This week on Top Chef: Texas, the contestants are tasked with a steak dinner — but who goes for style over substance?
With the loss of Chuy last week, we’re down to only five guys — Edward is highly intimidated by the concept of being the only guy in the house. If this was one of those awful dating shows, I think he’d have a different tune. Now I’m not necessarily advocating next season’s inevitable Top Chef: Now We’re All Dating Somehow, but it’s coming. Trust me, it’s coming.
Chef Dean Fearing, award winner and restaurant owner, is the guest chef this time around, and the Quickfire is solid, if not that unusual. The chefs pick knives to randomly select one sauce out of five classic sauces to make, to show off their saucier skills. It’s a good technical challenge, as sauce making is difficult even for otherwise talented chefs. In This week’s scallop count, both Dakota and Grayson utilize scallops in their dishes — Dakota is among the worst, but Grayson picks up the win and immunity for her take on hollandaise sauce!
I think the amusing question of the challenge was Chef Fearing asking “What color was your roux?” Paul didn’t use it! A no-no in classic French cooking for sauces, including his espagnole. In contrast, Whitney’s tomato didn’t either — she was thinking “I don’t, and I never will, sir,” but out loud she was nothing but polite. In retrospect, pride cometh before the fall, I suppose. In a bit of a running theme this episode, Heather was annoyed or being annoying, this time at Beverly again, for always making Asian influenced dishes even when not really appropriate.
The Elimination Challenge was a standard sort: cook a four course steak dinner for 200 guests at the Cattle Baron’s Ball. Foreshadowing her eventual win, Heather was a bit bullying but still in the episode quite a lot. The dramatic portion of this episode ramped up when Ty-lör cut his hands on an oyster knife — could he still cook the steaks to medium rare perfection? As it turns out, no, not at all. But his messy and badly cooked steak paled in comparison to blank slate Whitney’s undercooked potato au gratin — that doesn’t sound that good either. Whitney is sent off to face Chuy in the online Last Chance Kitchen “cook the classic American burger” challenge … Spoiler: Chuy loses! Watch for yourself to see why.
Clacked by Jeremy Fogelman 
on Dec 08, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
