Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better...

Now that our Master Chefs have broken bread together, it's back to work. Except they've really been working all along. In true Top Chef form, the Elimination Challenge is to take one of your competitor's dishes and put your spin on it.This is a tricky thing not so much on the part of Top Chef but with regards of the camaraderie you just established with your fellow chefs. Unless it was edited out, I don't remember seeing anyone spitting out any dish (apparently that move is only reserved for the judges on regular Top Chef) or expressing any criticisms at all. But that's not to say they didn't have any or thought to themselves perhaps they could do it better. Add to that not only is someone trying to improve your dish, YOU have to watch them messing with you masterpiece.It's a fascinating twist also for the fact as to the question of did the chefs really do their best signature dish? I only point this out because this isn't even the finale, it's just the first round. Wouldn't you save your best for the final challenge? Round and round we go.

After shopping we're back in the kitchen where Art seems to be trying his hand at some return smack talking directed at Hubert and that there fancy French cookin'.Art also reveals while he's been cooking quite a while he's only worked in a restaurant for a year and a half which is amazing when you look at his competition.
The breakdown of who is doing what goes like this.
Hubert, who was the two-fer on the winning team of the Mise En Place relay race gets to pick the dish he wants to reinvent. He chooses Anita's Scallop dish. This also means she gets to re-make his Lobster and Truffle dish. French vs. French Asian. Art and Suzanne will be trading Seared Grouper and Chopped Sirloin with Egg and Rick and Michael will be delving into Fennel Balsamic Quail and Rack of lamb with chiles and figs.

Michael wraps his lamb with his caul fat or, as he calls it, Sicilian pantyhose. Good luck finding this ingredient in the online recipe version of this dish.Suzanne is still struggling with her texturally challenging fish while Art is...well...

I'm not sure what Art is doing.

Let's Eat!
SURPRISE! Your former competition will now be judging your dishes. (Thank you TeeVee Gods for bringing me another slice of The Ludo, my new favorite French Cheese) Will they be kind or hypercritical? Let's see.
Art's Lamb Scotch Egg with sweet potato fried and tomato tart. I'm glad he followed the tried and true rule of Baconizing his dish but this is not appealing to me at all.
Elizabeth Falkner and her extra spikey Judging hair wonders how the dish might have turned out if Art had tried using a soft boiled egg instead of a hard boiled egg. Not too much positive feedback.
Rick's Quail with Parsnip and proscuitto stuffing over wild greens is presented next.Hey Ricky, he likes it! Actually everyone seems pleasantly surprised that Rick stepped out of his Mexican box.
Suzanne's Roasted Great White Whale of Grouper with gnochi, peas, bacon, and parsnips.
Falkner cuts a sister no slack as she brings her A Game Judging standards and points out the overcooked fish and cold gnochi.We can dig it James.
Hubert's Seared scallop with cream of sea urchin over fingerling mashed potatoes. The only knock on his dish is that it seems that there's not enough sea urchin flavor in the sauce. But there is bacon so it's got that going for it.Michael's Rack of lamb stuffed with fig mostrada chick peas and fried rosemary. While it looks really simple it's much more layed and complex than it appears but the diners aren't convinced it's the best it could be.
Anita's very interesting corn chawanmushi, champagne gelee and lobster biscuit sandwich. All the diners seem to enjoy the dish. Which is good because her take on Hubert's dish makes her this week's winner.
This week's loser I'm sure you can tell by her reaction...Whoops! Sorry...
...there we go. I know I'm sad she's leaving because after some of the antics we've seen on Top Chef, this calm soul was a welcome breath of fresh air.

Thank You Top Chef Masters

It's as if all the seasons after the classic first season of Top Chef were practice, or rehearsal for what's turning out to be a stellar run of Top Chef Masters. I love the tension, the twists, the turns but most of all I LOVE the Mise En Place Relay Race. I loved it in Season Three when it was first introduced and I loved it in Chicago. They abandoned it in Season 5 and NY which I thought was crazy. In the Top Chef setting it either builds teamwork or it reveals the major flaws of the team. Here in Top Chef Masters we get to see the big guns doing lowly prep work. It also means......Tom gets to whip out his whistle. Now we all know that there's little chance of Tom telling any one of these chefs that their onions aren't chopped to his satisfaction so no point in hoping for that particular train wreck. However while I have much respect for this group the bar is set fairly high because of this man.Chicken Breaker Extraordinaire, Hung Huynh. Can any of these chefs impress us with the speed and the dexterity that Hung did? All I know is something different stuck out in Anita Lo's memory.

It's OK Casey, she didn't even remember your name.

