By Kim
Hey, welcome back to Top Chef! New season, new recapper (who bows at the altar of Keckler and Chuck), new cheftestants, new judges, go!
The new batch of cheftestants arrives on Governor's Island for their first Quickfire Challenge, where the loser will be eliminated before even getting a white coat. The challenge has three rounds. First round is peeling fifteen apples with a knife, and the top nine will be safe. Stefan, from Finland, finishes first and wins immunity. Richard cuts the shit out of his thumb but still manages to make it into the top nine. The remaining eight move on to the second round, where they have to brunoise (finely dice) two cups of their now-peeled apples. The top four are safe, and the bottom four go on to round three, where they have twenty minutes to use their apples to cook something to impress Colicchio. Patrick and Lauren, buddies from cooking school, are the bottom two with their apple salads. Patrick's was a little better, so Lauren goes home immediately. Via ferry! So at least she got some interesting transportation.
The cheftestants are immediately thrown into the Elimination Challenge before they even get to move into their accommodations. They pull knives with the names of various locations in and around New York City, which also puts them in pairs. Their challenge is to cook a dish inspired by the neighborhood they pulled; they'll compete head-to-head against their partner, with the winning partners being considered for the win and the losing partners being considered for elimination.
Before we get to the challenge results, some quick personality observations:
- The gays and lesbians (Patrick, Jamie, and Richard) form Team Rainbow.
- Fabio and Stefan, the Europeans, join forces, although their perceived arrogance rubs people the wrong way.
- Carla is a weirdo who cooks based on the advice of her spirit guides.
- Melissa is a "country mouse" who has never cooked Italian food.
- Richard has a crush on Colicchio.
- Daniel is a goombah with weird facial hair.
- Jeff is crazy vain.
I'll give the details of each dish in the full recap, but here's the shorthand for the competition:
Jamie defeats Richard in Astoria/Greek
Hosea defeats Carla in Brighton Beach/Russian
Stefan defeats Ariane in Long Island City/Middle Eastern
Jeff defeats Fabio in Ozone Park/Latin
Jill defeats Radhika in Jamaica/Caribbean
Leah defeats Melissa in Little Italy/Italian
Daniel defeats Patrick in Chinatown/Chinese
Eugene defeats Alex in Little India/Indian
The guest judge is Jean-Georges Vongerichten, along with regular judges Padma, Tom, and Gail. Overall, there were no disasters in the challenge, and the judges are pleased. They call back Stefan, Eugene, and Leah from the winners' group, and Patrick and Ariane from the losers' group. At Judges' Table, Padma reminds us that in every season but one, the winner of the first Elimination Challenge has won the entire thing, and this week's winner is Stefan. Then attention turns to the losers. The judges are disappointed that Ariane and Patrick were so thrown by having to cook outside of their comfort zones. Ariane's big mistake was undercooked grains, and Patrick's was lack of seasoning and imagination. Patrick's sin is apparently greater, and he is eliminated.
Hi! I'm Kim and I'll be your recapper this season. You may know me from recapping... a whole lot of shows. No, like a lot. I've forgotten shows that I've recapped. Lyon's Den? Freakylinks? So I'm not a professional chef and I wouldn't even call myself a foodie, but I do like to cook, and I love to watch cooking shows and reality shows, and I've watched every season of this show. I may make mistakes when it comes to the names of things, but I'll do my best. Let's start season five!
Padma gives a short intro to the season, announcing stuff most fans of the show already know -- namely that this season takes place in New York City, which is the toughest place to make it as a chef. Some highlights of the season don't mean much yet since we don't know who these people are, but it is amusing to hear the judges say that a dish is inedible or poorly thought out. Not that it's a surprise to know that might happen this season, but now we have something to anticipate. After some product placement about the prizes, it's time to meet this season's cheftestants!
Fabio Viviani, 30, is the Executive Chef and owner of Café Firenze. He's also originally from Florence (the name of his restaurant might have been a giveaway), and has never been to New York before. He has an Italian accent, but it's not that thick. Yet. up is Jamie Lauren, 30, a heavily tattooed lady who is the Executive Chef at Absinthe in San Francisco. She's big on seasonal and local food, and she likes being in charge. She looks like a cross between Natalie Maines and Scarlett Johansson, with a dash of Amaya from Real World: Hawaii. Eugene Villiatora, 32, is originally from Hawaii but now works as a personal chef in Las Vegas. He didn't go to culinary school, but has worked his way up the restaurant ladder. He also has a lot of tattoos. And a chip on his shoulder. I'm not saying it's not earned; I'm sure he gets a lot of shit from other chefs about his lack of culinary education. But it's there. Jeff McInnis, 30, is the Chef de Cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami. He likes to surf, and looks like a surfer with his floppy blond hair. He claims that he cares about his looks, and when called out to the dining room, will always get a server to check his hair. They aren't allowed to have mirrors in the kitchen? I bet the servers LOVE him. He sounds annoying.
