Top Chef: Texas Recap

By David Mumpower

January 30, 2012

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After minimal conversation about Charlize and making the top six, the chefs get a night’s sleep and then head to the kitchen for the next Quickfire Challenge. They are met by a pair of Iron Chefs, Cat Cora and Emeril Lagasse (Google if you doubt us). Cora apparently has another cooking show competition on Bravo, so this is an instance of network synergy. Or whoring. The terms have become synonymous on television.

Today’s challenge divides the six players into three duos of Paul and Ed, Chris and Grayson and Sarah and Lindsay. As was the case in the previous episode, this is a novel new competition. The contestants must prep all the ingredients before they can make their dishes. Once they have approval from the judges that the prep work is satisfactory, they are allowed to move on to the cooking phase. In other words, improper prep work will slow down a team so much that they may not have time to cook the dish.

Lindsay and Sarah have worked together several times already in the competition and their experience shines through in the prep stage. They are the first to receive approval at all three stations (pasta, corn and shrimp) and they almost have more time to cook than the other teams in combination. They earn the right to start cooking at the 16:50 mark.

As Lindsay smokes the competition in prep work, a debate ensues between Grayson and Chris. For possibly the first time this season, Chris plays this by the book with a steady, methodical approach to corn shucking. Conversely, Paul tries to fly through this phase. When Paul asks for a check of his work, Cat Cora informs him that his work in inefficient and requires him to do more. After this, Chris asks the same question and is praised by Cora for excellent knife work. Once again, the tortoise beats the hare.




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As Grayson continues to rush, Cat Cora and Padma are hyper-critical of her work. They fear her pasta is dried out and will lack flavor. Meanwhile, the power team of Ed and Paul get their act together and finish with almost exactly ten minutes left. Yes, Lindsay and Sarah have a lead of almost seven minutes. If they lose this challenge, it is a choke, pure and simple. On the other end of the spectrum, Grayson is so slow with her prep work that the editing team never shows how long they have to cook. She states a concern that they will have time to cook anything.

A frenzied few minutes later, the dishes are ready for tasting. But another crippling mistake has been made in a Quickfire challenge. Paul has been worried all along that he will once again let down Ed in a joint effort. They have worked together twice before and coincidentally or not these have been two of Paul’s worst performances of the season. In this Quickfire challenge the men have plenty of time to finish their dish, yet Paul has a brain cramp and forgets to put the shrimp on the dish. This makes them ineligible to win. We continue to be amazed by the fact that the two finest chefs in this competition seem to get along so well yet they constantly produce lackluster dishes together.

This leaves the judges with only two choices for Quickfire victory. Lindsay and Sarah had all the time in the world to finish their dish while Grayson and Chris were desperately plating as the seconds ticked down. The entire matter seems like a foregone conclusion right up until Cat Cora samples the women’s dish. Tarragon is one of the ingredients and the tone in Cat’s voice reflects the fact that she believes that flavor ruins the dish.


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