It’s about time — Top Chef: Texas goes for the heat with guest judges Border Grill Owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger!
The Quickfire challenge was quite clever — simple in concept, using a specific type of hot chili pepper in a dish, but you could win more money the hotter the pepper. The range was from a relatively mild Poblano at 2 thousand Scoville units (and no monetary reward) to the hottest pepper in the world: the Ghost Chili, at a blazing million Scoville units but’ll give $20,000 if the chef manages to win with it. As expected, most people go safe, with only a few taking the 2nd hottest, the Habanero. I was surprised that Beverly actually bit into one of the peppers — that takes some bravery. But only Paul Qui has the cojones to try for the Ghost Chili — and sure enough he wins!
In some truly embarrassing moments (we need at least a few each of these early Quickfires), Beverly didn’t even cook hers and was in the bottom along with poor Chuy, always so boasting of his Mexican skills who was dinged for his use of canned tomatoes. That’s a big faux pas.
Elimination was what we’d been waiting for: A classic old-fashioned Texas chili cook off for 200 hungry cowboys, cowgirls, and cow-others! And in what I think is the very first time on the show, there’s no time limit in the kitchen — the chefs get cooking all night at home. But first, Beverly has another moment in the market where she freaks out yet again. She’s an interesting character, with self-affirming notes and significant homesickness. After they got started cooking, there wasn’t much interesting to see — until it gets dark. The later in the night it gets, the more alcohol gets consumed by people instead of used for cooking and the wackier the conchefstants become. Some people stay up the entire night — foolhardy or the best move?
Finally it’s time to serve some picky Texans chili — which means no beans, apparently. I guess that’s important in Texas. Cowboy hats as far as the eye can see. A favorite moment for me was when Padma emasculated Tom Colicchio by easily opening Gail’s beer after he failed. The best batch was Chuy, Chris C. and Sara’s chili con carne, with roasted corn, avocado, and cilantro. The oddest (not worst) was Heather, Edward and Paul’s with great pickled peaches but a weak chili. But the losing team of emotional Beverly, mohawked Richie, and wary Nyesha has some bad news coming.
They got the news at a rodeo — Beverly starts crying before anything even is announced — she’s an emotional one, isn’t she? Chris C. pervs it up again when he saw Padma on that horse … is it in her contract to include one guy panting over her each episode? But in a last minute twist for the exhausted, almost no sleep having concheftestants — they must “fix” their broken chili in 30 minutes with brand new dishes using the elements of the original chili. Beverly won the redo with a tasty looking seared tuna with spices from their losing chili dish. But poor Richie’s pork tenderloin with chili puree (on the side) is disappointing and boring — and that means he’s off to the special online Last Chance Kitchen to compete with last week’s loser Keith! Watch it for free and see if Richie can stay in the game or whether Keith can hold on a bit longer.
Clacked by Jeremy Fogelman 
on Nov 24, 2011 @ 09:13 EST5EDT
