Top Chef

Episode Report Card
Kim: B | 934 USERS: B-
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Chinatown Breakdown
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Since they don't have that extra fifteen minutes (which I didn't mind since there are still so many contestants and the episodes seem pretty rushed these days -- can we bring that back? Or was Andy Cohen mad because it was cutting into his Watch What Happens time?), the episodes don't waste any time with the niceties. The episode starts with Padma welcoming the cheftestants to the kitchen wearing a shirt that I am 100% sure I owned in 1986, which was probably about four years after it was stylish. It's a white shirt with black pinstripes and puff sleeves. It looks like the packaging for Exclamation! perfume (which was my signature scent in 9th grade).

Anyway, Padma reminds them that speed is key when cooking in a restaurant on a busy night, and explains the Quickfire Challenge: one of the nation's best chefs will make a dish as quickly as he can, and then the cheftestants have to make a dish faster to win. The cheftestants' minds are racing, trying to figure out who this renowned chef will be, and this would be a lot more tense if they hadn't shown it on the previews, because we all know that it's Chef Tom Colicchio! The cheftestants are all grinning like fools as Tom gets ready to start cooking, and reminds everyone that he's a little rusty.

Time begins and Tom grabs a bin and runs to the pantry to gather his ingredients and equipment. He returns and quickly sets out his mise en place. He's clearly thought through this and the cheftestants are impressed with how organized he is, and how quickly he opens the clams he's using. At one point, he cuts a whole fish, takes part out, and then tosses the rest of the fish into his garbage bin, which goes flying off the table and nearly hits Padma. The cheftestants all crack up. His prep finished, Tom heads to the burners across the room. He cooks a sauce and the fish. One thing he mentioned in his blog that I thought was genius was that he cooked the fish on one side, then flipped it and covered the pan, and brought the whole pan back to his table, knowing that the residual heat in the pan would cook the other side as he walked. Seriously. That is smart and time-saving. He quickly plates his food and calls time; he finished in 8 minutes and 37 seconds. Damn. I might be able to make a scrambled egg in that time, but I don't know that it would taste great and it certainly wouldn't look great. The cheftestants are shocked. Tom urges them to taste his food, and they all agree that it's a good dish for the time he used, and it would be a good dish even if he had taken longer. He made black sea bass with clams, tomato, and zucchini, and it looks great. Padma explains that the cheftestants can make whatever they want, but Tom says that they will factor in the degree of difficulty, so if one of them makes tuna tartare (or another dish that doesn't require cooking), it won't get very far. Padma then drops the bomb that the winner gets immunity AND a brand new Toyota Prius. Damn! Now that's a High Stakes Quickfire.

Top Chef