CJ is eliminated on tonight’s Top Chef

Is it me or are the judges getting more and more critical on Top Chef? I don’t mean to say that they’ve always been sunshine and light, but in the past few episodes (and especially this season) the judges are getting more and more harsh with the contestants who find themselves in the bottom three or four. Does anyone else agree with me on this point?

The quickfire challenge tonight had Padma sneaking in the chef’s apartment at 6 am to wake them up. I think this might have been CJ’s fantasy come true when you heard him speak of Padma gently waking him up in the morning. She tells the chefs to get out of their rooms, that she is hungry. The guys are excited, but Dale knows better – he knows that their next quickfire challenge would be a breakfast challenge. The chefs come out into the communal area of their apartment to see that it’s been set up for them to cook. Each chef has a station with a blender and a burner, and many of the items (if not all) from the Top Chef pantry have been brought over to the apartment.

Now is it me or don’t you think that the chefs would have heard someone sneaking into the apartment to set up this work area? Are they all that sound of sleepers, or did they get stuck in their rooms while little elves set up the work stations?

The chefs seem to have some fun cooking for Padma, and she names Sara and Hung her favorites. Hung wins the challenge and gets an advance copy of her new cookbook. Maybe the alcohol he slipped into her smoothie helped in her naming him the winner.

Padma goes on to tell the chefs that they are hitting the road, with the last stop being the Top Chef finale in Aspen. I’m not sure if tonight was the first time they announced where the final would be, but it’s the first time I remember hearing about the location for the finale. The chefs would be leaving that afternoon. She leaves the tickets with Hung and all of the remaining chefs open them together to find out they’re on the way to New York City.

The contestants actually land at Newark Airport (a stone’s throw away from the city) to be met by Padma at the end of the jetway. She informs them that in order to make it to Manhattan they have to get through the elimination challenge that would be taking place at the Newark Airport the next day. She sends them off to a local hotel and tells them to get some rest as they were going to need it.

The next day the chefs are brought to the kitchen for Continental Airlines and are informed that the elimination challenge is to create a restaurant quality hot meal for passengers of their business class service. The Executive Chef for Continental Airlines (Gerry McLoughlin) gives the chefs some information on how to prepare a meal for service on an airplane. The chefs are given two hours to create their entrée. Hung, as winner of the quickfire challenge, gets to pick his protein first and no one else can use his protein. The chefs will be serving their meals to the judges and a group of travel experts.

In the kitchen the chefs are stressed. They don’t know where any of the supplies or equipment is kept, and they are limited on the number of burners where they can cook their food. Tom Colicchio says you can see some of the chefs becoming unglued during the challenge.

After the meals are prepared, the chefs are transported to a hanger with a huge airplane inside. Waiting for them are Padma and Colichhio and returning judge Anthony Bourdain and guest judge Jimmy Canora. Then the contestants are introduce to the travel experts – a group of flight attendants for Continental Airlines.

Some of the chefs do really well with the meals they created, while others flopped. Dale miscounted the number of entrees and was short one entrée. He thought for sure that this mistake would send him home. He was wrong.

The judges call back Dale, Casey and Hung as the top three in the challenge. They said that all of them had some really good meals. I guess good food can make up for other mistakes like not serving all of your customers. If I was a passenger on a plane in first class you better well give me the meal I ordered or I’m going to be mad. Casey ends up being named the winner, even though the flight attendants said cauliflower is not a food they usually serve during flights because it is tough on the stomach. As the winner she is given two roundtrip tickets in business class anywhere in the world Continental flies.

The bottom three chefs were CJ, Sara and Brian. Tonight I really thought the judges were harsh. Some of the comments I thought bordered on extremely rude:

Anthony Bourdain said that Sara’s salmon was bordering on cat food (in terms of how over cooked it was).
Colicchio calls Brian’s hash disgusting, gross and terrible.
Colicchio says that CJ’s broccoli dish was the single worst dish he’s tasted during the three years of competition and that it was horrifying. Borudain asks him what he was thinking and says that dish wasn’t fit to serve in prison.

I guess I don’t ever remember hearing such blunt and harsh criticism from the judges in Season 1 or 2. Yes, there were some comments but nothing I remember compares with tonight’s Judges Table.

In the end CJ was sent home. In defeat he was a perfect gentleman, thanking the judges for the experience. He says that he made connections he might not have ever been able to make otherwise and has gained confidence in his abilities as a chef. I’m disappointed because I was kind of hoping to see him in the finals. Now I have to say Casey is probably a favorite – she’s won the last two challenges and has some great momentum going into the last elimination before the finals in Aspen.

[tags]top chef, television, bravo, tv, reality, food, topchef, reality tv, top-chef, cooking, chef[/tags]

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