Welcome Foodies, to the newest season of Top Chef! This season is held in Washington DC...are they headed to the White House like Iron Chef did a while ago?
Padma is back after giving birth to her first child - and looks gorgeous as always. Chef Eric Ripert joined her, Gail Simmons, and Tom Coliccio as part of the judging panel.
Quickfire:
Round 1: Peel potatoes
Round 2: Brunoise onions
Round 3: Breakdown chickens
Round 4: Prepare dish using those ingredients.
Prize: $20,000!
One girl slices her thumb open during the potato peeling process. Ouch!
Kenny wins the first round, and then wins the second round. Is this a sign of knife skills to come? Ok, he won the third round too. Wow. Skills.
Dish Preparation: Gorgeous plates, delicious looking food. I wish I was Padma right now. Best dish: Angelo! Not Kenny, who won every other portion of the challenge, although he did go head to head against him as the two best dishes. Of course Kenny is pissed...
Elimination Challenge: Competing against each other to create a dish representative of where they're from. Slightly confusing to me, since it was done a bit backward than most times - but each finalist (the guys who were the top in the quickfire) chooses who they want to cook against. Of course, this riles feathers for the people who are picked first...I don't know if it's Bravo editing, but they're making the women out to be pretty catty that they were chosen at all - sort of a "you picked me, you think you're better then me, I'll show you" - Let the drama begin!
Least favorite contestant so far is Tracey - who was (surprise!) the person who was chosen first and had her feathers ruffled. Dear Tracey, Calling someone a hick because they're from a small town is uncool and does not mean they're a bad chef (calling him a bad chef was uncool too). It just makes you look like a b...ad person. Sincerely, a Viewer.
(So the debate between my husband and I is whether Chef Eric Ripert is actually giving the chefs a sour expression, or if his face is just sort of like that...)
So from every group they picked one from the top and one from the bottom...
Top: Kevin, Alex, Kenny and Angelo. The top two from the last challenge are again going head to head against each other! Winner: Angelo! Again! Okay, as they say in past seasons, the person who wins the first challenges often win the entire thing, so the chances are pretty high that he will go quite far...although it seems that Kenny isn't far behind.
Bottom: Steven, John, Jacqueline and Timothy. Timothy was a finalist from the last round, and is pissed. Steven deep-fried his thin-sliced ribeye...Jacqueline tried to make low-fat pate...John bought puff pastry instead of making his own...Tim cooked his fish with (thick) skin on...who will go home? And we said goodbye to...John. Poor guy.
This foodie is looking forward to the rest of the season of great food! Ok, a little drama is fun too, but really, it's all about the food. Yum!
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Comments: 2
Ripert is elevating his profile via televison, like his food god level chefs before him. With his show, With Eric, on PBS, guest gigs all over the place, and this job, we'll know much more about him.