“Top Chef” — Manhattan Project
Early in this week’s episode Dale said that he thought Casey was the person to beat adding, “Hung’s the best technical cook. But in my world food has heart and when you don’t have one it doesn’t taste as good†which I figured was certainly the kiss of death. The Top Chef editors like to award plenty of clues as to who will be eliminated. I was pleased that this wasn’t the case. In fact, it appears that he’s correct. Sure, Dale and Brian are still in the game, but this is a battle between Casey and Hung, which in a way is really a battle between skill and heart or the empire and the jedi or whatever other comparison you’d like to make
Now that the contestants were actually in New York City, the Quickfire Challenge took place at Le Cirque where they each sampled this potato-wrapped bass dish and were then asked to reproduce it. Again, Casey and Hung succeeded with flying colors. Dale, Brian and Sara had some problems. Sara had the most as her fish wasn’t even cooked, a trend that would continue during the elimination challenge. Ultimately Hung won the challenge. As a prize he was given 30 extra minutes of prep time for the main event, and the opportunity to present to the judges first.
The gang then headed over to the French Culinary Institute where their final exam would take place (of the five, one person would go home, the other four would head to Aspen for the finale). Their judges would be the professors at the school. I didn’t recognize them (well, except for Jacque Torres, who makes double-underline-awesome chocolate here in the city), but I suspect the contestants did. It was going to be a tough crowd.
The rules for the challenge were simple. Make something with a chicken, a potato and an onion. I love challenges like this because the freedom should allow for the most creativity in the contestants. Likewise, the freedom is also a trap and can highlight their faults. Take for example Dale. Dale seriously overreached this week when all he had to do was just prepare the chicken classically. That was a panel of judges who wanted to know that the food was smartly prepared. They weren’t all that concerned with conceptualizing something on a plate, and his “duet” suffered because of that (it also didn’t help that he forgot to add his sauce which was really suppose to tie the whole thing together… maybe).
Brian was an interesting case this week. He’s really skated by the past handful of weeks. Here he opts to create a “shepherds pie” that looked truly horrifying, and yet tasted absolutely awesome. Didn’t he learn anything from CJ’s “tuna and greens” disaster from one of the first weeks? I mean I’ve seen some green foods, but that almost looked like it could be used to paint street signs.
Once the food was served it was obvious Sara was going home. She was also due as her modest talents could only get her so far. Serving undercooked chicken to this panel of judges simply wouldn’t (nor shouldn’t) fly.
Hung won. Casey was right at his heals. They are the finale, barring some completely disastrous turn of events — like Casey losing it and going on a rampage of shockingly poor knife skills. Brian and Dale will be along for the trip to Aspen, but one has to assume their presence will be little more than window dressing.
I’m not sure if next week’s episode is THE finale, or just the beginning of the “finale” which will last a couple weeks. If I remember last season the latter should be true. Either way, this is what it all comes down to. Go Casey!
