Top Chef

View Date: 10/21/09

Quickfire Challenge: This Quickfire was a high stakes challenge. It was also another first for the show, in that it was a tag team single dish team challenge. Four members were chosen per team, with Jen and Michael V. choosing members for their perspective teams. Each team member was to cook for 10 minutes each, while the other members were blindfolded. No speaking was allowed between team members. Jennifer chose Kevin, Mike I., and Laurine, while Michael chose Bryan, Eli, and Robin. In the end, Jennifer's “red team” won the battle and was awarded $10000 to share between the team members. The twist this time was that, if they felt lucky, they could let the money ride. If they were able to win the Elimination Challenge, each member would receive $10000. The red team decided to let it ride.

Elimination Challenge: This week, the ever-popular Restaurant Wars was upon us. The teams formed in the Quickfire remained the same for Elimination round. This time, they didn't have to decorate their restaurant as they would be using the one already established by the guest judge for the round. However, the person in charge of the front of the house would also be required to make and be responsible for a dish.

Eli worked the front of house for the blue team, and created on of the first courses. Michael prepared both a first and second course. Bryan prepared a second course (entree) and a dessert, while Robin prepared a dessert. While there was some bickering in the kitchen and Michael tried to make everyone obey his commands, things ran relatively smoothly. The comments were generally good from both judges and tasters. The desserts went over famously, which was a nice change of pace for this show. Overall, this was a really good Restaurant Wars restaurant.

Laurine worked the front of the house for the red team, and was responsible for a third course of lamb. This team decided not to make a dessert. Mike I. prepared two cold dishes as the first course. Jen made two fish dishes as the second course, while Kevin made a pork dish and finished Laurine's lamb dish as the third course. The judges were quite disappointed in almost every part of this meal, and the team did not get very favorable responses from the tasters, either. Laurine was very bad at the front of house, and the lamb dish was much rarer than the judges would have liked, mostly from not resting long enough. The pork dish was the best of the bunch, and the cold dishes were OK. The fish dishes were disasters.

Kevin came out of the challenge saying that it was probably the worst cooking of their careers. Mike indicated that if the other team won, they must have done horribly because the red team was awful. In the end, the blue team won, and Michael Voltaggio won. Michael also got to take the $10000 the other team had let ride, which he offered to share with his team. The red team obviously lost the challenge, and Laurine went home for a very poor front of house service and a failed lamb dish.

10 words or less: Only one obvious choice left to go home.