Before their break from Top Chef for several months, the five remaining chefs made some amazing dishes. I think last week’s episode was the best of the season when it came down to the dishes. For the first quickfire in the Bahamas, it was a hodgepodge of good and bad. Each chef had to cook against the winner of their original season. Whoever won each throw-down got $10,000. Carla and Antonia did pretty horribly (mostly because their burners kept going out). Richard, Mike and Tiffany each won their rounds, and this made the first cash prize for Tiffany this season.
The chefs were then told they were going to cook for royalty for the elimination round. Psych! The “royalty” was actually the king and queen of Junkanoo, the Bahamas’ version of Carnival. Most of the chefs went super fancy with their concepts, but were very worried when they saw their guests and their kitchen. The local restaurant had some fryers, some microwaves and a flat-top in their kitchen. That’s not a whole lot to work with!
Then, shortly before they needed to plate up, one of the fryers caught on fire. Grease fire is about the worst kind of fire you can have — except maybe dragon fire, but I’m pretty sure that’s fictional. In all honesty, a grease fire can be deadly and getting the entire film crew and chefs out of there ASAP was the right choice. Of course, the ANSUL system stopped the fire, but also got chemicals all over the kitchen. They finally cleaned up the mess, but the chefs had to do their dishes all over again.
Really only Richard and Mike had good dishes. I’m sure everyone else has noticed this before, but Richard is so negative about his food. I mean, he seems really confident in his abilities, but he’s really down on his dishes before judging. I’m really bad about being my worst critic, but even I was thinking, “Richard, relax already!” Anyway, Mike won; I know he probably deserved the win, but he’s just so cocky that I can’t really feel happy about him winning.
Carla, Tiffany and Antonia were all in the bottom. Carla’s dish was far too sweet, Antonia’s pork in her hash was dubbed “mystery meat,” and Tiffany’s dish just didn’t wow them. But it was Carla (my mom’s favorite for the season) that went home. Actually, as soon as I saw she gave the judges undercooked pork tenderloin, I knew it would take a huge mistake by her competitors to keep Carla in the running. Que sera, but we still have four chefs in the running!
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:30 EST5EDT
I love Carla but I knew the raw pork was her downfall. I just think the fire completely threw all of them for a loop. But I’m rooting for Richard to win. Maybe that will boost his confidence in his own work!
Last week the food was so good that the judges couldn’t make a decision. This week, I think that if the judges were told they had to eliminate two chefs it would have been an easy decision. It pains me to watch Richard beat himself up all the time. His food is beautiful and complex. His nerves will be his undoing. I really hope that Richard or Antonia will be the winner because I just can’t stand watching Mike gloat!!!
I agree. Richard needs to stay focused and believe in himself. My mom always said that champions have big egos – that they believe in themselves. Unfortunately, Mike has a huge ego.
*POST AUTHOR*
You’re mom seems like a very smart lady. :)
I’m glad Antonia didn’t go home. She is my fave. I think Mike has a chance at winning, which I’m not happy about … He irked me a bit in Vegas but in All-Stars he is worse. I keep yelling at him to shut up through the screen!
I think is was not fair what they did to Tiffany, when you had someone else food under cooked and hers were cold that was crap