Top Chef Fizzles Out

Okay, I finally saw my recorded Top Chef finale. It wasn't as squirm inducing as I thought it would be and Ilan (who early on I thought could be the next Harold until I discovered Sam) took the prize.

Since this is kind of old news, I won't spend a lot of time picking the show apart, I will say that Sam was under appreciated and maligned by Marcel (although it could have been the editing) and what was Marcel thinking picking Michael to help him out and then being disappointed in his work ethic?

Ilan had stalwarts Betty and Elia helping him. Elia's strong skills were responsible for the perfectly cooked fish the judges raved about.

Seeing Elia and Sam in action made me wonder what went so wrong that we we ended up seeing Ilan, talented but staying in his zone (or should I say zona) and Marcel, the boy wonder relying on his chemical arsenal. I do think Marcel's concepts rose to the challenge (cook the best meal you can possibly create) and were riskier and more adventurous, a fact the judges seemed to appreciate.

But once again, the judges talk risk but award safe and Ilan takes home the prize.

Perhaps it finally was a decision on kitchen management and personality. Who knows? I am also tempted to say "who cares?" All the merchandising and sponsorships made this contest seem stilted. The quasi-cheating and other issues sucked some of the fun out. The lack of focus on the food made the whole thing personality and conflict driven and the whole thing just seemed long and drawn out, especially without a juicy reunion show to see behind the scenes tidbits.

Will I be there for Top Chef 3? Well, I keep swearing off Project Runway and coming back for more, so it's a possibility. But I want more Chef Tom in each episode.

Top Chef

A Top Chef Gone Crazy

No Sam in the finale?
Again, no Sam?
How could that be?

I know that the judges don't mark for cumulative scores or total excellence or the number of past wins or even winning personalities (except when they do) and that the producers' influence is a wild card, but still, no Sam?

Sam is a much more consistent, creative chef than either Ilan or Marcel. He is a proven kitchen leader. His food was just as raved about as Ilan's. I don't get it. He is much more versatile a cook than Ilan.

Marcel's one-trick wonder finally worked for him, so I can't complain about him (well, actually I can but I'm not wasting any time on it.)

Here's my totally paranoid take on it.

Judge Tom, still smarting from the producers' over ruling his wish to throw them all out after the hair shaving incident and make Marcel the defacto winner, engineers an Ilan over Sam win.(What's with Sam's dishes not being cooked so therefore inferior, I don't want to digress, but BOGUS. Also bogus, Elia's flavors not being Hawaiian enough, but Ilan's despite all the Spanish sausage, saffron, etc., was.) Ilan is not as strong as Sam so Marcel has a better chance of winning it all and all the pranksters end up punished anyway.


Top Chef

Top Chef Episode 10 -- Just an Amuse Bouche

No time for a full rant and rave tonight. It wasn't a surprise that there was no winning team in the elimination challenge, but then I feel it is partly the way the challenge was set up.

Here's a Top Chef tidbit -- According to Bravo TV, Padma, like Kathy Lee Joel (last season's host and wife of singer Billy Joel), is the wife of a famous man. In her case it is the author Salman Rushdie. It's kind of like Beauty and the Geek, but only if the beauty was also a brain and the geek was one of the world's most respected authors.

Read more about Padma's life and accomplishments on her website.

Top Chef

Top Chef -- Then There Were Six

Well, all bets off on Betty. Gumption, guts and a good personality can only take you so far and Betty was eliminated last night for her "chunky" and oddly flavored pureed soups. Now that the Top Chef competitons (as opposed to the program itself) are focusing on the food, not the gimmicks, formal culinary training might have been the missing ingredient for Betty.

The biggest surprise of the night -- and the biggest mystery -- was Michael. Battered and bruised and obviously drugged up, he ends up cooking his most sophisticated and presentable dishes so far and wins the quick fire AND the elimination challenge. He appears first with his face swollen and looking woozy. Later we learn he is on painkillers and has had an emergency wisdom tooth extraction. His altered state must have helped him focus, or maybe, he finally brought his A game to play. He had hoped to win the quick fire and then just coast through the elimination challenge, but, alas for him, the quick fire no longer brings immunity. It did give him the right to switch his elimination challenge assignment (the challenge was a seven course meal based on the seven deadly sins) sin from lust to envy. He created a trout and salmon dish with the explanation that the trout envies the much larger and more powerful trout. As one judge exclaimed after taking a bite: "Our Michael cooked this?"

Also praised last night was Elia's roast chicken and vegetables carved tableside (pride) and Sam's spicy cerviche with chili popcorn (anger). Betty's trio of slow roasted soups were sloth. Marcel and Elan's desserts (both in the bottom three) were lust and greed. Cliff's seafood packed thai stew was gluttony.

