Top Chef California: Episode 1

By Jason Lee

December 7, 2015

Be very careful when you talk smack in the first episode.

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The executive chefs slave away at their sous chef duties and one by one, the nine slots get filled up. The ninth appears to go to one chef (I think it was Jeremy) who has all 20 of his egg yolks separated . . . but Tom (who “demands perfection”) notes that at least one of his yolks is broken. The clock starts again and Jeremy frantically cracks open an egg—the yolk breaks. He tries again—the yolk breaks again. Then, before he can see if the third time is indeed the charm, TC alum Grayson finishes off her chickens and makes it into the next round.

The nine remaining chefs are then randomly broken up into three groups of three. They’ll have to work together to create a dish that highlights one of the five ingredients from the previous round, but the catch (in classic Top Chef fashion) is that each chef will have ten minutes to cook solo, while his or her teammates stand blindfolded. No communication will be allowed.

Renee (the sunny redhead) kicks things off for the blue team by smartly grabbing all the ingredients for her team’s dish to give her teammates hints about what to do. Isaac, a Cajun chef for the green team, does the same, using obvious cooking preparations like breading chicken breasts, to provide a blueprint for his teammates. Meanwhile, Jason kneecaps his teammates on the red team, with no clear idea of what to do, prepping both chicken thighs on the grill and wings/drumsticks as a backup.

Nothing much happens with Frances on the blue team, but Grayson for the green team is able to follow the lead set by Isaac. Unsurprisingly, Jeremy on the red team has no idea what Jason was trying to do, and sticks the chicken breasts in the oven. Jason frets that their next teammate (absent communication) will never discover the chicken breasts in the oven.




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The anchors now take over, with Amar (a chef from the Dominican Republic) finishing off the blue team’s chicken dish. Same with Carl on the green team. Wes, on the red team, has no idea that chicken breasts are in the oven, and sees only the still-partially raw wings and drumsticks on the grill. He cuts some small slices off those pieces of poultry and sautés them in a skillet.

Time is up and Tom and Padma head over to see what the chefs have come up with. The blue team offers a sweet and sour chicken breast with citrus slaw. Padma loves their use of mint.

The green team has a breaded chicken breast with brown butter asparagus and a mushroom sauce. Tom finds the chicken pleasingly moist.

Finally, the red team serves up what Padma dubs “an appetizer”: grilled chicken with orange and anchovy. Tom chokes on the dish’s overuse of anchovy.

Surprising absolutely no one, the red team is on the bottom. Tom declares that the balance was “out of whack” and was the only dish that tasted like it was made by three different chefs. With immunity up for grabs for the winning team, the blue team (comprised of Renee, Frances, and Amar) edges out the green team (Isaac, Grayson, and Carl).


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