Joey is eliminated from Top Chef

I was pretty surprised with the outcome tonight on Top Chef. When Padma said the words “please pack your knives and go” I certainly didn’t expect to hear the name that preceded these oh so famous last words. More on that later.

The elimination challenge this week had the contestants testing their culinary knowledge. Let’s just say that some of the challenges – like naming bow tie pasta or a cheese server – were ones that I could have done. Padma and guest judge Chef Rocco DiSpirito had the contestants competing to identify items by sight or taste. I was surprised at how many chefs didn’t even get one answer right. The competition came down to Brian and Casey, with Casey winning again and getting immunity for a second time this season.

Over the past few seasons of Top Chef you sometimes would get this feeling that the contestants were kind of, for lack of a better word, snobby. When certain challenges were given you’d hear comments like they didn’t go to culinary school to cook this kind of food, or to use ingredients from a vending machine, or whatever. That’s part of the reason I loved the elimination challenge tonight. The chefs drew knives to pair up and create a Mediterranean/Italian style frozen pasta meal that could be reheated in 10 minutes or less. Padma said that the frozen meals market was something like 8 billion dollars, and being a working mom I know the value of pre-cooked, easy to prepare food.

Watching the team dynamics was very, very interesting. CJ and Tre were all business. They worked together as professionals and used their brains to create their meal. They were the only team to figure out that if you were given an hour to package the meals after they were frozen that you probably were going to need the time to assemble them. They were the only ones to individually freeze every component of the meal, assembling them in the bag. Casey and Dale were like new best friends, working really well together. The communication on that team as well as between CJ and Tre was probably what caused them to be successful. These two teams were the top teams, with CJ and Tre winning the challenge and as a reward two tickets for each of them to Italy.

The team of Brian and Sara N. was interesting. I don’t think Brian was all that thrilled in his partner but he kept his mouth shut. His main complaint was the speed at which Sara worked. I guess in such a limited amount of time in a challenge that could be upsetting.

Joey and Hung and Howie and Sara N. were two teams that I could describe as train wrecks. Sara N. had the audacity to ask questions of Howie, which made Howie think that she was questioning his abilities. That just totally ticked him off. Hung knew that the items should be individually frozen – he told Tom Colicchio this during Tom’s walk through – yet he allowed Joey to go ahead and freeze everything together.

Joey and Hung and Howie and Sara N. were the bottom teams. Hung said that he knew the items should have been individually frozen but didn’t stop Joey from assembling them all together. Joey admitted that he didn’t hear Hung when he said this and that Hung should have been more forceful, right up in his face even, to get his point across. Sara N. was making some comments about the team (I didn’t think they were all that bad but it was late and maybe I was tired and not paying too close attention) when Howie starts to go off on her big time, pointing fingers right and left. Colicchio said that Sara N. did not really contribute to the dish, but the dish must not have been as bad as the other one or she would have been going home.

In the end Joey was sent packing. I think his comments about not listening were his downfall. I remember an episode of The Apprentice when one contestant described himself as “white trash” and Trump fired him for saying something so stupid. Maybe if Joey didn’t say that he still would have been fired but we will never know.

I think Hung should have been eliminated, since he knew the way things needed to be done to win the challenge but allowed Joey to do them differently. But then again Hung is a very confrontational and colorful character and makes for better television than Joey.

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

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