Top Chef Season 3: Episode 5

Just finished watching last weeks episode of Top Chef.  There really was no big surprise when Lia left us.  She seemed nice and a good chef, but she seemed to lack the “wow” factor, and I am not talking about her personality.

This time the Quickfire challenge should have been something for these chefs to jump on.  They were given frozen pie crusts and had 90 minutes to come up with something.  90 minutes!  To come up with ANYTHING….sweet, savory….ANYTHING.  I was shocked how poorly some did.  They were even thumbing there noses about working with frozen pie crusts.  (A) They are not that bad and (B) would you have rather made them from scratch.  Pastry Chef anyone?

For the Elimination Challenge they had to make something for the cast of a Telemundo novella.  Clueless?  That is a Spanish Soap Opera.  There were several of our chefs who spoke about how well they know Latin cuisine…we all know that is the kiss of death.  They all had such a great opportunity.  The novella cast are people who know there cuisine and were looking for some great flavors to remind them of home.  As Anthony Bourdain wrote:

The implied challenge was to cook food that would bring them right BACK home. Authentic flavors and ingredients, or at least flavors and ingredients that would evoke home, connect them in a powerful way with their culture and their culinary history. This was not a challenge. This was an OPPORTUNITY. There are few weapons more powerful in the chef’s armory than the ability to make people homesick in wonderful ways. NOTHING brings people back to their childhood, to their family, to earlier, happier, simpler times than the senses of smell and taste (other than music).

Ultimately, Lia “Packed-up her knives” and Howie won.  I am really starting to like that guy more and more.  I really love how Howie and Joey are starting to get along and it is great that Howie acknowledged Joey and his dish.  That was classy.

What has become more and more surprising is how Hung is becoming more self-destructive.  I am really excited that this week, again,  Anthony Bourdain is a guest blogger for Tom Colicchio:

Hung’s look of utter incredulity and contempt when being advised of his deficiencies, his seeming total inability to receive or accept or understand criticism is dismaying. It seems almost…pathological.

His racing around the kitchen like a methedrine-jacked lab rat (for Arroz Con Pollo, no less!), knife out, is the sort of thing a first-year culinary student does. His dishes are often inspired, his skills unquestionably there in abundance, but he seems incapable of the economy of movement that all professionals learn EARLY, and which even Martha Stewart has in spades. And when the majority of your Latino guests, all the judges, and Tom Colicchio in particular agree that your RICE blows? That’s not anybody’s “personal opinion”. It’s a fact.

I love Bourdain!  You really must read the rest of his blog.  Out of all the writers, he is the most prolific and entertaining. Sorry Tom, but I want to keep reading what Bourdain has to say.  Maybe we will luck out again the next episode.

Also, if you haven’t been reading Lee Anne’s blog…do.  I like seeing what she has to say, because she has all the behind-the-scenes info and talks about the preparation, egos and helps give us a more unbiased opinion about what is happening on and off camera each episode.

Padma will be taking the rest of the season off from her blog and Barton G. Weiss will be filling in for her the rest of the season.