Last night was the premiere episode of “Top Chef Masters” on Bravo, a spinoff of the extremely popular “Top Chef” show that recently completed its fifth season. As we reported on Monday, this show pits four established, top-notch chefs against one another six weeks, and then the six winners compete against one another for a few more weeks, with one elimination taking place each week until the master is crowned.
The first episode featured Hubert Keller of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco; Michael Schlow of Radius Restaurant in Boston; Tim Love of the Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in Fort Worth; and Christopher Lee of Aureole in New York City. Kelly Choi was the host and her first assignment for the chefs was to create a dessert dish for the distinguished palates of four girl scouts. They mostly cringed, with Schlow in particular admitting he had no formal training as a baker.
But they forged ahead. Schlow’s cakes literally flopped but he managed to put something on the plate. Love made a favorite of his daughters — strawberries three ways, including a “chicken fried” strawberry. Lee went with French toast cubes, and Keller won with his play on chocolate mousse and meringues — which he shaped into little animals. So he had a jump start in points with 5. Love and Lee had 3.5 each and Schlow started with 2.5. Those points would go toward their final score after the main challenge.
And for that main challenge, the chefs were asked to create a three-course meal in a college dorm room, using only a microwave, toaster oven and hot plate. The judges would be a combination of students and industry veterans/critics Choi, Gael Greene, James Oseland and Jay Rayner.
Love got off to a bad start when he realized that he placed his ingredients in a freezer the night before instead of the fridge. Oops. But he recovered nicely, making a corn and squash posole, as well as scallop carpaccio and skirt steak with kale. Keller made a salmon appetizer, a carrot and pea soup with cinnamon, and mac & cheese with shrimp…and he drained the water from the pasta in the dorm shower…ewwww! I had flashbacks of Kramer from “Seinfeld” making meals in the shower. I mean, aren’t there germs in there? Anyway, Lee made a snapper ceviche, a risotto (no easy task in a dorm), and a pork chop main dish. Schlow went with a salmon appetizer, cabbage and bacon soup, and a sweet and sour pork dish.
The judges were pretty impressed with each chef’s ability to create amazing food under difficult circumstances, but Love and Schlow were eliminated right away because their overall scores were 14.5 and 13.5, respectively. Lee scored 15.5 from the judges, giving him 19 points overall, so Keller needed 14.5 to win, and he scored 15.5, giving him 20.5 total points and the victory.
So Hubert Keller is the first finalist who will square off against five other winners starting in six weeks. I wonder if he will use the shower in his cooking arsenal again! Keller won $10K for his charity, the Make a Wish Foundation.
Anyway, this is already an extremely entertaining show, and the best part was that these four chefs had absolutely no egos whatsoever. They clearly were laughing at each other and at themselves, and having a lot of fun going through the process. I hope that kind of cameraderie comes through every week.
That’s it, see you all next week, and feel free to leave your comments below…
