Top Chef Season 5 Episode 3: A Very Foo Thanksgiving

by Scott McNulty, Posted Nov 29th 2008 @ 3:03PM

This Top Chef recap is a little late because I just recovered from my Thanksgiving induced food coma (Marisa sure can cook!). It is appropriate, however, to be writing about this third episode of the season during Thanksgiving weekend because it was all about Thanksgiving (it is as though that was planned somehow!).

And what says 'the holidays' better than a little product placement? The QuickFire Challenge featured the Top Chef cookbook as a key ingredient. I don't want to ruin this episode for anyone who might have recorded it, so I'll continue the recap after the break.

The Quick Fire, with guest judge Grant Achatz, is all about rolling with the punches. The Chefs are asked to pull knifes from the 'Knife Block of Destiny,' as I like to call it. Each blade has a number on it, but what do the numbers mean?

The numbers correspond to a page in the Top Chef cookbook (available now online and at better bookstores!). Each chef has one hour to put their unique spin on the recipe found on the page number that was written on their knife. Lots of scrambling ensues as each chef freaks out a bit about having to make food that previous Top Chef contestants made.

Kind of a boring Quick Fire, right? Well, don't fret, dear readers. After about ten minutes of feverish prep, Padma and Grant walk back into Top Chef kitchen and change the challenge. Instead of making the dish that they were going to make, the chefs now need to create a soup using only those ingredients that they gathered for the original challenge and some Swanson stock.

As you can imagine even more freaking out happens.

Time is quickly up, and the judging commences. Leah, with her chilled white asparagus soup, is the winner which is made all the more amazing when you factor in that Leah hates the taste of white asparagus. Leah wins immunity, and the chance to pick her team for the next challenge: cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the Foo Fighters and their crew.

You read that correctly, the Foo Fighters, when not fighting foo, are big fans of Top Chef so they thought it would be lots of fun to appear in an episode (and really, who could blame them?).

The details of the challenge are this: * They have a budget of $1200 * They get a copy of the band's rider to get a sense of the band's likes/dislikes * All the cooking is done outside with a wall of microwaves and a single burner * The winners get to attend the Foo Fighters' concert whilst the losers have to clean up.

Leah picks her team, which dubs itself 'Team Sexy Pants, and it includes Stefan, Jamie, Radhika, Melissa, Fabio, and Hosea. The remaining chefs form Team Cougar (named after Ariane) and hustle to get ready.

The teams create two Thanksgiving feasts, and Team Cougar's meal is first up for judging.

Ariane was responsible for the turkey, and she did a great job by all accounts (it was the favorite for some of the judges). Sadly, the spoonbread was dry (made by Jeff), the potatoes weren't cooked (Daniel), and three deserts (cobbler by Carla, pumpkin mousse by Jeff, and banana s'mores by Richard) were universally panned.

Team Sexy Pants was next up with a dry turkey, great vegan stuffing, and very good deserts (including a tiramisu made by Fabio).

When all is said and done the judges, including the Foo Fighters, crown Team Sexy Pants as the winners (though it was a very close call).

Jeff, Daniel, and Richard are the bottom three out of Team Cougar and are brought before Judges' Table. After some deliberation it is decided that Richard must pack his knives and go (one Foo Fighter said that his s'mores looked as though someone spat on them, which is never good).

Filed Under: Television/Film
Tags: top chef, top chef recap, top chef season 5, TopChef, TopChefRecap, TopChefSeason5