Author Topic: Top Chef Chicago Season 4  (Read 43763 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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Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #25 on: March 13, 2008, 06:00:07 PM »

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


 :lol: I know it sucks oh well see you guys for Hell's Kitchen anyways

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #26 on: March 14, 2008, 11:15:54 PM »
BRAVO'S "TOP CHEF: CHICAGO" FOURTH SEASON PREMIERE UP 11%, FIRING UP MORE THAN TWO MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS

NEW YORK March 13, 2008 Bravo's Emmy-nominated culinary creative competition series "Top Chef" fired up the competition last night by premiering once again as the No. 1 rated food show on cable across all demographics, according to Nielsen Media Research. With significant growth from its last cycle, the season premiere attracted 1,475,000 adults 18-49 and 2,256,000 total viewers.

Season to season, "Top Chef" premieres have grown, continuing Bravo's hallmark of increasing viewership with each original franchise cycle. Last night's 10 p.m. "Top Chef: Chicago" premiere increased from the third season premiere (6/13/07) by 11 percent in total viewers (2.256 vs. 2.024 million) and by five percent among adults 18-49 (1.475 vs. 1.407 million).

Online, BravoTV.com saw double digit gains for the "Top Chef: Chicago" site generating a 30 percent increase in page views (540,000 vs. 415,000) last night, compared to the "Top Chef: Miami" premiere in June 2007.

Source: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?id=20080313bravo01
« Last Edit: March 14, 2008, 11:25:35 PM by ca bb fan »

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #27 on: March 14, 2008, 11:20:02 PM »
You bet I emailed BRAVO CA  (:;)

Not that it will do anything but I had to tell them in detail what they are missing  :lol:
« Last Edit: March 14, 2008, 11:26:28 PM by ca bb fan »

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #28 on: March 15, 2008, 07:56:06 AM »
I have researched sriracha and ras al hanout, so it's time for everyone reading this thread to know what they are too.

Sriracha is a generic name for Thai hot sauce. It is composed of hot peppers, garlic paste, vinegar, salt and sugar. It comes out a bright red and is found in small bottles all over the Southeast and to a lesser extent in California and rest of the United States. I am going to try some soon, as I love hot sauce.

Ras al hanout is a mix of typically over a dozen herbs and spices including cardamom, mace (spice), nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground chili peppers. Some recipes include over one hundred ingredients, some quite unusual, such as ash berries, chufa, Grains of Paradise, orris root, Monk's pepper, cubebs, dried rosebud, and the potentially toxic belladonna and insects. Ras al hanout is believed to be an aphrodisiac. No doubt this is why Richard used it, trying to curry favor with the judges.

« Last Edit: March 15, 2008, 04:00:14 PM by apskip »

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #29 on: March 15, 2008, 02:12:10 PM »
I have researched sriracha and ras al hanout, so it's time for everyone reading this thread to know what they are too.

Sriracha is a generic name for Thai hot sauce. It is composed of hot peppers, garlic paste, vinegar, salt and sugar. It comes out a bright red and is found in small bottles all over the Southeast and to a lesser extent in California and rest of the United States. I am going to try some soon, as I love hot sauce.

Ras al hanout is a mix of typically over a dozen herbs and spices including cardamom, mace (spice), nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground chili peppers. Some recipes include over one hundred ingredients, some quite unusual, such as ash berries, chufa, Grains of Paradise, orris root, Monk's pepper, cubebs, dried rosebud, and the potentially toxic belladonna and insects. Ras al hanoout is believed to be an aphrodisiac. No doubt this is why Richard used it, trying to curry favor with the judges.


Wow that sounds like an interesting flavour prepared with crab , yumm!!

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #30 on: March 17, 2008, 05:15:19 PM »
Here's something new and interesting from TV Guide: "being forced to cook together for a wild and woolly outdoor event" is what the episode 2 is about.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #31 on: March 19, 2008, 10:43:12 PM »
I plan to do the complete recap tomorrow morning, but wanted to discuss one important part of it right now. The "worst of the worst" discussion focused on 3 contestants, Stephanie, Valerie and Nikki. Nikki was there because of a mediocre stuffed mushroom canape. She knew it was not good enough to be served before the prep was finished. Since it was on the preprinted menu, she had to tell some potential customers it was not available. However, then she went and allowed the judges to sample it. What a terrible decision! I think that Nikki deserved to be eliminated for bad judgment alone. Dale got pulled into it because he had attempted to save her dish at the site with pecorino cheese but did not taste it(neither did she), but at least he had the good sense to warn her not to sample the judges with it.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #32 on: March 20, 2008, 08:45:53 AM »
The Quickfire was at the Green City Market, where ingredients were purchased with $25 in 30 minutes to create one dish with no more than 5 ingredients, including all Kitchen ingredients except pepper, salt, sugar, or oil(which don't count). The guest judge was Wiley Dufresne, a Manhattan restauranteur noted for use of new food tecnologies. That market had wonderful greens and vegetables, variable meat, and no seafood(Chicago is 800 miles from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, although restaurants there certainly do have it) not even fish from the Great Lakes.

The bottom 3 dishes were by Richard(surprising since he is a proponent of new food technology), Erik and Spike.
The top 3 dishes were by Valerie, Mark and Ryan.
Richard's dish was a chicken soup heavy on pieces of chicken.
Erik's dish was lamb chops.
Spike's dish was sirloin tips, but he was hampered by the poor quality of the meat he received vs. what he was expecting; he termed it "dog meat".
Valerie's dish was rib-eye steak, peaches, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and arugula.
Mark's dish was seared sirloin with peach and turnips.
Ryan's dish was sirloin steak, potatoes, lettuce, radishes, and mustard.
Mark wins.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

Gail Simmons is back as permanent judge and she had a lot to say at Judges' Table(which as a co-founder of the show should be the case).
The task was to cater a cocktail party for 200 at the Lincoln Park Zoo. 5 teams of 3 were formed by drawing knives with each team focused on the culinary habits of a particular animal - Vulture, Gorilla, Lion, Bear, Penguin.
Each team prepared a complete set of canapes in large quantity using $500 in 30 minutes ingredient shopping at an unspecified(or I missed it) upscale local grocery. They then have 3 hours to prep and one hour to set up onsite at the zoo. Teams are(to be recehcked):

Gorilla- Valerie, Antonia, Stephanie
Penguin - Jennifer, Andrew, Lisa
Bear - Nikki, Dale, Spike
Lion - Richard, Ryan, Erik
Vulture - Manuel, Zoi, Mark

Gorilla Menu - Black Olive Blinis w/Mascarpone, Pear Crab Salad, Lamb and Edamame Lettuce Cups
Penguin Menu - Thai Shrimp and Crab Salad, Roasted Zucchini, Squid Ceviche, Yuzu and Mint "Glacier"
Bear - Venison Loin, Seared Salmon, Stuffed Mushrooms(see my prior post about this one), Cheese & Honeycomb on Bread
Lion - Beet Salad w/Goat Cheese Foam, Bison Tartare, Ras al Hanout(see note after last week's recap for info about this), Chicken Satay, Prime rib w/Horseradish Foam
Team Vulture - Chicken on a Tostada Chip, Moroccan Lamb Meatball, Anchovy on Quinoa Croquette

The dishes that were rated best were from Team Penguin and Team Vulture. Andrew was singled out I believe for the squid ceviche as the most outstanding dish. No prize was mentioned but the honor of victory is meaningful in this competition.

The worst dishes were from Team Bear and Team Gorilla. The stuffed mushroom controversy was covered last night in a separate post. Both Nikki and Dale were in jeopardy and I believe Nikki's trangressions were serious enough to warrant her elimination. However, I wasn't there to taste and the blini dish and the crab salad must have been pretty bad. Out of Nikki, Valerie and Stephanie, Valerie was selected for elimination. I believe the blinis were hers and her not knowing that blinis cannot be made ahead of time was a critical factor. She should have chosen another dish to prepare.



« Last Edit: June 12, 2008, 07:30:29 AM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #33 on: March 24, 2008, 07:00:06 PM »
The next elimination challenge, acording to TV Guide will involve Guest Judge Rick Bayless(a Chicago area native and owner of a Mexican resaurant in Chicago and several in Mexico). It will involve catering a Latino street fair.

I see Rick's Mexican food shows several times a week on a local PBS station in the New York metro area. He is probably my favorite cooking show host.

Offline georgiapeach

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #34 on: April 01, 2008, 04:37:01 PM »
Apskip asked me to leave a note in this thread that he will be back with the latest very soon, as he is being released from the hospital this evening.

Good news! :hearts:
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Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #35 on: April 02, 2008, 03:35:32 PM »
Apskip: Glad to hear you are feeling better. I'm looking forward to your recaps.   :-*
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #36 on: April 02, 2008, 08:31:26 PM »
This is going to be done in two parts. My tape of the Neigborhood Fiesta episode ran out halfway, so I have notes for half. fortunately, that episode is showing right now on BRAVO, so I will have to duck down in 13 minutes to tape the last half hour.

The Guest Judge is Rick Bayless, a Mexican food expert who owns restaurants Topolobambo and Frontera Grill in Chicago. He has a daily cooking show shown much of the time of one of my local PBS stations. He is an inspiring man about Mexican food.

The Quickfire is to create an upscale dish from the mundane taco. dishes offered are:

Spike - ground pork taco with tomatillo sauce
Richard - jicama tortilla w/ avocado, papaya, and cilantro stems
Erik - chipotle braised chicken w/ avocado, pomegranate salsa and guacamole
Andrew - duck breast w/ plaintain and cotija cheese
Manuel - chorizo, picante verde, cilantro, goat cheese
Ryan - pomegranate, jicama salad, ?  in paper
Mark - grilled squash and stewed chick peas
Lisa - grilled skirt steak w/caramelized onions, pineapple and cabbage slaw

Losers group as judged by Rick Bayless were Lisa, Ryan and Erik.
Winners group were Richard, Spike and Andrew.
Richard wins and gets immunity.

Elimination Challenge is to cater a picnic for 70 kids and their families at a neighborhood block party. The Teams are chosen by the contestants. They are:

RED - Zoi Dale Spike Ryan Jen Erik
BLUE - Stephanie Antonia Mark Richard

I don't have the rest placed properly yet, but I will add that when I have it. Teams were told to go into the neighborhood and scrounge all ingredients and materials for this challenge. They went door-to-door to obtain them.

The menu chosen by the RED team was: Slider(mini-hamburger), Corn Dog, Pork Skewers, Waldorf Salad, Pasta Salad, Taco salad, and S'Mores. There was  a more refined description of some of these, but it doesn't add any real value for picnic food.

