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And so the third month, another four weeks, has rolled by already and it’s time to do a monthly recap — the last one — on Top Chef. Pssst, here’s the first and the second monthly recaps we did in case you want to recall what happened from the beginning.
Top Chef, Season 4. The standings at the end of Week 12.
Super quick Top Chef recap of the past month:
Week 9: This is the one where the Quick Fire was the prep relay and Dale throws a tantrum. What we remember most about this ep is it’s the one where Padma says there are no restaurant wars this year, instead it’s Wedding Wars. In the end, Nikki who was handed the reigns basically by nature of what the groom wanted decided not to take responsibility, and that blew up in her face. Natch, as it was a wedding, there were also two cakes, which made pastry chef Gale Gand the perfect guest judge. Week 10: Salads and lunches. In the QF Spike won and Antonio came in second for making salads. The Elimination was to follow a set of guidelines to make better lunches, in this case for Chicago’s Police Officers. Andrew got clever and stupid at the same time and lost out. Guest judge was a TC Season Two favorite, Sam Talbot. Week 11: So what’s more surprising then ditching Restaurant Wars this year for Wedding Wars? By then doubling-back and having Restaurant Wars after all! That’s right with basically only three people left on each time (though eliminated members Nikki and Jennifer came back for several hours to lend a hand). With Antonia, Stephanie and Richard on one side and Dale, Spike and Lisa on the other, it came down to many flaws on the latter team and Dale not taking responsibility as exec chef. Dale exits. Anthony Bourdain is back at the judges table for this one. Week 12: After deboning half a steer into steaks for the QuickFire, it’s off to Rick Tramonto’s steak house for the Elmination Challenge. In the episode that has taught everyone never to use frozen scallops when featuring them as the main course, Spike finallys gets his.
And this leaves four challengers left and only the two big final shows. Next week two of the four will be axed. The week after the remaining two chefs go head to head in the finality. In the best and most promising season for women yet — a woman has not won the Top Chef honors in the previous three seasons — right now one male is left, Richard, and three women, Antonia, Stephanie and Lisa.
Tomorrow, want some non-primetime Iron Chef meets Top Chef? How about a bunch of your favorite tv cooks on the tube together in one place? Then Friday’s ‘Oprah’ is a don’t miss.
From Tyler Florence’s own site: “Cheer on Food Network’s own Tyler Florence and Ingrid Hoffmann as they face off in the first-ever Oprah’s Sandwich Showdown on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ Together with TLC’s [Take Home Chef] Curtis Stone, each celebrity chef is paired with an Oprah viewer (and die-hard fan) to see who can cook up the best sandwich. Watch as the teams develop delicious recipes while working against the clock, and then…the moment of truth as Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi declares a winner with the help of her fellow taste-testers Oprah and Gayle King.
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.)
There is just soooo much Top Chef-releated stuff to report on, I’m going just make a stew out of this and toss it all in. Amazingly this is only a part of it too. Anyhow here goes:
Tom Colicchio makes eight sandwiches for Sara Lee Pannis which he hawked on Rachael Ray show last week ….
Have a lot of questions you want to ask TC’s top hosts? So did other folks. Here is a very long interview with Tom and Padme Lakshmi at Monsters and Critics ….
Not to be outdone, here’s a nice shorter, normal-sized interview between TV Guide and Top Chef judge Ted Allen on TC4 ….
Enough of this season, what about last season? Here is a really enjoyable review of the first night of Top Chef Winner 2007’s Hung Huynh’s kitchen service at Manhattan’s trendy Solo ….
Speaking of kitchen service, let’s get back to this season compliments of Zagat who says if you want to taste “Top Chef cuisine”, then go to where this season’s contestant’s cook at; Zagat supplies the list of locations …
And finally (at least for now), want to play a game? No, not Global Nuclear Warfare, how about Top Chef Soduku? Cool! Then guess what? You can play right here at this site!
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.
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
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.
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Foodie Fight - A Trivia (Board) Game For Serious Food Lovers
