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Top Chef 9

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It's time for me to make a fearless prediction on the outcome of Top Chef 9. Let's start with who I expect the next two eliminees to be. That would be Grayson and Chris Jones. The next tier eliminated is likely to be Edward and Sarah. That leaves the two fighting for the title as Lindsay and Paul. It will be Paul with a clearcut victory. I have actually felt that he would win for about the last 6 episodes.

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TC9, Ep. 9

There are 6 chefs remaining, so they are paired up with an unstated logic (or maybe just as they were standing next to each other) for a Quickfire with a $10,000 per team prize. Cat Cora was the Guest Judge, probably to allow Bravo product placement on a new “Around the World in 80 Plates” series with her and Curtis Stone starting in May 2012. The Quickfire task was for a pair in 40 minutes to shell, devein and butterfly 2 pounds of shrimp, create and roll out 1 pound of fettucine and cut a reasonable portion of corn kernels off a bushel full of ears. A team could not move on to cooking until they finished all the mise en place tasks. The quickest team was not able to start cooking until only 10 minutes left. All teams attempted to rest their pasta dough before rolling and cutting the fettucine.

The dishes created were:
Edward and Paul – Fettuccine w/ Corn, Zucchini Flowers, Chanterelle Mushrooms,  Parmesan (but no required shrimp)
Chris J. and Grayson – Fettuccine, Toasted Corn, Poached Shrimp, Chili, Bacon, Rosemary
Lindsay and Sarah – Fettuccine w/ Corn Milk, Shrimp, Tarragon, Parsley

Paul distracted himself with frills and failed to get the shrimp onto the plate, so that team was disqualified. Chris and Grayson were the winners, very possibly because Cat Cora did not like the overuse of tarragon by Lindsay and Sarah.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
Padma explained that there was a Healthy Choice outdoor Block Party event for 200 contributors to the San Antonio Food Bank that was to focus on the company name, healthy choices and have an end product that was light and low calorie but still fully tasty. The pairs were split into competing duos, with the one in each duo with the most “customer” votes sent to the winning group. The prize of $15,000 would be given to the best dish from the 3 winners. Each duo had to agree on the overall concept that would guide both their dishes. Those were:

Edward and Paul – BBQ spare ribs with Asian pickled vegetables
Chris J. and Grayson – chicken sandwich with cups of fresh fruit, including watermelon
Lindsay and Sarah – meatballs and vegetable salad

From that point, the competitor mode took over. Each individual had $600 and 40 minutes to shop at the Broadway Market. Lindsay went with lamb and veal for her meatballs while Sarah went with turkey. Chris went with tofu emulsion instead of mayonnaise. Edward substituted for ketchup a kimchi/chipotle blend. Grayson elected to make each serving to order, which slowed down her service a great deal but led to better freshness and probably also flavor. Lindsay substituted chickpea flour for regular flour. Teams had 2.5 hours to cook and then an additional 45 minutes to set up.

The key elements of the actual dishes prepared were:
Edward – Open Face Kalbi w/ short ribs, Kimchi Chipotle Puree, Pickled Cucumber, and Daikon on a steamed bun
Paul – Korean BBQ Kalbi w/ turkey ribs and eggplant, white peach kimchi, ssam

Chris J. – Chicken Salad Sandwich with Tofu emulsion “Mayo,” Red Lettuce, Watermelon Fruit Salad, pineapple-watermelon smoothie, chopped fruit
Grayson – Chicken Salad Sandwich w/ Arugula, Pickled Red Onion, Feta Watermelon Salad w/ Pumpkin Seeds

Lindsay – lamb + veal Mediterranean meatball w/ Greek lemon yogurt, Greek salad of quinoa, black-eyed peas, Grenache vinaigrette
Sarah – Calabrese-style turkey meatball and summer vegetable salad

The panel of judges deciding was Cat Cora, Padma, Tom and Emeril. Dana Cowin joined to sample comment only. Ryan Scott from Top Chef 4 was there representing Healthy Choice and he sampled and commented too.

The commentary from the judges’ sampling was:
Edward – dry
Paul – “absolutely brilliant” (how do you beat that?) and very tasty
Grayson – serving to order a great idea; flavor limited
Chris J. – watermelon salad tasty
Lindsay – original, tasty
Sarah – healthy, good sauce

The close pairing was between Lindsay and Sarah. Lindsay won that pairing to be considered by the judges against Paul and Grayson. It was Paul by a mile, winning $15,000. That left the other 3 chefs to be considered for elimination from the losers’ group. Comments on them were:

Ed – short rib fat was trimmed off and that was the best part; tough; chewy
Chris – should have made it to order to be competitive
Sarah – salad inconsistent (Tom liked it, Dana did not)

It was clear from the tone of the comments that Sarah would be safe from elimination. The decision was between Chris and Edward. Chris was judged less worthy, with the overview that he scurried around with great ideas but failed in his execution.

