More like 10 Euros

The Truman Show Uncle Ben's Rice commercial in the quickfire set the stage for what was an interesting episode, to say the least. Now, the real gripe I have with last night's contest was that the producers of Top Chef really think that the viewers are that dumb. I don't care how good of a shopper you are...you cannot feed four people with what the contestants made for $10 at Whole Foods! As a frequent customer at WF, I know what things cost - $10 does not get you very far. Especially when you are buying chicken - at $4.49 or more a pound. I was very annoyed by that. Discuss.

Episode 4 - "Film Food"

"If you don't know who he is, you should just leave the room right now. Ah ha...ha...ha..." Padma

More to follow.

Episode 3 - "Block Party"

This week, the remaining chefs really got a taste of Chicago. First, in the Quickfire Challenge, Padma challenged them to create upscale tacos for renowned Chicago Chef Rick Bayless. While some chefs, like Richard and Andrew, rose to the challenge, reinventing their tacos with luxurious ingredients, other chefs, like Spike, refused to elevate the "street" taco. In the end, Richard's jicama shell won over Chef Bayless', securing his victory and immunity.

The next challenge found the chefs in teams again -- this time, however, no animals were involved. The two teams were taken to the Chicago suburbs where they had to first gather ingredients from the residents' homes and then cater the street's block party. Both teams basically stuck to typical party fare, like sliders, macaroni and cheese, and ... paella?! The judges weren't too thrilled with either team, but deemed the Blue team's efforts better, and gave Stephanie, who made a dessert and a "sexy" drink, her second win of the season. Unfortunately, Erik got sent home for soggy corn dogs.

Episode 2 - Zoo Food

[From Bravo's website] This week's episode brought the chefs a little bit closer to nature. First, they visited Chicago's Green City Market to gather ingredients for their Quickfire Challenge where they had to create a dish using only five ingredients, not including salt, pepper, sugar, and oil. Mark forgot one of his bags at the market, but Guest Judge Wylie Dufresne was so impressed with his dish and his ability to "make it work," that he gave Mark the win.

The chefs were then split into five teams of three for the Elimination Challenge. The teams were: Vulture, Gorilla, Bear, Penguin, and Lion. The chefs were tasked with creating menus for a cocktail party based on their assigned animals' diets. Despite a few disagreements, most of the teams seemed to leave the drama out of the kitchen. There were only a few questionable dishes, including Team Bear's mushroom-blueberry-Pecorino cheese debacle and Stephanie's watery crab salad. But in the end, Valerie paid the ultimate price for serving blinis -- a dish that needs to be prepared a la minute. While Andrew's ingenuity and just plain good-tasting dish earned him the win.

Episode 1 - "Anything You Can Cook, I Can Cook Better"

March 12th marked the premier of Bravo's Top Chef Season 4. The contestants met at the original Pizzeria Uno in Chicago and wasted no time getting to the Quickfire Challenge: Chicago style deep dish pizza. The chefs were split into losers and winners, and they were pitted against each other for the Elimination Challenge. Each group of two chefs had to pick a classic dish that they would create in direct competition with their partner. Classics included lasagna, chicken piccata (I included the link in case Ryan finds this blog!), soufle, crab cakes, steak au poivre, shrimp scampi, duck a l'orange, and eggs benedict. Stephanie was our eventual champ with her Asian-flared duck, including a braised duck spring roll that all of the judges (including Bourdaine!) raved about. Nimma did not fare so well. Her over-salted shrimp (marinated in parsley?) served with cauliflower vomit was enough to send her packing. Here are the stats:

Winner: Stephanie
Eliminated: Nimma