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Top Chef Recaps: Week 1 (page 3)
by Josh Aterovis We move on to the Elimination Challenge, where Padma introduces the last of our judging panel, Gail Simmons from Food & Wine Magazine. For the elimination challenge, the chefs are split into two groups, the orange team and the black team. One group cooks using all five secret ingredients, then other group tastes their dishes and chooses their two favorite and least favorite. Each team has two hours to prepare their tasting plates. As the black team leaves, and the orange team leaps for their boxes of secret ingredients, someone yells "Break an egg!" Hey, it made me laugh. The orange team's secret ingredients turn out to be snails, processed American cheese, artichokes, potatoes, and bar peanuts. It's an odd combination. The American cheese especially seems to throw everyone off. It's not an ingredient often used in finer dining establishments. Or by people with functioning taste buds. Elia seems particularly offended, mumbling something about how it shouldn't even exist. Amen, sister! Suyai is struggling from the word go. She just seems to have no confidence whatsoever. Meanwhile, Marisa slices into her finger and we get our first blood shed of the season. "This is what happens when pastry chefs have sharp knives," she says good-naturedly. Carlos volunteers to help her dress the wound, since, as he puts it, he has no idea what he's doing anyway. Not a good sign for our sole out gay chef. Chef Tom does his walkthrough. Marisa jokes about cutting her finger and asks Tom to give her knife lessons after it's all over. Tom offers her some on-the-spot advice, "Keep your fingers out of the way." And there you have it, folks. Straight from the mouth of the Head Chef himself. That's gold, right there. When Tom gets to Suyai, she once again sells herself out. "I've never cooked so badly in my life," she tells Tom. She goes on to say the only thing that could work in her favor is if someone else messes up worse than her. She's so going home. Didn't she see what happened to Stephannie on Survivor just last week? Time is up for the orange team and the black team comes in to taste and judge. Here's what everyone made: (and no, I don't know what half of this stuff is either...) Carlos Artichoke potato cake and escargot coconut shrimp sambal peanut sauce Frank Escargot and American cheese ravioli with potato bell pepper peanut sauce Marisa Pate Brisée Tart with snail garnish Michael Shoestring potatoes with artichoke cheese sauce and peanut pesto snails Elia Buttery escargot with artichoke and American cheese Ilan Baked escargot in the shell Suyai Braised potatoes and artichokes, garlic escargot with cheese sauce The black team chooses Carlos and Suyai as the worst, and Ilan and Elia as the best. I'm really worried for Carlos, guys. He's not doing so well. Unless he picks up his game, he might not be long for this show. Now it's the black team's turn to cook. Their secret ingredients are frog legs, chicken liver, eggplant, cornflakes, and peanut butter. This keeps getting weirder and weirder. Otto is all over the place, running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He's obviously panicking and doesn't work well under pressure. Maybe he should have thought about that before going on a show that's all about putting its contestants in high pressure situations. Chef Tom does his walkthrough and Josie admits to being nervous about preparing frog legs. Tom grins and tells her, "You know what they say. Tastes like chicken." For the record, I'd like to point out that he's right. I've had frog legs and they really do taste like chicken. Wings to be exact. We lied to my little niece and nephew, telling them they were chicken wings, and they loved them. They really are quite delicious. But tell mewhat do they do with the rest of the frog? Tom asks Marcel what he's making and Marcel tells him he wants to keep it a surprise. Tom doesn't like that, but Marcel is too busy being full of himself to notice. I worry/hope that we might be about to get some more bloodshed, but no. Mia charmingly tells Tom that she was psyched to get frog legs because it was like Sunday dinner at Grandma's house. Tom thinks she's the only one who has experience cooking frog legs, but we learn later that Otto has as well. Not that it will help him any. Oh, and it should come as a surprise to no one that Marcel is certain he'll be in the top three. Here's what the black team prepared: Marcel Frog leg lollipop, chicken liver purée, garlic and parsley sauces Betty Frog leg and chicken liver cake, salad and peanut vinaigrette Sam Tumeric and cereal crusted frog leg with eggplant and caper sauté, duo of sauces. Josie Frog leg nugget with chicken liver peanut butter & eggplant jelly Cliff Braised frog leg, eggplant chip, and cornflake chicken liver Emily Cornflake peanut butter crusted frog leg with grilled eggplant Otto Frog leg and chicken liver, rice, vegetable sauté and peanut sauce Mia Chicken fried frog leg with garlic mashed eggplant, wilted arugula I have to say, with the exception of Mia, that is one of the most unappetizing menus I have ever seen. Even the dishes looked unappealing. Mia's, though, looked amazing and the other chefs clearly enjoyed it. As Mia pointed out, there was even finger licking. The orange team chose Otto and Marcel as the worst, and Betty and Mia as the best. |
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