VegasChatter

Protein inside a Protein inside a Protein
At Top Chef kitchen, Padma introduces Gavin Kaysen, a mighty fine chef we’ve had the pleasure of meeting back in his Rancho Bernardo days. Nowadays, the former Bocuse d’Or competitor is the master of the kitchen at Café Boulud in New Yawk City. He announces the Quickfire Challenge, which is to recreate a dish that resembles the Chicken Ballontine he made for the Bocuse d’Or (basically the Olympics/Oscars of the culinary world) – essentially a dish with a protein in a protein in a protein, prepared in 90 minutes.

Eli goes with a Scotch egg theme with breakfast sausage and a 6-minute egg. AT lng last, Jen decides to do what she knows and takes the seafood route with a calamari steak, scallops and salmon dish. Michael opts for a poultry terrine. Bryan does a rack of lamb with merguez sausage. In classic home-style form, Kevin makes a cornmeal fried catfish dish with scallops and shrimp. Padma tells Jen, “Welcome back,” and you can visibly see the back-in-action, boost of confidence in the underdogs face. Gavin announces the winner, and gosh wow, it’s Jen. As if we didn’t see that coming. C’mon Bravo, you’re making our faux crystal ball predictions way too easy.

Bocuse D'Or Or Go Home
Next up: the Elimination Challenge, where the remaining five contestants get to play Bocuse d’Or, Top Chef style, natch. The contestants had to create a fancy schmancy dish using one protein (lamb or salmon) and two garnishes. But not just any garnish, but super crafty, how the hell did you do that garnishes. The crew had four hours to cook at Alex at The Wynn, except for Jen who got 30 bonus minutes as a result of her big Quickfire Challenge win.

All Hail (Awkward) Thomas Keller
No pressure here as the chefs were cooking for 12 chefs, including the American advisory board for Bocuse d’Or, and a moment of silence please, two time three Michelin-starred chef, Thomas Keller. We wish we could say we were blown away, but we’ve attended one too many of his awkward cooking seminars and well, he may be able to cook his ass off but he doesn’t translate well in the (our) real world. Anyway, the chefs had to conjure up their culinary masterpiece keeping taste, creativity and execution in mind.

They shopped at Whole Paycheck Foods (like usual) and headed back to the Top Chef house to wank off to Bocuse d’Or DVD’s and plan their menus. Kevin mused about the trendy preparation du jour, sous vide, having never done it before, pondering the whole timing versus temperature issue. Can we tell you how much we love this guy? He could double deep fry anything and make it taste good, but he was thinking outside the proverbial fry daddy for this one.

Getting Fancy and Technical With It
Back at The Wynn, Tom Collichio introduces Chef Thomas Keller, who says, “At the end of the day, you’re just putting your head down and going to work” to the daunting culinary task at hand. Uh-huh. We’re sure that’s exactly what your staff is thinking when they’re putting out multi-hundred dollar prix fixe menus every night.

Eli makes a sausage wrapped lamb loin encrusted in pistachio, “doing things I normally do, but making it ‘em small, sexy and tight.” One look at his yogurt foam (so passé if you ask us) and we’re certain it’s gonna be his death knell, but it’s his undercooked lamb and lack of technical production that draws criticism.

Michael has performed in previous culinary competitions and chooses to make a Mediterranean inspired salmon dish with chickpeas, cauliflower, and tzatziki.

Alex Stratta (of Alex at The Wynn) found a bone in his dish, while guest judge, Traci Des Jardins of Jardinère in San Francisco thought the dish was easy on the eyes, but disparate in flavor. Daniel Boulud thought it lacked harmony.

Jen went the way of seafood once again making a salmon and caviar with shrimp flan topped with cold salad snap peas, chervil and truffles. Des Jardins thought everything tasted good, but that dish was not well thought out, and since cuts of fish varied, cooking preparations were all over the temperature map. Tom thought the dish was all over the place, while Padma lauded the plate as the most visually intriguing dish.

Bryan’s crusted lamb loin and lamb shank with caponata, orzo pasta, sheepmilk cheese and garlic looked great on the plate, but was tough and undercooked. Tom made funny faces at Kevin’s sous vide poached lamb loin with swiss chard and parsley since it was so not Kevin.

Who Won Big?
Although judges complained it was a bit elementary for the amount of cooking time allotted, Kevin took home the $30,000 prize from M Resort and a spot to compete in the 2011 Bocuse d’Or. That’s one helluva prize and it couldn’t go to a nicer guy.

Who Crapped Out For the Last Time in Vegas
Tom congratulates all the chefs for cooking throughout the season, before sending Eli home. He teared up as he hugged his buddy Kevin bye bye and the final four geared up to plow forward next week in Napa Valley.

Next Week...From Napa
You can tell significant time has passed between the Las Vegas and Napa Valley taping strictly in the hair styles – Padma is rocking some shiteous bangs next week and Jen tamed her usual rat nest of a mane and is working some waves. It looks like the final four are stuck cooking on the Napa Valley Wine Train, a culinary disaster by any traveler’s standards and we’re hoping they can bring some class to the overpriced tourist trap.