In Top Chef-it's yellow, turned-on asparagus and a Polish sausage dish with no polish sausage.
A review of the episodes aired on this cooking show the week of 4/25/08.
Pic of the Day
Pics of Top 15 Contenders in Hell's Kitchen 08
The Pasta Challenge and Hell’s Kitchen Family Night
If ever there were a restaurant less suitable for children it has to be Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen. For while the menu of Chef Gordon Ramsey’s famous eatery of TV fame is vague to even the most dedicated viewer of the reality series with the same name as the restaurant, I do know that Risotto is one popular dish served and I don’t know a child in my surround that likes Risotto.
But not to fear for Chef Ramsey not only altered the menu to include such family favorites as hamburgers and chicken, he brought in a small circus type of affair for this gala event.
Thus the contenders to win a top chef position at Ramsey’s restaurant to open in California were charged with not only offering up a full service on Hell’s Kitchen family night but also, in some cases, had to clean up the pony poop.
The show began with a pasta challenge. The chef contenders were to make their own pasta, in blue and red teams as is the norm…blue being male and red being female, and in a short period of time would be judged by which team produced the most pasta acceptable to Chef Ramsey.
Each team first designated their strongest team member. The red team appointed Jennifer with that honor and the blue team chose contender Ben.
When all was over but the shouting and a few contenders stood with pasta draped over their extended arms, the female team won the pasta challenge.
After the pasta challenge and after the female team enjoyed a day at an amusement park, Family Night at Hell’s Kitchen premiered, so to speak, and the service completed.
As always, there was chaos, yelling, cussing, contenders shouting “Yes, Chef”. Again, as always, some contender made a big cooking boo-boo and this time it was Matt, who served up raw chicken wings to the little children.
Well seriously, any so-called cook who can’t even cook chicken thoroughly should be fired right on the spot so far as I am concerned and yet, Chef Ramsey goes after the blue team’s designated leader, Ben, and I was not at all sure why.
The blue team, the males, lost the challenge of Hell’s Kitchen Family night. Bobby, the self-proclaimed black Chef Ramsey was appointed by Ramsey with the task of nominating two of his teammates for elimination. Bobby chose, rightfully, Matt of the raw chicken and contender Craig, who managed to serve no purpose on this episode save get in everyone’s way the whole night.
Then, oddly, Chef Ramsey nominates another fellow for elimination, blue team leader Ben.
It was never at all clear to me why Chef Ramsey had a bug up his ass about Ben. I heard vague references to leadership issues and hey, Ben was the leader of the blue team and this team DID lose the challenge. But if Ramsey’s going to start eliminating contenders on the basis of their leadership style then ALL of the contenders should be on the block. So far as I recall, this was the first time this year that Ramsey had team leaders appointed.
It’s not all firm and official, this team leader thing, as it is in, say, Trump’s Apprentice series.
Further, I think Ben did an okay job as his team leader, even volunteering to do an unknown job which turned out to be shoveling horse poop. Yes, Ben’s team lost the Family Night challenge but again, it isn’t as if appointing a hastily assigned leader is part of this reality show’s modus operandi.
At any rate, despite Ramsey’s odd chastisement of Ben, Craig, he with the two left thumbs, was sent packing.
I still say the contender who can’t even cook chicken should have been shown the door.
But what do I know about running a restaurant? Except I know that the food should be properly cooked.
Heh.
Contenders, 2008 "Hell's Kitchen"
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Vanessa, 31,Line Cook-
RosAnn, 33,Receptionist/Former cook-
Craig, 30,Sous Chef-Sent Home 4/22/08
Bobby, 37, Executive Chef-
Louross, 24,Hotel cook-
Dominic,43,Stay at Home Dad-Sent Home 4/1/08
Jen, 24,Line Cook-
Corey,25,Private Chef-
Jason,29,Sous Chef-Sent Home 4/15/08
Shayna ,28,Owner, catering company-
Matt35,Sous Chef-
Petrozza,47,Catering Director-
Sharon, 31,Room Service Chef-Sent Home 4/8/08
Ben, 29, Electricia/former chef-
Christina, 25,culinary student-
Top Chef Creates Food from Laughter
Click to View All Top Chef Chicago 08 Contenders
It began with a dessert challenge. Each Top Chef Chicago contender had to create a splendid dessert for the judges, including the guest judge from an area restaurant-QUICKFIRE.
I suppose that these finalists in the Top Chef Chicago 2008 series have their own desserts that they make readily and with much practice. If I were to be given that same challenge, a not unreasonable possibility for even a humble home chef, frankly I don’t know what I’d make. I assume that the Top Chef kitchen has all manner of ingredients at the ready so it isn’t like I’d be hampered by lack of ingredients, often the case with us humble home chefs.
I do have a few desserts that turn out quite well. Well hey, chocolate chip cookies is something I dish up often and they are beloved by all who eat. Kaitlyn will eat the dough with great relish and she also helps me make the cookies from time to time.
