Sep/090
One Bite To Save Your Life
Previously on Top Chef: The chefs prepared what was essentially a large buffet. Preeti "I can't shuck a clam" Mistry was sent packing her knives. It was a pretty boring episode. The challenge was that they were at an air force base using canned food and large industrial kitchen machines. This week however, was awesome.
Kevin's winning quickfire dish
The Quickfire was as high stakes as it gets. The winner gets immunity and the loser goes home. To top it off, they are cooking for one of the greatest chefs working today, Daniel Boulud and cooking one of the most difficult ingredients - snails. They are worked into a tizzy. I wouldn't even know where to begin, but apparently Kevin did, because his Escargot Fricasse with Mushrooms, Brussels Sprouts and Candied Bacon Jam wowed Tom and Boulud.
It seemed to me unfair to do an elimination quickfire with such a crazy ingredient, but the bottom 3 get one last saving grace. They each must quickly create an amuse bouche with anything that is in the kitchen. As Tom puts it, "One bite to save your life and keep you in the competition." Robin makes an Avocado Soup with Yuzu, Green Apple, Mustard Relish and Crab. Jesse makes Tuna Tartare with Sorrel, Gooseberries, Fried Quail Egg and Fried Bread. Ashley makes Foie Gras with Pineapple, Tarragon and Ramps. After considering, Tom sends Jesse packing. It had been coming for a while. She was in the bottom of almost every challenge she participated in. It seemed to me that she wasn't a bad chef, just out skilled by the others. She makes her exit and we move right on the the Elimination Challenge.
Each of the chefs except Kevin take turns pulling knives. Half have classic French sauces written on them and the others have traditional French proteins. They must now pair up to create dishes together. They will be serving a table full of the most known and respected French chefs around right now: Hubert Keller, Daniel Boulud, Jean Joho, Laurent Tourondel and the man voted Chef of the Century - Joel Robuchon. Because he won the quickfire, Kevin is not only immune, but gets to join the chefs at their table and eat with them. You could feel the other chefs dying inside when they heard that news.
The pairings begin. Some are obvious such as Laurine's Lobster with Eli's Sauce Americain and Hector's Steak with Ash's Au Poivre sauce. The rest resulted from who wanted to work together and who nobody else wanted to work with, mainly Ron's Frog Legs and Robin's Meuniere sauce.
Winning Dish
The pair of pairs that beat out everyone else were Michael I. & Byan's Warm Cured Trout with Deconstructed Bearnaise and Michael V. & Jennifer's Rabbit Chasseur with Mustard Noodle and Shiso. They judges were incredibly impressed with this group. The win ended up going to Bryan for the perfectly cooked Trout and his idea for the deconstructed Bearnaise.
The bottom feeders this week were Ashley & Mattin's Seared Poussin and Ravioli with Sauce Veloute and Green Asparagus along with Hector and Ash's Chateaubriand, Sauce Au Poivre with Confit De Pommes and Spinach.
Losing dish
I really thought Mattin was going to be sent home. He is French and trained in French cuisine but couldn't deliver. He had to make a veloute sauce, which is basically a velvety smooth sauce. Compared to other dishes, that was one of the easier sauces to make. But alas, the judges spared him. Instead, the first man sent packing this season was Hector. He had to cook beef, and he couldn't do that well. Its a simple thing really but the meet was unevenly cooked and badly cut.
My picks are flat out kicking ass. Bryan performed well last week and won the challenge this week making him the first contestant with two elimination challenge wins. Jennifer won the quickfire last week and 
was chosen by the group to lead them in the challenge and she did awesomely. This week she was in the top group for the elimination challenge. Kevin was in the top group last week and won the quickfire this week. I would predict that it will be my picks plus the two Michaels in the final five.
It was a really exciting episode this week. It felt good getting rid of two chefs. It gets better when more of the dead weight chefs get cut and the really good chefs get super competitive.
