Top Chef Season Five - Episode 6
“12 Days of Christmas”: Martha Stewart Judges the Chefs
Dec 26, 2008
This week’s episode of Top Chef has a holiday theme. The episode begins with the eleven remaining chefs waking up in their New York City Top Chef apartment. The chefs have mixed feelings about the results of the previous challenge. The European contestants, Fabio Viviani and Stephen Richter, are lamenting their poor showing in the previous week’s elimination challenge, a bridal shower for Judge Gail Simmons.
Quickfire Challenge
The chefs arrive at the Top Chef Kitchen to once again find host Padma Lakshmi alone. She informs them that their holiday Quickfire Challenge is to create a one-pot holiday meal. Their guest judge for the Quickfire will be someone who is very familiar with home cooking and one-pot meals -- Martha Stewart. The chefs are given 45 minutes to prepare their dish.
Padma and Martha taste all the dishes, and name Eugene Villiatora, Fabio, and Jeff McInnis as the bottom three chefs. Ariane Duarte, Jamie Lauren, and Hosea Rosenberg prepared the top three dishes. In the end, Jamie once again barely misses out and Ariane wins for her Cauliflower Purée with Herb-Rubbed Filet Mignon. She not only wins immunity for the Elimination Challenge, but also is given an autographed copy of the book "Martha Stewart's Cooking School."
Elimination Challenge
Padma informs the chefs that their Elimination Challenge for the week will be catering a charity event for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. The party will have 250 guests including Chef Michelle Bernstein and actress Natasha Richardson. A knife block with twelve knives is brought out for the chefs and each one draws a number. They discover that the knives each represent a line from “The 12 Days of Christmas” and they will have to create a dish that reflects their line.
The chefs have 45 minutes to shop for their dish at Whole Foods Market. Several of the chefs are perplexed by the lines they have drawn. While Leah Cohen’s line, three French hens, is fairly self-explanatory, Jeff has more trouble finding a great dish to reflect ten lords a-leaping.
Upon returning to the Top Chef Kitchen, the chefs are given three hours to prep their dishes. They also receive one hour of prep time in the morning and one hour of cooking time once they reach the site. However, when they reach the kitchen in the morning they discover that the refrigerator is warm. Hosea and Radhika Desai both find their proteins unusable. However, all the chefs pitch in and help them redo their dishes.
During the course of the event, the amfAR guests are given the opportunity to voice their opinions. They each receive a small ribbon pin that they attach to the booth of the chef they liked the best. While some of the chefs try to entertain and charm the crowd, others have a quieter presentation.
Judge’s Table
The Judge’s Table has a new face this week, with Chef Michelle Bernstein filling in for Gail Simmons. Natasha Richardson joins Michelle, head Judge Tom Colicchio, and host Padma Lakshmi as the guest judge for the week. Hosea, Radhika, Jeff, and Stefan were chosen as the judges’ favorite dishes of the week, which represented tremendous comebacks for Hosea and Radhika. Natasha names Hosea the winner for his dish of smoked pork loin with chipotle mashed potatoes. All four winners receive a copy of Michelle Bernstein’s book "Cuisine à Latina."
Eugene, Jamie, and Melissa Harrington were called in to see the judges as the bottom three. Head Judge Tom Colicchio and the rest of the panel give their criticism and suggestions for improvement to the chefs. While they try to defend themselves, the judges are not impressed with the quality of any of the dishes for the party.
After deliberation, Tom goes to the stew room to address all the chefs. The panel was not impressed with any of the dishes that evening, but they were pleased with the way the chefs pulled together to help Hosea and Radhika. In the spirit of the holidays, he tells them that no one will be asked to pack their knives and go. However, he gives them a lecture and tells them that they need to be cooking amazing food that can win, not just passable fare. The relieved group of chefs head back to the Top Chef Loft for the evening.
Stay tuned for the next episode of Bravo’s hit reality series, Top Chef: New York, called "Focus Group". Episodes air on Wednesday nights at 10 PM. Visit the Top Chef: New York Page for cast profiles, episode summaries, and more.
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