Various cheftestants arrive at Grand Central Station, which is weird because any time I've taken a train into New York, I've arrived at Penn Station. I guess I've been taking the wrong trains. And also, Grand Central is way more scenic, so I wouldn't be surprised if they staged the arrivals there. The introduction is Radhika Desai, 28, the Executive Chef at Between Boutique Café. She explains that her parents grew up in India and she hopes that people don't assume that means that she will only cook spicy curries and rice. Keep that in mind. Lauren Hope, 23, is a chef at Jag's Steak and Seafood (sounds fancy, except I mean the opposite of that!) in Savannah, GA. Her husband is currently in Iraq, and she doesn't want to just sit around and wait for him to come home, so she entered this competition. Between living and working in Savannah (which sounds like it was her first chef job out of culinary school) and the Iraq thing, the cynical side of me wonders if she wasn't just cast for storyline purposes, instead of cooking expertise. On the ferry into the city, she meets up with Alex and Carla, who don't get full introductions yet, which I found kind of weird. The real introduction is Ariane Duarte, 40, who is the Executive Chef and Owner of Culinariane (wow, terrible name) in Montclair, New Jersey. She's married and a mom, and her family believes in her. So she's toast. Unless she turns into, like, the Laura Bennett of this show and invites Colicchio over to her gigantic loft to meet her crazy husband and try to avoid stepping in turtle poop. Sorry, Project Runway flashback.
up is Daniel Gagnon, 25, who is from Long Island City, and is a chef at Babylon Carriage House. Daniel has, and I realize this has become a cliché, unfortunate facial hair. He's got an overly groomed full beard, but then has shaved stripes from the outside of his mustache down his chin, as if to outline a goatee. But then he still has the beard on his cheeks. And he didn't shave the strips all the way so there's a teeny tiny strip connecting his goatee to the hair on his cheeks. You kind of have to see it to believe it. Either way, I've never seen that style before, and there's a reason for that. It's dumb. And way too high maintenance. He seems like a typical Tristate goombah, although his last name seems French, not Italian, so who knows? He makes the bold statement that he's going to win the show. He might want to start out by winning the battle his beard is waging against good taste.
Lauren (remember her? Georgia? Husband in Iraq?) squeals and hugs the arrival, because they went to culinary school together. Patrick Dunlea, 21, is still a student at CIA. He's really cute in a baby-faced and scrawny sort of way. Patrick thinks some people need years of experience to win the show, but some people just have the skills, and he's one of the latter. The member of the European Union is Stefan Richter, 35, who was born in Finland and lived in Germany, Switzerland, and other countries. He thinks that if you just cook to make a living, you won't make it. You have to have passion! Of course, he says this in the most deadpan and unemotional way possible.
Richard Sweeney, 27, executive chef at Confidential, is excited to start the competition. As they all arrive at Governor's Island, Richard confesses that as a big old queen with a bunch of big old queen friends (his words, not mine), he can't wait to see what Padma is wearing. The best part is that they then cut to Padma and Tom, and Padma is wearing a very non-glamorous and kind of ugly outfit. It's a white tank top with a maroon sleeveless jacket over the top and then gray skinny jeans that kind of look like sweatpants, and her hair's in a ponytail. It seems quite warm out, so I'll definitely cut her some slack, but it was funny to hear Richard talk about how awesome Padma's outfits usually are, and then she was wearing what looked like exercise gear. The cheftestants arrive on a beautiful lawn, where there are a few long tables set up, so clearly some sort of competition will be happening shortly. Leah Cohen, 26, a Sous Chef at Centro Vinoteca, says that her mother's advice to her was just to avoid crying so she won't look "like a little bitch." Her mother sounds warm!