The menu chosen by the BLUE team was: Paella, Slaw, BBQ Pulled Pork, Bean Salad, Inside Out Cookies, Sexy Drink(an exotic combination of fruit flavors with seltzer), Fruit Cobbler.

It looked like the neighborhood was having a fine time with the food made with their ingredients and materials. However, the judges were not quite so positive.

Richard was criticized for having too much chicken on the plate. However, he had immunity.
Zoi's pasta was bland, oily, with no taste.
Erik's corn dog had major problems.
Ryan's Waldorf salad was unfocused.

Stephanie got universal acclaim for her Sexy Drinks. They won the blue team the victory and herself the individual winner.

It was pretty clear that Rick and Tom both felt that Erik had made a major error in judgment by electing to serve corn dogs with their inherent transportation, reheating and drying out problems. Erik's defense was that he has a history of serving thousands of them in his restaurant environment, but that is beside the point when an outdoor fiesta is the challenge. Erik was the 3rd person eliminated.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2008, 10:28:19 PM by apskip »

Offline puddin

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #37 on: April 02, 2008, 08:40:13 PM »
thread jacked to welcome apskips back, good to see you posting again, hope you are feeling like yourself again  :jumpy:

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #38 on: April 03, 2008, 11:09:40 AM »
I was feeling well enough last night to watch all of the 3rd episode and do its recap, then watch episode 4. The Guest Judge this week is famed French chef Daniel Boulud. The Quickfire is a test of ability to demonstrate multiple techniques, at least 3. Chef contestants have 30 minutes to select vegetables from a very beautiful stockpile of them and them blanch, marinate, or perform any enhancing techniques on them to fill up a veggie platter. The final products noted on the show were:

Richard- blanched mushrooms, pickled beets, sliced radishes with lime juice and scallions
Dale-Daikon marinated in Tobanjan(don't ask until I have time to look it up; I'll let you know), tournees of avocado and cucumber
Manuel-blanched asparagus, brunois of yellow peppers, supreme of lemon, endive and fennel fronds
Spike-carpaccio of cucumber, tagliatello of asparagus, cucumber cup, tournee of mushrooms
Zoi-asparagus, poached egg, batons of green beans, chiffonade of radicchio frisee
Nikki-blanched green beans, asparagus quenelles, shaved fennel and radish salad
Lisa-poached egg, blanched asparagus, batonnettes of bell pepper, grilled zucchini

Boulud picked Lisa, Nikki, and Manuel for the losers bracket. He picked Richard, Zoi and Dale for the winner's bracket. The indivudal winner was Dale, possibly because Boulud had to bend over backwards not to show favoritism to richard who had apprenticed under him. The reward was not immunity, but the ability to add himself on to any of the other 6 teams which were formed by drawing knives for order in the meal and by individuals pairing up. Those pairings were:

1 - Richard and Andrew
2 - Spike and Manuel
3 -  Jen and Nikki
4 -  Mark and Ryan
5 - Antonia and Zoi
6 - Lisa and Stephanie

It looks like a no-brainer for Dale to add himself to team 1. This was Dinner at the Movies, with the dishes all based on themes from a favorite movie. One of the hosts, Richard Roper is the movie critic who took other for Gene Siskel when he died years ago and now has Ebert and Roper at the Movies in weekly syndication. The other host Aisha Tyler is an actress. 6 of their friends joined the 2 of them plus the four judges in eating the 6 course meal and commenting. The movies and menus are:

1 Willy Wonka;  Smoked Salmon, Faux Caviar, White Chocolate, Wasabi Sauce
2 Good Morning Vietnam;  Summer Roll w/ Black Vermicelli, Green Apple, Chilean Sea Bass, Swiss Chard
3 Il Postino;  Tortellini Cavolo Nero, Ricotta, Pecorino, Squash, Peppercorn
4 A Christmas Story;  Quail Breast, Carrot Puree, Cranberry Chutney, Quail Spring Rolls
5 Talk to Her;  Rack of Lamb w/Saffron, Cauliflower Puree, Romesco, Gramalata
6 Top Secret;  NY Strip Steak, Braised Short Rib, Apple Potstickers, caramel sauce

For the first movie, Boulud said that this was a very creative approach.
For #2, Padma said it was oobvious that they wanted to cook Viet food and let the choice of movice be based on that rather than the correct way.
For #4 it was noted that it was actually the Christmas season in Chicago when this episode was filmed so The Christmas Story was a particularly harmonious choice.
For #5 the chefs claimed that their lamb was fiery in colors and flavors, but the judges found little of either.
For #6 This was well-executed all the way.

So, it's no surprise that teams #1 and #6 and the ones selected for the winners group. Within that the winner is #1. Within that team the individual winner is Richard. He had publicly proclaimed at the begining of this challenge that he was going to "step it up a notch" and lead this team to victory. He did just that. It was cautionary to see how close his margin of victory was. His vaunted blowtorch stopped working on the 3rd of 12 meals in smoking the salmon, so they had to improvise, which they just managed to pull off successfully with lit wood chunks waved under the salmon. Stephanie also has a history of high performance, so I would not be surprised to see a Richard vs. Stephanie Finale on TopChef 4.

The worst of the worst competition was a tough call. Zoi and Antonia were there, but not really since Colicchio stated that their flavors were OK(that's not what I remembered from earlier in the episode, but he obviously does not want to have all the women wiped out). So it is Spike vs. Manuel. Spike was clearly the mastermind of Viet food and Manuel went along with it. The final judgment was that the one who didn't have the skill to take an independent course was the weaker and will go. Manuel was eliminated on the application of that logic. The more brash Spike stays longer, but it won't be for long. He talks a better game than he cooks. Similarly, Antonia impresses me as someone who has it together. Lisa looks like someone who will be leaving soon.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2008, 06:20:48 PM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #39 on: April 06, 2008, 05:11:17 PM »
Food Terminology Update

Daikon - a mild-flavored East Asian giant white radish
Tobanjan - depnding on which one of these you like, Spicy Miso Bean Sauce, Chinese chili bean paste, Chinese hot chile sauce   
Brunois - Finely diced vegetables: carrots, celery, onions, leeks, used as a basis of a soup or stuffing; usually cut in 1/8 inch squares
Supreme - a boneless and skinless breast of chicken (in French: supręme de volaille ), or the same cut of duck
Tournee - cutting fruit or vegetables into a certain shape for garnishing
Chiffonade - a julienne cut except that it is reserved for leafy vegetables and herbs; often this type of cut is used on basil and the result is used as a garnish.
Cavolo Nero - Tuscan kale sold in bunches of deeply ribbed, long narrow dark green leaves on tall stalks
Romesco - Catalonian sauce of finely ground tomatoes, red bell peppers, onion, garlic, almonds and olive oil, typically served with salads , grilled vegetables, meat, chicken, or fish
Gramalata - The meat around the bone on the lamb shank becomes tender and juicy as it slow cooks in the liquids. The gramalata is a traditional garnish made from fresh  chopped parsley, minced garlic and a hint of citrus zest.


« Last Edit: April 06, 2008, 06:20:23 PM by apskip »

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #40 on: April 07, 2008, 10:11:04 AM »
Thanks for the recap and food descriptions. We appreciate your hard work and expertise.

I need to start over and watch all the episodes again because only a few of the chefs stand out for me at this point, however Richard does stand out. Wasn't there another chef that Boulud mentioned as having worked for him? It seems like whoever it was, was a short-termed apprentice.

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Offline rosesrred

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #41 on: April 07, 2008, 10:37:50 AM »
Sorry I don't watch Top Chef and I don't want to Hijack this thread - but did anyone see the skit Saturday Night Live did on this show it was hilarius.  Christopher Walken was the guest host  :funny:

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #42 on: April 07, 2008, 10:27:14 PM »
Thanks for the recap and food descriptions. We appreciate your hard work and expertise.

I need to start over and watch all the episodes again because only a few of the chefs stand out for me at this point, however Richard does stand out. Wasn't there another chef that Boulud mentioned as having worked for him? It seems like whoever it was, was a short-termed apprentice.



Yes, it was Ryan, who also worked for Rick Bayless so het gets around.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #43 on: April 10, 2008, 08:18:59 AM »
Episode 5

Guest Judge is Ming Tsai, a proponent of East/West fusion cuisine and owner of the Blue Ginger restaurant in Boston.
Quickfire is the blindfolded tasting test, where chefs have 10 seconds to taste two samples one of which is more expensive of the same type of ingredient and identify which one of the pair is that.
Ingredients tested included Syrup, Bacon, Fish, Soy, Crab, Butter, Cheddar, Caviar, Pork, Olive Oil and Sake plus 4 others for a total of 15.
Results were totally objective for a change. Stephanie was on the bottom with 6.  Antonia, who had predicted that she would do really well at this, was the winner with 12 right and got immunity. Jennifer and Ryan got 11 right.

Elimination Challenge
TopChef 4 was invited to do the first course of the 2007 Meals on Wheels Chicago Celebrity Chef Ball. The cheftestants were providing 4 different versions of that first course. Knives were drawn to determine four teams of 3. They were:

Water - Richard, Mark, Andrew
Air - Jennifer, Nikki, Ryan
Earth - Antonia, Spike, Zoi
Fire - Dale, Stephanie, Lisa

Teams had 15 minutes to plan their mini-menu. Then they had $500 and 45 minutes to shop for ingredients. More than ever, it seemed that insufficient planning time resulted in more redos when they got to Whole Foods and could rethink exactly what might be possible. A number of changes in mini-menus were made there on the fly.

Team Water was going with a sous vide approach to cooking salmon, driven by Richard's high technology philosophy. Team Air stayed nice and simple, nothing risky. Team Earth had the handicap of the immune contestant Antonia, who could participate in enerything but should have deferred to Spike and Zoi on the menu decisions since all risk was on them. They chose to not do Spike's strenuous request for butternut squash soup and stuck to less complex flavors. Team Air finally went with Lisa's insistence that something Asian would be smart with Ming Tsai as a judge; they had initially considered duck breast but ended up with shrimp so it was all about how well they accompanied it and spiced it.

Final menus were:
Water - poached salmon, faux caviar, parsnips puree, watercress salad
Air - duck breast, herb salad, pomegranate, prosecco aperitif
Earth - beef carpaccio, mushroom salad, sunchoke aioli
Fire - shrimp, pickled chilis, deviled aioli, miso smoked bacon

The judges all agreed that Team Fire was the winner. The individual winner was Lisa for her ability to pull off the complex miso smoked bacon. Dale in an after-comment ridiculed the choice of bacon as the winning part, since he does not see the complexity in bacon; however, he hates Lisa so much that he will criticize anything she does. I'll bet Lisa doesn't thnk much of Dale either.

