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Top Chef has announced its New York City-based season 8 with an All-Star cast with premiere Dec. 1 at 10pm on BRAVO:

Here are the chosen competitors(note that no season winners were included):

Elia Aboumrad; Season 2, final four

Stephen Asprinio; Season 1, top five

Richard Blais; Season 4 finalist

Jennifer Carroll; Season 6, final four

Tiffany Derry; Season 7, top five

Tiffani Faison; Season 1 finalist

Carla Hall; Season 5 finalist

Mike Isabella; Season 6, top seven

Jamie Lauren; Season 5, top seven

Dale Levitski; Season 3 finalist

Antonia Lofaso; Season 4, final four

Spike Mendelsohn; Season 4, top five

Angelo Sosa; Season 7 finalist

Dale Talde; Season 4, top six

Casey Thompson; Season 3 finalist and Fan Favorite

Marcel Vigneron; Season 2 finalist

Fabio Viviani; Season 5, final four and Fan Favorite

Tre Wilcox; Season 3, top eight

I personally will be looking forward to seeing Richard, Jennifer C., Antonia, Marcel and Casey again. I consider Tiffani and Stephen from season 1 to be good comic relief.

The host will continue to be Padma Lakshmi, head judge is chef Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons returns as a judge and new this season best-selling author and chef Anthony Bourdain joins as a judge.

TexasLady:
I'm so happy that Jennifer will be back, she is an All-Star for me. I wish Stefan Richter was also coming back. I still believe he should have won his season.

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TOP CHEF 8 – ALLSTARS

This special season of Top Chef brings back many of the most interesting competitors who did not win the Top Chef prize in their season. In particular, there were many 2nd or 3rd place finishers who were close but got no cigar. The chefs competing were:

Season 1 – Tiffani Faison (#2) and Stephen Asprinio (#5)
Season 2 – Marcel Vigneron (#2) and Elia Aboumrad (#4)
Season 3 – Dale Levistski (#2), Casey Thomson (#3), Tre Wilcox (#8)
Season 4 – Richard Blais (#2/3), Antonia Lofaso (#4), Spike Mendelssohn (#5), Dale Talde(#7)
Season 5 – Fabio Viviani (#2/3), Carla Hall (#2/3), Jaime Lauren (#7)
Season 6 – Jennifer Carroll (#4), Mike Isabella (#7)
Season 7 – Angelo Sosa (#2/3), Tiffany Derry (#5)

The prize for TC8 is a record $200,000 with maybe another $300,000 for episode prizes and to spread among the lower place finishers. Marcel stated that as runner-up in season 2 he won absolutely nothing for it. Padma let sink in the statement that none of the competitors for TC8 were able to bring home an earlier top chef season victory even though many were quite close. Other prizes for the winner are a feature in Food & Wine Magazine, a showcase at the magazine’s annual Food and Wine festival in Aspen CO, $200,000 and, most importantly, the title of “Top Chef”

This episode started with a little light banter. Stephen has opened 2 restaurants in New York City (Asprinio’s is one of them). Richard in surveying the competition thought Jennifer are very strong. Fabio stated that he had some issues with Marcel in the All-Stars reunion form seasons 1 through 5 that he hosted.

The Quickfire takes the chefs from each season back to the city they competed in to team up with the others from that season in creating a dish in 25 minutes that represents that city:
1 – San Francisco
2 – Los Angeles
3 – Miami
4 – Chicago
5 – New York City
6 – Las Vegas
7 – Washington DC
 The winning team receives immunity in the upcoming Elimination Challenge.

Dishes presented were:
1- cioppino gazpacho w/ sourdough
2- shrimp tacos w/ guacamole in an apple wrapper
3- pork tenderloin, avocado lime puree, tostones, mango habanero sauce
4- pork and black pepper sausages w/ liquid nitrogen mustard ice cream
5- apple trio: curried apple soup, pasta w/ caramelized apple and rib eye w/ apple
6- bucatini pasta with bacon lobster carbonara
7- crab cake essence w/ rockfish, lemongrass, jalapenos, Old Bay seasoning

The judging was by Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi (who with Anthony Bourdain and Gail Simmons were the judges panel for this season). They found that season 1, 2, 5 and 7 to be the losers’ group for these reasons:
Season 2- shrimp was bland, apple too thin
Season 1- too much raw garlic
Season 5- 3 dishes weren’t tied together very well; soup good, other two mediocre
Season 7- too much salt
That left season 3 (Miami representation, flavors great), season 4 (inventive, ice cream unique) and season 6 (flavors great, pasta cooked perfectly) in the winners’ group. Season 4 (Richard, Antonia, Spike and Dale T.) brought home the victory (although they also had the most manpower of any team).

