Top Chef Texas Episode 5 Previews

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Recap Roundup - Top Chef Texas Episode 4

Minxeats on the Quickfire: "This week we had both Battle Chile-with-an-E and Battle Chili-with-an-I. For the Quickfire, the cheftestants had to chose a variety of chile pepper and create a dish around it. For their convenience, there was a tote board listing the heat factor of each variety available, presented in Scoville units, along with the potential monetary value--if the chef used that particular chile in a winning dish--presented in dollars. Sensibly, the hotter the chile, the more money a chef could win."

Jordan Baker on 24: "Back. 10:48 p.m. The chefs are getting tired. Edward knocks a wine bottle against the wall to get out the cork. Some people jump into the pool. Chuy dances. Chuy tells stories. Chuy gets pantsed. 1:16 a.m. 3:08 a.m. The black team is finished with their chili. Nyesha thinks they’ve made something special. The white team is determined to stay up. Ty-Lor is sleeping with his eyes open. At 5;12, Sarah jumps in the shower."

A Just Recompense on the Quickfire winner: "Paul is the only one to take the ghost chili; he wants to impress the judges (or kill them, depending on how it works out). He serves chilled coconut soup with kaffir lime and ghost pepper relish. Padma asks if he chose the ghost pepper for the money; he says yes, but also to show his skill. The judges give him no feedback, so he’s worried. But he wins. The dish was delicious, and they love that he went for the ghost pepper. He wins $20,000 and immunity."

Max the Girl on tears: "Then Beverly cries again. (Obviously, Beverly crying at random intervals will be a recurring theme this entire season.) She cried at the Quinceañera because her father wasn’t there. Now she is crying at the rodeo, because. . . her husband isn’t there. 'There’s no crying in cooking,' Nyesha says. (Which also might explain how Tom C. kept such a poker face after being completely emasculated by Padma.)"

Cliffieland on quotation marks: Well, here's where it gets 'interesting.' And by 'interesting' I mean 'sadistic.' After having stayed up all night cooking chili and stressing out for hours over serving it and being judged ... and having to endure a show of animal testicle shocking (known in local parlance as 'a rodeo'), the three bottom chefs are charged with taking their 'losing' chili and repurposing it as something else."

Entertainment Weekly on Chris C.'s comparison: "Padma took to the center of the pit on a horse, prompting Chris Crary to deliver the quote of the night. He said, 'Seeing Padma on a horse is like seeing Fabio on the cover of one of his romance novels with his hair blowing in the wind. It's just pure beauty.' WHAT??!!"

Gail Simmons for PopWatch on the sudden-death cookoff: "I think [the elimination round] went as well as it could have. The reason we did it was very specific. It wasn’t just to be a–holes. It really was because when you cook chili, it is such a complex, cohesive one-pot meal that it’s very hard to then differentiate what everyone’s jobs were. So, instead of going through and listening to them describe what they did, we decided, in order to keep the playing field fair, we’d give them one more chance. They cooked all together as a team for the chili, but in order to figure out who the right person was to go home, we had them cook individually."

CultureMob on all-night-cooking: "The chefs are, for the most part, deciding to stay up all night and cook their chili. Chuy gets drunk and boasts about how muscular he was when he graduated high school. He looks like he’s about 15, so I can’t imagine that was all that long ago."

My Monkey Could Do That hates team challenges: "For the Elimination challenge, we are having a chili cook-off. Interesting. Everyone gets a pot, because of course there are teams. WHY?!?! I don’t want to have team challenges all the damn time. I mean, none would be boring, and I won’t pretend I don’t like the drama, but if you’re going to have a team challenge every week then it’s obvious you’re only doing it in hopes of a fight. And it does get really boring."

Foodie Buddha offers this weeks culinary definitions, for your reading pleasure.

Don't forget to check Top Chef Refire's podcast!

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All Top Chef Interview with Richie Farina

Top Chef Texas contestant Richie Farina talks about his experience on the Bravo show.

Richie and Chris Jones are both working at Moto in Chicago.

One notable dish is the "Cuban Cigar," a Cuban sandwich that looks like a cigar and arrives at the table served in an ashtray complete with edible "ash."