The judges also agreed that Team Earth and Team Water were the losers. They had diner response cards which they saved until the end. Tom Colicchio had made the predictive comment that Richard was showing a lot of overconfidence and was setting himself up for a fall. They criticized Richard for the scales in his salmon. He stated  that basically he was not aware of them, but that was not true since his teammates warned him just before serving, but at that point there was nothing he could do to fix it. Andrew was lambasted for using parnips at all; he defended himself but it didn't sound very convincing to me. Mark did faux caviar one time too many. Antonia was immune but she was criticized for playing such a strong role in the menu decisions. Spike certainly agreed with that, as he stated that she had vetoed his butternut squash soup. Ming said that would have been a perfect dish. Zoi had the mushroom salad and that was universally disliked(and more on it later). The seasoning on it was critical and there was little.

The judges conferred and agreed that the beef carpaccio menu was the more egregious(seconded by the diners), which let Richard, Andrew and Mark off the hook. It made the elmination between Zoi and Spike. I think it was close, but Zoi's mushroom salad in Tom's opinion should have been able to hold the totality together on the plate but missed by a mile. Zoi was eliminated.

Then Spike attacked Antonia. She defends by saying "stand by your dish", meaning if you really believe in it then insist that it is on the final menu. Dale gratuitously attacked Lisa. Did I make a mistake and somehow tune into Hell's Kitchen 4 all of a sudden by time warp?
« Last Edit: April 10, 2008, 10:43:32 AM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #44 on: April 10, 2008, 11:30:46 AM »
Heh on Top Chef becoming like Hell's Kitchen, it must have been pretty heated. Thanks Apskip for the recap. I forgot to watch last night but have it on the DVR but at least I know what the quick fire was and the results!  :tup:
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #45 on: April 16, 2008, 10:55:47 PM »
Episode 6

The fallout from last week's action includes Ryan correctly stating that Zoi's departure stirred the pot, Dale's apology to Lisa for communicating poorly with her, and Lisa's retort that Dale can go ****(a word not allowed on live TV and bleeped out by BRAVO) himself.

The Guest Judge is Karin Grievson, chef of Avec in Chicago. 16 mugs of beer are on the table. In the Quickfire, each cheftestant gets to sample 3 and pick one for their use(as a carton of bottles, not as a mug). The goal is Simple Pleasures, to marry up beer flavor with apporpriate food. I wonder how beer got selected(why not wine, for example?). Somebody on the Chicago area Beer Distributors must have used a hunk of their Publicity budget to buy their way into Top Chef. Chefs have 30 minutes to cook.

Here are the dishes selected:

Ryan - they did not show a caption; I heard him say epaulets of lamb criponnet on the second viewing
Spike - Charcuterie Plate w/ Tapas of Clams
Richard - Grilled Tuna Sandwich
Dale - Pork tenderloin grilled with miso caramel sauce and pretzel crust
Mark - Juniper Spiced Lamb Rack w Beer Sauce
Andrew - Rainbow Trout w Raspberry Gastrique and Pears
Antonia - miso Cod, Sauteed Cabbage
Nikki - Citrus Marinated Shrimp
Lisa - Bacon cheeseburger w/Potato chips
Stephanie - Steamed Mussels, Cilantro Viinaigrette, Grilled Bread
Jennifer - Shrimp  and Scallop Beignets w/ fennel, avocado and pepper purees

Worst were Nikki, Spike, and Dale. Spike was due to an inappropriate pairing of food for that beer(or any beer). Dale was because the pretzel crust made it too dry.
Best were Richard, Stephanie and Jennifer. Richard was cited for great use of spices, Stephanie for excellent mussels. Jennifer was named Best of the Best and won immunity for the Elimination Challenge.

Elimination Challenge
For this Karin leaves the judges panel and is replaced by the owner of Avec Paul Kahn. The challenge is to cook for tailgate parties outside soldier's Field where the Chicago Bears are playing a regular season game the next day. Each person has the usual time and money contstraints at Whole Foods. There is 2 hours to prep in the topChef kitchen, then 1 hour to setup and cook at the site. Each cheftestant is given the choice of a gas grill or a Charcoal grill. Only Mark chooses charcoal and you see him lugging bags of briquettes an dhaving a messy grill so I bet he is sorry he did that. I should note that among the Fans sampling and rating this food were Richard Dent, William Perry and Gayle Sayers, three grerats from Chicago Bears football history.

Spike did jicama and pineapple slaw in lime dressing with spiced chicken wings.
Ryan did grilled chicken thighs, bread salad, poached pear w/ creme fraiche and huckleberry sauce and brandy cocoa drink.
Richard did a patty melt w/ sapicy mayonnaise and pickled cucumber and other vegetables.
Dale did marinated baby back ribs tandoori and potato salad with golden raisin, mango and turmeric.
Mark did chicken and scallion skeweres in soy and onion glaze plus New Zealand corn chowder.
Andrew did a jerk chicken sandwich with peaches.
Stephanie did pork tenderloins w/ pear, potato and bacon salad plus rosemary vinaigrette.
Jennifer did Chicken roasted w/ Harissa and Quinoa Tabouli.
Lisa did corn cakes w/ skirt steak and salsa verde.
Nikki did sausage and peppers w/ onions and choice of hot or cocktail sauce, grilled shrimp, Asian cole slaw and spiced cider. However, she had a problem that her customers had run her supply of peppers and onions low by the time the judges arrived and so they did not get the true impact of her dish.

My guesses based on fan reaction were that Mark and Nikki were in trouble and that Dale would do well. The Judges Table confirmed that Dale, Stephanie and Andrew were the best. Dale won and was awarded the Summit 650 grill he had cooked with plus a TopChef #4 Bears uniform. Nice redemption for his poor Quickfire showing.
The worst group was Nikki, Mark, and Ryan. Nikki had the lowest score from the fans and the judges rated her dish low. Mark had serious sanitary problems which he was warned about plus his New Zealand corn chowder was gritty and the charcoal flavor he was seeking was destroyed by thick sauce coating the meat. Ryan got the rap for serving dishes inappropriate for a tailgate party. He did a salad when a sandwich was called for among other problems.

So, which was the worst sin? The judges decision was that Ryan was going home for inappropriate food.

« Last Edit: April 18, 2008, 03:15:46 PM by apskip »

Offline marigold

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #46 on: April 17, 2008, 12:41:22 AM »
Tom Colicchio says Bravo has received complaints about Top Chef 4’s profanity

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/

In a weird little coda at the end of Top Chef 4 last week, the contestants erupted into a fight, sort of, that was difficult to parse because so many people were getting made at each other for different reasons—and because the whole thing was a big bleep-fest.

As it turned out, some people, including head judge and chief ornery bastard Tom Colicchio, have noticed that this season has more profanity, and they’re not happy. People leaving comments on BravoTV.com, always the best gauge of public opinion, “had criticized this season’s profanity from ‘day one’ and that Bravo, which broadcasts ‘Top Chef,’ had received complaints as well,” The New York Times reports, attributing the information to Colicchio.

Tom said that “the way they’re bleeping” might be problematic. The Times artfully describes that by noting that “Bravo’s censors leave much of the offending syllables intact. … Instead of a fig leaf, the network holds up a sprig of parsley.”
Andy Cohen told the paper that the profanity has been striking but is just the way these chefs are. “It’s struck us from the first cut we got of the first episode. At the network all we can do is bleep like crazy and, you know, maintain our standards while maintaining the integrity of what’s going on in the kitchen. I mean look, it’s who these people are, and we try to show these people as they are.”

One of the current contestants, Spike Mendelsohn, said his family was shocked and “I was actually surprised myself when I watched it. I didn’t want to be so foulmouthed.” But he also doesn’t wish he’d done something differently. “Not at all, that’s who I am,” he said.

For the full artcle by The New York Times (it's two pages long) here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/dining/16profane.html

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #47 on: April 19, 2008, 11:40:54 AM »
Thanks Ca, it's not surprising that people are offended by the profanity, they probably have children watching with them (Although it is run late in the evening but the reruns are not.) I'm just not impressed this year, I don't see any standout chefs, I'm tired of the bickering and really tired of hearing because Zoi was eliminated, Jennifer got all bent out of shape. Proof to me that people in relationships should not be in the same competition.

That said, no one stands out so far for me, with the exception of maybe Richard.
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #48 on: April 20, 2008, 02:18:39 PM »
The next episode of TC4 will feature major interaction with Chicago's Second City comedy group.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #49 on: April 24, 2008, 07:42:10 AM »
Episode 7

Cheftestants enter to see a huge table of sweets and are presented to the Guest Judge, John Iuzzini, Executive Pastry Chef. His judging talents go way beyond just desserts. The Quickfire is to Make a Great Dessert. The winner will get his recipe in the new TopChef Cookbook and it will be the only one from TC4 to be in there. So, they are off and whipping, baking, chopping, etc.

Andrew - Chocolate Ravioli in Pudding
Dale - Halo Halo, shaved ice, Avocado, Mango, Kiwi, nuts, and unidentified spices
Mark - Pavlovas made with wattleseeds from New Zealand
Richard - Banana Scallops w/ Banana Custard
Spike - Pineapple Rum Raisin Souffle w/ Toasted Coconut  (Note: chosen to demonstrate risk-taking vs. Chocolate cake for which he had memorized the recipe)
Antonia - baked lemon curd w/ lemon cake
Jennifer - Chocolate Cake w/ Salted Basil Ganache
Yoghurt w/ fruit puree, fried wontons and strawberries
Nikki - buttermilk cake w/ berry sauce
Stephanie - Chocolate Cake w/ chocolate dipped Banana Bits

Losers group are Antonia, Spike and Mark. Winners group had Lisa, Dale and Richard. Richard was selected as the winner for his dessert creation. Ironically, there was no recipe. He made it up on the spot, but now it will be enshrined for history. He also gets immunity for the elimination challenge.

