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Top Chef Season 6

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apskip:
My overall assessment of the top and bottom chefs for Top Chef 6 is basically unaltered, but I do want to recognize some minor changes. At the top remains the foursome of Bryan, Mike V., Jen and Kevin, any one of which can win TC6. In a new middle category is Mike I. (who is downgraded a little because of failure to excel in Restaurant Wars) and Eli (whose stock is rising). All by herself now is Robin, who has to be the favorite for elimination next week.

TexasLady:
I view Jen and Kevin the two strongest chefs so I was shocked last night when they had such a bad outcome. We've seen Jen run the entire kitchen so when she didn't take charge that surprised me. Kevin didn't step up either, another surprise. I view Mike I as in the middle, agree with you Apskip.

Eli stepped up and did a great job in the front of the house. He took charge, and it was obvious from the beginning that Laurine couldn't begin to match his performance.

I want to say something about Robin. If her dessert had not been good, she would have gone home so I give her huge kudos for standing up for her self and her dessert. Mike V was rude, condescending and almost a bully dealing with Robin. He certainly would have shoved her under the bus if she had followed his direction or allowed him to take over and screw it up.  "Relax, relax, relax..."   It was not pleasant to watch.  I thought he was one of the stronger chefs, but he lost a lot of points for me with his actions.

apskip:
TC6, ep. 10

This season is moving right along. One chef disappears each week, except for next week when a special Holiday dinner chefs from all seasons of Top Chef. Padma introduces the Guest Judge, Paul Bartolotta, owner of Bartolotta di Mare, an acclaimed Las Vegas seafood restaurant. The Quickfire is based on favorite all-time TV classic shows. The knife drawing is:

Kevin - Sopranos
Eli- Gilligan's Island
Jen - Flintstones
Robin - Sesame Street
Bryan - MASH
Mike I. - Seinfeld
Mike V. - Cheers

The challenge is to create a dish inspired by your assigned show. I always hate the hypocrisy involved in these type of challenges. The chefs do not really connect their food to that show in any real way, but they come up with some rhetoric that makes you think that they have. They just try to cook tasty food, which of course is what they should be doing.

The selections for this are:

Jen - Chicken Roulade with Garlic Cream, Pea Salad, Caramelized Peaches
Robin - Burger with Egg, Crispy Kale, Carrot Salad and Almond Laced Cookie
Bryan - Meatloaf, Mashed Potato, Asparagus and Apple Tarte Tatin
Eli - Macadamia Nut Shrimp with Sweet Potato Puree, Herb Salad, Cherries and Bananas
Kevin - Meatballs with Polenta, Roasted Cauliflower, and Roasted Pear
Michael I. -  Sausage and Peppers, Mushrooms and Cheese, Warm Fruit Salad
Mike V. - Chicken Parmesan with Braised Swiss Chard and Cherry Pie

Losers' group was Jen and Robin. Winners' group was Kevin and Bryan. Kevin took the prize, which was the opportunity for his dish to  be in the new Top Chef recipe book. That is a decent prize although it pales in comparison ot the $15,000 that some have been getting.

The Elimination Challenge will be to create a meal with no restrictions for 13 guests, the four judges (Tom, Gail, Paul and one to be revealed) plus 7 special guests plus Padma plus one for the camera. It was to be done in Craftsteak Restaurant in theh MGM Grand Hotel, donated for this occasion by its owner Tom Colicchio. All the chefs were marveling at the Kobe beef and other fine ingredients, so you can assume that most dishes would be steak-based.

However, Top Chef producers had a twist in store for the chefs. The last Guest Judge is revealed to be Natalie Portman and she has just one reuiqrement for the chefs: she is a vegetarian. That prompts some instant replanning. The special guests are her friends. There is limited vegetables for an all-vegetable meal. Eli and Jen both want the large purple eggplants. They flip something for it and Eli wins, leaving Jen with the small eggplants and a continuation of the negative disposition that she has suffered from recently. In contrast Mike I. is supremely confident that he will not be eliminated. Menus are prepared and cooked on what appears to be a one every 10 minutes schedule.

The dishes prepared and served are:

Jen - Charred Baby Eggplant, Braised Fennel, Tomatoes and Verjus Nage
Robin - Stuffed Squash Blossom, Beet Carpaccio, Fresh Garbanzo Beans and Chermoula
Bryan - Artichoke Barigoule, Confit of Shallot, Wild Asparagus and Fennel Puree
Eli - Confit of Eggplant, Lentils, Garlic Puree and Radish Salad
Kevin - Duo of Mushrooms, Smoked Kale, Candied Garlic and Turnip Puree
Michael I. - Whole Roasted Leeks with Onion Jus, Baby Carrot Puree and Fingerling Potato
Mike V. - Asparagus Salad, Japanese Tomato Sashimi and Banana Polenta

In final preparation Robin ran out of time and 2 of his plates lacked garbanzo beans; one of those went to Tom who had to borrow some to taste from Paul. Bryan left some fairly substantial items off his plates due to lack of time. The key from the judges perspective was creating a substantial meal, as Natalie put it a manly meal, which on eating you did not miss the lack of protein. There were some huge differences in the chef's ability to do this.

The winners' group was Kevin, Mike V. and Eli. Kevin got a double victory and now has the reputation as the chef to beat. Bryan was unscathed in the one-person middle group. The losers' group was Jen, Robin and Mike I. Jen was there because her meal had good components but as a whole was too light and insubstantial. She was not able to make the adjustments necessitated by the twist. Robin was there due to her flavors being off. Michael I. had cooking problems in boiling his leeks, which were the centerpiece of his dish. Any one of these 3 was equally deserving in my opinion. However, I think based on past performance  the judges had to eliminate Robin. They did not follow my logic and instead eliminated Michael I. I see this as a continuation of my observation from last week that Robin is being protected by the producers because she is a female and it would not send the right message to have all but one female chefs eliminated too early.

