Top Chef: Preeti is told to Pack her Knives and Go
The quick fire guest judge on “Top Chef” this week was Mark Peel. The challenge was to create an out-of-this-world dish made of potatoes. Preeti accidentally put her asparagus in Ashley’s water (thinking it was the water Kevin told her she could use) and Ashley just blew a gasket. Ash decided to make sweet potato ice cream, but he was running out of time, so it turned into a chilled sweet potato custard with pecans. That is a clever chef right there! Padma got a pistachio shell in Eli’s dish – never a good thing. Jennifer, Hector, and Kevin decided to do three dishes each.
Mark was pleased overall, but his least favorite dishes were those of Eli (too sweet), Ron (overcooked), and Jesse (too spicy). Once again, Jesse is on the bottom. He liked the dishes of Jennifer, Ash (who was totally surprised), and Ashley. The winner was Jennifer. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I am starting to not like her much.
The elimination special guest was Colonel Dave Belote, Commander of the 99th Air Base Wing at Nellis Air Force Base. He gave the chefs their orders – report to Nellis and cook for the airmen there – as a team. They wouldn’t find out their ingredients until the next day when they reported to Nellis.
Everything in the kitchen looked very military – large cans of vegetables, SPAM, no stoves or pots. The chefs were having problems sharing what few resources they had available to them in the kitchen. Jennifer may be soft spoken, but she took over the kitchen and tried to keep everyone organized and focused. Preeti and Laurine were worried about their pasta salad.
All the contestants seemed to feel honored to be serving the military. As Preeti feared, the judges weren’t impressed with the pasta salad. They also wondered about the decision to serve chowder and chili on a hot day, although everyone agreed they were both good. Mark Peel loved the potato salad, saying it tasted like his aunt’s recipe.
Mike, Michael, Eli, and Kevin were called to the judge’s table for their pork dishes. Mark declared Michael the winner. The battle of the brothers continues. The bottom three chefs were Preeti, Laurine, and Mike. Mike was upset at being called out with the winners, but then also appearing in the losers group. I don’t remember that happening before.
Mike was obviously pissed but Gail told him he split up the work, went his own way and all they could judge was his dish, which was bland. reeti and Laurine tried to blame it on the stuff they had to work with, but Tom said everyone had difficult ingredients. Preeti tried to throw the clam chowder under the bus by asking if it was creative, but Tom said no, however, it was better than their pasta. She just never got that the judges through the dish was crap. Laurine stunned the judges when she said she didn’t cook a better dish because she forgot about the competition.
They refused to throw each other under the bus, but Tom said he felt they both just wanted to get by in the competition, but not win. They told Preeti to pack her knives and go.
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