Author Topic: Top Chef Chicago Season 4  (Read 43762 times)

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Offline Emmysue

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Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« on: January 08, 2008, 01:27:57 PM »
Anyone know??   :duno: 
« Last Edit: January 25, 2008, 03:41:39 PM by puddin »

Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2008, 01:34:19 AM »
TOP CHEF SEASON 4 PREMIERE'S MARCH 12, 2008 WEDNESDAYS AT 10 ON BRAVO

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/thestew/2007/09/top-chef-filmin.html

....I found this interesting artcle,

Padma Lakshmi and company have started filming Season 4!

Since learning that Bravo's "Top Chef" would film Season 4 in Chicago, we've been dying to learn when filming would begin, where the chefs would be staying, etc., and hoping for sightings of judges, like Lakshmi, host of the show, or chef Tom Colicchio.

Finally this morning while doing our weekly shopping at Chicago's Green City Market, we spotted a suspicious truck (no farmers, no produce) unloading equipment about 8:30 or so. About an hour later we spotted Lakshmi, more slender and even prettier live than she appears on TV, buying some flowers.

By then a crew of about two dozen had set up five or six cameras, large reflective panels and a lot of other equipment about 100 yards or so north of the farmers' stands. But we saw no chef contestants, and definitely no Colicchio. Settling in to watch with 20 or so other early morning market-goers (but keeping a respectful distance, of course), we realized that filming the show sure is different than the final product. For example, we heard Lakshmi (speaking for the camera) explain rules for what turns out to be a Quickfire Challenge though no chefs are yet there.

Lakshmi talked about how the freshest and best quality ingredients are vital for a chef, and looked over her shoulder back at the farmers, then saying that they would find plenty of that at Green City Market. Dressed in a vivid purple knit top and dark tight trousers tucked into snappy boots, Lakshmi outlined the challenge: Create a "fully realized entree" using just five ingredients from the market; Lakshmi cautioned that too many ingredients can overwhelm the palate. The chefs will be allowed to use oil, sugar, salt and pepper when they return to the kitchens, those ingredients not counting against their five.

She also said that the winner of the Quickfire would not win immunity in the Elmination Challenge, but we couldn't hear why. (Darn those handlers keeping the gawkers at a distance!) Lakshmi went through the wording several times before she or the producers where happy that they had it, but still no signs of the chefs.

While waiting for something more to happen, we spotted Lee Anne Wong, culinary producer for the show and a contestant from Season 1, and waited until it looked like she wasn't too busy to approach her. Wong would not confirm anything, not even whether this was the first filming in Chicago. She did say that it is difficult to maintain confidentiality, especially when filming in such a public place -- no joke there as by now several dozen marketgoers ringed the production area, watching and waiting.

Soon enough we spotted a group of what had to be the chefs huddled far off near Stockton Drive. After more waiting (there's a lot of waiting), the chefs ran toward the production area for the cameras, but then stopped. But that was close enough that we could count 15 chefs, all in their 20s or early 30s, dressed casually in jeans, t-shirts and such, no chef jackets. We spotted a couple faux hawks, but no mohawks. Producers briefed them.

Off to the side, crew members filled 15 blue coolers with ice. If buying meat at the market, the chefs will have a time of it back at the kitchens (wherever those are) because most vendors at the market bring their lamb, beef or chicken frozen solid. It could prove to be an interesting challenge because the market today was brimming with pears, greens, squash (one vendor had 15 kinds), a staggering variety of apples, golden and red raspberries, cider, eggplant (Italian, Chinese, Thai), herbs, sprouts and more. Plus cheese, free-range eggs and freshly baked breads.

Filming must be pretty tedious. The chefs have been made to sprint toward the market at least twice, then get called back. Trying to get the shot, we guess. But chefs haven't yet been allowed near the vendors; if they are smart, though, they are churning ideas in their heads: what will I make, what will I make.

When they are finally cut loose, only about half of them are sent running toward the farmers. Must be so that it is easier for the cameramen to follow them (several crew members have taken cameras off their tripods, hoisted them onto their shoulders and waded into the market). We follow for awhile and see one very skinny chef with messy hair buying apples. Another buys eucalyptus and explains to the mini camera crew tailing him why. What would he use eucalyptus for? We'll have to wait until the episode airs to see.

All in all, the morning represents a great challenge to introduce viewers to Chicago ... if, in fact, this is an early episode they were filming. We don't know as no one is talking. But with so many chefs, we would guess it is still early.

