait for Leah to be asked to pack her knives and go.

WHAT?!!? EXCUSE ME?!!?

I'm not sure how or why, but apparently, it's Jaime who's eliminated. She looks like she knows it was coming, but personally, I'm dumbfounded that Leah managed to escape yet again. She's the dunce of the group. The Bush among presidents. The peanut M&M with no peanut. The chef without a brain.

And yet, it's Jaime who's going home. To her credit, she gives a very poised speech, sadly noting the demise of Team Rainbow (I'm gonna miss you all!) and that being on the show has helped her grow as a chef. She says that she's formed some great friendships, learned to be more patient as a chef and to have more confidence in herself. I know she'll end up someplace great. I just wish that that "someplace great" was at the Top Chef finale. Sigh.

I hate Leah.


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