Antonia goes home on Top Chef; Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa to compete in the finale
I was excited that the Top Chef finale was finally here. For the most part I was happy about the chefs in the top four – I’ve thought all along that Richard and Stephanie were the best chefs this season but I have to admit some surprise at Lisa and Antonia in the finals. Antonia won quite a few quickfire challenges during the season but always seemed to fly right under the radar. Lisa was always just lucky to make it through each week. She was in the bottom something like 5 times, but the eliminated chef was always just a bit worse than she. This played true again tonight. More later.
The chefs arrived in Puerto Rico and we really didn’t find out too much about what they did during the break. I seem to remember in seasons past we found out a bit about what the chefs were up to. Stephanie traveled to the Far East, while Antonia opened her own restaurant. That’s about all I found out. Right away they are given their quickfire challenge by Padma and guest judge Wilo Benet (a celebrated Puerto Rican chef and the owner of Pikayo restaurant): Create two different fritters using plantains. The chefs are given 40 minutes and the use of a small kitchen in a beachside location. Lisa and Stephanie were the top two chefs in the quickfire, with Richard and Antonia in the bottom. Stephanie is named the winner and told she will be given an advantage in the elimination challenge but would have to wait until the next day to find out what that would be. From there the chefs are invited to a party in Old San Juan by Benet and have a good time but from their behind the scenes interviews we find out that all of them are on edge thinking about the next day’s elimination challenge.
The next day the chefs meet with Padma and Chef Colicchio at the Governor’s Mansion, La Fortaleza. Their challenge: use a whole pig to create at least two dishes for a garden party the next night. More than 100 VIP’s and chefs would be at the party hosted by the first lady of Puerto Rico. And the chefs were given a whole, freshly slaughtered pig. Since it would be a big job they were given the help of sous chefs – Dale, Andrew, Nikki and Spike. As winner of the quickfire challenge Stephanie was given the opportunity to assign the sous chefs. Since Lisa got along with no one Stephanie could have really screwed her by putting her with Dale, but Stephanie said it was more important to her to pair up people who would work well together so that everyone would get along in the kitchen. She selected Dale (she’s known him for like 10 years) and paired up Lisa and Andrew, Richard and Spike and Antonia and Nikki. Lisa was worried about working with Andrew, but he said that he approaches this with honor and would do his best to help her succeed. The chefs were given 30 minutes to plan their menus and then the sous chefs would go shopping at the local market for produce while the four finalists would be left to butcher their pigs.
Even though the chefs only had to prepare two dishes, all of them were planning on doing three or four. Stephanie was going to do a pork belly dish but Dale left them out overnight and she didn’t want to run the risk of getting the guests sick. On the fly she and Dale come up with a salad idea that ends up being a well received dish. Richard said Spike was his partner, not his sous chef, and I think that speaks very well for Richard as a person and a chef. Nikki is kind of weak so Antonia was at a disadvantage with that, but Antonia seemed distracted overall.
The judges favorites were Stephanie and Richard, with Richard the unanimous winner among the judges and the guests. His prize for being the winner – a 2009 Toyota Corolla. He was shocked and didn’t know what to say. Antonia and Lisa were in the bottom. Lisa made many small mistakes with all her dishes, but Antonia served undercooked peas and served all the dishes on one plate instead of separately – a tactical error according to the judges. All the dishes kind of merged into one and it was hard to see what was what. In the end the judges sent Antonia home, saying that her table was the one that was the least popular among the party guests.
Antonia goes to say her goodbyes and tells Stephanie to kick the other two chefs’ a**es. She leaves and the room goes silent. Lisa tells the other two that a congratulations would have been nice. She knows they wishes that she were the one sent home but too bad. Richard later says in his behind the scenes interview that he didn’t know what she expected, him to say congratulations on winning the f**ing bronze medal? Next week is going to be interesting.
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