Cheftestants are told they will have a nice relaxing evening at the Second City, Chicago's famous comedy group which spawned much of the origiinal Saturday Night Live cast. It evening at the improv. In the middle of the show, the skit asks for the audience to call out emotions (up to 5) and colors (up to 5) with nothing given away so far. Then it is a food ingredient(up to 5) and two of the cheftestants immediately "get it" and figure out that they have just been given their next assignment.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
They are right, with 5 pairs self-selected and each one assigned to an emotion, color and ingredient which MUST be used in their dish. The pairings are:

Andrew Spike - Yellow, Love, Vanilla
Dale Richard - Green Perplexed Tofu
Mark Nikki - Purple Depressed Bacon
Antonia Lisa - Magenta Drunk Polish Sausage
Jennifer Stephanie - Orange TurnedOn Asparagus

Dishes created then were:

Andrew Spike - Squash Soup w/ Vanilla Creme Fraiche
Dale Richard - Tofu marinated in beef fat in Green Curry
Mark Nikki - Pork Loin, sweet Potatoes, Grape Sauce, Brussels Sprouts
Antonia Lisa - Sea Bass on top of Chorizo Sausage, Purple Potato Puree w/ tequila
Jennifer Stephanie - Meange a Trois of Orange Gastrique and Vinaigrette, Goat Cheese, Asparagus and Fried Bread

The judges comments during the dining focused on Squash Soup and the Tofu in Green Curry as great dishes. Pork Loin was kind of blah. The use of chorizo rather than Polish Sausage was criticized. The "too much on the plate" and "goat cheese is the center of the dish instead of asparagus" criticisms were leveled at the Menage a Trois.

Judges Table came back with similar results. The two male pairs were the easy winners. Dale and Richard were selected as the overall winners and each got $2500 of Calphalaon cookware. The two female pairs were judged as the worst. Antonia and Lisa were there for not following the rules and substituting chorizo for Polish Sausage. Also, they were told that using Polish Sausage and Beer was a natural comination that they had overlooked. Lisa responded that she had not overlooked it, but she despised Polish Sausage. However, their dish was tasty and I predicted at that point that they would both survive. Jennifer and Lisa were in deep trouble on flavor. They were asked who did what. The better parts of the dish, the gastrique and vinaigrette, were done by Stephanie. The fried bread that was too big and too thick to cut with a knife and heavy use of the goat cheese which was despised by the judges were all Jennifer's ideas. In addition, she tried to defend how her plate was really about asparagus as a phallic symbol. It did not wash and she was eliminated. Good riddance. She gets to join her beloved Zoi sooner than later and we don't have to listen to more of her drivel about wanting to win for Zoi. If she didn't want to win for herself she should never have been there in the first place because it is way too competitive.

Speaking of that, there were multiple comments throughout the evening about there being no margin for error. One mistake and you're gone. We are now to the point in the competition where that is essentially true except for Richard, who has massed enough wins to have some protection from a single major mistake. It's hard to see how anyone is going to beat him given the depth and breadth of his skills. Also, Spike is now warranted is telling Antonia to go shove something up a part of her anatomy based on the success of his squash soup recipe, which she stifled in a prior episode.









« Last Edit: April 24, 2008, 08:12:55 AM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #50 on: April 24, 2008, 12:44:58 PM »
Quote
Good riddance. She gets to join her beloved Zoi sooner than later and we don't have to listen to more of her drivel about wanting to win for Zoi. If she didn't want to win for herself she should never have been there in the first place because it is way too competitive.

ABSOLUTELY!! Thank you! Drivel it was.

Also Antonia had immunity, she should not have been so aggressive in choosing what they served in that competition.

I'm liking Richard and Dale, they are beginning to stand out for me. I also enjoyed Johnny Iuzzini as a judge. He was impressive and interesting, I hope they bring him back for future episodes.
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #51 on: April 25, 2008, 12:14:56 PM »
TexasLady, you have your weeks mixed up. Antonia did have immunity for episode 5. However, in episode 7 it went to Richard and Antonia was in the bottom group of both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge. I want to point out that Dale was very secure in his talents and confident that Richard was his best possible partner, since most other cheftestants have been treated the immune chef as someone with a contagious disease that you don't want to have on your team. That was demonstrated forcefully when Antonia in ep. 5 threw her weight around and talked Spike out  of butternut squash soup that would have been a much better choice than what he finally chose. Richard and Dale were totally synergistic and very complementary and complimentary to each other.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #52 on: April 29, 2008, 10:49:52 AM »
TexasLady, you have your weeks mixed up. Antonia did have immunity for episode 5. However, in episode 7 it went to Richard and Antonia was in the bottom group of both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenge. I want to point out that Dale was very secure in his talents and confident that Richard was his best possible partner, since most other cheftestants have been treated the immune chef as someone with a contagious disease that you don't want to have on your team. That was demonstrated forcefully when Antonia in ep. 5 threw her weight around and talked Spike out  of butternut squash soup that would have been a much better choice than what he finally chose. Richard and Dale were totally synergistic and very complementary and complimentary to each other.

You're right, I was suffering from BB overload.  :lol: That's what I meant, she nixed the soup when she had immunity and it was praised so highly when Spike finally made it. As they pointed out in the judging, good soup is an art. (PP)

We are beginning to see the talented people rise now, and I for one am glad about that!
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #53 on: April 30, 2008, 11:29:24 AM »
Tonight's epsiode of TC4 will involve turning a single ingredient into a healthy meal using a microwave plus having Oprah's peronal chef  give a lesson in cooking for a cause.

Next week it will involve catering a wedding for 200 with the mother of the groom acting difficult.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2008, 06:54:09 PM by apskip »

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #54 on: May 01, 2008, 09:01:10 AM »
EPISODE 8

The Guest Judge is Art Smith, chef and owner of Tabla, personal chef to Oprah Winfrey, and a proponent of eating healthy and simple. He turns out to be one of the better guest judges in all of the TopChef seasons. The Quickfire is to create an entree in 15 minutes. In a blatant product placement effort, Padma states that Uncle Ben's rice cooks in the microwave in 90 seconds and is available to anyone who wants it. The dishes created are:

Andrew - wild rice crusted fish and sundried tomato pesto
Antonia - rice salad w/ skirt steak, arugula, cherry tomatoes
Dale - pineapple fried rice, grilled scallops, Chinese bay beans
Lisa - rice, corn, black beans, peppers, avocado creme and grilled shrimp
Mark - miso glazed turkey breast over rice w/ snap peas and grapes
Nikki - vegetables w/ mushroom, zucchini, snap peas, eggs
Richard - tuna steak and tomatoes over rice with yuzu vinaigrette
Spike - rice stuffed tomatoes w/ veal, port and rice wine vinegar sauce
Stephanie - brown rice pancake w/ scallops

The losers group was Lisa, Stephanie and Mark. The Winners group was Dale, Richard and Antonia. Antonia wins immunity.

Elimination Challenge
This is to create a healthful meal for a family of 4 on a budget of $10 spent at Whole with the cooking at Washburne Culinary Institute.  Padma promises "assistance" there. When chefs arrive they are introduced to their buddies, Common Threads Program culinary students age range about 7 to 11 who are paired as sous chef with each of the 9 chefs. Antonia is reminded of her 9 year old at home, who has told her not to come back home unless she has won the $100,000 prize. They cook together a lot, so this is not only a positive experience for Antonia, but she already has the principles down.  The dishes are served to the judges table and to a table of 4 of the students, one of whom actually was sous chef for it and must explain it to his/her peers. They do a very nice job for kids that age. The knife skills of those kids were quite high considering the strength factor. The head of the Common Threads Program is Art Smith and he is understandably proud of what his kids can accomplish. The meals were:

Andrew - Chicken Paillard, fennel, apples and orange salad
Antonia - Chicken vegetable stir-fry w/ Whole wheat noodles
Dale - turkey bratwurst, potatoes, onions, apples, red cabbage
Lisa - Chicken breast, edamame, black beans, peanut butter, apple French toast
Mark - vegetarian curry, coconut milk, cinnamon rice
Nikki- Roasted Chicken, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, tomato and cucumber salad
Richard - Roasted Chicken, black beans, avocado, lime, apple and beet salad
Spike - Pasta Puttanesca, carrot soup, semi-baked apples
Stephanie - couscous w/ eggplant and zucchini, Chicken s/ peanut and tomato sauce, apples, arugula

The judges has some strong reactions to these dishes. The winners group was easy to discern. On top were Nikki(!), Andrew, and Antonia. Gail's comments on Nikki's dish included excellent seasoning and use of diffiult-to-get-kids-to-eat Brussels sprouts. Tom's comment was that it was all done in one roasting pan. Andrew got raves for selling the kids on fennel, which might even be harder than Brussels sprouts. The win went to Antonia, who credited her daughter.

The losers group was the same as befire, Mark, Lisa and Stephanie. I knew just from hearing the nominees that Mark was going to be eliminated.  Lisa drew the comment underflavored from Tom. Mark drew the simultaneous comments not enough veggies from Art and no protein from Gail and several others. He was called sloppy by Tom and if that were the first time not so bad but it was the third time this season. Stephanie's feedback was overcooked, overcomplicated and that peanut and tomato were a poor combaination. The choice was Mark. He had been "on the bubble" several times before and was overdue to depart. Being in the double losers bracket was a bad mark for all three of these cheftestants. Lisa and Stephanie will have to work hard to get out of the losers bracket or they will soon be gone(which I think will happen since they are not talented enough to get ahead of the other chefs).

With the completion of this episode we have eliminated half the original group of cheftestants. There are still a few that should not be there (Nikki, Lisa, and maybe Spike), but Richard, Dale, and Antonia clearly should and Stepanie and Andrew are in a grey area.


 

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #55 on: May 04, 2008, 04:52:08 PM »
All TC4 fans note that this week's episode is one of those 75 minute ones. It will be from 10pm EDT Wednesday until 1115pm EDT if you are setting a VCR.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #56 on: May 08, 2008, 08:26:22 AM »
EPISODE 9

QUICKFIRE
The evening starts sedately with the judge for the Quickfire being the esteemed Tom Colicchio. That gives it away that a major twist is coming. It's a return of the Relay Race, with the items changed up a little from last season to keep everyone on their toes. Knives are drawn for the teams of the evening:

Dale, Lisa, Nikki, Spike
Richard, Antonia, Andrew, Stephanie

Now, this was random but you have the 2 lowest performers on the same team and the 2 highest performers on the other team. Dale is an unhappy camper about being stuck with his teammates for the entire episode.

