Top Chef Chicago Recap, Week 10
By L. Stolpman in Food on May 15, 2008 2:00PM
Sit tight, Top Chef fans, and enjoy a recap of this week's activities! We see the bleary eyed contestants slowly waking from a short sleep after what Richard says was more than 40 hours awake. Andrew's culinary morningwood instructs him to either "stab someone or make some amazing food."
Quickfire. The chefs walk into the kitchen and see second season hottie, Sam Talbot. The chefs are told they must create a great, modern, "sexy" salad in 45 minutes.
Andrew makes a Thai fruit salad with mangoes, strawberries, raspberries and Sriracha, lime juice and sugar dressing. It looks colorful and flavorful. Spike makes a "Sensual Beef Salad" with pineapple, radish, cucumber and skirt steak. Lisa…wait, seriously, can this girl make anything sexy? Anyway, she offers a "Sexy Banana Salad" with grilled squid and lobster tail, bananas and yuzu vinaigrette. (Okay, that does sort of sound awesome...as long as none of her hair has found its way into the dish.)
Stephanie does a "Fall Duet" with pear vinaigrette, poached pear and artichokes…except her artichoke chips didn't make it to the plate as she fumbled a bit in the final minute of the quickfire. Antonia made a poached egg and wild mushroom salad with bacon vinaigrette and squash blossoms. Sam says it has great flavor and we TiVo pause at a perfect shot of Antonia eyeing the camera in a way that says, "Did you hear him? He said I have great flavor. I mean, my salad has great flavor."
Richard describes his salad like a Zest commercial (or an Outkast song): Fresh and clean. It is a ceviche of fruits and vegetables. Dale offers a poached chicken salad with nori paste, mirin, sake and rice wine vinegar.
Bottom of the pack is Richard as his ceviche didn't have an acidic punch. Stephanie lands here, too, as her pear vinaigrette didn't hit the mark and her artichoke chips were missing. Lisa scowls as she's told that her salad was banana heavy.
Sam's top picks: Spike for a well composed salad. Sam says there is nothing sexier than breaking into a yolk…so he enjoyed Antonia's salad. Antonia instantly starts her period. Dale's salad is also called as one of the best and we get a shot of Lisa who looks like she just smelled urine. Winner: Spike!
Elimination Challenge. Sam and Padma bring in a tray of fast food. Lisa dares to use the words "nasty and greasy" to describe the foods. Since this is a cooking show, we have to say it: Pot, meet kettle. The challenge is to create gourmet and healthy boxed lunches for the Chicago police academy using at least one ingredient from each of the following food groups: whole grains, lean protein, fruits, and vegetables.
For winning the quickfire, Spike is allowed 10 extra minutes to shop and the other chefs can not use any of his same ingredients from the food groups. Spike chooses chicken breast, bread, tomato and lettuce. The other contestants crab about his choices because they suspect they are purely based in spite. Admittedly, Spike may be taking advantage of his quickfire win more than he is concentrating on what he's going to make but that's his damn right for making such a tasty, sexy salad. The biggest advantage is that the other chefs must shop immediately after hearing his ingredients so if they had anything planned before-hand, it may need to be adjusted after hearing Spike's choices.
In the kitchen, we see the chefs prepping their box lunches and with roughly 25 minutes left to go, Lisa notices that someone has turned the burner on her brown rice up to high, thereby burning it. Are your eyes rolling? Same here.
Over to the Police Academy where the chefs describe their dish and the officers make their choices. Stephanie offers a mushroom and meatball soup with barley, vegetable puree (butternut squash with apple) and yogurt. The judges (Tom, Padma, Ted Allen, and Sam) comment on the hearty soup and that it is seasoned well. Spike presents an open faced chicken salad with pita and raw vegetables. He has plopped his chicken salad (including olives and grapes) on to a piece of lettuce and buried under the mound is a slice of bread and a slice of tomato. The judges look peeved at his complete lack of integration of these ingredients.
