TC News & Information

Kevin Gillespie's beard has fans, and they had a party.

The LA Times Daily Dish blog examines the strengths and weaknesses of the three Top Chef Masters finalists.

Get to know Top Chef DC competitor Andrea Curto-Randazzo a bit via this interview in the Miami New Times.

Carla Hall makes sardines tasty. Or so says this NPR article.

Top Recipe - Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 9

The written-out version of Marcus Samuelsson's confit of salmon can be found here.

Exit Interviews - Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 9

Congratulations, Chef Marcus Samuelsson!

Throughout the competition, Chef Samuelsson has produced highly creative and delicious work, but only now was he able to best his competition in both the Quickfire and the Elimination Challenges. Pretty impressive thing to do when you're among the best of the best! His soupy interpretation of Jonathan Waxman's dish in the QF impressed James Oseland, as did his violet/pleasure/salmon work in the Elimination. Oh, the other judges loved it too, as did the Groundlings.

Chef Samuelsson has a real advantage in his depth of food knowledge and the flavorings and styles of other cultures. Not just the Swedish Chef, Marcus continues to wow us with his imagination. He's in the finals in this competition - but can his talent take him all the way?

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Samuelsson's work. If you have anything negative to say about her or her competition, please do so here.

ATC Love to Chef Jonathan Waxman

This week, the great Obi Wan was not able to use his Jedi mind tricks to convince the evil Empire known as Critics' Table to keep him on for another week. Although Gail Simmons said he probably makes the best roast chicken ever, that wasn't enough.

Chef Waxman's immense love of food and family shone through with every dish he created, and made him a joy to watch this season. Although we are very sad to see him go, we at All Top Chef think he had a great run and will continue to make people very happy with his cooking. He has had an illustrious career thus far and we have no reason to believe it will end here.

We wish you the best, Chef!

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Waxman's work. If you have anything negative to say about him or his competition, please do so here.

Reactions to Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 9

On this penultimate episode of Top Chef Masters, our final four competitors get two somewhat difficult challenges. First: the Quickfire involves pairing up for a "Cookbook Swap" in which each member of the pairs has to cook a recipe from his partner's book. The recipes are pre-selected and a box of essential ingredients is provided to each chef. Marcus cooks from Jonathan's book (and vice versa) and Rick prepares a dish from Susur's book (which I just received in the mail yesterday, btw) while Susur cooks from his.

Marcus decides to change Jonathan's recipe to reflect his own background. Jonathan chooses to make Marcus' curry dish less-spicy. Susur is upset because he didn't get a reference photo of the dish and he "cooks with his eyes" and he "doesn't read English very well." (I'm pretty sure that last statement was pure bullshit.) Rick is just plain concerned, since Susur's recipes aren't exactly simple.

After much cooking time has elapsed, Kelly Choi flounced back into the room to announce a twist: the recipes must become soups that retain the integrity of the original dish.

Much bitching ensues. Time's up and the dishes are brought to Ms James Oseland for tasting. In the end, Marcus gets 3.5 stars for his brothy interpretation of a Jonathan Waxman dish.

Next, Kelly tells the chefs that they get the night off and are being sent to see a performance of the Groundlings, the improv troupe that produced the likes of Will Farrell, Jimmy Fallon, and Chris Kattan (and STILL we allow them to exist). The chefs get into their civilian clothes and head off to see the show in a relaxed mood. Eventually, they realize that they don't actually have the night off, particularly when Jim Rash (Community) starts asking the audience to shout out colors, emotions, and foods. And suddenly it's a rehash of the Elimination Challenge in Top Chef season 4 episode 7 in which Dale Talde and Richard Blais win with their interpretation of "green perplexed tofu." (A similar version of the game was played in a Quickfire in Season 6 episode 7 in which the cheftestants were assigned moods, tastes/textures, and ethnicities via slot machine.)

The chefs get to choose the trio of words with which they want to work, starting with QF winner Marcus who chooses "violet, pleasure, salmon." Susur takes "chocolate, lust, peanut butter," Rick has "red, anger, bacon," which leaves Jonathan with "burnt sienna, depression, avocado." Then it's off to Whole Foods to shop and then 2.5 hours to cook their themed meal for the Groundlings cast.