It starts with orange peeling and cutting into small precise pieces. Antonia is slow and Lisa gives her team a huge lead. Dale takes it and zooms through the cleaning and filleting monkfish with his team's lead maintained over Richard. Spike has brought a peeler with him and he is zooming further ahead on peeling 5 artichokes UNTIL a stem breaks and he has to do one over. He finishes in a dead heat with Andrew. It's all up to Nikki vs. Stephanie, which I expect to be an easy win for Stephanie given Nikki's earlier questions to the total group about how to make mayonnaise(which then became her task). Stephanie steadily pulls ahead by whisking harder and Richard tells her to do it "Chicago style" and  she wins for her team. They are promised a valuable advantage although there will be no more immunity for the rest of the season. The fourth judge will be Gail Gand, noted Chicago pastry chef.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE
Teams are introduced to Corey and JP, whose wedding is the next day. Corey and JP are both in the restaurant/catering business and will be assisting in the judging. The winning team is given the choice of catering the Bride's side or the Groom's side for a 125 guest wedding. Richard boldly states that they will choose the Bride, which is sure to be harder because it is her day. His team doesn't shoot him. The winning team consults with Corey and learns that she is from the Atlanta area (so is Richard) and her that her tastes are meat and potatoes. she mentions several individual dishes that she would like to see on the menu for her guests (you will see that menu later). The losing team consults JP and learns that he is from the Chicago area and Italian. He has several specific dishes he wants to see on the menu for his guests. He wants it buffet style. Teams then go off and briefly plan detailed menus:

Bride's Menu - prosciutto on flatbread, pulled pork sandwich with fresh pickle, braised short ribs and blue cheese in phyllo with almonds, beef brisket, filet mignon w/ horseradish sauce and red wine syrup, creamed spinach w/ star anise, almond and basil crusted chicken breast, potato gratin, dark chocolate and lemon cake

Groom's Menu - sausage pizza on flatbread, assorted flatbreads, mixed vegetables and cheeses, filet mignon w/ potatoes and horseradish cream, chilean sea bass w/ artichokes, capers, olives, tomatoes, pork and beef orecchiette w/ragu, , chocolate hazelnut cake


Teams were given 1 hour to shop at  a Restaurant Depot store plus back briefly to Whole Foods for a few flowers.. The Groom's team got $3000 and the Bride's $2000 wich I infer to mean that the Groom had about 75 of the guests and the Bride about 50. Now we come to the big controversy of the food preparation.  Teams then were left with 14 hours to prep and cook before one half hour into the wedding, when the food was actually needed. One notable event  was that Dale took over anything he could get his hands on, not doing them well but getting them done. Spike claimed back from Dale the cooking of the fish. All chefs apparently stayed up all night to get it done. This took a tremendous toll on them, particularly on Dale who when questioned by Tom Colicchio could not give a coherent answer. Why did the chefs have to work 14 hours straight? Let's assume that there was that much work per person, then why couldn't they have started 8 hours sooner so they could get some sleep? Was Tom Colicchio just playing a devilish test their endurance game? I don't see the value of that and think that TopChef creators (Tom and Gail Simmons) had better rethink their strategy when they have tasks designed to be all-nighters when that should not have been necessary. Tom volunteered his perspective on the difficulties of the respective teams. He thought that the Italian food would be the easier task because "meat and potatoes is so simple that it needs to be seasoned perfectly and really delicious". Watch what happens, as BRAVO would say.

Bride's team set up was Richard and Andrew serving, Stephanie as runner, and Spike in the kitchen(complaining as still banging it out). Groom's team set up was Nikki, Lisa and spike serving and Dale in the kitchen(no doubt they did not want him to piss off the guests). Comments from the judges while eating the groom's food were "uninspired, unoriginal". Uh-oh.

Judges table quickly decided, with prior input from the Bride and Groom, that the Bride's team had won, even though the judges played with that team a bit before telling them of their win. they asked who did what and found out that Antonia did the pizzas and Stephanie the wedding cake, which was a 5 tier production admired for its beauty(but not for its flavor). They didn't ask Andrew or Richard, I guess because they already knew what they had done. The winner was a surprised Richard. Based on the commentary I thought it would be Stephanie. However, Richard is magnanimous and has already had several victories. he insists that the victory be given to Stephanie instead. She wins $2000 in gift certificates at Crate and Barrel.

Losers group is interesting. It isn't going to be Lisa, who did a fine job on the wedding cake, whose flavor was judged superior to Stephanie's cake and whose cake appearance was limited by the Groom to be drab in comparison to the Bride's cake. The choices were Spike (who had not done a lot but who had done what he had done competently), Dale(who had taken on way too much and underperformed in general as a result), and Nikki(who as an expert in Italian food should have stepped up and been the leader on this task but totally refused to do so). I thought that Spike was safe for sure. I thought that Dale was probably safe because of his past record of high performance. I thought Nikki was in trouble because of her past record of low performance(most observers considered her overdue for elimination) and because she failed a crucial leadership opportunity. The decision was for Nikki to pack her knives and go.

« Last Edit: May 08, 2008, 08:53:38 AM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #57 on: May 13, 2008, 10:05:09 AM »
The news is in that Sam Talbot, 3rd place finisher in TopChef 2 and chef most including me had picked to win it all, will be back as a judge this week.

It's worth a moment to speculate on who the next eliminee will be? I think the choices are:

Lisa
Spike
Andrew

They will not be Richard, Dale(even though he did poorly last week), Antonia or Stephanie. Those women are going to be kept in as long as possible, but Lisa just doesn't have what it takes for the Final 4. Spike is too up and down. Andrew can be brilliant at times, but he can't compete consistently.

I will hazard the guess of Lisa as the next one out, but that has just more than a 1/3 probability.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #58 on: May 15, 2008, 10:25:08 AM »
Episode 10 has 7 cheftestants at its start. The Guest Judge is the esteemed Sam Talbot, who most people including me thought had a lock on TC2 but faltered on insufficient flavor at the end. The Quickfire is to put "sexy" back into salad(what a joke!). Chefs had 45 minute to create and produce a salad of great appeal.

Lisa - grilled squid and lobster tail (Antonia complains here that Lisa is looking like serious competition; I have a totally different opinion of this nasty, churlish chef), bananas, yuzu vinaigrette
Antonia - "fatty" poached egg and mushroom w/ bacon vinaigrette and squash blossoms
Stephanie - "fall duet" pear, vinaigrette, poached pear, watercress; it was meant to have artichoke chips but she neglected to get them on the dish
Richard - ceviche of fruits and vegetables
Dale - poached chicken w/ nori paste, mirin, sake, rice wine vinegar (somebody observed that Dale has only one cuisine - Asian)
Spike - "sensual beef" skirt steak w/ pinaeapple, radish and cucumber
Andrew - Thai fruit salad w/ mangoes, strawberries, raspberries, sriracha sauce(as an aside, I finally found this in the local ShopRite. it is expensive at $3 for a small bottle, but tasty; now that I know precisely what it tastes like I am going back to regular less expensive hot sauce; this sriracha is imported from Thailand so I don't expect it to become reasonably priced)

Losers group was Lisa, Stephanie and Richard.
Winners group was Dale, Spike and Antonia. Spike was chosen the winner for his unusual combination.  He does not win immunity but gets a significant advantage.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE

Sam introduces this because he is diabetic and needs low sugar. Low in cholesterol and carbs are also part of the rules. Not mentioned up front but worked in later are the requirements of "hearty, nutricious and delicious" quoting Tom Colicchio. This challenge is to develop lunch boxed for the Chicago Police Training Academy.
Whole Grain
Lean Protein
Fruit
Vegetables
The boxes are to be labeled including instructions on reheating.

Spike's advantage turns out to be 2 separate things:
1. Exclusive use of one ingredient from each of the 4 categories. Spike picks chicken, tomatoes, bread and lettuce. This was viewed mostly as a defensive move to block the others from using those ingredients rather than a strategic move to use them effectively in his dish. I don't think he really used bread, lettuce or tomato much if at all so he was open to serious criticism by Tom and Ted.
2. A 10 minute head start on shopping over the others.
The shopping limit at Whole foods was $175, with 30 minutes to spend it.

Stephanie - mushrooms and meatballs soup w/ barley, edamame, vegetable puree, fresh berries, yogurt
Lisa - shrimp stir fry w/ brown rice and spicy pineapple hot sauce
Richard - grilled tuna w/ chinois and lentils on a rice paper tortilla
Andrew - salmon roll, parsnips, pine nut rice, pineapple, pickled ginger wasabi(sushi and wasabi for policemen?;  what was he thinking?)
Antonia - curry beef w/ filet mignon, jasmine rice, berries and figs w/ grape syrup
Dale - lemongrass bison lettuce wrap w/ brown rice,  and herb(cilantro and basil) salad
Spike - chicken salad w/pita and crudites

Two things happened in the kitchen while cooking these dishes. Lisa had brown rice burn on her from high heat. She states unequivocally that someone turned up the burner when she was not looking. Others believe that Lisa just made a mistake and needed to cover it up to stay in the competition. I'm not sure what to believe, but it may not matter. Padma really dislikes the burned rice and Lisa explains that when it occurred with 12 minutes left it was too late to start cooking a new batch. Andrew apprently (was he brain-dead?) lost the challenge rules and lost sight of the requirement to have a whole grain in his meal. The judges noted when sampling his meal that there was no grain and this was a violation of contest rules. They did not say how they were going to deal with it, leaving viewers in suspense. We'll pick up the story later at Loser's judging.

When Richard presented his meals to the police trainees wandering by, he used a lot of salesmanship and showmanship. Spike complained on camera about this, but he was way off base. Richard was doing what real chefs sometimes have to do to effectively stay in business. If Spike doesn't like that, then he can try another profession besides chef.

Winners' group here was Dale and Stephanie. From the comments I thought it might be Stephanie but Dale was selected once again(obtaining redemption from his bad performance in episode 9). he wins a trip for 2 to Rutherford Hill winery in Napa Valley, California.

Loser's group was Spike, Lisa and Andrew. Readers note the 100% congruity of this list with the ending of my recap for Episode 9 when I predicted that these are the lowest 3. Spike was criticized for his hoarding of ingredients and failure to use them effectively in his dish. Lisa was criticized over the rawness of the shrimp and the rice and lack of flavor. Andrew was criticized for insufficient flavors and poor fit of flavors(sushi?) with the needs of a police trainee. Tom said that someone eating Andrew's lunch box would need to get get some delicious fast food afterward. Lisa wanted to give herself every advantage so she went after Andrew for his not following the rules. I think what happens is that chefs get a pass on that if their food tastes just good enough; if it doesn't they are gone. Lisa knew she was vulnerable because she was the only chef to be in both losers' groups this week.