Anger was a prevailing emotion of the episode as one by one the contestents got ticked off by Marcel.

Once again, focus was on the dynamics between contestents with the food emphasis mostly on cooking failures (Elan's funnel cakes) or oddities (Marcel's foam) rather than seeing how Elia got her chicken so juicy or Sam created the very popular popcorn.

Was Michael's pulling it together an exception, or will we see more Top Chef worthy cooking from him? Will they find a way to bring the popular and popularist Betty back in some capacity? On the reunion show will anyone sit next to Marcel?

Stay tuned.

Top Chef

Top Chef Quickie -- Mia Sends Herself Packing

Mia threw herself under the bus tonight to save the talented and idiosyncratic Elia, but it was a dysfunctional team effort that brought her to that point.

As edited, Mia made her dramatic announcement before the judges' announced who would be packing his or her knives. Mia, frustrated her recommendations had been ignored and perhaps upset she had not fought more for them, had concluded that Elia would be axed and volunteered to leave. She may have been right. Michael had played it safe, staying out of the way, Cliff had immunity and Elia had been the leader of a team that had produced four menu items to the winning team's 13 for an L.A. "holiday" bash and still couldn't keep their platters stocked.

(An aside, one of Michael's suggestions ended up not being used. Not surprisingly it involved potatoes, this time with lobster. It's successor idea was steak also with lobster. His lack of creativity and skills was commented on by the judges, especially tonight's guest judge.)

While not much time was spent on the cooking or the food, but the chefs seemed to enjoy their freedom to use quality ingredients and have access to real kitchen equipment (as opposed to last week's firepits.)

Now there are seven -- Michael, Cliff, Marcel, Betty, Elia, Ilan and Sam (who as captain of the winning team was proclaimed the elimination challenge winner).

You can read more about Mia Gaines-Alt and her Feed the People Restaurant in Oakdale, CA, in this article from the Modesto Bee.

Dear Top Chef Fan,
Please consider donating to Menu for Hope III, an effort by food bloggers to support the UN World Food Program. Read more about it here.
Thanks,
FJK of Blog Appetit

Top Chef

Back with a Top Chef Blast

Well, we are back from vacation and I'm full of cruise food and one or two delicious ideas I got from our ports. More on that and a behind-the-scenes look at the ship's kitchen in a later post.

I'm really busy catching up with work and home, so my appetite for my blog writing has to be unfulfilled for the moment.

I did catch the Top Chef episode I missed last week in a repeat. I was unimpressed. I think I finally get it -- it's NOT about the food. It's not a cooking show. It is not about recipes, ingredients or techniques. It is about personalities, creating a narrative and entertainment. I'll still watch, but I no longer expect to learn anything or to be inspired. I do think the first season of Top Chef even with the horror that was Kathy Lee was more about the food than this season.

By the way, I picked Carlos to go this episode, earning myself some high fives from my kid. Also, I'm way tired of Betty being Ms. Comfort Food and bad mouthing Marcel, who does a fair job of being ridiculous all on his own. I know it could just be the editing, but Betty your early wins could count for naught, zip it and whip up something really good before you asked to pack your knives (including that cool one from Chef Ming) and go.

Anyone curious what the trainwreck that (who?) is Michael will do next and how they (the judges/producers/powers that be) will justify keeping him in the competition, which should be easy since it is not about the food?

Eliminate Me! Top Chef 2 Episode 4 Leaves a Bad Taste

I don't know what to think.

First Mr. Junk Food (Michael) makes a mockery of the quick fire by creating a disgusting amuse bouche from vending machine foods (Snickers and cheese puffs) that looked more like a product of elimination than food, then the judges decide not to eliminate anyone from the elimination round. (FYI - Carlos won unneeded immunity with his sunflower seed mini cake.)

The only thing that episode four made me want to eliminate was watching this episode.

I don't do recaps, so if you haven't seen the episode go to Bravo's website and check out the capsule episode descriptions, video highlights, recipes and judges' blogs.

I do do opinions, commentary and ranting and raving, so if that's what you want, please continue reading. The only problem is that I don't much feel like spending much time on this worthless episode.

The elimination challenge was four teams creating low-calorie food for a camp for diabetic children. The menus were to include a main, a veg and a dessert. Promisingly enough Betty and Marcel were on the same team, but they played nice.

(Once again, not much on the food, how the flavors were developed, etc. This has become a show about personalities, not the food. Hey, Bravo, how about a show on Top Concierge or Top Men's Room Attendant, it would be almost as much about the food as this series is turning out to be.)

