Top Chef

View Date: 9/9/09

Quickfire Challenge: The challenge was to create a dish using escargot (snails) in a unique way. Not only is this a high stakes quickfire, the winner will get immunity and the loser will be eliminated. They had 45 minutes to complete the challenge. The favorites were from Mike I., Kevin, and Jennifer, with the winner being Kevin's. The least favorite dishes were those of Jesse, Ashley, and Robin. Instead of getting eliminated immediately, they got to compete in a cook-off creating an amouse bouche (sic) with anything in the kitchen. Jesse was eliminated, which wasn't altogether surprising because she has been in the bottom often.

Elimination Challenge: All the chefs except Kevin drew knives that contained either French sauces or popular proteins in French cuisine. The chefs were going to be cooking in pairs combining a protein and a sauce, and cooking for very famous French chefs. Kevin didn't have to cook, and he was to join the tasting panel, which was intimidating in and of itself. The chefs got to decide the pairings as a group.

I did think it was kind of humorous that, due to the chefs on the tasting panel, a translator was needed. Robin and Ron started off with a frog legs dish, followed by Mike I. and Bryan cooking trout and bernaise sauce. We then had Eli and Laurine with lobster and sauce Americaine. The fourth course was Mattin and Ashley preparing seared poussin with voulete sauce. Jennifer and Michael V. prepared rabbit with chasseur sauce, which is evidently a woodsman sauce. To finish off the meal, Hector and Ash prepared chateaubriand (beef) with a peppercorn sauce.

The top dishes of the night were those of Bryan/Mike I., and Mike V./Jennifer. Those brothers sure are cleaning up during this competition, and Jennifer has been at the top throughout, particularly in the quickfire challenges. Bryan won the challenge tonight, and his brother did not look particularly pleased about it. Not only did he win, but he also won time working with the guest judge in Vegas for a week. The least favorite dishes were those of Ashley/Mattin and Hector/Ash. Hector was eliminated based on his poor performance with the beef.

10 words or less: Sad to see Hector go, but not a favorite.