Dozens of other market-goers saw the whole thing, of course; at least six who randomly asked me what was going on knew right away what "Top Chef" was when I told them. If you see anything out there folks, let us know!
« Last Edit: January 23, 2008, 09:58:54 PM by ca bb fan »


Offline Emmysue

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2008, 10:54:52 AM »
YAY!  Thanks!  I LOVE Chicago so this will be a really fun season for me, getting glimpses of the city I miss so much! 


Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2008, 03:37:50 AM »
YAY!  Thanks!  I LOVE Chicago so this will be a really fun season for me, getting glimpses of the city I miss so much! 


 :lol: awww your welcome, I'm just as excited I love Top Chef.

Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2008, 09:39:52 PM »
Top Chef Chicago:  Meet the Season 4 Contestants

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-topchefchicago16cheftestants,0,1135317.story

Turn up the heat and bring on the chef'testants. "Top Chef" is heading to the Windy City.

"Top Chef: Chicago," the fourth season of Bravo's popular culinary competition show, will debut on Wednesday, March 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with a fresh crop of 16 rising chefs. Returning are host/judge Padma Lakshmi, head judge Tom Colicchio, judge Gail Simmons and judge Ted Allen.

"This season the chefs bring a diverse wealth of talent and skill to the table that we've not seen before," said Colicchio. "The title 'Top Chef' has proven to be an amazing opportunity for these chefs to make a name for themselves in the competitive culinary world."

The last chef standing will receive the coveted title, $100,000 in seed money to help open a restaurant, furnished by the makers of the Glad family of products, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and a gourmet dream vacation in the French Alps.

Although it's too soon to pick favorites, we're partial to Mark because he grew up on sheep farm in New Zealand, Antonia because she's a single mom who loves to cook fresh linguine with white truffles (yum), Dale for his motto, "expect perfectio because if you fall short, you're left with greatness" and Zoi for her name alone.

A complete list of the 16 chef'testants follows:

Andrew
Age: 30
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL –- currently resides in New York City
Profession: Sous Chef in NYC
Culinary Education: A.S. Culinary Arts, Johnson & Wales, North Miami
Favorite Simple Summer Recipe: Diced strawberries, mango, tomato, cucumber, and jicama. Thai dressing (sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and siracha). Thai basil and mint chiffonade.

Antonia
Age: 31
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Profession: Executive Chef, Foxtail, SBE Restaurant Group
Culinary Education: French Culinary Institute
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Baby beets with bouchon goat cheese and marcona almonds

Dale
Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago, Il
Profession: Sous Chef at Buddakan
Culinary Education: Culinary Institute Of America
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Grilled matsutake mushrooms, shaved myoga, spicy truffled ponzu

Erik
Age: 38
Hometown: Chappaqua, NY -– currently resides in San Francisco, CA
Profession: Executive Chef at Circa Restaurant
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Spring lamb with fresh spring garlic

Jennifer
Age: 35
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY –- currently resides in San Francisco, CA
Profession: Executive Chef COCO500 Restaurant
Culinary Education: A.O.S Culinary Arts, C.I.A
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Spring Lamb's tongue salad, sauce Dragnocello, Mache, olive oil croutons, and mustard fruit

Lisa
Age: 27
Hometown: Toronto, Canada –- currently resides in New York City
Profession: Chef
Culinary Education: A.A.S. culinary arts, B.S. food service management Johnson & Wales University
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Chili rubbed lamb with strawberry-rhubarb jam, balsamic reduction and fresh mint

Manuel
Age: 33
Hometown: Laredo, Texas -– currently resides in New York, NY
Profession: Executive Chef, Dos Caminos
Culinary Education: B.A. in Business Administration from St. Mary's University of San Antonio, Texas; A.O.S, New England Culinary Institute, Montpelier, Vermont
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Crispy soft shell crabs with charred ramp vinaigrette

Mark
Age: 29
Hometown: Invercargill, New Zealand –- currently resides in New York, NY
Profession: Sous Chef at Public Restaurant in New York City
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Roast New Zealand venison, minted edamame, wee fella Yorkshire pudding and espresso hollandaise.