The kick is that each team's menu had to come in under 500 calories as computed by your team's official nutritionist. Once the numbers were done, your recipe was locked down, you were not allowed to change anything. Let the fun begin.

1. Betty, Marcel and Frank won with their "kicking" pizza, meringue cookie, berry lemonade and fruit skewer. Betty's cookies weren't working so she tweaked the recipe the next day, but felt she was still way under the calorie count. Cue the foreshadowing music here. (Think of the music you hear right before the shark appears in "Jaws.")

In addition to the judges' liking the flavors, it was a big hit with the camper kids (hey it's pizza). Thank goodness the team talked Marcel out of proscuitto. I wonder if Marcel even remembers his childhood, or what kind of childhood he had. Wait a minute, maybe I really don't want to know that.

Frank was declared the challenge's winner for his pizza. His amuse bouche also had garnered praise from guest judge Suzanne Goins.

2. Two teams including Sam and Mia were called in to discuss what went wrong. Sam mentioned there was a lot of olive oil where olive didn't belong being squirted around when the teams were cooking sans nutritionists on day two. He declined to name names, but Mia wasn't shy and spoke up about Betty's bloop with the cookie.

The judges seemed aghast, yet again as in the Otto incident not as upset or determined to draw an ethical line in the sand as I would have thought. Much was made of the complaints only coming after the teams were in front of the judges for not doing a good job. The lesson here, don't tattletale if you lose, but do the right thing beforehand. One hopes that was the lesson and not just that the judges and producers just didn't want to lose the talented and entertaining Betty from the competition.

Next episode or if you watch one of Bravo's many reruns of the show, check the credits out after the show. Judging decisions are made with input from the producers. Not that moral ethics were twisted here to have Betty stay or anything, but the amount of editing of what we don't get to see in the discussion is obvious.

Anyway, Tom comes out to talk to everyone, Betty tearily fesses up and says she didn't understand the rules and Tom says everyone pay attention, play by the rules, no more warnings. (Wonder if there is a Top Chef time out room?) Then the bombshell, no elimination this week.

Wow, what does that say to me the viewer? That they didn't want to penalize the lousiest chef that week without letting Betty go, but they didn't want to lose Betty, so hence no elimination.

Let's also talk a minute about understanding the rules. This seems to be a consistent issue. Last week you had contestants making desserts and other non-entrees for the ENTREE contest for TGIFriday. This week you had people making sweets for the amuse bouche (a small bite of a pre-dinner appetizer thingie). I know there is pressure, but please people for $100,000, pay attention. You can't win (but can get eliminated) if you do the wrong thing. (How about season one finale with Dave only making two dishes instead of the required three.)

Is this very different than Otto not reporting the case of lychees? In some ways, yes, other, no. There was no intentional or unintentional theft. Otto was on the losing team and someone was going to go, so he fell on the knife, so to speak. Otto was not as forthcoming as Betty was about the truth. Chefs in the competition in both cases knew about the rule breaking before judging yet waited until it appeared it was a way to save themselves. Both cases are kind of grey (as opposed to black and white), but is Betty's a lighter shade? I think so, but I wonder how I'd feel if it was Michael.

Anyway, I am not thrilled with Betty not having consequences for breaking the rules since I was so adamant about Otto going, on the other hand I am thrilled she wasn't eliminated.

I guess I am morally ready to be a reality show TV producer.
------------------------------
Top Chef

Was Top Chef Episode Three "Craveable?"

Craveable* was the word the judges used to describe the qualities tonight's winning dish need to have in order to make it on the TGIFriday restaurant chain menu. The challenge was to reinvent a childhood comfort food for adult tastes. The judges included a top TGIF chef and tables full of food-savvy firemen. The reward for winning was having your dish featured on the menu at all 500 TGIFriday restaurants.

Betty's grilled cheese with portabello mushrooms and spicy red pepper soup was the judges' top crave, with Sam's reinvention of a summer fruit salad and Cliff's reimagined fish sticks and mac and cheese earning praise. It's Betty second win. The season's barely started and we are already into repeats!

In the loser's circle were Emily (too salty), Frank (too weird) and Michael (too sloppy, too overcooked, too devil-may-care, hey, in the store he put back cheese for his dish so he could spend some of his food shopping money on beer for himself). Emily's overly salty surf 'n' turf was deemed inedible and for this basic mistake she had to pack her knives and go. Personally, I thought she had potential as a chef and that Michael had to go. I did think as shown on the show (remember this stuff is all edited to show us what the producers think is the story) she did show a lack of flexibility, so I don't think she could have made it for the long haul.

