Top Chef Chicago Recap, Week 2
By L. Stolpman in Food on Mar 21, 2008 3:00PM
The show opens to some great shots of Chicago. Sights no one has seen since the warm weather. Stephanie and Valerie are working out, pumping some iron and we learn that they used to work together. Valerie says she is happy to have a friend in the competition “for now…” and those two words foreshadow the next few days to come. Next we see Zoi and Jennifer swap clogs which is the chef equivalent of sharing a toothbrush. Oh, well, they are dating.
Quickfire. The contestants are sent to Green City Market and instructed they must find no more than five ingredients at the market for their next dish and may use those ingredients in conjunction with salt, oil, pepper, and sugar to create an entrée. We get shots of the Chefs running to and fro. Notably, Mark (Hobbit!) seems frustrated with the lines and gets frazzled enough that he forgets a bag at a stall and leaves with only four ingredients. Spike, on the other hand, pauses to sit down and listen to some slow jams and act all casual like he’s got nothing to worry about. Is Padma sharing her stash with this guy?
Wylie Dufresne is the guest judge and he is…how can we put this…he is what would happen if Dungeons and Dragons had a Chef character who specialized in potions. 30 minutes go by which feels like ages and ages to Padma and by the end, she’s sooo hungry.
Quickfire highlights: Spike gets some bad meat and Wylie says it should have been used in a sandwich. Apprentice Richard’s (Kewpie!) eucalyptus chicken does not impress Wizard Dufresne. Note: Padma uses a fork while Dufresne uses his fingers, just like in your bad-date nerd nightmares. Ryan uses radishes, baby fingerling potatoes and sirloin. Mark does sirloin, turnips, and some peach cream. Dufresne likes those two dishes. Andrew uses balsamic vinegar as his 6th ingredient and is excluded. Winner is Mark and he is immune this week.
Next Challenge – Chefs are split into teams: Teams Vulture, Bear, Gorilla, Lion, and Penguin. The teams will cater a party for the zoo with menus that use ingredients that their team animal eats.
Team Penguin (Jennifer, Andrew and Lisa) whip up Thai shrimp, roasted zucchini, charred squid ceviche and a yuzu and mint frozen concoction. Andrew’s squid ceviche goes on a grill briefly and looks great. Judges love it.
Team Vulture (Manuel, Zoi, Mark) make braised chicken, Moroccan lamb meatball and anchovy on quinoa croquette. Both the lamb meatball by Zoi and the anchovy croquette impress the judges. So far, Mark has made anchovies and Marmite taste good.
Team Bear (Dale, Nikki, Spike) make stuffed mushrooms which end up looking like toddler poops with cheese sprinkled on top. They are filled with dried blueberries which do nothing for the image. They serve chimay cheese with honeycomb on cranberry pecan bread which the judges enjoy.
Team Gorilla (Stephanie, Valerie, Antonia) goes with a crab salad on celery root chip, banana bread, lamb and edamame lettuce cups, and black olive blinis with marscapone. The celery root chips get soggy, Stephanie mixes the salad too soon and the salt sucks on the celery leaving a watery mess. Valerie’s blinis die on the vine since they aren’t served promptly after cooking. Judges really like the banana bread recipe from Stephanie’s mom.
Team Lion (Richard, Ryan and Erik) has a bison tartare, beet salad, chicken sate and prime rib. Nothing all that remarkable going on there except that Richard’s gadgets do not impress Erik as he is old skool.
Judges call in the Vultures and Penguins. Kudos are given for the anchovy dish by Mark and the meatball by Zoi. The glaciers by Andrew get some props as does his squid ceviche. Andrew wins and it is, oddly enough, his most humble moment.
Team Gorilla and team Bear are called in. Judges hated the mushrooms by Nikki, the blinis by Valerie and the crab salad by Stephanie. Gail goes so far as to say that the mushrooms look more like something a bear produces than eats. Ouch! Stephanie’s grace is her mom’s banana bread which the judges enjoyed. Not serving the blinis fresh, though, was the unforgivable sin and Valerie is sent home to pack her knives.
Tune in next week for more dishing when the Chefs go on...a field trip!