The Elimination Challenge was to confront the dish that had eliminated each individual from their original top chef season and redo it to have a much better dish. Each has 3 hours to prep day 1, then two hours the next day at the Russian Tea Room before guests and judges arrive. The dishes created were:

Stephen – 3 dishes he avoided by playing Front of House: lobster harumaki, hibiscus ponzu, and coriander; kumamoto oyster sabayon, yuzu soy, salmon roe, and citrus; deconstructed crab soup dumplings, poached egg, and togarashi
Tiffani – crispy branzino, black olive Pappardelle pasta, spicy fennel, kimchi marinade
Marcel – uni and caviar, Meyer lemon gelee, fennel cream, Kalamata olive dust
Elia – red snapper steamed inside a ti leaf w/ snapper jus
Dale L. – curry poached lobster dumplings, chanterelle, corn, bacon
Casey – molasses-glazed pork belly w/ pickled peaches, whipped crème fraiche
Tre – cured wild king salmon, grapefruit gelee, salted macadamia cookie
Richard – pork belly w/ bread and butter radishes and mirin and cheddar
Antonia – sausage w/ cilantro, pigeon pea puree, roasted cherry blossoms
Spike – pickled mushrooms, scallops (originally frozen), lime dressing w/ hearts of palm salad
Dale T. – butterscotch miso scallops w/ crispy long beans and spicy eggplant
Fabio – caserecci pasta w/ crawfish and crab stew
Carla – grilled strip steak w/ smashed potatoes, tarragon butter, red wine sauce
Jamie – pan-seared black pass, celery, green peppercorn salsa, herb salad
Jennifer – duck, squash, foie gras, an apple cider vinaigrette, micro arugula
Mike Isabella – melted leeks, carrot puree, salt-crusted potatoes
Angelo – homemade ramen w/ sweet glazed pork belly and watermelon
Tiffany – pan-seared halibut w/ coconut curry, steamed rice balls, and pea tendrils

Tom had news for the chef on arrival at the Russian Tea Room day 2. He split them into two groups to take the kitchen in shifts since it’s so small. The group not in the kitchen will be dining with the judges and critiquing the other group’s food. The winner of this challenge would receive $10,000. He deliberately did not tell them about a nasty twist that is ahead to not ruin the surprise of it.

The first team cooked for their 2 hours, but it was not quite enough for Stephen or for Richard. Richard was shown on camera actually adding something after the time had expired, although he was so concentrated he probably did not hear the timer go off. The first cooking team then stayed in the kitchen while the second team was eating and critiquing. A TV monitor had somehow magically appeared in the kitchen so that the first team could hear and see all the commentary about their dishes. I say that is dirty pool to do that without prior warning. The teams then switched and the second team had their moments of truth. The first team ate with the judges and critiqued their dishes.

The winners’ group as assessed by the judges was Angelo, Spike and Jamie. Richard was in it but was disqualified for being over the time limit. Angelo won the $10,000. The losers’ group was Fabio, Stephen and Elia. Elia failed to test her approach of cooking fish with steam and served it raw when she wanted it medium without actually testing its doneness. Fabio took his lumps from Gail (overdressed and overdone) and Bourdain (brown, wet a visual turnoff). He fought back with Bourdain over being ridiculed when he did not deserve that. Fabio in the kitchen had to listen to Bourdain on camera say how much he hated Fabio’s dish 11 times, but the other judges must not have rated him quite that badly. It looked to me that Stephen deserved elimination the most, due both to the ineptness of his dumpling but the low overall quality of every item, but the judges decided that the chef most worthy of that was Elia.

I have to say that Jennifer Carroll surprised me with the aggressiveness of her comments. She was proclaiming herself the greatest thing since sliced bread and, although I was very impressed by her early performance in TC6, she has earned no bragging rights yet in TC8. I expected tell-it-like-it-is commentary from Anthony Bourdain, but he outdid even Toby Young in negative comments. The competitors are in for a difficult season from his critiques.

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TC8, ep. 2

Fireworks happen on this episode and Anthony Bourdain was not even judging! The Quickfire involved teen heartthrob Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers. The task was to create a dish for 150 children who would be spending the night at the American Museum of Natural history on the annual sleepover in that museum. Chefs had 45 minutes to create something that could be served without utensils in a brown paper bag (actually a blue or red bag to signify something). Those 17 creations were:

Stephen – Snickerdoodles white chocolate coconut ganache, apricot, mint
Tiffani – Rice Krispy treat Snowball w/ malted milk, graham crackers
Marcel – Not Shown
Casey – chocolate and bacon lasagna w/ apple juice, candy
Dale L. – sweet tart nuggets and Caveman boulders w/ chocolate sauce
Tre – cracker, cranberry and cherry jam, apple, smoked bacon
Antonia – white chocolate and cherry muffin, cinnamon, allspice
Dale T. – corn cake w/ dried cherry and whipped maple topping
Richard – whole bread spiced apple w/ whipped honey and Crunchy Chocolate
Spike – homemade potato and carrot chips, mascarpone and marshmallow dip
Carla – Not shown
Fabio – apple and white chocolate, caramel, blueberries
Jaime – Mini cheddar biscuits w/ homemade cinnamon apple sauce
Jennifer – bacon ginger taffy w/ honey grilled peaches
Mike I. – chocolate coconut corn bar, coconut horchata chaser
Angelo – fried dough, white pepper, Old Bay spice, cheddar cheese
Tiffany – coconut rice pudding w/ grapefruit sauce

The losers’ group was Tiffany, Mike I. (chocolate not strong enough) and Stephen (mint not strong enough). The winners’ group was Tiffani and Spike. Rather than having Joe Jonas decide, Padma announced that the kids would decide. It would be a Rice Krispies snowball (called a “Sugar Bomb” by Stephen) versus homemade potato chips with a marshmallow dip, essentially a choice between super-sweet and above-average salty. What do you think kids chose? Tiffany has the final word as she watches out-of-control behavior by the kids: “these children are going ballistic on sugar. We did that.”

