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TV Recap: Top Chef New York - 12 Days Of Christmas
Happy Holidays from Blend Television and Top Chef! This week sees Martha Stewart showing up in the kitchen to put the cheftestants to the holiday test. She dispenses with the advice, telling the home cooks to make things simple, but not too simple. It’s simple and true advice for holiday cooking.
As always the Quickfire launches the show, and as the cheftestants walk in to see a holiday spread Padma explains they are to create a one-pot holiday meal. Here’s where Martha’s advice comes in to play, and some of the cheftestants may not have understood what “simple” or “one-pot” means. But at least none of the food looks horrid this week. Martha didn’t like the starchiness of Jeff’s risotto, and the grey goop appearance from the mushrooms in Fabio’s polenta was not appealing. I have to agree, I don’t know why Fabio would have incorporated the mushrooms like that.
On the other hand Martha had high praise for Ariane’s puree. An autographed copy of her latest book, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, awaits the Quickfire winner. Who happens to be Ariane. If anyone’s counting, the unsure and whiny Ariane has now won three times in recent weeks. Here we were discounting her because of the attitude. Now, she’s no Stephanie but at least she’s proving her spot on the show is deserved.
This week’s Elimination Challenge has the cheftestants catering a holiday party for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR), with 250 guests attending. I’m not sure how cheerful it would be to have a gospel choir belt out tunes while you’re cooking, but Padma has the Harlem Gospel Choir come in anyways. It wouldn’t be a Top Chef challenge without weird themes to the dishes, and this time they hit up the 12 Days of Christmas song. I have no idea how to cook something that is “lords a-leaping.”
As the cheftestants start out things look to be going decently in the kitchen for the prep time. I was anticipating some really great new recipes to try out in the weeks to come, and then tragedy struck. One of the fridges was left open overnight and all the food had spoiled. Hosea and Radhika lose their food, but because it’s the holidays everyone jumps in to help out. So Hosea grabs a pork loin and Radhika uses the duck legs instead of spoiled duck breasts.
If only that were the only travesty this episode. At the party Korbel (product placement alert!) is served, the cheftestants put together their dishes, and the guests are told to place a red AIDS ribbon next to their favorite dishes. Padma asks to see Hosea, Jeff, Stefan, and Radhika. Hmm, the two people who were “hurt” by the fridge incident are in the top. Radhika takes a moment to explain what happened, but the judges don’t care because they think the duck legs are a better choice than the breast. I’d like to point out that it wasn’t Radhika’s choice to go that way. I love me a good pot pie, and I’ll give Stefan’s a shot at some point. But Tom’s praise for the dish was odd, saying it wasn’t mushy. I think we can be clear that “not mushy” places you somewhere outside of the top spot. Hosea made the dish that I would have made, which always makes me root for that contestant. His pork loin with chipotle mashed taters and apple brandy ju sounded insanely good. Guest judge Natasha Richardson agrees and announces Hosea as this week’s winner. Everyone gets a copy of Michelle Bernstein’s book, Cuisine a Latina.
Aside from Hosea’s dish I had little to no interest in anything else served. If I had attended I would have removed any ribbons from Jamie’s dish. Which hurts because Jamie is my number 2 as of now, but I’m slowly learning that first impressions this season aren’t as valid as in the past. I’m looking at you Eugene. Speaking of Eugene, he joins Melissa and Jamie in the bottom three. After hearing how horrid their food was, the three are sent back to await the decision.
Tom comes in – huh? That’s odd – and is clear in telling them how uninspiring the food was. ”You don’t win with a deviled egg.” He then tells everyone that no one is going home, it being the holidays and all.
Wow. In a week where there were at least two people who should have been booted no one goes.
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