But chocolate chip cookies is hardly gourmet and the stuff of Top Chefs.
The desserts as prepared by the would-be Top Chefs were, as I expected, much more elaborate than my chocolate chip cookies. The winner of this challenge would be the only one to have that recipe in a Top Chef cookbook.
Contender Richard had quite the night on this episode of Top Chef Chicago 2008. He not only won this dessert challenge, he also, along with his teammate Dale, won the big challenge of the night.
The contenders went to a Second City comedy show. As viewers learned, Second City is the wellspring of many famous comedians as well as many more up and comers. Steve Carrell, the 40 year old virgin, is one such Second City graduate.
At some point during the comedy show, a chart was brought onstage and the audience was asked for colors, emotions and a food. A table of these items was created on the chart, resulting in a strange list such as:
Yellow Love Vanilla
Magenta Drunk Polish Sausage
Orange Turned-on Asparagus
Purple Depressed Bacon
Green Perplexed Tofu
Some of those emotions are weird, yes. Is “turned-on” really an emotion and is “vanilla” really a foodstuff?
Whatever the case, the remaining contenders, ten at the episodic date of this review, were split into teams of two each and given one item from the above list. Spike and Andrew had the yellow,love,vanilla list; Antonia and Lisa had the magenta,drunk,polish sausage; Stephanie and Jennifer had orange,turned-on asparagus; Mark and Nikki had purple, depressed bacon; Dale and Richard had green,perplexed tofu.
The dishes as concocted based on this odd challenge were, well creative, as the kind would say. Or horrible as the truthful might assert.
The submissions considered as the worst of the offerings included Antonia and Lisa’s “magenta, drunk, polish sausage” challenge. This was mostly because this female duo did NOT have one milligram of polish sausage in their submission, how dumb is this?
Antonia and Lisa argued that a bunch of drunks in a comedy audience shouldn’t be dictating the sorts of food they cook for the challenge but hey, as the judges shrugged, THAT WAS THE CHALLENGE!
Duh. So to willy-nilly ignore the rules of the challenge, no matter how dumb it might seem, is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the judges.
Stephanie and Jennifer was the second team nominated as the worst of the worst for their entrée “orange, turned-on asparagus”. Well hey, that was a weird combination of foods too but Stephanie and Jennifer came up with something they called “ménage a trois” which was supposed to have a sexy inference re the word “turned-on” of their challenge. The dish included lots of oranges, a stale bread of some kind, and yes, they did at least include asparagus in their dish.
However, the judges deemed Stephanie and Jennifer’s dish the worst and the judges sent Jennifer home based on her role in the cooking disaster.
The two teams who submitted the judge’s favorite dishes were Dale and Richard and Andrew and Spike.
Spike and Andrew created some sort of soup type of affair accented with vanilla crème fraiche. Their words were “yellow,love,vanilla”. The soup was created with squash which gave it a mellow yellow color.
Dale and Richard really did create quite the dish although I didn’t taste that tofu and I’d have to so test because the judges declared the tofu was delicious and I have never tasted delicious tofu.
Richard and Dale were charged with creating a dish based on the three words “Green, perplexed, tofu”. In a stroke of genius Richard came up with the idea of soaking tofu in beef fat and like I said, the judges thought the tofu really tasted like steak!
Again, I’m skeptical but hey, I’m no judge in Top Chef Chicago 2008 and I suppose they know what steak tastes like and what tofu tastes like and one tasting like the other stretches my credibility.
Whatever the case, Richard and Dale’s Steak Tofu won the prize of the Second City challenge, with Dale and Richard winning $2,500 worth of kitchenware as a prize.
Actually I thought the challenge was a bit dumb but a few of those contenders used their noggin to come up with dishes that met the criteria of the challenge and featured their own special dish as well. Spike was quite confident in his squash soup and Richard knew that soak anything in beef fat and it will end up tasting like steak.
Top 12 Contenders Top Chef Chicago 2008
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Nikki Cascone, 35-
Mark Simmons, 29-Sent Home 4/16/08
Staphanie Izard, 31-Chef/Chicago-
Dale Talde, 29, Sous Chef/Buddakan-
Richard Blais, 35, Chef/Trail-Blais-
Spike Mendelsohn, 27-
Antonia, 31, Executive Chef/Foxtail-
Zoi Antonitsas,30, Chef/Consultant-Sent home 4/9/08
Jennifer Biesty, 35, Exec. Chef/Coco500-Sent Home 4/23/08
Ryan Scott, 28, Chef/Mgr/Café Myth-
Lisa Fernandes, 27, Sous Chef-NY-
Andrew Dambrosi, 30, Sous Chef, Le Cirque-
Prior Links to Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef Chicago 2008 Episodes
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Premiere Episode
Episode aired 4/8/08
Episode aired 4/15/08
Hell’s Kitchen Family Night, Top Chef and Second City
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