Padma welcomes the cheftestants and reminds them how tough it is to make it in New York City. Tom knows that cooking in New York is difficult from personal experience. So let's launch right into the Quickfire Challenge! Padma announces that one of them will be cut based on this challenge. Eugene can't believe that someone will be eliminated before they even get into the kitchen. Leah knows that one of the white coats has her name on it, and she won't be going home. Tom explains the first of three rounds: each chef will have to peel fifteen apples with a paring knife. Alex Euscebio, 33, an Executive Chef at Restaurant 15, is nervous because he hasn't used a paring knife in a long time. And I get that they want to test knife skills, but damn. That's a lot of peeling. And because of the way I was raised, I'm mostly concerned about how much produce they're wasting because I don't imagine after all the browning and bleeding (spoiler!) that anyone is actually going to eat the peeled apples. Tom explains that when they finish, he'll inspect their apples, and if too much flesh is gone or the apple looks bad, they'll have to fix it. Padma concludes that the first nine to finish will be safe and the remaining eight will move on to round two.
The cheftestants move to their stations. Hosea Rosenberg, 34, Executive Chef at Jax Restaurant, thinks this sounds "mundane" but he's looking forward to it because he's won a lot of cooking competitions. Hosea kind of looks like a cross between Drew from the first season of The Amazing Race and a bald Cameron Crowe. I realize you probably don't know what either of those people look like. Google image search, if you care. Tom calls time and the peeling begins. Fabio swears he's not going to go home over an apple. Tom jokes that they're going to be there for a long time. Richard says that he was doing well until he cut into his thumb and started bleeding all over his apples. But he kept going, even though there's blood all over his hand and all over the apples. Stefan is the first to call for a check, and the first to finish. He confesses that if he had lost, he would have hopped a plane back to Finland and never returned to America. Hee! That would have been kind of funny, if he lost and they showed him getting back on the ferry, then on a train, then at the airport, then arriving in Finland, then going to his house, and just sitting in a chair, peeling apples for eternity. The peeling continues, and Fabio finishes , followed by Hosea, Ariane, Jeff, and a cheftestant who has not been introduced yet named Melissa. Padma reminds everyone that there are only three spots left and a cheftestant named Carla screams out "CHEEEEECK!" and holds her hands up in the air like she's being arrested. A little dramatic, that one. Carla Hall, 44, is a caterer and she wants to prove that caterers are just as good as chefs. Caterers all over the world sigh and shake their heads that THIS is their representative in the culinary TV world. Because she's weird, and I know this because after being cleared, she gallops over to the waiting area, highstepping like Adrian Peterson on Sunday afternoon. Jamie says that she was determined to get one of the safe spots, and she started peeling like a motherfucker. Well, she doesn't use those exact words, but you can tell that if she weren't on a basic cable show, she would. Richard finishes his bloody apples (and I mean bloody in the sense of "they have blood on them") and Tom gingerly checks them over and says that he's safe. So now there's only one slot left! Jamie calls for a check and Tom says she's good so she moves on as well.
Padma congratulates the top nine and says that since Stefan finished first, he gets individual immunity in the Elimination Challenge. Stefan interviews that it's nice to have, but he doesn't think he'll need it. Cocky, or just honest? We'll find out. Padma says that in the round, the cheftestants will have to brunoise the apples until they have two cups, and the pieces have to be to Tom's liking. Lauren explains that a brunoise is like a fine dice, except harder. Padma says that the top four in this round will be safe, while the bottom four will have to compete in one last round. They begin. Melissa and Jamie can't believe how stressful this must be for the cheftestants, and seem relieved to have won safety in the first round. Patrick says that he could hear a knife flying on the cutting board to him, and Daniel (Weird Beard) (who is the source of the knife sounds) says he was flying through that apple. Daniel finishes first and is pronounced safe by Tom. Jill Snyder, 28, Executive Chef at Red Maple, finishes , but Tom notices some uncut misshapen pieces in her cup, and makes her fix it. Jill, who kind of looks like a low-rent Anne Hathaway (i.e. not nearly as pretty but similar features), says that her hands started shaking, making her task more difficult. Alex and Eugene finish and are pronounced safe, and finally Jill straightens out her situation and is also safe.
