I Refuse to Call Them Cheftestants: Week 5

A few weeks prior to the new season of Top Chef, I lamented the fact that I was going to have to miss one to two weeks of recaps here on the blog due to some personal events. After watching last night’s episode, another lack luster effort from both show and chefs, I’m actually looking forward to taking a break the next two Wednesdays.

As usual let’s start with the Quickfire challenge. In an effort to freshen things up there was a change to the annual pallet battle. Instead of an individual sampling we got head-to-head match ups in the style of Name That Tune. A good idea, but once again one that wasn’t fully flushed out for the viewer. When Josea went up against Danny in round one, I had no earthly idea what was going on. Throw on top of that the conservative play of the chefs and you had a very bland opening challenge. It strikes me that immunity should mean more to these folks but giving up at 5 ingredients, that’s just lazy. It was a little surprising to see Stefan lose to Josea but at that point, I just didn’t care.

The Elimination Challenge this week was yet another catering based event. I’m tired of them cooking 45 plates to be served at once and the endless worries that go with that. So the twist this time around is that the event was for one the regular judges, as Gail was having her bridal shower. The event was as rigid and boring as the ambiance in that banquet room. The chef drew knives this week but I would like to see them work together more on the overall menu. I mean how did the tomato appetizers feed into the make your own sushi dish? In seasons past, the teams have worked to provide an overall progression in a meal and if I were Gail, I’d be pissed at Bravo! for giving my guests such a craptacular meal. Oh and what a craptacular meal it was. While I thought the apps and the lamb dish looked good and fit their themes, I found nothing interesting or creative about them. The blue team with their sea bass was so disappointing. Even if the flavors were strong, you have to question their thinking behind the dish. The make your own sushi team should have all gone home. That looked horrible from the start and smacked of Old Country Buffett’s interpretation of sushi. Glad Danny finally went home. He clearly got on the show thanks to his personality and not his pallet.

The only thing right now that’s keeping me going on this show is the judges table. Tom has really sharpened his verbal knives this year and with good reason. This might be the least qualified or exciting group of chefs the show has ever seen. We are not even to the halfway point and while we’ve got some individual stand out dishes, no chef has truly distinguished themselves on a week in/week out basis.