Rick Bayless made a ribeye burger with three kinds of guacamole. The judges loved the burger but wondered why Bayless made three types of guacamole instead of just one. Still, Rick managed 4 stars.

Art Smith made a burger wrapped in a hoecake with fried green tomatoes, and all of it went over pretty well. They liked his as well but not as much as Rick’s….3.5 stars.

Hubert Keller made a beef and roquefort burger with Yukon gold chips. The judges liked it but thought the cheese took over the burger’s flavor a bit too much….3 stars.

Anita Lo, who won last week’s challenge, decided to make a cheese soup with mini-burgers and a ketchup crouton. Unfortunately for her, the judges didn’t appreciate her take and would have preferred a burger they could hold in their hand. They had problems with the flavor too….1.5 stars.

Michael Chiarello, who was poking fun at Hubert, mostly because he’s terrified of him, made a giant burger with truffles and manchego cheese potato chips. His went over as well as Rick’s…4 stars.

Then, they were assigned their elimination challenge, in which they would be working as a team to create a five-course meal for actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, her friends and family, as well as judges Jay Rayner, Gael Greene and James Oseland. But there was a catch, or several catches…Zooey is a vegan…and gluten intolerant…..and doesn’t eat soy. So as Michael pointed out, it’s like cooking with one hand tied behind your back. They would have $300 to shop and 45 minutes to cook. They each made what amounted to appetizers except for Art, who volunteered to make dessert.

Rick, who is known for being one of the best Mexican food chefs in the country, made corn tamales with chili black beans and braised greens. Everything he made was mostly a hit, except that Oseland wasn’t crazy about the salad greens on his tamale.

Hubert made a white gazpacho, a timbale of avacado and asparagus, and a red beet salad. Everyone was raving about the beet salad, and Zooey was going apeshit over the gazpacho.
The waiters dropped two of the shot glasses holding the soup, but Hubert, ever the pro, had made extras.

Anita made a spicy grilled eggplant with lentil salad and cashew sauce. Most of the diners and judges were not impressed, saying the eggplant was too heavy and oily, but a few said they liked the cashew sauce.

Michael made quinoa pasta with green sauce and a pine nut gremolata. Everyone loved it, especially Zooey, and one of the judges mentioned that Michael seemed particularly confident and it showed in the food.

Art made a strawberry champagne soup with a strawberry rice ice-cream (not homemade) and an almond brittle. Almost everyone was disappointed with Art using store bought ice cream instead of making his own sorbet or something similar.

At the critic’s table, Choi pulled no punches….she announced that the top scorer would win $10K for their charity, and that the top three were Hubert, Michael and Rick. Hubert earned 16 stars with the judges, giving him 19 stars total. Rick earned 15 stars, giving him 19 as well. Michael earned at least one perfect score and other very high marks, giving him 18 stars (22 total) and the victory.

So it was down to Art and Anita, and you could almost sense it would be Anita. But they went to her first, and gave her 11.5 stars, bringing her total to 13 stars. Art, however, was slapped hard on the wrist for the store-bought ice-cream and had some really low marks….9 stars in all from the judges, giving him 12.5 total and a ticket home. Anita breathed a huge sigh of relief….she had mentioned at the start of the show that she didn’t sleep well the night before and wasn’t on her game, so she dodged a bullet after winning last week’s challenge.

So we’re down to the final four…Hubert, Anita, Rick and Michael. My feeling is that this will come down to a final showdown between Hubert and Rick, but anything is certainly possible.

Who do you like?

Last night began the finals of Bravo’s inaugural “Top Chef Masters,” and all I kept thinking was that if I was there in person, I would be more in awe than I was simply watching it. These six are some of the best chefs in the world, and here they were in the same room. Anyway, meet the contestants–Hubert Keller, Anita Lo, Rick Bayless, Michael Chiarello, Suzanne Tracht and Art Smith. There were similarities between some of them and yet each chef has a unique culinary point of view.

Their first (quick fire) challenge was another “Top Chef” favorite, the relay race. They divided into teams of three–Anita, Rick and Hubert against Suzanne, Michael and Art. The tasks were to shuck oysters, chop onions, cut up a chicken and then whisk egg whites until they hold for 5 seconds when the bowl is turned upside down. With four tasks, one person from each team would have to do two of them. The judge was “Top Chef” personality Tom Colicchio. Hubert and Suzanne faced off with the oysters and Suzanne was like a machine, making it look incredibly easy, but Hubert caught up to her eventually. Then Hubert and Art faced off with the onions and both were incredibly fast and efficient. Anita and Michael did the chicken, and Anita was a bit faster, but wow….I can’t even do this if I have an hour, and they were carving entire chickens in seconds. Finally, Rick and Art faced off with the eggs…they had to first separate them, and Art got hung up by having a stray yolk he had to remove from the bowl. But it didn’t matter…Rick whisked those whites into what resembled whipped cream in lightning fast fashion and he passed the 5 second test, giving his team the victory. That meant Anita, Rick and Hubert began with 5 stars, while Suzanne, Michael and Art began with 4 stars each.

Before their elimination round, each chef had to create their signature dish before sitting down family style to share their dish with each other. It was at this point that I was secretly wishing I could be at that table. Hubert made a lobster truffle cappucino with something called corn madelene; Art made seared grouper with hearts of palm and mushrooms; Anita did seared scallops with potato puree and sea urchin flavored mustard greens; Michael did a fennel and balsamic quail with greens and apples; Suzanne, who makes simple comfort food, made a chopped sirloin with green peppercorn sauce and a fried egg; and Rick made a rack of lamb with chile sauce and a fig/red wine sauce.

