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Top Chef 9

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TexasLady:
I was sorry to see Ed eliminated. He made the fatal mistake of buying canned clams. I don't think Sarah is capable of winning but I've been wrong before, Beverly does have skills but I don't see her making final 2 either so I have to agree with your choices apskip.

kiki:
If Ed had made it to the F4 he would have  a chance in winning but as it is I agree that the fight will be between Paul and Lindsay, with Paul being slightly ahead, as he has been more consistent so far. Sarah is not that strong and Beverly so far has cooked well only Asian food, she hasn't shown a diversity in her plates, which is necessary to win.

apskip:
Top Chef Ep. 12

The 4 remaining chefs arrive at Vancouver international airport and receive instructions from Padma to get to the top of the mountain at Whistler, a major ski resort 70 miles away and site of the snow-based events for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Padma announced there would be 3 “events” in their Culinary Olympics with the winner of each receiving $10,000 and going to the finale back in Vancouver.

The chefs learned that they would be doing “speed cooking” on a moving gondola in the 22 minutes it took to get from one mountain peak to another. They were given a wide range of really first-class looking ingredients but marginal cooking equipment. While the gondola was moving, they had to get out at a specific point and pick an ingredient that they must use. Paul picked wasabi, Sarah prune juice, Beverly horseradish and Lindsay horseradish. Here is what they created under these conditions:
Paul – seared lamb loin w/Cinnamon Gastrique, enoki mushrooms, fresh juniper, wasabi
Sarah - Chorizo Sausage w/ Gooseberry Sauce, Pickled Mushrooms 
Beverly –salmon tartare with anchovy, horseradish crème fraiche, and crispy capers
Lindsay – seared salmon with red quinoa “risotto”, chorizo, and horseradish vinaigrette

The commentary indicated that Paul came up short, Sarah was #3 and the battle for #1 between Lindsay and Beverly.

The second event was to chip away at huge blocks of ice and unleash the ingredient that was inside. Chefs had to do this enough times to have sufficient ingredients for a decent dish. Paul gave a lot of help to both of his less-strong competitors. Here was what they created;

Sarah – spinach soup w/almonds and crab
Paul - Brown butter poached king crab w/ mango chutney
Beverly – seared scallop w/ orange slices, red wine reduction, buttered peas, couscous

This time Paul was #1, Beverly #2 and Sarah #3.

The final event was a culinary biathlon between Beverly and Sarah. Beverly had the edge for the cross country ski portion and finished minutes ahead of Sarah. That gave her the opportunity to start shooting for whatever ingredients she wanted. She ended up with arctic char, celery root, truffles, fennel and beets. Sarah got rabbit, cherries, cabbage and hazlenuts

The dishes created were:
Beverly – beet + onion compote, celery root truffle puree, arctic char, fennel salad
Sarah - Braised rabbit leg + heart, cherries, cabbage puree and hazelnut sauce

This evaluation was very close but Beverly’s char was overcooked and overpowered by her other ingredients and that was the difference. Sarah was steady on her flavors throughout. Sarah was going to Vancouver and Beverly was going home.

There were 3 Olympic gold medal winners who participated in the judging (Gretchen Gleiler in halfpipe snowboarding, James Montgomery in skeleton, Cammie Granato for women’s ice hockey) were pretty useful as judges for a culinary competition, as what I heard from them was gradations of “great flavors”. For the next episode, in the previews I saw Anita Lo running around so hopefully there will be a preponderance of culinary leaders among the judges. 

apskip:
My predictions have not changed for many weeks. I think Paul will win a close victory over Lindsay in the final finale. The semifinal finale (my term to highlight the absurdity of going down to 2 finalists for the first time I can remember since Top Chef 1 and TC2) will see Sarah eliminated.

TexasLady:
I don't know why they had such a difficult challenge for Sarah and Beverly. Skiing, then shooting targets for the food, not a lot of time to cook. Since Beverly outperformed Sarah at every turn, it was hard to see her eliminated. I don't think Sarah is as strong as the other two.

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