Another big surprise was pastry chef Marisa. She is still there. She made a dessert, a fruit crisp, for the challenge. It was received well by the judges and it kept her from being in the bottom three. If I were her would I have made a dessert? No. The concepts behind this challenge were easy enough, it would have been a good time to go with a non-pastry dish to show her range, but I guess she thinks she should go with her relatively strong points. She was one of the bottom three in the quickfire challenge, which was to create a new ice cream flavor, a pastry chef basic. Cliff won that with his first ever attempt at making ice cream. It was his second quickfire win.

Tonight's drama was provided by Betty and Marcel (devil-in-the-hair). She vented her dislike for him at the firehouse when he came back from delivering his dish to the judges. (Each dish was judged separately. Top Chef candidates had 15 minutes of firehouse kitchen prep time before their dish was judged.) He retaliated by being a jerk when she was trying to ready her dishes for the judges and ran into some problems. The tiff was the subject of a viewer call in poll and somthing like 70 percent of viewers who responded felt Betty was "spot on" on her comments to Marcel. Was it appropriate for Betty to dump on Marcel? Seems par for the course for these reality competition shows, and she seems like the kind of person to shoot from the hip, but it was a very personal attack about how she is for anything that would cause him to lose. As a mother I am on the record for being against that. As a viewer it made for good television. I guess Marcel is the guy you love to hate this season. (By the way, he lost the quick fire challenge with avocado bacon ice cream. Tasters, kids and other beach goers in Redondo Beach, CA, were wiping their tongues off after sampling it.)

What else, well as much as I like Betty, I didn't think her dish was so innovative, but of course I couldn't actually taste the flavors, a big drawback until Sony develops taste-o-vision. And, of course, it had to be a dish that could actually be executed and sell at the TGIFriday outlets. If you want to check out the recipes, all 13 of tonight's recipes are posted at on the recipe page on Bravo's website. If you'd like to see my recipe for a roasted garlic and tomato soup with red bell pepper, click here. I served my version with a grilled cheese and avocado sandwich. But I've already won the top chef award on Blog Appetit. Let's see if Betty can take it all on Bravo's Top Chef.
-------------------------------

* By the way, there is no such word in the dictionaries I checked as craveable. One can crave (to have a desire for, urgent need for or to beg for) something, have a craving (consuming desire or longing) or even be a craver (the one having the cravings) , but technically nothing is craveable. That word is just something cooked up in the TGIF and Top Chef kitchens. Be careful, though, not to appear too craven (fearful, cowardly).

Top Chef

Top Chef Confidential

Ever notice Otto is a palindrome -- a word that is spelled the same way front or backwards? That applies here because any way you look at it, the culinary instructor from Las Vegas (who says he has no formal culinary training) crossed a moral line as depicted in tonight's episode.

Was Team Korea over budget at the grocery store and did they all know it? Yes. Did Otto know before he left the store that the clerk forget to charge the team for the case of lychees sitting on the bottom of the shopping cart? Who knows. Did he know by the time the shopping cart was being unloaded into the car at the curb right in front of the store? Definitely. It is all on the tape.

Speaking of the tape, how could he even think of let's say misrepresenting the conversation he had with Marisa when they were before the judges. Didn't he realize the camera crew was there filming and it was all on tape? It boggles the mind.

In the end, he did technically bow out (perhaps before he could be told to pack his knives) and show acceptance of responsibility, but Noah, Blog Appetit's 15 year old future pastry chef, and I wonder what happened off screen with the producers. Was he offered this face saving option?

It did seem that poor Marisa would go for her rubbery panna cotta if not for Otto's lychee issue. That didn't seem fair to me since I think she was the most upset by having to be the whistleblower and I believe the lychees were originally part of her dish, so she may have had to change recipes mid-program. I also think if a pastry chef wants to be Top Chef, she has to focus on excelling in non-pastry areas, so her just taking on the dessert was not politically astute.

Other observations -- It does seem like the producers have cast to replicate some personalities from Season One. Marcel, of course, reminds one of Stephen even down to wearing ties in his post-cooking interviews. Michael has the good-time, junk food appeal of a Miguel, but apparently without the cooking chops (it was his pork that brought down the judges' opinions of Team Vietnam's efforts), and Josie and Emily have the look and assertiveness of Le Ann and Tiffani. At first I thought Ilan might be the new Harold, but now I don't think so, as presented on screen he seems to lack Harold's seeming lack of manipulation and cut throatness. Betty seems a bit like Cynthia in terms of being to the point, older and blond, but her skills and personality are on a whole other level.