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LAST CHANCE KITCHEN, Ep. 9

This was Beverly versus Chris J. Each had a cook a meal from all of the ingredients contained in a first mystery box, then a second one and finally a third one. Those ingredients were:
Lamb
Pine Nuts
Parsnips
Cinnamon
Marshmallows
Orange
Apple
Celery
Radicchio
Parsley
White anchovy

Chris made grilled lamb with sweet puree, pine nuts, apple, radicchio salad, pancetta

Beverly made grilled lamb chops w/ parsnips, curry, radicchio, white anchovy vinaigrette

Tom had the usual nice things to say about both dishes. He named Beverly the winner and said that the winner of the next Last Chance Kitchen battle will go directly back into the main field.

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There is a competition of selected former Top Chef competitors with a $25,000 prize. The competitors were:

Sara Nguyen, TC3, 9th place
Casey Thompson, TC3 3rd place (still the easiest-to-look-at competitor in all Top Chef seasons combined)
Tre Wilcox   , TC3 8th place
Ryan Scott   , TC4 11th place

You can watch this at http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/top-chef-healthy-showdown. The first and second episodes are there and the string of episodes 3, 4 and 5 will just automatically load afterward.
The first episode was a Quickfire with one elimination. the second episode was Elimination Challenge cooking followed by 3 minutes of faux on-camera explanation of how to make that dish, with another elimination. Episode 3 was the finale cooking. Episodes 4 and 5 were the discussion of that.

I will tell you that the winner of $25,000 plus being awarded the position of Healthy Choice Ambassador (which was obvious if you observed TC9, Episode 9) was Ryan 

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TC9, Ep. 10

The Guest Judge for this episode was Pee-Wee Herman, who really qualifies as a foodie
. His favorite food is pancakes, so that was what the chefs had to cook. They had 20 minutes to wow him and chose these dishes for a $5000 prize:

Edward - Pancake bits w/ raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, bacon, bruleed marshmallows, chocolate shavings.
Grayson - Ricotta buttermilk pancakes w/ peach compote, blackberry, basil, lemon zest carafe of syrup
Lindsay – Ricotta pancake w/ lemon, cardamom, brown butter syrup, crème fraiche, macaron almond, anise cookies
Paul – Rolled pancake w/ berries, black pepper, champagne Dipping Dots
Sarah - Confetti pancakes w/ blackberry sauce, cocoa nibs, vanilla whipped cream

The winner of the Quickfire and its prize was Edward.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

This is a strange and difficult one. The chefs had to find and buy with $100 ingredients and then cook a family-style meal for Pee-Wee and the judges, but they have to bike around town finding those ingredients and borrowing kitchens for prep space. Only one chef can use any kitchen at one time. 3 hours were provided for self-transport, buying ingredients, negotiating with a place to cook and actually cooking there.

Paul chose a Belgian-Thai bistro. Ed went to a bed-and-breakfast. Grayson went to the Mexican restaurant Rosario’s. Lindsay needed additional ingredients so she left Mad Hatters, the site of her cooking, to get them; in the interim Sarah found that place and claimed it. Lindsay had to find Frank’s Hog Stand. The dishes created for serving at The Alamo were:

Edward - Chicken + Grits, Raw Corn, Kale Salad w/ Red-Eye Gravy
Grayson - Egg, Spinach & Gorgonzola Stuffed Chicken & Butternut Squash
Lindsay – Stuffed Zucchini w/ Braised Beef Cheeks, Rice, Goat Cheese
Paul – Roasted Chicken, Red Curry Gastrique, Summer Salad w/ Basil Blossom Oil
Sarah - Summer Vegetable Egg Salad w/ Chicken Skin Vinaigrette

Comments on the dishes were:
Lindsay – great flavor
Paul – beautiful, a little sweet, not perfectly balanced
Grayson – huge portion and high fat didn’t fit “health” concept; tomatoes and butternut squash not good combination
Sarah – underseasoned, too much vinaigrette
Edward – poaching chicken in beef fat a mistake; rubbery; undercooked

Based on the Judges’ Table discussion, you would conclude that Edward would be eliminated but, as frequently the case, you would be wrong. Top Chef producers delight in misleading
by withholding information.

Lindsay won and Paul was safe. That left the elimination decision between Grayson, Sarah and Edward. Grayson was eliminated. Tom admitted to the 4 remaining chefs that a 5th would be joining them from “a parallel competition.”

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