Top Chef Chicago – Protect and Serve

Top Chef is probably my favorite show. I enjoy the cooking and just overall, it is fun for me to watch. I am a day late in posting my thoughts on Wednesday’s episode, but you know, that’slife, it happens and I can’t change that!

So we start with the Quickfire and who is the guest judge, none other that season two’s hunk chef, Sam! Oh how I have missed Sam! I think he is great, although I noticed that Antonia was liking him too. Humm…so the challenge is to make salad sexy again, when was salad ever sexy? I am sorry, I love salad, but I never order it thinking it’s sexy. I love a good cobb salad from time to time, but I would never call it sexy, and I didn’t think any of the chefs creations were sexy. Anywy, they had to create a new salad.

So anyway, Lisa is bitching about people not deserving to be here still, humm isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black, girl you have been in the bottom more times than I can count at this point, and you think you deserve to be here? The only reason you are still here is because someone screwed up worse than you, not because you are any good!

So, the bottom three are Richard, who didn’t really do a salad, Stephanie, who didn’t plate all her food, and Lisa, no suprise there, whose flavors were completely over powered by a banana.  The top three, Antonia, who had a poached egg on top of a salad, which to me I am thinking yuck, but then again I am not a poached egg person; Dale, his Asian salad, humm the comment that all he can cook is asian was brought up again, but then again, he is cooking good food; and Spike, wait, did I just say that, oh my heavens, yes Spike was in the top, and then Spike was announced the winner! I about choked on my Diet Big Red! Not Spike, oh wait, there is no immunity, so ok.

So for the Elimination Challenge the chefs have to make a healthy boxed lunch for the cadets at the Chicago Police Acadmey, and each meal must include: a whole grain, a lean protein, veggies and fruits and as the winner, Spike will be allowed 10 minutes extra to shop, and he will be allowed to pick one item from each catergory that no one else will be allowed to use. The problem with this is that it all went to Spike’e head fast, and he was determined to screw over the other contestants, instead of focusing on his own food! Bad omen here for you buddy!

So in the end, Dale and Stephanie are called before the judges. Dale made a Lemongrass lettuce wrap, without lettuce, since Spike took the lettuce, he used Napa Cabbage instead. The judges all liked the flavors and felt it was good. Stephanie made a meatball and leek soup which went over well with the judges and the cadets, had good flavor and was filling.  In the end, the winner is Dale, to which he mentions that he has won five of the challenges now….hummm, and people don’t like Dale! I have to say, he was great this challenge, he didn’t piss anyone off, and yet they all complained about him like always, I am beginning to think the complaining is more jealousy than anything Dale is actually doing, because hey in a competion, no one likes the guy who keeps beating them.

Spike, Andrew and Lisa are called before the judges as the bottom three, and that surprises who? I mean, Lisa might as well take out a room in the bottom three, she is almost always there! Spike, now he thought he was good since he won the Quickfire, but that went to his head so fast he got so interested in messing with everyone else that he forgot to cook good food, and Andrew, well he just completely ignored the challenge and made what he wanted because he knows nutrition, yeah well I know nutrition too but that doesn’t mean I always eat what I should!

This judges table went downhill fast, about the mintue that it started! Andrew going of on the judges that he knows nutrition and this was good food, about not knowing the rules, or losing his rule sheet and just generally being an idiot in front of the judges. Then comes Spike, and he is just about as bad, in that he made good food, and when Tom mentioned that four dishes were better than his, he said “in your opinion”, wrong answer! Tom’s opnion is the one that matters, you better be impressing him. Then comes Lisa, who claims she has no idea why she is here, actually I think what was said was “Tell us whay you think you are her” and Lisa responds with “Your the one who called me here, you tell me”. When they tell her the shrimp was undercooked, the flavor was nasty and the rice was undercooked, she goes off on someone turning the burner up on her rice on purpose, okay, you know, there are carmeras everywhere, who in their right mind would do something like that with all the cameras, because I am sure that there is enough footage to prove that claim if it would have happened. So I am of the mind that she screwed up, again, and couldn’t or wouldn’t take the blame, again.  It was her dish, and even the judges said if you forgot about the rice altogether, it was still bad….she refused to stand by her dish.

Now, I was hoping they would send Lisa and Andrew home, and maybe even Spike, but in the end they sent Andrew, which was fine with me, because he was getting on my last nerve, the only one that Lisa hadn’t gotten to yet. Now, can we send Lisa home next week! That girl is so negative! I mean, everyone laughed and complained about Dale when he told her she was negative and that it wore on people, hummm can we say thank you dale now, because he was correct. All she does is complain, about the others, about the place, about anything and everything and it is getting old, way old! I don’t want to hear her anymore, in fact I have started muting the girl when she talks because I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life either!

So, next week, it looks like we get the resturant wars back, this should be fun. I can’t see any of these people other than Richard and Dale working together as a team!

Oh….I should note, that David Dust, who does a wonderful recap of the show, found the picture of Sam that I used above. When I saw it, I was like, oh please, I have to have a picture of Sam.  I am always looking for pictures to put in the post, maybe I’ll have to find one of Ted Allen for the next time he is guest judge, but I wanted you all to know, that David found the picture and not me!!