The prelude to the announcement of who got eliminated was a summary by Tom Colicchio of the various meals:
Andrew hit the mark on the nutritional content but he didn’t on providing substantial, tasty fare.
Spike had weird crudités, bread, tomatoes and lettuce hardly used, and the questionable flavor combo of olives and grapes.
Lisa’s dish wasn’t a stir-fry but steamed vegetables and she should be checking on things more often.
So, as I have asked before, whose was the greater sin? No contest! Andrew got the boot, totally expected based on having 2 major sins this episode. There was a lot of verbal jousting between Andrew, who accused Lisa of throwing him "under the bus" and Lisa. It was just fluff for the cameras and did not amount to a hill of beans(have I reached my cliche limit yet?). I think Lisa was right to point out the infraction; in any case it was meaningless since the judges already were aware from counting ingredients in the meal that Andrew had failed to follow the rules. Andrew effectively let Lisa off the hook, as a double loser is almost always eliminated unless there is more than one.

It won't be long before Lisa joins him.  Spike may have some exceptional dishes from time to time, but he is not competitive with Richard, Dale, Antonia and Stephanie. Destiny waits one of those 4.





« Last Edit: May 15, 2008, 10:09:06 PM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #59 on: May 15, 2008, 12:12:17 PM »
Quote
It won't be long before Lisa joins him. Spike may have some exceptional dishes from time to time, but he is not competitive with Richard, Dale, Antonia and Stephanie. Destiny waits one of those 4.

I agree with your assessment. Richard in particular is standing out for me, the other three as well. I cannot stand Lisa,  and frankly a chef with eyebrow piercings and messy hair is not something I'd like to see whether eating my dinner or watching it be prepared.   

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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #60 on: May 15, 2008, 10:13:58 PM »
The preview of next week showed the renewal of Restaurant Wars. What was not said but TV Guide is on top of is that the war will be focused on breakfast only.

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #61 on: May 20, 2008, 01:52:30 PM »
The preview of next week showed the renewal of Restaurant Wars. What was not said but TV Guide is on top of is that the war will be focused on breakfast only.

 :sucks  Something new!! Breakfast is a challenge that  I will enjoy watching, especially to see the menu choices, decor and presentation. 
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #62 on: May 22, 2008, 07:40:43 AM »
There will be no recap this week for Episode 11. I had it all written out, but the RFF system ate my recap when I attempted to post it. I am not going to do it again. The winner of Restaurant Wars was Stephanie and the loser was Dale, who lost out in what must have been a close decision to Lisa who remains(probably for only one more episode before all her sins catch up with her). The winner of the Quickfire was Antonia.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2008, 08:12:52 AM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #63 on: May 22, 2008, 09:33:46 AM »
There will be no recap this week for Episode 11. I had it all written out, but the RFF system ate my recap when I atetmpted to post it. I am not going to do it again. The winner of Restaurant Wars was Stephanie and the loser was Dale, who lost out in what must have been a close decision to Lisa who remains(probably for only one more episode before all her sins catch up with her).

ARGH! I don't blame you for not wanting to rewrite it.  :ascared

I was disgusted with Lisa and Spike as well. I can't see either of them in the finals, I'm only sorry one of them will be in the final 4, I don't believe either one deserve to be there. I wondered if you thought Lisa sabotaged Dale. Her dishes received most of the bad comments, but she managed to turn it back (so it seemed) on Dale. I wonder if they chose Dale because he was the executive chef for this challenge, making him responsible for the fiasco.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #64 on: May 22, 2008, 03:07:37 PM »
Texas Lady, I said just that in the lost-forever recap. Lisa had bad performance on the Laksa soup and on the mango sticky rice. Dale contributed bananas to the sticky rice and made it worse, not better. Dale screwed up the butterscotch scallops. The mere thought of such a combination makes me shudder. It is no surprise that Bourdain thought it stunk as badly as Lisa's dishes. I think part of the problem was that the antipathy between Dale and Lisa motivated both of them to avoid the other because any interaction caused major friction. This meant that the teamwork normally present for a team was not there. Dale bore the brunt of the responsibility for that by being Executive Chef. He also created the culinary focus(Asian fusion) and had overall responsibliity for any food leaving the kitchen. I think that his ineptitude on several fronts was what caused his elimination even though there was plenty of negative performance from Lisa. For her what comes around goes around. Her reputation as surly, vindictive and nasty precedes her. None of the better chefs want to work with her and I will bet there is at least one more team elimination challenge coming.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #65 on: May 22, 2008, 03:09:08 PM »
For next week teams have to clean and chop a slab of beef, according to TV Guide.

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #66 on: May 22, 2008, 03:29:19 PM »
For next week teams have to clean and chop a slab of beef, according to TV Guide.

This ought to be instructive, we'll find out who can and who can't properly cut beef.

About Lisa, if she ever watched previous seasons and I doubt she has, she'd be a little more open to working with her fellow chefs. The final two always need someone to help prepare their finale dishes. If by some miracle that I don't see happening, no one would want to help her. (I recall that Stephan and Dave got drunk the night before they helped Stephanie.)

Butterscotch on anything doesn't appeal to me.  :ascared
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #67 on: May 29, 2008, 08:20:23 AM »
Texas Lady, I am not positive but I believe you meant to say "Stephen and Dave were not interesting in helping Tiffani", the Top Chef 1 runner-up.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #68 on: May 29, 2008, 09:35:16 AM »
Episode 12 with 5 Chefs Remaining(Antonia, Richard, and Stephanie from the "A" team and Spike and Lisa from the "B" team based on past performance)

Allen Brothers is a meat purveyor. The Quickfire starts with butchering meat for 20 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of cooking it. Guest Judge is Rick Tramonto, owner of Tramonto's Steak and Seafood restaurant as well as others. When the cooked meat was sliced for judging, his request of medium rare meat was met in my opinion by this:
Richard - I observe rare meat, Rick says inconsistent and undercooked
Spike - I observe rare meat, Rick applauds his superb butchering skill and his very good cooking of the meat
Antonia - I observe rare meat, Rick calls it perfect cooking
Lisa - I observe rare meat, no significant comment from Rick
Stephanie - I observe rare meat, Rick says butchering not good enough and undercooked

The winner is Spike who gets an advantage in the Elimination Challenge.

Elimination Challenge
This is a cookoff in Tramonto's Steak and Seafood where the 60 people reserved for that evening are going to be cooked by the Top Chefs (plus Lisa and Spike). There is one appetizer and one entree from each to go on the menu, created using only ingredients available in that kitchen(which is top of the line and probably not lacking for anything important) and cooking for 3 hours. Padma says that 3 special diners will join Gail, Rick, Tom and herself in evaluating those creations. The table where all those were at ordered tasting menus for all 6 of them(Tom was in the kitchen as the expeditor and got his own separately). This threw off the chefs, as 1/3 size portions had to be developed on short notice. I wonder if the Top Chefs really lasted the whole night until all 60 diners were done or whether they gave back control of the kitchen to its normal staff after the special table was served. Spike's advantage was to pick the 2 proteins exclusively for himself for both the appetizer and entree. He picked the tomahawk chops from the butchering and scallops, which were frozen. My wife said right at this point that this would be trouble for Spike since the last time he had that advantage he screwed it up. We'll see if it happens again.

The 3 special diners are introduced to the current Top Chefs. They are the winners of TC1, TC2, and TC3, Harold, Ilan and Hung. The menu looks good all the way around so this episode is going to be about execution:

Antonia - wild mushroom and artichoke salad w/ poached egg and bacon vinaigrette ; bone-in Rib-Eye Steak w potatoes gratin, shallots, roasted fennel, cipollini
Richard - Hamachi strips w nuggets of sweetbreads, radish, avocado, Yuzu; Beef Filet w/ potato puree, turnips, pickled Brussels sprouts and red wine
Stephanie -Sweetbreads, pine nuts, golden raisins, fennel; Beef Tenderloin, wild mushrooms, apple sauce
Spike - seared Scallops w/ hearts of palm and oyster mushrooms; tomahawk Chop w/ sweet potato puree, warm cipollini and Brussels sprouts
Lisa - grilled and chilled Shrimp, lemon zest and tomato on a crostini; New York Strip Steak w/ apple caramel sauce, peanut butter mushed potato  

The judges find Antonia's appetizer lacking, but they love her steak. Richard's Hamachi is judged spectacular but his beef filet just average. Stephanie got high marks for both her dishes. Spike's scallops killed him with the judges; the unfreezing of them and the inherent non-uniformity of those scallops had led the other chefs to the conclusion that Spike made a big mistake in not turning them back once he saw the low quality of this ingredient. Tom was unhappy with Spike's tomahawk chop being too simple and Spike not doing much to improve it. Lisa's shrimp recipe was not effective cold. Peanut butter mashed potatoes was a questionable choice from the beginning.

At Judges Table, the comments were:
Antonia - no comment on app; a perfect steak
Richard - appetizier according to Gail "the single best dish of the evening"; his steak was undercooked
Stephanie - the sweetbreads app was great; the entree was very good
Spike - choice of scallops was terrible, dooming that dish to failure; his entree was really good
Lisa - cold shrimp should have been warm; Tom gives her a lecture on cooking meat evenly top and bottom

So, where does that leave us? Stephanie wins again(Richard's sharing of his victory and prize weeks ago seems to have energized her). Richard is "safe" and going to Puerto Rico for having the best appetizer. Antonia is "safe" and going because of her best entree.

Losers' table will be a battle between Lisa and Spike. For those of you that read my recaps, it will be no surprise that both of them are low-rated by me. I like Spike as a person better and hope that he gets to go to Puerto Rico with the Final 4. Spike was killed not just by the scallops but also by his relatively minimal effort put into the entree(possibly because he had to constantly drain the scallops before they were pan-ready, he didn't have much time for this). Lisa has a bad appetizer, but not as bad as Spike. She was criticized for putting all her effort in developing flavors but little into technique. Tom contends that more effort on technique is the best way to get better flavors. If you remember what my wife said above, it will be no surprise that Spike bites the dust. The only problem I now have with this is that Lisa thinks she deserves to be in Puerto Rico, which in my opinion she does not. Given her competition, it wil not take long for her elimination once there.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2008, 08:04:05 AM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #69 on: May 29, 2008, 10:05:37 AM »
Texas Lady, I am not positive but I believe you meant to say "Stephen and Dave were not interesting in helping Tiffani", the Top Chef 1 runner-up.