So moving on to the final round of loserdom are Patrick, Lauren, Radhika, and Leah. Tom and Padma announce that they have to cook something using their apples to convince the judges they should be allowed to stay. They have one burner, a number of additional ingredients, and twenty minutes. Lauren is freaked out about how embarrassed she would be if she were the first to go home. Radhika thinks twenty minutes is usually only enough time to set out your knives and spices. Really? That explains a lot about her performance, actually. Tom will be judging the dishes, and the creator of the weakest dish will go home right now. Radhika goes for apple chutney, despite saying earlier that she doesn't want people to think she only cooks Indian food. I get that this is a challenge where you should cook something you know well, but it was ironic. Leah sees Radhika choosing pork, so she goes for scallops to differentiate herself. Lauren makes a salad, and so does Patrick. Patrick explains that he doesn't move very quickly, because he's more concerned with perfection. The other cheftestants are cracking me up because they're trying to watch the cooking but they're being made to stand like fifty feet away, so there's a lot of squinting and guesswork and discussion about what's happening.
Time's up, and Tom begins the judging. Lauren has made a spinach salad with apples, blue cheese, bacon, oranges, and balsamic vinaigrette. Patrick made an apple slaw salad with mint, cinnamon, oranges, and honey. Radhika made pan-seared pork with apple chutney, golden raisins, and chili powder. Leah made seared scallops with dried apples, rice wine vinegar, and apple juice. Tom makes few comments as he eats the dishes. The cheftestants line up and Tom announces that Leah (nicely-seared scallops) and Radhika (well-balanced and well-seasoned dish) are safe. It's down to Lauren and Patrick, the culinary school buddies. They are both torn because they are friends, but they also each want to stay. Patrick is either embarrassed or overheated because his cheeks are incredibly red. Tom announces that Patrick is the winner, because Tom liked his dish "a little better." Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Lauren hugs Patrick and thanks everyone for the opportunity before heading for her ferry home. I love that she's taking a ferry. I think each eliminated cheftestant should have to take a different mode of transportation home. By the end, they'll be sending people via rickshaw and piggyback. Lauren, as you would imagine, is pissed that she didn't even get to enter the kitchen.
Without even a break, Padma announces the first Elimination Challenge. She busts out the knife block and everyone chooses a knife that has a New York neighborhood listed on it. There are two neighborhoods with each location, so the cheftestants are partnered up. Hosea, from Colorado, is particularly confused, since he got Brighton Beach. Someone is obviously not a Neil Simon fan. The challenge is to work individually to create a dish inspired by the ethnicity of their neighborhood. They will compete head-to-head against their partner, with the winner going into the "eligible for winning" pool and the loser going into the "eligible for elimination" pool.
The cheftestants move into their apartment. Unlike lesser shows like The Real World, they thankfully don't spend a lot of time with the cheftestants exclaiming how awesome the apartment is. I mean, it is awesome, but that's boring to watch. Stefan, having never visited New York, is surprised at how beautiful it is. And then he cashes his check from the Tourism and Visitors Bureau. Jamie, Richard, and Patrick declare themselves to be Team Rainbow since they are the gays and lesbians of the show. Champagne is popped, and the cheftestants decide to get to know one another before the heavy competition begins. Patrick gives a nice toast and everyone is happy. Later (earlier?), Fabio is giving a pasta-making demonstration and he and Stefan bond over their accents and their love of soccer. They tease one another. Hosea thinks they're both fierce competitors, but Stefan's ego started to rub people the wrong way. This is exemplified with Stefan getting in an argument with Daniel over the difference between a vinaigrette and an emulsion. Daniel interviews that Stefan and Fabio think they're better than everyone else, and they need to cut that shit out.
It's the day of the elimination challenge. The cheftestants wake up. Stefan is pleased that Patrick made him café con leche. Eugene is going through recipes in his head, because he's never cooked Indian before. Ariane and Carla discuss how they've been getting to know one another, but it's nothing like cooking with someone, which will bring out the best and worst in people. Ariane says that she's not one to put herself out there, and she doesn't take praise well, so that's one of the reasons she got into the competition -- to force herself to learn to do both those things.
The shopping trips begin! Richard and Jamie (two-thirds of Team Rainbow) are competing in Astoria/Greek food. Jamie collects an assortment of olives, and plans a fish dish. Hosea and Carla have Brighton Beach/Russian. While they shop, Hosea jokes that he can't read any of the labels because presumably they are in Russian. He's never cooked Russian food, so he's trying to use smoked fish, sour cream, potatoes, crème fraiche, and caviar. Carla asks a counterperson if something is "the yummy yummiest." I'm assuming she was trying to overcome a language barrier, but that doesn't mean she's talking to a five-year-old. Carla interviews that she's looking for inspiration from her "spirit guides." That's how she cooks. I wish her spirit guides could take corporeal form so that they could also be interviewed. I imagine they would say, "This bitch is crazy. What do we know from Russian cooking?" And they would be in the form of centaurs, but with a unicorn horn.
