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Get Breaking News on your cellTop Chef, Episode Eight: No One Goes Home
8:59 AM Thu, Aug 16, 2007 | Permalink |
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That's right ... everyone stayed in during the big Restaurant Wars episode where the eight remaining finalists break into two teams and create a restaurant in 24 hours. The judges were disappointed with both teams. How can they not be? TWENTY-FOUR HOURS to put together a restaurant: establish a tone for the place, design a four-course menu, decide who'll play maitre d', buy the necessary items to decorate the space and put it together, and buy, prep and cook the food. If memory serves, the judges are disappointed every year. CJ won the Quick Fire challenge, which as of this episode no longer grants immunity. But he did get to pick his team, which included our Dallas folks Tre and Casey. (For some reason, it sunk in this week that Tre Wilcox is only 30. He seems very stoic for a man just exiting his 20s.) Screw-ups all around: At "The Garage" restaurant, Dale of the Mohawk chooses vanilla-scented candles for the restaurant, which sends Ted Allen into a fit. And the menu, including Howie's gluey cream-laced risotto, is too heavy for the weather. Hubris Hung did triumph with his deconstructed tuna tartare. At "Restaurant April," Tre oversmoked the potatoes for his main course, thereby ruining the whole dish. And Brian, who volunteered for front-of-the-house duty, was a sweaty, frazzled mess of a host. He was much better wrangling the drunkies for post-clubbing grub last week. Many canned shots of burrowed frows, defensive posturing and nervous collar tuggings later, no one goes home: A do-over for Restaurant Wars is declared. Usually, when this happens, two folks go home the next week, or the week after. That's reality, baby. PS -- Best thing about this episode? Daniel Boulud as guest chef. His restaurants are worth a sojourn to NYC. I've had his foie gras-truffled out burger at DB Bistro Modern. It wasn't $120 (at least the version I had at lunch): it was thirty-something bucks, if I recall correctly. If you love a good burger, do it once. The accompanying fries are darn near perfect. |
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Comments
Posted by Leslie Snyder @ 11:47 AM Thu, Aug 16, 2007
Last night's risotto was one more reason why Howie must go. You could call him Hubris Howie too. HE knows how to make risotto his own special way, even though it was terrible.