Some differences -- Having a pastry chef this time makes the mix different. Also, last time some of the chefs didn't seem to have as strong a kitchen production experience as this crew does, although it seems like some have less all-around experience than others. (Mia's sushi hand rolls, Michael continually saying how he doesn't know how to do this or that). Oh, and the biggest difference --new host Padma Lakshmi doesn't make me cringe every time she speaks.

Want to see a two-and-a-half minute preview of the quick fire challenge in episode three? Click here.

Want to read more about what Lee Ann is calling "Lycheegate" as well as her take on episode two and a comment that she shows up on episode six? Is there a hint at that end that Marisa doesn't go the distance? Check out her blog here.

Some recipe notes: Josie's Vietnamese dish was not what I or many others would consider pho, which is primarily a noodle soup dish. If you'd like to try my "faux pho," please click here. If you would like to try making fresh Vietnamese spring rolls (called summer rolls on the show), check out my version with vegetarian, shrimp, mango and cucumber variations.

------------------

Photo credit: Bravo TV

Top Chef

Top Chef Tease

Okay, I admit it, I stayed up late to watch the new season of Top Chef. I'll write more later when I have a chance to process it some, but I am pleased with the new host, disappointed that the production left S.F. for L.A., questioning why the producers picked some of the new contenders, and wondering if Marcel is the new Stephen.

Top Chef Tidbit

It hardly seems like Wednesday with out a new episode of Top Chef to look forward to. (Well, actually it does seem like Wednesday, what with our garbage being picked up as usual, some things don't change, but I digress.)

The point is that without our weekly dose of Top Chef (or even the Next Food Network Star), life isn't quite as, shall we say, vicariously melodramatic.

So I perked up this morning when I read a brief mention in a column in the San Francisco Chronicle about round two Top Chef tryouts in San Francisco. Five hundred (yes, 500) hopefuls showed up. They were each given a two minute interview (about the time you need to make a soft boiled egg), but no actual cooking was involved. So, yes it is true, no taste is required for reality shows. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

---------
(To read what else I've written about Top Chef, enter those words in the Search This Blog bar above to the left.)

Top Chef

Top 5 Things I Learned from Top Chef and/or a Harold Fan Wonders if Tiffani Was Robbed

The youngest son and I were at our posts at the TV at 10 p.m. last night, anxiously awaiting the season finale of Top Chef on Bravo.

The future pastry chef (well, maybe he'll be one, his career choices change around) and I were high fiving every time someone made a positive comment about Harold and of course were ecstatic when the pencil-toting, stubbled, t-shirted chef from New York won the whole shebang.

It was a bit of an anticlimax though. The show was edited to look like it gave Tiffani a smack down that maybe she didn't deserve. I know, I am shocked at that impression, too. Tiffani seemed to be a bit reformed in her relations with other. It might have been a case of too little too late. She was also very audacious in her menu (which was to be a five-course tasting menu designed to match with wines from actress Lorraine Bracco Italian import line). She chose to make it a 10-course menu by having two variations on everything. Take a look at some of the things I learned from Top Chef last night and then we can discuss the concept that Tiffani was robbed. (Did I really just type that?)

1. Nice guys can finish first, at least when they can cook as well as the mean ones.

Harold's essential niceness always came through as well as his dignity and respect for other contestants. That showed in many ways in the final show, but especially when the eliminated chefs voted for him to be Top Chef.

2. Don't make enemies on the way to the top.

Since Tiffani seemed to be using the Survivor model to succeed, she should have remembered that the banished have some say on the outcome. I will say it is time for Dave to just get over it, though.

3. You can pair artichokes with wine.

I was stunned when Tiffani announced she was doing an artichoke course with the wines and relieved that Stephen had shown some class and volunteered to work with her. Instead of a disaster her artichoke "risotto" was judged by many to be the outstanding dish of the finale.

It was the only dish highly praised by the judges that was solely the creation of a finalist. It was interesting that Tiffani was blasted for the great dessert Dave made since it wasn't her concept, but while Tom and the other judges knew Harold's best dish (the beef two ways) had been Miquel's creation, Harold received nothing but praise. It didn't help Tiffani stammered and inflated her role in Dave's desserts, but still it rankled to see that "nice" Harold got away with what "mean" Tiffani couldn't.

4. You should play it safe to win Top Chef.

Once again my man Harold designed a conservative menu to play it safe and while it was commented on, he ended up taking it all with that approach. Once again, Tiffani went for broke. As Chef Tom said "Her highs were higher, but her lows were lower." There seemed to be no points for pressing the boundaries.

5. If you drink a glass of wine while you watch Top Chef you won't be able to write a recap of it for your blog at midnight.

I guess that fits more in the category of personal lessons that I learned.