During the cooking, we find that: Jonathan plays the trombone; Susur is 15 at heart, what with his idea of using bananas and a cookie tuile "vagina" in his dish; the kitchen has an immersion circulator but not a vacuum sealer; and Marcus has no idea what color "violet" really is (a hint: it's neither red like beets, nor is it purple).

The critics for this meal are Gail, Jay, and Ms Oseland. There's criticism all around although Susur seems to get the least. Despite this, he's beaten out by half a point by Marcus, despite the fact that his plate looked like a crime scene and there was no violet to be found (the critics obviously had no clue, either).

Jonathan, who made a nice homey meal of chicken with avocado, scored a paltry (poultry?) 11.5 points and was sent packing. So sad to see Obi Wan go! :(

So next week is the final battle between Marcus Samuelsson, Susur Lee, and Rick Moonen. The winner was spoiled weeks ago, but who do you think it will be?

TC News & Information 6.2.10

Top Chef 6's Jennifer Carroll is Chef Chair of the 2010 Taste of the Nation Philadelphia. Catch the details here.

The SignOnSanDiego Newsletter has a feature on season 3 cheftestant Brian Malarkey.

Season 5's Carla Hall is preparing for summer. Here's the transcript from her appearance on NPR's Tell Me More.

Vote for Top Chef Masters 2 finalist Jody Adams (or your favorite chef) in the Mezzetta Celebrity Chef Sandwich Charity Challenge. Sandwiches and recipes can be found here.

Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 9 Previews

In an entertaining penultimate episode, the remaining four chefs’ sense of humor is put to the test when they all take a trip to the famous improv comedy club “the Groundlings.” But it is not all fun and laughter when the chefs find out that they must integrate a little improv into their food: how will they fare when they are given 3 words of inspiration from which to create a cohesive dish? And which 3 chefs will make it to the Finale? Find out tonight, Wednesday 6/2 @ 10/9c on BRAVO's Top Chef Masters 2 *4 Chefs vie for a spot in the Finale!*

Poll - Predict the Winner of TC7!

It's early, the show hasn't started yet, but after reading the cheftestants' bios, you've probably already made some decisions about who you think might be the strongest contenders in the competition known as Top Chef DC. So who do you think will win this thing?

poll by twiigs.com

Recap Roundup: Top Chef Masters 2 Episode 8

Jordan Baker on the overall edit: "I know, I know, I know – that this season is probably heading toward a showdown between the three young-ish cocky bucks, and that this means the older, “cuddlier” contestants (the ladies and Tony and next week Jonathan) will have to go to make room for the Clash of the Titanic Egos that Bravo wants to set up as the endgame."

Serious Eats on Susan's Quickfire fail: "I love you Susan, but I think my dog could have probably discerned that there was white wine in there."

Reality Wanted on this week's Susur cultural issue: "Susur is lost on this challenge as he isn’t familiar with Greek mythology."

Slashfood on Susan's charm: "Feniger's unapologetic, unburdened manner was in full display this week -- perhaps too out in the open, as the case might have been. Faced with the challenge of cooking a meal fit for a randomly chosen Greek God -- hers was Aphrodite, how perfect -- Feniger tucked leaves and flowers behind her ear, danced little jigs around the kitchen, and in general charmed the pants off of her adoring fans."

Grub Street on the fashion: "Susur’s ponytail is awesome (and likely the source of all his culinary power), but the sartorial master in this competition is Marcus. We’ve always liked the combination of his navy chef jacket with a green T-shirt underneath, but he’s really taking kitchen couture up a few notches with those Burberry pants."

Speakeasy (WSJ) on strategy: "So, here’s the question: do the chefs try to actually identify the flavors or do they mentally run down a checklist of recipes and call out likely ingredients? We’re guessing maybe the second option: Susur loses the challenge when he calls out garlic. 'How the hell you make lobster sauce without garlic?' he says."

Creative Loafing on Gail's fondness for coconut: "The best part of the episode was when Gail Simmons went all gooey over Susan’s coconut jam and let everyone know just what she’d like to do with it (and I’m not talking about it’s culinary use)."

Eater.com on Jonathan's problem: "Top Chef Masters is a completely subjective competition; if you want to win, you have to play to the people grading what you do. I love watching Jonathan do what he does and I'd be more than happy to eat everything he's prepared this season, but it's pretty obvious he's not well-suited for this particular kind of competition."