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Top Chef Season 5, Episode 2: Let's call it the Curry Card
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Top Chef Season 5, Episode 2: Let's call it the Curry Card
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| Martha Williams | betweenchicago.com |
Last week, on the season premiere of Top Chef New York, you stated that you didn't want the judges to pigeonhole you based on your Desi background — basically, you were worried that they would be expecting all of your dishes to feature Indian spices and ingredients. A legitimate concern, I thought.
For the very first Quickfire Challenge, you made apple chutney.
For the second "throw together a cool wiener!" Quickfire — which you won — you made an Indian-inspired kebab hot dog.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with leaning on one's proclivities — take Season 3's Brian Malarkey, who capitalized on his mastery of seafood (he's the exec chef of San Diego's Oceanaire branch) to run deep into the competition. That's why I don't understand why you would stress about being culturally typecast — pulling the Curry Card, henceforth — when your cuisine, by and large, tends to feature Indian elements. (Rad's menu at Chicago's Between, which boasts braised duck samosas, mini lentil burgers and a chutney sampler, sounds sophisticated and stellar.) Guest judge Donatella Arpaia even went out of her way to specifically praise the Indian approach of your dish.
Of course, it's early, and I'm sure girlie has plenty of tricks up her crispy white sleeve, vindalooed or not.
Onto this week's Elimination Challenge: Cooking up "New American" dishes at judge Tom Colicchio's famed Craft for a group of sourpuss Big Apple chefs who didn't make the cut for Season 5. Colicchio, considered by many to be the capo of the characteristically slippery New American school of cooking, was disappointed by the cheftestants' overall output. "If this is your take on New American, then you've set American cuisine back 20 years," he told the kids. Ow. (Colicchio offers his own definition of New American on his Bravo blog.)
There were handful of dishes the panel was feeling — Jamie's corn purée, Tony Todd/Didi Pickles lovechild Carla's apple pastry with cheddar cheese, and the winner, Fabio's beef carpaccio with "spherical olives," a technique that he claimed was cutting-edge. (Colicchio, on the other hand, says it's exactly "seven years old.") Of course the champion New American plate was cranked out by a motherloving Euro.
Padma regurged Ariane's too-sweet dessert into her napkin, which was great because she is transcendently beautiful and it's funny to watch transcendently beautiful people behave like toddlers. But Jill — "she's probably really into Antigone Rising," offered one of my friends — ended up getting axed for making an ostrich egg thing that one taster likened to dog food. The dish looked gross, but she was really sent packing for being a complacent schlub at the judges' table/her ineffective execution of the Blair Waldorf headband.
Favorite quote of the episode: "Congratulations for be here still." – Fabio's declaration to the remaining contestants after Jill's elimination.
I can't wait to see Dave Grohl eat things next week. Think he'll get punched right before?
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