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Top Chef

Week 11

This was the eleventh week of Top Chef Season 5, New York.  6 chefs are still in the house after Jeff was sent home last week.  Tonight's guest judge is: Eric Ripert and the cheftestants are clearly in awe.

The show opens with Fabio handling the requisite Sidekick phone product placement spot.  Calling his wife for a charming chat that was at least partly in Italian, of course.

Then Hosea observes that he's the "last American male" in the competition and that he will "take these Euros down."

Carla is thrilled to have gotten her first win in Week 10.

Quickfire Challenge

To start the show the contestants have to do a "Quickfire Challenge" which is generally a skills test. Today's the contestants have to do fish filet competition.   It will be tournament style - with two eliminated in each round.  First they have five minutes to filet three sardines according to Ripert's examples.  Most of the chefs are a little flustered by it - Jamie and Carla in particular.

Winner of this round: Leah is surprised to win it.  Carla and Jamie are not surprised that they don't; and they are out.

Then the remaining four cheftestants have five minutes to filet an arctic char.  In this one Leah gives up and stops.

Winner of this round: Hosea.  Losers: Fabio and Leah are out.

For the final competition it's Hosea versus Stefan to filet an eel.  Stefan is cocky about it - he says Germans filet a lot of eel.  Hosea is doing his best, but clearly doesn't know what he's doing.

For the final result: Ripert thinks Stefan did a beautiful job and left an immaculate station.  He gets the win and a useful advantage.

At the end of the competition Eric Ripert invites them all to come to his restaurant, Le Bernardin, for a meal the following day.  When they arrive they are served half a dozen different seafood dishes which are stunning and, apparently, delicious.  Watching this I have to wonder...where are they going with this?  Finally Coliccio has a knife block brought out to draw from and announces that the cheftestants are going to have to recreate one of the dishes they just ate.

Elimination Challenge -

Stefan won the QuickFire so he gets to pick which dish he'll cook, the rest have to draw the knives for it.  Stefan picks the Lobster, which he says was his favorite.  Hosea observes that it was the easiest dish too.

So it Goes...

Each chef will have their dish served alongside the Le Bernadin dish for comparison.

Fabio's dish is up first.  Ripert says the flavor is very close but the other judges observe that it's clearly not quite the same.

Leah is not feeling at all confident and with good reason.  The miso is clearly not as thick and Padma observes a definite flavor difference.  Tom's fish is undercooked, Ripert's is not.

Next up is Stefan.  As always he's cocky and confident.  The judges are very impressed especially since Ripert's sauce is made in a blender while Stefan did it by hand.

Carla is concerned about timing; she had to make potato crisps and feels she didn't really have time.  But the other chefs help her get everything plated and out it goes.  Good thing, the judges are impressed.  Colicchio notes that this dish was tough because it's a subtle dish.

Hosea is up next and he says he's a fish guy and doesn't want to get sent home on a fish dish.  Ripert again notes that Hosea has used too much Za'atar.  Colicchio observes that Monkfish needs to rest before it's cut but that Hosea didn't do that.  The judges aren't impressed.

Jamie is up with the last course.  She's having big problems with her celery because the liquid over-reduced and made her celery way too salty.  It's "really hard-core" according to Ripert.  "It's a salt-lick" according to Tom. Toby is very displeased with her dish.  Seems like there are some clear losers here (Hosea and Jamie) and the winner will probably be either Stefan or Carla.

Judge's Table

As I predicted Stefan and Carla were at the top; Fabio joined them at the top at Judge's Table.  Stefan got the win and won a copy of Ripert's newest book and the opportunity to spend a week following him at three of his restaurants and join him at a Food & Wine Festival.

At the bottom were Hosea, Jamie and Leah.  Tom is pleased that Hosea seems to know the mistakes he made.  Padma says that she would have sent back Jamie's dish if she could have.  Jamie cleverly follows Hosea's lead and admits that she knows the mistakes she made - but the judges really hated her dish.

So who is going home?  Jamie is.  Sort of hard to believe that Leah stays while Jamie goes, but that's how it rolls.

Observations and Random Stuff

• Leah seems younger each and every week.  That's not a compliment.
• Carla has gone a lot further in this competition than I expected her to. 

Quote of the Day

"It had a certain swagger to it."
-Toby Brown-

Articles

• Exit Interview with Jamie at TVGuide.com
• Recap by Food Network Musings

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