RAHiggins1

I knew whoever drew Blais as Sous was going to win going into this episode.

Top Chef tryouts were held at Craft Atlanta this last Sunday. Grant Achatz of Alinea fame was spotted around town on Monday.

That's a bit of stretch. I would equate that with looking at pictures and descriptions of a great meal vs actually eating one in the restaurant. ← What I meant was - just because she doesn't drink socially it doesn't mean she doesn't taste wine or has never tasted wine. ← wine tasters usually spit the stuff back out. I could never be a wine taster, guzzler maybe..

Same food, two schools of thought. The biggest difference I know is that creole uses butter in the roux and cooks it darker. Maque Choux is a cajun dish that the Acadians got from the local indians.

I was hoping Jeff would win and send Stephan and Fabio packing.

Mahn dat don seem rat. Tree 99 a poun for summa dem mudbugs?

I'm surprised to see TB did not showcase "Balut" a fermented duck egg. I also have fond remembrances of a beer called "Red Horse". Ah.. The good ol Marine Corps days..

I'll be more succinct than some here. At the risk of being insensitive, take your lumps and learn a hard lesson. You need paper contracts and a deposit that covers your costs before you lift a finger to do anything else. You should never have let it get to this point.

Bugs are $2.50/lb here in Atlanta at "Your Dekalb Farmers Market" or at least that was the last price I saw posted, but they did not have any on display. It's a hoot to see people picking them out with tongs in a big bin. I just smirk and walk over to the wholesale counter and ask for two thirty pound sacks please.

On a seperate thought, the "Classics" are so well shunned these days in modern kitchens, that it CAN be used as a hurdle to get over. According to Ruhlman's "Soul Of A Chef" the CIA uses it thusly in their master chef cert program. Although my chef chortled at the notion of taking that test.

This is the second challenge where the chefs were asked to reproduce a dish. Creativity is great, but replicating or just cooking the classics takes skill too. The spinach wasn't a flaw, it just tasted the same when served "two ways" or that's how I perceived it. So, 1 strke for overcooking the Salmon. Leah, served a runny egg with a runny hollandaise. That would be two strikes in my book. So for me it was pretty much straight forward on the judging. This is the second time they made me think Carla was going to win the elimination. I'm on the Carla bandwagon too. I will be looking to see her take it in New Orleans and she has already done Gumbo!

no one was watching the show.

Chef Blais weighed in on this episode on Bravo. Here's the link - "Chicken and Caviar" I think he nails it all around. *edited link cause it was going to page 2.

Serving the whole table is essential to turning the table. Restaurants make money off how many times a table can be in an evening. Serving food at different times ensures that the guests stay longer than they should.

My favorite Chinese place just shut it doors with no notice. Poof, its gone. No one knows why. Fortunately I found another that is ran by 2 little, old, taiwanese ladies and the food is marvelous.

This is by far my favorite challenge. I was talking to the TV while watching it, "I hope you guys are paying attention cause you're gonna have to reproduce it later!" I think picking apart a dish and then reproducing it in that short of a time frame is extremely difficult. Carla really surprised me this episode.

Most chefs are lucky to get away and do one episode.

What I don't get is how Jamie is preparing Chilean Sea Bass and calling it sustainable and local?

I have no problem with Leah staying, because the rules are clear: in team challenges, the whole team gets the win. Also, I think she's very clearly a better chef than Carla, who is still in the game.Radhika suffered because the judging is one challenge at a time, and not cumulative. Looking at just this challenge, there's a colorable argument that Radhika deserved to go, because she was the "owner" of the restaurant. But if you consider the whole body of work to date, Carla seems to wind up near the bottom over & over again, just managing to avoid elimination, while Radhika has generally been a star. With a bit better luck, I could have imagined her winning the season, while it is inconceivable that Carla would. But frankly, even judging this challenge in isolation, I would have sent Carla home, because this is fundamentally a cooking show, and on the losing team Carla cooked the worst food. Radhika proved she doesn't belong in the front of house, but the name of the show is Top Chef, not Top Host. ← That is exactly the type of arguement you have to present at the judges table too. Unfortunately it is also very cut throat to do so, but it is after all a competition.

Now that they have Toby, maybe Tom could take a season off and have Gordon Ramsey take his spot. Then TC can get bought by Fox and Voila! Top Iron Hell's Kitchen Nightmare Chef Masters Chopped!

Congratulations.

I use a very small amount of oil and butter. Low heat will cause them to stew, you need the water released to evapoate. You're actually cooking the sugars not the onions to get the lovely dark caramel.

I save large coffee cans and pour the oil/grease into it once its cooled and put it in the freezer until the can is full, then I toss it out with the trash but I'll be making suet since reading about it here. The exception being bacon grease, that goes in a bowl in the fridge to be used in something else.

Spelling noted, but am unable to edit Title.. Hopefully someone who can will. If you like it with wine, then in a milkshake is going to blow your mind.

Then the farm would have to be near the ocean...or just stick them on a deserted island. Wait, that's another show. ← Top Chef 6 - The Donner Party. The UFC meets The CIA.....best show ever. ← That would make a great finale for when they go to Aspen to collect their year's supply of Evian and Glad bags...