This is what has happened on Top Chef for about a month that I haven't been blogging about it:
Week 1: All the cool kids come back with some assholes (Marcel) and Elia gets eliminated first and twice for the same bad dish (no bueno!)
Week 2: Joe Jonas shows up for a kiddie meal (OMG JOE!!!) challenge at the Museum of Natural History, Jamie cuts her fingers and "needs stitches", leaves her teammate Jen (whom I love) to do all the work. While facing the Judges Jen throws down a fight (bueno) and eventually gets eliminated (no bueno!)
Week 3: Chefs go to several NY restaurants and make a dish inspired by the house Chef. Dale L and Stephen get the boot (bueno!).
Week 4: The elimination challenge is at the US Open going head to head with the other team in rounds. Jamie has undercooked beans, refuses to plate up and team loses without having to show her plate to the judges meaning she's not up for elimination. Angelo goes back to his old ways of meddling into people's plates, the victim this time is Spike. Spike gets eliminated (sort of bueno).
So now here we are up to date with week 5...
For the shows 100th episode we get a special treat from Head Judge Tom Colicchio where he participates in the Quickfire challenge which is basically to make a dish in under the time it takes Tom to make a dish. Sounds good except Tom is a speed demon and does a delightful dish in 8 minutes and 37 seconds. In the rules, Tom emphasizes that the difficulty of the dish will be taken into consideration and a crudo dish (raw dish) will not be considered difficult. Makes sense, except to Angelo because he makes a crudo dish and says he figured he would make a decedent dish to compensate. I'm sorry foam on a crudo dish does not make it decedent. Mike Isabella wins the challenge and a Toyota Prius (Well, well aren't we getting fancy with our prizes?).
The Elimination Challenge is to make Dim Sum for hungry restaurant goers in Chinatown. Now for those who aren't aware Dim Sum is sort of like Chinese Tapas, little hors d'oeuvre being pushed around in a cart and people just pick it off the cart and eat it. In the challenge the group is working as one team with someone expediting the food and 2 people pushing the carts in the dining hall.So the gang goes to a Chinatown market and everything is in Chinese and no one speaks English (Welcome to New York!). Once they get to the kitchen they realize that they are not used to working "in a kitchen like that", you mean a normal kitchen without all the fancy high end stuff, yeah. Hell broke loose immediately! Not only that but there was no organization. When it came time to send out food, there was little to no food being sent out. The problem: the chefs weren't cooking for their diners. The dishes that they were sending out wasn't real Dim Sum, it was dumplings with fusion sauce! I mean seriously, that's why it took so long for them to send out food. Everyone was so meticulous with the drops on their plate, the sauce being spooned properly, the beef being at a 30 degree angle, and the sprig of mint carefully being placed in the center. It's Dim Sum in Chinatown!!!!! It got to the point where diners were just grabbing plates off the carts and people fighting over food. It was just one hot mess! My favorite quote came from Carla when Tom came to intervene in the kitchen, "When you see your daddy where you're not suppose to, you know you're in trouble". Who's your daddy Carla?
Honestly, I have no idea how the judges were going to eliminate people. It was just a bad dinner service over all. I think the only 2 people that actually stuck out on the positive side was Dale T. and (I hate to say it) Angelo. The judges just went by the tasting that they had and which ones did poorly. On the bottom were Tre for a melted sorbet, Casey for tough chicken feet, Carla for too much noodles in a summer roll, Antonia for teaming up with Jaime on a bad bean sprout something and (surprise, surprise) Jaime for bad bean sprout something and her scallop dumpling (what a shocker she made scallops again). Her excuse at the Judges Table was that she had never worked with that kind of wrapper before, uh duh but its still a dumpling wrapper! Point is Casey got eliminated which came to a complete shock to both Jaime and myself (we had the same expression, loud gasp!)
Should she have gone? Sure but not in week 5. There are other chefs (JAIME!) that have been scathing in these challenges. Oh and not a Chef makes by doing soup and scallops all the time! If another good Chef leaves before their due time (like Jen), it's going to be no bueno!
