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The Pork Lovin' Chef Did Not Prevail in the Top Chef Finale
Can we get a moment of silence as we bring Top Chef Las Vegas Season 6 to a close? It’s been an exciting culinary tour de force as 17 contestants (we’ll never ever wrap our brain around the oh-so abused “chef-testant” term) were whittled down to last night’s three. Dare we call Kevin, Michael and Bryan the holy trinity of Top Chef talent? Sure, why not?
The final episode started at The Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa, where everyone’s successes were contemplated over big mugs of coffee. The three remaining chefs head to Rutherford Hill Winery, where against the vineyard backyard and given their final challenge. They must create a three-course meal with the following guidelines in mind: create a first course with identical boxes of predetermined ingredients, make a second course of chef’s choice and a dessert.
Dinner will be served at Cyrus, a two-starred Michelin restaurant in Healdsburg, California (a good 90-minute drive from the Meritage for you non-wine country savvy folks, WTF Bravo? Is that like positioning M Resort close to the Strip?) and Tom spells it out, “This meal can make your career.”
Tags: Top Chef / Cyrus / Restaurants / Douglas Keane / M Resort / → All Tags
The Boys from 'Top Chef' Will Battle it Out at Cyrus in Healdsburg
We don’t know about you, but we are so looking forward to the Top Chef Season 6 finale on Bravo tonight. We may have to medicate to survive the episode if it’s anywhere near as stressful as last week’s nail-biter.
As rumors swirl about who takes home the title of Top Chef, sightings of Kevin and Eli, together in Napa Valley, and the big Voltaggio brother showdown, one aspect of this week’s episode was cleared up when a press release from Chef Douglas Keane’s (of Cyrus Restaurant fame) people arrived in our inbox.
The email revealed that:
For the Season 6 Finale, finalists prepare and cook in Cyrus’ kitchen for the final stage of this year’s exciting challenge. Maitre d’ and Co-Owner Nick Peyton greets Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi and other judges and guests before all are seated in Cyrus’ elegant dining room.
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Top Chef Heads To Napa To Finish Off The Culinary Gamble
Last night, Top Chef officially crossed the line from prime time entertainment to nail-biting stressfest.
A lot has changed since Top Chef last filmed in Vegas. Jen’s hair got all sorts of curly (looks like Philadelphia’s end-of-summer humidity had its way with her). Kevin’s sweet little redhead seemed to lose a few hairs in the hiatus. Bryan got accessorized (note to Bryan: no one, and I mean no one dons big, oversized golf umbrellas on the west coast).
And Michael, well, not much changed with him, except he’s seamlessly stepped into the role of the resident jerkface since Mike I. got the heave ho.
The episode starts with everyone sitting at a train stop in Napa Valley, when low and behold, Napa’s finest mobile tourist trap pulls into the station – The Napa Valley Wine Train. Out walks Padma rocking some severe bangs and a baby bump (will we ever know who knocked her up?) and guest judge and owner of Napa restaurant, Bottega, Michael Chiarello.
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And Then There Were Four in the Fierce Top Chef Competition
Oooh, this week was a goody on Top Chef Las Vegas. We’re down to final five contestants who were giving it their all for the last challenge in Vegas and with Robin finally out of the way, we can focus on the real talent of this competition.
The intro scene is full all things Hallmark-y stuff that pull on your heartstrings. Kevin throws on a rosary and hails his wife Callie as his inspiration to win. Aww…as if we needed another reason to route for this sweet ‘ole Southern boy. Eli waxes poetic on being the youngest one in the house, but citing his mentor as Richard Blais (Top Chef contestant, Season 5). Jen fesses up to being unfocused the past few weeks and sets herself up for an all too obvious comeback.
Tags: Top Chef / Nigella Lawson / Circus-Circus / Bellagio / The Mirage / New York-New York / Excalibur / Mandalay Bay / → All Tags
Finally! Top Chef Las Vegas Gets Back to Vegas Basics
All season long, Top Chef Las Vegas has been doing its very best to isolate Vegas from the cooking competition equation. All they've done is parade in big name chefs to act as judges and let the contestants use their fancy hotel casino kitchens to complete the elimination challenges. Heck, they don't even give the M Resort any love anymore.
Oh sure, every so often they throw something "Vegas-y" into the mix like showgirls, a couple of Vegas celebs, a $10,000 poker chip or the opportunity to double down on an Elimination Challenge. But we've always felt that this season could have just as easily taken place in another city. Where's the glitz and glamour? And more importantly, where are the casinos?
Finally, last night we got what we've been waiting for all season.
The episode kicks off with every foodie's fantasy--Padma in bed wearing white robe and her hair in soft layers around her face. In the bed next to her (sadly, not in bed with her) is every foodie's other fantasy--Nigella Lawson, equally stunning as Padma and also clad in a white robe with her hair in soft layers around her face. And thus the Quickfire Challenge begins.
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Mike Loses on 'Top Chef' But Gets The Girl?
Another Wednesday night brought us another episode of our beloved Top Chef Las Vegas. This week’s episode was dubbed, “Meat Natalie,” but we’ll get to why later.
As we’ve grown to loathe, the 60-minute segment was chock full of product whoring, including Seattle’s Best Coffee, Swanson Stock, TV Guide, Glad Cling Wrap, GE Monogram, Schwan’s, San Pellegrino and Alexia Crunchy Snacks. We’re sure we glazed over a few other strategic placements – the whole schtick is getting old.
