Quick ‘Top Chef’ Recap for Weeks 5-8

So another month, another four weeks have gone by, and that means four more of our “favorite” (or sometimes not) Top Chef cheftestants are but a mere memory. Here’s the first monthly recap we did in case you want to recall what happened then. (Put all of these together at the end of the show and you’ll have the world’s coolest Top Chef Season Four recap, you just know.)

That out of the way then, here’s the quick summary of the past four weeks with the very last TCB “What’s Happening on Top Chef” score card for you.

Top Chef, Season 4. The standings at the end of Week 8.

Super quick Top Chef recap of the past month:

Week 5: In the what’s poor what’s quality blind taste-testing QuickFire (QF), Antonia had best palette. For the elimination challenge (EC), it’s “The Elements”, that’s right: earth, air, fire, water and the gang broken up into teams. Zoi is axed for no seasoning on her mushrooms. Nancy Silverton makes a dining room cameo. Ming Tsai is guest judge. Week 6: QF is about da beer, but elimination is about da Bear’s. It’s the tailgating episode. Ryan basically refused the challenge, making totally non-tailgating food. Duh! Both judges came from the well-known restaurant Avec, with Koren Grieveson as QF judge, and owner Paul Kahan the EC judge. Week 7: “Improv”. QuickFire was making a desert. EC was the improvisation. Dale and Richard won out. Jennifer went home. Desert chef Johnny Iuzzini was the guest judge. Week 8: I’m skipping the QF (You’ll thank me later.) Art Smith was the guest judge so you can figure out this had to do with the Common Threads foundation. You’ll recall this ep as the one when the cheftestants had the little kids as sous-chefs. Kiwi Mark went home for lack of protein in his family budget meal.

Two comments. First, I had pretty much liked Mark the whole way through … until the end and then after. (After?) At the end he thought — sincerely — that Tom had it in for him. And then in his exit interview he likened Padma to Yoko Ono and said how she had (Padma) “destroyed the band”. — ????? — Yes, this one is going to cryptically live on for some time …

By the way tonight would normally (based on the past two seasons) be the fan-fav “Restaurant Wars” episode, but they’ve changed things up — gasp! — and gone back to Season Uno for inspiration. Instead tonight is going to be “Wedding Wars”. This should be a good one! Plus, we get to find out what Anthony’s “culinary boner” is all about too. (Assuming we actually want to do that.)

Still More Famous Chefs Slated for Upcoming Pebble Beach Festival

You recall my first mention here of the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival roughly a dozen days ago. Well, with six more days left before it starts, there’s even more “big names” showing up for what has become (in just it’s first time ever) one of the biggest events ever.

Along with the previously mentioned names of Jacques Pepin, Mark Miller, Thomas Keller, Gary Danko, Charlie Trotter, Tom Colicchio, Ted Allen, Michel Richard, Susan Spicer, Josiah Citrin, Walter Manzke, Todd English, Hubert Keller, and Michael Mina coming to the event …

… Now also add: Cat Cora, Mark Miller, Ming Tsai, Masaharu Morimoto, Alain Passard, Claudine Pepin, and still several dozen more top chefs. Show starts this Thursday, March 27th through Sunday, March 30th. More details at the site.

Ming Tsai Expands His ‘Blue Ginger’ with New ‘Bing’ Area

The normal state of affairs is a chef works hard. Comes up through the ranks. Get’s his or her own restaurant. And or talk show. Gets some fame, puts out a cookbook or two and opens some more restaurants. After all, it was a long road coming and you capitalize on your fame while you have it.

To my recall, only two celeb chefs have ever fought against this tried and true “way of the chef” when it comes to restaurants, and who have instead done things their own way. One is Cat Cora, who has zero, that’s zero, restaurants. And who finds both being a mother and working with the charity organization she cofounded: Chefs For Humanity and is a UNICEF spokesman, while also an Iron Chef as well as Executive Chef for Bon Appétit magazine.

The second one that comes to mind who is well known to shun the norm is Ming Tsai. Owner of his sole restaurant outside of Boston, Blue Ginger. For over 10 years now he’s turned down many many offers for more restaurants elsewhere. He’s finely giving in, albeit in a minor way. He’s finally opening a second restaurant …. next door to his current one.

Ok, don’t get excited. Turns out this actually isn’t as true as first thought. Turns out, the next door area is a sort of … hmmm, if it were a house you’d call it a spare bedroom, as it’s part of the Blue Ginger restaurant still, I guess you’d call it a “section”. Yes, let’s go with that, so not a second restaurant per se (gee Ming, what are you waiting for already?), but a 50-seater that will beature “Ming’s Bings”. What’s a bing? An Asian dumpling.

The new place will be his first restaurant spin-off, despite the offers he’s fielded continuously in the 10 years since Blue Ginger opened. But Tsai slyly suggested that Ming’s Bings might not be his last undertaking. He explained that the bings he’ll serve are light, healthful riffs on the simple Asian street foodknown as xian bing. Usually the potstickers are made with gingered pork. Tsai indicated that his array might include a burger that’s encased in a dumpling-style wrap and served in a box—“like White Castle,” but “with a thinner layer of carbohydrate around the protein.”

Check out the rest of the article here.

Common Thread’s Third Annual World Festival Monday in Chicago

Dozens of celebrity chefs at Common Thread’s Third Annual World Festival on Monday, March 17 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

The annual event takes place the Monday of the Housewares Show, in order to bring national celebrities who serve on the Chef Advisory Board to the festival. This year Padma Lakshmi of Bravo’s acclaimed Top Chef will serve as the honorary chair and mistress of ceremonies.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

Festival guests will be treated to global delicacies by renowned chefs including founder Art Smith, TABLE fifty-two; David Burke, David Burke’s Primehouse; Tom Colicchio, Craft; Gale Gand, Tru; Ken Oringer, Clio; Marcus Samuelsson, C-House; Jacques Torres, Jacques Torres Chocolates; Rocco DiSpirito and Ming Tsai, Blue Ginger.

[….] Common Threads, a not-for-profit organization, was founded in 2003 by Art Smith, personal chef to Oprah Winfrey. The organization employs cooking and the arts to teach children cultural diversity, nutrition and personal well-being

From The Trib:

If you want to nibble on dishes prepared by Ming Tsai and Paula Deen, be prepared to shell out $500 for the VIP reception at 5 p.m. (where Tsai will produce caviar-topped blinis along with Dennis Joel of Blue Water Grill) and an after-event party hosted by Deen (she’s making banana pudding and minty brownies) at The James Hotel, 55 E. Ontario St., complete with a special performance by John Legend, the Grammy Award-winning singer.

General admission tickets are $250; VIP package, which includes the preview receptions and post-party are $500. For tickets and more information, call 312.752.2692 or visit OurCommonThreads.