Top Chef: All Stars

Note:This blog post has spoilers about this weeks episode, so read at your own risk.....

I had long been anticipating this week's episode of Top Chef, a cooking show on Bravo, especially because I thought it was the finale. But to my dismay, they announced that the finale, airing Wednesday next week, would only have two of their "all-stars" (this season is for chefs who stood out in other seasons but didn't win, kinda like Redemption Island on Survivor). This was quite surprising as Top Chef finales usually have three chefs going head-to-head. For those of you who don' keep up with this fantastic show, chefs Richard Blais, Antonia Lofaso, and Michael (Mike) Isabella (you can see these three (whom I highlighted) and the rest of the contestants in the pic below) were the three to survive till this episode.

Mike has been on a roll, winning many of the recent challenges, so he had a few advantages in getting to decide which contestant would get which classic quickfire (a little mini-challenge at the beginning of each episode). Mike's aim throughout the entire show was to challenge Antonia(my personal favorite) because he wanted to compete against Richard in the finale. He wanted to do so because he knows that many people find Richard to be a strong chef and so Mike wanted a challenge. The quickfire was  really interesting because each chef had a different challenge and twist posed later: Antonia - canned foods and double apronned (that is a verb I made up to indicate that they were wearing a double apron and could each use one hand) with Carla (a former contestant); Richard - hot dogs and one handed cooking; Mike - one pot and no utensils. In the end Mike won the quickfire, adding fuel to his fire.

Their elimination challenge was to create a "last supper" for three eminent chefs: Masaharu Morimoto, Wolfgang Puck, and Michelle Bernstein. Mike got to choose the challenges again for his competitors. Frankly, by now I was a little annoyed by all the power Mike was getting. Somehow, Mike ended up with the easiest meal, fried chicken and biscuits for Michelle Bernstein and poor Antonia had to create a super complicated Japanese bento box for Morimoto (who she was afraid of but warmed up to as they talked about his meal and childhood). I felt Richard also had it pretty easy as he only had to create goulash (I think that's how you spell it) and apple strudel, but I suppose it was very tasty because the judges named him the winner of this challenge, which also means he is going to the finale.

At this point, I was terribly worried for Antonia because she had some complicacies with her dish like getting rancid Hamachi (that is a type of fish) and needing to switch to tuna. But, yet again the judges throw in ANOTHER TWIST (it must be so much fun to write the challenges for these shows) and so Antonia and Mike have to create one single bite for each of the seven judges in 45 minutes. I regained my hope for Antonia. In the end Antonia made a grouper soup which was a bit strong and Mike made a surf and turf with some odd sauces. Both Antonia and Mike got three votes, leaving Wolfgang to break the tie. He liked the flavors in Antonia's better but found Mike's technique to be impeccable, both aspects of a dish are important, but he found that Mike;s dish was just a little better. I was heartbroken to find out Mike Isabella made it to the finale, but I will tune in next week to watch Richard kick his butt.

Here is a recap from another blog. Enjoy!

-Cheesecake (Chaaru)