Top Chef

Top Chef

View Date: 10/28/09

Quickfire Challenge: Tonight's guest judge was Paul Bartolotta, a famous Italian chef who is particularly well-known in Vegas. The chefs needed to take a classic TV dinner and reinvent it. However, they had to base their dish particularly on a specific classic TV show. The contestants drew knives to determine which show would be their inspiration. The pairings were as follows:

Kevin: Sopranos
Robin: Sesame Street
Eli: Gilligan's Island
Bryan: MASH
Jennifer: Flinstones
Mike I.: Seinfeld
Michael V.: Cheers

The dishes they used were really cool, and looked like a classic TV dinner tray. Some of the contestants had problems because they had never seen the shows before. The least favorite dishes were Jennifer's and Robin's. The favorite dishes included Kevin's and Bryan's. While both did very well, Kevin won, which surprises me based on the judges' reactions. His dish will be featured in a frozen line coming out by Top Chef.

Elimination Challenge: The chefs took over Tom Collichio's restaurant and his menu. Once the chefs got to the restaurant and started reviewing the steaks, Tom brought in a guest taster for the night, Natalie Portman. She dropped the bomb that, while she's an adventurous meals, she is also a vegetarian. Therefore, a chop house would need to go vegetarian for one night. That changed everyone's meals and all of the dishes needed to be totally rethought. Some of the chefs had a great deal of experience with vegetarian cooking, while others had a really hard time changing concepts at the last minute.

Robin was up first, but she had some problems with time and plating, not getting beans onto all of the plates. The plating was very beautiful, but the seasoning had some balance issues.

Eli was up next, and the judges thought it was a rather tasty dish.

Michael was also pressed for time due mainly to his approach to food being riskier than the other contestants'. The judges really liked the dish, but some were a little put off by the large lumps of banana in his polenta. There were more people tonight to call him Picasso, in that it was very pretty and very good if a little confusing.

Jennifer was nervous and really shaky, which was particularly noticeable when she sauced the individual plates at the table. The tasters considered it not quite substantial enough, and that it would have made a really good side dish.

Mike provided a plate of vegetables that did not have a protein. They liked the colors and the appearance, but decided it could have been executed better.

Bryan was also in a time crunch, and was not able to plate all of his components. There was lots of gutter talk around the table while the judges were describing their opinions of this dish.

Kevin was disappointed in his plating thinking that it looked sloppier than he wanted. The dish was very substantive, and the tasters thought it was a very manly vegetarian meal. Additionally, they felt that this was truly and entree, as it was not a light plate of vegetables.

First up to judge's table were Kevin, Michael, and Eli, who of course had the favorite dishes of the evening. Praise was given all around, then Natalie announced that Kevin was the winner for this challenge. Michael's competitive side was really coming out after coming from judge's table, because he was really not happy about Kevin winning for a “simple” dish. For winning this challenge, he won a suite of GE appliances.

As the least favorite dishes, the judges wanted to see Robin, Jennifer, and Mike. Mike was full of excuses, and still could not answer the judges' questions about why there was no protein on the plate. Robin really shot herself in the foot, because she just wouldn't stop talking. Tom called her on that as a sign of her being all over the map in her cooking. Jennifer was called out on not providing a very substantial dish, but she also really didn't give any excuses for her poor performance. That was a nice change, especially after seeing Mike's and Robin's reactions, but she did seem a bit defeated. In the end, Mike was eliminated from the competition. While the elimination was not a total surprise, I really thought Robin would be going home before Mike. Mike has not yet reached the level of the top competitors, but he did have talent.

10 words or less: When will Robin finally leave?