Top Chef Season 4: Boxed Lunches, Short Order Cooks and Restaurant Wars

I spent last night getting my Top Chef on.  I first watched last weeks episode of Top Caterer…oh, I mean Top Chef.  The chefs…AGAIN….had to become caterers and make a healthy boxed lunch for cadets at the Chicago Police Academy.  There has been a lot criticism that these chefs are being inundated with challenges that test their catering abilities and limit them so that we are not having the chance to see what they can really do.  I understand the significance of the challenges, but it gets old week, after week, after week.  I really hope that the producers take a hard look at that and change it up next season.

This week Andrew really let his culinary ego get in the way and he was called out by Lisa…no surprise there.  The challenge was to make a satisfying, hearty yet healthy boxed lunch.  What he made was a little too fru-fru for cops who have been training all day.  Andrew let his ego get in the way of really thinking about who he was cooking for.  Then there was Lisa.  Lisa who claims she was sabotaged…I doubt it.  Lisa who blames everyone but herself.  Lisa who will throw anyone under the bus who is close by.  Lisa who I still can not comprehend why she is still there.  Lisa who calls Andrew out that he did not use a grain that was required in the dish.  I was BLOWN AWAY when she did this.  Does anyone remember that she “threw out” the rule book during the Improv competition?  I was amazed that not one person mentioned that during the Judge’s Table.  Yeah, yeah…we are looking only at this particular challenge….blah, blah.  But why is it ok for a chef to do that in a challenge and get away with it one week but not ok for another chef another week?

This week was fun and thank God did not involve boxes or coolers.  Restaurant Wars had returned.  Before the main Elimination Challenge they were woken-up early by Tom Colicchio to work the egg station at a restaurant as a short order cook.  Dale and Antonia ruled the line but Dale lost out and this was really the start of his demise.  Antonia won the Quickfire so she received the advantage, getting to choose her team mates for Restaurant Wars.  Hmmm, I wonder who she picked???

It was a repeat battle of the Wedding Wars, Antonia, Richard and Stephanie against Dale, Spike and Lisa.  Then Dale makes the ultimate mistake, he wants to be Executive Chef.  Lisa wanted the post as well but he wouldn’t back down and they flipped a coin for it.  He won….therefore his fate was sealed.

My favorite part of the show was when Anthony Bourdain entered the prep kitchen.  Tom was out of town so Bourdain took over the job.  Every one’s mouth got a little drier and the sweat started beading up, especially for Team Dale.  They decided to go Asian because of the teams background.  Cooking Asian for Bourdain would not be easy and they knew it.  Bourdain toured the kitchen and had his little Colicchio-esque chats.  He nailed it on the head.  Team Antonia, Kitchen Warehouse, was keeping it pretty simple with a Gastro Pub theme.  They weren’t going out on any limbs.  This left your expectations low, so diners would probably end up with being very impressed.  Team Dale, Mai Buddha, was taking on a lot by choosing Asian.  Asia is a large place.  What part of Asia?  At the same time, they were taking risks with the menu, so if they nailed it, Kitchen Warehouse would end up on the chopping block.

I thought it was interesting during his initial observation…he nailed the teams on the head. Bourdain had not seen them cook together and didn’t know the dynamics, but he could automatically see the difference between the team work with each group.   Kitchen Warehouse all took responsibility for everything.  There was no me.  Mai Buddha, was about my dish, my job, all about me.  This ended with them in front of the Judge’s Table with someone heading home.  Spike kept himself safe by staying out of the burning building.  He knew what was going to happen and made a point to stay far away and save himself.  Lisa, of course, made the most mistakes in the kitchen, blamed everyone but herself and threw Dale under the bus.  In the end, Dale went home, because of his position as Executive Chef.  I do have a question for the judges.  When you have such a huge personality conflict what are these guys supposed to do?  You are in the middle of a 5 hour competition, with only 3 people on your team.  I don’t think that there was really anything Dale could have done.  Am I wrong?

Now, I really wanted to learn more about Bourdain’s thoughts on his experiences during Restaurant Wars, but sadly no blog, no nothing.  That leads me to a huge disappointment with the Bravo Top Chef blogs….they are crap.  It used to be blogs just written by the judges, updated and well written with guest blogs from some of the guest judges like Bourdain.  Then they started adding previous contestants.  They thought the fans cared about reading their opinions.  And they kept adding, and kept adding and kept adding.  Most of these blogs are not kept up and are basically, what was that…oh, yeah….crap.  There is also no sign of Bourdain and the blog that he was going to write during the run of the season, which Top Chef executives promoted.  He must have become horrified by the Michelob logos above every one’s blogs.  Out of 15 blogs 2 are up to date and all of our fearless judges have “Gone Fishin” and a few of them have been “fishing” for sometime.