Oh yeah, she's got game face.

3 vs. 3 means someone does double duty. Hubert for his team and Art for his.

So oysters go first with Keller for his team and Suzanne for hers. At the end of 15 (any pearls?) it's tied. (By the way, I sincerely hope someone made a meal of these oysters because they were phat. It would be a crying shame if they went to waste.)

Onions go next with Keller again and Art stepping up for his team. In a blink of an eye, Art is done and Keller is an onion behind.Now Michael goes into chicken cutting with a decent advantage but Chefbian Anita Lo didn't bring her game face for nothin'.

What's even better? Hubert talking smack in the background to the other team.

BAM! Just like that it's back to even. Now Rick get his turn at egg whites and Art's back for his team. But Art gets a little sloppy separating his eggs...

...and that's all Rick needs to pull ahead and give his team the win.

If you don't think these chefs aren't competitive check out Hubert's face.
They do not like to lose. That, my little Top Chef Crack Monkeys, is fun TV.

Top Chef Master - Lost in Confusion

The beginning of the Elimination round finds our Top Chef world turned upside down. The two rookies have a solid lead over our former judges. Still it's anyone's game as they head into the Elimination Round. What do they have to do for the elimination challenge? Well.....
...it's the most convoluted way to get to use an unusual protein (wild boar) and force the chefs to do a canned food challenge. It's the Lost Supper. Cooking a meal for some of the producers and writers of the ABC series Lost. I don't know if NBC and Andy Cohen have some future quid pro quo going on that some angle of Top Chef will be worked into the series finale of Lost but I wouldn't be shocked.

Filling in for the Dharma pantry is, of course, Whole Foods. Lists in hand, it's time to shop.Wylie is apparently having issues getting the Dharma Charms cereal from it bulk bin.Graham relies on his youth and cat-like reflexes to snatch product from beneath Wylie's nose before he even knows it's gone.

Back in the kitchen it's time for Product Pimping. Ready?

So in the span of roughly 45 seconds of airtime we had 4 visuals and 1 verbal (Wylie asks for PAM) product placements. Exquisite, is it not? Nobody does pimpage like Top Chef.
I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole......or plantain......except to say..........shouldn't that have been Faulkner's line?

I know, what was I thinking. Anyhoo....
The Guests are assembling.
No, not him.

Him.
The Hostess with a giant red fleurchon on her head. (Fleurchons are the new black)

And the judge who apparently snared a rare black island bird and covered a Dharma trashcan with it's feathers because nothing says style like a feathered bucket.

Service starts and again the clock bites one of our chefs in the ass.
A sauce that never makes it to the plate is no sauce at all.
First up is Faulkner's Boar two way, Ancho Beer braised and Coffee scented poached loin with Yam Papaya pudding. Someone at some point will have to explain to me why one of the best pastry chefs in the country elected not to do any sort of pastry at all. Anyone? Ferris? The judges seem ok with the boar but pine for sauce. Hardly anyone enjoys the pudding. Not good.

Graham one ups Faulkner's Boar Duo with his Tuna Trio. Maki roll with tuna & dehydrated pineapple, Tuna Niçoise and Tuna a la Plancha. No complaints from the guests, even the canned green beans get the green thumb of approval.

Wylie asks the eternal question: Which came out of the Immersion Circulator first, the chicken or the egg with his Roasted Chicken and Poached Egg with banana mustard, Beets & dried corn and Plantain Puree. In a bold move he tries to avoid judgment by not giving one of the judges a complete dish but at the last moment rethinks the strategy. Wylie gets sort of a mixed bag from the chefs, the Critics seem to like his poached egg mostly because it seems to be a Dufresne signature while some of the guests are not so enthralled.

They ended with Suzanne's very busy and full plate of Risotto with Uni, clams and prawns, Wild Boar strip with oyster beer sauce, a mango corn salad and baked yam. So busy is her plate that she forgets what's on it. I'm guessing the stuff that looks like pasta is the mango salad with some really nice knife work. Again, no complaints from the guests.

Judging is fairly harmless for 3 out of the 4 chefs. Faulkner gets pinged for both the pudding and the sauce-less plate. The one dish of all of them I would want to try (even combined with episode one) was Suzanne's risotto. Uni, clams and some of those huge prawns just seems really decadent and delicious. I also think we will see at least one chef do some version of risotto every single episode.

The quiet unshakable Suzanne Tract takes the win while our former judges feel the burn of being on the other side of the judge's table. Oh Karma, you are a harsh Mistress.

Next Week? The Church Lady stops by...
...to give her long lost brother some TV tips.