I must say that Michael I. was on my list of those to be eliminated soon, so it was no real surpise, just a difference in timing. Robin will be eliminated soon. She does not have the culinary talent to stay in this competition.

apskip:
I am not expecting a regular episode of Top Chef this week. Based on the previwes at the end of episode 10, I think we will get a Holiday Dinner competition  between selected chefs from prior seasons of Top Chef.  How it is structured I have no idea. This is BRAVO's way of making Top Chef season 6 stretch until almost Christmas.

The allstar chefs, a mixture of fan favorites and winners, include Fabio Vivani, Harold Dieterle, Marcel Vigneron, Ilan Hall, Dale Levitski, Casey Thompson, Hung Huynh, Richard Blais, Carla Hall and Stefan Richter. Viewers will see Marcel and Fabio go head to head, and Carla and Casey confront each other for the first time since the controversial season five finale.

apskip:
The All-Stars from Top Chef 1, 2, 3 4, and 5 are back. They gathered at  the Social Hollywood mansion in Los Angeles for a reunion show. The idea was to have them reminisce and cook a little food for their own consumption. Fabio Viviani from Season 5 was the host, no doubt to help him on his TV career. He was the fan favorite from season 5 and he oozed charm, but when the discussion was going in a direction he did not want, he ruthlessly threatened people with the wrath of Fabio!

The participants were the creme de la creme:
Season 1 - Harold and Tiffani
Season 2 - Ilan and Marcel
Season 3 - Hung, Dale and Casey
Season 4 - Richard and Lisa
Season 5 - Fabio, Stefan and Carla

The only winners not involved were Stephanie and Hosea. All #2 finishers were there. The conversation was free-flowing about their season of Top Chef, although "Where are they now?" was a big topic.  Fabio challenged each one in turn to talk about the most difficult situations they faced on Top Chef.

After hours of conversation, Fabio cut off the wine and had each season draw knives. It proved to be for the course number they would cook for the celebratory meal. Of course a trip to Whole Foods with $250 per chef preceded that. The idea was to impress their peers, as nothing else was on the line except the knowledge that this was being captured on camera for future broadcast. The actual meal in order was:

Season 2 - oyster bisque with with puffed rice, pickled watermelon, and red onion; crab pierogi with mushroom and asparagus ragout; sardines with black pepper pork broth and scallions
Season 3 - sea salt encrusted red snapper, ratatouille
Season 1 - seared scallop with scallop sashimi noodles and Tom Yum broth
Season 4 - corn fed beef, duck pate, savory root beer caramel, Captain Crunch Bubbles (one of Richard's molecular creations involving air)
Season 5 - desserts, despite some reluctance: raspberry pannacotta, chocolate mousse, almond crisp

The conversation revealed that:
Harold claims that TC1 chefs were "guinea pigs".
Dale had planned to retire as a chef before he was invited for TC2, which changed his career. He is opening a restaurant and has his own weekly supper club.
Tiffani still wants to open her own restaurant.
Richard has opened his own burger restaurant in the Atlanta.
Marcel has left las Vegas, moved to Los Angeles and has his own restaurant in the SLS Hotel.
Marcel admits to some juvenile behavior in TC2, but not enough to justify the attack that Cliff made on him with support from Ilan and Elia. Marcel says that he and Ilan have mended fences.
Dale claims that Sara N. was his little sister, despite her knowledge that he is gay, and she lives with him. Dale then claimed that it was Casey who took over the role of his little siser when Sara was eliminated. Casey got the line of the event with "No, Hung was my little sister."
Casey doesn't say much, but she sure is classy and beautiful, more so on the voiceovers than during the mansion conversation.
Lisa is still with her girlfriend.
When Carla arrived, she went out of her way to address his accpetance of responsibility for her own demise in TC5 instead of blaming Casey, who as her sous chef persuaded her to try some things that did not work out well.

Fabio asks the chefs their most memorable challenge from their Top Chef season. The answers:
Harold - street food, with his partner Lisa sacrificing herself so he could move forward in the competition
Tiffani - using a box cake mix instad of making it from scratch in a wedding challenge
Marcel - the vending machine one, with Michael being too creative (read phallic) with his snack foods
Lisa - Wedding Wars, with its 48 hour timeline that allowed no sleep
Fabio - Carla's Green Eggs With Ham

Next, Fabio has some footage for the chefs to enjoy. First is Marcel vs. Toby Young. It's a Mexican standoff, which Marcel ended by walking out after feeling that he was insulted. Most observers thought Marcel was a bit uppity here, but who knows what had gone before this. Marcel was also the victim in the infamous attack scene by Cliff, which was aided and abetted by Ilan and Elia.

Another Top Chef competitor who got some negative spin from the editors was Tiffani. She says she did not deserve it. Dale thinks that the editors "slapped around" both Tiffani and Marcel.

Hung's cereal creation for a Quickfire was brought back on tape. It was pretty spectacular. Several of the Season 4 chefs got drunk just before judges table; the footage showed some of the hilarious consequences of this.
 
I can only say that I wish I had been an invisible observer to all of this, but allowed to eat their food off-line.

I have to rate Fabio as a mediocre host. He has charm but none of the polish of an Andy Cohen (BRAVO Sr. VP who ususally does these type of interviews). His "holier-than-thou" efforts alienated the chefs a little and the viewers more.

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