Nikki
Age: 35
Hometown: New York, New York
Profession: Chef/co-owner, 24 Prince
Culinary Education: A.O.S Culinary Arts, School of Culinary Arts
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Fresh English peas with shallot, grape tomatoes, pecorino cheese and fresh mint

Nimma
Age: 26
Hometown: Peachtree City, GA -– currently resides in Atlanta, GA
Profession: Chef at Repast
Culinary Education: Culinary Institute Of America
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Grilled freshly caught fish with some amazing olive oil and sea salt

Richard
Age: 35
Hometown: Uniondale, New York – currently resides in Atlanta, GA
Profession: Chef, culinary designer, Trail-Blais
Culinary Education: AOS Culinary Arts, CIA
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Lamb meatballs with rhubarb & strawberry

Ryan
Age: 28
Hometown: Los Banos, CA –- currently resides in San Francisco, CA
Profession: Chef, Myth Cafe
Culinary Education: Associate of Arts, California Culinary Academy
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Chilled spring pea soup with Strauss yogurt and dill cucumbers


Spike
Age: 27
Hometown: Clearwater Beach, FL - currently resides in Williamsburg, NY
Profession:Chef de Cuisine, Mai House, Drew Nieporent
Culinary Education: A.O.S Culinary Arts, C.I.A
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Lamb or Pig. A good Greek SPOOL lamb (salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon) on a spit.

Stephanie
Age: 31
Hometown: Stamford, CT –- currently resides in Chicago, IL
Culinary Education: University of Michigan (undergrad); Scottsdale Culinary Institute
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Anything with green garlic such as gnocchi with clams, white asparagus and green garlic

Valerie
Age: 32
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Profession: Personal Chef
Culinary Education: Culinary Arts, Kendall College, Chicago
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Pork pot stickers

Zoi
Age: 30
Hometown: Seattle, WA -– currently resides in San Francisco, CA
Profession: Chef/Restaurant Consultant
Culinary Education: Self-Taught
Favorite Simple Spring Recipe: Roasted baby California lamb with artichokes, spring onions, lemon and rosemary


Offline Emmysue

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2008, 12:05:25 PM »
I wish that reality shows would cast more people from different parts of the country...it's like everyone is from LA, NY, Chicago, or Miami.  What about people who live in places like, Boise, Idaho or something?!?!? 

I'm not knockin' Top Chef...but it's like all reality show casts...like I'd like to see REAL PEOPLE from ALL OVER the country...

Sorry...rant over...

Offline apskip

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2008, 07:44:38 PM »
Nice thought, emmysue, but if you are a up and coming chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America or comparable place, where would you want to live? Lake Wobegon? Probably not. You would probably want to live in Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, or one of a few other major U.S. cities.

Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2008, 07:52:46 PM »
Nice thought, emmysue, but if you are a up and coming chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America or comparable place, where would you want to live? Lake Wobegon? Probably not. You would probably want to live in Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, or one of a few other major U.S. cities.

Lake Wobegon your not the Geographer Extraordinaire for no reason!!! :tup:


Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2008, 05:13:50 AM »


I'm still laughing about this one  :lol:

Offline Emmysue

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2008, 12:51:02 PM »
Nice thought, emmysue, but if you are a up and coming chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America or comparable place, where would you want to live? Lake Wobegon? Probably not. You would probably want to live in Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, or one of a few other major U.S. cities.


I know, with Top Chef it makes more sense, but like Survivor, TAR, BB...the VAST majority of the people are from LA or NY...and on those types of shows, there's no legitimate excuse...and I'm not saying ALL...I'm just saying the majority...and I'd like to see a more equal representation of the wonderfully diverse population of the US than just the coasts...there's ALOT of country in between LA and New York!  I guess I should have posted my thoughts elsewhere, it just came to mind then cuz I was reading the cast list. 

Oh, and not fair to ask where I'd want to live...I'm a weirdo...I'd probably waste my Culinary Institute Degree running a little cafe on the edge of Lake Wobegon!  ;)



Offline TexasLady

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2008, 06:36:11 PM »

Oh, and not fair to ask where I'd want to live...I'm a weirdo...I'd probably waste my Culinary Institute Degree running a little cafe on the edge of Lake Wobegon!  ;)


 :lol3: Lake Wobegon people deserve a good meal too!  :angel:
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Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2008, 05:38:14 AM »

 :-* Oh I like it. Thanks for changing the Topic Title, much better!!

Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2008, 07:48:39 AM »

Oh, and not fair to ask where I'd want to live...I'm a weirdo...I'd probably waste my Culinary Institute Degree running a little cafe on the edge of Lake Wobegon!  ;)


 :lol3: Lake Wobegon people deserve a good meal too!  :angel:

Oh wait a minute, I hope you didn’t interpret that I was making fun of Lake Wobegon.

