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Thursday, December 1, 2011

T-Boz, Chili & Left Eye

Top Chef recap time...a day late.

The chestestants were greeted by Padma (of course!) & Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feninger of Top Chef: Masters. Mary Sue & Susan own and cook in a very successful Mexican grill. So, yum! For Quickfire challenge, the cheftestants could choose from an array from chili peppers from the mild poblano to the nuclear fire of the ghost chili & create a tasty dish. The hotter the chili the more money it's worth to the winning dish PLUS immunity. Sucking it were Beverly because she didn't cook anything (chopped chilies w/ dressing is a salad for fuck's sake!), Richie's not hot scallop & Chuy's tinned tomato overload. Winning the ducats and immunity was Paul and his ghost chili chilled coconut soup. Super yum!

For the Elimination Challenge, the cheftestants were randomly split into 5 teams of three *slams head into wall* for a chili cook off for 200 guests at the rodeo. The guests chose the winning team while the judges had the nasty task of giving someone the boot. As a twist, there was no time limit, the cheftestants were allowed to stay up all night if they wanted to. And they all did....which I don't entirely understand because once the meat and the veggies are in the pot yr done cooking....but what do I know, I'm not a professional cheftestant. Also, none of the chilis contained beans of any sort. It's a Texas thing, no beans in the chili. Boo! The beans are the best part.

The winning team was Chiclets teeth Chris, blowhard Sarah & Chuy's chili con carne w/ roasted corn garnish. Honestly, I don't think the judges would have chosen this chili because of the thin texture & lack of dunking implement.

Losing team was Nyesha, Richie & Beverly's too sweet chili mole...though their cornbread got rave reviews. AGAIN a twist: the three losers had to cook head to head...to head using their failed chili and make a great new dish. In the end, Richie made a bad plate of food, cried like a little girl w/ a skinned knee and was gently comforted by hair accessory Chris.

Hmm chili!

2 comments:

Jon in Albany said...

Gail Simmons summed it up perfectly in the little judges outtake when she said, "We're (the judges) assholes."

Another weak challenge and asking the losing team to cook again was pretty cruel. I didn't think the chef that lost was going to go very far, but I'm not sure he, or anyone, deserves to go out like that. Looks like they had a Survivor "Redemption Island" thing happening online. I'm not watching Bravo extras online.

Am I repressing the memory, or are they concentrating a lot more on the location? Maybe it's just me, but I am more interested in watching Top Chef and not a Top Tex Mex cooking show. Three to one the next Quickfire is chips and salsa.

phairhead said...

Jon: honestly the tex mex theme isn't bothering me that much, they did it a lot during the las vegas season