Top Chef Tuesdays: S08 E08

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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Anyone else bored with this episode? I'm having a hard time wanting to do a write up. So, uneventful. So very yawn.

It's fashion week in New York and Isaac Mizrahi is... wait a second? Am I watching Project Runway? What the heck? No, no. There's Padma and the chefs. weird.

The chefs need to make a plate that will be judged solely on presentation and aesthetics for their quickfire. There will be no eating of the dishes.

This is where I am shocked. Why are people working SO hard cooking stuff? Presentation, presentation, presentation! Make something that will make me want to eat your food. Food P0rn. What is the matter with them?

Angelo's plastic bag full of squished food totally had me in disbelief. What? Who in their right mind would want to eat that? I think Fabi'oh' had it correct in calling it a bag of vomit. Tre and Dale had a plate of abstract & graffiti "art" which didn't entice me to eat but instead made me think of painting. They were the bottom three at judging.

Carla had a visually pleasing cucumber filled borscht dish. Fabi'oh' was on an "acid trip" when he concocted his dish complete with story of a woman with an umbrella who was getting rained on. His dish did look nice, complete with a written script on the plate, but when he started squeezing a lemon to have "acid rain", I was really embarrassed for him. It was Richard's black ice cream dish that won the quickfire because as Isaac said he "would love to eat it."

And onto the Elimination Challenge where a 3 pack of "mafioso-looking men" walk into the room. Franki "No", Franki Jr. and Dino, the chef from Rao's Italian family restaurant, come to tell the chefs they are to each create an Italian dish inspired by their 114 yr old restaurant which is all about family and tradition. Simplified food that reminds them of home.

We hear stories of the Italians of the group: Fabi'oh', Mike, Angelo and Antonia but it was Tre who made me laugh out loud with his statement that people call him a "Black Italian". He sure looks like a black "Italian Stallion" to me. And Tiffany is sure she has a good shot keeping up with the Italians since she worked at an Italian restaurant for 5 years.

Our judges are the usual brat pack: Tom (who is Italian), Padma, Tony Bourdain (who is also Italian) alongside the Rao's family and guest judge Lorraine Bracco, who make me miss The Soprano's.

The top 4 are Carla, Tiffani,Fabi'oh' and Antonia. The judges thought Carla's dish was good but not great, Tiffani's sausage and polenta were great and but Fabi'oh's polenta and caccitori was more "old world" to them in comparison. Antonia took the prize for her simplified mussels, which spoke for itself, and was served family-style creating the all around perfect comfort dish.

Mike embarrassed his Italian jersey-shore roots by serving undercooked fresh pasta with calamari. Even though he was told boxed pasta was perfectly fine to use, he went and made hard fresh pasta. Oh mama mia, what a stubborn Italian.

Dale made the same dish he served his girlfried for a romantic dinner, a homemade pasta with brussel sprouts. His dish was undercooked, bland and didn't have enough sauce. Lorraine Bracco stated that if she was his girlfriend, he would not be getting laid after a dish like that! HA!

Tre's risotto failed to impress as it was not creamy but firm and did not even spread in the dish and he buried it with garnish. The "Black Italian" was wacked. Too bad, I'll miss his muscles.

I'm hoping next week's episode is more entertaining. Later peeps.