Honestly, I’m from the city who doesn’t want to get away to somewhere remote.

I was just enjoying apskip’s humor and writing style and keen knowledge in Geography.

I would have to call a trave agent.

Offline Emmysue

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2008, 11:09:10 AM »

Oh, and not fair to ask where I'd want to live...I'm a weirdo...I'd probably waste my Culinary Institute Degree running a little cafe on the edge of Lake Wobegon!  ;)


 :lol3: Lake Wobegon people deserve a good meal too!  :angel:

Oh wait a minute, I hope you didn’t interpret that I was making fun of Lake Wobegon.

Honestly, I’m from the city who doesn’t want to get away to somewhere remote.

I was just enjoying apskip’s humor and writing style and keen knowledge in Geography.

I would have to call a trave agent.

If you're talking to me, I'm all good...just laughing along... ;)

Offline marigold

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Re: When does Top Chef Chicago start?
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2008, 09:52:38 AM »

If you're talking to me, I'm all good...just laughing along... ;)


  :-* Oh good Emmysue you or anyone else sorry the Lake Wobegon just threw me off

leave it to apskip to know that, I'm betting without even doing any research on it  :lol:

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #15 on: March 01, 2008, 05:38:27 PM »
Recent 'Top Chef' Alum and Judge Sighting



It's just under two weeks until we will have the chance to get to know a whole new batch of cheftestants on Top Chef 4. Meanwhile, previous Top Chef contestants and judges have been keeping busy out and about, and sometimes, they're even hanging out together.

There was a big showing of the Top Chef crew down in Florida at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The attendees included chefs from all three seasons and a couple of judges.

New York Magazine reports that they ran into Lee Ann Wong (season 1), Ilan Hall (season 2 winner) and Chris Jacobsen, aka CJ, (season 3 contestant, coiner of season 3 tee-shirt phrase “Oh, Big Time”). Lee Ann and CJ posed with Gail Simmons for a photo, and, New York notes, “Lee Ann talked pork, C.J. hit the bar, and Ilan danced by the pool at the Versace mansion.”

Sam Talbot (season 2) was sighted at another party, and Tom Colicchio put in an appearance as well, although they noted he looked pretty exhausted.

Sam then headed to Charleston, South Carolina, where he's participating in another food and wine festival. For this one, he's putting on a gospel brunch on Sunday. He's from Charlotte, North Carolina originally, and studied at Johnson and Wales in Charleston, so he's familiar with the lay of the land in the southern city and can likely be counted on to serve up a brunch the locals will love to eat.

Meanwhile, host and judge Padma Lakshmi, who divorced author Salman Rushdie, has been seen on the arm of computer mogul Adam Dell of Dell Computers. She was also recently spotted in Florida, where she gave a frank answer to whether or not she's always as even-tempered in response to the brattier cheftestants as she appears on Top Chef.

“They do get whiny sometime,” she admitted. “I never want to show my emotions. But inside I'm thinking, ‘This is your chance! What are you complaining about?' I don't want to upset them. I feel bad for them."

Source: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/top-chef/recent-top-chef-alum-and-judge-17178.aspx

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #16 on: March 01, 2008, 05:57:19 PM »
Top Chef: Tom Colicchio on His Start in Cooking



Top Chef star Tom Colicchio acts as the voice of authority on the show, with his unique position as the only restaurateur and professional chef on the panel of regular judges. While host Padma Lakshmi is a cookbook author, Gail Simmons is a food expert from Food and Wine Magazine, and Ted Allen has been the go-to food guy on Queer Eye, only Tom knows what it takes to run a professional kitchen and put out quality food night after night.

Each Top Chef contestant followed a different path to the show, but a love of food unites the group. What was Tom's own path to his current career? He recently talked about his upbringing and described how it brought him to his life in food and cooking.

Tom says that his early experience fishing with his grandfather gave him an sense at a young age that food was a source of connection and pleasure.

"It was my job to come home — I had to clean the fish," Tom said. "So, I learned to filet fish when I was about 4 years old. And then we would just cook all afternoon and eat that night, and it would last all night long.

"So, something as simple as going out for day fishing turned into a feast. I didn't know any other way, that's just the way I was raised, and I kind of expect that from everybody."

The idea of turning food into the focal point was continued by his mother. Tom said of his mom, "It was a way of her expressing love and it was clear that it was so important to her to have a meal on the table and have us all sitting together. And I think that really also transfers into what I do today — ultimately, we're here to make people happy, and that I got from my mom."

