Top Chef Texas Recap: Winter Games
By L. Stolpman in Food on Feb 16, 2012 6:20PM
Pictured: (l-r) Sarah Grueneberg, Beverly Kim -- Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/Bravo
We are entering this week with high hopes that this episode will be more cooking competition and less Japanese game show. Let's see!
The episode begins with Sarah telling us that she is going to be a nice person. The four remaining contestants pile climb into a car and head up a mountain to meet Padma. No sooner does Paul ask Beverly about Last Chance Kitchen than Sarah immediately interrupts Beverly's response. So, maybe not so much a nicer person, but the exact same kind of person. Though we can tell the editing monkeys have spliced together some facial reactions. Don't play with us, Top Chef.
Padma welcomes them to British Columbia and Whistler Mountain. There will be three events and the winner of each will receive $10,000.
First Challenge: create a dish on a moving gondola. Each chef enters their gondola which contains basic ingredients and tools and has 22 minutes to cook. Halfway through, they will exit the gondola, choose an additional ingredient and incorporate it into their dish.
Paul grabs wasabi paste. He presents to the judges a seared lamb loin with curried mushrooms and wasabi creme fraiche.
Sarah takes the prune juice. She offers the judges chorizo sausage with onions, prune juice, gooseberries and picked mushrooms.
Beverly takes the horseradish. She made a salmon tartare, anchovy horseradish, creme fraiche and crispy capers.
Lindsay also takes the horseradish. She offers seared salmon, red quinoa 'risotto' with chorizo and horseradish vinaigrette.
Judges thought Paul's meat was unevenly cooked and underseasoned but are still complimentary. Good remarks for Sarah's dish. Beverly's cold dish gets nice remarks. Lindsay's salmon is perfectly cooked.
Padma announces that not only will the winning chef get $10,000, but will also be the first chef in the finale. Everyone gets nervous giggles. Lindsay and Beverly do the best. Winner is Lindsay.
Second Challenge: The chefs are shown their pantry for this challenge and it is frozen in ice. The chefs are told that they will be using an ice pick to release the ingredients and cook—all in 60 minutes. Paul graciously assists both Beverly and Sarah in breaking apart some ice blocks.
Sarah offers the chefs pea and spinach soup with turmeric, almonds and king crab. Paul presents poached king crab, toasted almonds, mango chutney with orange marmalade. Beverly made a seared scallop with red wine reduction, buttered peas and corn and couscous.
Judges evaluate as they taste and the winner is: Paul!
Third Challenge: And it comes down to this: Sarah and Beverly. The chefs will be shooting signs with different ingredients written on them. They each get 10 bullets. Sarah states that if Beverly got into the finals instead of her, she'd never forgive herself. We roll our eyes. Beverly and Sarah start shooting for ingredients and each get four. Let's get to the cooking, finally, can we?
Beverly has prepared a slow roasted Arctic char, onion and beat compote, celery root truffle puree and fennel salad. It gets nice remarks but Tom states that the fish may be slightly overcooked.
Sarah offers a braised rabbit leg and heart with cherries, hazelnuts and sauerkraut puree. Tom likes it. Gail says the rabbit was a little tough.
Winner and last chef in the finale: Sarah.
Great work, Beverly. You are one tough cookie! We'll be watching next week to see who takes the crown.