Ariane and Stefan are cooking Long Island City/Middle Eastern. Ariane doesn't know Middle Eastern, so she's concerned. I can understand, I guess, never having cooked a particular region's foods, but I don't understand how you could not even be familiar with them. Have you ever read a restaurant review, or watched a television show, or God forbid, ate at a new kind of restaurant? I live in the sticks and I know where I could go to get all kind of types of food. It might not be great, but it's available. Jeff and Fabio are competing in Ozone Park/Latin. Jeff is confident that, living in Miami, he knows Latin, while Fabio is from Italy, so he might not know the Latin cuisine as well. I'm not sure I agree with his reasoning, but okay. Radhika and Jill have Jamaica/Caribbean. Jill is thinking of tropical fruits and rum.
Leah and Melissa are cooking Italian. Leah has lived in Little Italy and works in an Italian restaurant. Melissa is "a country mouse" and has no experience in Italian cuisine. I can understand not knowing modern Italian, but who doesn't at least have some clue about Italian food beyond chicken parm or whatever? Patrick and Daniel are cooking Chinese food. Patrick took a course in Asian cuisine, so he decides to cook black rice noodles, even though he's never worked with them before. Daniel is shocked that Patrick is telling him his food plans, since they are competing. Alex and Eugene are cooking Indian. Alex is shocked at the number of spices available. Eugene has never cooked Indian food, so he's nervous, but he's going to use his style of cooking with Indian ingredients. The pairs finish their shopping and head to the kitchen.
Hosea is freaked out by how awesome the kitchen is. After some more product placement praise, they get down to cooking. They have two hours until service. Hosea is sweaty and clearly needs a headband. Jeff feels like he has a lot of time, so he decides to increase the amount of garnishes he'll be using. Stefan asks Ariane if he can use a burner and she says she's not using it yet. This will be important later. She had dibs on a burner but said she didn't need it. Ariane notes that Stefan is really confident, while she always second-guesses himself. I'm skipping all the dish descriptions now because I'll go into detail when the dishes are served. Carla tries to fillet a trout, and Hosea wonders why she didn't just buy fillets and save herself the time and effort, which is what he did. Carla seems to be wondering the same thing. Richard likes to chit chat while he's cooking, but Jamie doesn't. They both seem okay with that, although Jamie seems kind of annoyed. As time runs down, Ariane is trying to finish her farro, a wheat grain, which isn't fully cooked. She keeps stirring and tasting -- maybe if she left it alone for a while and covered the pan it would cook faster. Just a thought. Patrick is also having trouble with his black rice noodles, because they are gummy and stuck together. He doesn't have time to redo them, it seems. Jeff did a bad job managing his time, and barely has enough time to plate everything. He's just sprinting around the kitchen with pots and pans and ends up not getting all of his garnishes and sides on there.
The judges enter the kitchen. Stefan is impressed that Jean-Georges Vongerichten is one of the judges, as Stefan (and many others) considers him to be one of the best chefs in the country. Padma gets everyone's attention and introduces Jean-Georges. Carla interviews that "it's heavy" to be judged by someone so well-respected. I haven't heard "heavy" used as an adjective to describe something not physically weighty since 1975, so that threw me. Padma says that Tom and Gail will be judging as usual. Gail's dress is... not my favorite. It makes her look boxy and it's ugly colors. But that doesn't really affect her palate, so... moving on.
The first pairing is Stefan and Ariane. Ariane confesses that she doesn't know much about Middle Eastern cuisine, but she made "a cous cous and gremolata crusted rack of lamb", with a farro risotto with dried dates and chickpeas. Stefan made a duo: lamb chops with tabouli salad, and a beef onion skewer. Jean-Georges asks about his spices, and Stefan says it's fennel and cinnamon. Gail thought Ariane's lamb was well-cooked, but the risotto was not. Everyone has great things to say about Stefan's dish, so he wins the pairing.
Richard and Jamie are up , with their Greek food. Richard confesses in an interview that he thinks Tom Colicchio is dreamy. Aw. They would be a cute couple. Richard made lamb sliders with an orzo-feta salad. He doesn't mention what kind of bread he used for the sliders, but it's definitely not pitas. It looks like a roll of some sort. Jamie made eggplant puree with seared bass and "a deconstructed Greek salad" that used a lot of the olives she selected. The judges feel that Richard overcooked his lamb and dried it out, although they agree that both dishes were otherwise good. Jamie gets the win.
