- Cooking excellent food takes focus...and none is greater than the chef'testants on the seventh episode of Bravo's "Top Chef: New York." Their quickfire challenge demands they create a sweet treat without using any sugar and in the elimination round, the chefs must serve to an interesting crowd.—Anonymous
- Coming off a stern talking to from Tom, in which everyone was told to step up their game, the chef-testants prepare to do better. Fabio eats Spam and pork and beans. Eugene is still ticked he was in the bottom three. Hosea feels awesome.
Quickfire Challenge
Padma greets them with guest judge Jean-Christophe Novelli (coming soon to a new Bravo show near you). He's a pastry chef. Padma talks calories, brought to you by Diet Dr. Pepper. They have to make a sweet treat, but there's a catch: they can't use any sugar. Jeff, from the Miami Beach cooking school has a recipe in mind. Carla wants to make banana coins. Stefan thinks Hosea is making green vomit. Ariane cooks with Diet Dr. Pepper. Someone leaves the freezer open and Carla's bananas don't freeze. She decides to saute them in walnut oil.
They taste. Ariane thinks Jean-Christophe is picking apart everyone's dessert. He says "very interesting" a few times and it's hard to tell if that's good or bad.
Result time. His least favorites were: Carla, Ariane and Jamie. He liked: Radhika, Jamie and Jeff. The winner is Radhika, with her bread pudding.
For the next challenge, Toby Young, a British food critic will be judging (and from here on out, replacing Gail). They have a free night.
Tom walks in the apartment the next morning. The chefs gather. They want Toby to get the chance to get to know their food first. There are no limits for today's challenge. They'll be cooking a family style meal for a blind tasting, meaning that the eaters wont know whose food they're eating. They'll be serving "food experts." Because no one got cut last time, two people will go home. They'll be cooking in two groups and Radhika gets to pick her group. She goes with the one Stefan's not on.
They shop in groups. Melissa wants to make ahi tacos. Eugene wants to make fried red snapper, daikon fettuccine and tomato basil. Jamie doesn't get his dish at all. The "A's" get cooking. Hosea is making halibut wrapped in bacon. They appreciate how quiet it is without Stefan. Radhika makes a curry crab bisque she makes at her restaurant. Fabio makes sous-vide lamb and pasta, using grandma's 500 year old recipes.
Group B shops. Carla waits for the food to talk to her.
Jamie in A chooses scallops to prove she knows how to make them. Fabio gripes that all Jamie does is scallops. "This is Top Chef, it's not Top Scallop." Hosea thinks Melissa is making safe food. Fabio cuts his lamb as he's plating and is dismayed to find it's rare. Radhika thinks her curry crab bisque turned out a bit strong.
Dinner time for A group. Group B arrives and discovers they're not cooking yet, they're eating. They're the experts. Hosea doesn't like it. He thinks they'll rip them because they're cooking second. Group A goes back into the kitchen to watch a live feed of them feeding. Toby, tasting Radhika's overpowering food, proclaims that he has found the missing WMDs. Hosea's is panned. Jamie's they like, and Jean-Christophe says the scallops were well-cooked. They like Fabio's pasta but not the lamb. Toby thinks Eugene's fish was overcooked and bland. They don't like Melissa's fish taco. Toby thinks the dish tells him the chef isn't very confident. It tastes like cat food.
The "B's" go off to cook. Jeff is making sausage and sorbet from scratch (not to go together). Stefan is making braised cabbage. Leah is making something she's never made before. Ariane is making crispy fish on cauliflower puree. Carla went with pea risotto and scallops.
Dining time. The B's realize they get to watch back in the kitchen and that the A's watched them. Padma and Jamie recoil from Carla's risotto, which is too garlicky. Tom likes Stefan's, especially the sweetness in his cabbage. Jean-Christophe says he makes avocado sorbet, but it's never been as good as Jeff's. Tom doesn't like his dish of tasters, but Toby (making his second movie analogy of the night) thinks it's the best. The man is clearly aware cameras are rolling. Jean-Christophe thinks Ariane's skate wing was fabulous. Toby likes Leah's.
They're dismissed. Tom thinks overall, Group B was much better. He thinks they're starting to get it.
Judges table. The chef-testants go to the stew room to lick their wounds. Melissa thinks she's going home. Padma asks to see: skate fish, duck-fish and scallops with fennel. Ariane, Stefan and Jamie go out. They're the top. Tom tells Stefan his was perfectly cooked. They rave over Jamie's fennel and orange combo on scallops. Jean-Christophe raves over Ariane's. He gets to pick the winner: Jamie.
She soaks up her first win, gloat-hugging Ariane. "Watch out guys, I'm somebody to reckon with here."
Jamie goes back and collects high fives from her anxious competitors before she announces that they want to see Eugene, Melissa and Carla. Carla says she's not surprised she's there. Melissa says she enjoyed the challenge, because she enjoyed seeing her food critiqued and she learned a lot. Tom tells her it was a failure of imagination. Toby tells her the dish wafted in a way that wasn't pleasant. She didn't think it was that bad.
Eugene says he took a chance, but Tom points out if Eugene has made it before, that's not a risk. Toby says it was too mild and lacked punch. Eugene says he got too creative. Melissa says she shouldn't go home because she wants to be there. Carla says if you take the scallops off her dish, it would be perfect. They're dismissed.
Toby thinks Eugene deserves a second chance. Tom is bummed that Eugene wasted a fish. Tom thinks Melissa showed them who she was with boring fish tacos. They think Carla showed lack of confidence by not just going vegetarian.
Verdict Time. Tom tells Gene he's creative, but his skills need to catch up. Melissa showed a lack of creativity. Carla over-thought it and over-worked it.
Padma sends home: Eugene and Melissa. Melissa cries. "People who do not know me don't realize how creative I am and how much of an imagination I do have." (Uh, isn't there a way to show that?)
Eugene says: "Right now it sucks but the pressure went down and I met some really good people....A real man can accept defeat, I feel I did my best on this show."
Up Next: Padma greets them with Hung. Fabio expects fish. They visit live animals on a farm. Jamie and Stefan argue, words are exchanged. Stefan's lesbian crush waxes and wanes.
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