First of all, I always love the mise en place quick-fires. I’ve been through culinary school, and worked a few different jobs in the food industry; something I’ve learned is that the larger an establishment is, the more likely that the executive chef doesn’t do his/her own prep work. The fact is, if you don’t keep practicing those skills it gets very hard to perform them fast and on cue. I get a streak of schadenfreude in me when I see these big egos sweat a little.
For some reason this episode made me hungrier than the two previous episodes of the season. I have a feeling much of it comes from the amount of food we saw during the episode. Watching the chefs go to the restaurant they would be cooking in/for and tasting the menu was one of the better parts of the hour. Everything looked delicious and made me want to go there myself. Of all the restaurants, Chef David Burke’s over-the-top and whimsical Townhouse was the most tempting. If only I lived in New York … and could afford it!
It’s funny how things ended up. Dale T. and Antonia were both worried about adapting their style to the restaurants they were given, but they both ended up on top. Dale’s runny egg dumpling and broth for wd~50 won out. As a fan of runny yolks (yum), I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to be a judge on that show more. It looked scrumptious.
While only four contestants got to be in the top, the majority of the chefs had decent dishes. The ones that failed missed the mark by a mile. Tiffany F.’s watery melon dish, and Fabio’s muddled take on má pêche‘s French/Vietnamese style were both disappointing, but Dale L.’s super sweet french toast, and Stephen’s pungent herbal flavors sealed the deal for the two chefs. I had a feeling Stephen’s time was up … I still think he was the weakest chef there from the get-go.
Top:
Bottom:
While this wasn’t technically part of the episode, I hope you stuck around for the Watch What Happens Live After Show. Tom Colicchio was on, and giddily hand-fed the deliciously dirty (and at the time, blindfolded) Amy Sedaris. I’ve never seen Tom laugh so much.
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Dec 16, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
