Thursday, February 2, 2012

Top Chef, 2/1/12

Down to the final five! I am Team Paul first, Grayson second, and Edward third. Anybody but Sarah or Lindsay, please thanks.

Pee-wee Herman in the house. Yay, childhood icon! Dude is aging quite well. For the Quickfire, the chefs must make one of his favorite foods: pancakes. Was it really necessary to have a table full of pancakes just to announce that pancakes will be made? I’m asking because I’m greedy and I’m jealous that I didn’t get to help devour all the extra food after filming was complete. Anyway, yay pancakes! Love it when the chefs are assigned something non-pretentious: pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc.—and it’s quite eye-opening when somebody completely bombs such challenges. You should be able to cook outside of your ostentatious comfort zone. Re-anyway, the winner gets five thousand dollars. “Five thousand dollars for a pancake? Wow. That’s a stack!” Pee-wee quips, and dammit, I actually laugh at that. Cooking begins. Paul, who has apparently slipped into the mad scientist shoes of the recently eliminated Ponytail Chris, breaks out the liquid nitrogen.


- Grayson: ricotta buttermilk pancakes, peach compote, blackberry, and basil
- Sarah: confetti pancakes, blackberry sauce, cocoa nibs, banana, and whipped cream
- Paul: rolled pancakes, berries, black pepper, and champagne dippin’ dots
- Lindsay: ricotta pancake, whipped crème fraiche, and almond-anise cookies
- Edward: pancake bits, berries, bacon, and bruleed marshmallow

Pee-wee tells everybody he or she made the best pancake he’s ever had. All the pancakes sounded pretty damn scrumptious (minus the bacon and pepper, i.m.o.), and he doesn’t call out anybody for making a bad one, so he’s probably being sincere. And the winner is … Ed!!!! But everybody feels like a winner when Pee-wee tells them he got them all brand new bicycles. Cool!

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs must make a family style lunch, and Padma says they have to use those bicycles to ride around town finding food and a restaurant to cook it in. Ha! The next day, everyone saddles up—Lindsay, who is blonde, puts her helmet on backwards—heads for the farmer’s market, and then one by one finds restaurants in which the owners/staff act as if this isn’t completely staged and agree to let the chefs crash their kitchens for a few hours. Ed doesn’t want his chicken to be overcooked, so he’s going to undercook it just a hair. Lindsay is the last person to find somewhere to cook; she’s worried about having enough time. Post-cooking, Grayson’s so concerned about breaking the egg yolks inside of her chicken breasts on the way to the Alamo that she risks burns to hold the tray in her hand instead of putting it in her bike basket.

- Sarah: summer veggie salad, boiled egg, chicken skin vinaigrette
- Grayson: gorgonzola cheese-spinach-and-egg yolk stuffed chicken breast with egg-bacon vinaigrette, tomatoes, and butternut squash
- Lindsay: roasted zucchini stuffed with braised beef cheeks and rice; salad of greens, pickled celery and carrots, goat cheese
- Edward: red-eye gravy over chicken poached in beef tallow; grits with corn and gorgonzola cheese; salad of kale, okra, and roasted tomatoes
- Paul: roasted chicken salad with Thai basil oil, red curry gastrique, cucumbers, and summer squash



Gail loves Sarah’s vinaigrette; Tom and Peewee say the dish needs salt. Gail likes Lindsay’s use of zucchini; Padma says she used too much goat cheese; Peewee loves the dish. Ed’s grits and gravy are a hit, but Peewee says the chicken is slightly odd; Tom says it’s on the edge of undercooked. Gail loves Paul’s dish; Padma wanted more spicy. Gail says Grayson’s dish is good; Tom says it’s delicious but he wishes she’d left off some stuff; the plate’s too busy. AND THEN PEE-WEE MAKES ME LOVE HIM MORE THAN I EVER KNEW I COULD: “I thought it was delicious, but I have a lot of childhood issues with runny yolk that I’d have to lie down to tell you about.” Thank you, Pee-wee!!! I knew I couldn’t be the only person on the planet who feels that RUNNY YOLK IS FRICKING DISGUSTING.

Lindsay wins. (Boo.) Ed, Grayson, and Sarah are in the bottom, and … Grayson goes home. If you ask me, serving bland food is a much bigger crime than serving a lot of delicious food, so Sarah should have gone home, dammit.

It’s time for the final Last Chance Kitchen showdown. Grayson vs Beverly. Whoever wins will be back in the competition. And the winner is … we don’t know!!!! She won’t be revealed til next week. Arrrrrrrgggghhhh! Well, I love Grayson, but please please please let it be Beverly!

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