Now, this wasn’t the main challenge, but they were about to be tested. Each chef had to take another chef’s dish and create their own spin on it. Yikes. They were all nervous about this for fear of insulting one another, and also because it may take them out of their comfort zone. Hence the word “challenge.” Hubert got to choose first and then the others would be selected at random. He chose Anita, who would in turn have to re-create Hubert’s dish. Rick and Michael, and Art and Suzanne were the other pairs.

Art, who admitted he hates working with eggs, made a scotch egg type dish, with ground lamb wrapped around an egg, and sweet potato fries. Suzanne in turn made grouper with gnocchi, peas and bacon.

Rick made a quail with parsnips and prosciutto over wild greens, trying to stick to Michael’s Italian theme instead of his own Mexican point of view. Michael made lamb chops stuffed with chick pea and fig puree.

Hubert made scallops with a sea urchin sauce and fingerling potatoes, and Anita was maybe the most creative, making a corn chawanmushi (what?) with a lobster biscuit and champagne/lobster gelee.

The judges, who included Gael Greene, Jay Rayner and James Oseland, as well as some of their former competitors, were flipping over Anita’s dish, with judge Jay Rayner calling her “clever,” and also with Rick, who Gael Greene described as “brave.” They were less than impressed with Art’s dish, and while they enjoyed Suzanne’s, they said the fish was a bit dry and the gnocchi were cold, leaving them to wonder if she finished early and had the food sitting out for too long.
Michael admitted he was more concerned with pleasing Rick than he was the judges, and that could have gotten him into trouble. And Hubert did a decent job with Anita’s scallop re-creation.

So they declared Rick and Anita the best, but the chef with the highest score would win $10K for their charity. Rick scored 18 stars with the diners and judges, giving him 23 points total, but Anita scored 24, with a few perfect 5’s in there, and she won the $10K. And both of them were safe from elimination.

Michael scored 14.5, giving him 18.5 total, and Hubert a total of 21.5, making him safe from elimination. Then Art and Suzanne….Art scored just 11, giving him 15 stars total and sending Michael to safety. Suzanne only had to score 11.5, but she didn’t…..the judges couldn’t get past having some cold food on their plates, and she scored just a 10.5 or a total of 14.5. So Art was safe and Suzanne went home.

So now it’s down to five–Hubert Keller, Anita Lo, Rick Bayless, Art Smith and Michael Chiarello.
Anita is proving she may be really tough to beat, but the other four are no slouches at all.
So who do you like to win it all? Lucky for us, we have another month or so to find out while enjoying what each episode watching these brilliant chefs in action.

See you next week!

Their quick fire challenge was to create a dish with just $20 and the use of a single aisle at a grocery store, drawn randomly. Jonathan drew the aisle with canned veggies and dried beans, and wound up making a red pepper and lentil salad. Art had the rice aisle and made a risotto with crispy rice salad. Michael had the baking aisle and made a chocolate parfait, and Roy had the pasta aisle and made an Asian style spaghetti with an egg on top. The judges for this were Whole Foods employees, and they liked just about all of the dishes, but loved the chocolate parfait the most…..even after Michael claimed to not be much of a dessert expert. So Michael wound up with 5 stars, Art 4.5 stars, Roy 4, and Jonathan 3.5…all of which would go toward their final score.

The elimination challenge was another “Top Chef” favorite, the mystery box challenge…..each chef would create a mystery box for one of the other chefs from which they had to make a dish. Roy and Art drew each other, and Jonathan and Michael drew each other as well. For Art, Roy chose chicken, corn and yams among others…..Art gave Roy mahi-mahi and short ribs…..Michael chose pork chops, cauliflower and black truffles for Jonathan….and Jonathan gave Michael lamb, portobello mushrooms and sunchokes. The judges were regulars Gael Greene and James Oseland, with “Top Chef” regular Gail Simmons filling in for Jay Rayner.

Art, who has southern roots, made fried chicken and a mango tart, and I’m pretty sure the judges are still licking their fingers. It’s almost unfair I think to make fried chicken or anything with bacon! Anyway, Art made a surf and turf but some of the judges thought he over-sauced the fish. Jonathan made a pork sausage and pork chop with cauliflower puree and black truffles, and the judges were mixed on this one, though Simmons went on and on about how the earthy truffles made the dish. Finally, Michael, who is a seafood chef, made loin of lamb with sunchoke puree and cauliflower….the judges were mixed on this one too. It’s also worth noting that while Jonathan challenged Michael a bit by not giving him seafood, the others made sure they gave their opponents the best chance to shine…and the love-fest these guys had for each other was at a higher level than in earlier rounds of the show.

Anyway, at judgment time, Roy earned 11 stars between the diners and the judges, giving him 15 total. Michael, who was in the lead after the quick fire challenge, earned 12.5 stars, giving him 17.5 and eliminating Roy. Jonathan earned 16.5 stars, giving him 20 total, and eliminating Michael. Finally it was Art….and we all knew they loved his chicken and tart…..Art earned 17.5, including a perfect 5 from Gael Greene, to give him 22 stars total and the victory.

So Art will join Hubert Keller, Suzanne Tracht, Rick Bayless, Anita Lo and Michael Chiarello in the finals, which begins next week with the grand prize being $100K for charity. This show has been really exciting so far, so seeing the best of the best square off now is going to be really fun to watch. Join us next week and let us know your thoughts on last night’s episode….