Top Chef - episode 2 - "Show Your Craft"

The Quickfire! - Create a signature hotdog. This challenge could be so interesting and fun. Gotta go chili dog right? Someone has to do one. Nice crisp onions and some cheese on top.

Wow, looks like I was way off. That's why these chefs are WAY better than me.

Jill didn't make her own hot dog and was called out by Padma. No one said they had to MAKE a hot dog but still a risky move.

I like Radhika's kabob style hot dog. Looked good in a nice toasted bun.

Oh no! Padma found a piece of bone in Jamie's. That is NOT good. Thank goodness this wasn't an elimination challenge. She would be on the block for sure. Dodges a bullet as this is just a quick fire.

Jill's store bought hot dog came back to haunt her. This is a chef contest. You gotta make things. Reheating isn't going to cut it.

Stefan gets called out but with no real reasoning. I guess the flavors didn't really mesh.

Radhika's was in the top. Looked and sounded good. Fabio's did as well with his Mediterranean style dog. Hosea rounds out the top with his hot dog with smoked bacon.

Radhika wins and is given immunity for the elimination challege.

Tough to really tell too much with this quick fire. You don't want to judge these chef's based on how the interpret a hot dog.

The elimination challenge is a 3 course "new american" lunch menu. Each person is given 1 dish. So this is a bit weird. 5 take apps, 5 take entree, 5 take deserts.

Fabio, Hosea, Jamie Melissa and Leah take the apps.
Stefan, Alex, Eugene, Jill and Jeff take entrees.
Jill is using Ostrich eggs. An interesting choice that might get her credit or come back to bite her in the ass.

Carla, Ariane, Daniel, Richard and Radhika take desserts.
Ariane talks about how she doesn't usually do desserts. If there is one thing we have learned form past shows. If you don't know how to do desserts then DON'T DO THEM! Many chefs have gotten themselves in trouble by trying to make desserts when they were not comfortable with them!

Tom lets them in on a couple of key points to the challenge. They are cooking in Tom's restaurant. The 50 people are all New York chefs that did not make it onto the show!

The corn soup gets good buzz. The crab gets bad review. Looks like the canned crab was a BAD choice. The odd olives are unique and liked.
Corn soup is probably the app winner.

The quiche starts off badly for entrees. The meatloaf loses points for presentation. The chicken is decent but doesn't sound spectacular. The tenderloin also gets bad reviews.
The halibut sounds like it is the best of the entrees.

For deserts it sems that the pound cake is liked. The lemon meringue was way too sweet. The reaction by Padma was great! They did not like it. The avocado mousse (by Radhika with immunity) was not liked by the judges.

Jamie, Hosea, Ariane, Fabio, Carla and Jill all get called to judges table.
Carla's pastry was loved. Fabio provided humor as he got defensive of his dish. Turns out they like it a lot. Especially the spherical olives. Jamie's corn soup was the third liked dish. The winner was Fabio. Damn chemicals strike again!
Looks like Stefan and Fabio truly are forces to be reckoned with in this competition.

Of the remaining three I think Hosea should be safe as he has shown some promise. The canned crab meat was what killed him. That was a huge problem. You need to change it up when faced with that. Ariane is totally lacking something special to be Top Chef. Jill was almost on the right track with the Ostrich egg but couldn't make it into something special.

The person being sent home is Jill. I am a little surprised by this. I think Ariane might have been a better choice. I guess two things were at work here. Jill was unable to defend her dish and her choice of ostrich egg was not executed enough to be noticed. She needed to use that egg in a way that would stand out. A quiche was not enough to bring out the uniqueness of the egg.

All in all her stumbling defense is probably what killed her.

Labels: Television, Top Chef

- posted by Doug @ 11:48:00 PM