So, how about it? I definitely didn't want Tiffani to win, but was the judging fair? Was she robbed? Or was she just a little vandalized and still deserved to lose?

At the end, she is shown teary-eyed talking about what the win and money would have meant to her. If she had shown (or to be truthful had been edited to show) this humanity during the run of the show, she might have actually had a better chance to win. Or at least fared better in the live call in poll (which was something like 93 percent for Harold).

Harold won. I'm pleased. But all didn't feel right. So long Tiffani. I hope you take this experience to heart and become more open and willing to depend on others. Too many cooks don't have to spoil the broth.

Top Chef

Top Chef -- Dave Folds in Vegas

Bravo's Top Chef, part one, is done and Dave is cooked.

His food was consistently better liked than Tiffani's by tonight's judges, but in the end his lack of focus, his nerves, his uncontrolled emotions and his (admittedly flavor-filled) relatively simple cuisine led to his elimination. It didn't help that he forgot to make a dish.

Tonight was filled with plot twists, tight deadlines, mystery judges and lots of Kobe beef.

The three finalists, Tiffani, Dave and Harold, had the run of a MGM Grand Hotel kitchen in Las Vegas. To say that the pantry was stocked would be an understatement. From fresh herbs to caviar, the kitchen's abundance almost overwhelmed all three. In fact, they only had 10 minutes to familiarize themselves with the kitchen's equipment and larder before they had to start cooking for the first challenge -- one of the evening's many plot twists.

The evening's challenge was split into three parts and run like a quick fire, but it was an elimination round. The chefs had 30 minutes to complete each of the three different "room service" requests.

First up were three "high rollers" who wanted to be impressed. They asked for two courses, one cold seafood and one hot. The mystery high rollers, and three of evening's many guest judges, were the recently eliminated Miguel, Stephen and LeeAnne. The high rollers gave high marks to Harold's dishes -- mussel and paprika soup and a fish crudo with Japanese cucumbers and avocado. Dave's flavors got a nod (although his grilled fish was ruled overcooked and dry), but Tiffani's dishes left them cold. (By the way, all the contestants had color-coded napkins and their dishes were tasted blind.)

Chef Tom wondered why no one grabbed the caviar and worried that the dishes were not impressive or substantial enough for high rollers. Over and over again he stressed that being a top chef meant being responsive to customers' needs.

The second part of the quick fire challenge was to create four snack foods for a group of poker players at a table in the casino. Phil Hellmouth and his pals were happy to dig into Dave's dishes, all of them giving high marks to his egg rolls, fried shrimp and chocolate-covered strawberries. Dave also had a salami paninni. If the guest judges commented on it, their remarks were edited out. Harold had what the poker players considered the best individual dish -- honey Dijon chicken wings. Ironically, it was a dish that pretty much came right out of the MGM kitchen freezer and into the fryer. Harold's onion rings, mini pizzas and grilled cheese were not really mentioned, but all the poker players thought Dave and Harold "got" the kinds of easy to eat, flavorful food they wanted to eat at the table.

Tiffani, who announced that she was a Las Vegas poker player herself, went all in and busted with her gourmet interpretations of snack food. A quince and flatbread Napoleon looked great, and the players all thought her flavors would make great appetizers but said the dishes needed a fork.

Okay, so far, Tiffani has not scored a win or even a real strong second in any of the quick fires, and Dave is coming in surprisingly strong. But the pressure, the rapid pace (which he continually moans about) and the unfamiliar kitchen all came together to derail him.

The third and last of the night's 30 minute challenges was to create three high protein, high carb and low fat dishes for Cirque de Soleil performers. By now, all three cooks have taken proper stock of the wealth of food offered to them and they all offer Kobe beef. Tiffani also concocts a blueberry, crab and caviar salad and offers a pork dish. Harold creates a lobster pasta and a chicken with crispy skin and potato gnocchi. Dave's Kobe beef is accompanied with a kick-ass, no-oil pasta dish that reminded me a bit of Guy Fieri's cooking on The Next Food Network Star.

If you are counting dishes, you know what happens next. Dave has only produced TWO dishes. According to him, he just spaced and totally forgot he had to make one more until there were literally seconds left and he saw the other chefs' room service carts lined up and ready to go.

My son and I were yelling at the screen. "Grab some apples. Put some bread on the cart. Anything, just do it!," but Dave just stood there, his perpetually worried face looking drained and defeated, his hands and body finally still. (One aside, did anyone else think that even when something good happened to Dave his face registered nervous upset?)

Chef Tom took the food carts to the circus performers who gave very informed and insightful criticisms of the food. Dave's beef was the hands down favorite. Harold's cart was praised overall. Tiffani was criticized for pork (one judge called it rubbery) and her salad (too salty).

