Top Chef Las Vegas Recap

By Jason Lee

September 19, 2009

We'll miss his kicky red scarf

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Forty-five minutes are up and the dishes get presented. Laurine does a cactus salsa with achiote pork chop - it looks great. Kevin does a pork tenderloin with cactus marmalade - Tim finds it slimey. Ashley has made cactus jelly donuts but they are too sweet for Tim. We have three ceviches: Pompous Mike with a a cactus tuna ceviche, Bryan with a halibut and cactus ceviche, and his brother Michael with an avocado roll and cactus/coconut ceviche.

Ron has worked the cactus into his swordfish sauce but Padma can't find a trace of it. Ash is doing a play off of a grilled cheese sandwich, with cactus in between two hefty tortillas that have come together to look like a big, auburn turd. Jennifer has a warm chorizo and cactus salad while our Frenchie, Mattin, has breaded cactus and halibut.

On the bottom are Ash, whose tortilla was thick and dry, Michael, whose flavors were like "trains colliding," and Ron, whose fish was overcooked and tasted rancid. Wow, the chefs at the bottom were all men. Maybe the women are finally finding their footing.

On the top, we have Laurine with some great flavors, Pompous Mike as the only chef who correctly prepared cactus, and Mattin who ingeniously used tequila in his dish and was one of only two who actually showcased the cactus. I'm thinking that Pompous Mike wins for having the only correct preparation and...I'm right. Pompous Mike takes it home (plus $15,000) and is ecstatic that he's shown the other chefs that he's a force to be reckoned with. I'm sorry, but if it took you five episodes to demonstrate that, then you're not as big a force as you think.




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Padma moves onto the Elimination Challenge: they will have to prepare a high-end lunch (emphasis on "high-end") for chef Tim Love, our guest judge, plus two dozen cowboys at his Las Vegas ranch. They can cook any dish they want, as long as it's high-end. And what's the catch? They won't know what they're cooking with until they get there, and they'll only have one hour and 15 minutes to actually cook.

Ouch. They'll be shopping and planning blind. I love these types of challenges. The best was the surfer challenge from Season 2. Haven't seen it? Go find it online somewhere - it's a GREAT episode.

Anyways, the chefs head to Whole Foods to shop and they are all being pretty conservative. They know from past seasons not to expect anything more than a grill and maybe someplace to boil water. We see a LOT of chefs buying fish but thankfully, no scallops. Meanwhile, Jennifer is storming around the produce aisles. She finds the whole situation frustrating. She wants to know where they're cooking and what the conditions are. She's such a control freak. I totally have a crush on her.

The chefs head back into their vans and drive out to the ranch. When they get there, everyone's jaws hit the floor of the car as they see nothing but some open fires and tents. Yep, they'll be camping it out tonight. I love it.


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