It's Elementary

Top Chef Chicago Episode 5
Forget the Alamo, Remember the Bacon!

Previously on TOP CHEF, Manuel gets two thumbs down for being a follower, not a leader, in Spike’s ill-fated homage to Robin Williams.

This week opens with an interesting Quickfire challenge in which the chefs are blindfolded and forced to use their “refined palates” to distinguish between a high quality ingredient and one we’d pick up in the Speedy Mart. Surprisingly, Stephanie comes in last with only six out of fifteen. Honorable mention goes to Jen and Ryan for getting eleven of the fifteen, while Antonia gets the immunity by getting 12 out of 15 (a solid 80%). Surprisingly, Zoi moans about Jen getting the better of her, just like any supportive partner would do. Only, not.

The guest judge, by the way, is Ming Tsai. Also, I’d like to point out how much quicker these mini-caps go when I don’t have to describe a bunch of different Quickfire dishes. Just warning you – I won’t always be so succinct.

For the elimination challenge, the chefs pull knives to break into four teams, each assigned a different element: Earth (Antonia, Zoi and Spike), Water (Richard, Andrew and Mark), Fire (Dale, Lisa, Stephanie) and Air (Jennifer, Ryan and Nikki). Each team is to make a first course for a fundraising dinner, with the course being element-themed. Richard takes charge of Water right away, cooking sous vide salmon coupled with a rerun of mock caviar (and I don’t get the reasoning here – does tapioca have more to do with water than fish eggs?). Spike is pulling for the earthiness of a butternut squash soup, but Antonia overrides with a beef and mushroom idea. The Fire team seems to be a bit disorganized at first, with Lisa fighting for Asian flavors. She eventually gets her way; the team comes together with the winning plate of spicy shrimp and chili salad, and Lisa is rewarded for her bacon-cooking technique with a trip to Italy. (As Ted Allen said last season, “Two words – ba-con.”) Team Air does a duck breast which seems forgettable (at least to the judges), and Water and Earth get called back for bashing.

Richard gets called out for mushy, scaly salmon, which sounds pretty disgusting, but apparently isn’t as bad as Earth’s beef carpaccio with mushrooms, which was generally hated by the diners at the event. Spike’s butternut squash idea receives support, but he and Zoi are admonished for letting someone who had immunity make decisions so important to their fate. And it’s Zoi who’s sent walking, for her under-seasoned mushrooms and general blahness.

And then for some reason all havoc breaks out. Jennifer is angry at Zoi’s knifing (and I guess that’s understandable) and lashes out at Spike. Then Dale takes the opportunity to yell at Lisa, because it just irks him that he forgot the bacon rule and is stuck in Chicago while she’s jettisoning to Italy. Or something like that.

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