Top Chef – Molto bene!

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that the show has impressed me with challenges this season. This week’s quickfire was no exception. Judged by Padma and fashion designer Issac Mizrahi, the contestant had to make a dish that was aesthetically pleasing … the twist? Neither of them would be tasting the food; the winner would be chosen by appearances only. Obviously, this ruffled the feathers of quite a few of the contestants, especially because Mizrahi is a bit eccentric in his opinions. Not only did Angelo make a really ugly dish involving lots of stuff in a bag with a raw egg and spelled the word crocodile as “crocoadile” on the table, but he also made a point to tell Mizrahi that his favorite designer is Roberto Cavalli. It was a weird mix of stupid and bizarre. It was bizupid. Anyway, Carla’s cucumber lattice was lovely, but Richard’s strangely earthy black ice cream and herbs won out.

So we get to the elimination challenge, which had them going to Rao’s, a 116 year-old restaurant that’s considered one of the most difficult restaurants to get a reservation for in New York. They’d be feeding the head staff members and owners of the establishment, which meant they needed to nail the Italian flavors. The chefs were coupled into groups of three with each group given a course: Antipasto (starter), Primi (pasta) and Secondi (meat).

As the chefs were finishing their dishes in the kitchen, guest judge Lorraine Bracco (perhaps best known for her role in The Sopranos) got to tell her own history with Rao’s. I especially loved that she and Ray Liotta went there when she was filming Goodfellas. On top of that, it was lovely to see the owners of Rao’s so thrilled to have Top Chef and their judges in their restaurant and the feeling was mutual, especially for Tom Coliccio. It’s just nice after last week’s rudeness to see some real humility in the culinary world.

The antipasto ladies (Antonia, Carla and Tiffany) each put out strong dishes, all respectful to this beautiful culinary culture. Primi (Dale, Tre and Mike) failed miserably across the board. Dale’s issue was mostly that it wasn’t the food he normal cooks, but that’s still not a very good excuse. However, Mike didn’t even have an excuse considering he cooks Italian food and is an Italian-American (as we were told constantly throughout this episode). His fresh pasta was undercooked, which is ridiculous considering the Rao’s owners themselves suggested using dry pasta, at least as a backup. Tre’s risotto wasn’t creamy and the rice was covered over by the other ingredients. Anthony Bourdain was openly upset about these three chefs failing so badly at such a simple course. His spirits were livened quickly by the third course, thanks to Richard, Antonio and Fabio. Richard and Angelo did well, although Angelo’s dish was too fussed over. Fabio’s chicken caccatore was a table favorite.

Mike did a lot of bitching during the last part of the episode. He dissed Carla’s soup and whined about Tiffany’s firm polenta not being appropriate for antipasto. I think he was just mad that he messed up so bad. Both Mike and Fabio complained about Antonia’s mussels with fennel not being Italian — their words might have had something to do with her winning the challenge. The way I look at it, Coliccio is usually really good about calling people out for not “getting” the challenge, and he raved about the dish. He even mentioned his own dad making a similar dish for him when he was a kid and he grew up with Italian food, so what does that tell you? Plus, mussels are used in Italian cooking all the time, so its not like these are foreign ingredients for the particular cuisine. I don’t know — I love mussels, especially the way she served them, so I would have loved to have been at that table.

I still think Mike should have gone home for messing up his expertise. In the end, Tre went home for his bad risotto. We’re down to eight contestants; if I had to pick three right now to go to the final, it would be Antonia, Carla and Richard. It will be interesting to see how close my prediction is.

Top
Fabio
Carla
Antonia — Winner
Tiffany

Bottom
Mike
Dale
Tre — Going home

Clacked by Katie Schenkel
on Feb 03, 2011 @ 14:00 EST5EDT