You're right.   :tup: Thanks for the correction.   :js:
« Last Edit: May 29, 2008, 11:38:48 AM by TexasLady »
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #70 on: May 29, 2008, 11:37:38 AM »
Episode 11 with 5 Chefs Remaining(Anotonia, Richard, and Stephanie from the "A" team and Spike and Lisa from the
Losers' table will be a battle between Lisa and Spike. For those of you that read my recaps, it will be no surprise that both of them are low-rated by me. I like Spike as a person better and hope that he gets to go to Puerto Rico with the Final 4. Spike was killed not just by the scallops but also by his realtively minimal effort put into the entree(possibly becasue he had to constatnly drain the scallops before they were pan-ready, he didn't have much time for this). Lisa has a bad appetizer, but not as bad as Spike. She was criticized for putting all her effort in developing flavors but little into technique. Tom contends that more effort on technique is the best way to get better flavors. If you remember what my wife said above, it will be no surprise that Spike bites the dust. The only problem I now have with this is that Lisa thinks she deserves to be in Puerto Rico, which in my opinion she does not. Given her competition, it wil not take long for her elimination once there.


I was hoping that both would leave but of course that wasn't possible. I suppose it is possible that they will bring Spike to Puerto Rico to assist one of the finalists, in that case I hope they bring back Dale who is more impressive to me than either Spike or Lisa.

Last night's episode was interesting because of the visit to Allan Brother's, the meat they had waiting to be butchered was amazing to see, as was Tramonto's Steak and Seafood restaurant. Moving Top Chef to Chicago was a inspired choice. I hope the producers change cities again for next season.

I do have a question for you apskip, I generally order my steak medium rare, but all of the quick challenge steaks looked REALLY rare to me. (But I would loved to have tasted them!)
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #71 on: May 29, 2008, 01:29:17 PM »
Texas Lady, if I ate much steak it would be medium rare like you. Note that in my second paragraph in my recap I listed my visual impression of each chef's steak in the Quickfire. All were rare and not medium rare according to what I observed. Rick Tramonto downrated only Richard and Stephanie for undercooking, but it should have been all 5 chefs guiltyof that particular sin.

I see great benefits to moving TopChef around and I think the creators(Tom and Gail) see the same. We have been in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and now Chicago. There are plenty more metro area with a strong national culinary tradition, such as:

Philadelphia
Boston
Cleveland
Atlanta
Tampa
New Orleans
Dallas
San Francisco
Denver
Seattle
Las Vegas, which has lured many fine chefs to open restaurants there

If I were Tom and Gail, I would go to New Orleans next even though it has more of a regional cuisine than a national one.






Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #72 on: May 29, 2008, 04:14:19 PM »
Texas Lady, if I ate much steak it would be medium rare like you. Note that in my second paragraph in my recap I listed my visual impression of each chef's steak in the Quickfire. All were rare and not medium rare according to what I observed. Rick Tramonto downrated only Richard and Stephanie for undercooking, but it should have been all 5 chefs guiltyof that particular sin.

I see great benefits to moving TopChef around and I think the creators(Tom and Gail) see the same. We have been in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and now Chicago. There are plenty more metro area with a strong national culinary tradition, such as:

Philadelphia
Boston
Cleveland
Atlanta
Tampa
New Orleans
Dallas
San Francisco
Denver
Seattle
Las Vegas, which has lured many fine chefs to open restaurants there

If I were Tom and Gail, I would go to New Orleans next even though it has more of a regional cuisine than a national one.


Sorry, it wasn't clear what you meant, thanks for clearing the rare comment up. I agree with you, all the steaks looked undercooked, I could see that Spike did a better job of preparing the cut.

I would enjoy any of the cities you mention, even Austin, not as well known certainly as the others you mention. (I would become a stalker if they were filming here.)  :lol:

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #73 on: June 05, 2008, 08:39:46 AM »
Top Chef4 Finale, part 1

Chefs arrive in Puerto Rico. They chat and Antonia reveals that she has been working 100 hour weeks at her restaurant. Uh-oh! They arrive at here they stay and Padma is quick to put them to work. She introduces Wilo Benet, the top chef in Puerto Rico. The Quickfire is to use plaintains to create a special dish for Puerto Rico. they have 40 minutes to plan and execute.

Antonia - crispy oysters w/cilantro plantain jam; fried plantain with spicy slaw(containing plantains)
Stephanie - tostones w/ seared tuna and pork; shrimp fritters w/ brown butter, lime and basil sauce
Lisa - tostones w/ pan roasted duck and mango papaya salsa; plantain, red onion and chorizo fritter w/ chutney slaw
Richard - pork meatballs w/ plaintain sauce; green plaintain chips w/ plaintain salsa

During the preparation phase, Richard dazzled me with his knife skills cutting onions. The winners of this were Lisa and Stephanie, both of whom did good tostones. Stephanie gets her first Quickfire win and Antonia and Richard are both in the losers category.

The elimination challenge is to provide food for a party of 100 people including the First Lady of Puerto Rico Luisa Avila. The catch is that dishes have to be created based on a pig. Each chef gets a whole pig to create a minimum of 2 dishes, but more are clearly going to impress the judges. Sous chefs are available from Andrew, Spike, Nikki and Dale. Stephanie's win gives her the right to assign sous chefs to their executive chef. She chooses Dale for herself, Spike for Richard, Nikki for Antonia, and Andrew for Lisa. The only combination that might get testy is Lisa/Andrew. The sous chefs are sent to a produce market to buy in 30 minutes for their chefs, who are busy butchering their pig. No dollar limit was mentioned beacuse there was nothing expensive to buy, as there was no protein in sight. Richard states his intent to "play his own game" and not do Puerto Rican food. During the buying, Spike speaks Spanish and has the edge on the others. Andrew does not and appears to have difficulty getting what he wants and discovering what else is available. Nikki does OK. Dale buys black plaintains. Prepping then continues until a 2 hour limit is reached(they will have 5 hours the next day before the party). Chefs find refrigerator space at a premium. A large pan of Stephanie's marinating pork is left out overnight; Dale owns up to the mistake and vows redemption to keep Stephanie in the competition. Stephanie elects to trash it, which means she might have one dish less than the others. Someone notes that Antonia is looking disorganized and not really into it.

Menus are:
Antonia - honey pork ribs w/ pickled sweet pepper salad; duck sausage w/ pigeon peas; curried pork w/ pumpkin and yucca;
Richard - BBQ pork shoulder w/ braised greens and mango; pressure cooked pork belly w/ pickled watermelon; pork ribs w malta and soy glaze; fresh ham w/ local long beans;
Lisa - pork filled yucca rellenas w/ Pineapple Mojo(Cuban marinade); citrus braised pork belly w potato and platain mash; adobo braised pork, black bean and ? tostones;
Stephanie - tropical fruit and prosiutto salad w/ chicarrones; coconut braised pork w/ black plantain pancakes; pork satay on skewers w/ miso almond sauce;

Winners were Richard and Stephanie. Richard was quizzed but not criticized by Tom for not being "out there" as usual and having a conservative menu. Stephanie's satay was a hit with Wilo. Richard wins a 2009 Toyota Corolla, a very substantial prize.

Losers were Antonia and Lisa. Both had major mistakes. Lisa was asked why she went with Latin flavors when Asian is her strength. She made a decent response about her Latin experience. Antonia's biggest mistake was pigeon peas that were undercooked, which Tom calls a major sin. She also had all dishes served on one plate, which tended to mix them together. She was rated as having the least sophisticated dishes. It's curtains for Antonia. What a pity! We will have Lisa in the Final 3. What a joke! Lisa vows to win to prove that she is the best chef due to the cold shoulder she gets from Stephanie and Richard. Nobody believes that except her, but stranger things have happened in past TopChef judging(witness the rise of Ilan in TC2).

Next week the finale is likely to be 75 minutes long, so set your VCRs accordingly.

Offline BballKates

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #74 on: June 05, 2008, 04:37:03 PM »
First you should add Minneapolis to that list.

Second I am frankly shocked that Lisa is still there. She has had a crappy attitude week after week, her dishes have not worked and she has not been one of the top chefs all season. Not to mention she has been on the cusp of elimination for like the last three weeks.

I think this is a two horse race frankly and I hope Stephanie wins. We have not had a female winner and it is about time. Personally I think Stephanie has been the most consistent and deserves it.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #75 on: June 05, 2008, 05:07:21 PM »
Well written as always Apskip.  :tup:  Foreshadowing Antonio's demise was the comment made by Nikki that she needed to step up her game because Antonio seemed off somehow. (Never really explained for us.) I'm really sorry that she was eliminated, but she did not do as well as she could have,

I agree with you BBall, I cannot stand Lisa but I will say her hair makeover made her look a lot cleaner and stylish and she did well in the quick fire. (I felt vindicated when the poll showed 91% of the viewers voting felt she should pack her knives and leave.)  :tup:
I believe it is her negative attitude that is her downfall. It was particularly telling that she harbored ill will towards Richard and Stephanie for not congratulating her for being a finalist, I did not see her congratulating them either. (Maybe I missed it.)

I see that Bravo's online poll gives Stephanie the Top Chef pick over Richard and it could well turn out that way. I don't believe that Lisa will have that honor.

I'd love to see Minneapolis host the show.
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #76 on: June 05, 2008, 07:58:25 PM »
Minneapolis could be the site of a future Top Chef competition, but don't hold your breath, TexasLady.. There are many other cities which deserve it before Minneapolis. I have listed them in a recent post.

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #77 on: June 06, 2008, 12:28:29 PM »
 ;) Personally I would advocate for Austin... We have excellent facilities for the kitchen space needed, several Whole Food Markets (and another that is even more amazing called Central Market) and I could stalk report on happenings!  :tup:

BTW, Whole Foods began right here in Austin!! (Wish I'd bought stock way back then...)
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #78 on: June 11, 2008, 10:08:19 PM »
The new Top Chef is Stephanie, who outcooked Lisa and Richard in Puerto Rico. She was slightyl better than Lisa tonight, with Richard a distant third. More detail coming in my recap.

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #79 on: June 11, 2008, 10:30:26 PM »
The new Top Chef is Stephanie, who outcooked Lisa and Richard in Puerto Rico. She was slightyl better than Lisa tonight, with Richard a distant third. More detail coming in my recap.

I'm looking forward to your recap Apskip. I do believe it was very close.

Congratulations Stephanie, first female Top Chef!
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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #80 on: June 11, 2008, 11:05:57 PM »
Top Chef 4 finale started with the introduction of the chefs to 3 master chefs who would assist them one-on-one as sous chef. Stephanie drew knives with Richard to determine who got first pick. She won and picked Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin. Richard chose Dan Barber of Blue Hill. Lisa was left with April Bloomfield of Spotted Pig. Each sous chef came with a table of proteins:

Lisa - oysters, crab, Mahi-Mahi, Chicken, Squab, pancetta, sweetbreads, Waygu beef strip steak, ostrich steak
Richard - scallops, halibut, abalone, calamari, duck prosciutto, pork belly, venison, rabbit
Stephanie - red snapper, hamachi, caviar, clams, lobster, veal tenderloin, chorizo, quail, quail eggs

It looks to me that the TopChef creators wanted ot have a diverse meal, so they deliberately did not give each chef the same ingredients. I did not spot any gross inequities.