The Top Chef judge got started on his own food career early. At thirteen, he worked his way into a job as a snack bar grill cook. It sounds like an arduous job for a young man, but he loved it.

"It was the best job I ever had," Tom said. "I found out how much I really enjoyed it. Not only did I enjoy it but I enjoyed the physical aspect of it, sort of working the griddle and sort of timing everything and getting everything down — it was a blast, it was a lot of fun."

And a couple years later, Tim's own father made the suggestion that he pursue cooking as a career. "It's probably one of the few times I listened to him," he said. He headed to culinary school and then continued onto his career in food, parlaying those early positive experiences into the success he's had today.

Source: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/top-chef/top-chef-tom-colicchio-on-his-17076.aspx

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #17 on: March 07, 2008, 10:36:59 PM »
TOP CHEF CHICAGO SEASON PREMIER MARCH 12, 2008



EPISODE 1: Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better

The 16 rising chefs have to put their own twist on a Chicago staple and then serve it to host Padma Lakshmi and guest judge Rocco DiSpirito

the first elimination challenge is a head to head competition.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2008, 10:15:59 AM »
We now have 33 hours to go until TopChef 4 is back(10pm tomorrow night). Please note that this is a special 75 minute episode if you are setting your VCR to watch later!

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2008, 01:06:36 PM »
We now have 33 hours to go until TopChef 4 is back(10pm tomorrow night). Please note that this is a special 75 minute episode if you are setting your VCR to watch later!


 :jumpy: I'm getting excited I can't wait. Thanks for the heads up I had no idea it was 75 minutes.

Couldn't they have extend it to 90 minutes, that does not happen often but oh well I'll take an extra 15 minutes  :lol:


Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2008, 03:18:02 PM »
The only 90 minute episode of TopChef that I can recall was the Holiday Chef Special (I call it Battle of the Seasons) last December. 75 minutes is typically reserved for the first and sometimes last episodes of a season when they either have a lot of contestants to introduce or lots of action.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #21 on: March 12, 2008, 04:38:36 PM »
The only 90 minute episode of TopChef that I can recall was the Holiday Chef Special (I call it Battle of the Seasons) last December. 75 minutes is typically reserved for the first and sometimes last episodes of a season when they either have a lot of contestants to introduce or lots of action.

 :jumpy: :wohoo: :jumpy: I can't wait!!! 9PM CDT!
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #22 on: March 12, 2008, 11:43:50 PM »
Right from the start of episode 1, it looks like TopChef 4 will be a high-voltage affair with lots of conflict between contestants. Tonight the main event was between Andrew and Richard, but that was after Jen and Zoi announced to the group that they have been a couple in San Francisco for some time.  The response of another contestant was a snippy "so what, they can just be sent back as a couple." I'm not so sure about that, as that couple both seem to be decent chefs. There are guys(Andrew and Dale) who appear to have all the social skills of Hung and there is another(Richard) who is modeling Marcel with the high-tech flair but much higher interpersonal skills. Contestants have been allowed to bring $200 worth of their own special ingredients with them for use anytime during the entirety of TopChef 4.

Contestants landed and went to Pizzeria Uno, the most famous pizza restaurant in Chicago. They ate pizza and chatted each other up, but anyone who has seen any prior TopChef season knew what was coming. What is the feature at Pizzeria Uno? Deep dish pizza is the answer. What is the first quickfire challenge for the 16 contestants? If you guessed deep dish pizza you have been paying attention and get a gold star. Contestants have to buy ingredients in a separate shopping period, then will have 90 minutes from scratch.  Richard took a second pan so there wasn't any left for Andrew when he was ready for one. He had to do a skillet version. Here are the different types of pizza presented by the contestants as best as I could get them on paper(easy) and then read my own handwriting(difficult):

Andrew - sweet marinara, onions, prosciutto, cheese
Antonia - burratta cheese, prosciutto, arugula, heirloom tomatoes
Dale - sausage, pickled kielbasa, scallions, sriracha sauce
Erik - mushrooms, onions, peppers, sausage
Jennifer - "Harvest Style" grapes, bacon, fontina, rosemary
Lisa - Asian BBQ duck
Manuel - Sopressata + rapini a la Siciliano
Mark - chicken, zucchini, Marmite (a yeast extract from Australia and New Zealand found on breakfast tables) molasses
Nikki - "White Pie" ricotta, pecorino cheeses
Nimma - "Hunter Style" onions, mushrooms, stracchino cheese
Richard - peach Taleggio with sweat tea sauce
Ryan - salad, butternut squash
Spike - "A la Grec" feta, olives, sausage
Stephanie - melon-tomato, prosciutto, olives, arugula
Valerie - "meat and potatoes"
Zoi - broccoli, pesto, lamb sausage

