Top Chef Las Vegas: Ash is eliminated
Last night’s Top Chef featured a quickfire challenge where the contestants had to pair a snack food (specifically an Alexia Crunchy Snack) with something else to create a dish. Hmm…do you think that Alexia Crunchy Snacks is a sponsor of Top Chef? The contestants were given 45 minutes to create their dishes. The guest judge for this round (and the elimination challenge as well) was chef and restaurateur Charlie Palmer. He owns the Aureole restaurant at the Mandolay Bay resort in Las Vegas. Michael and Bryan had worked for Chef Palmer in the past – a fact the chef noted but stated it would not affect his decision on the winning dish in any way. The bottom dishes were created by Robin, Ash and Jennifer. The top dishes were made by Eli, Bryan and Kevin, with Eli being named the winner of the quickfire challenge.
The elimination challenge this week began with the contestants drawing knives. On each knife was a picture of a pig and a part of a pig’s anatomy that can be cooked. Jennifer drew a wild card so she could pick whatever part she wanted, from cheeks, ribs, tenderloin, butt, belly, center cut chops, shoulder, or leg. The dish had to be paired with a Pinot wine for a charity event hosted by Chef Palmer known as Pig and Pinot. The contestants had to create 150 tasting portions for the challenge. They were given a budget of $300, four hours to prep and one hour on site at the Spring Preserve for the challenge.
The contestants went to the Aureole restaurant to meet with the master Sommelier there and to taste nine different kinds of Pinot wines. Each one chose one wine to pair with their dish.
That night at the house the tension between Robin and the other contestants is on the rise. She and Eli got into it, and ended with Eli yelling that you’re not my mother, and Robin in a very passive aggressive way telling the camera that she was glad she wasn’t his mother, and if she was she would have raised him better. I’m not sure what to make of Robin. Obviously she’s a talented chef or she would not have made it this far. I know the other contestants belittle her talents but if she really was a poor chef overall she would not have made it to the competition. Maybe her personality is one that just doesn’t mesh with everyone else.
At the judges’ table the dishes of Michael, Bryan, Kevin and Jennifer were named the best dishes. Kevin was named the winner and also given the opportunity by Chef Palmer to be a guest chef at the 2010 Pigs and Pinot event in California. The bottom three dishes were made by Ash, Laurine and Robin. The judges called Ash’s dish amateurish and said he doesn’t understand how to develop flavor. In their opinion Laurine’s dish was a terrible idea that would never come out well. They said that Robin’s dish had no pork flavor at all and didn’t pair well with the wine.
In the end it was Ash who was sent home. He said that this dish wasn’t his original idea, and when he told the judges what he had first planned to do Chef Palmer said it sounded like a fantastic dish. I guess that he wasn’t confident enough in himself to do what his gut told him to do.
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