Spoilers! Really, what do you expect?So even Tom Colicchio has chimed in to call this season of Top Chef a "hard one to read" (aka mediocre), which means that either 1) I have low standards for television (possible), or 2) My television airs a secret, for-my-eyes-only awesome version of Top Chef that's full of crazy cooking and fun. I loved watching Restaurant Wars last night, and I'm still sticking to my belief that the show is as sharp as ever. Let's get into it.Head judge Tom Colicchio paid the cheftestants a friendly 5:45 a.m. visit to rouse them for the Quickfire Challenge -- running the egg station at Chicago's Lou Mitchells restaurant. Spike hadn't cooked eggs in a while and Stephanie couldn't find her poached ones in a pot full of left-behind whites. Antonia won, though Dale was a close second.
Though there's no more immunity, Colicchio announced that Antonia would receive an advantage in the Elimination Challenge, for which he would not be present. He handed the chefs a piece of paper with an address, and they proceeded to engage in a bit of product placement, using some phone with GPS capability to arrive at an enormous, beautiful, open space. Padma was there, and she announced Restaurant Wars -- everyone's all-time favorite Elimination Challenge in which the chefs divide into teams to open their own restaurants for the night. For her reward, Antonia was allowed to pick her team, and she wisely chose Richard and Stephanie. Not only did she advantage herself by choosing the two other strongest chefs, but she also gave her team an enormous boost by leaving Dale and Lisa together after their contention during Wedding Wars. As pointed out, the teams were actually the same as those during Wedding Wars, with the exception of the contestants recently sent home.
Antonia, Stephanie and Richard became Warehouse Kitchen, a restaurant inspired by gastro-pub cuisine. They decided to aim for food that was simple, beautiful and clean, with dishes like linguine and clams, beet and goat cheese salad, trout with cauliflower, and lamb squared (two ways, get it?). Antonia served as Executive Chef, and Stephanie decided to work the front of the restaurant. Dale took the position of Executive Chef for Mai Buddha, with Lisa and Spike, who ran the front. Given the chef's backgrounds in Asian cuisine, they decided to go with an upscale Asian concept, featuring dishes like shrimp laksa, braised short ribs, and scallops with butterscotch. They chefs received $1500 for food, and another chunk of $5000 to choose decor at Pier 1 Imports. Team Mai Buddha went nuts with buddhas, buying out possibly every statue in the store.
While the chefs were busily working, none other than Anthony Bourdain popped in to say hello, and announce that he would be replacing Tom Colicchio as the Top Chef in the challenge. Team Mai Buddha flipped out (in an excited yet nervous way), given Bourdain's extensive experiences eating and traveling in Asia. After surveying the teams, Bourdain seemed to like that Team Warehouse Kitchen didn't seem to be setting up overly high expectations, and noted that the continent of Asia is huge (an excellent observation), and that it's unlikely that the team could be that good at all Asian cuisine.
Well, it turned out that they weren't good at very much Asian cuisine at all. The judges, including guest Judge Jose Andreas were unimpressed by many of the dishes, mostly the too-sweet butterscotch scallops which Bourdain likened to something that Willy Wonka might serve and the mango sticky rice, which turned out all wrong. A customer even wrote that it was like "baby food garnished with potpourri." On the other hand, the chefs really enjoyed the food at Warehouse Kitchen, especially the clam dish designed by Stephanie, as well as her gorgonzola blue cheese cheesecake. Though Antonia was executive chef, Stephanie took home the win for leading the conceptualization of the restaurant, as well as for her dishes.
Over on the "chopping block" (as the chefs like to call it), we saw the usual Dale-Lisa throwdown, as Dale evaded leadership responsibility and Lisa tried to blame the entire thing on Dale. I think that these two actually have so much trouble working together not because their personalities clash, but rather because they are too similar. Both have trouble taking criticism, and become extremely frazzled when one thing goes wrong or when attitudes in the kitchen go sour. Furthermore, both want to take charge in the kitchen, so they have trouble working with other strong personalities. I really wasn't sure who would head home until it was announced, but Dale ended up being sent out. Lisa performed poorly in the Quickfire as well, and has been in the bottom frequently lately, so I think it's unlikely that she'll make it through the next episode. But considering that she said her goal was just to make it through restaurant wars, she should feel lucky that she made it through this one.
It's a bit sad to see Dale go since he seemed like a strong contender early on, but I think that this proves that becoming a contentious figure in the show rarely serves people well, as fighting in the kitchen seems to send chefs home on a pretty regular basis. Next week we'll see who makes it to the final four. I'm definitely excited that at least Stephanie or Antonia will make it, since they were my favorites from the start. Richard's a given, and it's Spike's place to lose to Lisa. Stay tuned!
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