Aug/090
Top Chef Vegas Gets Rolling
Ironically, this week's episode of Top Chef Las Vegas shared a lot of similarities to this week's Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsey's cooking competition show on Fox. Both shows started off with a challenge involving a roll of dice.
Top Chef's roll was for how many ingredients your dish had to use with salt, pepper and oil being a freebie. Each chef rolled two dice at a genuine craps table to determine. The lowest was a three and the highest was a ten. (For those curious: Hell's Kitchen was a multi-sided die with letters of the alphabet on the different sides. Each teammate would roll and pick an ingredient starting with whichever letter they rolled. Working together, they had to create 1 dish with the 5 ingredients.)
The winning dish came from one of the bros, Michael, who rolled an eight. The producers jumped for joy as his brother, Bryan, was in the bottom group of the quickfire. Let the sibling rivalry begin! Michael made a unique "Roll With It" Gazpacho Frozen with Liquid Nitrogen. You can watch him cook it here.
Hell's Kitchen always offers a prize for the winner of the challenge as incentive. Top Chef did it last week and continued last night as well, giving the winner $15,000 in what they call a 'High Stakes Quickfire.' They haven't made it clear if this is a random occurrence or if its a permanent thing, but like I said last week: I hope it continues. Chefs don't make a lot of money for one thing and it will plant seeds of jealousy if someone keeps winning. I want some drama.
The elimination challenge took a page right out of Gordon Ramsey's book: battle of the sexes. Every season of Hell's Kitchen starts with the men fighting against the woman, but it is not something that they usually do on Top Chef. The chefs found out they will be catering bachelor and bachelorette parties. The men will cook for the bride's friends and the women will cook for the groom's posse. To complicate matters, they have to create canapes that pair well with one of three shots offered at the party.
Bryan, Hector, Eli and Michael
I'm not going to keep you in suspense... the men won... overwhelmingly. They were cocky, but had the goods to back it up. 
The top four men pictured above were commended by the judges, particularly the normally stern Tom Colicchio. Guest judge Todd English had to make a decision about the winner. He made it clear that it was between the two brothers. In a nice juxtaposition to the beginning of the episode, Bryan took the win. Michael may have won the money, but Bryan got the judges attention which is far more valuable.
Bryan's dish was a unique take on guacamole and chips in the form of a Sweet and Sour Macaroon filled with Guacamole, Corn Chips and Corn Puree. It think it looks perfectly delicious and in proportion to the size of the shot.
The bottom four women summoned to the judges table were by far the weakest of the team with the exception of one: Ashley.
Jesse, Eve, Preeti and Ashley
Ashley decided that they had enough time to do an extra dish, so she took it upon herself to make it. And of course, she attempted something of the dessert persuasion, which wasn't very good. Most of the judges liked her first dish a lot, but the second one got her sent to Judges' Table. I hope she learned her lesson.
Preeti's dish wasn't bad, just the shiso leaf used was wilting in the sun, so she was safe as well. Jesse was in trouble. She had been in the bottom of the elimination challenge last week and in the bottom for this week's quickfire. But thoroughly clueless Eve had to get gone.
She looked confused and out of her league. Her Shrimp and Avocado Ceviche with Smokey Tomato Salsa and Popcorn was not liked by any of the judges. She used shrimp last week which lead to her being in the bottom four, so why not use shrimp again, right? There was even a shot of Jennifer having to warn Eve to watch her knife, as it was inches from Jen's face. And she had a really annoying voice. Adios!
Let's see how my picks are doing:
Bryan, Jennifer and Kevin
Bryan recovered from his Quickfire flop to outshine everyone else at the Elimination Challenge and win. Jennifer was a solid rock on her team and warned Ashley to stick to one dish even though she was ignored. She's sassy too, I like her. Kevin got the highest roll at the Quickfire, but did a good job incorporating all of the ingredients. His dish was enjoyed by the judges, but he wasn't in the top group. All three doing OK so far, let's see how it goes.
