Top Chef: Deconstructed

By Sarah Matheny on September 24th, 2009

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In the spirit of Wednesday’s Top Chef, this recap is a series of components which have been broken down to give you the true essence of the episode.

Component #1: Quickfire Challenge

The Quickfire Challenge required the chefs to tackle the “angel” vs. “devil” on the shoulders of their chef coats. Each chef then had an hour to prepare a duo which represented this battle. Much to everyone’s surprise, Robin, no stranger to the bottom three, won with her Raw Salad of Apple and Fennel paired with her Cardamom Ginger Crisp. Even uglier than a custard that won’t set up, Eli cried foul, claiming that Robin played on the judges’ sympathies by stating no less than three times in her recipe introduction what she ate “when she had cancer.” Do a taste a hint of bitterness?

Component #2: “Celebrity” cameos

Renowned chef Michelle Bernstein judged both the Quickfire and Elimination Challenges, and the “ever present in anything anywhere near Vegas” Penn & Teller appeared to introduce and judge the Elimination Challenge. The two magicians (aka the little guy that never talks and the big ponytailed guy that won’t shut up) performed a magic trick which they then “deconstructed” to show the chefs how the illusion worked. I still didn’t have a clue.

Component #3: Elimination Challenge

The Elimination Challenge asked the chefs to deconstruct classic dishes, from lasagna to pot roast. The chefs’ creations ranged from the ingenious, such as Michael V.’s Deconstructed Caesar Salad With Chicken Wing, Parmesan Gel and Brioche, to the confusing, as in Michael I.’s Deconstructed Eggs Florentine or as he put it, Eggs Foreign-to-me.

Component #4: Judges’ Table

My heart skipped a beat when I saw that Top Chef’s own version of Simon Cowell was back: the always cranky, always brutal, always British Toby Young. When it came time to dish out the winners and losers, Kevin won with his Deconstructed Chicken Mole Negro, and Ron was sent packing for his not at all deconstructed, but grossly overcooked paella. Had Padma wanted to deconstruct her goodbye, she would have said, “Ron, pack your knives and red Crocs and go.”

As with any good deconstrution, as a whole, it added up to another delicious episode.

(Pic Courtesy of heebmagazine.com)