Last night on “Top Chef: Las Vegas” on Bravo, it was another 75 minute episode, but an action-packed episode in which two chefs were eliminated from the competition. The theme was French food, curiously just as it was on “Hell’s Kitchen” on Tuesday night. Forgive my pedestrian ways for a minute when I say that most things French annoy me, save for French Fries. I mean, who can’t add loads of butter and wine to everything and make it taste good? Okay, I know there’s more to it than that, so I’ll stop banging on the French for this post.
They began with the quick fire challenge, in which host Tom Colicchio and chef Daniel Boulud were on hand to judge. The food they would be judging? Snails. I echo what Jennifer said, when she said “Whoever thought it was a good idea to eat snails in the first place had to be really f–ing hungry!” I mean, seriously people, they’re SNAILS. Ewwwww. But people love them. Anyway, the winner of this challenge would have immunity, and the loser would be going home. Wow, talk about pressure.
The three favorites were Mike Isabella, Kris Kringle (Kevin) and Jennifer. Are you sensing a pattern? The two brothers (Michael and Brian), Jennifer and Kris Kringle are winning everything and appear to be the frontrunners. Anyway, Kris Kringle won, because he cooked his snails with bacon jam. Well, duh! What wouldn’t taste good with bacon jam? Even snails. Well maybe not snails.
The least favorite were Jesse, Ben Folds (Ashley) and Robin. Jesse and Ben Folds are constantly in the bottom, so this was also no surprise. But instead of picking their least favorite right there, they made the three of them face off by cooking anything they wanted for the judges, with the least favorite being sent home. More pressure for those three.
Anyway, Robin’s avocado soup and Ben’s foie gras beat out Jesse’s tuna tartare, which the judges said lacked flavor. So Jesse went home, and she seemed relieved after constantly facing elimination.
Meanwhile, Kris Kringle would have immunity and a really cool prize for the elimination challenge. That challenge was to cook for several renowned French chefs–including Boulud, Hubert Keller and Joel Robuchon. But Kris Kringle would get to dine with them instead of having to cook for them. The challenge would be to pair off into teams of two, and to choose at random a protein and a sauce to make a dish from. The group had to decide which proteins would go with which sauces and therefore what the teams would be.
You could already sense who was going to win, with Michael and Jen one team and Brian and Mike Isabella another. And that’s what happened….Michael and Jen had rabbit and butter sauce…and Brian and Mike had trout and bearnaise sauce…and those were the two favorite dishes of the judges. But they had to pick one person as the winner, and that person was Brian, who cooked the trout perfectly.
Meanwhile, someone had to lose..I had picked the team of Ron/Robin, but was wrong…the two worst teams were Mateen/Ben Folds, and Hector/Ash. Mateen is French, so this was particularly embarrassing for him. But Hector and Ash were worse, as their beef tenderloin was not sufficiently cooked in time, and Hector had to slice it before letting the meat rest, and that meat wound up absorbing all of Ash’s sauce on the plate. So for that, Hector was sent home. It’s worth noting that he’s the first male chef to be eliminated this season, and also worth noting that Ben Folds’ days have to be numbered on this show.
So we’re down to 12 now, from 17…..this has got to be the most nerve-wracking competition in cooking…no disrespect to “The Next Food Network Star,” but these challenges seem to be much more daunting.
Anyway, who do you like? And see you next week!
