Top Chef Season Five - Episode 2
“Show Your Craft”: Chef Colicchio Opens His Kitchen to the Chefs
Dec 13, 2008
The hit Bravo reality series Top Chef has returned for a fifth season. With both Lauren Starling Hope and Patrick Dunlea eliminated in the Week One challenges, there are fifteen contestants heading into this week’s Quickfire. As the episode begins, Ariane Duarte is feeling the pressure of having been in the bottom two. Stefan Richter is feeling confident about winning both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges, but realizes that he has stiff competition from the rest of the house.
Quickfire Challenge
Host Padma Lakshmi and guest judge Donatella Arpaia enter the Top Chef kitchen and announce that the chefs will be cooking their interpretation of a New York City classic food -- the hot dog. They will also be cooking against an expert, Angelina D'Angelo of the Dominick's hot dog truck in Queens.
The contestants have 45 minutes to prepare their dishes. Fabio Viviani’s sausage panini, Hosea Rosenberg’s bacon and pepper hot dog, and Radhika Desai’s kabob-style sausage are declared the top three, while Stefan’s “World Dog” and Jill Snyder’s sushi-inspired Asian hot dog are at the bottom. Radhika is proclaimed the winner and earns immunity for this week’s elimination challenge.
Elimination Challenge
Padma announces that the chefs’ Elimination Challenge will be opening a Top Chef restaurant in Manhattan, featuring New American Cuisine. They are given $2500 and thirty minutes to shop at Whole Foods after splitting into three teams. Appetizers will be cooked by Fabio, Hosea, Jamie Lauren, Leah Cohen, and Melissa Harrison, entrees will be taken on by Alex Eusebio, Eugene Villiatora, Jeff McInnis, Jill, and Stefan, and desserts are up to Ariane, Carla Hall, Danny Gagnon, Radhika, and Richard Sweeney. Jeff takes initiative to help the chefs organize into teams.
After returning from the market, head judge Tom Colicchio enters the kitchen with an announcement for the chefs. The restaurant they will be cooking at is none other than his own flagship restaurant, Craft. There is one other twist for the contestants -- all of the fifty diners will be New York chefs who did not make it onto Top Chef: New York. The chefs know that this will be a difficult group to please.
After their two hour prep period in the Top Chef kitchen, the chefs head home for a good nights sleep and arrive at Craft in the morning. They adjust to the kitchen and set out to finishing their dishes. Ariane is nervous about her dessert and has everyone taste it. Tom and his Craft Executive Chef, Damon Wise, will be expediting the meal in the normal manner that they fire tickets.
Padma and Donatella arrive with the last judge, Gail Simmons, and diners fill the restaurant. The diners are critical of most of the plates that go out, though the judges have some obvious favorites.
Judge’s Table
Carla, Fabio, Jamie, Hosea, Ariane, and Jill are all called to the Judge’s Table, though they are not yet informed of which competitors are the top and which are at the bottom. Jamie’s sweet corn soup, Fabio’s beef carpaccio, and Carla’s rustic apple tart are chosen as the top three. Though he initially was ready to defend his dish, Fabio relaxed once he was told he was in the top three and was announced as the winner.
Jill’s ostrich egg quiche, Ariane’s lemon meringue martini, and Hosea’s crab salad fall to the bottom. Ariane’s dish was criticized as being too sweet and uninteresting, while Hosea’s was seasoned poorly and the crab still tasted like it was from a can. However, the final decision was that Jill had to pack her knives and go.
Stay tuned for the Week Three challenges and elimination on Bravo’s Top Chef. New episodes air Wednesday evenings at 10 PM on Bravo. Visit the Top Chef: New York Page for more episode summaries, cast profiles, and gossip about the series.