In order to make enough portions of their dish in the Top Chef Kitchen quickly, Tiffani and Spike chose teams, with Fabio being left over and allowed to choose the team he would be one (he chose Team Spike). All the women except Carla were on Team Tiffani and all the men except Dale L. and Tre were on Team Spike. The vote was no contest as you would expect. Sweet beat salty badly. That gave Tiffani immunity for the Elimination Challenge and another advantage to be revealed. Tom Colicchio came strolling in as the chefs were preparing to leave the museum. Some of the chefs sensed that a twist was about to happen. They were right, as Tom announced that the chefs would be sleeping in the Hall of North American Mammals and cooking breakfast in the morning using whatever they could find in the Museum’s kitchen. Many of the men went for a flashlight tour of the museum. As Marcel put it, when will you ever get this opportunity again?

The teams would stay intact and compete as Team T-Rex versus Team Brontosaurus. The stated limits of available ingredients were Meat, Fish, Eggs and Dairy for Team T-Rex and absolutely nothing else and Fruits, Vegetables and Grains for Team Brontosaurus. Tiffani was given the advantage of picking Team T-Rex or Team Brontosaurus and she chose Team T-Rex. Teams had to start cooking Breakfast for the kids and their adult supervisors and some museum staff in the Museum kitchen with 1.5 hours to cook and 1 hour to set up before breakfast began. Cooking began and Jaime sliced her finger and left to get stitches. She did not return until the end of setup, so her partner Jennifer was doing it all for their dish. Many of her teammates were highly critical of Jaime for taking too much time away for a very minor injury. Team T-Rex discovered that they had no spices, no herbs and no flour, after which they concluded they had “bought a pig in a poke.”

The menu and assigned people for Team T-Rex were:
Tiffany and Antonia – 3 frittatas (Bacon and Cheddar, Ham and Cheese, Chevre)
Casey and Tre – wild coho salmon w/ shrimp and smoked bacon sauce
Jen and Jaime – hard-boiled eggs and braised bacon (aka cooked pork belly)
Tiffani and Dale L. – steak and eggs w/ Hollandaise sauce

The menu and assigned people for Team Brontosaurus were:
Dale and Mike – polenta (originally intended to be cake, but that failed), stewed peppers, salsa verde
Marcel, Richard and Angelo – banana parfait w/ seasonal fruits and tandoori maple
Spike and Carla – V9 gazpacho w/ fruits and vegetables
Fabio and Stephen – potato gnocchi w/ leeks, spinach, mushrooms

The judges (with Katie Lee Joel, host from season 1 substituting for Anthony Bourdain) listened to some comments from the children, but paid more attention to the chaperones and staff comments. They returned to the Top Chef kitchen for caucusing at Judges’ Table. They had decided that Team Brontosaurus was the winner. The best dish in their opinion was Marcel, Richard and Angelo. Team Brontosaurus as requested sent Team T-Rex in for the harder discussions aimed at the losing team.

During those discussions, it became clear that the judges did not like the frittatas, hated Tre's smoked bacon sauce and thought the eggs were way under-seasoned. Only the beef and the salmon escaped without negative comments. It appeared that the eliminee would be Tiffany, Antonia, Tre or Jennifer or maybe Jaime as she could be criticized for contributing essentially nothing. Jennifer on that point said that she got the work done with the assistance of others and that Jaime was not really needed. That got Jaime off the hook, although I would have used it as the reason to get rid of her. Jennifer was really upset on multiple points. First, as a knowledgeable individual she stated that Tyrannosaurus Rex was an omnivore, not just a carnivore, so their team should have been allowed a wider range of ingredients. Second, she was bitter about the judges’ classification of her in the losers’ group. She insisted that her eggs were just fine and had no seasoning problem.

I noticed that the judges had not properly questioned either Tiffany or Antonia to be able to identify which of those two was the worst performer. This meant that they could be ruled out of elimination, so it was Jennifer versus Tre. Tom stated that the judges would not penalize Jennifer for making strong statements that challenged the competence of the judging. However, what he did not say was that her differences with the judges likely indicated a major palate problem. Jennifer was asked to “pack her knives and go” and she was furious, complaining that the judges were not making the correct decision about her dish.

kiki:

--- Quote from: TexasLady on September 23, 2010, 01:58:17 PM ---I'm so happy that Jennifer will be back, she is an All-Star for me. I wish Stefan Richter was also coming back. I still believe he should have won his season.

--- End quote ---

Indeed I was happy to see Jennifer and so disappointed she got eliminated 2nd . She deserved something better. Also it would be more interesting to see Stefan instead of Fabio or Jamie from TC5. Now my favourite to win is Richard Blais, he should have won in his season.

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