The next day there was 4 hours prep time before serving the tasting dishes. The sous chefs had not shown up when Tom came to announce that the chefs were on their own with no outside help(not even the eliminated candidates). the Do It Yourself principle was prevailing. This put a lot of pressue on all of the chefs, particularly Richard whose cuisine depends on more exacting and detailed preparation. Lisa commented that her food was very simple compared to Richard's.  Lisa was going with Thai and Viet food. Stephanie was sticking close to her strengths by using fruits and multiple proteins in most dishes except that she hates to bake and doing a dessert was going to challenge her to the max. All chefs logically had to consider revisions to their recipes and menus, but none of that was highlighted on the show. the final menus were:

Lisa - grilled prawns w/ chile basil sauce, crab and potato chips; Tom Kha Gai soup; Waygu beef w/ chayote and cucumber salad, hot sauce and garlic chips; Black Thai rice pudding w/ lime and mango creme, taro, coconut
Stephanie - red snapper w/ truffled clams, asparagus broth, asparagus salad; quail w/mango lobster sauce, lobster ravioli and quail eggs; medallions of lambw/ braised pistachio, blackberry, olive tapenade; ricotta pound cake w/tropical fruit, banana creme
Richard - scallops w/ mango and pineapple vinegar; guinea hen, foie gras and chicken egg; pork belly w/pickled radish, mirin broth, spring vegetables; bacon ice cream and banana scallop

There were a few more garnishes, but they will have to wait for tomorrow morning's rewind of the tape.

Comments were generally favorable to Stephanie and Lisa, but not to Richard. The only thing thte judges really like about his food was the dessert. He underseasoned and bland. Lisa's beef sauce was too sweet. Stephanie's pound cake was mediocre except for the braised pistachios. When asked, richard admitted that he choked and made mistakes with his dishes. The judges went down a head-to-head comparison of the courses as a way to settle the selection decision.

First course was a tossup between Lisa and Stephanie.
Seecond course went to Lisa.
Third course went to Stephanie.
Fourth course went to Richard.

Summary comment was that Richard was joyful and outrageous in his cooking and that Lisa was totally Asian and that her food reflects her strong personality. On Stephanie Tom had no really significant comments, but she was named Top Chef. I totally agree. She earned it. Lisa did surprisingly well for someone who came late out of the pack.



« Last Edit: June 12, 2008, 07:07:15 AM by apskip »

Offline BballKates

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #81 on: June 11, 2008, 11:31:18 PM »
So happy Stephanie won!  :jumpy: :jumpy: :hearts: :hearts:

I was worried for a second that Lisa won cause she cooked so well. Then when they showed a clip of the reunion and they said something about her getting dirty looks on the street. I thought oh crap she won and people are pissed and giving her dirty looks. But I think the judges realized that Stephanie was consistent all year, didn't over complicate dishes, and cooked a variety of food throughout the season.

Kind of felt bad for Richard he had a really off night and he knew it but kudos to him for being honest. Not being like cocky Lisa.

This is becoming one of my favorite shows and I am so excited to see where they take the show next.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #82 on: June 12, 2008, 06:50:30 AM »
I can answer that question. Top Chef has announced that the next series will be Junior Top Chef, with kids 13 to16 competing. Since regular TopChef is on of Bravo's hits, I am sure it will be back for TC5 but don't know when.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #83 on: June 12, 2008, 07:35:37 AM »
I have summarized the winners of the Elimination  Challenge and the Quickfire by episode

1 Stephanie         8 chefs incl. Richard
2 Andrew             Mark
3 Stephanie         Richard
4 Richard             Dale
5 Lisa                  Lisa
6 Dale                 Jennifer
7 Richard/Dale    Richard
8 Antonia            Antonia
9 Richard            Richard/Stephanie
10 Dale               Spike
11 Stephanie      Antonia
12 Stephanie      Spike
13 Richard          Stephanie
14 Stephanie is Top Chef

I was surpised to see that Lisa had won elimination challenges twice and a Quickfire once.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2008, 08:15:56 AM by apskip »

Offline Duffer

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #84 on: June 12, 2008, 02:40:59 PM »
Yea! Congrats Stephanie

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #85 on: June 13, 2008, 04:14:29 PM »
I was surpised to see that Lisa had won elimination challenges twice and a Quickfire once.

I am surprised as well! My only impression of her has been standing with her belligerent attitude, arms crossed at the judges table. How many times was she also in the loser category? I think at least 5 if not 6.

I also believe we will hear about Richard in the future, he is very talented.
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Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #86 on: June 13, 2008, 04:15:24 PM »
Yea! Congrats Stephanie

Welcome to RFF Duffer! 

:welcome: :welcome: :welcome:
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Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #87 on: June 14, 2008, 12:30:51 PM »
Here's something interesting, an interview of Stephanie by her home-town Chicago Tribune:

Stephanie Interview

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #88 on: June 18, 2008, 11:48:03 PM »
It's time for the Top Chef4 Reunion special hosted by Andy Cohen. Last year Cohen's material (questions prepared by the writing staff) was pretty weak, so I am hoping for improvement. Fortunately, there is some. Everyone gets a chance to be heard except Nimma, Nikki, Erik and Manuel. Part of that may be their reserved personalities in comparison to the more high profile chefs. Videos were shown to support certain lines of questioning and prove what chefs actually said in the heat of the moment. Richard is the only chef not actually there.

Andy asked Stephanie what it was like when Padma announced that she was the winner. Her answer was blah.

Andy asked the judges what they thought of Richard's choking comment in the Finale. Tom said that it was consistent with Richard. I think Gail said that he
was being honest and forthcoming about how he felt then.

Tom asked Stephanie if she would rather be known as the winner of Top Chef4 or the first female Top Chef. She said Top Chef4 winner.

Video clips captured what Andy called "romances" between Mark and Spike, between Richard and Dale, and between Andrew and Spike. Commentary was from Andrew that "what you see is what you get."

Mark announced that he had gotten married 3 weeks ago and will be staying longer in the U.S. than originally planned.

Andy asked Jen and Zoi what it was like to compete against each other. Both said that it was a handicap and either would have done better alone. He followed up with a question on whether Inernet reports that they have broken up are correct. They refused comment, so probably those reports are right.

Antonia accused Spike of trying to psych people out. Incidentally, I originally was thinking of her as my fan favorite but a somewhat nasty side of her came out in this hour.

Dale and 6 other chefs report that thye are still having nightmares associated with Top Chef4.

Ryan was caught on film highlights explaining how a bad dish really wasn't. He was shown numerous times being verbose, particualrly on his vision of the underlying food principles.

The curse of unexpected bad performance was passed from Casey in TC3 to Antonia in TC4 (although I can make a splendid case for Richard).

There were outtakes of the stew room(the holding area after intially judging to just before the final elimination announcement). Sometimes this took as long as 8 hours.

In one video of judging from the Finale, Gail is asleep when caught on camera.

Mark's famous line of "Tom doesn't like me" was shown along with Tom's response that this was not true.

Andy asked about controverisal judges decisions. One example was how Richard's not cleaned off scales only ruined his dish for one or two people while Zoi's bad mushrooms were bad for everyone.

Lisa's negativity was shown in several different ways. In one, Anthony Bourdain nailed it perfectly when he said that she was not inclined to accept any criticism frorm the Judges Table or anywhere else.

The issue of throwing people "under the bus" came up. Lisa was shown doing it to Andrew. She admitted that this was stupid and unnecessary behavior. Continuing on, Andrew states that being is chef is being an entertainer. Lisa reponded with his being hyper all the type. Andrew admits to being ADD.

Andy notes that Gail seems to be pretty interested in Spike.

Dale to Lisa: "you get to bitch and whine anytime you feel like it."

Richard called in from Atlanta where his wife was about to give birth. He has opened a restaurant Home in Atlanta. His molecular gastronomy and hi-tech gadgets and special ingredients were the most interesting part of several episodes. Andy asked him what happened in the Finale. Richard admitted that he drove himself too hard and did not relax, causing him to overthink things(exactly what Anthony Bourdain said).

Fan favorite was about to be announced. Andy had tried to stir up interest in several chefs but of course it was already too late to vote. Tom stated that it could be anyone except Lisa, who had no chance of being fan favorite. Then Andy stopped the mindlessness by stating that Stephanie had also won the $10,000 prize for fan favorite. She claimed to have some borderline behavior during the episodes, but i did not notice anything significant.

Tom stated that this was the best overall season for Top Chef chef skills.

Several chefs volunteered comments on pithy aphorisms to live by in a restaurant kitchen:

Erik- run the other way and later practice your plating skills.
Stephanie - pay attention to the rules
Richard- if you are having fun, let it show and later have fun
Lisa - deal with the pressure as best you can



« Last Edit: June 19, 2008, 10:09:58 PM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #89 on: June 20, 2008, 09:29:48 AM »
Excellent recap as always, and I enjoy your comments as well. We weren't able to watch the reunion last night and this will make it more interesting when I do get to view it.

I had to laugh about the comment that Lisa wouldn't be the fan favorite, I know she certainly wasn't my favorite although it seems that she can deliver nice dishes. Richard would have been my choice, wish I had been able to vote.

I also thought it was a big mistake to have two contestants in a relationship, it was bound to cause problems with the other chefs and it certainly did. Zoi seemed to be the stronger of the two, it would have served her better if she hadn't been distracted by wanting revenge. I hope TC learns from this and doesn't make this mistake again.

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #90 on: June 20, 2008, 03:13:16 PM »
Texas Lady, thank you for the kudos. I disagree with a small part of what you said. I thnkk Jennifer was by far the better chef of the Zoi/Jennifer couple, but we never really got a chance to find out with their elimination on adjacent episodes.

Offline apskip

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Re: Top Chef Chicago Season 4
« Reply #91 on: July 09, 2008, 10:05:11 PM »
Ferran Adria, the top proponent of molecular gastronomy (including those foams that Marcel Vigneron and Richard Blaise both loved to use), invited 10 American chefs to a 2.5 day workshop at El Bulli, his restaurant in Roses, Spain. Marcel went and so did a New Orleans chef who wrote an article on that visit. Here is the link: Molecular Gastronomy Workshop