Top Chef Recap

By Jason Lee

February 19, 2009

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Dinner service starts and the four judges (comprised of lovely Padma, super smart Tom, super cool Emeril and MRS. Gail Simmons, back from her honeymoon!) head over to start tasting the chefs' food. They start with Jeff's cucumber Mojito, which has good balance according to Tom. He also serves some friend oysters with sausage and arugula as well as a crawfish Pot de Creme. Emeril says that he can tell that Jeff is a refined cook with an intelligent approach.

They head over to Stefan, who serves a black cherry rum cocktail along with rabbit gumbo served on top of creamy grits and a dessert, strangely enough, comprised of an apple beignet with pecan brittle. Just like in last week's challenge, it sounds like Stefan has some technical issues but great flavor. His gumbo feels like a stew and the roux is not the right color. Also the grits are really creamy, but not in a bad way.

Fabio is next with a trintini made of red bell pepper and rum. He also has a sausage maque choux with grits (don't ask me what that is cause your guess is as good as mine) and a dish of Caserecci pasta with crawfish. Gail loves his crawfish flavor. Emeril likes his maque choux but says that the heat is missing. Uh oh, looks like Fabio might have missed the soul of New Orleans cooking.

Carla is up next and she serves them a non-alcoholic cocktail made of cranberry and lime spritzer. The guests seem to LOVE her drink. Her dishes are an oyster stew with potato and bacon along with a shrimp and andouille sausage beignet with creole aioli.

"This is New Orleans inspired," proclaims Emeril. "I love the beignet, I love the batter."




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"If you like that, then you'll love the stew," says Tom. I think Carla's got a big hit on her hands.

Hosea is last and starts the judges off with a Hurricane made of Grand Marnier and rum. He also has a chicken, duck and andouille sausage gumbo plus some catfish and sweet potatoes. Emeril loves this dish again, saying that both dishes captured the flavor of New Orleans.

Wow, seems like every chef did a great job tonight. Good for them. At this point, I think that Carla's won this challenge, which means that Jeff is going home. I also think that Stefan is going home but that could just be my optimism getting the better of me.

Judges table is next and each chef seems nervous as heck. Jeff is up first and is put at ease instantly as Gail proclaims his cocktail to be her favorite of the evening. She also really liked his crawfish tail and shitake mushrooms. Emeril liked his oyster dish with the sausage and Jeff takes the opportunity to slam Stefan by saying that he would never just grab a pre-made one out of a kitchen.

Fabio is next and according to Emeril, he did a great job as an Italian trying to cook creole. Padma loved his pasta but wished that it had more heat. She also says that his drink smelled fantastic but the flavor didn't live up to that.


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