While the guest judges had a big say in the individual quick fire elements, in the end it was Chef Tom, Kathy Lee Joel (who had less to say than usual and therefore was much less annoying), Food & Wine's Gail Simmons and Hubert Keller, the chef-owner at San Francisco's famed Fleur d'Lys restaurant, who made the decisions.

After dinging Harold for winging it with the frozen chicken wings, it was clear that Harold was in and would continue to the final challenge. Then the judges started praising Dave and carving up Tiffani.

Dave's food, his win, his almost win if he had only made one more dish, his flavors were all discussed. The praise was so strong, I thought the judges were making a case for keeping the technically weaker candidate. I rationalized this continuation of Dave's Cinderfella story by Dave's continually astute reading of what his patrons would like to eat. It never seemed like he was cooking for the food cognoscenti, it has always seemed to me that he makes food for the "regular" guy.

Tiffani was scored for never having the winning dish or cart and for her misreading the needs of her poker-playing patrons.

Well, I thought, the nice guy is going to finish, if not first, at least second, but then the plot turned, and the judges announced to Tiffani that she was staying and that Dave should pack his knives.

I was surprised but not surprised. In terms of a finale, Tiffani is more evenly matched with Harold. She also adds more drama and confrontation. (See my post where I discuss the Wendy Pepper rule in reality competition shows here.) If the lack of one dish was the reason Dave was eliminated for not following the rules it was never clearly expressed. I think the judges just saw his nervous lack of focus and perhaps his lack of top technical skills as not being "top chef" material.

From clips of the next show, it looks like the judges were all top food professionals, an audience that with one key exception never warmed to Dave's food. (The exception was his win over LeeAnne in the Napa challenge.)

A few other snippets:

Harold has opened his own restaurant.
Tiffani would use the prize money to travel the world and explore the food she cooks with.
The restaurant Dave worked for was sold and he is out of a job. He's being doing some catering and vowed at the end of the show to keep cooking and looking for a mass audience to expose his flavor concepts to.

Was Dave robbed or did he deserve to go home? Leave a comment below and I'll tally them up for next week's wrap up report.

Top Chef

Quickie Top Chef Report

Did you see the Top Chef Reunion Show on Bravo last night?

The youngest son and I did and I have to admit it was pretty much a waste of time.

Why?

Well it was manipulative TV without telling you anything new. Following the Project Runway model, the production seems based on getting the participants not just drunk but wasted with the hope they'll say something that makes good TV. Also, suddenly Dave dresses like Cary Grant and Stephen looks like a slob. Do I see the fine hand of pr and image consultants? I will say Dave's dandruff showed up on his suit and Stephen seemed like more of an actual human being. Oh, and there is a whole lot of Mrs. Billy Joel and not enough Chef Tom.

In other highlights, Harold and Andrea continued to be the classiest contestants. Ken Lee remained the most marginal. I could have lived a long and happy life without the Miguel fart compilation/highlight. Tiffani was the one the others ganged up on and the one who left the set and had to be coaxed back.

Just in case the buzz wore off, the producers kept the chefs well lubricated even when the contestants were on camera. Even Stephen was seen swigging wine or maybe champagne directly out of the bottle.

The whole thing just seemed like a ramp up for the two part finale and had no merit on its own.

Tune in next week to see if the show gets cooking.

Top Chef

Topsy Turvy at Top Chef

I can't believe it, LeeAnn is out. She and Tiffani were locks to go to Vegas. I thought Dave would be out for sure unless Harold had a meltdown.

Instead Dave's simple truffled mac and cheese won the judges' hearts after too much foofoo and lamb on the part of other contestants. My son predicted Tiffani (or is it Tiffany) would stay, I voted for LeeAnn (or is it LeeAnne). But I forgot the always important Wendy Pepper Rule.

The Wendy Pepper Rule is that all judging is not created equally and producers have a say in who stays and who goes. Tiffani (and possibly Dave) make better TV. I also think it explains why Stephen lasted so long. Don't believe me? Read the fine print during the credits scroll at the end of the show. Why name it after Wendy Pepper? Pepper was the "wild card" finalist that stirred the pot on the first Project Runway. Top Chef is produced by the Project Runway folks. Got it?

The challenge was to use black truffles in a dish for the judges and 10 of the top chefs in Napa to showcase a rare red wine from Shafer Vineyards.

