Top Chef Texas Recap: Week 1 - Culling the Herd
By L. Stolpman in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 3, 2011 4:20PM
Well, hello, peanut butter cups! As you may have heard, Chicago has six chefs in the newest season of Top Chef on Bravo. This means we can't resist a good old-fashioned roundup and recap. We'll be concentrating our attention on the Chicago chefs until the field is narrowed. Let's get to it!
There are 29 chefs who will be competing for 16 slots on the new season. Ooo, judging change up. Tom Colicchio (bears everywhere breathe a sigh of relief), Gail Simmons (we heart her so hard) and Padma Lakshmi are joined by Hugh Acheson (who wears his eyebrow proudly) and Emeril Lagasse. We like Emeril. We do. We sometimes think of him in the same context as Alec Baldwin and William Shatner. You know. He has that slightly bloated look to him which makes us wonder about his salt or alcohol intake. Bless his heart.
We begin at the Alamo with all 29 chefs and the quick realization that damn, no one is as special as they had first thought. In fact, they are roughly half as special as they first thought as there are nearly twice the number of normal contestants. They learn of the culling that will take place - down to 16. Three judges will critique a dish and vote on if the chef should get a Top Chef coat, if the chef is eliminated, or if he or she will cook again in another round to earn a place in the sweet 16.
The first group meets up with Tom and Emeril. In this group, we have Chicago chefs Heather Terhune (Sable), Richie Farina (Moto), Chris Jones (Moto), Sarah Grueneberg (Spiaggia). Challenge: Prepare a dish with a particular cut of pork. We watch some goofball butcher (in the slang way, not the awesome chef way) the subprimal portion of the beast, thereby botching the cuts of some other chefs who trusted him to butcher it properly. Tom is horrified and tells him to hit the skids. We cheer inside because the kid was an ass. Let's get to some results. Chef Jones made a play on a caramel apple, stuffed with braised pork belly. He's in and gets his Top Chef coat! Chef Grueneberg made a pig skin ravioli and earns her coat! Chef Nyesha Arrington earns a jacket. And so does Chef Terhune (maple and citrus glazed baby back ribs with bacon, corn and blue cheese grits) and Chef Farina (onion soup with braised and crispy pig ears, pickled shallots and a frozen parsley powder)! Well, we are just suckers for that grin on Chef Farina's face. GO, CHICAGO!
The second group enters the Top Chef kitchen. This group has two "culinary artists". We ponder that designation briefly. Chef Chuy Valencia (Chilam Balam) is in this group. We eagerly wait to see if he mind-fucks anyone and ends up having a brain STD or gets someone's head pregnant. (If you haven't seen his intro video.... enjoy.) We can't help it. We want to have a drink with him and see him turn all whiskey-dad and curse someone until they cry. Well, maybe. Unless it's us. This group's goal: Select just one protein (they must all agree) and each make a dish with it. They choose rabbit. Earning a jacket this round: Chef Whitney Otawka, Chef Keith Rhodes, Chef Dakota Weiss, Chef Ty-Lor Boring, Chef Chris Crary, and Chef Chuy Valencia (rabbit loin with cashew pipian and grilled zucchini)!
This means 11 spots are taken and five are left. We can't wait to see if Chef Beverly Kim gets a jacket next week! Join us again next Wednesday as we follow our Chicago chefs in Texas!