Sesame Street was my first favorite TV show. My first favorite movie (as a toddler, no less) was the still really wonderful Follow that Bird. My first Halloween costume was as Cookie Monster — handmade by my Oma, of course. Needless to say, this week’s quickfire tickled me pink. And what better to serve Cookie Monster than … cookies! NOM-NOM-NOM! Yes, that was my Cookie Monster impression. Now, while I grew up with Telly Monster and I have no problem with Elmo — in fact, his interview with Ricky Gervais is one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen — I was heartbroken that Grover was nowhere to be found. Heck, I would have loved to see Big Bird as well, but it would have been hard to get the cookie to the puppeteer.
You could tell the chefs were excited about this quickfire, too. Richard was overjoyed that Elmo waved hello to his daughter (can you imagine how ecstatic that little girl was when she watched that clip?). Dale actually said winning the challenge was one of the best moments of his life. Still, did anyone else question how Mike has gone through his whole culinary career without baking one cookie from scratch? That might be worse than Fabio and his burger virginity from last week’s episode. Maybe I was a little spoiled with a mother who baked homemade cookies often, but that just seems crazy to me.
Can you guess who is a new advertiser for Top Chef? Target. How can you tell? Because they spent the rest of the episode at Target. Granted, making the chefs go in empty-handed and finding all their supplies in the store was clever, but it still just felt like a big ad … even more so than usual in a sponsored elimination round. And I do occasionally shop at Target, but I’ve never, ever seen one with a fresh products (definitely no produce).
Richard was praised for making his dish two ways, both successfully. Antonia made a runny egg dish practically per order for the 100 guests, which is not an easy thing to do! Dale got creative and used a clothing iron to make his grilled cheese extra toasted. Paired with a good tomato soup, he won $25,000. Add that to the $5,000 he won in the quickfire and Dale had a very prosperous week!
Carla, what were you doing this week? Why did you worry about the tablecloths? Granted, the table looking nice is good, but if your dish sucks, what does it matter? Thank goodness she didn’t bring up being distracted during the judges’ table, or she probably would have been sent home. Luckily for her, Tiffany added far too many dried spices to her dish and Angelo’s baked potato soup was beyond salty. In the end, salt was Angelo’s downfall and he was sent packing.
For next week, all the booted-off chefs are coming back to help (or are getting another shot … the preview was vague). This means we have to see Marcel again. I’m not looking forward to that. Not one bit.
Top
Bottom
“I’m going straight from judge’s table to a parent/teacher conference.” — Anthony Bourdain about their early morning elimination challenge
“I think he’s going for that late night, comfort stoner food. Have you given this guy a urine test?” — Bourdain on Dale’s grilled cheese and tomato soup
“I’m always happy to see runny eggs, particularly at 3 o’clock in the morning.” — Bourdain on Antonia’s dish (I couldn’t agree more)
“You’ve got that surreal mix of goofy and devious.” — Bourdain on Dale’s “ironed” grilled cheese
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Feb 17, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
I think the quick fire was tough – I bake cookies often, but I need a recipe for them to turn out great. Dale had the right idea and didn’t bake his cookie. I really thought it was Tiffany’s night to go but am so glad it was Angelo. He was never a favorite of mine. Anthony Bourdain entertains me! Thanks for your personal observations, Katie.
Almost anything Sesame Street floats my boat. I’m also surprised there was no Grover after his “Smell like a Monster” fame.