Tiffani wins the Top Chef Holiday Challenge
You just knew we were not going to get by this holiday season without a Top Chef Holiday Special. The previous special of season 1 versus season 2 was great so I’m sure the producers wanted to play on that popularity to have a holiday challenge. However, I was kind of hoping that the elimination challenge would have been more holiday oriented, but that’s a minor point. The show overall was great and I’m so thankful for insomnia. If I was asleep last night I would never have found out about the sneak peak of this special and would have had to wait until 9:00 tonight to see it.
There were eight contestants from the previous three season competing for a cash prize of $20,000. The contestants were:
From Season 1 – Tiffani and Stephen
From Season 2 – Josie, Betty and Marcel
From Season 3 – CJ, Sandee and Tre
The show was set in Chicago, and we found out that the next season of Top Chef is going to be set in Chicago and start sometime in 2008. Bravo, the teasers that they are, didn’t give any indication of when in 2008 but you have to figure they are either filming Season 4 right now or getting ready to do so because there was a fully stocked and set up Top Chef kitchen for this holiday challenge.
All the contestants are put up in this nice townhouse I think, all decorated for the holidays. It must be the house where the season 4 contestants will live. There are stockings for everyone hung by the chimney and gag gifts in them. There’s broccoli for CJ, Pepto Bismol for Josie and hair gel for Marcel to name a few.
The chefs to into the kitchen to meet up with Santa Claus and Padma. We later find out that Santa is actually Chef Eric Ripert in costume. The chefs draw knives to find out who is going to go first in a game of Dirty Santa. There are eight wrapped presents under a tree that contain an ingredient. That ingredient must be used in a dish they prepare as a treat for Santa. Dirty Santa is when the first person picks a gift and unwraps it. The second person can take the gift the first person has, or pull another one. If they take the first one, that person picks again until everyone has a present. There are some really nice ingredients in the presents, and some crazy ones too. Here’s who ended up with what:
Tiffani: caviar
Stephen: yams
Marcel: toro (fatty tuna)
Tre: cheese balls
Betty: smoked salmon
Sandy: Prosciutto
CJ: walnuts
Josie: truffles
Josie has a problem with the quickfire – she can’t find a can opener and has major difficulty in trying to open the can of truffles. In her distress she forgets to even include the truffles in her final product.
Chef Ripert selects his least favorite dishes as the one created by Stephen, Tre and Josie. His favorite dishes were created by Marcel, Betty and CJ, with CJ winning the quickfire challenge.
We then find out about the elimination challenge. The chefs need to prepare a three course meal for nine diners. The dishes are going to be served head to head, with two chefs eliminated after each course. The chefs don’t find out who is eliminated until they walk out with their plates for the next course. CJ as winner of the quickfire gets a free pass from one elimination , but he can’t use it on the last course. The chefs have a budget of $350 and will have three hours to cook. They also get 30 minutes between courses to get them ready.
The pane of diners for the challenge is a group of highly respected chefs who have all served as guest judges over the previous three seasons. They were:
Elizabeth Falkner
Eric Ripert
Alan Wong
Alfred Portale
Norman Van Aiken
The regular panel of judges were also there – Ted Allen, Gail Simmons, Tom Colicchio and Padma.
After the first course it was Stephen and Sandee who were eliminated. After the second course Betty and Josie were eliminated. After the third course it was Marcel and CJ who were eliminated.
And then we got the Top Chef twist……
Tre and Tiffani are standing there, all pleased with themselves and happy to be finished with the dinner. Padma bursts their bubble and tells them that since it was so difficult for them to decide who the winner would be they had to go back and create a fourth course. They would have 30 minutes and could use anything in the kitchen of theirs or the other chefs. Tiffani mumbles an obscenity as they run back to the kitchen.
Tiffani asks Stephen, Sandee and Josie to help her. (Tiffani later said she picked these three because she thought they knew her the best and liked her the best of the six eliminated chefs). CJ, Marcel and Betty work with Tre. Tiffani creates a braised veal “sandwich” while Tre creates a dessert – Raspberry and Walnut Crepes.
In the end the judges selected Tiffani as the winner of the challenge and the $20,000 prize. She is working on opening up her own restaurant in LA and said part of the reason she did this show was to win the money and that her exposure on Top Chef “puts asses in the seats” in her words. Tre said he was OK with losing to her because he respected her as a chef. He also was happy because he said what he got out of this challenge was redemption. It was something he wanted and needed and was glad to get it.
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December 9th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I didn’t really understand why they brought back Sandee or Josie - I didn’t think either of them were that good on the original shows.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I can’t help but wonder if Tiffany got the sympathy vote. Don’t get me wrong, I kinda like her, and I don’t doubt her ability, but…she keeps coming back again and again and again, but some how keeps missing the mark. Did she get the pitty vote?