Lauren Zalaznick, former head of Bravo (and current head of many channels as a big-wig in NBC-Universal) gave a talk at BU yesterday, and while she didn’t drop any spoilers for this week’s Top Chef, she did present a unique point of view on how to rise to the top in such a complicated industry. A full recap of that event will be published later this week. But on to Top Chef…
Last night’s episode was a real doozy — in a good way. We started with Fabio complaining about how he didn’t win the last challenge (even though he’s Italian!). The Quickfire was to make fondue, and the cheftestants would act as their own judges. Fabio made blinis and caviar (and reminded us that he’s Italian, even though that’s a Russian dish), and ended up on the bottom along with Mike (for his feta fondue with lamb kebabs) and Tiffany (who made an apple doughnut with chocolate sauce, which Blais called “Pedestrian”). The Top in the Quickfire were Antonia (for her take on smoked salmon and cream cheese), Dale (for his Pho-ndue, because he’s Asian), and Angelo (for his play on beet and goat cheese salad, which he said he would’ve thrown out). Dale won, and since immunity is gone for the rest of the season, he got a trip to Napa valley.
For the elimination challenge, the cheftestants headed to Rockefeller Center where they participated in a “Cellphone Shootout” on Jimmy Fallon’s show. They had to take a picture, using a cellphone, of a series of quickly flashing pictures of dishes, and cook the dish they snapped. Carla was ecstatic — really verging on hyperventilating — when she got chicken pot pie, and Antonia was nervous to make beef tongue, since she’s never even eaten it before. But not to be forgotten, Fabio says he’ll treat his hamburger like a meatball (because he’s Italian).
Before we get to the food, a quick note about all the craziness going on around Top Chef this week. First, there was the commercial for Dell, maybe because the brother of the founder of the company is Padma’s baby daddy? Then there was the commercial for the Real Housewives of Miami–and really, how did it take this long to get one of those? I can’t wait to watch it and see all of my childhood dreams shattered with a stiletto. Then there was the worst–maybe worst ever–shameless plug for Buitoni pastas during the episode. The cheftestants talked “candidly” about how much they love them, and frankly, some of the pasta I had for dinner started to come back up.
But anyway, Jimmy Fallon’s whole family joined the judges for his birthday lunch at Colicchio and Sons. The entire time, Fabio pronounced “Burger” as “Boorgour,” which is probably some Italian slur for Bulgarians. Blais worried that his Ramen noodles weren’t “Richard Blais Enough,” and Jimmy’s sidekick, Higgings made a lot of low-brow jokes that were very funny. (In reference to Angelo’s pulled pork, he said, “I usually pull my own pork, but if Angelo wants to pull my pork…”)
In the top this week were Antonia (for her properly pressure-cooked tongue), Angelo (for his inventive pulled pork), and Carla (for he chicken pot pie). Carla won, and along with her appearance on Late Night, she got a trip to Tokyo (her third trip this season). All the chefs were really excited about the prospect of appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s show — because it’s not like they’re ever on television.
The bottom chefs were Dale (whose cheesesteak was too salty), Tiffany (whose chicken and dumplings was more chicken noodle soup), and Fabio (whose boorgour was dry, and cheese sauce was grainy). In the end, Fabio was Italian–I mean eliminated. This is a very big blow to this column, since up until now, you could find every Top Chef recap by searching only for the word “Italian” on the Quad.