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Restaurant Wars Whittles Top Chefs Down
Our regular Top Chef recapper, Globetrotting Gourmet, is in port in Alaska and is having some connection issues. She cabled in her Top Chef report which we're pasting below. Ok, so maybe it wasn't a cable but rather just regular old email instead but cable sounded fancier.
Yay for Restaurant Wars, the most anticipated episode in every Top Chef season. We also think we've figured out some Top Chef secret, in that they seem to pan to and pay extra attention to whomever is getting the ax at the beginning of the episode. We don't want to spoil who it was this week, but if you watch the first six minutes and last six minutes of the past few episodes, you'll see what we mean.
The episode rolls right into a Quickfire Challenge with guest judge, "champion of conscious cooking," and chef/owner rm seafood, Rick Moonen. In this episode, cooks must manage all matters of a restaurant, including serving, cooking and hosting. This Quickfire Challenge is a test of teamwork, the first ever Top Chef Tag Team Cook-Off. Here's how it works: the chefs pulled knives, with Jennifer pulling one marked "First Choice" and Michael pulling "Second Choice." Every other knife was blank. The two picked teams were Team Jen: Kevin, Mike I., Laurine and Team Michael: Bryan, Eli, Robin.
Tags: Top Chef / Charlie Palmer / Springs Preserve / Mandalay Bay / Aureole / → All Tags
Praise The Lard on Top Chef
Last week, we kvetched about how the product placement has gotten waaay out of control on Top Chef. Well, this week, we decided to pay extra special attention and keep a tally. The results are in and the greedy marketing minds at Bravo TV stake claim to NINE not-so-subtle products strategically placed throughout this week’s one hour “Pig and Pinot” episode. (That doesn’t include the pay-to-text your Top Chef opinion opportunities peppered throughout the hour episode. For a fee, natch.)
In case you were curious, the showcased products were M Resort, Natural Alexia’s Crunchy Snacks, Pig and Pinot event, Aureole at Mandalay Bay, Whole Foods, Toyota Venza, GE Monogram Collection, Swanson Stock and Glad Cling Wrap.
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The Advertorials Are Getting Out of Hand on Top Chef
After an unexpected one week hiatus, Top Chef Las Vegas was back last night with a “Dinner Party” episode. The episode opened with Ash talking about how he didn’t go to culinary school and Michael dishing on the difficulties of being away from his young daughters, ages 5 and 9. (Insert sigh here.)
Jennifer wasn’t feeling well, but the thick-skinned gal was quick to note that she didn’t need any sympathy. (She also probably shouldn’t have been handling and serving food. Sick servers and people behind the line is one of our biggest restaurant pet peeves.)
The contestants assembled at M Resort where slot machine results defined three keywords that described mood, taste/texture and a type of cuisine. The chefs had to create a dish in less than 30 minutes that combined the three keywords in the Cookstr.com High Stakes Quickfire with guest judge, Tyler Florence, chef, author and television star. Keywords included words like romantic, tart, Latin America, umami, stressed, adventurous, Middle Eastern and Asian.
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If You Can't Watch Top Chef, Play 'Date a Top Chef'
Wah. We were totally crushed that there wasn’t a new episode of Top Chef Las Vegas last night and wish the marketing minds at Bravo TV had said something like, “See you in two weeks” after last week’s episode. A little head’s up would’ve been nice, since we schedule our social schedule around this Wednesday night ritual.
Just to be sure, we logged onto Bravo.com to confirm that our crappy cable TV provider, Comcast wasn’t fooling us, and found this titillating "Date a Top Chef" feature on the site’s landing page. Always up for a Cosmopolitan-esque quiz, we were ready to click our way through a few easy questions to a culinary match made in, umm…The M Resort. Nope – no such thing.
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Penn & Teller Toss Up Deconstruction Challenge to Top Chefs
We’re pretty sure we tasted vomit in our mouth when we saw the remaining Top Chef contestants don red neckties in homage to Mattin for the Quickfire Challenge. Really? Sigh. The young French chef never really did much for us and we haven’t exactly shed tears since he got to heave-ho last week. The whole stunt was really silly.
Anyway, the episode began with Jennifer hemming and hawing about Robin getting lucky in the previous episode. We can’t say we disagree. We’re from Seattle and should show some kinda hometown support, but frankly, the woman’s incessant blah blah drives us batshit crazy.
Nevertheless, the purpose of this Quickfire Challenge was to create two dishes representative of personal devil/angel battles. Gee, that’s so original for Vegas. Michelle Bernstein of Miami culinary scene fame was on hand to judge the goods. She’s the first female chef we’ve seen this season and she keeps pretty quiet for the duration.
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Cowboy Cookout with The Top Chef Crew
We we
re kinda non-plussed by Top Chef Episode 6, “Camping.” The usually opinionated/bossy Jennifer kept a low-profile. Mike I. wasn’t his usual obnoxious self. There really wasn’t any drama. Period.
About the only emotional aspect of the show came from Ashley
The episode started with her calling her older brother, whose wife gave birth the night before and she was teary because she couldn't be with them. Later in the show, she reveals that she grew up in a very poor family in the middle of the woods with her single mother. Turn out, those circumstances helped in with the cooking challenge. So we like it when Ashley gets real, instead of angry. But on with the recap.
The main culinary component of the High Stakes Quickfire Challenge was determined via text – contenders included rattlesnake, cactus or kangaroo with cactus taking the lead. The remaining 12 contestants had 45 minutes to prepare their dishes at The M Resort's Top Chef kitchen, with the winner taking home $15,000 but no immunity. Chef Tim Love, a tried and true Texan man, was the guest judge.
