The Bland Leading The Bland

I’m a little late reporting on Top Chef this week due to car appointments and doctors’ appointments. It was a great week on Top Chef with a lot of life lessons to take from it.

Admit your mistakes, don’t be afraid to bring your creativity to the forefront, don’t have such an ego that you refuse to take advise from those more successful than you are, always make sure your meat is well done, always be kind to your competition because they may judge you some day, sometimes if you get a second chance you can excel at your craft and don’t smell up the place.

Guest judge this week was desert specialist, Jean-Christophe Novelli. The QuickFire Challenge was to make sugar free desserts that didn’t taste sugar free. The top three dishes were: Jeff’s Frozen Cherry & White Fig Yogurt with s baklava spring roll; Leah’s Crepe with whipped ricotta strawberries and balsamic reduction; and the immunity winner Radhika’s bread pudding with sautéed white peach and roasted cashews.

On the elimination challenge. The new judge replacing the honeymooning newlywed Gail Simmons is U.K. food critic, Toby Young. Young seems a little more brutal than the other judges with comments like “it tastes like cat food”, “the bland leading the bland “ and “we found the weapons of mass destruction in that soup.”

The elimination challenge was to create a family style mean for a blind tasting. The cooks were divided into two groups. Group A - was Melissa, Fabio, Eugene, Jamie, and Hosea. Group B- was Stefan, Ariane, Jeff, Carla, and Leah. As the winner of the Quickfire Challenge Radhika got to choose her group and chose Group A to avoid Stefan. The judges for the Elimination Challenge? Padma, Toby, Tom, Jean-Christophe, and each group of chefs judging the other group’s dishes!

The best three dishes were my gal Ariane’s skate wing with pineapple and cauliflower puree, Stefan’s roasted duck and braised cabbage with bread dumplings, and Jamie’s seared scallops with fennel garlic, oranges and olives. This weeks winner? Jamie went to the bottom three the last time she cooked scallops but this time she redeemed herself and took home this week’s trophy!

The bottom three dishes were Carla’s seared scallops on top of risotto with Grenqlata topping, Melissa’s ani tuna crudo tacos, and Eugene’s crispy red snapper with tomato, basil, and daikon fettuccini. At the judges table Carla admitted her mistake and said she wasn’t surprised to be in the bottom three because her dish didn’t turn out the way she wanted. Melissa was reamed for making to simple of a dish and not being creative enough. Eugene as he has in the past showed an ego the size of New York by saying he shouldn’t try such hard dishes but should do easy ones like his competitors. Eugene has consistently throughout this season of Top Chef refused the advise of those more successful than he is, the judges. Toby referred to Eugene’s dish as “:the bland leading the bland.” Two of the three were sent home. The one staying is the one that admitted her failing, Carla. Eugene and Mellissa were sent packing.

I hope this week your life will more exciting than the judges found Eugene’s dish and this week the bland won’t lead the bland in your life!