The Guest Judge is Rocco di Spirito, who along with Padma tastes all 16 dishes. He sorts the contestants into two groups of 8, the "winners" and the losers". It will be apparent which is which in the way the table below is organized. The 8 winners(on the left) get to sequentially based on drawing knives choose their opponent(on the right) in a 2-person competition. The opponent then gets to choose which of the 8 classic dishes they are cooking (or reinventing).

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

Richard vs. Andrew - Crabcakes

Mark vs. Stephanie - Duck a L'Orange

Jen vs. Nikki   -  Lasagna

Antonia vs. Nimma  - Shrimp Scampi

Spike vs. Lisa - Eggs Benedict

Dale vs. Manuel - Steak au Poivre

Ryan vs. Valerie - Chicken Picatta

Erik vs. Zoi - Souffle

Judges table included Rocco, Padma, Tom Colicchio, and Anthony Bourdain. The on-the-spot ratings were
that the winners of the above were Richard, Stephanie, Nikki,  Antonia, Lisa, Dale, Valerie and Zoi. The 4 top finishers of those were Richard, Stephanie, Antonia and Nikki. Stephanie was judged best. No reward was mentioned.

The losers were the other 8, but 4 of them were singled out as the worst of the worst. They were Erik, Nimma, Mark, and Ryan. The sins of each one was reviewed in great detail. Ryan was charged with not knowing what a picatta sauce was and trying to make it Milanese style instead with bread crumbs. Erik admitted he had not made a souffle in over 20 years and was not skilled at that technique(Note: since he picked the dish last, even though he theoretically had a pick of dish it was souffle or nothing). He had used potatoes and also put tortillas on top, both of which worked against the souffle rising properly.  Nimma's sins were too much salt on her shrimp, inbability to do a proper flan and general incompetence. Ryan's deconstructions went awry but it looked to me like he was not going to be eliminated(something I could not say about the other 3). Tom Colicchio came up with the line of the night  - "You have to know the classics if you want to work with modern food."  The ax fell on Nimma, who was told to pack her knives and go.

There were 3 contestants who "lost" the 2-person challenges but who made a positive impression on the judges with their food. They were Andrew, Jennifer, and Manuel. There were  5 contestants who based on the commentary were rated middling: Dale, Spike, Lisa, Valerie and Zoi.

I am not willing with 16 contestants to try to identify the dishes of all 16 in the Elimination Challenge, but I will the the 4 top and 4 bottom a go:

Stephanie - Duck Breast, Mushroom, Bok Choy, duck spring rolls with Orange Soy Glaze
Richard - blue crab, apple coleslaw, smoked ras al hanout (I've never heard of this and am going to look it up and know before next week, since Richard has a lot of high-tech stuff and we're likely to see it again)
Antonia - pappardelle with shrimp, lobster, fontina, and squash blossoms
Nikki- "Classic Lasagna" with sheep's milk gouda cheese


Nimma - shrimp scampi w/Cauliflower Scramble
Mark - Enoki mushrooms, smoked duck breast w/ a Sakitini (preumably a martini with sake substituted as the base liquor)
Erik - pepper jack cheese souffle w/avocado creme fraiche, black bean puree, salsa
Ryan - chicken cutlets w lemon-potato gnocchi, creme fraiche, warm herb salad

For next week I will abandon my one night experiment with index cards for note-taking and return to 8.5 x 11 inch paper. This should reduce the time and number of rewrites to get a decent recap out, as I will be better able to read the notes I take during the show.

« Last Edit: March 13, 2008, 01:00:22 PM by apskip »

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #23 on: March 13, 2008, 12:08:39 PM »
 :lol: I'm so angry because I discovered last night that I have BRAVO Canada and yup it did not show Top Chef

I can probably catch it through another channel but on a rerun.

 :'( So I can't join you guys on here :lol:

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2008, 03:22:13 PM »
:lol: I'm so angry because I discovered last night that I have BRAVO Canada and yup it did not show Top Chef

I can probably catch it through another channel but on a rerun.

 :'( So I can't join you guys on here :lol:

OH NO!!!!!  How dare they not show it!  (:;)
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