Radhika and Jill present their Jamaican cuisine. Jill created macadamia-crusted plantain fritters and jerk-spiced scallops and even used three different sauces to create a Rastafarian theme on her plate. Radhika did a jerk-rubbed halibut on three bean rice with a mango salad. Her dish looks kind of gray overall and really needs more color. Who wants to eat gray food? Gail doesn't like the texture of Radhika's dish, as it's all kind of mushy and needs more crunch or variety. Jean-Georges agrees, and he thinks Jill's scallops were a little overdone. Despite that, it was overall a better dish and Jill wins.
Jeff and Fabio are up to serve their Latin cuisine. Fabio has to read his dish description because his English is not good. He cooked a mango and jalapeno demi-glace pork chop with mushroom and avocado salad. The salad is inside the avocado, and the mushrooms are on top. He added the mushrooms for an "Italian twist." I don't think of mushrooms as particularly Italian, but he's the one from Italy, so I guess I should take his word for it. Jeff seared pork tenderloin in Cuban coffee, and served it with smoked plantain with saffron, sherry vinegar, black beans, and rice. Tom points out that the side dish wasn't plated well, and Jeff admits that he ran out of time. Jean-Georges thought Fabio's dish needed more salt, and Tom adds that he did a great job with his knife work on the avocado, but then covered it with the mushrooms. Everyone but Tom prefers Jeff's dish.
Hosea and Carla serve their Russian food. Hosea did a smoked fish trio: smoked salmon with caviar, smoked trout with apple chutney, and smoked turbot. Carla created a smoked trout and salmon cake served with potato latkes, sour cream and caviar. There's a salad on the plate that she doesn't mention, which looks like a slaw of some sort. Jean-Georges and Gail aren't crazy about the salad. Everyone agrees that Hosea's dish is more elegant while managing to give a sense of his style. Pretty impressive considering that he was unfamiliar with Russian food. Hosea wins.
Leah and Melissa present their Italian food. Leah admits that she knows the area well. She created a farro risotto with seared snapper and mushrooms. Note that her risotto is the same that Ariane attempted, so it's not impossible to do in the time they had. Melissa cooked a seared rib eye steak, with an arugula salad, fried mushrooms, and tomato sauce. I find Melissa's dish to be very unappealing on the plate -- it looks like a slab of meat with some greasy fried stuff on top. Tom likes that Leah married fish and more earthy ingredients, and all the judges think that Melissa needed a little more seasoning for it to be a big hit. Leah wins.
Daniel and Patrick went to Chinatown. Daniel made a poached chicken salad with bok choy, shitake mushrooms, and fried wontons. He also brought back my old friend, foam. I do not get foam. I understand that it would be kind of cool to study molecular gastronomy, and it's kind of cool that you can make foam. I just don't want to eat it. It reminds me of frog's eggs that you see floating on top of a pond. Anyway, Patrick made seared salmon, bok choy, and black rice noodles. Okay, first of all, I could totally make this dish and I am not a culinary student. In fact, I do make this dish all the time, minus the bok choy and plus something more appetizing than black noodles. Anyway, setting aside the simplicity of the dish, the presentation is terrible. He has a lump of noodles (maybe he's trying to hide them) beneath a chunk of bok choy, and then a giant slab of salmon balanced on top. As soon as I saw this one, I knew Patrick was in trouble. Patrick interviews that Jean-Georges will call him out because Asian is his specialty. Patrick admits to the judges that didn't know what he was doing with the noodles. Tom thinks the flavor is "one-note," and not sophisticated enough. Moving on to Daniel, the judges think his salad is too wet, and Tom points out that Wolfgang Puck's been making the same salad for many years, so it wasn't innovative and it wasn't well-executed. Gail wasn't inspired by either dish, but the judges can agree that Daniel's dish had more flavor, so Daniel wins.
Alex and Eugene present their Indian food. Alex made grilled lamb chops with a spicy ragout and basmati rice. Eugene made masala rub lamb rack with basmati macadamia nut tzatziki. Eugene admits that he's never cooked Indian food before. Alex thinks his Latin experience translates to Indian. I'm not sure about that, other than the spices. The judges think Alex's dish is well seasoned. Padma says that Eugene has accidentally created a classic Indian dish called curds and rice, and the judges are very impressed. Eugene wins.