Aug/090
Top Chef Vegas premieres
Let's face it, Bravo's competitive reality programming hasn't been on par lately. Top Chef New York was a huge disappointment. Top Chef Masters was a boring flop. Make Me A Supermodel was a dud. The Fashion Show wasn't received well by fans who wanted Project Runway. Project Runway is premiering tomorrow... on Lifetime that is. Something tells me that the execs at Bravo pushed a bit more money towards Top Chef Vegas in hopes of salvaging not only the franchise, but in hopes of beating their former friend and now enemy Project Runway.
From the get-go, the show flat out totes their bevy of talented chefs this year. James Beard Award nominees, Michelin star recipients, former employees of known chefs, executive chefs and a few wild cards. They also cast brothers to compete against each other; they've never had family members compete before.
The 17 contestants meet Tom and Padma in the Top Chef Kitchen. The first Quickfire Challenge is a crowd-pleaser: the ever popular mise en place relay. They are randomly divided into teams of four with a very lucky Robin (the token older woman for the season) getting the golden poker chip. This enabled her to not participate and get immunity for the week. The relay included shucking clams, peeling prawns, cleaning out lobsters and breaking down two chops.
While most did impressive jobs, one contestant, Preeti, couldn't get her team past the clams. It was a sad sight. Top Chef she is not.
Bryan, Mattin, Jennifer and Jesse kick ass
The winning foursome then competed against each other in a cook off with the ingredient they interacted with during the relay. Lucky Robin is given the choice to gamble her immunity for the potential to win some money, but she declines. The top two were a Clam Cevice with Citron Vinegar from Jennifer and Jesse's Shrimp and Grits with Polenta. Jennifer won the quickfire and was given a chip worth $15,000. It's not clear whether the monetary incentive will continue in future challenges, but it does fit with the Vegas theme. Also, it might 'inspire' chefs that might disregard the Quickfire Challenge under other circumstances, so I hope it continues.
Getting to the Elimination Challenge, we learn that they will be competing against their teammates. One of each of the groups will go to Judge's Table as a winner and one as a loser. Their theme was to create a dish around their vices. The majority cited alcohol as their vice, which seemed too easy to add whiskey or red wine to a dish. In fact there was so much booze in most of the dishes that I am pretty sure that Wolfgang Puck, the guest judge this week, was drunk. He threw one of the contestants doughnuts across the room and was boisterous as can be.
Kevin's winning dish
Besides booze-infused dishes, there was a bevy of spicy dishes for those whose vice was being hot tempered and slow poached fish for the procrastinators. There were a few clever takes on the challenge, but it seemed like an odd one to start the season with. Most just wanted to show off what they could do instead of thinking about the personification of a vice in food form. The winning dish looked pretty damned yummy in my opinion: Slow poached Arctic Char with Salsa Verde and Celery.
Losing dish... ick
The losing dish on the other hand looked like shit covered in breadcrumbs.
A Chile Relleno stuffed with Seiten. What is Seiten you may ask? It is an odd gluten meat used as a meat alternative. Its very vegan-rific. The chef, Jen, thought it would impress the judges. If she had made it taste good, maybe they would have been impressed, but they asked her to pack her knives and take that crap with her.
Who do I think will take the competition this year? Here are my picks for the final three:
Kevin Gillespie is an Atlanta based Chef with tons of experience. He's got the talent, imagination and guts to take the competition. Yes, he did win the first Elimination Challenge, but I swear I picked him before they announced the winner.
*
Jennifer Carrol won the quickfire and showed the others that she is a force to be reckoned with. Out of all the women, she has the best shot of winning, in my opinion. She is a Philadelphia native and worked with Eric Ripert.
*
Bryan Voltaggio is one of the brothers competing. I figure that the producers will want to keep the bros around for a while for the drama. The odds are good that one will make it to the finals and this brother seemed like the more talented chef of the two.
*
All in all, a good premiere. I always like it once we get a few weeks in and the amount of chefs is pared down some. The level of chefs and production value seems to have been kicked up a notch from previous seasons, though, which has me curious. It appears Bravo is serious about getting some ratings and a leg up on other competitors out there.
