Top Chef All Stars Recap

By David Mumpower

February 7, 2011

At least my pasta was cooked!

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The nine chefs are divided into three groups of three chefs. They are not, however, teammates. Instead, their groups represent courses, antipasto (the appetizers), primo (the first course) and secondo (the meat course). Pellegrino aka Frankie No (and let's not ponder on exactly how he got that nickname) tells the nine players that he will debate proper meal ideas with one group while Frank Jr. aka Junior and Dino Gatto (yes, his name sounds like a former WWF tag team champion) tutor the others. All players will be taught the Rao's way for a proper Italian meal that reminds the diners of home and family. This is spelled out so many times that it is readily apparent we are witnessing a Ratatouille challenge. The first chef to make Anton Ego cry wins.

The antipasto group consists of the remaining ladies, Antonia, Tiffany and Carla. Carla is happy about this challenge, but Antonia's joy is total; she almost tears up thinking about her preparations. The primo trio is comprised of Dale, Tre and Mike. Tre takes this opportunity to remind us of his nickname, the Black Italian. Clearly, he's angling for the lead role in the inevitable Rocky reboot. The secondo group is comprised of Angelo, Richard and Fabio with the Italian gleefully discussing the cuisine of his people with Frankie No. When he obliviously refuses to let the latter man talk, Angelo's frustration boils to the surface, causing him to lash out that Fabio needs to let Frankie talk. Chastened a bit, Fabio still treasures every moment of the conversation. He will be crushed if he loses this challenge.




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A trend we have noticed on Top Chef this season is that whenever a chef does something important in the kitchen, it is meticulously chronicled during the show. Jennifer Carroll's elimination is impossible to miss in hindsight, because the episode may as well be entitled Watch Jen Fail. Conversely, several of the winners during All-Stars made bold choices to which the camera also paid particular note. I say this because Italian expert Antonia has a problem with the way that Black Italian Tre cooks his risotto. He cooks the groupings as a batch while she indicates he needs to toast each piece of rice individually. So, he's either going to make food wrong and win or he's going to go down in flames because of this. I love Tre so I hope it's the latter; then again, I love Antonia, too, so I don't want her to be wrong. God, I hate All-Stars season now that Marcel is gone. I need villains and heroes, black and white rather than shades of gray.

The final judge this week is inspired. Lorraine Bracco of Goodfellas and The Sopranos joins the owners and employees of Rao's. She has of course worked with Frankie No and they relay the fact that she has been an occasional guest of his at the restaurant. She will be almost as hard to please as the actual employees of Rao's.

The women start the proceedings and the mood is largely upbeat for their presentations. Antonia presents a mussels dish complete with fennel, white wine, garlic and parsley. Some of the other chefs have hinted that her meal lacks degree of difficulty. Whether that becomes an issue at Judges Table remains to be, but the diners are giddy about the taste of her food. Carla's meal is a minestrone soup with basil oil, tomatoes and homemade focaccia, which I'm just now learning is a real thing rather than a word Krusty the Klown made up. One of the restaurant employees indicates you could find this dish in Wisconsin, which I'm presuming is a huge insult in his mind. Everyone else seems to love it.


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