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Top Chef DVDs at Target

Looking for Top Chef DVDs for yourself or a fellow Top Chef fan on your holiday gift-giving list? Target has an exclusive deal with Bravo to sell most of the TC DVDs, and our Bravo sources tell us the All Stars (Season 8) DVD is now available at Target. We've been keeping an eye out on Target's website and haven't seen it offered online yet. But alert reader Melissa recently found an in-store copy, so you may want to check your local Target. If you locate a copy in your neck of the woods, please let us know.

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Top Recipe - Paul Qui's Chilled Coconut Soup with Kaffir Lime, Ghost Pepper Relish

While Ghost chiles are probably too hot for most people, I'm sure you could substitute a milder chile and still end up with a delicious result.

Chilled Coconut Soup with Kaffir Lime, Ghost Pepper Relish

1 can coconut milk
3 limes, zested and juiced
4 Kaffir lime leaves, julienned
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ear corn
2 apricots
1 medium sized onion, small diced
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon cilantro, minced
4–6 basil leaves, blossoms if possible
1 tablespoon fruity olive oil
Maldon salt, to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 ounces toasted almonds
1 ghost chili

1. In a stainless mixing bowl, mix coconut milk, lime juice, zest, sugar and lime leaves. Chill and reserve.
2. Sweat onion in vegetable oil and season with salt and garam masala. Cook until onions are translucent, chill and reserve.
3. Grill one apricot and corn until charred, but not cooked all the way. Dice grilled apricot and fresh apricot. Cut corn off cob. Mix, chill and reserve.
4. Roast ghost pepper on the grill until tender. With “gloved” hands de seed the pepper and mince.
5. Mix apricots, corn, onions and ghost pepper.

Assembly:

1. In a bowl, place a small mound of ghost pepper and apricot mixture.
2. Pour coconut soup until half way up the ghost pepper/apricot relish.
3. Garnish with toasted almonds, cilantro, basil and olive oil. Finish with a pinch of Maldon.

© 2011 PAUL QUI

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Bravo Exit Interview - Richie Farina

Until Bravo gets rid of the annoying auto-play video feature, we'll only be posting links to their videos here. Sorry, folks.

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/videos/chili-cook-offed

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ATC Love to Chef Richie Farina

This week's challenge was particularly tough. Not only was it a team challenge, in which Richie's Black Team came in last, but also the three members of that team had to create another dish with the remnants of their losing chili in order to stay in the game. Hard to do after staying up all night the day before. Unfortunately, Richie's repurposed chili dish was the judges' least favorite and he was sent home.

We hoped to see him and fellow Moto chef Chris Jones compete together for several weeks at least. Their camaraderie and obvious affection for each other was quite touching.

This post is only for positive comments about Chef Farina. If you have anything negative to say, please do so on our Reactions post.

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Congratulations, Green Team!

This week's chili contest proved no contest at all for Houston native Sarah Grueneberg and her Green Team, who wowed Tejas Rodeo attendees and earned them a big win.

We expect great things from these chefs, don't  you?

This post is only for positive comments about Chefs Crary, Valencia, and Grueneberg . If you have anything negative to say, please do so on our Reactions post.

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Reactions to Top Chef Texas Episode 4

This week's Quickfire Challenge involved chile peppers and lots of them. Padma and guest judges the Too Hot Tamales, aka Top Chef Masters Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, tasted fifteen dishes centered around chiles of various degrees of heat. The winner of this challenge was Paul, who used the world's hottest chile - the Ghost chile - to great advantage in his chilled soup, and also won a cool $20K in the process.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs were put into teams and tasked with making a cowboy-pleasing bowl of chili. They had to work in their own kitchen...and backyard, and fire pit, etc., jockeying for position at counterspace and grill. The next evening, they served their bowls of red at the Tejas Rodeo and were judged by the attendees themselves who chose the winner. This week, it was the Green Team of Sarah, Chuy, and Chris C who made a most authentic all-meat chili to please their amateur judges.

The Black Team fared worst, but rather than kick someone out at random, Padma presented them with the additional challenge of creating a new dish from the remnants of their unsuccessful mole-style chile. Beverly utilized the mole best in her seared tuna dish and Nyesha also stayed in the competition with her Frito-encrusted shrimp. Richie, however, produced something that was too one-note for the judges' tastes and was sent packing.

So what did you think of this little twist?  Please leave a comment. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

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Top Chef Texas Episode 4 Previews

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