Dale gives the cops a lemongrass bison lettuce wrap with brown rice and herb salad. The judges like the color and texture but would like to see some heat/spice. Antonia complains that Dale always makes Asian food to which we says, "Well, if that shit ain't broken..." Antonia serves a curry filet mignon with jasmine rice, berries and figs with grape syrup. Mmmm, curry. The flavors win applause with the judges, as well as the tender beef. Andrew serves a salmon roll with parsnip-pine nut "rice" and pickled ginger wasabi. It looks pretty but there's not much of it. The judges remark that the flavor is strange and that Andrew has failed to use a whole grain. Tom looks disgusted as the roll falls apart between his fingers.
Richard parrots to every single person who comes by the table, "The question of the day is…Do you like burritos?" Then he offers his grilled tuna burrito with lentils and quinoa in a rice paper tortilla. It's hard to say how appetizing it looks because it vaguely resembles a tube sock. The judges say it tastes better than it looks. Well, that shouldn't have been too hard.
Lisa serves a shrimp stir-fry (with a pineapple hot sauce), brown rice, berries and yogurt. The rice isn't done and the shrimp are undercooked as well.
Back in the Glad room, Lisa says that she was soooo mad that someone turned up her rice. Dude. There are only six other people there. Why not demand some answers if she's so convinced someone did this to her? She acts like someone who knows she's full of crap. Andrew realizes through discussion that he did not incorporate a whole grain into his salmon rolls.
Judges Table. Stephanie and Dale are called in and told their meals were the favorites. Dale is applauded for using bison. Stephanie's well seasoned soup is noted. Sam chooses the winner: Dale!
Lisa, Andrew and Spike are called in to see the judges. Andrew's dish is insubstantial but he defends it by citing his nutritional background and how healthy it is. Nevermind that it would leave the crime fighting forces of Chicago weak from hunger. Tom says, "It no taste good." Andrew says, "They came back for seconds!" Tom responds, "Cause there wasn't enough." Which is like the old joke of someone complaining about how horrible the food is…and what small portions!
Spike is called out on the table for choosing his ingredients more to spite his competitors rather than to enhance his dish. Judges hate the combination of olives and grapes. Spike says, "Salty and sweet! What don't you understand about salty and sweet?" He says this as if a slice of cake with a side of pickles makes perfect sense. Or, in fact, just a teaspoon of sugar with a side of salt. Spike says that the common man enjoys these tastes together as if he seriously just invented kettle corn.
Ass.
Lisa's horribly dour expression remains as the judges ask her why she thinks she is there. She does, much to our dismay, make us giggle a bit when she snaps back, "You guys decided to have me here. You tell me." Which is sort of funny, in a snotty brat way, complete with a faux baffled expression as if she doesn't know her rice was medium rare. The beans sucked! The shrimp sucked! The rice sucked! Lisa says someone f-bombed her rice.
Padma asks if anyone has anything else to say and Lisa says, "Well, someone didn't use a whole grain." Seriously, what's the point of being passive aggressive now? Andrew tells Lisa she sucks and what ensues can be summed up as follows: "Nuh uh!" "Yeah huh!" Nice. The judges dismiss the chefs who return to the Glad storage room to continue bitching at each other. Andrew gives Lisa a creepy stare that bothers Antonia. And finally, finally, Andrew calls her out on the burned rice BS saying that she could have very well done it herself.
The judges deliberate. They don't appear to completely believe Lisa on the rice and say it doesn't matter because the rest of the dish sucked. Sam can't get past the poor use of ingredients by Spike. And Andrew's paltry meal lacks a whole grain and they don't like his attitude. The chefs are called back in and Padma asks... well, we'll let Andrew explain why Lisa gets to hang around another week.
Coming up next week: Return to restaurant wars! Oh dear, it looks like Lisa and Dale may be working together again. This should be delicious.