The judges discuss the competitors overall. Tom is pleased that the food was uniformly good, and none of the dishes were so horrible that they call out the chef for being unqualified for the competition. Tom thinks both Chinatown dishes were disappointing, and Patrick's dish was amateurish. Gail points out Radhika's dish, which missed the mark texturally. Tom reminds them that Ariane's farro dish was uncooked and terrible.
As they wait to hear their fates, the cheftestants discuss what just happened. Melissa says that she was sweating so hard that sweat was running out of her pants. Ew! Carla is all manic and bug-eyed about her nervousness. You can tell Jeff wants to tell her to cram it, but he's too polite. They discuss how they all needed more salt. Padma walks in and asks for Stefan, Eugene, and Leah from the winning group, and Patrick and Ariane from the losing group. Patrick is nervous because he feels like his dish had more problems than Ariane's dish did.
Judges' Table. Padma starts with the winners, specifically Leah. Tom thinks she really captured new Italian cooking in New York. Stefan's dish was complex but didn't look complex. Jean-Georges compliments his flavors and technique. Eugene did a great job with a cuisine he didn't have experience in, and all the judges compliment him. Padma explains that in the history of the show, in all but one instance, the winner of the first challenge has gone on to win the show. I guess they have enough seasons now that they can make pronouncements like this. And the winner this time is Stefan. He interviews that he thinks it's time for a European to win the show. Leah, Eugene, and Stefan walk back to the waiting room and Carla is shrieking about how Stefan won two competitions in one day. She's going to get on my nerves. I can already tell.
Back in the judging room, Ariane and Patrick have to face the music. GONG! Padma asks Ariane to defend her dish. Ariane says that she's not familiar with Middle Eastern, and in the store she chose what she saw and hoped it would work out. Would you admit that? Tom tells her that grains and beans need to be cooked, and Leah did a similar dish that almost earned her the win. Ariane thinks that the problem was the name risotto, and Tom quickly tells her that wasn't the problem. He lectures her that, at this level of the competition, every item on the plate needs to be superb. They turn their focus to Patrick. Tom says that his dish was uninspired. Patrick wanted to highlight the clean favors. Gail says it was too similar in flavor and texture, and didn't say Chinatown. Tom thinks it was cliché, and Jean-Georges thought it needed some more ginger or scallion to elevate it. Patrick concludes that the dish wasn't his best work, but it was the best he could do with what he had. Really? Was it? Because then you're pretty much admitting that you don't belong in the competition. Tom advises both of them to get out of their comfort zones and travel and eat. Jean-Georges points out that in New York, you have access to all kinds of cuisine, and Padma reminds us that Ariane lives in New Jersey, so she could easily get to New York. Ariane thinks it's good enough to look at books, instead of going and experiencing cuisine and culture. Tom isn't happy with that remark.
Padma asks each of them to explain why they should stay. Ariane is sure that she has more to give. Patrick knows he's young, but he has passion about food and he wants to share that with the world. Ariane and Patrick are dismissed and have to go wait while the judges deliberate.
Padma asks who should go. They agree that Patrick is really young, and have a chuckle over the fact that he seemed to think you could just plop bok choy and noodles on the plate and call it Chinese food. Gail feels like he couldn't handle doing something original on the fly. Gail wonders why Ariane's experience didn't help her out. Jean-Georges thinks the farro, if it were cooked, would have saved the dish. Tom disagrees, because he's concerned about her basic cooking skills. But a decision has been made.
Ariane and Patrick are called back out. Tom thinks it's exciting that these two are competing despite their varying levels of experience. He thinks Ariane was inspired, but her technique was poor. Patrick executed well but had no inspiration. So Padma tells Patrick to pack his knives and go. Patrick is gracious, and the judges tell him that he has many years in front of him. They also urge Ariane to step up her game. Patrick and Ariane return to the back room and tell the others that Patrick is going home. Everyone hugs Patrick. Richard goes last, and Patrick leaps up into his arms. Aw. Patrick vows to graduate from school and become a top chef one day.
So there's your first episode! There are a lot of cheftestants to keep track of, and there are still a few that kind of blur together for me (Jill, Melissa, Leah), but I think it's a good sign that no one seems totally unqualified to be there.
Kim plots world domination, one domain at a time, at her blog Fresh Hell. You can contact her at reedkim@gmail.com.
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