Top Chef Las Vegas Recap

By Jason Lee

October 5, 2009

We hate to see the big man go. He seems to smile almost every moment of his life.

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Wrong. Many chefs are scrambling on this challenge, trying to figure out how to deconstruct their assigned dishes as they tromp through Whole Foods. I find it interesting that many of them are simply trying to "reinvent" the dish as opposed to actually deconstructing it. Our Haitian Ron seems to be focused on just making a good paella instead of deconstructing it. Laurine laments that deconstruction is not something she likes to do as a cook.

There are a couple of people who we know will be able to do this right. Kevin, Bryan and Michael have all demonstrated deconstruction before (remember when Bryan showed Pompous Mike how to make a deconstructed béarnaise sauce?) and will surely be fine. Surprisingly, Jennifer, who's been given lasagna, is at an impasse. She has no idea how she will be able to "deconstruct" lasagna. I'm worried for her.

The chefs get back to the kitchen and start cooking. Jennifer sits down with her head in her hands for a good while before starting cooking. She's really struggling and I have my fingers crossed that my favorite chef doesn't go home.

Even though we have a good 11 dishes going, three are really standing out. Ron is clueless about deconstruction and I'm really wondering whether or not his language barrier is impeding him from grasping the concept of the challenge. Laurine is clearly not comfortable with deconstruction and is irritated by Robin's chattering in the kitchen. Speaking of Robin, she is so out-there with her concept that I think it's crossed into the realm of re-invention rather than deconstruction. Granted, if food tastes good then a lot of mistakes can be forgiven, so it's anyone's guess as to who will succeed.

The chefs are cooking for Tom, Padma, Michele Bernstein, Penn, Teller and our favorite British food snob, Toby Young, who's filling in for Gail. Should be an interesting dinner.




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The food goes out and there are some clear winners and some clear losers. Bryan has a deconstructed reuben, in which he tried to substitute tuna for beef and it apparently worked. Jennifer's lasagna was thankfully well-received, with many people loving her flavors. Michael has presented a really-avant garde Caesar Salad using a lot of molecular gastronomy (it looks like Astronaut food). Ashley has surprised again but doing a really elegant turn on pot roast. But there's no question who's won this challenge. Kevin's deconstructed mole negro gets rave reviews from every single diner. Considering that we've all seen exactly how complicated a mole can be from Rick Bayless' version of it in Top Chef Masters, I can hardly imagine how difficult it must be to deconstruct mole negro - but Kevin did and did it successfully. And for that, he deservingly takes home the win.

On the bottom, we have Laurine, who had fish and chips but failed at getting her chips crunchy (how many times have we seen that on this show?) and thus, didn't have many to allot to each diner. We also have Ron, who didn't deconstruct his paella, overcooked his rice and overcooked his seafood. Lastly, we have Ash, who cooked a deconstructed Shepherd's Pie, a dish that is famously heavy on mashed potatoes, but because his potatoes came out gooey, he left them out completely.

So yes, we have one botched attempt at fish and chips with Laurine, one unrecognizable dish (due to the lack of potatoes) from Ash, but I think it's pretty clear to everyone that for a complete failure in concept (no deconstruction) and execution (overcooked everything), Ron absolutely deserves to go home.

The judges beat up Laurine for stubbornly protesting that deconstruction "isn't her thing" (but did you think that everything on Top Chef would be your thing?) and Toby in particular beats up Ash for his Shepherd's Pie (cause it's an English dish) but no one doubts that Ron will be packing his knives.

And he does. For the third straight episode, a man has gone home. Maybe indeed the tide is turning on Top Chef. Whether or not that's the case, I think we're definitely seeing a stratification start to take place on this show. The strong chefs (Bryan, Michael, Kevin, Jennifer and Pompous Mike) are clearly distinguishable from the weaker chefs (Laurine, Ash, Robin and Eli). The one wild card is Ashley, who has made it into the top for the past two challenges. Will she keep it up and steal a spot in the finale? It's certainly going to be interesting to watch.


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