Top Chef Power Rankings: Week 12
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 2, 2008 3:21PM
And then there were four.
Also, there is a first for Top Chef. Season four marks the first time three female chefs have made it this far in the competition. It's easy to say that Lisa is the least qualified to be among the number with Stephanie and Antonia. But through a combination of luck, pluck and skill, she's here with what she said in last week's episode was a "clean slate." Judging by her new haircut, which reminds us of Melanie C after she left the Spice Girls, she means it.
Conventional wisdom would hold that this is finally Lisa's time for elimination, if not overdue. However, anything could have happened during the Puerto Rico tapings last month. Of the big three, Richard would seem most likely to make a fundamental error in his cooking. Sometimes he just seems lost when he doesn't have a water bath or a smoker handy. If he makes an similar mistake in the next episode while Lisa just maintains, we could be looking at an all-woman season finale.
This will also be the final power rankings installment for the season. Next week we'll be posting a preview of the finale, along with odds of winning from other local writers.
1) Stephanie (last week — 2): Tom Colicchio nailed it last week when he said that Stephanie never seems nervous in the kitchen. The consistency in quality between her appetizer and entrée in the elimination challenge reflected that, nabbing Ms. Izard her fourth elimination challenge win and frontrunner status heading to PR.
2) Antonia (last week — 1): Probably the most expressive chef in her cooking remaining. But, like her criticism of Dale for only cooking "Asian," her reliance on rustic Italian makes her a one-trick pony. However, it's one trick that could help her win the competition.
3) Richard (last week — 3): For all the talk about pushing the boundaries, chefs who practice molecular gastronomy tend to end up as also-rans in this competition if they forget the basics. Let's hope Richard used the time between tapings in Chicago and Puerto Rico to reacquaint himself with them.
4) Lisa (last week — 5): Those peanut butter mashed potatoes was a risky move that paid off in spades. It may have even saved her from elimination even if Spike had used fresh scallops. Speaking of young Evangelos...
5) Spike (last week — 4): He used frozen scallops, which everyone from Tom to Lisa told him was a bad move, then tried to pin the blame on Rick Tramonto for having them in his walk-in. There's one word for that. Take it away, Red Forman: