The Martini Station

So, Top Chef is back and they brought the cruelty right from the get go! They sent the loser of the first Quick Fire challenge home before they could even unpack. Harsh! For the Quick Fire, all contestants had to peel 15 apples with a paring knife, then the 8 slowest had cut their apples into perfect cubes and finally the slowest 4 had 20 minutes to make a dish using the apples. Lauren didn’t like them apples because she was first to go. Buh bye Lauren!
For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs drew knives and selected different neighborhoods in New York to use as inspiration for their dishes, with two chefs for each neighborhood competing against each other. Most of the contestants didn't seem to do very well, there were not a lot of glowing reviews on the food. Let's hope it's just nerves. While I was pulling for Fabio (because he's from Italy which will make Mom happy and also because his name is Fabio which makes me happy) and Jamie from San Francisco, Stefan ended up winning the challenge. Congrats Stefan!

Stefan's winning dish, Lamb chop with tabouli and beef skewer with onions.

Poor young Patrick was asked to pack his knives and go for his Chinese Salmon failure. You knew he was in trouble when he chose to cook with black noodles, something he had never used before. As I said to Jim, if you're in a competition why would you even consider using a product you're unfamiliar with? The just screams DUH if you ask me. He said he was still a student so I guess that ends that lesson for him.

Patrick's losing dish, Basted salmon with black rice noodles and steamed bok choy.

Oh, worth a mention, Patrick and Lauren went to culinary school together. I'm thinking the school might not want to promote that.

And it's good to see Tom Colicchio again! Just for fun, read his blog on Bravo's site... http://tinyurl.com/colicchio