The finals for Top Chef All-Stars started in the Bahamas,where their first Quickfire hurdle to overcome was having a one on one cook-off with the winner of their initial season.
Each group was given one protein to work with that was chosen by Judge Tom. Some chefs wound up losing yet again to their former cooking comrades such as Carla did to Hosea and Antonia did to Stephanie(which was a matter of choosing the lesser of two failed veal plates).
Others,however,beat their season winner and received ten grand for it,like Mikey Isabella did when he trounced Michael Voltaggio(quite a stunner there!). Stephanie also had to compete against Richard,who made the best out of three veal dishes,and his win should have boosted his confidence but the man is still way too tense.
For the Elimination challenge,the chefs were told they had to make dinner for "Bahamian royalty",so they planned on making mostly high end meals. When they got to the location,however,it turned out that the royalty in question was the King of Junkanoo(the Bahamas version of Mardi Gras King)and his crew.
That threw them off a little but not as much as the fire that broke out in the restaurant kitchen they had to use. One of the deep fryers was faulty,which Antonia spotted right away,and it went up,causing an evacuation as well as a delay.
Fortunately,no one was hurt and the chefs were able to return to the kitchen after redoing their prep(the food they had originally brought was contaminated by the fire extinguisher chemicals). That gave a few of them the chance to rethink their dishes.
Antonia changed her plate from lamb to shrimp,served with grits that had pork and pickled veggies mixed into it. Not a bad idea but her shrimp was overcooked and the grits came out tasting stringy with the pork pieces.
Most of the food presented in this round was underwhelming but the guys did better than the girls on this one. Richard was declared safe for his roast lamb loin and braised leg while Mikey took the win for sous vide chicken with lobster sauce and lobster hash. He's on his best behavior but some of that ego tripping is leaking out again. Keep it in check,Mikey!
It was a hard choice to pick just one person to pack their knives and go since all of the ladies' plates had flaws in them-Antonia with the lack of execution,Tiffany for playing it too safe and Carla,whose apple chip on her pork tenderloin was way too sweet.
That wasn't the worst element on Carla's plate,however-some of the pork came out raw due to her cooking it in a counter top deep fryer(a replacement for the damaged ones from the fire)and not gauging the cooking time correctly. It was a mistake anyone could have made and Carla's won some great prizes this season,so this is not as bad as her departure from her original season,if you think about it.
Next week,the chefs have to go under the sea for one challenge and team up for another. I smell a double elimination coming!
The latest leg of The Amazing Race:Unfinished Business took the teams to Japan,where the Detour challenges gave them a choice between searching a mud pit for a lucky frog figurine while having onlookers throw mudballs at them or taking part in a prayer ritual that involved standing under a freezing cold waterfall.
Only two teams chose the waterfall-the Globetrotters and father/daughter Ron and Christina. They were back to back with each other,which resulted in a mix-up with the fanny packs that caused Ron and Christina to panic about their pack being potentially stolen.
The pack was found in the men's changing room,where the Globetrotters had left it,and no harm was really done. However,Ron complained to Phil about the incident when he and Christina arrived at the Pit Stop so the Globetrotters received a penalty which will cause them to start off the next leg of the race later than them.
While I would have been upset over that bit,too,it didn't cause Ron and Christina to lose any time(they came in fourth place)and no malice appeared to be intended from the Globetrotters here. Ron was a touchy fella during his first time on TAR and he's getting worse on this run. There is a right time and place to pick your battles,sir,and I don't think that you choose wisely this round:
The Top 13 performed on American Idol last night,with the loose theme of "pick a song from your personal musical idol". Producers from Interscope Records worked with each of them to hone their voices for the show,which made most of the numbers sound a tad generic.
Usually I start handing out the Sanjaya award to the worst song of the night but since no one was that bad(a couple of them came close,especially Paul with his annoying rasp and goofy dancing),I'll shine the spotlight on a performance that truly impressed me the most. James Durbin's take on "Maybe I'm Amazed" was damn good and gives me hope for better numbers to come this season:
RANDOM NOTES:
CHARLIE SHEEN PARODY EDITION: With Charlie being the biggest celebrity train wreck on the block,comedy skit shows have plenty of mockery material to work with. First up is the Soup's idea of what Charlie's ten million book proposal would be like:
Out of all the wacky phrases that Sheen has uttered of late,"Duh! Winning" seems to be the people's champion. Saturday Night Live was able to hit many celeb targets with one Sheen stone for their opening skit last weekend(watch for Miley Cyrus as Lindsay Lohan)and the way things are going,it's the comedians who are really winning here:
No comments:
Post a Comment