Harold's lamb dish was the clear winner with focused tastes and a combo that amazed the judges (tempering the wine-killing affects of spinach with sunchoke puree). He got dings for gritty mushrooms. He also had a leg up since he won the quick fire reinventing junk food challenge. Tiffani's multi-layered, high concept truffled gnoochi with lamb was dinged as nice idea but mushy execution and several judges faulted her for her choice of pureed cauliflower which clashed with the wine, which she defended at the judges table. LeeAnne's dish was faulted for being too busy (in truth it didn't seem much busier than Tiffani's) and her lamb for being overcooked. Her sauce was widely praised.

Dave had one of his near breakdowns telling the chefs about his dish. His understanding of the wine seemed the weakest. He did serve beef although not much ado was made over it and his side dish. One chef called him a "pepper monkey" for overseasoning with ground black pepper. Another faulted him for not using enough salt. His high brow mac and cheese was a hit, but the rest of his plate was a mess. He had the most to overcome since he had lost the quick fire.

You do the math. It didn't add up to me.

Update: Here's a link to the recipe for Dave's mac and cheese with truffles, cognac, cream, fresh herbs and several kinds of cheese. You need to provide your own truffles. Browse around the Bravo site a bit if you are a Top Chef junkie and read the blogs and LeeAnne's interview. Thanks to Sweetnicks for pointing me in the direction of the Bravo blogs.

Top Chef

Top Chef -- I Can't Believe I Watched the Whole Thing With Bonus Roast Beef Recipe

Caught the latest episode of Top Chef on Bravo last night. I swear, these cooking reality shows are like potato chips, you can't have just one. You think I'd be happy that the Food Network show has wrapped and go on with my life, especially since I really don't like reality television programs.

Anyway, it seemed like an unfair elimination challenge (throw together a wedding feast for 100 in under 24 hours for $3,000), but there is much about Top Chef I'm not fond of, including the host, who is Mrs. Billy Joel, which seems to be her main qualification for this gig (that and a summer job as a fishmonger in the Hamptons). It's not that she is just 23, heck I was an early achiever in a previous life, it's that she doesn't do it for me as an expert OR as a host who I am comfortable with presenting the info even if it is not her expertise. She does have some kind of food website. Maybe sometime when I am procrastinating doing some real work I'll check it out and report back.

Back to Top Chef. They eliminated Stephen. YES. I know it was probably the editing process that made him seem like a conceited, clueless, smug whatever, but he just was so full of himself. While I felt his talent was much stronger than Dave's, I couldn't stand him or even say I loved to hate him. He did add to the story line, though. I am always suspicious of why certain "obvious" eliminations stay around in these reality series. Let's just say that sometimes chaos, lack of control and witchiness make for a more exciting show than plodding competency.

Who do I think is next to go? Tiffany and Lee Ann seem very strong, although it was Lee Ann's overly ambitious menu that did the team in this week. Dave got props for being helpful and having actual catering experience this week, but he seems like a real weak link. Harold's dish was one of the worst this week and he has been in that position before. I think it will be Dave or Harold out next unless one of the women chefs really screws up.

Could anyone tell me a -- why I am watching this show I really don't enjoy that much and b -- why I am spending so much time venting on it?

One of the recipes they made for the show was something called Peking Glazed Beef. I don't what they did or how they did it, put I have a great way to make beef that really plays up an Asian flavor. I haven't made it in a while, so I don't have a "real" recipe for you, but here is the basic technique that I have developed.

Asian Roast Beef

1 roast beef (cut of your choice, but I find cross rib works well if cooked properly)
3-4 peeled garlic cloves, each clove cut into three long slivers
Knob of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, peeled and cut into about 12 slivers
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine, sherry or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon grapeseed or other neutral vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil (the type using as a Chinese flavoring)
Red pepper flakes or ground cayenne pepper or liquid hot sauce
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven as appropriate for your cut of meat.
Cut thin slits all around the roast beef. Cut as many as you have ginger and garlic slivers for. Make some slits deeper than others. Alternate inserting garlic and ginger slivers into the roast.
Set aside.
Make basting sauce. Combine hoisin sauce with wine, soy sauce and oils. Add hot seasoning to taste if desired. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. (Note, the soy sauce and hoisin sauce are already salty, so you may want to taste the marinade to gauge how much extra salt you'd like to add.) Stir well. Brush a light coating of the marinade all over the beef and place beef in oven and cook as appropriate for your cut of meat. Periodically brush the meat with more of the basting sauce.

Serve with rice and steamed or stir fried vegetables tossed in an Asian-flavored vinaigrette. Or serve with small, steamed flour tortillas or Peking duck pancakes, with sliced scallions (green onions) and extra hoisin sauce on the side. Diners roll up some of the slice beef with the scallions and sauce in the pancake.

Top Chef Update: Producers have announced season two is now casting. Want info, check out this listing.

Top Chef