Top Chef Tuesdays: S08 E02

Join me on my blog for Top Chef Tuesdays, as I recap each episode. I'm aware that Top Chef All Stars has already been airing in the US and we Canadians are a couple (*ahem - maybe more than a couple) episodes behind. So please, all you folks who are ahead of the watching, please, no spoilers. I'm recaping in my own personal opinion and it is all in good fun. Please join me in the comments.

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Popcorn in hand, I'm ready to watch and we are taken to the American Museum of Natural History with Padma and Joe Jonas. Who? Who is Joe Jonas? Some of the chefs wonder while others, who have young children, unfortunately, know exactly who he is. The "perks" of being a parent.

The chef's challenge is to create a midnight snack for the kids sleeping over at the museum. This is where you grab your shot glass and join me in a drinking game where every time sugar is mentioned, you take a sip. Not even a minute in, you are feeling the buzz. From sugar-laden chocolate bars to sweet snickerdoodles and Dale L.'s "crack... that will jack up the children on sugar... like a 10 year old rave". Ahhh, that was completely awesome, especially watching headband-wearing Dale T. feeling the beats in the background.

This is where I wonder if the chefs get annoyed with guest judges. I'd be rolling my eyes at Joe Jonas if he was telling me that the chocolate or mint wasn't strong enough in my dish. Who the heck are you again, Mr. Teenage Heart-Throb???

It's a tie between Spike's Potato and Carrot Chips with marshmallow-marscapone dip and Tiffany's Rice Crispy Snowball with malted milk and graham crackers. The decision will be made by the children and the chefs will be split into 2 teams to prep the two dishes. As Dale L puts it "it's the Cool guys with babysitter Carla versus the Spice girls with their bodyguard".

The chefs take their turns complaining how they dislike children and that they are "screaming tazmanian devils". So true, especially when the clips of sugar-high kids are shown, and I think to myself this is why us parents drink.

"Sugar" Quick, take a shot.



No sooner is Tiffany's Rice crispy snowball chosen as the winner than Tom walks in giving the chef's their Elimination challenge, which is to make breakfast for the parents and children and it will have to be dino-inspired. T-Rex team (meat, eggs, dairy) versus Team Brontosaurus (fruit, vegies, grains).

While most of the chefs settle into their cots for the night, a few decide to go do a flashlight tour, a la Ben Stiller-style. Now this is my kind of silly fun, where the guys make jokes about seeing Fabi'oh' and "Casey in the morning" pointing out of the cavemen in the prehistoric section of the museum. Hahaha, I'm so immature.

Team T-Rex are disappointed to see that they literally only had meat, eggs and dairy which makes it harder to pull of better dishes versus Team Bronte which had "sunshine, puppies and rainbows" to work with as one chef mentions. hehe.

Jamie leaves the kitchen to receive stitches, I gag over the undelectable-looking egg pucks frittatas from Antonia and Tiffany D and I laugh as Fabi'oh' works the crowd like a politician, serving the children "pill'oh'ws made out of p'oh'tat'oh's" and smooching all the women. Man, I love my Fabi'oh'.

At judges table, Team Brontosaurus is chosen as the winning team with Angelo, Richard and Marcel's Banana Parfait being the winning dish. Team T-Rex are called in and Jen is the alpha T-Rex of the group, snorting and hungrily tearing a strip out of the judges, telling them that they "...are smart enough to ask for a different plates if they didn't like..." how it wasn't served individually. Jen continues to rage and defends her dish, fighting right to the end, where she is sent home for a bland, soft, and overall a dish that seemed lost.

Maybe Jen should have played the shot glass game with the other chefs while waiting in the broom closet waiting room, it might have mellowed her out. I've never seen that side of her and she even tells the other surprised chefs that "Welcome to Jen All-Stars". I'm sad to see her go as I quite liked her. But if your dish sucks, you go home and as Tom put it, defending it to the bitter end doesn't make the dish better.