Top Chef - Season 5 -
"Super Bowl Chef Showdown"

The quick fire is create Quaker oats with their food group (e.g. meat, poultry, dairy, fruits) they chose in a football square format. No immunity on the line for this quickfire just an advantage in the challenge.

Shockingly enough Leah was one of the losers in the quickfire. Surprisingly Fabio was down there and Jeff's dish was blah looking as he had feared.

On the top was Carla (a shocker), Jamie and Stefan. The winner of the quickfire was Stefan. Yet another win. Clearly he is the top dog and the one to beat.

For the challenge the chefs will competing against a chef from a previous season. They will be competing with regional cuisine from an NFL team: Miami, Green Bay, Dallas, Seattle, New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. Stefan's advantage is to pick both the cuisine and the chef to compete against. He picks Dallas and Andrea. The rest of the chefs get to decide what team's food to pick. The complete matchups are listed below.

The Matchups
Team Cuisine	Season 5 Chef	Past Season Chef
Dallas Cowboys	Stefan	Andrea
Miami Dolphins	Jeff	Josie
Green Bay Packers	Fabio	Spike
Seattle Seahawks	Hosea	Miguel
New York Giants	Leah	Nikki
San Francisco 49ers	Jamie	Camille
New Orleans Saints	Carla	Andrew

The chefs cook head to head. The judges vote gets 7 points, the fans get 3 points. If the season 5 contestant loses the head to head match up than they are up for elimination. The chefs have 20 minutes to create their dish and they are cooking in front of a raucous audience.

Leah and Nikki go first. Leah wins the judges pick, she does however lose the fans.
7 - 3 for season five.

Hosea and Miguel are up next. Hosea wins the judges pick for the touchdown. It is a sweep for Hosea as he wins the fans as well.
17 - 3 for season five.

Carla and Andrew are bringing the spirit of New Orleans to the set. Carla also wins the judges but fails to win the fans.
24 - 6 for season five.

Stefan and Andrea are next in the spotlight. Can Stefan continue the streak of winning over the judges? Not quite. The judges split and the fans overwhelmingly pick Andrea. What a shock. The number 1 contender has a hiccup. Not a good time to have a hiccup. He is the first chef for elimination consideration.
24 - 16 as season five's lead slims down.

Girl fight time as Jamie and the always attractive Camille battle. Camille seemed to get very little air time when she was on Top Chef. That was always upsetting. Again the Judges have a tie but the fans support Jamie.
34 - 16 as Jamie picks up the slack from Stefan.

Jeff and Josie are fighting for South Beach. The judges give the nod to Josie. The fans also preferred Josie's plate. Another 10 points for the All-star chefs.
34 - 26 and the All-Stars are back within striking distance.

The deciding match up will be Fabio and Spike. The judges points go to Spike. The fans save him some face by selecting his dish.
The season five contestants sneak by with a narrow 37 - 33 victory.

If I remember the rules correctly Stefan, Jeff and Fabio will be up for elimination. Leah and Carla are going to hang on for another week? Unbelievable. Stefan should be safe given all his past wins, but the judges always say they only take the current challenges in mind.

Hosea, Carla, Leah and Jamie are asked to see the judges first. They of course are safe per the rules. This week there was a lot going on in the episode so it was a bit tougher to see how people did and decipher their cooking skills. The judges name Carla as the winner. The prize? Two tickets to the Super bowl.

The chopping block is called in. Stefan, Fabio and Jeff stand in front of the judges. This is the first time on the block for Stefan. Tough call to see who goes home. I think they are leaning towards sending Jeff home. That would shake up my standings a little bit.

Jeff is the chef that is asked to pack his knives and leave. This is a bit disappointing that a good chef is asked to leave while Leah and Carla get to stay. That is the game though. It is tough to have a tough challenge this late in the competition.

So here are the updated standings. Even with the down week I couldn't drop Stefan. He did win the quickfire but he had a poor showing in the challenge. Jamie has good weeks and down weeks. Seems she only wins with soups. I ended up giving Hosea the nod over Fabio based on their results in the challenge. They are about equals to me though. Carla (despite the win) and Leah are still the weakest chefs in my opinion.

1) Stefan (was 1)
2) Jamie (was 3)
3) Hosea (was 5)
4) Jeff (was 2)
5) Fabio (was 4)
6) Carla (was 8)
7) Leah (was 7)

Labels: Television, Top Chef

- posted by Doug @ 12:03:00 AM